Why Should I Sit Through This?

SpongeBob is more offensive than Rocko? Are you kidding? I'm against the whole "kids shouldn't watch ________ because of their age" mentality, but last time I checked, Rocko had homosexual jokes, fart jokes, partial nudity, violence, you name it. If anything, oversensitive parents would be less willing to allow kids to watch Rocko.

God, that new Scooby-Doo picture makes me want to puke. But I can agree with a lot of points made by mlw1984 and Hiro. I think every generation has it's good and crappy cartoons.

And reading RetroToon's comment about SpongeBob... I remember that gasoline thing from the first time I saw that episode. After never seeing it again, I thought I was crazy and making it up

your description of the ninja turtles is kinda misleading...

the turtles never had pupils in the original comic books, so 4kids pretty much got it right, even though their scripts and voice actors suck

And I rewatched the cartoons from my childhood and none of them stand the test of them. The majority of them were flat out awful and the only reason why you like them is because you grew up with them.

I take my comment back. This is a cartoons suck now article. It fucking sucks. FAIL!

I rather eat period blood than to watch any of the new cartoons.

^^^I don't think that particular comment is called for vh. @__@

In your opinion...which if based off all your other articles is usually ill-informed.

^^^Oye Vey!

The point of this article is that new cartoons look terrible, they sound terrible, and are animated in a terrible manner.
I don't get it and perhaps I wasn't meant to get it but the point of this article to make people aware that there are a lot of old cartoons that are worth mentioning and the networks such as Boomerang and Teletoon Retro aren't even paying any attention to some of these older cartoons.

So did I. I was quite offended by the new Scooby Doo characters. At least when Hanna-Barbera did it they thought about how the characters were going to be animated and what they were going to be like personality wise. The actors that the Warner Bros studios hired, except for Scott Menville, and Frank Welker, aren't really H-B cartoon material.

I also prefer the old TMNT cartoons over the new ones for that very same reason.

I can't even forgive the Cartoon Network Studios for what they did to the Transformers. I just watched Transformers Animated on YTV last night and needless to say I was far from being impressed.

I nearly died when I saw the "new" Scooby Doo characters...

As for TMNT, the reasons they have no eyes in the current series is because in the original comics from the 1980s, they had no eyes. Still, I prefer the old cartoon over the new one, mainly for nostalgic reasons...

Oh and I knew that Hasbro bought Tonka and systematically eliminated competition for Transformers. Warner also bought out the Hanna-Barbera cartoon studios and renamed it Cartoon Network Studios.
I am sorry but I can't forgive Hasbro and Warner for raping my childhood. :p

I can say it with great authority. The "humour" in Sponge Bob Square Pants, or as I like to call him "Sponge Bob No Pants", is below the level that I would like to call "tasteful."
I stopped watching Sponge Bob because of all of the potty humour in it. Yes Rocko and Ren & Stimpy got away with a lot more potty humour than Sponge Bob has in recent years but then again Rocko and Ren & Stimpy aren't children's shows either and Sponge Bob is a children's show. I think that Nick should take at least some responsibility for what they present to children or the shows that are presented as children's shows.
In short Sponge Bob really isn't a show for children.

One thing I got to say is how can you say that Spongebob is one big fart joke? I hardly even hear ANY fart jokes in Spongebob at all. Ren and Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life has far more. I hate it when people bashes Spongebob just because it has small fart jokes but don't bash Ren and Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life for having even more fart jokes.

And one more thing.... Why would I bash an entire website full of people that I don't know personally? I don't know your tastes and you don't know my tastes, well you do thanks to this, but my tastes in cartoons are very different than other people's tastes in cartoons.

Thank you gutsogummi.

While I do appreciate some of the comments I do have to say that every generation has its share of bad cartoons; which was the opinion that I was trying to put forward. The 00s aren't that much different than the 90s, the 90s aren't that much different than the 80s and so on and so forth.

I wrote this article hoping to give some insight on why I think cartoons now are so bad. This is just my opinion, which I have the right to express, and I hate having my opinion bashed by people who don't even bother to read the article before posting a comment because if some of you had been reading the article as carefully as I think you were you'd know that I wasn't bashing the entire generation just the 00s generation of animation.

I hate ranting and raving and carrying on like this but I think I have to in order to get through to some of you; which I haven't yet, mostly because you guys keep on ignoring what I've been saying.

I do agree that a lot of cartoons today are seriously overplayed. I'm sick of Spongebob and Foster's. I don't even watch that much TV these days, DVD is where it is.

This isn't a "cartoons suck now" article. It's just explaining how she feels about animation today and comparing it to the past.

Not all old cartoons were crudely animated. Watch an episode of Gargoyles. Beautiful animation. Cartoons like Exo-Squad have a great storyline and characters, but so-so animation.

No, I don't want to see the new George of the Jungle cartoon.

THANK YOU!!! There are two people here who get it and aren't ignoring what I've been saying in this article.

Have you guys seen the intro to the new George of the Jungle cartoon? It's not that great.

Mlw, I appreciate your comments on some of your views, but on others I have to disagree. Those cartoons like Hammer Man were only meant to be a gimmick trying to cash in on current trends, so successful or not, they weren't going to last long. A couple of these companies, such as DIC, were small and were limited in their budgets, so unlike Warner Bros, they couldn't afford to spend huge amounts of money advertising their shows. Unfortunately the majority of DIC's cartoons weren't that great, the only good one I can think of is the Sonic the Hedgehog "SatAm" cartoon show. The majority who watched it will agree that it's by far one of DIC's best cartoons. Unfortunately, it aired on ABC (a network that was losing viewership) which later scrapped the show (as well as those that were in the same lineup) and was bought by Disney. It's a hugely underrated show, but it has a lot of good stuff in it. It was far from perfect, but overall it was a great show.

I appreciate cartoons from the 30s-50s, because that era was referred as the Golden Age. All of them were hand drawn and well executed which is why some of Disney's movies like Bambi took a long time to produce. While I enjoyed a couple cartoons from the 60s like the Flintstones and the Jetsons, it marked the beginning of the decline of animation. Even those who were kids in the 60s-early 80s will agree that the cartoons produced during that time were bad and showcased worse animation than the cartoons in the 30s-50s. Animation was sparked by Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Little Mermaid in the late 80s which started the Silver Age of Animation. I tend to think that some of the best stuff came in the early 90s. Cartoons were going strong, and while not all of them were good, at least the people tried to do so.

Now as I see it, there are more cartoons now that suck than ones that are good. I enjoyed Avatar and even Ben 10 to an extent, but I think Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and Chowder could of been done a lot better than what they turned out. Another problem is networks tend to overplay shows like Spongebob while others such as Nick's Doug and Invader Zim (even though it's 2000s) get swept under the carpet, only available to watch on a DVD set or on the Internet.

So cartoons shouldn't just cater to younger audiences, they should be viewable to everyone, referred to as Family Friendly. It was a problem in the late 60s-early 80s and I sense it is a problem today. Apart from Avatar, the only shows I can bare myself watching are adult cartoons and a few anime titles.

MLW1984, you have some excellent points about animation. I took this animation course back in the late 90s and my professor was criticizing nearly every cartoon from the 70s and 80s. He thought they have no substances and was there just to rot kids minds or to sell toys.

