How did you get hooked on toons?

[sun]

We are telling about ourselves..But, how did you get hooked on toons. They are great, what started your love for them? Are you willing to share that too?
For me it was in 1955, or 56. Our local movie theater, had some working relationship with one of the Warner Bros. who was alive at the time. (you couldn't own movie shows because of a Supreme Court Ruling) It was the Stanly Warner Theater chain.......In l955, and l956, on holidays, and special days, when school was off, the Shore Theater on the south side of Chicago, along with about 10 other shows, played 25 cartoons, for 25 cents. You got there at 10am, and walked out at about 12:45 to l pm. Continuous, one after the other, no stops, almost all of them were Warner Bros. of every type, and every star, all color, what fun. Kids ran up and down aisles, everyone had fun. That was the start. Still lovem today Hope you will tell your story too. Thanks for reading this:D

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

1955, huh? I guess that's pretty old...

Hard to say what got me hooked. It seemed like a natural thing to watch them as a kid. Whether it was the attraction of moving pictures or a stimuli for my imagination, who can say? But I can't remember ever "discovering" cartoons for the first time.

I'm pretty young, though, so cartoons were pretty mainstream by then. (1970s-1980s)

[BourgeoisBuffoon]

Like Jojo, carttons were mainstream when I was young, and it was natural to watch them. Some early ones:

Tiny Toon Adventures
Transformers
The original 3 Nicktoons

And probably a lot more. Heck, I cannot remember which of these was the earliest toon I watched....but I experienced a toon revival with some WB silver age stuff like Histeria, and that's how I got to where I am today.

[Crazy8s]

Like most of you, I've just always gravitated toward animation. I remember watching toons when I was very young (three or four). Back then, they were movie toons transplanted to tv (Popeye stands out in my memory). I remember Ruff and Reddy and Crusader Rabbit (old, ain't I?), some of the first made for tv stuff. But when I was a kid, Saturdays were mostly taken up by westerns like Sky King and the Lone Ranger, animal series like Fury, My Friend Flicka and Rin TinTin, and adventure stories like Sea Hunt. Not many toons around. Didn't stop me from loving the animation medium.

As toons have progressed, I've come to love them more and more. Right now we seem to be in a regression, with stuff like Rescue Rangers and Cubix (great if you're five, but for me--bleah). And I'm still not anamored with the majority of anime. Right now I'm just waiting for the next intelligently written, nicely animated show to appear.

[Joe Tully]

Well, when I was a kid in the early and mid 80s, a lot of the various theatrical cartoons were still on TV, including the still-present LTs and Tom and Jerrys, but also stuff like Popeye, Casper, Deputy Dawg, Mighty Mouse, The Mighty Heroes, Heckle and Jeckle, Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willy and Mr. Magoo. And I just watched them a lot and became obsessed with many of them. Plus I liked other, made for TV stuff like Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo, Inspector Gadget, and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. I know that I saw a few LTs actually in theaters, but the memories are very fuzzy because I was very young. I think one might have aired before E.T. when I saw that in the theater, but I was only a few years old. I remember being really thrilled about it though, and in later years, I would often complain "Why aren't they showing them before the movies anymore?"

I also watched stuff on PBS like Sesame Street and Electric Company, both of which had some animated segments to them.

[Flying Grayson]

I remeber whatching almost every loony toon and mery meliody there was in my early childhood, several years later I still watch them and, like most of my family, have realized that you are never too old for toons. Now I mostly watch animes, but still watch amercian toons. And no one has actually called me a freak or some sort in high school as you might expect, its pretty cool.

[Maxie Zeus]

When I was 4 or 5, back in the early 70s, my dad sat me down in front of the TV and made me watch "The Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Show." (Well, "made" is too strong a word for it, but he highly encouraged it.) Been hooked ever since.

