Someone?
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LadyMiraculous — 12 years ago(January 07, 2014 03:37 PM)
I hate be the bearer of bad news, but the 80's had possibly the WORST variety of cartoons on television!
Aside from a few gems like this show,
Inhumanoids
and
Alvin and the Chipmunks
, the 80's also had tons of crap for kids.
Like
He-Man
for instance,
The Care Bears Family
(which admittingly, I used to like as a kid),
Gem and the Holograms
,
Captain Planet
, and let's not forget Generation 1 of
My Little Pony
(which makes me even more thankful for
Friendship is Magic
, thank you Lauren Faust)!!!
I WAS FROZEN TODAY!!!
[Formerly CosmosX9] -
helderuto — 12 years ago(January 07, 2014 04:00 PM)
I remember that the 80s had profund cartoons like
Transformers
,
GI Joe
,
ThunderCats
,
SilverHawks
,
Dungeons & Dragons
,
The Real Ghost Busters
,
Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors
(french i know), the revival of
Jonny Quest
and (not kidding)
Wildfire
. -
DarklordRB — 12 years ago(January 08, 2014 05:31 PM)
Well I'm not a big Thundercats fan, but I have seen it a few times here and there, and it's pretty good. Perhaps you can watch it on YouTube if you can. I like Mumm-ra on the original show more so than in the new show.
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alexracer — 12 years ago(January 24, 2014 12:29 PM)
other great and well animated cartoons from the 80s
DUCKATELS
Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
Bravestarr
Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs
STARCOM the US Space Force
Bionic Six
Beverly Hills Teens
Garfield and Friends
Headtcliff and the Catilac Cats
The Centurions -
Cezar_TheScribe — 10 years ago(May 03, 2015 03:56 PM)
It's that the cartoons are stupid and there's a lack of them.
What happened to Saturday morning and weekday afternoons?
Cartoons need to comeback in force, like they used to be.
I hate be the bearer of bad news, but the 80's had possibly the WORST variety of cartoons on television!
You are so wrong.
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TwoThousandOneMark — 12 years ago(March 15, 2014 11:25 AM)
I think every era has the same amount of dumb cartoons.
Keep in mind, enough of Transformers was 'dumb' also lols.
Thundercats is terribly dumb, don't revisit. He-Man is a huge letdown, don't go there either.
On the other hand, shows like Tailspin & Muppet Babies were excellent & hold up. -
home0006 — 12 years ago(March 17, 2014 01:57 PM)
As others have said every era has had it's share of great cartoon shows and bad cartoon shows, much like TV in general. To me G1, GI Joe, M.A.S.K., Voltron, and The Real Ghostbusters were standouts from the 80s. At the time I loved He-Man but it doesn't stand up as well over time as those others do, though the reboot of He-Man that came out a few years ago isn't bad. The 90s X-Men, up until the train wreck of a final season, is the best cartoon show I've ever seen. Spider-Man that came out at that same time was also great, though I preferred the animation style of X-Men better.
However I agree with you about today's crop of shows. I'm watching the Avengers show on Disney XD and the previews for other shows that are on that network just look terrible. I tried watching Spongebob one time and just found that to be miserable, and can't understand the hype. -
mk1974 — 11 years ago(July 28, 2014 04:18 PM)
There's a phenomenon that happens whenever one looks back on the past. There were tons of forgettable cartoons in the 80s, and as such, we forget them. We mostly remember the things that left an impression on us. However, when we look at what is around today, we give more equal weight to the bad ones and good ones because we're in the thick of it.
That said, cartoons are very different now. There are superhero cartoons, some of which are very well made. However, there's also an increased sensitivity about violence in kids' shows that has certainly affected the way it is depicted in them.
But the animation is far better now than it was then, and there are a whole lot more cartoons made to appeal specifically to adults (which was very rare/underground before the Simpsons).
What I find funny is that the makers of the original Transformers didn't seem to realize the effect they were having. They approached the show like it was a toy commercial, and that's all it really was to them. I don't think they realize how deeply it resonated with some of the kids, for whatever reasons. That's why they made the mistake of rather nonchalantly killing off popular characters, which spelled the end for the show, really. They created a mythology, seemingly almost by accident, that many of us loved, but they didn't see it for what it was. It was always just a way to sell toys for them. -
d_myerss — 11 years ago(July 29, 2014 05:09 AM)
Very good post.
