Random Nostalgia
Certainly not everything was better "back then" and the progress that comes with time does improve many things. But y'know what? There's still a good number of 80's-era cartoons that I genuinely miss.
I remember the new fall season being a big deal. For at least a few years, network channels even did preview specials for their upcoming Saturday morning cartoon lineups. Sure, everything had a shameless tie-in to toy lines and plenty were not all that great, and yet some were better than they might be given credit for. And even some of the bad ones had really great intros.
Robotech probably takes the cake for me. Even at the time, I was awed by the epic. And when I came to understand how it was created piecemeal out of three different anime series, that actually didn't ruin it for me. Rather, it gave me an appreciation for Carl Macek's work on it. Perfect? No. But hammered into an overall story that's actually amazingly cohesive, and that's quite an achievement itself. I wish the market changes hadn't killed the momentum to make The Sentinels back in the day.
Voltron got similar treatment to a much lesser extent. "Everyone" seems familiar with and favoring the lion Voltron team, but I actually liked the vehicle one. I'm a little embarrassed to say so, as I can see flaws in running a series around 15+ "main" characters even without re-watching the episodes, but at the time I actually liked that there was some motivation behind the central ship and its mission.
Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs is another import series that I caught some of while away for summer break, I seem to recall - so I was exposed to it, but my friends at the time missed out. Vaguely western-themed space conflict probably shouldn't have been as interesting to me as it was, but what I did see gave me the impression of a much deeper plot than the usual monster-of-the-week stuff I'd seen in Voltron. Whether that was actually correct or not, I'm unsure of.
Another series I caught part of away from my friends was Spiral Zone. This one drew a little from Japanese creations for some of the vehicles, but the cartoon wasn't an import. It was, one might say, dark. There was a general feel that the heroes were fighting a losing battle and the whole Zone thing was creepy. With some 65 episodes (though I understand the later ones were heavily pieced together from earlier clips), there's a lot to it that I never saw. I sort of wish I had.
Disney even had some things that weren't total fluff. DuckTales wasn't deep, but it was entertaining. I think I preferred its 90's spin-off, Darkwing Duck. Adventures of the Gummi Bears and Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers were better than they had a right to be.
And sheesh... back then studios often wanted 65 episodes to do a series. Seasons were typically 26 (rerun once during the year). Now 13 seems "normal" for a season and studios often seem reluctant to even commit to that much. Times have changed.
I remember the new fall season being a big deal. For at least a few years, network channels even did preview specials for their upcoming Saturday morning cartoon lineups. Sure, everything had a shameless tie-in to toy lines and plenty were not all that great, and yet some were better than they might be given credit for. And even some of the bad ones had really great intros.
Robotech probably takes the cake for me. Even at the time, I was awed by the epic. And when I came to understand how it was created piecemeal out of three different anime series, that actually didn't ruin it for me. Rather, it gave me an appreciation for Carl Macek's work on it. Perfect? No. But hammered into an overall story that's actually amazingly cohesive, and that's quite an achievement itself. I wish the market changes hadn't killed the momentum to make The Sentinels back in the day.
Voltron got similar treatment to a much lesser extent. "Everyone" seems familiar with and favoring the lion Voltron team, but I actually liked the vehicle one. I'm a little embarrassed to say so, as I can see flaws in running a series around 15+ "main" characters even without re-watching the episodes, but at the time I actually liked that there was some motivation behind the central ship and its mission.
Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs is another import series that I caught some of while away for summer break, I seem to recall - so I was exposed to it, but my friends at the time missed out. Vaguely western-themed space conflict probably shouldn't have been as interesting to me as it was, but what I did see gave me the impression of a much deeper plot than the usual monster-of-the-week stuff I'd seen in Voltron. Whether that was actually correct or not, I'm unsure of.
Another series I caught part of away from my friends was Spiral Zone. This one drew a little from Japanese creations for some of the vehicles, but the cartoon wasn't an import. It was, one might say, dark. There was a general feel that the heroes were fighting a losing battle and the whole Zone thing was creepy. With some 65 episodes (though I understand the later ones were heavily pieced together from earlier clips), there's a lot to it that I never saw. I sort of wish I had.
Disney even had some things that weren't total fluff. DuckTales wasn't deep, but it was entertaining. I think I preferred its 90's spin-off, Darkwing Duck. Adventures of the Gummi Bears and Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers were better than they had a right to be.
And sheesh... back then studios often wanted 65 episodes to do a series. Seasons were typically 26 (rerun once during the year). Now 13 seems "normal" for a season and studios often seem reluctant to even commit to that much. Times have changed.