Not all of the old cartoons were great. For every Batman TAS, Superman TAS and Gargoyles, you got crap like Superfriends, Paw Paw Bears and The Smurfs. Sure we got a lot of crappy cartoons today like Super Duper Sumos, Bratz, Proud Family and Coconut Fred's Salad Bar (or something like that), but people fail to realize there was a lot of crappy cartoons in the past too. You have to dig through the crap to find the good stuff. Anyone who says "cartoons suck now" haven't watched Avatar the Last Airbender, Ben 10, Megas XLR, American Dragon or Justice League.

People complaining about how much "cartoons suck now" isn't a new thing at all. You are right. I remember comparing the old Bugs Bunny cartoons to the stuff on in the late 70s and asking my dad "Why do the Bugs Bunny cartoons from the 40s look better than the cartoons of today?" He used to complain about the 80s cartoons because most of them were made just to sell toys/video games.

The best time for TV animation would have to be the 90s. So many great animated series came out during that time period like Tiny Toons, The Tick, Batman TAS, Superman TAS, Animaniacs, Freakazoid, Gargoyles etc. Anyone who thinks 90s cartoons suck haven't watched any of these shows. The 60s had some good stuff and some crap, so that decade was so-so for animation. But the 70s was pretty bad, same with the 80s. The only animation worth watching in the 80s was The Little Mermaid, Roger Rabbit and other animated features. The TV cartoons are not worth your time.

And pretty much, the only reason why today's cartoons "suck" so much is because we aren't kids anymore. We just simply grew up and our perspective on cartoons have changed. I love the 1980's and 1990's cartoons as much as most of the other people on here, but there are some good cartoons out now, it's just that many of the people on here won't give them a chance. Our parents probably thought our cartoons were crap too, so the saying "Modern cartoons suck" isn't really a new thing. When the kids of today grow up, they will likely say that the cartoons of the 2010s are crap and will be feeling nostaglic for their own cartoons. I personally HATE this generation gap, but hey, it's not going anywhere.

Trust me, I have seen the intros to many cartoons of the 1960's-early 1980's and the animation even looked like shit in the intro, the actual show was worse.

Look up limited animation on Google and you will see what I'm talking about. Yes, today's cartoons also use limited animation techniques but not all of them do so. Anime also uses limited animation techniques.

I didn't say all of them had crude animation.

Yeah, Batman TAS had great animation but about stuff like Hammer Man and Wish Kid? Those cartoons were styled like 1970's cartoons and they both came out in the early 1990's. Same with the D.I.C. G.I. Joe which animation was so low budget it reminded me of an low budget 1960's action cartoon.

Stuff like Animaniacs and Tiny Toons, great animation right there. The Disney cartoons of the late 1980's and 1990's also had great animation. The D.I.C. and Filmation cartoons however don't. I'm not saying that they are bad, but their animation isn't the best thing in the world.

Not all of today's cartoons animations style traces back to the 1960's and 1970's. Watch Avatar the Last Air Bender or Ben 10. Those cartoons have great animation. Stuff like Foster's does remind of me of an 1960's Hanna Barbera cartoon because it's Flash animation and it looks limited. They may seem like that because they are done by the computer.

I don't think all 80s/90s cartoons were crudely animated. Most of these cartoons, especially in the early 90s, had fluid animation, for instance Batman: TAS. If you want to see actual crude animation, go watch the ones from the 1960s to the early-mid 1980s. Sure some of them were memorable, but most of the animation was pretty horrible.

Plus, do you know how much effort Disney made in making movies like Aladdin and the Lion King? Those required a huge budget to produce, and it's simply impossible to put that amount of detail in every episode of a cartoon. So don't expect that anytime soon.

I think today's cartoons suck as well, which I think are going back to the 60s/70s style of animation. I prefer animation from the early-mid 90s as well as the stuff that came out in the 1930s-1950s. Both of those eras had cartoons that showed quality animation.

Okay! I'm only going to say this one more time and that's it. I'm sick of defending myself.
THIS IS NOT A "CARTOONS NOW SUCK" ARTICLE!! This is meerely an article that discusses a point of view about how bad I think cartoons now have gotten. Why you guys can't get this through your heads I don't know but GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEADS! I AM NOT BASHING THIS GENERATION AS A WHOLE! I'M ONLY BASHING WHAT I THINK ARE BAD CARTOONS AND GIVING A POINT OF VIEW ABOUT WHY I THINK CARTOONS THESE DAYS ARE BAD!!

In my short 3.5 years on this website and I've only ever written 2 "This Sucks" articles in my lifetime on this site. I've already backed up my reasons why I don't like these cartoons and I'm not going to do it anymore.
I'm sorry if any of you find that my point of view is offensive to you but this is my point of view and I'm entitled to it. :p

Oops, I meant to say though, not through.

This article is nothing more than cartoons suck now this and cartoons suck now that. Blah! I'm tired of articles like this.

You just grew up, and your perspective of cartoons have changed. As much as I like the old cartoons, I will have to agree with Frightwolf, a lot of them had crude animation compared to the stuff from the 1940's and 1950's and some of them didn't even make sense. I'm not saying that a lot of today's cartoons aren't crudely animated because many of them are. Animation is a very long, tedious task. It takes time to make smooth animations, so a lot of animators take short cuts, therefore, coming out with a great cartoon with poor animation. You will notice this while watching an intro to an old cartoon, the animation is awesome, but watching the actual show, the animation looks like garbage.

I'm not saying that the old cartoons are bad, through.

You have to stop saying, "Look how smoothly this is animated." There's a difference between being animated and being drawn; you're saying you like the looks of old cartoons better. You cannot tell how well something is animated by a picture, and I'd hate to break it to you, but many of the 80s and 90s cartoons were crudely animated. Take a look at 40s Disney Movies or something like The Lion King to see what smooth animations look like, because you won't find it watching 80s/90s cartoons.

i agree cartoon watching in the 80s to 90s was the best shows that had good story lines and good morales who can forget good shows like the real ghostbusters and alf or rude dog and the dweebs or for small kids dumbos circus or even care bears cartoons have really gone down hill you cant even watch loony toons uncut on tv nowa days how sad for the kids that all thay have to watch is this ben 10 rubbish

I personally prefer cartoons from the 80s over most of the stuff that came out in the last 10+ years.

I disagree about Rocko, it's pretty much the same thing as Spongebob, only sicker.

That's exactly right On. I liked the cartoons of the late 70s, when I was born, and the early-mid 80s so all of those cartoon classics that were born in the 1960s and 1970s came on. The Pink Panther, Tom and Jerry, Scooby Doo, Rocket Robin Hood, Spider-Man, and everything is just more catered to me taste wise.

Oh don't get me wrong. I like the new Transformers series but the Optimus Prime that is new looked like the animators were in sort of in a rush to get it done and get it out.

They didn't have computers like they do now so animation was all hand drawn. Now animation just seems to be "rush, rush, get it out and hope that the kiddies like it."

Can you see a smooth transistion between Optimus Prime in regular mode and Optimus Prime in super mode and his mini-con? I can't.

Whoops I forgot to log in. My apologies, that comment was actually by me.

I just dont understand how you could say that the transformers then looked more "smoother" then todays transformers? The new transformers doesnt look "rushed" but it brings out the power that optimus and the autobots deserver.

