Your Childhood Memories Are Better

[Golgo13]

I had a theory about why so many people love the original Transformers. The only people who love that show have never seen it since their childhood. Because if you actually went back and rewatched those episodes, you'd realize there is nothing the show has to offer outside of nostalgia value.

So which series watched only for nostalgia value to do you think just plain suck? Well, for starters...

-The Super Mario Brothers Show
-Zelda The Animated Series
-The Popples
-The Noozles
-Peter Pan and the Lost Boys
-Voltron

[sun]

Childhood memories are so vivid, that we somehow confuse that vividness with quality..We are impressed with that and it says in our minds that that is "great", but we do not have the critical ability to really decide if it is good or bad, just that we recall "it"..........................................................................sun

[Kaoru]

If I didn't have awesome 1990's memories I probably wouldn't be interested in cartoons at all.

[J'onn J'onzz]

-Zelda The Animated Series

Well, EXCUUUUUUSE me, princess.

[Zorak Masaki]

I've seen several episodes of transformers since childhood. Yeah, there were several cheesy, badly-written episodes ("triple takeover","carnage in c-minor","a decepticon raider in king arthurs court"), but there were also well written eps like "war dawn","the burden hardest to bear", and my personal favorite episode, "dark awakening". As for shows i watched that DONT hold up:
Super Mario Bros Super Show (zelda at least has camp value)
He-Man (yet i watched some she-ra recently and it held up better, weird)
Inhumanoids
Heathcliff
Voltron
Silverhawks
Bravestarr

[GuardianKid13]

...Sailor Moon, Pokemon (Original), Cardcaptors, and others. They don't suck, they just aren't what I remembered they were in terms of quality.

[Dudley]

Richie Rich
Scooby Doo (all the pre 90's series)
Digimon season 1
Muppet Babies
Super Mario Bros. 3
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
Tiny Toons Adventures (animation inconsistency makes it look bad)
Superfriends series
The Magic School Bus

I now try to avoid watching old cartoons, because I want to remember how much I enjoyed them when I was young.

[Michael24]

The majority of cartoons I loved when I was little and have managed to see again all these years later, I still enjoy. Sure, maybe nowadays I can see how cheesy some of them were, but I can still enjoy them. For instance, when I bought the first G.I. Joe set, I realized some of the episodes were pretty corny, and yeah, the animation wasn't all that great a lot of times. But I didn't care. It was still a fun show, and I liked it. But I couldn't believe how bad The Super Mario. Bros Super Show was when I bought a DVD a few years ago. I remembered it being so awesome, but here I was going, "I used to watch this? Wow!"

On the other hand, when I started rewatching B:TAS on DVD, I found it to be even better than I remember it being, and I was surprised to realize just how deep and mature some of those episodes are.

At the end of the day, I'd rather watch any show I grew up with, no matter how corny, than the majority of any recent cartoons.

[Doopliss]

Doug. That has to be the most overrated show of all time.

[mammy2shoesfan]

The shows such as Transformers, GI Joe, Voltron, Thundercats, Ghostbusters are still good to me. But shows that I didn't like that much when I was younger are even worst now such as Super Mario Super Show. I couldn't really stand that show a couple of good eps but alots that I couldn't stand especially how they handled Luigi. I don't think I could even watch a whole ep now I wouldn't even waste my time with the live action parts. Now Super Mario 3 was a huge improvement and I could see myself watching it now. Same with Scooby Doo I could watch most of them but some of the shows I can't watch like the 76 version or Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy and I like like Scrappy.

[Cullen]

I used to be obessed with the Pac Man cartoon show when I was a kid, along with Saturday Supercade. But now, I kind of realized that I only liked those shows because they were based on video games.

[Dr.Pepper]

I use to love the Magic Schoolbus and Digimon but I will not spend money on the DVD's or watch a five hour marathon.

[Carolina Red]

I was a huge fan of Animaniacs growing up. But the sick fan base has turned me off of it. Same goes with the whole Sonic the Hedgehog series.

I also was a big Garfield and Friends fan but growing up today the nostalgia level has dropped. Maybe it's the godawful live action movies or Jim Davis dragging the thing on for as long as he has been that caused it.

Either way, lots of great things that I have childhood memories of aren't hurt by my beliefs. They're hurt by outside forces.

[DarthGonzo]

I was a huge fan of Animaniacs growing up. But the sick fan base has turned me off of it.

Sick? Please elaborate. I'm genuinely curious.

[Leviathan]

At the top of my head, I can't stand watching some of the 1970's H-B shows Cartoon Network used to run when a was a little boy (like The Funky Phantom, Yogi's Gang, and Speed Buggy). In fact, watching those make me despressed since my parents raised me to love their classics (Yogi Bear and huckleberry Hound especially).

With THAT said, however, I think we've been a little down on the idea of nostalgia childhood memories of shows clouding what we think of them. If that's a bad thing, then why are the classic Disney, Warner and Hanna-Barbera (the classic stuff) held in such high-esteem?

[Luna]

There are quite a few shows from my childhood that I'd never watch now....or only watch for nostalgia....

Care Bears
My Little Pony
Rainbow Brite
He-Man
She-Ra Princess of Power(it's not terrible,just not what I remember)
Scooby Doo(except to make fun of it;but that's something I did even as a kid)
Super Friends
pretty much any Hanna Barbera cartoon,except the Flintstones and The Jetsons....
Tiny Toon Adventures(though I was never a big fan to begin with)

and there are also several shows/movies from my childhood I still like....

Rocky and Bullwinkle
Jem and the Holograms(mostly for the songs)
Garfield and Friends
most Looney Tunes cartoons
most Disney movies
The Last Unicorn
The Secret of Nimh
The Chipmunk Adventure

[Kagetsu]

The only people who love that show have never seen it since their childhood. Because if you actually went back and rewatched those episodes, you'd realize there is nothing the show has to offer outside of nostalgia value. I agree.

