Alex Dame
Startouched
I'm pretty new to this site (I only joined last Saturday evening), but this seems like a good place for me to talk about something I've been obsessed with for a long time. For as long as I can remember, I've enjoyed watching cartoons, and for a long time, I followed the cartoons of the time and just watched what was new on television, like any normal young person. However, after I watched all the episodes I could find of Samurai Jack, I noticed a show from the 1980's: Thundercats. I felt that the drawings, animation, plot-per-episode etc., was better than a lot of the shows going on at the time. My life was never quite the same after that.
I started looking back toward the history of cartoons, especially American cartoons, and my first college class was a History of Animation class. Now, growing up, I'd always enjoyed watching shows and cartoon movies, often over and over to memorize parts and lines, but I hadn't really thought of chronicling cartoon information, especially since it never seemed to interest the people around me. It sure interested ME, though, especially since hand-drawn animation (Which was what was mainly used before the rise of computer and digital animation) requires about thirty drawings per second
! It boggled the mind since I could never even get 1 right!
Anyway, I watched all the Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons I could find, and was quite entertained by seven minute shorts done during the golden age of animation. I also checked out classic Disney cartoons, and especially enjoyed things made by Buena Vista. I came to rediscover cartoons made from OTHER companies as well, including Chuck Jones cartoons like the 30-minute Dr. Seuss shorts, and The Phantom Tollbooth. However, I'd say some of my favorite animation of all time comes from the same company that the original Thundercats came from: Rankin-Bass. It was this company that created The Last Unicorn and The Hobbit and The Return of the King.
Naturally, the Lord of the Rings is a much older story, the Rankin-Bass cartoons are probably very inaccurate indeed to the original story given that they were made with a more "family" audience in mind, they were much shorter than the more recent live-action epics, and needless to say less graphic violence. Likewise, I've heard it said that Chuck Jones' The Phantom Tollbooth was very different from the book story. However, I loved all three of them regardless. In my personal opinion, the drawing and animation of The Hobbit and The Return of the King was even better than that of Buena Vista Disney cartoons, and as for The Phantom Tollbooth, the live action-animation scenes are charming and imaginative, the animation throughout the film is pretty good, and the animation near the END of the movie (With the demons of ignorance) is amazing (Again, this is just my opinion).
Anyway, in the last four or five years, I've also been reviewing cartoons that occurred when I was growing up. If I'd have followed cartoons the way they've been made in the last ten to fifteen years, I could probably relate better to the younger generation (Who, unlike my Mom and my older brother, have yet to "outgrow" cartoons), but I don't think I'd be nearly as satisfied with what I saw. Anyway, the cartoons I grew up with were definitely worth getting up early on Saturday Mornings for, and I've been doing my best to have information from those cartoons as available as possible.
Cartoons like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and his sister, She-Ra, Princess of Power, have great nostalgiac value as they mark the first cartoons in television history to be made off a toy line. Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters gave us over a hundred episodes of zapping, trapping, and fun. Thundercats gave us over a hundred episodes featuring the same kind of animation I'd much admired from Rankin Bass. Then, there was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There have been remakes of all of the above cartoon shows, but as far as I'm concerned, there's no improving on the originals.
Growing up, I remember that Power Rangers (Starting from the original series) was hugely popular with me and all the kids I knew. However, the fact of always having to resort to huge, destructive weapons and blow stuff up eventually lost its charm with me (The sheer repetition of it was what disenchanted my older brother), and I now much prefer conflict resolutions that DON'T involve blowing someone up. In fact, there are some shows that I've found appeal to me due to their charm over conflict in general. First on the list here is Muppet Babies. These junior spinoffs of the Muppets are well known for their use of stock footage as well as pop-culture references. It's surprising I don't see more DVDs with them in stores.
As a researcher, I've seen plenty of cute and cuddly cartoons and cartoon characters, but the most charming and arguably the most adorable, is probably Care Bears (Or Care Bear Family, as it's shown on Youtube). These little guys started out as an American Greeting card and quickly went from a half-hour animated special to making two distinct shows in the 80's, as well as three animated movies around the same time. The power of cute is strong!
Of course, there are also cartoon shows I've seen that are now extremely rare, such as Superdave Osborne, and Hammer Man, which starred celebrities of that era (Granted M.C. Hammer was a lot better known than Superdave, but still). There was also the show "Allstars" with Bo Jackson, Micheal Jordan, and Wayne Gretsky, and a junior spinoff of Rosy O' Donnel called "Little Rosy". Hulk Hogan joined the mix with a show called Hulk Hogan's Rock n' Wrestling, Mr. T had his own Hanna Barbara series, and even McCauly Caulkin lent his voice and some live-action appearances to a show called "Wish Kid" (Which, in terms of logistics, general artwork, and creativity, has Fairly Oddparents beaten by a mile as far as I'm concerned, but only made thirteen episodes).
