Woman-child that I am, I still love Saturday morning cartoons.
This year was great, with awesome shows like Legend of Korra, MLP , Young
Justice, and Adventure Time all
putting out new episodes. And being an over exuberant nerd, I had to tell all
my friends just how much I was enjoying the good variety of shows coming out.
To which I often encountered the same dismissive response: Cartoons today
aren’t as good as they were in the 90s.
| My childhood in one picture |
Is that true? Were the cartoons of the late 80s/early 90s
really better, or is it just nostalgia? The people I talked to weren’t “cartoon
connoisseurs” like mwah, but I hear the same thing even among animation
aficionados. See, there was the golden period known as “the Animation Renaissance” back when I was young. It was a time when cartoons shifted away
from being glorified toy commercials to original, quality stuff. You had
amazing shows like Animaniacs, Batman:
the Animated Series, Adventures of the Gummi Bears, on and on. Saturday
mornings were an explosion of awesome shows. This lasted until the late 90s,
when cartoons slipped back into the toy-driven model.
Anyways, the Animation Renaissance was the first time since
the 1950s that high quality cartoons were made for artistic merit, not a quick
buck. That time period paved the way for all my favorite cartoons now. But does
it mean those cartoons are better?
I’m not the best person to judge. I have nostalgia for those
shows, so it would be hard for me to objectively compare them to modern shows
(I’ll probably do it anyways in future posts). However, I think that if people
write off modern-day cartoons as inferior, then they’re cheating themselves. There
comes a point where “respect for the classics” stops people from moving
forward.
| Don't be this person. Nobody likes this person. |
Like the irate fanboy who only plays old-school Nintendo, or
the retro-hipster who only listens to things on vinyl, there comes a point
where you need to put aside old favorites in order to try something new. That
doesn’t mean classics aren’t important, but people shouldn’t believe that the
best humanity has to offer has already occurred. Who knows, your favorite work
could still be a couple of years away. So don’t stick to what you know. Be
willing to give new things a shot, even if you love the old.
And for goodness sake, stop saying everything was better
when you were a kid!
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