Best cartoon era for kids

[zoombie]

What is the best era to be kid watching cartoons?

Was it better when we were kids? Or now a days?

In my case, I was born in 82, so I grow up in the 80's and 90's.

Do you think todays kids have better cartoon shows to watch than you did, when you were a kid?

While I have fond memories of the 1980's, they had their pros and cons. Cartoons in the Reagon era had the tendency to be too educational at times. Now a days, the creators have more creative freedom than they did when they were making cartoons when I was very young. In the 1980's it was all about incoporated cartoon to or from a toy line and how to sell that toy line. The 1990's was the cartoon renaissance decade for innovative creative cartoons. The 2000's continued that, but a lot of the ideas weren't as innovative as they were in the 90's, but some of them were brillant none the less.

But the cartoon in the 80's had the best catchy theme songs. And I am not going to comment on cartoons that were made when I wasn't alive, I feel out of place discuessing an era I didn't experience my self.

[judyindisguise]

I've been watching Boomerang for some time now, and I think today's cartoons are sooooooooooooo much better than all that Hanna-Barbera crap.

[Dr. Zin]

Rather than answer this by strict dates (because I don't have enough of the specific dates in my head to be certain), let me define my periods as follows:

Network Saturday Mornings, Vintage Era:
Late 1960s into the '70s: all three of the major broadcast networks were running mostly kids' programming from 7AM to noon. A lot of it was very silly and, well, childish, but there were usually a few gems to be found: early Scooby Doo, Thundarr the Barbarian, Hong Kong Phooey, Dungeons & Dragons. I'd tag the early '70s as the height of this period, partly for the best of the live-action shows dating from around that time (Isis, Land of the Lost, The Kids from C.A.P.E.R.). Plus Schoolhouse Rock, of course.

Weekday Syndication, First Wave:
As noted, the late '70s shading into the early '80s was the Age Of The Action Figure, and for a long while the syndicated cartoons reflected this -- so we had mostly GI Joe, M.A.S.K., He-Man, and the like (plus things like My Little Pony for girls and younger audiences). On the plus side, though, you got many more episodes than the Saturday morning series tended to produce, and that meant that the writers could occasionally spend some time on (gasp!) character development and longer story arcs. Adventure shows dominated the airwaves, and if there were relatively few really superlative or innovative shows, there were also relatively few out-and-out bombs.

Weekday Syndication, Second Wave:
I think I'd argue that kids' animation was at its best in this period -- when the afternoon cartoon blocks went "network", so that you had the Disney Afternoon (highlighted by Darkwing Duck, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, and the incomparable Gargoyles), and the Warner renaissance (Batman:TAS, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, etc.). Production values went up drastically, writing did likewise, and the results were spectacular.

Network Saturdays, the Return:
By the time the Fox and WB Saturday blocks came along, they'd become pretty much the only game in town; the big alphabet networks had at that point largely abandoned animated and kids' programs on Saturday in favor of news and sports -- and what was left was mostly very forgettable (or in some cases consisted of reruns of syndicated programming). While there's been some excellent material arising from these blocks (Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?, Jackie Chan Adventures), it's frustrating to see so much essentially similar programming dominate the landscape -- most notably the unending run of monster-battle/game-anime series.

[Baltofan]

I was born in the 1970's, and I found the 90's best with Animals of Farthing Wood, Noah's Island and so on.

Those were the days!

[Movie06]

I grew up with the 90's. I love that decade and I had fun times with the 00 decade. But it's sad to see Saturday Mornings to become rather boring with sports and infomercials.

[Harvey Two Face]

Definately when I was younger, to me it was and still is the epitome of cartoons, so basically the 90s until about 2004-05.

[Old Guy]

Every person will say their generation was the best. I grew up in the `90s and loved the cartoons of that decade. But...I do also enjoy the old school Hanna-Barbera as well as some of the `80s gem. As well as Looney Tunes.

[Aldrius]

The 90's was easily the best. More importantly, the mid-90's.

You had Beast Wars, Reboot, Gargoyles, Batman: The Animated Series, and so many other good or at least decent television programs.

Just in terms of sheer focus and variety, I think. Not to say the 90's had the single greatest show ever (though there are a number of contenders). I mean I'm having trouble saying which was my favourite out of the four I specifically listed. (Well, actually not really, it's easily Reboot... but still. The others are not far behind.)

[Old Guy]

The 90's was easily the best. More importantly, the mid-90's.