The list of celebrity appearances and spinoffs continues with spinoffs of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (Made Excellent Adventures (Plural) in series form), and Back to the future (Which had Christopher Loyd making appearances before and after each episode) respectively. Even in the 90's, Louie Anderson made live-action intros in a cartoon show about his childhood (Or "Junior spinoff") known as "Life with Louie". Shows were also made of Punky Brewster, a feature-length Rodney Dangerfield cartoon ("Rover" Dangerfield), and, if you delve into Hannah Barbara history, you can come up with even more examples of celebrities being put into family-friendly cartoons.
I could come up with many more examples of why I appreciate and enjoy looking for older cartoons (Particularly American made cartoons), but the point is that cartoons are a big deal, and if my mom and brother don't understand that (Seriously, my mom can hardly tell one cartoon from another), then that's THEY'RE problem, not mine. Also, as a matter of personal feeling, I'm offended by a lot of the present-day remakes that movie and show creators have done, even if plenty of people (Like my mom) can't tell the difference. The feature-length CGI animation of The Lorax was a lot different from the book on so many levels, to say nothing of how much The Grinch was messed with, Paddington should have been called that because of the ton of padding the producers put in it that wasn't in the original stories, the movie Maleficent totally turned Disney's Sleeping Beauty on its head (Which made no sense as far as I'm concerned since Maleficent was also made by Disney!), and that's just for openers!
Don't get me wrong here, I've seen plenty of mistellings of famous stories, and some of them are clever, charming, funny, adventurous and/or exciting, but it seems to me there really should be a limit to how much creative license is used. Otherwise, people who have never experienced the original could get a completely distorted view of what it was like based on the remakes. Then again, others may like the remakes better, and if that doesn't bother them, it doesn't bother me. But my personal view is that you should either strive to accurately tell someone else's story or come up with an original story of your own and tell it. For myself, I'd opt for creating something original, putting my own title on it, and hoping that maybe, just maybe, it becomes like the cartoons that inspired me from the beginning.
In closing here, I'd like to sum up my obsession on cartoons: Animated cartoons that I know of have existed for roughly one hundred years now, and have shown generations things they could otherwise only have dreamed of. They are what countless parents have shown their children over the years, and what has inspired the hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of drawings necessary to create them. Whether you've seen the oldest or the newest cartoons, whether you've watched them all your life or simply seen DVDs of cartoons stacked up on shelves in stores, you know that this art form endures, and that it will endure for generations to come. Cartoons ARE a big deal, and I'll never forget the classics.
I started looking back toward the history of cartoons, especially American cartoons, and my first college class was a History of Animation class. Now, growing up, I'd always enjoyed watching shows and cartoon movies, often over and over to memorize parts and lines, but I hadn't really thought of chronicling cartoon information, especially since it never seemed to interest the people around me. It sure interested ME, though, especially since hand-drawn animation (Which was what was mainly used before the rise of computer and digital animation) requires about thirty drawings per second
! It boggled the mind since I could never even get 1 right!Anyway, I watched all the Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons I could find, and was quite entertained by seven minute shorts done during the golden age of animation
. I also checked out classic Disney cartoons, and especially enjoyed things made by Buena Vista. I came to rediscover cartoons made from OTHER companies as well, including Chuck Jones cartoons like the 30-minute Dr. Seuss shorts, and The Phantom Tollbooth. However, I'd say some of my favorite animation of all time comes from the same company that the original Thundercats came from: Rankin-Bass. It was this company that created The Last Unicorn and The Hobbit and The Return of the King.Naturally, the Lord of the Rings is a much older story, the Rankin-Bass cartoons are probably very inaccurate indeed to the original story given that they were made with a more "family" audience in mind, they were much shorter than the more recent live-action epics, and needless to say less graphic violence. Likewise, I've heard it said that Chuck Jones' The Phantom Tollbooth was very different from the book story. However, I loved all three of them regardless. In my personal opinion, the drawing and animation of The Hobbit and The Return of the King was even better than that of Buena Vista Disney cartoons, and as for The Phantom Tollbooth, the live action-animation scenes are charming and imaginative, the animation throughout the film is pretty good, and the animation near the END of the movie (With the demons of ignorance) is amazing (Again, this is just my opinion).
Anyway, in the last four or five years, I've also been reviewing cartoons that occurred when I was growing up. If I'd have followed cartoons the way they've been made in the last ten to fifteen years, I could probably relate better to the younger generation (Who, unlike my Mom and my older brother, have yet to "outgrow" cartoons), but I don't think I'd be nearly as satisfied with what I saw. Anyway, the cartoons I grew up with were definitely worth getting up early on Saturday Mornings for, and I've been doing my best to have information from those cartoons as available as possible.