I do wonder though, would G1 be as well remembered by us if it weren't for what the movie did?
I know it killed off a lot of beloved characters but there were so many to choose from, new robots being introduced as new waves of toys came through, could fans not have adapted to Ultra Magnus, Rodimus, Scourge, Cyclonus and the bunch the same way they did to Blaster, Red Alert, Smokescreen, Thrust, Dirge, Ramjet, Blitzwing and Astrotrain?
Maybe by season 3, a lot of the earlier fans had moved on to something else and season 3 wasn't a good jump on point for other kids.
The thing that always stands out to me among the terrible episodes and the gem episodes is The Movie. The shock value alone made that movie awesome and I still watch it fairly regularly to this day. It's what made Transformers stick with me more so than any other cartoon.
I think if the movie hadn't been as brutal and thus impactful as it was, I likely wouldn't still be a fan of the cartoon the way I am. -
mk1974 — 11 years ago(July 29, 2014 06:02 AM)
I think agree with that. I distinctly remember at the time (I was 11 when the movie came out) feeling like the movie wasn't pandering to me as a kid. We always used to make fun of things like, in GI Joe, having people miraculously eject from planes and parachute to safety. Way to teach kids that no one ever dies in war.
But I think they made a mistake in killing off Optimus Prime. Maybe if they had replaced him with a leader that had his command and charisma, it might have worked better. But Rodimus didn't have the gravitas that Optimus did. They didn't make a guy who could really live up to the legacy of Optimus Prime. It was never clear, beyond just being a sort of "chosen one," why Hot Rod was worthy of the Matrix. It wasn't clear when it happened, and it wasn't clear on the show after it. Rodimus wasn't nearly the leader that Optimus was.
Also, Optimus was basically an anchor for a lot of kids. He was the solid core of the show, and killing him off was a bit like killing off a family member. Younger kids can't make the distinction quite as easily between reality and fantasy, and many of the younger kids got really, really upset about his death, which might have led to their parents not letting them watch the show anymore.
I do think a lot of kids moved on. I know that I turned 12 in the fall after the movie's release. Seventh grade and hormones basically brought about changes in my interests, and fighting robots started to seem a little less interesting than the girls in my class. The show probably did need to move on and change, but the way they went about it might have been a bit too sudden and traumatizing for the younger kids they wanted to keep. -
d_myerss — 11 years ago(July 29, 2014 07:42 AM)
Yeah, that sounds about right.
Luckily for me I actually saw the movie first. The movie was released on my Dad's birthday the year I was born!
But I immediately begged my parents to buy me tons of VHS so that I could see what happened before and after. So I wasn't traumatised by the movie that someone like yourself or a little younger likely would have been.
Of course once I sat through enough of S1 and S2 as a youngster I could totally appreciate what happened in the movie and still find it quite emotional now.
I really liked Rodimus but yeah, he could never live up to Optimus. That's kind of what I liked about him and S3 in general. Though it was barely there, there was a little more character development than the previous seasons, particularly in Rodimus' insecurities and Galvatron's madness.
But I hear what you're saying, for those kids who experienced S1,S2, the movie and S3 all in order, I can see why Rodimus was such a let down by comparison. -
SydneyIz — 11 years ago(August 06, 2014 01:11 AM)
OP, you suffer from nostalgia, as every decade created some nightmarish cartoons. I looked through old Saturday Morning TV logs. About 65%-75% of the shows were garbage, unwatchable, or forgettable. The horrifying truth I found among the 25%-35% specials were the transcendental shows; the franchises; and those unique shows, most people forgot about or did not watch in the first place. Oddly enough, the 25%-35% shows had alot future and up-coming talent behind the scenes in many films and TV shows. Animators/Animation companies, writers, voice actors/actresses, show creators, and series composers.
Yet by George, I think you are onto something. Cartoons are actually much more heavily regulated now E/I standards and the prevalence of parent groups'. More hands-on approach by networks with conglomerates owning most of the channels. With heavy instances on techno and minimalist animation, some cartoons do have a pedestrian look to them.