Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

[Falconeer]

[Arinon]

Powerpuff Girls was merely training for Samurai Jack.

[Merusk]

Flapjack makes infinitely more sense than Fanboy and Chumchum or Adventure Time

Adventure Time is AMAZING, or at least the first 10 minute one-off they did was.

I missed that one.  I'll admit I may have been prejudiced because the one episode I caught when the daughter had it on made not a lick of sense to me. Coming in at the middle of an episode halfway through the season may be why it didn't seem anything more than mediocre.  I had to give Flapjack a few episodes to finally get its groove.

A good cartoon, to me, is one you can go back and watch 15 years later and not cringe at it.  I can't do that with Robotech, Thundercats, Voltron or G.I. Joe. Believe me, I tried when wanting to show the kids some of what I used to enjoy.  I bought the Robotech series remembering how awesome it was and, well, no.  It wasn't.   Batman:TAS, Ren & Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life on the other hand?  They still hold up as well as the Loony Toons do for me. 

[IainC]

British kids TV of the '70s was the best. The creators were basically locked in rooms as much clay and LSD as they could eat and not allowed out until they'd put together something that would doom a generation to expensive therapy.

As an example I give you The Magic Roundabout.

[01101010]

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. Now there was a great show - they actually gave the moral to the story right there in case you were too stupid to figure it out.

[Fordel]

A good cartoon, to me, is one you can go back and watch 15 years later and not cringe at it.  I can't do that with Robotech, Thundercats, Voltron or G.I. Joe. Believe me, I tried when wanting to show the kids some of what I used to enjoy.  I bought the Robotech series remembering how awesome it was and, well, no.  It wasn't.   Batman:TAS, Ren & Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life on the other hand?  They still hold up as well as the Loony Toons do for me. 

Yea, I know what you mean. I got the Macross Saga as a Christmas gift awhile back, watched it all again and while I do still love me those giant robots that turn into planes and stuff, Jesus Christ was it stupid. 


Conversely I ended up staying up later then I should have, watching JLU episodes last night. 

[WindupAtheist]

Teen Titans felt like it was trying too hard

I liked Titans because it seemed less concerned with "DC animated continuity" than with having a good time. It could do serious episodes when it chose to, but it could also fuck off with stories about an evil Englishman trying to turn America back into a colony with a hypno-beam that turns people British, and silly shit like that. All the "guy's head turns huge when he screams" anime quirks eventually grew on me too, because they were careful to only use them in humorous scenes.

Then in the last season it did some of the things that have kept me away from other DC shows. Namely expanding the cast to a ludicrous extent with legions of obscure superheroes, and dedicating entire episodes to characters that only comic fanboys know anything about and (more importantly) the show has never really featured before.

On the other hand it was much more kid-oriented and couldn't get away with some of the things the other shows could. That bit where Flash and Luthor switched bodies and Flash banged Luthor's woman was priceless.

[Musashi]

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. Now there was a great show - they actually gave the moral to the story right there in case you were too stupid to figure it out.

We had a kids entertainment center in Santa Clara based around Bullwinkle.  Kind of like Chuck E. Cheese, only instead of a stupid rat, it was Bullwinkle and friends.  It was the best thing in history.  Literally the best thing.  All the people who worked there were dressed up like Mounties.  The pizza was slightly better than the rat's iirc.  But as a kid who cares.  Five dollars in quarters, and the Tron machine.  Maybe a little Donkey Kong.  They just got the sit down version of Star Wars.  And some Bullwinkle cartoons with pizza.

But I don't know if we can say there were the best cartoons in some modern era, because they really came out in the 60's.  But I think they're better than a lot of shit people are talking about in here.

[Fordel]

On the other hand it was much more kid-oriented and couldn't get away with some of the things the other shows could. That bit where Flash and Luthor switched bodies and Flash banged Luthor's woman was priceless.

Of course, that's the same woman who was banging the ape too. 