I liked the article but I think you should have been more harsh on the new cartoons. They are Horrible! I like the old tmnt and scooby. My nephew watches all the scooby's but doesn't appear to be biased toward either generation of Scooby. But good article

I'm considering leaving this place for a while.

I'm just happy that there's at least one person who gets the point of this article. I'm happy that there's at least one person who knows that I have a brain.

Looks fun.

J-Man!!! Cartoooooooooon Expressssss!!! on USA!!

LMAO!! Fuckin Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch!!! You have to remember seeing that!!!!

That's precisely the point I was trying to make Fangarius thanks.
Everyone who thought that I was slamming the new generation missed the point of this article entirely.
The offerings that they have now could be better but they're not.
I don't just jump on the "this sucks" and "that sucks" bandwagon. I'm going to argue about what I like based on what I've seen today and not just on baseless arguement that the new is better than the old and vice versa.
I'm just saying that there are a lot of things that this generation has that I just don't get.
So this is the last time that I'm going to defend myself and this article so listen up people!

I'm not about to start getting the appeal of Sponge Bob, I don't like Shaggy and Scooby Doo Get A Clue, the new Ninja Turtles are over-hyped, I wasn't missing that much when I watched Go-Bots in 2004, and I'd rather watch the old George of the Jungle cartoons because it's what I grew up watching.

If I'm going to offer a rebuttal against someone's article it's for a good reason. This was good forum for me to offer a rebuttal about what's wrong with today's animation without resorting to saying "this sucks." I wouldn't say that anyways because it's a good way to get your article bumped on to the back pages. I wouldn't rebut against an article if I didn't feel like I had something important on my mind that I needed to say.
I needed to say "I like the animated shows that I grew up watching." Scooby Doo Where Are You! George of the Jungle, Rocko's Modern Life, The Gobots, Transformers, TMNT 87, the Thundercats. That kind of thing.
This article is NOT angainst the new generation but it's against the poorly animated, and poorly voiced cartoons of the new generation.
Every generation hereafter will have its share of bad cartoons which is why I prefer my generation's animation to this generation's animation.

Umm... I agree and disagree with you... Have you watched the old TMNT again? How they fall down like drunk when they are supposed to be ninjas and totally kick ass. And how they use same footage, but its mirrored in some episodes. Thats poor animation. Then again, the storyline in some new cartoons is horrible, and the voices are indeed even worse. I hate it when the cartoons for girls are all about shopping or looking good. -_- They even went and made an odd cartoon about trols! Agh! I cursed when I saw the Thomas Dam trol logo in the end of the cartoon. NOOOOO!

Starting over. First off, RJunkies, Celeste’s article is not slamming you, nor the fact this site has had it’s share of ‘This [insert item] sucks’ articles floating about here. Instead she’s pointing out we’re disparaging the fact at this point in time animation being offered today could be better along the lines of creativity and innovation, rather than the cookie-cutter nonsense kids today have been given.

Does the aforementioned opinion make us the typical ‘Abe Simpson’ archetype, condemning the present situation over the Past? Not at all, because in truthfulness, every generation has something flawed with it, despite the adage, ‘The Good Ol’ Days.’

Now I do want to retract one statement about commercialism with children’s programming, since technically most shows during the 80s were actually programs aimed at merchandising, and it’s amazing how they got past ACT’s (Action for Children’s Television) astringent guidelines for preventing this sort of thing.

The essence of this article indicates how it seems networks only care about catering to the lowest common demographic and providing economic [cheap] means of animation rather than items revealing the writers and animators actually took their time producing the show itself.

Think of it this way: remember when Rare was bought by Microsoft. Rare had produced great games for Nintendo, thus considering the graphics power and capability of the Xbox, many presumed the acquisition would literally blow both Nintendo and Sony away.

Consequently, rather than getting a top-notch title, Microsoft ended up getting something one might find on the N64, which was discouraging, because many had genuinely expected more from the publishing house and Microsoft than what gamers were given.

Same with today’s programming. Considering the fact today we are far more technologically advanced than we were say, twenty years ago, one might presume what’s being offered as animation would be better. But as Thew indicated, thanks to things like home video, syndication, and parental groups not comprehending they can censor their child’s viewing better than the government, animation has become worse for wear.

But to be fair, there are a few good gems out there which does give us hope for this generation. The problem is, there are too many bad shows mucking up the airwaves, and it seems most networks assume their audiences are too ignorant in having some discretion about what they want to watch.

For instance, Celeste implied SpongeBob is one big, fart joke. The truth is, I’ve considered the show a poor-man’s version of Ren & Stimpy. The only difference here is, Stimpy’s now the star, partnered with Sven, Ren’s the cranky neighbor and they threw in a penny-pinching boss as a means for appeasing the Scrooge McDuck crowd.

Not to mention proving SpongeBob’s not a thinly-disguised R & S. Which explains why the show’s so popular, and the fact why Nickelodeon merchandises the crap out of the series. Meanwhile good shows like Invader Zim and Rocko’s Modern Life get swept under the carpet, because the creators didn’t want Nick transforming them into another blatant cash cow.

Then as Celeste points out, you have these so-called remakes. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind them, IF these idiots would actually perform some research on the original shows, rather than call in unknown artists who have absolutely no idea what the show’s about. And only go by obscure shticks the show was famous for.

Her example with George of the Jungle makes an excellent point. In fact, the modernized version was so un-Georgesque in nature, it literally took me awhile making the connection. [Apologies, Celeste.] And the reason we dislike these remakes is, it gives the present generation an extremely warped vision of what we grew up with.

Honestly, when I first heard about ‘Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get A Clue,’ I went under the misimpression, this was Kids’ WB/CW answer to Nick Jr.’s ‘Blue’s Clues.’ But instead we ended up getting a poorly animated and voiced version of yet, another Shaggy & Scooby cartoon. Seems like the networks have forgotten the cardinal truth, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’

Even when Hanna-Barbera/WB Animation gave Pink Panther a voice [by Matt Frewer], it wasn’t the classic Pink we all knew and loved. Hell, when the kidification craze hit in the 80s with Muppet Babies, many weren’t too crazy about Pink Panther & Sons (which I believe was supposed to be a result from when Pink met his love in Love at Pink Sight).

Which demonstrates not everything in yesteryear was great, but at least the animation and stylings were far better than what we’ve been seeing passed off as decent animation. One of my friends also put it best when he stated, ‘Just because audiences like it, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good.’

And I believe this is the real rub with people composing these articles in general. Because when we recall some of the good shows down memory lane, at least we can extract the good ones from the bad. Today, it’s hard to tell, and yes, probably ten years from now will have the SpongeBob and Mucha Lucha aficionados incessantly criticizing the latest offerings with animation. Not that I can imagine things getting worse than they are, I guess we feel Today’s Generation’s missing out on what we thoroughly used to enjoy. Where nowadays it seems memories are being subtly maligned with people wanting to cut corners, as well as please everyone, rather than produce shows which are genuinely entertaining and fun.

Thus, I feel this is the component of why most shows nowadays do fall short of our expectations, because we all deserve the best of what shows have to offer than being given gruel and brainwashed into believing it’s steak.

Once again, why I found Celeste's article a bit refreshing because she points this out by comparing what she recalls against what's being offered now, instead of hopping on the never-ending bandwagon of reporters griping about what's wrong with today's animation.

But hey, you know, that's just me.

Good Article. You word it good and have strong points. Also wasn't everyones guilty pleasure watching Pokemon??

