Cartoons are better now than they were in the 80s

[Martlet]

They all were vapid and soulless back then, they just had a random monster of the week and the characters were all bland stereotypes, I'm sure He-Man and She-Ra and the others were great back then but by now they have aged

In my opinion, the first "Modern" Cartoon was Batman the Animated Series, even though it was 90s, but since then we've gotten Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, Avatar The Last Airbender, Samurai Jack, The Owl House, Phineas and Ferb, Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated, Amphibia, Gravity Falls, Batman Beyond, Teen Titans, Star Wars The Clone Wars, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Futurama, Danny Phantom, Primal, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Animaniacs, Ed, Edd, and Eddy, Dexters' Lab, The Powerpuff Girls, Amphibia, Steven Universe, Adventure Time, Regular Show, Courage The Cowardly Dog, Young Justice, Over The Garden Wall, Infinity Train, Red vs. Blue, My Life As A Teenage Robot, Invader Zim, Spongebob, The Fairly Oddparents, Clone High, Clerks, Freakazoid, The Critic, King of the Hill, The Looney Tunes Show, Darla, The Venture Bros, and Ren and Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life


I just think that shows from the 90s on were way better than shows from the 60s to 80s.

[Martlet]

Fuki a écrit :

Awful cringe take.

Then what is good to you?

[The Maddog]

As a Gen X'r who grew up in the 80s...you're both half right and half wrong! However...it it's rather subjective (as most opinions are).



"Some" of the cartoons truly where soulless. It's no secret that a lot of the cartoons in the 80s where made just to push a Toy line OR spun off from a movie in some cases....and in most cases it was both.


A few choice examples of the toy line line up America pumped out would be:

He Man and She-ra, Transformers, M.A.S.K, The Real Ghostbuster's, Dungeons and Dragons, Bravestar, Droids, TMNT, ....etc etc etc...and that was just the shows aimed at Boys. Dont even get me started on the girls or "wider audience" shows....


There was no shortage of cheaply mass produced American shows in the 80s and yes, He-Man and She-Ra didn't age all that well, no dispute.


But all things considered, given how things worked back then, you have to give the writers some credit.

It's well documented that in many cases, the writers of said shows where given nothing more than a bunch of toys and told to "write a story that sells"....and sell they did! They took those toy lines and came up with comprehensible morality tales that most kids could digest.

And that is how TV shows where back then. Not that many had over arching stories.

But most of those cartoons...they where nothing but glorified toy adverts. I wouldnt call them "soulless" though. The writers cared about what they where creating with what they had. Optimums and Megatron for example are as relevant today to kids as they where back in the 80s....and that was because oif the quality of story telling.


They where fun at the time and as long as those toys sold, that was all that mattered.

The rise of cable and Satellite TV changed the rules though. You couldn't launch a "Cartoon Network" and then just run nothing but repeats of these shows. In some cases those toy fads had passed. You needed new shows that where better written and kept people coming back.

And I'll give them their dues..Cartoon network did that in the 90s. They created some new characters who stood the test of time and became mass marketable themselves. Spongebob for example. I wasn't watching....but my kids sure did.

[talemore]

Batman the animated serie was to me quite boring. Sure I could watch but it was nothing compared to x-men and spiderman, sailor moon and pokemon.

[talemore]

The old cartoons are The Busy World of Richard Scarry

And Ducktales

Later it became modern art with focus on "computer cartoons"

[Lime]

The Maddog a écrit :

And I'll give them their dues..Cartoon network did that in the 90s. They created some new characters who stood the test of time and became mass marketable themselves. Spongebob for example. I wasn't watching....but my kids sure did.

spongebob was on nickelodeon not cartoon network

[talemore]

Once upon a time... Life

[Daenoxiis]

The voice acting is definitely better.
There are pros and ♥♥♥♥ to deregulated writing.
The pros being that it gives the option for more flushed out plot detail and story intricacy...
The ♥♥♥♥ being that some dumbass somewhere can just be like: "Nah...Skibidi Toilet" instead.

[tom tomorrow]

Batman the animated series is almost 30 years old.

90s cartoons were better than 80s cartoons, obviously. 90s everything was better than most things. Practically everything you've named is ~20 years old.

Modern cartoons are garbage.

[Martlet]

mf tom a écrit :

Batman the animated series is almost 30 years old.