[apocrypha]

British kids TV of the '70s was the best. The creators were basically locked in rooms as much clay and LSD as they could eat and not allowed out until they'd put together something that would doom a generation to expensive therapy.

As an example I give you The Magic Roundabout.

I thought The Magic Roundabout was originally French and the BBC just made new scripts for it? Either way, awesome stuff indeed.

When I was a very young kid Looney Tunes was where it was at, animation wise, but even then it was clear there was a huge gulf in quality that existed (although I didn't think of it like that, I just knew that some of it sucked). Unfortunately the poor animation quality that came out of the Hannah Barbera studios seems to have dominated children's cartoons ever since.

Compare Scooby Doo, for instance, with anything by Tex Avery and look at the difference. It's a trend that gave us all the 80's dross like He-Man and Thundercats and has ended up with the style of South Park (which is funny, sure, but not good animation).

The saving grace is that there are fantastic animated films being made now, it's just a shame that the same quality has been absent from kids TV shows for so long.

[Falconeer]

British kids TV of the '70s was the best. The creators were basically locked in rooms as much clay and LSD as they could eat and not allowed out until they'd put together something that would doom a generation to expensive therapy.

As an example I give you The Magic Roundabout.

The Magic Roundabout was SO GOOD that they voice dubbed it and imported it in Italy. Late 70s or early 80s. And my parents are surprised I am weird.

[Falconeer]

Another thing that haunted my childhood

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbenIzSZGrI

[tgr]

And it's shows like that that makes me wonder why our generation didn't turn out more fucked in the head than they are.

I literally sat with a face the minute I could endure of that link. Awful.

[UnSub]

British kids TV of the '70s was the best. The creators were basically locked in rooms as much clay and LSD as they could eat and not allowed out until they'd put together something that would doom a generation to expensive therapy.

As an example I give you The Magic Roundabout.

I thought The Magic Roundabout was originally French and the BBC just made new scripts for it? Either way, awesome stuff indeed.

Correct. We'll go to the wiki:

The British (BBC) version was especially distinct from the French version in that the narration was entirely new, created by Eric Thompson from just the visuals, and not based on the script by Serge Danot. A former BBC employee, interviewed on BBC Radio in 2008, maintained that the original contract with the French owners did not include the scripts which accompanied the original animations (contrary to BBC assumptions). The BBC, instead of making a further payment to acquire the scripts, which would have required translation, decided to commission its own version - without access to the original French, and the English version therefore bears no resemblance to it.

There is a modern CGI take on "The Magic Roundabout" that is absolutely awful. AWFUL.

[Righ]

British kids TV of the '70s was the best. The creators were basically locked in rooms as much clay and LSD as they could eat and not allowed out until they'd put together something that would doom a generation to expensive therapy.

As an example I give you The Magic Roundabout.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfsMZKwqw3w

[Soulflame]

No love for Phineas and Ferb?  Or Chowder?

I'm not sure what on earth a Spongebob MMO would entail.  Unless it's some ARG where kids can roam around Bikini Bottom doing vaguely silly things in an online setting.  With a fish avatar.

[Teleku]

A good cartoon, to me, is one you can go back and watch 15 years later and not cringe at it.  I can't do that with Robotech, Thundercats, Voltron or G.I. Joe. Believe me, I tried when wanting to show the kids some of what I used to enjoy.  I bought the Robotech series remembering how awesome it was and, well, no.  It wasn't.   Batman:TAS, Ren & Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life on the other hand?  They still hold up as well as the Loony Toons do for me. 

Yea, I know what you mean. I got the Macross Saga as a Christmas gift awhile back, watched it all again and while I do still love me those giant robots that turn into planes and stuff, Jesus Christ was it stupid. 


Conversely I ended up staying up later then I should have, watching JLU episodes last night. 

I never watched it as Robotech, but I watched Macross after I was all grown up and I still thought it was good.  I mean, its obviously a bit dated and corny at points, but I still enjoyed watching it.