This article loses its credibility with me on three points:

1) Anyone who says that the Superfriends Batman was more like the Batman comics of the time has absolutely NO CLUE what the Batman comics of the 1970s were like.

THIS is what Batman comics of the era were like:
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/a/aa/200px-Batman227.jpg

http://www.moziplussz.hu/kepek/cikkek/2005/07/batman05.jpg

http://www.treasurycomics.com/images/gallery/dc/lce51_batman.gif

2) The new TMNT is actually more accurate to the original TMNT independent comics of the 80s, which in the estimation of most I've met who've read them, is better than the animated series of the late 80s/early 90s.

3) Spongebob is not about "fart jokes". To me, the appeal of Spongebob is the fact that it's like the outcome of a collaboration between Tex Avery and Salvador Dali. It's just so random, and not only that, it's so creative in how random it is- the opening sequence of the Spongebob movie where "real," live action pirates are making their way into the movie theatre is a perfect example of this.

I am sorry everyone but I loved GI Joe as a kid and I would watch the USA Cartoon Express more then anyone I knew, but in this artcle he is confusing his nostalgia with fact. Not every cartoon of the 80's was awesome; Even ones I used to like now find boring.

I rather watch all of my favorite shows that I brought on DVD then these so called "remakes" anyday. No wonder they're running out of ideas!

Jesus! Doesn't anyone remember the good ole days of Cartoons when Bugs Bunny was in drag, Might mouse was getting high, and Betty Boop was whorin' around.

Speaking of Jesus... Doesn't anyone remember "Superbook"? That was a cartoon!! LOL

My chief complaint about the new Go-Bots cartoon vs the old Gobots cartoon is how horrible the voices were. I mean the whole idea of Transformers Go-Bots is absolutely blastphemous.
I will always be a fan of the old Hanna-Barbera Gobots cartoon only because that's what I grew up watching and I will always be a fan of the old Gobots toys for the same reason.
Forget this "everything old is new again" thing and give me the old Gobots TV show and the old Gobots toys anytime. That's what the older generations want is the old cartoons and the old toys.

I want you to watch an episode of "House of Mouse" or "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse". Then, watch a classic Donald Duck cartoon.
Better yet...watch "Fantasia" and then "Fantasia 2000". To me, "Fantasia" had effort and 2 hours worth of art. "Fantasia 2000" has more talk and less cartoon and yes, I'm a fan of Donald Duck cartoons but I'm not sure what's more blaphemous, having him help a Biblical character (Not being religious.) or have him be poorly animated with a strange voice.

Spongebob was funny in the begining but then it started to suck and the jokes were getting old and its annoying how it comes on 6 times a day.

I know what you mean about scooby doo, I also grew up with the original scooby doo that showed in the 90s on cartoon network, at first when I saw the newest scooby doo the voices acting was horrible and so was the animation >:[

Yeah, Spongebob actually is clean the way Nick wants it so that makes it okay for kids but then there are some fart joke moments that makes it a guilty pleasure to adults so that's why it's so appealing to everyone. And because everyone likes it, Nick overuses it instead of letting it leave like they did with older Nicktoons.

Spongebob is occasionally really funny, but I can't take much of it in one sitting. It's definitely more than just fart jokes, though. Rocko was a lot more subversive than Spongebob and had just as much poop humor, if not more. I'm not saying anything bad about Rocko-- I liked that show. I'm just saying that Spongebob is fairly "clean" in comparison.

Also, I'm getting sick of people bashing on anime just because of shit like Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon. Just because those shows kinda suck doesn't mean all anime is crap.

One more thing...people always say Transformers was such a great show, but has anyone tried watching it sometime recently? That show is one of the worst cartoons I've ever seen! Though sometimes it's really funny to watch because it's so bad. (The animated movie is another matter entirely.)

I may be a big 70s/80s/90s nerd, but I'm not so blind as to say that everything back then was better. Then again, I also don't like today's cartoons-- they're too watered down and grating. I watch anime instead. Cartoons for grownups.

Believe it or not, Spongebob actually got away with some things as well early on:

In the episode "Just One Bite" when Squidward tried to break into the Krusty Krab a bucket of gasoline fell on his head and Squidward burst into flames! If you don't see that now, well... that's because Nick had it taken out.

And in another episode "Procrastination" Spongebob was doing exercises by bending his nose and it was cut out because they thought it looked like an eraction. And then before that they removed a part where they showed stock footage of a car crash because they thought kids could imitate it (like ANY kid could imitate that!).

So if Spongebob really isn't that funny to people, don't blame him... blame Nick for having too much control! On the other hand I guess some of what I mentioned could be the kind of fart joke stuff Celeste was talking about.

Fangarius...

i think the real problem with animation and kids shows in gerneral today is that they have to pass through so many regulations and be approved by some network head that it takes the control completely out of the creators hands. It basically all started with Ren and Stimpy..when Nick started changing things on Kricfalusi...he started to put more and more crap in the show just to piss off the network. Shows like pete and pete and rocko were 90% in the creators control which is why the shows were so well written...now it's all Exects saying they want the next yugioh or something and doesn't really allow for artistic and creative freedom..although some have passed through

I think every generation's cartoons were made to sell toys. If G.I. Joe 84-87 didn't have toys then G.I. Joe 90-96 wouldn't have had toys. Hell we wouldn't have had G.I. Joe Sigma 6 toys if it wasn't for Hasbro.
My point being is if you're going to bitch and moan about people who are bitching and moaning about cartoons that are in the now time then at least make a good arguement about why you think people are wrong.
I made my arguement based on what I've seen now. My arguement isn't based on what other people have said.
George of the Jungle, for example, is a very old cartoon from the 1960s and as far as I'm concerned it's been ruined by bad animation and bad voice acting.

no prob, just remember todays cartoons sucks and the old day ones are better.

Apologies, Thew, I do realize there are other factors out there as well, especially parental groups. After all, why do you think some wonder about the 70s Cartoons we watched and why the original season of SuperFriends was so watered down?

And I'm aware about G.I. Joe and Transformers merchandising, heck, even Filmation got into the act with He-Man. I pardon for the confusion, trying to compose and talk to someone fouls up your train of thought here.

To Kirayamato, no we're hardly newbies, I recall watching many 80s shows, which were still good in their own way, because the animation and plots behind them were fairly reasonable. The thing Celeste's pointing out is, lately it seems networks and production studios want to crank out is subpar animation, with little or no storylines, and pass it off as entertainment.

When the truth is, this generation does deserve better.

And you're right, Thew, with the combination of home video, cable, parental groups and the FCC, not to mention syndication put the nail in Saturday Morning's coffin.

But the real reason many bitch about the state of animation is because nowadays anyone can do it, whether it's good or bad, and it seems no one really cares what the subject behind those cartoons are as long as it keeps audiences entertained.

Am I saying my generation's stuff was better? Not at all, in fact, some of the things we did view has become parodied over time throughout these generations, and even today's fare has become fodder for humour and satire.

The thing is Celeste feels today's viewers should be given quality animation we were given, rather than a pale comparsion of its former self. Perhaps we don't know all the real reasons why animation has really declined over the years.

Some claim the networks, other the studios, then you note how parents suddenly become 'conscientious' when their darlings start emulating some show that's suddenly become objectional.