Cartoons like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and his sister, She-Ra, Princess of Power, have great nostalgiac value as they mark the first cartoons in television history to be made off a toy line. Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters gave us over a hundred episodes of zapping, trapping, and fun. Thundercats gave us over a hundred episodes featuring the same kind of animation I'd much admired from Rankin Bass. Then, there was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There have been remakes of all of the above cartoon shows, but as far as I'm concerned, there's no improving on the originals.
Growing up, I remember that Power Rangers (Starting from the original series) was hugely popular with me and all the kids I knew. However, the fact of always having to resort to huge, destructive weapons and blow stuff up eventually lost its charm with me (The sheer repetition of it was what disenchanted my older brother), and I now much prefer conflict resolutions that DON'T involve blowing someone up. In fact, there are some shows that I've found appeal to me due to their charm over conflict in general. First on the list here is Muppet Babies. These junior spinoffs of the Muppets are well known for their use of stock footage as well as pop-culture references. It's surprising I don't see more DVDs with them in stores.
As a researcher, I've seen plenty of cute and cuddly cartoons and cartoon characters, but the most charming and arguably the most adorable, is probably Care Bears (Or Care Bear Family, as it's shown on Youtube). These little guys started out as an American Greeting card and quickly went from a half-hour animated special to making two distinct shows in the 80's, as well as three animated movies around the same time. The power of cute is strong!
Of course, there are also cartoon shows I've seen that are now extremely rare, such as Superdave Osborne, and Hammer Man, which starred celebrities of that era (Granted M.C. Hammer was a lot better known than Superdave, but still). There was also the show "Allstars" with Bo Jackson, Micheal Jordan, and Wayne Gretsky, and a junior spinoff of Rosy O' Donnel called "Little Rosy". Hulk Hogan joined the mix with a show called Hulk Hogan's Rock n' Wrestling, Mr. T had his own Hanna Barbara series, and even McCauly Caulkin lent his voice and some live-action appearances to a show called "Wish Kid" (Which, in terms of logistics, general artwork, and creativity, has Fairly Oddparents beaten by a mile as far as I'm concerned, but only made thirteen episodes).
The list of celebrity appearances and spinoffs continues with spinoffs of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (Made Excellent Adventures (Plural) in series form), and Back to the future (Which had Christopher Loyd making appearances before and after each episode) respectively. Even in the 90's, Louie Anderson made live-action intros in a cartoon show about his childhood (Or "Junior spinoff") known as "Life with Louie". Shows were also made of Punky Brewster, a feature-length Rodney Dangerfield cartoon ("Rover" Dangerfield), and, if you delve into Hannah Barbara history, you can come up with even more examples of celebrities being put into family-friendly cartoons.
I could come up with many more examples of why I appreciate and enjoy looking for older cartoons (Particularly American made cartoons), but the point is that cartoons are a big deal, and if my mom and brother don't understand that (Seriously, my mom can hardly tell one cartoon from another), then that's THEY'RE problem, not mine. Also, as a matter of personal feeling, I'm offended by a lot of the present-day remakes that movie and show creators have done, even if plenty of people (Like my mom) can't tell the difference
. The feature-length CGI animation of The Lorax was a lot different from the book on so many levels, to say nothing of how much The Grinch was messed with, Paddington should have been called that because of the ton of padding the producers put in it that wasn't in the original stories, the movie Maleficent totally turned Disney's Sleeping Beauty on its head (Which made no sense as far as I'm concerned since Maleficent was also made by Disney!), and that's just for openers!Don't get me wrong here, I've seen plenty of mistellings of famous stories, and some of them are clever, charming, funny, adventurous and/or exciting, but it seems to me there really should be a limit to how much creative license is used. Otherwise, people who have never experienced the original could get a completely distorted view of what it was like based on the remakes. Then again, others may like the remakes better, and if that doesn't bother them, it doesn't bother me. But my personal view is that you should either strive to accurately tell someone else's story or come up with an original story of your own and tell it. For myself, I'd opt for creating something original, putting my own title on it, and hoping that maybe, just maybe, it becomes like the cartoons that inspired me from the beginning.
In closing here, I'd like to sum up my obsession on cartoons: Animated cartoons that I know of have existed for roughly one hundred years now, and have shown generations things they could otherwise only have dreamed of. They are what countless parents have shown their children over the years, and what has inspired the hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of drawings necessary to create them. Whether you've seen the oldest or the newest cartoons, whether you've watched them all your life or simply seen DVDs of cartoons stacked up on shelves in stores, you know that this art form endures, and that it will endure for generations to come. Cartoons ARE a big deal, and I'll never forget the classics.
And there are other oldies that are fun to watch too, like the Herculoids, Pirates of Dark Water, Valley of the Dinosaurs, and a few others. Sometimes I miss that strange 60's to 80's obsession of having primitive barbarians fighting aliens or wielding laser guns, it's kind of charming in its own way.