I'd argue that early `90s because of Batman TAS and Animaniacs as well as the original NickToons.

[Racattack!Force]

I find that I really like the 2000s, although I do enjoy the 90s also.

[Old Guy]

I find that I really like the 2000s, although I do enjoy the 90s also.

In the last 8 years the only cartoons I've enjoyed are Spongebob (although it premiered in 1999), Fairly Oddparents, and Danny Phantom. And perhaps a few others here and there. But for the most part I've been mostly disappointed with this decade's cartoons.

[Aldrius]

I'd argue that early `90s because of Batman TAS and Animaniacs as well as the original NickToons.

Those were still in syndication in the mid 90's weren't they?

[Old Guy]

Those were still in syndication in the mid 90's weren't they?

Sort of. The Fox Kids run of BTAS was over by `95. As well as the Fox Kids run of Animaniacs.

[Silverstar]

I was born in '69, so I grew up during the 70's, but I'm not about to say that the 70's were the best era for animation. That decade was dominated by Hanna-Barbera, which, while not without their merits, were the kings of limited animation and repeating the same formulas ad nausea. The superior cartoons for me during that time were the Warner Bros. shorts, the Disney features (and shorts, albeit to a lesser extent) and the Nelvana TV specials, which technically crossed over into the 80's.

The 80's were a step up in terms of art and animation, but many of the cartoons from this era were so unabashedly toyetic that it was hard for an animation purist like myself to get into them.

To date my favorite animation era would have to be what I consider the Cartoon Renaissance: the 90's to early 00's. Beginning with Tiny Toon Adventures and continuing with Peter Pan and the Pirates (an underrated show, IMO), Animaniacs, DuckTales, TaleSpin, Darkwing Duck, X-Men, Batman: TAS, Superman: TAS, Freakazoid!, Earthworm Jim, Rocko's Modern Life, Angry Beavers, Futurama, Dexter's Lab, The Powerpuff Girls, Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy and onward, there was a reawakening of fresh material, snappy dialogue, decent animation, clever writing, memorable characters and a genuine commitment to quality.

But as always, I'm not asking anyone to agree with me, and there's no need to flame if you don't, because all of this is just my opinion, which doesn't carry the weight of a feather in the wind.

[DarthGonzo]

The problem with a thread like this is that everyone is just going to prefer the eras they grew up in.

[Silverstar]

The problem with a thread like this is that everyone is just going to prefer the eras they grew up in.

Mostly everyone, DG. ;) Read my post above. I grew up in the 70's, but that's hardly my favorite animation era. Not by a long shot.

[Lonestarr]

The problem with a thread like this is that everyone is just going to prefer the eras they grew up in.

A lot of people didn't really grow up in the 70s and 80s (I was born in the early 80s, myself), but I'm sure the ones that did would tell you that (except for a handful of good shows) that era was total schlock.

And I really can't imagine people picking the current era (the one with pointless toilet humor, character humiliation and forced shipping) of their own accord.

That pretty much leaves the 90s. Fox Kids was getting off of the ground. Nickelodeon was producing original shows. Disney was creating enjoyable programming. Kids WB was on its way. Generally, I agree with Silverstar.

[Racattack!Force]

And I really can't imagine people picking the current era (the one with pointless toilet humor, character humiliation and forced shipping) of their own accord.

Um, I did. :sweat: Though, I prefer the early and late parts of this decade. The first and last three years of this decade look great to me. And yes, I realize this decade isn't close to ending.

[Classic Speedy]

But as always, I'm not asking anyone to agree with me, and there's no need to flame if you don't, because all of this is just my opinion, which doesn't carry the weight of a feather in the wind. Actually, that post is pretty interesting, as it proves that not everyone will be rose-colored glasses and nostalgic about the era in which they grew up.

[RayChuang]

I'd argue that early `90s because of Batman TAS and Animaniacs as well as the original NickToons.

In that period we also had some excellent Disney cartoons: Darkwing Duck, Duck Tales, Gargoyles and even some episodes of The Little Mermaid animated series. I'd love to see Disney get back into doing more "traditional" animated cartoon series.