Overall, I feel nothing really sucks per se, but the fact we get disappointed when we're reminded fondly of something in our past, and rather than have our future appear better in our eyes, it subtly starts looking worse.

Curse of all generations, I suppose, because you know a decade from now, those defending the likes of Spongebob and Mucha Lucha, will be grousing over the next gen offering of animated entertainment.

figures anyone who doesn't watch the 80's cartoons and bitch about it. noobies

look, you have to realize the history of cartoons and understand why they "aren't as good as they used to be". Sure the people in charge of the networks have something to do with it but there are other influences as well

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_morning_cartoon

Read "Decline" and "The Current State of Saturday Morning cartoons" and you will see what I am talking about. Is that an excuse? not really..it's just a sad state we live in now that we have Mom's who are too worried about what their kids are watching then being real parents to them.

you do realize cartoons like transformers and g.i. joe (both 80's versions) sole purpose was to sell the toys?

Celeste, I definitely agree. Though to be fair with some RJ members out there, there are a few good shows like The Batman, and Batman The Animated Series, because it genuinely took Bob Kane's original concept of the Dark Knight and how he was really supposed to be.

And you're right, I'm not slamming today's animation, but I agree the shows could've been better. Even Danny Phantom could've been done like Ben 10, where instead of keeping the secret from his parents, they know and actually could've used him in Ghostbusting, making them a bit more smarter than playing the typical 'clueless' guardians Nicktoons seems to favour.

I also agree today's generation does deserve better, sure our animation was by no means perfect, but also being someone in his 30s, we at least got writers and producers who were ATTEMPTING at creating good animated series. Today it's like anyone can shlap something together and call it 'animation' then put a famous Toon's name on it to lure kids into watching it.

Seems most networks just want cartoons produced so they can merchandise the crap out of it, rather than have the animation really do great on it's own merits.

Yes, we do recall Saturday Mornings because though the animation wasn't anywhere by today's standards, at least the writing was fairly decent, and because it was weekly instead of daily, many animators put their time and effort into developing the characters, rather than schlaping something down, hoping it'll sink or swim with the networks.

Of course, I'm not slamming some animators, like Dilworth, who did make a decent series with Courage. But there are some I do shake my head at because they did lose sight of what they originally intended.

Maxwell Atoms is definitely one proving this. When the pilot for Billy and Mandy debuted, it was great, because the concept was simple: a botched visit by the Grim Reaper ends up getting Grim stuck with these two kids. Now I realize, Atoms was kind of aiming for a Ren & Stimpy thing with Billy & Mandy, with Grim as kind of the 'straight guy' for the series.

But when it came out, man, Billy makes Stimpy look intelligent, and Mandy makes Ren appear like Shirley Temple. Yet, when the first season of the Grim Adventures (NOT Grim & Evil) came out, it was fairly decent. However, by the second season, the show started becoming rather schlocky with too many characters being introduced, and plots making little or no sense whatsoever.

Sorry, Max, just because it works for The Simpsons doesn't mean it'll function for your show.

Overall you're correct, Celeste, you're not putting down today's cartoon as a whole, but you make a valid point about how animation today isn't really appealing--not just to us old timers, but actually some of the now generation as well--because I know some younger RJ members who actually don't like a majority of the CN, Nicktoons, Toon Disney, and Kids WB shows being offered in place of show we remember like 'Animaniacs,' 'Freakazoid,' 'Pinky & the Brain,' and other classics we fondly remember.

The truth is, we're not slamming Today's Generation of Animation per se, but deep down we would like the offerings to be a bit better so those of this Gen can truly have something good to remember about than just severely limited animation, bad plots, and contrived storylines.

Great article!

Celeste, what you said about guilty pleasures is how I feel about Pok'emon, Spongebob and other stuff as well. In fact I'm really the only one at home that watches those things so I really have these cartoons to myself.

/rant
I still don't know what is with all the fanwank over the old TMNT series. It was CRAP! After the mini series, any hope I had for it to be like it's black and white source material (no it was not created by Archie!) went down the crapper. I heard it got better during the last season, but by then I had given up on it long ago. The new series, while no perfect, it way better than the old series, with better writing, introducing elements from the Mirage comics (I never thought I'd see animated Triceratons, ultroms and Fugitoid) and correctly naming guest characters (Usagi's family name is not "Yojimbo", it's Miyamoto.) The white slits for eyes was a nod the the original comic and it worked in this incarnation. The only one major sticking point I have (besides the whole "Shedder being an Ultrom" thing) is the getting Japanes names wrong. With Shredder's name, Oroku Saki, Oroku is the family name and Saki is the given name. I think he was refered to as Mister Saki once.
//end rant

And I never claimed to "like" Pokemon. I claimed Pokemon to be a guilty pleasure of mine meaning that I watch it in spite of it being looked at in a negative light by some people.
A lot of the shows that I watch are, what I consider to be, guilty pleasures because not everyone is willing to sit through what I want to watch.

and on the issue of "The Batman"...i too was one of those people who absolutely hated the character designs because i wanted everything to be by Bruce Timm when it came to DC cartoons....i was like that for 2-3 seasons...then I actually watched the show and realized how good it was. The writing is excellent and so are the voices (even though i prefer BTAS). Then the animation didn't bother me as much...I was juding a book by it's cover even when I have heard a thousand times not to. Sometimes i think people get so blinded by not wanting change that they aren't open to seeing new things.

I disagree with mainframe cg being better than what current saturday morning cg is. I think you might be mixing up the writing that was in Re-Boot and Beast Wars. They has some great stories and wonderful voice acting but the CG was like watching some college students entrance portfolio compared to Eon Kid on Kids WB. Don't get me wrong, I don't like Eon Kid, but i can see that the CG is clearly better. It's not personal preference, it's just facts.

I know quite a few people here who are over the age of 20 that like cartoons.
I'm 31 and I like cartoons. I just don't like cartoons that have poor ass voice characterizations and are poorly animated.
And like I said I have about 4 or 5 year's worth of bitching to do about cartoons that I just had to get off of my chest. Hence the title of this article "Why Should I Sit Through This?"?

Okay so we all have different tastes in animation. Not all animation is going to be good to all people. Most people like hand drawn animation, most people like computer age animation.
My thing is hand drawn animation over computer animation. It's just what I prefer. Computer animation is not bad when you have the right people overseeing it.
Mainframe, which produced Beast Wars/Beast Machines, Weird-Ohs, War Planets, and Reboot are great computer animators because the animators and CGI editors took the time to perfect their craft.
Not all computer animation is going to be good computer animation. That's a given. There are different people who are going to like different things. Think of how boring the world would be if we all liked the same things? The world would be a pretty bland place.

great article. omg, what the hell they did with batman and TMNT is a sacrilege! thats just...god awful

TMNT was not made by DiC, it was produced by Murakami Wolf Swenson and later Fred Wolf Films. I guess you can't relate to DiC because their toons WERE (and still are) made for kids, but a couple stood out such as COPS. But enough about that.

I have to admit that if you hate shows aimed at kids with ADD, then your certainly not gonna enjoy Beavis & Butthead or Rocko's Modern Life. This argument is pointless because each decade brings it's bad points, and we want to think that only good has come out of them. I can go on about this but I think you get the picture now.

