Hidden Messages: 80's Cartoons

What were they really teaching us?

80's Cartoons. I think most of the people here are familiar with them, and most of us grew up with every Saturday morning spent with a bowl full of Cocoa Pebbles and a seemingly endless barrage of action and adventure.

80's action cartoons came in a wide spectrum of subgenres from high fantasy (Dungeons and Dragons) to Action (G.I Joe) to Sci-fi (Silverhawks) to combinations of themes (He-Man, Bravestar), they all had similar elements such as the finale chuckle, Public Service messages where the heroes would teach us today's valuable lesson (most spoke to us directly, but G.I Joe took it further and presented actual scenarios where a member of the team showed up to teach an important life lesson and probably inspired a few kids to try and launch over downed power lines in the hopes of meeting Roadblock), and a clear cut message of good against evil. Rarely were there any shades of grey in an 80's cartoon cast. Good guys were good and bad guys were bad, end of story. Skeletor never posed any "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" moral complications, he was simply rotten to the core. Some may have been evil for good reason (Spiral Zone's Overlord wanted to create a world without war), but even then, they were dastardly sorts (he did, after all, also want legions of people regarding him as their new messiah.)

But there were other messages within some of them, things unique to their particular story.

Transformers: Sure, on the surface it's good robots VS bad robots, but think about it a second. Look at what the majority of the first Autobots turned into VS what the Decepticons did. The Autobots were innocsious vehicles like 18-wheelers, Volkswagon Beetles, police cars, ambulances and other vehicles that are either basic commercial vehicles, or service vehicles.

Now look at the Decepticons. Fighter Jets, tanks, guns, a...um...tapedeck...*ahem*. The point is that most of them were implements of war. And it shows in their personalities. While the Autobots were just kicking around with Spike Witwicky, learning about human life and values, and trying to get back to Cybertron, the Decepticons were busy trying to blow stuff up and subjugate humanity. The message was subtle, but at the same time clear; war is bad.

Bravestar: First, I want to congratulate them on giving the world possibly one of the first Native American super heroes. He may not have been THE first, but he was one of them and he was no second stringer like Apache Cheif. By using ancient Native American rites he gained the abilities of animals (symbolized by super imposing an animal made of fireworks on his face) to defeat Tex Hex and his band of crooks.

What's the message here? Well this one is obvious; Racial equality. Marshall Bravestar wasn't just the toughest guy on New Texas, he was possibly the most level headed. It's sad but it's true, there was still a bit of stereotyping in TV during the 80's and Bravestar countered it by making a visible minority the central character. With super powers!

Spiral Zone: The plot here is pretty nifty. A mad scientist and his gang of rotten crooks have covered a spiraled portion of Earth in mind warping mist that turns anyone who enters the zone into a mindless zombie with disgusting red fungus on their faces. So, in retaliation, Earth's best and brightest join forces to free Earth from the influence of the Spiral Zone and free humanity.

The message? Well let's take a look at the theme song; Earth's most powerful soldiers are Earths last chance to fight the spiral zone! Now let's look at the cast; Another Native American in command, an African American, A German, A Russian, and a Japanese man. The point is clear and pretty deep for the waning days of the Cold War; all races are equal and we can all work together to fight a common foe. Sure, in this case, the common foe was mind altering mist and a mad scientist, but think of what we could all do if we followed the example of the Zone Riders!

G.I. Joe: Possibly the STRANGEST collection of commandos (one time including The Refrigerator AND Sgt. Slaughter) versus the weirdest collection of terrorists ever assembled. A force dedicated to freedom versus a force dedicated to world domination...and who do little else but try to blow up shopping malls and raid Aztec temples.

Now don't get me wrong, I like G.I Joe, but let's take a look a little deeper at the good guys; predominantly American. And the bad guys? Nearly all of them have foreign accents! Jingoistic flag waving at its finest; America's good and everyone else should be viewed as a threat. Thank God nobody's taken that to heart...um...

Dungeons and Dragons: Six teenagers go on an amusement park ride and are magically teleported to the world created by Gary Gygax and are granted magical weapons to liberate the land from the evil wizard; Optimus...Venger!