[The Mad Hatter]

I dunno, like people have said, I've just been attracted to them. I think it was the Looney Tunes that really held my interest, though I did enjoy most of the 80s crap at the time. Then shows like Tiny Toons, the Simpsons and Batman came out when I was in high school, and I realized that these animated shows were better than 95% of the swill on the prime-time networks. So, I stuck with it.

[optimal321]

I just used to watch cartoons when i was younger and never grew out of it. I don't see it happening any time soon either:p

[Singin' Stray Cat]

I'm not really sure how I got obsessed with cartoons, but it probably dates back to elementary school. I was somewhat shy and didn't have many friends back then, so I had to develop some kind of hobby to pass the time. I started trying to draw Garfield, then moved on to cartoon characters of my own. But it's only recently that I started being a huge fan of animated ones, starting with Tiny Toons in 1989. I also met some friends in high school who would watch Freakazoid reruns every Friday night (a few years ago, it came on CN after Space Ghost). We'd laugh ourselves silly....:D ahh, those were the days.

[Jowy Blight]

I don't know, I just kinda watched them since I could remember.

[sun]

Originally posted by Crazy8s
Like most of you, I've just always gravitated toward animation. I remember watching toons when I was very young (three or four). Back then, they were movie toons transplanted to tv (Popeye stands out in my memory). I remember Ruff and Reddy and Crusader Rabbit (old, ain't I?), some of the first made for tv stuff. But when I was a kid, Saturdays were mostly taken up by westerns like Sky King and the Lone Ranger, animal series like Fury, My Friend Flicka and Rin TinTin, and adventure stories like Sea Hunt. Not many toons around. Didn't stop me from loving the animation medium.

As toons have progressed, I've come to love them more and more. Right now we seem to be in a regression, with stuff like Rescue Rangers and Cubix (great if you're five, but for me--bleah). And I'm still not anamored with the majority of anime. Right now I'm just waiting for the next intelligently written, nicely a nimated show to appear.

Crusader Rabbit? I remember him too, I enjoyed those adventures, each lead to the next. Something like a 10-20 part serial. Someone said, cannot confirm, that Crusader was a very early Jay Ward project, of the Rocky and Bulwinkle fame, Now someone here can probably confirm that. Thank you for reminding me of him. with his partner Rags the tiger....

[Joe Tully]

Yup, you are sure right oldtoonguy, that was Ward's first cartoon series that he worked on with Alex Anderson. Alex Anderson's uncle was a Mr. Paul Terry, of Terrytoons fame. It was during this time that Alex came up with a pilot, the Frostbite Falls Review, which had a familiar Bullwinkle (originally, French-Canadian!)Moose and Rocky Squirrel in the lineup. Unfortunately, the pilot didn't take off, so the characters were put aside until Jay resurrected them later when he started Jay Ward Productions. There was also a different pilot involving Dudley Doright (pre-hyphenation).

[Calhoun07]

That's like asking how did I start breathing! Cartoons have interested me since as long as I can remember! I guess the reason I love them so much and the reason I am hooked is because I am artistic and creative myself and I love watching the artistic expressions in these cartoons! I love seeing the different art styles, different story telling techniques, and just because they are GOOD FUN.

[sun]

Originally posted by calhoun07
That's like asking how did I start breathing! Cartoons have interested me since as long as I can remember! I guess the reason I love them so much and the reason I am hooked is because I am artistic and creative myself and I love watching the artistic expressions in these cartoons! I love seeing the different art styles, different story telling techniques, and just because they are GOOD FUN.

I would like to second, the motion from calhoun07, who hit the anvil right on the head! Most of the toons we talk about here, and the rest of the good ones out there , are in the end, FUN. The bottom line is Fun watching,Fun telling others, and showing some of the best, and Fun discussing all these ideas here.. I remembering walking out of that theater, after watching those toons, and feeling good, laughing, and having had a lot of fun..Felt the same, when I saw Shrek (not sure if spelled right) a few weeks ago.