But I certainly do get offended when I hear people bash shows I grew up with, and TMNT was one of the big shows I used to watch. Granted, I didn't think shows like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes will hold much recognition over the years, but I sense that your not enjoying TMNT as much as you did as a kid. Back then we could ignore some things and stick with the main story. As adults we like to see everything in good condition, and yet we are seeing flaws in the show. And that's the problem, the charm you got during childhood doesn't normally appear when you turn to an adult. I guess our tastes have changed and we can't relate to something we once loved or cherished. I loved being a kid and being able to watch entire kids block from 6 to 12 pm, and even if they were still around today, I won't get the same feeling because I am older and hold more experience. I guess that gives us the notion to move on and try something else.

Also another factor I'd like to add is how many adults do you hear discuss cartoons? Rarely, because they are into other things now and toons were a thing of the past. But it hurts when you think about the cartoons in Memory Lane, watch them for the first time in 15-20 years, and realize that what your watching was stupid and has flaws.

Saradomin, while I loved TMNT as a kid and still enjoy it today, in terms of animation quality, it was pretty bad at times, as were most other DIC cartoons. Its almost distracting trying to watch it now with the outright sloppiness in some of the episodes.

My argument above was aimed more at 70's-80's animation. I do agree that quality got better in the early 90's(see my post above giving Celeste hell for her stance on Batman: TAS vs Superfriends). WB did set the bar at the time and even previously generic animation studios like HB stepped up with shows like Swat Kats. But, you have to admit that not everything then was good. While the animation may have stepped up, the early 90's saw a lot of cartoons seemingly aimed at kids with ADD. Everything had to be "to the extreme" and "in your face". Shows like Earthworm Jim and Ren and Stimpy instantly come to mind.

Beleive it or not, this new company, although it may have ruined the voices, actually does a better job with Pokemon than 4Kids.

I agree very much with you on Pok'emon. I never hated the show but, like you, it was the new voices that ruined it for me and I haven't watched the new series that much from that point on.

I also loved Batman: The Animated Series and the rest of the DC shows except for The Batman. Good thing they're on Jetix now.

The only thing I don't quite agree on is Spongebob. Somehow I always found it amusing to sit through and it felt more random than just all-out fart jokes.

And I will say this: seeing those new looking versions of Scooby-Doo or George of the Jungle would just be a waste of my and everyone's time.

Cmon, TMNT? There were far worse shows than TMNT. It may of been cheesy but it wasn't exactly terrible, not by a long shot. If your wondering I certainly don't like any 60s/70s cartoons because they failed to appease a mass audience therefore that was the time when animation had scrapped the bottom of the barrel. I'm talking cartoons of the late 80s, early 90s, that era. And these weren't exactly 20-30 years ago, but the late 80s, early 90s is when I felt animation had hit it's peak. You can't deny classics like Aladdin, The Lion King, or even Batman: TAS. WB rejuvenated itself by giving out Tiny Toons, Batman (as I already mentioned), Animaniacs, and Freakazoid. We saw a lot of different styles and genres within the animation field. Even a person as old as you are have probably enjoyed at least one of these. Thus, it was the undoing of the animation world in the late 90s along with the anime craze that brought western animation to where it is today. Furthermore none of these toons needed toys or merchandise to please the audience.

Obviously if you majored in animation, whether it be hand-drawn (which is doubtful) or CGI, you'll know that cartoons of the late 60s, 70s, and early 80s were just as bad as today's shows, only worse. There is a reason why the late 80s, early 90s were the cartoon renaisscee. People got tired of shows that were just to sell toys and nothing else. It is often called the "Silver Age" of animation, only surpassed by the "Golden Age" of the 30s-50s.

I'm done.

For all of you guys that are still going on about how the quality of the animation itself has gone down hill: you seriously need to go back and watch some of the "classics" from the 70's through the 90's. Go watch a few episodes of the 80's Pacman cartoon, Saturday Supercade, TMNT(yes TMNT), almost anything made by Hanna Barbara or DIC and then come back here and preach about todays horrible animation. Most shows from that time, especially the ones that weren't plugging a toyline, were so inconsistent and cheaply done its laughable and even painful to watch at times. I personally don't like the look of the newer computer/flash animation, but to say that newer animation is lazier, messier or just flat out worse than 20-30 years ago is absurd.

Then again I'm 24 and I'm pretty certain other people my age are nostalgic.

All I will say is that a lot of things that pass for animation these days doesn't impress me. I don't care what people say about 80s/90s cartoons, if I grew up with some of them, I'll enjoy them. Avatar is one exception though, as it has great storytelling and good characters. But it is highly being pushed to the side by Spongebob, which is highly overrated and uses a lot of toilet humor. Americans think the only thing they are good at is making a cartoon based on humor. Why do you think the Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park are so popular? None of them showcase superb animation and neither do they give a continuity with some storytelling. Batman: TAS was and if not IS one of the best cartoons of the 90s, hands down. Ahead of it's time and still pretty good to watch today.

But there were quite a few good shows in the early 90s, and it's a shame that most of them aren't played on television anymore. I got DVD sets for some of these shows, but it's not the same as recording the episodes on your VCR and going thru the old commercials you saw on kids blocks. I used to cherish those moments, because this was before the Internet got big and certainly WELL before you could download entire shows off your computer. Now there gone and the only way I can go back is if I pop in these tapes in my VCR.

Times have changed so much since then. We live in an age of advanced technology and an age where anime and Reality TV pollute the airwaves. The 21st Century certainly doesn't have the same charm or feel as the 80s/90s did. I guess I'm saying this because I feel nostalgic right now.

I've just registered here at Retrojunk, _just_ to reply to this.

This article is nuts. The only logical explanation I can think of is one serious case of rose-tinted nostalgia, lost youth, and plain-old getting older and grumpier. The arguments that the old stuff is far superior sure don't hold any water, anyway.

I'm part of the original ninja turtles generation. Used to go mad for it. But it didn't take many seasons for me to notice that both animation and writing were seriously ropey. Whatever faults the writing of the new turtles show might have (and I think it has one or two), you can't deny that the animation is almost a quantum leap in comparison.
Also, I've never seen the original George of the Jungle. We didn't get it this side of the pond. I had to go looking on youtube, to form an opinion for this post. And my opinion? If that's your idea of _animation_ - let alone superior animation - I have to say that I think my initial impression, up at the top, was completely correct.

And lastly: _Super-friends_? Seriously?

No, actually, this is the last bit. I've fond memories of the '90's Batman show, and I feel I have to leap to it's defence. You throw the term 'fanwank' about so much that it loses any kind of meaning beyond some kind of emotional expletive. I'd guess it means some kind of adaptation or remake made to appeal to old (grown?) fans, lacking in much quality. It might apply to a number of shows, but if you use it to describe '90's Batman then you have little idea what you're talking about. It was one of the first action cartoons to involve, among other qualities, animation-friendly designs and as much straight story-telling as possible - i.e. without dumbing down, talking down, or preaching to kids - unlike almost every show before it. In fact, if we're talking about cheap cash-in 'fanwank', I'd say Super-friends and it's kind fit the bill much more readily.

Good article. Nice use of directed points without name calling.

I would ask you to be my Valentine but it's almost turkey time. Wrong holiday.

Personally, I'm tired of the "why cartoons suck now" articles. Yet, we have another one. Superfriends was awful, how can you say the Batman on that show is better than the Batman from the 90s? Kinda ridiculous if you ask me.