Over a decade before J.K Rowling squeezed out Harry Potter, this was the avenue of preaching that childhood is a time of excitement and wonder. The kids encountered dragons, Elves, Dwarves, Wizards, giants, and other mythological and high fantasy monsters years before the world heard of Hogwarts. Heck, the even palled around with a baby Unicorn (voiced by Frank "Megatron" Welker). You can keep your Quidditch, I'll stick with D&D.

Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors: Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you your heroes; Two kids with magic powers, a wizard, an Orco ripoff, and Han Solo. Not enough? Here are your villains; Mutant vegetables. Jayce and his lightning league use modular, customizable vehicles and fly around space, battling Sawboss and his evil Monster Minds (mutant vegetable/car abominations). I'm beginning to think some cartoon designers just threw darts at a wall full of nouns and adjectives.

The message here initially baffled me. At first glance, it's Technology VS Plants, but the magic kids can talk to plants and their dad was a botanist trying to create super vegetables to end hunger. But if you dig a bit deeper, you see that dear old Dad was tinkering with radiation and genetics when things went to crap. The message? It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature...or else she sends mutant space broccoli after you. Mutant space broccoli that can drive.

The Real Ghostbusters: A team of parapsychologists use advanced technology to battle supernatural foes. This one was one of my favourites and it still is. The series was very well written and featured great animation, and there was definitely a feeling of dramatic tension . Twice (that I recall) the heroes were ready to sacrafice their own lives to save Mankind (episodes Knock Knock and Ragnarok and Roll). My only complaints are Slimer's spinoff and the anti-climactic defeat of a Elder God in the episode Collect Call of Cthulhu.

At first this seems that the message is that mankind can conquer any foe, and that may be true, but look at how it's done. In 9 out of 10 episodes, all four ghostbusters are actively working as a unit to fight the monster du jour and when they're separated, they use skill, diplomacy, and ingenuity to fight powerful supernatural forces. The message is teamwork and brains over raw power.

That's all for now, hope you liked my insights.

Comments

not a bad article
except for the g.i. joe part

80s cartoons was the best, dumb ass Hiro.

I hate it when people bash the 1980's cartoons. Seriously, why all the hate? Hiro, I will agree that 1970's cartoons are pretty crappy, but the 1980's had it's share of good stuff too. Like every era, the 1990's had it's fair share of stinkers (i.e. Street Sharks, Hammerman, Wish Kid, Widget the World Watcher etc), not every cartoon from that era was great. Just because it was in the "Silver Age" of animation doesn't mean it was automatically good. Same thing with the 2000's. If you are going to bash 1980's cartoons, why don't you say something constructive and explain why you thought the cartoons sucked instead of just bashing them to support your favorites.

Transformers!more than meets the eye!

y know 80s cartoons are way better then the ones after 2000 the action was way better and they had a better storyline i luv them and i was born in 93

Well, the problem with 70s and 80s cartoons in the US WERE the parental groups. Look at the original SuperFriends. Here you rarely saw the JLA beat up on crooks or use their powers to harm anyone, and the shows had moral and ecological themes to them. Even the villains willingly gave themselves up, realizing the 'error' of their ways. Liked to have seen Luthor or Braniac do that.

Basically the funny thing was, animation being shown on television at the time happened to come from the 40s, 50s and 60s. Originally they weren't aimed at kids but adults since they were 'fillers' for movies.

But when television started taking off in the 70s and so forth, animation did get watered down. I mean look at what we got in comparsion with Japanese animation. In Speed Racer, people got shot and killed, but if they had made a US version back then, people would be hit with rays or dealt with by means of the 'Batman' coloured knock-out gas.

Not that they weren't enjoyable to watch because they were fun, in the sense, you didn't have sponsors wanting to merchandise the crap out of them. Sure you had cereal, comics and toys based from them, but not as bad as today standards.