[Ed Liu]

I grew up in the same era as Silverstar, and while I loved the cartoons at the time, I'm not so wrapped up in nostalgic bliss that I can't see them as the trash that they are. I had massive love for Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends when I was young, but watching a re-run on Toon Disney was one of those, "I liked THIS?!?" moments. I'm pretty sure most of us watched He-Man at the time specifically to point and laugh at it the next day at school, since we recognized it as crap from the start, and none of us were ever fooled by the consequenceless violence of G.I. Joe and Thundercats or the idiotic moral lessons tacked on to make them "educational." To quote a wiser mind than mine: Nostalgia doesn't want us to remember this simple fact: SUCK IS ETERNAL (http://daveslongbox.blogspot.com/2005/11/space-ranger-like-getting-punched-in.html), and a whole lot of those 80's cartoons really sucked.

At this point, I'd probably say that the best era of cartoons for kids is still the Golden Age of animation, way back in the 30's and early 40's, since most of those toons were "all-ages" in the best sense of the word. As a result, I don't think the kids ever felt that they were being condescended to, and the cartoons themselves were wonderful. We're still watching them, enjoying them, and learning from them, which really should say something. The 90's had some great cartoons, but that was also the era when they started getting harder to find, and many of them were awful from a technical standpoint -- stiff and cheap and without that tiny bit of charm Filmation managed to work in there. The early part of this decade had some pretty good ones, too, but it's just too close to tell whether they'll hold up over time.

-- Ed

[Master Toon]

I grew up in the 90's where some of the classics like Looney Toons and HB shows like Yogi, Huck, The Filtstones, Top Cat, Scooby-Doo etc. were shown in syndication. I think the 90's was the best because it had more variety. Most old cartoons follow the same formula and some were carbon copies of each other. In most 90's cartoons you weren't only entertained but along the way you learn some stuff as well. That's the way I see it at least. :D

[zoombie]

Was the 90's really considered the time of the cartoon renaissance among insiders? I just made it up when I said that before.

On the extras of the season 1 and 2 Ren and Stimpy show DVD is a John K. interview, John K. comments on that. Love him or hate him, and I know a lot of people around here hate him or at least hate his work but that is irrlevent to his conversation, but I thought he made a valid point and I agree with him.

He commented on how cartoons in the 80's were mostly driven from toy merchandise and how to incorpate them to make money off toys, and said when Nicktoons began they wanted to do cartoonest driven cartoons. He said sarcasticly "Cartoonest driven cartoons, what a concept." Or something similar.

I think the cartoons in the 80's with a few exceptions, was aimed at one age group or one gender. Not many cartoons in that time made effort, lets make a show that kids of all ages and maybe even some adults, that both boys and girls will like. They were focused on one specific demographic, not saying it is a terrible thing, it worked out for them.

The 90's went back to the golden age method let's make a show that almost everybody could enjoy.

[zoombie]

Actually, that post is pretty interesting, as it proves that not everyone will be rose-colored glasses and nostalgic about the era in which they grew up.

I am half way there. I consider myself both a child of the 80's and 90's child. I consider the 90's the best era in my life time, but think todays era has the edge over the 80's.

[Kitschensyngk]

Definitely the 90s, with the advent of Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.

The 60s come in at a close second. I've seen a few of them on Boomerang and some of them are quite entertaining.

The 70s were too bland, the 80s seemed more intent to sell you stuff, and the majority of today's cartoons are either too educational, too stupid or too focused on card game tie-ins.

[zoombie]

The 70s were too bland, the 80s seemed more intent to sell you stuff, and the majority of today's cartoons are either too educational, too stupid or too focused on card game tie-ins.

Maybe I am stereotyping on just programs I familar with. But that vast majority of the card game tie-ins shows you are referring to (Caotic is one exception) that are based on toy and video games that we see now a days are from Japan. The programming from Japan it is like the 80's cartoons that came from North America.

As far as cartoon for kids, Japan is living in the 80's, no offense. And some of them are excellent BTW, mostly better than the 80's toy merchandise shows that we made. Digimon is a brillant show, despite its corporite tie ins.

One pet peeve I have about the cartoons in the 80's, (I don't want to pick on the era too much, but it needs to be said) is those educational messages at the end of the episodes. After the episode is over, they would have a one minute episode in which the characters break the 4th wall and give an educational message. I thought that was condisenty and talking down to the audiance. You can incorporate those messages within episodes without breaking from the storyline and moving smoothing along. Since I brought it up already, Digimon had a lot of educational messages, and they never needed to break the 4th wall to deliver them, and the story moved smoothly. Pokemon was also the same way as well, though sometimes the narriator would spell it out for you when Ash learned a lesson.