Cartoons from the 70s and 80s were (still are) god awful. I already explained it another article, so I won't explain it here. Nostaglia is the only reason why you think those cartoons are better than todays. There are plenties of great cartoons today if you would take off the rose colored glasses. If you ask me, the best TV cartoons came out in the 90s and today.

Enough of the cartoons suck now articles, buy your favorite cartoons on DVD and move on. If they are not on DVD, watch them online.

I will say that animaters have gotten lazy.

All I know is that the way the new ninja turtles are being drawn is from the old comic book style. personally even if its not hand drawn that doesn't make the animation bad; now the story lines suck but thats a different issue. You shouldn't confuse nestler with fact.

Actually there isn't a no competition clause... straight from Maddie Blaustien,..the oldr voice of meowth,..that there wasn't one,.. and that they didn't leave because of loyalty to 4-kids.

and 4-kids wanted to much money to continue dubbing...


and seriously Whats up with these.. should this kind of stuff belong in the forums.. what if everyone made one of these compared to the other articles?

I'm not going to knock people in this day and age for watching what they like. All I'll say is I think modern american animation has went down the tubes. You can tell that the shows are being done as cheap as possible. I'd take the old stuff any day. That old scooby do cartoon look drawn much better that that other one. I don't watch american animation much besides a select few shows. I mostly watch anime. The current Japanes kills the american animation. Maybe the thread writer should try some of that out.

I think Saturday Morning cartoons are trying to make a comeback, they may not be as good as the older days of the 80s and early 90s but theyre trying. I think alot of toons do lack substance and the humor factor has been flushed down the drain and replaced by stupidity and grotesque gestures.

and one more thing because i have entered geek mode as well

in your response...you say how Sponge Bob is one big fart joke, and you would rather watch Rocko. Rocko IS one big fart joke as well..even going as far as adding FART sounds in the actual cartoon, as well as a bunch of crude homor thrown in. So don't even think about putting Rocko on a pedestal. It even hurts me to defend Sponge Bob because I personally don't like it and Rocko is such a nostalgic cartoon for me that i really loved.

and also my only REAL gripe with your article...about the Batman. This is where you are showing your age and how you aren't even open to seeing new things. You say how the superfirends batman was the best because it was based off the artwork of the time...what is that? That's opinion, who's to say the comic art back then was good? Who's to say comic art today is bad or good? Go look at the animation in the the Superfriends, and compare it to the animation in Batman TAS and The Batman. It's way more consistant that the superfriends cartoon, plus they both aren't as Wacky and poorly written as the Superfriends were. These shows actually attempt to tell stories and continuity, and most of the time are taken directly from the comics. I like the Superfriends cartoons, I love them. You have to admit, however that animation and storytelling has come a long way from that cartoon.

Every decade has their share of good and bad cartoons
there are good cartoons now, there were good cartoons in the 90's, 80's, 70's ect..

kids change, we all grow up and become out of touch with what it's like to be a kid and while i do agree that I feel that the majority of the cartoons coming out right now are just trying to make the next pokemon, there are a few that shine. There is a lot of hostility towards you favorite TV show getting cancelled, but you have to realize that they can't go on forever and when they do come back, what's the point of making them exactally how they were...been there done that

Nostalgia aside, if you think the animation of the current TMNT is worse than the 80's TMNT...go back and actually watch the 80's show and see how terrible it was animated and voice acted. TMNT (80's) is my number 1 favortie cartoon of all time and even I can see how poorly it was made.

I also think it's funny how you compare rocko to sponge bob. They are almost the same show. And sponge bob is cleverly written and has that nickelodeon style to it..almost as if it was a mixture of Rocko and Ren and stimpy.

Stop bashing kids because they don't understand why YOU like 70's, 80's 90's cartoons. Maybe YOU just don't understand the current generations cartoons...so who are you to redicule them?

No I'm not a "current" generation kid, i'm 21 years old, 90's was my golden decade, but I have appreciation for a lot of the 70's and 80's cartoons, but c'mon....you have to admit the amount of horrible cartoons surely outweighs the ones that are "classics". I don't expect everyone to love Power Rangers, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes or Toxic Crusaders (trying to find some of the cheesey shows that I like)

I don't expect you to agree with what I feel is the best shows ever, you have to past with these shows and what it was like to grow up with them. Just like how i HATE Yugi-oh and all this other 4kids crap that I think is terrible. I will never understand why kids like it, and that's probably for the better. I don't want to be that 21 year old and watching Yugi-oh. You have to grow up sometime.

(BTW this post is no way agreeing with the "TV Sucks Artciles" article, i'm trying to play Devil's Advocate)

Oh I didn't know that.

The truth is Cecilia that when it comes to old vs new I'll take the old over the new anytime.
You bash me as if I don't know what I'm talking about but I do know a little bit about this sort of thing. Animation now isn't anything that's particularly stunning visually, the voices are horrible, and that makes me not want to get up on Saturday mornings.
When I bitch and moan about something it's for good reason.
Rocko's Modern Life for example is something that I watched as a teenager and I thought that it was funny.
The question that I put forward, Why Should I Sit Through This?, is a very vaild question. Why should I sit through Sponge Bob Square Pants? I don't have to sit through Sponge Bob if I don't want to but there are other people who do sit through this and let their young kids watch this garbage without even realizing just how vulgar it is. It is the most vulgar Nicktoon I have ever seen. Why would anyone with half a brian let their kids watch something as vulgar as Sponge Bob is?

I agree with scrymusic. Saturday Mornings did started dying off after the 1980s, blame the rise of popularity of Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.

I hate remakes of cartoons and TV shows. Why can't they be original and leave the old shows alone?

yes dude, i hate the new turtles cartoon too, but don't forget that that's how they looked in the comics. and some episodes from the new show are from the comics

well said.

Celeste,

I completely agree with your article. Being 28 and an 80's/early 90's kid I'm so sad that I don't have the great cartoons nowadays that I did growing up. If there were still great shows on Saturday mornings on all the networks that we had, I'd still be up every weekend watching them. By all means! I totally miss getting up early and from 6am to 1pm having great cartoons on every channel come Saturday. Ahh, the good ol' days. I completely hate Japanimation crap and how everything in influenced by it today. And I totally agree with your thoughts on voice talent and stories. Despite what I hear about kids being smarter these days, the cartoons on are so completely dumbed down. I also miss traditionally animated movies. Like the old Don Bluth and Disney films? Wow were they great! They had great shading, great traditional musical scores by the greats like Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner, and just attention to detail that even adults could appreciate. Now, don't get my wrong, I do like computer animation too. Point in fact I actually have a degree in it! But it's gotten a little watered down these days. The first computer animation was so great because it took years to produce it. A studio couldn't bother with bad story, voice talent, or animation because if the movie wasn't good they'd be out years of work and tons of money. Since technology has gotten so much faster, cgi films can turn out crap without it being such a loss. Anyway, it's too bad someone can't bring back all those great shows. I think that not only people like us, but kids today would all appreciate it. Kids today just don't know how much better things could be because they don't have any alternatives from the junk that's out there now. Great article. Makes me feel old complaining about this stuff too. I never thought that would happen! Ah, to go back in time somehow...

Rocko's Modern Life was really funny to me. Sponge Bob really wanted me to kill myself!