But I think the funniest thing of the 70s happened to be the localized kids' shows they had. The most hilarious one I knew of in Texas was "Captain Wonderful and his MEMO Ray." The MEMO ray looked like one of those toy guns you could by at any five and dime store (aka Kwik-E-Mart) and thanks to some Krofft FXs, it shot forth this multicoloured beam which could travel anywhere. Sort of like BatFink's BEEP.

The hilarious thing was when the beam established contact with its target. The person would come to a dead stop, roll his/her eyes back and say in a deep voice, "I've been MEMO-ed!" And then do whatever Capt. Wonderful wanted them to do.

Needless to say, the show only lasted for six episodes.

Which goes to show every era has a clinker no one wants to talk about. There are a few gems within the 90s like Batman: the Animated Series, where they actually when with Bob Kane's true vision of the Dark Knight, than the campy 60s version with Adam West.

The problem with some 80s cartoons were, most happened to be advertising gimmicks to get kids into purchasing more of their toy line.

The strangest happened to be He-Man, because I recall first seeing this figure and thought, this can't be for kids, presuming Mattel was attempting appealing towards the Dungeon & Dragons mindset.

The show wasn't bad considering, but what I thought was really odd was He-Man was in his original outfit for about several seasons before parents deemed his warrior look unacceptable.

So Mattel ended up giving him pants and a ponytail, whereas a team from France had taken over the series and revamped it where He-Man was sent into the future towards another planet. Didn't make much sense, which I was glad when they remade the series, they went back to the original concept, but I also like now how they gave Skeletor an origin backstory.

The reason most are critical of today's animation is it's become rather formulatic than different. Think about it, you can go to Nicktoons and just about guess what the story's about without even having to watch them.

Though I will admit I do like the Edgar & Ellen series a bit since they were based on books than merchandising.

The truth is, we do long for the good old days of animation, no matter how jaded they really were, because we don't recall the flaws until we watch them on DVD and think "God, I can't believe I watched THIS!" And on a MST3K level we watch them because we can privately make fun of what we used to view as entertainment.

Bottom line is, every era is going to have something critical about it whether we like it or not, so in most things we should enjoy what we have as well as what we remember. Otherwise, all you end up doing is making yourself miserable and lonely.

Hiro, name some cartoons from the 1970s/1980s that aren't bad.

The 1970s was a great time for Japanese animation. You can't blame the animators why (you think) American cartoons from the late 1960s/1970s suck. Blame parent groups. Blame the networks. They were the ones that wanted to make cartoons less violent in the 1970s. I personally like cartoons from those eras and they are before my time. I personally find them more fun to watch, same thing with cartoons from the 1980s.

I don't care what anyone say, I love those 1980s cartoons.

-Pedro A.R.

Well i'll tell you why modern day cartoons suck, they have poor writing and horrible voice acting.That about sums it up.Maybe, maybe, you could say the same thing about 80's cartoons, but at least they still had enjoyable characters, which all cartoons today are severely lacking.

I will say though the 90's was my personal favorite era of animation.The Batman/Superman cartoons, Spider Man, X-Men, Sam and Max, The Tick, Disney Afternoon, Animaniacs/Pinky and the Brain, yeah it's definitely my favorite era.Still love those 80's cartoons though.I mean not most, there were really only a few.

Agreed that the best cartoons came from the 90s... I mean, many shows from the 80s looked like a half-hour of stoner's entertainment... but most of the time it was so stupid it was funny.

I'm not talking about all old cartoons in general. Just the ones from the 80s. There was a few good cartoons in the 80s (Ulysses 31 and Mysterious Cities of Gold comes to mind), but still, most of them were made just to sell toys. And the ones from the 70s were just as bad but you can blame the parent groups of that time period who tried to censor violence out of cartoons back in the late 60s. That's why I think most of the 70s/80s cartoons were bad. A lot of people on here bash today's cartoons but they don't really explain why they suck other than that fact that they suck. (see any post from childofthe1970s or ducktalesfan1977). Nostaglia or no, I couldn't sit through most of the 80s cartoons, maybe I just outgrew them. The 90s is when animation started getting better in my opinion. Actual storylines and plots, more creator driven series and there were less toy based cartoons. They were still there, but some of them was pretty good (i.e. Mighty Max) unlike the ones from the 80s.