You don't have to be so bladent to teach a lesson. I don't mind merchandise driven cartoons if they are good. If it is a good show, I don't care where it came from, but those educational messages I disliked, it talked down to the audiance. And the number one rule of preforming, don't talk down to the audiance.

[Zorak Masaki]

I enjoy all eras actually. The 60s had classic HB stuff like flintstones, space ghost, jetsons, mightor, etc as well as the last gasps of theatrical cartoons,and of course rocky and bullwinke, the 70s had a lot of formularic stuff, but also shows that were able to rise above the formula (wait till your father gets home, the barkleys, and even certain superfriends eps for example). The 80s was merchandise driven but also had several excellent comedy cartoons (real ghostbusters, heathcliff, new adventures of mighty mouse, garfield and friends) and the action cartoons did have lots of excitement and catchy theme songs, and occasionally good to excellent writing and animation. The 90s were the return of creator-driven shows (simpsons, doug, rugrats, ren and stimpy, beavis and butthead, 2 stupid dogs, etc) and WBs golden age, as well as the decade that anime started taking a foothold in the US. And the 2000s has given us adult swim (for every assy mcghee, they still have stuff like venture bros and boondocks, two of the greatest adult toons ever) and some toon revivals (he-man, transformers animated) that are superior to their older counterparts, and the greatest DCAU show (IMO) Justice League/JLU, not to mention great comedy cartoons like chowder and johnny test. I like to look at the good of the industry as opposed to focusing on the bad.

[Uncle_Lina]

Everyone here's going to say 80s or early 90s anyway, so what's the point.

[Racattack!Force]

Definitely the 90s, with the advent of Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.
Don't you mean Nicktoons, since I'm sure Nick was around since the 70s.

[Dr. Zin]

For datapoint purposes, I should note that by real-world numeric standards, I was well into "grownup" by the time the '90s rolled around, that being the period I cited upstream as my pick for "best era".

(We will ignore Statler and Waldorf making comments from the box seats about "Peter Pan syndrome"....) :)

[Antiyonder]

Have to go with the 90s.

Aside from the reasoning stated so far, there was a thread discussing the fads and trends surround animation. The 90s followed the martial arts trends, but regardless, the decade still had a good help of diversity. Even if say Gargoyles was Disney's response to Batman The Animated Series, it still had it's own feel and was pretty different when you examine the two shows.

[stephane dumas]

the best cartoon era could also varie by country, here in Quebec Canada in the late 1970s-early 1980s we got a mix of reruns of classic Hanna-Barbara cartoons, the 1967 Spider-man, Marvel Super-heroes, Rocket Robin Hood, the adventures of Tintin (the 1960's Tele-Hachette/Belvision version) with the first broadcasting of animes like Albator (Captain Harlock), Capitaine Flam (Captain Future), Candy Candy and Goldorak (UFO Robot Grendizer)

[Dr.Pepper]

I will say '90's to mid '00's. This is when CN and Nick had decent shows and a watchable schedule. I have noticed that a lot of '80's cartoons have catchy themesongs that make you want to watch the show.

[fanboy]

To me, would be late 80's until early 2000's. Sometime after 2002, almost everything went down the hill! (with very few good exceptions)

[Mad Mod 49]

90s all the way. It may have been the worst era for comics, but it was the best for animated shows. 60s-70s and the current era have some good or even great things in them, and the 90s did have some real crappy shows, but overall 90s wins out.



To quote a wiser mind than mine: Nostalgia doesn't want us to remember this simple fact: SUCK IS ETERNAL (http://daveslongbox.blogspot.com/2005/11/space-ranger-like-getting-punched-in.html), and a whole lot of those 80's cartoons really sucked


So the entire concept of Nostalgia or Nostalgia itself is bad (as that link says) just because the shows it can sometimes blind people too happen to be crappy? What about the good ones? Heck, what about Nostalgia outside of TV shows? Not to mention that blogger seems crazy. Wiser mind, indeed.

Moderator Note: This post has been edited for language. Keep it clean, people.

[zoombie]

For me, the 90's did introduce to me gray characters and world of gray. The show that changed the way I looked at things was Gargoyles. How they humanised the villains, and put real flaw in the heros, I never saw that type of show before. It was so different to me. Before thing it was simple some characters are good and some characters are bad. There were others shows that came before probably, but I didn't see them.

Before than, it was always black and white. Sure I have seen shows when characters redem themselfs. But redemption doesn't make you a gray character, it means you went from black to white, not a gray character.

[Infusions]

90's.

So much variety in shows, there's no way you could not be happy.