^^^Okay I didn't say that all of today's cartoons are one big fart joke. I said that SPONGE BOB is one big fart joke.
Have you ever heard enough of the content of Sponge Bob? Fart jokes, partial nudity, underwear jokes? That's not the most appropriate of things for a little kid to be watching. I watched several epiosdes of Sponge Bob before I decided that I didn't like it. What do you guys think I sit around in front of the TV all day long and point out the things that I don't like? No! I'm very selective about what I will tolerate watching.
We all pick and choose what cartoons we like. All I'm saying is that I'd rather watch Rocko than Sponge Bob but that's just my preference. I'm not saying "Okay everybody had better like what I like" because I know that's not going to happen. Just like I'm not going to like everything that you guys like.
I like what I grew up watching and that's it. That's the point that I was trying to get across. We all like what we like on TV no matter how other people react.

So really, what do you think is truly one of the best cartoons? If it ain't Transformers, Rocko's Modern Life, Pokemon, Scooby Doo, then what is it?

Face it, every cartoon has it's flaws, even the real good ones. Scooby Doo faced repetitive plots and predictable outcomes. Transformers was a show mainly to sell toys, and some of the humor is hard to watch for an adult. Rocko's Modern Life had medicore animation and many of the jokes were potty humor much like Ren & Stimpy. Pokemon was an anime that began as a show based off an extremely popular franchise, but then broke loose with pointless movies and overwrought characters.

Cartoons of the 2000s suffer from poor animation and a lack of substance. Cartoons of the 80s/90s had many cheesy plots and many were geared towards kids. Cartoons of the 60s/70s suffered from the Hanna Barbera effect, animation was horrible and plots were watered down.

So that only leaves: The Golden Age of Cartoons.

Althogh it feels like a "TV Sucks Now" article, I'd have to agree with Shaggy and Scooby Doo Get a Clue, that picture makes me want to puke.

Yet ANOTHER "omg this sucks" article! You keep saying how high quality the animation of the 80's is compared to today.... But the fact is they BOTH suck! No one wants to admit it but not a lot of money was spent on animating cartoons because it was a financial risk. If you wasted time making your show look extra pretty and it did poorly in the ratings and got cancelled, you wasted loads of money. Now, I like old school Transformers, but I'll be the first to admit that I liked the show because of the stories (giant robots beating eachother up! So there), not because I thought the animation was breathtaking.

Personally I don't care how Scooby Doo looks past, present, or future, because I never cared about Scooby Doo. The episodes were so BORING. And very blandly coloured. If you think about it, it was always easy to guess who the villian in the costume was...because there would only be two other people in the episode! It always was either one or the other.

I find it strange that you say how cartoons today are one big fart joke, and show a picture of Rocko, because Rocko had a LOT of toilet humor. Again, this is coming from a fan of the show, not a hater. Thats not to say Rocko was all potty jokes, but it had more then its fair share.

Pokemon is just, well, as much as we will gripe about the new people, truth be told....the old voices weren't all that great either. And James and Meowth both had voice changes early on anyways. People will simply complain because we aren't used to the new ones. I'm sure that before the Shinno league is over there won't be much (if any) griping about the voices.

last great hand drawn animated movie:

Goofy Movie

Now this is interesting...

You brought up sooo many good points. I love hand drawn animation and those days are gone. Saturday morning died at the end of the 80's.

I don't like the new either, but maybe because it doesn't appeal to me.

I am as old as you and I see your points, but time has changed and this stuff that we grew up with will become classics.

But we still had some great cartoons in the 80's..

By the way... how come nobody ever mentions Doug from Nickelodeon. That cartoon had substance and was decent.

Great Article !!! I enjoyed this one!!!

Couple other things I need to address while I'm in full on geek mode. Gobots were bought out by Hasbro and released as a completely new line aimed at little kids who are too young for actual transformers. Thats why they look different and thats why the cartoon's different. It is completely unrelated to the original series which wasn't that great in the first place.
Second, I can't believe that any sane person would think that Superfriends Batman is better in any way, shape or form than the 90's "The Animated Series" Batman. The 90's Batman is probably the single best superhero cartoon ever. Not only was the story telling brilliant, but a superhero had not been animated that beautifully since the Fleischer Superman series. And SF Batman did not represent the comics. SF Batman was dumbed down to please the FCC and the little kiddies at that time.

Well Celeste, I'm 30, so I probably grew up watching most of the same shows that you did. That said, I disagree completely. The thing about nostalgia is that while everyone remembers the good, no one remembers the bad and there was a ton of bad in the 80's. And those that do, where to young at the time to realize just how bad the bad was. This is as true with cartoons as with anything else. Everyone remembers shows like Transformers, GI Joe, Jem, He-Man, Real Ghostbusters etc etc and they should because for the most part, they were good cartoons. But for every Transformers or He-Man, there were a dozen shows like "Madballs" and "The Dukes". Hell, even half of those toons that people remember fondly are complete crap. Try watching Hulk Hogans Rockin' Wrestling, Saturday Supercade, Smurfs or even something like Voltron or Superfriends. They're hardly even watchable for the unbiased adult. And its down right painful trying sit down with my daughter and watch her Care Bears dvds. Whoever it was that said that the main problem is that cartoons today are still made for 7 year olds, not 30 year olds hit the nail on the head.

I will agree that voice acting today is noticeably bad compared to the 80's. It seems like the same group of completely generic voice actors are doing most of the shows out there. I'll also agree the computerized animation style is bland as hell. And I'm sorry, but your liking Pokemon really kills your credibility in this argument IMO, that shows represents the worst that new cartoons have to offer.

Scooby Doo has been an anime character since last year. I've had about 4 or 5 years of bad animation and bad voice acting to bitch over. This is but a small taste of my year 2007 gripes about the state of annimation today and why it's so bad.
I really do miss my childhood cartoons from weekdays and Saturday mornings but today's animation isn't getting any better.
Well, I've got no beefs against the Batman because I watch it whenever I get a chance to but it isn't the same as it used to be.
And before anyone asks "why is Rocko funnier than Sponge Bob?"? Let me just say that Rocko isn't nearly as offensive to me as Sponge Bob is. Sponge Bob is all a really big fart joke, which I hate, that I don't get and Rocko didn't get nearly that far.

I like this article. I remember watching most of those shows.

What the heck? When did Scooby-Doo turn into an anime character?

I agree with the animation/voice argument, but I believe that the original article was about the amount of articles that start out, continue, and end with "This sucks". No one can argue that the animation style and voice actors were better twenty years ago, but then they were better than the photocopied Hanna Barbara mess ten years before that. Remember Fat Albert, The Bionic Three Stooges, The Super Harlem Globetrotters? All I think that what he was saying was, enough "this stinks" and more "remember that" in the articles. The biggest problem with todays cartoons is that they are imports from Japan who have a different mythos background to them. The original Transformers played on the U.S./Japan common theme of the warrior society. Now it follows a more mythological background. That's hard to translate across societies. The same can be said for retrojunk. The original intent was the common theme of nostalgia, now it seems to run a more critical bent. Is that different? Yes. Is it better? I guess that's what we're discussing now.

Good analogy, Celeste.

Good article. I'm younger than you are (I'm 24) but even I strongly prefer what you like over today's animation. Do you think shows like Class of 3000 or Camp Lazlo could be in the same boat as TMNT and Batman: TAS? I think not.

Be careful because I'm sure this article will get some negative feedback.

That`s right!