Yes, the 70s Tom and Jerry cartoons were awful, and so was the early 80s Filmation version. I just stick to the Hanna Barbera ones.

Sorry if my post was too long, I wanted to get my point across.

The only cartoons I find worse than today's shows are the ones from the late 1960s/1970s. Those were just terrible. Watch the Tom & Jerry cartoons of that time period and you'll see what I mean.

Hey Hiro i've been watchin plenty of those old chartoons thanks to the almighty powers of DVD and the internet and, yes, they are still very watchable, nostalgia or not.Certainly kick the crap out of any American cartoons they have nowadays.

Most cartoons from the 80s aren't really that good. To me, most of them are nothing more than 30 minute advertisements for toys.

Without the nostaglia, would you watch this stuff? To be honest, the best TV cartoons came out in the 90s.

*Sigh* Far be it from me to expect some to, y'know, read.

Pictures, man! Pictures!

I loved this article and I hope everyone will read it before they dimiss it for lack of pictures. Well done can't wait for the next one.

although i was in germany during most of the 80's, i remember most of the cartoons you mention. great article. zulu

Um some pictures might be nice.

Other than that it's a good article.

Sorry about the lack of pictures, everyone. My computer was being a butt. The next article will have pictures, I promise.

Gimme back my son!

Hehe, nice article for a change.

Yep, many of those cartoons back then had a meaning to it, even if sometime it was somewhat cheesy (oh come on, what if we liked war games? That made our childhood for godsakes...). There was also the 90's anti-drugs propaganda that made quite the line.

Here's another cartoons with subliminal messages in it: Visionaries: Knights of the magical light.
Classic Good guys versus bad guys. Each bad guy represented a bad aspect of human: Anger, Cowardice, Greed, etc, and the good one, well, make the math.

Well, nice article. Oh, and like some others said, add some images, helps the nostalgia

Good article I think you are right on with most of these. The only one I take exception to is the analysis of GI Joe. Of couse most of the good guys were americans, GI Joe was a division of the AMERICAN Military. And according to the origional comic book Cobra Commander himself was, in fact, an American (this was before they came up with that Cobra-La crap). Moreover, there ware a few episodes where GI Joe worked cooperately with the October Guard, who were basically the Russian version of GI Joe, thus kind of peeling off the xenophobic venier of the the show.

Also, no matter how well writen an article is one surefire way to win a one way ticket to the back page is to write an article without pictures. Remember people are here for the nostalgia and pictures of familiar childhood images are what they want to see. Just a note for future articles.

BloodMist: he can be from Outer Kookamunga...just NOT COBRA-LA. PLEEEEEASE :-)

Haha, this an interesting article.Yeah some cartoons really did carry some interesting messages in them.Transformers in particular, i've noticed, has a lot of messages in it, and deals with a lot of different things in different episodes.Watching them nowadays just drives em home even more.Transformers even dealt with the concept of life and death, remember when Optimus died?That freakin hit me hard when i was a kid.

Yeah G.I. Joe was all about patriotism but what do you expect.It's G.I. Joe for god sakes.And, oddly enough, Cobra Commander had no accent, so he could as well have been American himself.Or Canadian, it's hard to tell.

YAWN!!!!

i think an article should have more words and less pictures. but i do like pics.

Nice article. It's funny what you said about G.I. Joe. Although you're totally right, I think those that are big fans of the franchise tend to identify more with Cobra. When you look into the comics books (especially the recent ones) you get a much more gray perspective. It looks a lot less like propaganda.

I thought the article is good without pictures.

I remember watching all of those cartoons as a kid, now I want to watch them to find those hidden messages.

Great job, dude.

Get some pictures, because some of us weren't old enough or weren't even around at the time these 80s cartoons were on the air. By then we don't know what you're referring to.

Thumbs Down.

yeah good thing someof us know what your talking about cuz some may not since there is no visual

What, no pics?
Fart on you!