I loved animation from the time I was born till now. My tastes have changed, and shows I watched constantly, I still look on with love, but won't actually sit through. Thankfully I can ignore most of the 80's, and still appreciate the 60's 50's and even some 40's. The biggest change is the quality of the animation.And still, alot depends on the age group that the producers are pandering to. When they get older, will these not be their nostalgia shows?

[Carolina Red]

Sick? Please elaborate. I'm genuinely curious.I've got nothing against Animaniacs, but I don't like how the first thing people are starting to think about with that are the creepy fans. If you go to Something Awful you'll see some of the ugly things fans do, especially the really bad fan-based fiction. They can do what they want, but I don't understand the deal.

[Baltofan]

The Moomins (1980) and Pinchcliffe Grand Prix.

[Ykwia]

It's the feeling that the past is better than the future (ie: The Present).

[Simon Trent]

I like the Superfriends, even though I know exactly one episode that many people generally agree is 'good' and even that episode isn't nearly as good as anything off of the more recent Justice League cartoons. I think it's the enthusiasm of the voice actors that one me over. Most of the characters really sounded like they were genuinely terrified whenever Lex Luthor brought out a ray gun that gently picked people up and placed them on the ground a few feet away. You can't get that nowadays.

[TheMecca]

Animaniacs.
Sorry guys, just doesn't.. click with me.

[Classic Speedy]

Super Mario Bros. Super Show really suffered when I re-watched the series on DVD recently, especially since Shout! Factory wasn't able to use the license songs in the action scenes. However, the sets were worth buying just for the live action segments. Those are just as goofy and "so bad they're funny" as I remember them. Captain Lou Albano still rules.

[JesseCuster]

I agree that when I look back at my Transformers DVDs, I'll admit that the show had a TON of plain bad episodes, but when I compare them to what was on at the time, Transformers was the Justice League of its time.

In my area, Transformers was preceded by the Care Bears, My Little Pony, and Scooby-Doo. Compared to those shows, Transformers was pure gold.

The same with the Thundercats, Voltron, and G.I. Joe. Compared to what was done at the time, the shows were great.

Looking back at the episodes now, its the characters that drive my desire to watch, and definitely not the plot.

[tarastrongrules]

ok, i still like it i own the movie ....but i will agree that its not as exciting as it was when i was younger i remeber the trailers for the movie had me jumping up and down i was sooo excitied and i rented the dino-bots epiosde fifty billion times but now when i watch my dvd its true its hard to get into it i like hotrod he just was so coolwhen he first transforms in the movie and "dare starts palying that looked awesome when i was a kid but now its not as thrilling so it may just be found memories...the trailor for the movie looks awesome of course but this is just for it cgi-ness the movie will be good if the characters and story are good the visual aspect will only hold so long without story no matter how cool it looks ...example: last star wars movies:raven:

[Elven Moon]

Tiny Toons (only so-so to me now, and the animation is iffy)

Maxie's World (only released to VHS to my knowledge, though. Came back later and was horrified at how awful it was)

He-Man (hilariously corny)

Care Bears (still love them, but now it's just too sugary, hearty, fuzzy for me)

Some shows I still like (if not even more) to this day:

DuckTales
Muppet Babies
Jem

[Ekkostar]

Sonic the Hedgehog
Yes, "SatAM", as they call it in the fandom (SatAM is a stupid acronym for it. It doesn't even stand for "Sonic" in the first place. It stands for "Saturday Morning", the fandom stole that term from rec.arts.animation!).

I'm a child of the 90s and I have watched the series more recently and it hasn't aged very well. The stank of bad 1990s animation is all over that thing, right down to the hip catchphrases. I don't understand why the fans embrace it so. It isn't even as "dramatic" as they make it out to be. It's mostly a light, fun adventure akin to the movies Secret of NIMH and Once Upon a Forest. The comic book has sort of tainted the series as of late.

[Shredder565]

I had a theory about why so many people love the original Transformers. The only people who love that show have never seen it since their childhood. Because if you actually went back and rewatched those episodes, you'd realize there is nothing the show has to offer outside of nostalgia value.

So which series watched only for nostalgia value to do you think just plain suck? Well, for starters...

-The Super Mario Brothers Show
-Zelda The Animated Series
-The Popples
-The Noozles
-Peter Pan and the Lost Boys
-Voltron


I was thinking about this earlier... I finally got to watch all of Fat Albert The Movie in HD for the first time, and I rather enjoyed the movie, except for the drawn out party scene. Does the series hold up well?

Also, anyone remember Picture Page? If that holds up, I'd love to see that on DVD as well... I think it had an animated magic marker that Cosby used to draw stuff...

[Shredder565]

The same with the Thundercats, Voltron, and G.I. Joe. Compared to what was done at the time, the shows were great.

The only memory I had of Thundercats from the 80's was a clip from 'Trial of Speed', with Lino-O and Cheetara racing each other. Other than that, I had forgotten all about the rest of the series, so it was all new to me when CN re-ran it.

Back in 1997, I came across an old Thundercats VHS tape at a rental store. IT contained the Tower of Traps and Exodus uncut. I didn't care for it then...

But as soon as I saw it in order on CN, more or less...and got used to the 'style' of voice acting, I love it just as much now as I did then. It's also one of the few 80's shows that had a begining and end, decent animation, all the VA's intact for the entire show, amd despite the goofy Thundera plot at the end that kind of tangled with continuity a bit, got better as it aged :).

I can only hope that Warners does not screw it up with the new show this year :).