[WindupAtheist]

I watched some Voltron last year and it was jaw-droppingly awful.

[UnSub]

I watched some Voltron last year and it was jaw-droppingly awful.

Lions or robots?

I always liked the robots more.

[Teleku]

On a bored drunken night alone in my dorm room in Japan, I bit torrent-ed the entire Captain Power series in a bout of drunken nostaliga.  That's some good stuff.   

[Kageru]

I have fond memories of the early ghost buster cartoons but don't want to go and risk proving my taste at the time was bad. Robotech was also head and shoulders above most of the material even in the bastardised version.

When can we have a Tex Avery MMO then Though come to think of it a lot of his visual gags would probably make decent mini-games.

[Lantyssa]

On a bored drunken night alone in my dorm room in Japan, I bit torrent-ed the entire Captain Power series in a bout of drunken nostaliga.  That's some good stuff.   

It was crap even when I was young.  Exactly how much did you drink?  How are you still alive?

[Dren]

I am subjected to a lot of the new cartoons due to my kids.  My wife absolutely hates all of them, past and present.  I'm still a kid at heart and can't stop myself from watching and sometimes actually enjoying.  Out of all the humorous style cartoons, Spongebob is the only one that will get an actual full LOL from me from time to time.  I think it is those moments where they come really close to the style and over-the-top stupidity of Ren and Stimpy.

For the more drama oriented cartoons, all the super hero types are cool.  My sons and I really enjoy watching those together.  They are much better now than they ever were before.  Although, we did have fun watching a DVD with the entire series of the original Justice League once.  We were stuck with nothing better to do on vacation.  There would have been no other reason to do that.  The art, graphics, voice acting, etc. was all terrible compared to today's standards.

[Merusk]

A good cartoon, to me, is one you can go back and watch 15 years later and not cringe at it.  I can't do that with Robotech, Thundercats, Voltron or G.I. Joe. Believe me, I tried when wanting to show the kids some of what I used to enjoy.  I bought the Robotech series remembering how awesome it was and, well, no.  It wasn't.   Batman:TAS, Ren & Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life on the other hand?  They still hold up as well as the Loony Toons do for me. 

Yea, I know what you mean. I got the Macross Saga as a Christmas gift awhile back, watched it all again and while I do still love me those giant robots that turn into planes and stuff, Jesus Christ was it stupid. 


Conversely I ended up staying up later then I should have, watching JLU episodes last night. 

I never watched it as Robotech, but I watched Macross after I was all grown up and I still thought it was good.  I mean, its obviously a bit dated and corny at points, but I still enjoyed watching it.

My understanding is the overall story arc is the same, but the characters and lots of little things were changed to bring it to American "standards."     Rick Hunter is very much a naive 17 year old kid and Minmei is.. well godawful.  You never even begin to want them to 'work it out' because of how vapid and shallow a character she is.  Perhaps that's the same in Macross, but in Robotech it drove me nuts even at age 11.   Here's something I found listing 10 changes that happen in only the first 10min of Robotech vs how they were in Macross. http://www.animationunlimited.com/item/59

[Lantyssa]

I hated Minmei.  Worst thing about Robotech.

[Abagadro]

I am subjected to a lot of the new cartoons due to my kids.  My wife absolutely hates all of them, past and present.  I'm still a kid at heart and can't stop myself from watching and sometimes actually enjoying.  Out of all the humorous style cartoons, Spongebob is the only one that will get an actual full LOL from me from time to time.  I think it is those moments where they come really close to the style and over-the-top stupidity of Ren and Stimpy.

I'm with you. I like the movie too. Between the Hasselhoff-boat and the "Rock!" part of the parody of TS's "I Wanna Rock" (in which they jump cut to just a picture of a rock) that thing cracks me up.

[LK]

I WONDER WHAT RAPH WOULD HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS.

Don't mind me, just testing a theory.

[sinij]

I no longer mind BP as much...