Also, Johnny Bravo FTW.

[Henk55]

To me, would be late 80's until early 2000's. Sometime after 2002, almost everything went down the hill! (with very few good exceptions)

Yeaah, 2002, I've always had feeling something went wrong after that :)

If we're talking bout Television, I can't really make the decision between the 60s and the 90s because I haven't seen enough of the 60s cartoons. I remember how I loved Wacky Racers and that.... spin off show with those 7 dwarfes trying to save Penelope or whatever. I've seen both of them on Boomerang recently I've realised how great they were! I love funny music and how funny everybody looks. Well all the episodes are basically the same cartoon though, buuuut... They are funny!

90s to 2002 had some real gems... first Ren & Stimpy, Cow & Chicken, everything Genndy Tartakovsky, Eds, the best period of the Simpsons(I've actually liked them much much more when I was 10-12 years than I do now), SpongeBob, a lot more....

I've always thought Scooby Do and all the other derivate 70s cartoons were painfully boring and hated how everything looked Poo Brown. 80s cartoons... I don't get them. They had funny corny intros though.

[Pomegranate]

The pre-60s had lots of cartoons that were geared towards general audiences rather than just youths and the 90s also has more well-written and plot-driven cartoons than the 60s-80s and the current era both do.

[cyde]

I had no fave era.

[Ed Liu]

So the entire concept of Nostalgia or Nostalgia itself is bad (as that link says) just because the shows it can sometimes blind people too happen to be crappy? What about the good ones? Heck, what about Nostalgia outside of TV shows? Not to mention that blogger seems crazy. Wiser mind, indeed.

In short, yes. If there's merit to be found in something old, then it should be able to stand up on its own without the benefit of nostalgia to prop it up. There's lots and lots of old stuff out there which can do just that. There's other stuff out there which can only stand because of nostalgic feelings that people have for it, and in those cases, I don't think that nostalgia is helping either the works themselves or the people who love it.

Nostalgia is nice and it makes us feel good, but you need more than just nostalgia to really enjoy something. Nostalgia is a spice that some people want to make the entree. Nostalgia (especially as a marketing concept) wants us to forget the ugly and the bad. Sometimes that's an acceptable price to pay for a good memory, but it's still fundamentally self-delusion and that's always something to be wary of.

-- Ed

[Mad Mod 49]

In short, yes.

"Sigh" I see there's not much point in arguing if you're going to define this issue to such utterly simplistic terms, but oh well.



Nostalgia is nice and it makes us feel good, but you need more than just nostalgia to really enjoy something. Nostalgia is a spice that some people want to make the entree. Nostalgia (especially as a marketing concept) wants us to forget the ugly and the bad. Sometimes that's an acceptable price to pay for a good memory, but it's still fundamentally self-delusion and that's always something to be wary of.


Of course you need more than nostalgia to enjoy something. I enjoy things on their own merits too and guess what? I still accept and feel nostalgia. If someone does only rely on nostalgia to enjoy something, it's the fault of the person and their own stupidy, not the concept of nostalgia. Nostalgia "wants" us to forget the ugly and bad? You talk as if Nostalgia is some sort of entity and that it's accountable for people's stupidity in such matters. And then you go on to say self-delusion. You're screwing up your own argument here. Though, after reading your post, I do admit that self-delusion is indeed something to be wary of. :p

[Jeff Harris]

The best cartoon era for kids?

Hmm . . . add that, carry the two, divide by . . . got it.

1988 - 1998.

That was probably the greatest decade for children's animation ever. Disney was getting their mojo started on television and returned to theaters with a splash. Hanna-Barbera was churning out some of their best products ever with multiple showcases from The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera to Cartoon Network.

The Nicktoons and What A Cartoons were born. We got innovative, original shows throughout that period.

The DCAU was born with Batman: The Animated Series. The so-called Silver Age of Warner Bros. brought comedy back to cartoons. Fox Kids and Kids' WB launched, as did Cartoon Network.

There was actually a variety of shows from a variety of studios back then all over the place. Even USA Network created their own original fare.

Then, Pokemon came along, and the revamped Children's Act of 1992 was reformatted to force an educational mandate on the young buggers. That sapped the air right out of the room. Sure, some good shows came around afterwards, but the energy and variety that era personified was forever extinguished.

[GWOtaku]

Not to mention Gargoyles and The Legend of Prince Valiant. I agree, 88 through 98 was pretty fantastic.