For me? Robotech was awesome. I saw bits and pieces of the Macross series, and one piece from Southern Cross, and nothing else, but it was enough that I collected - and ran - the RPG. Saber Rider was cool, and I saw more episodes of that than of Robotech. I had great fun with that series. I tried to convert the mech to Mekton Zeta. Darkwing Duck was cool, as was Gummi Bears. Let's see though, we're talking 80's? The D&D cartoon was there for me, I enjoyed Kissifur and Popples (What? Don't judge me...) Visionaries was a favourite, and I wish I'd seen Sectaurs on TV. There was one anime series involving a super sub, but I don't remember what it was called. Pirates of Dark Water was the 90s, and I taped every single episode. Never got the tape back though. The Real Ghostbusters was made of epic and win.
ReplyDeletewe'll be riiiiight back! o/~ Man, I was such a Calvin. Turn on the TV early in the morning, watch Saturday Morning Cartoons with a bowl of sugary cereal until noon, then run around outside. A run through http://www.80scartoons.net tells me a lot of shows I watched were late 80's and early 90's. I do think my favorite show was Gummi Bears, I was REAL BIG into D&D when it was out and hey, a cartoon show about fantasy creatures? Perfect. I never caught many episodes of the official D&D series, however, funny enough. I was also a Robotech/Voltron/Transformers kid. It would be about 7 years since they stopped showing Saturday Morning cartoons before I saw anything out of Japan again. (Sailor Moon and Ronin Warriors)
ReplyDeleteAh, Saturday mornings... See, I miss that cultural experience. ;) Though, really, a lot of the "big" were weekday for most of the run that I recall. I remember GIJoe and Transformers as after-school shows mostly. I don't recall for certain about Thundercats or He-Man. I recall G-Force (okay, "Battle of the Planets, but I never called it that) as a before-school show. 65 episodes works out a lot differently if shown five days a week (4 times a year, in fact). Things just seem so different now. Sure, some of that is a change in my own perspective, not living on a kid's schedule anymore and having different sensibilities of what's "good." But while there are cartoons on Saturday mornings, it seems like less of a thing. Cartoon Network does better, in general, than any regular network. And a multi-season epic tale like Avatar: TLA is an amazingly rare treat (and still only clocked in at about 61 episodes, I think). Aside from the shift in things here, it's long felt like American-produced cartoons tend to have a much heavier emphasis on teaching a lesson with every episode. Imported/converted anime series were awesome because they seemed more focused on telling a story than teaching a moral. ... Which actually spins back to my thoughts on the new Thundercats series. I know cartoon morals are not subtle things, but after the intro hour, the episodes have felt like they were rushing to get to a point where Lion-O can learn some new life lesson. Though I might argue a rush to fight against suicidal odds is, perhaps, not the best lesson to be learning anyway...
ReplyDeleteOkay, I liked D&D, but even back then I was starting to get tired of the formula where every episode the characters would learn of a new way home and manage to blow it in some way, usually by playing hero. And the Real Ghostbusters rocked, yes. Robotech utterly blew me away with the death of Roy. We certainly didn't get that with cartoons of American origin. Pirates of Dark Water I'll forever remember less for the cartoon itself and more because a friend GM'd a D&D campaign based on it. And when I say "based on it," I really mean "copying the entire plot and series of events entirely." That was a little bit... trying because while most of the players hadn't seen the series, I had, and that predictability (along with the story being centered on one character) was almost painful.
ReplyDelete"Modern" cartoons, such as those sponsored at Nickelodeon studios and Cartoon Network's own in-house at Turner Networks are certainly the process of "cheap and quick" to get shows out there. Ren and Stimpy really changed perspectives on "American" cartoons for kids. Like if Tex Avery vomited up zany character wild takes with the barest thread of a plot to hold anything together. Granted we've had barely any plot beyond cat hates mouse, dog hates cat, before, but the fluidity of the majority of the animations (made for the movie theater) elevate it into classical cinema as opposed to televised tripe. Whre was I? Oh right. For every slapidash Eek the Cat, Spongebob Squarepants and Two Stupid Dogs, we got SWATKats, Code Name: Kids Next Door, Samurai Jack and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. The good along with the bad. More now with the prevalence of Flash animation and computer generated images to crank out series more often we get a lot of flash in the pan shows, like just about anything on Adult Swim, signed for a season or two and then moved along. (A few notable exceptions to the poorly made and produced shows could include: ReBoot, Transformers: Beast Wars, and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) Then again, perhaps there's a guilty pleasure to be found in some of the stupider shows, finding underlying themes that aren't overtly stated, or maybe just not being so serious that one can laugh at idiotic humor now and then.
ReplyDelete