90s cartoons were better than 80s cartoons, obviously. 90s everything was better than most things. Practically everything you've named is ~20 years old.

Modern cartoons are garbage.

What cartoons do you consider garbage?

[tom tomorrow]

Marcy, Princess of Festivity a écrit :

mf tom a écrit :

Batman the animated series is almost 30 years old.

90s cartoons were better than 80s cartoons, obviously. 90s everything was better than most things. Practically everything you've named is ~20 years old.

Modern cartoons are garbage.

What cartoons do you consider garbage?

Name one that came out in the last five years. That one.

[Valfossa]

You do know that now is not the 90's or the 2000's (sadly).

The now is the 2020's, and almost all of it is bad.

[Jackie Daytona]

Marcy, Princess of Festivity a écrit :

Cartoons are better now than they were in the 80s

Things improve over time. Is this a surprise? To anyone?

Marcy, Princess of Festivity a écrit :

They all were vapid and soulless back then,

The 1980's were definitely a time of "lets make a show to sell toys". But they weren't that bad.

Marcy, Princess of Festivity a écrit :

they just had a random monster of the week and the characters were all bland stereotypes, I'm sure He-Man and She-Ra and the others were great back then but by now they have aged

The original He-Man and She-Ra certainly had their flaws. But are superior to the latest iterations.

Marcy, Princess of Festivity a écrit :

In my opinion, the first "Modern" Cartoon was Batman the Animated Series, even though it was 90s, but since then we've gotten Justice League and Justice League Unlimited,

That's probably a fair assessment.

Marcy, Princess of Festivity a écrit :

Avatar The Last Airbender, Samurai Jack, The Owl House, Phineas and Ferb, Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated, Amphibia, Gravity Falls, Batman Beyond, Teen Titans, Star Wars The Clone Wars,

I liked most of those. A great deal. And have re-watched several of them. (Couldn't quite get into Avatar. And never heard of Amphibia.)

Well, you made quite the jump to the 2000's. No Ducktales? Darkwing Duck? Rescue Rangers? MIB? X-Men? Spiderman? The Tick? Digimon? Pokemon? Jackie Chan Adventures? Invasion America? Dragonball Z? Gundam Wing? Rugrats? David the Gnome?

Your wall-o-text seems to have missed a few... (And I'm mostly skipping the Japanese stuff, myself.)

Marcy, Princess of Festivity a écrit :

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power,

That should go away. Forever.

Marcy, Princess of Festivity a écrit :

Futurama, Danny Phantom, Primal, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Animaniacs, Ed, Edd, and Eddy, Dexters' Lab, The Powerpuff Girls, Amphibia, Steven Universe, Adventure Time, Regular Show, Courage The Cowardly Dog, Young Justice,

That stuff is good. Definitely worth anyone that has the time.

Marcy, Princess of Festivity a écrit :

Over The Garden Wall, Infinity Train, Red vs. Blue, My Life As A Teenage Robot,

Didn't much like those. You're talking about overrated and vapid? That's how I view those.

Marcy, Princess of Festivity a écrit :

Invader Zim, Spongebob, The Fairly Oddparents, Clone High, Clerks,

I took a pass on those. Not horrible, but not for me.

Marcy, Princess of Festivity a écrit :

Freakazoid, The Critic, King of the Hill, The Looney Tunes Show, Darla, The Venture Bros, and Ren and Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life

Those are some of the greatest. I was told Freakazoid is getting a reboot. (Not sure. You can't trust anything these days.)

Marcy, Princess of Festivity a écrit :

I just think that shows from the 90s on were way better than shows from the 60s to 80s.

Generally speaking? Sure.

However, you're missing out on a ton of stuff that's pretty good. Tom & Jerry, Looney Tunes, and The Real Ghostbusters. That's just off the top of my head. Hanna-Barrera produced near-countless cartoons. Some of which are quite entertaining. Even if they are outdated.

[HypersleepyNaputunia]

Recess is moist

[Hammer Of Evil]

lol

idk, i think your complaints about the 60s to 80s childrens content can be applied to any decade. you have good writers, and bad writers, good artists and bad artists.

for the intended audience of that time period, i think they were fairly popular.

[talemore]

Anime recent years
https://youtu.be/p7LDk4D3Q3U?si=_qyJ1mRSVIfBVxEE