It's an interesting concept, and it keeps me from having to scour the internet for interesting things. But it has this weird side effect. Every once in awhile, a "meta" is developed, a certain topic that simply gets upvoted just because everyone else is upvoting it. The most recent example being the Reddit safe. Some Redditor found a safe behind a wall of his new home, and everyone on Reddit kept wondering about it. Memes about what's in the safe, conspiracies about how this is all a hoax to get more upvotes, and the likes just exploded on Reddit. So anything dealing with the safe became part of the meta that was upvoted.
These meta come and go, the safe lasted weeks, others like chili soap (Reddit can be weird >.<) lasted several days. But there are a few metas that persist and just come in and out of existence. The one I want to talk about today is the concept of 90's cartoons.
Rocko's Modern Life, Gargoyles, Doug, Hey Arnold, Beavis and Butthead, etc etc. Constantly the idea that 90's cartoons are better than the cartoons now keeps floating in everyone's head. And really, this idea doesn't limit itself to cartoons. How many times do you hear people trashing Lady Gaga or Kanye and compare them to past artists?
It drives me absolutely insane when I hear anything like that. Because there is one drastic difference between the cartoons we have now and the cartoons we had back then. Back then, you were a kid, susceptible to anything you heard or saw. Everything was magical, and especially those born in the 90's, we didn't have the cognitive abilities to distinguish what was "good" and what was "bad". We were kids, and to some extent, yea, we didn't like stuff, but the philosophy "if it's made for kids, we'll like it" applies. We're not kids anymore, so our acceptance of cartoons is going to go down, and we're more likely to trash any cartoons that didn't exist when we were kids.
When we begin to become more accepting, we can realize "hey, modern cartoons aren't that bad". Yea, there will be dreadful modern cartoons, but there were dreadful modern cartoons back in the 90's too. Every generation had some examples of dreadful cartoon, music, movies, and other forms of pop culture. But those awful productions aren't really the defining marks of our generation. We're defined by the whole spectrum, and we need to look at current cartoons as a whole, the good and the bad.
In my current life span, I see three generations of cartoons: 90's, early 2000's, and late 2000's. Personally, I didn't care for the early 2000's. But every time I see someone say "90's cartoons are better than cartoons these days", I just get so angry because I believe 90% haven't even given new cartoons a chance. Late 2000's marked a new development in the way cartoons were set up, a development that created a new point of appreciation for modern cartoons, and I just wanted to shed some light onto why we need to give new cartoons a chance.
Story Line
When you think about it, animation should be the ultimate form of story telling. The mix of visual and musical elements in an environment that can throw away the restrictions of reality? What more could you ask for? But for the longest time, American animation blatantly disregarded this benefit of animation. This is why weeaboos like anime so much :P, sure, some like the art style but a lot of it is because of the super gosu good storyline that American plebians would never understand! (If you can't tell, I'm making a bit of satire). Yes, movies have to have a storyline, so I'm not talking about our Disney princesses, Mulan, Snow White, etc. But think of a 90's typical cartoon. You have this 20 minute block of time to develop something and once you're done with that, you throw away everything that has happened in that time. Tom and Jerry, Mickey Mouse, Captain America, Doug, and Pepper Ann. These are only a few of the many cartoons that had episodes whose story lines would only last that 20 minute block. Occasionally, episodes would reference characters from previous episodes. This would usually happen in "hero" cartoons, such as the Powerpuff Girls and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But this is a throw back to the comic book era of storytelling. Shows like X-Men and Batman have already created a lore, a backstory, in the comic book world that we can reference. But for the most parts, the only continuation in 90's cartoons is the continual use of the same characters in the same world, and nothing more.
This is where modern cartoons are beginning to shine. Yes, we still have cartoons that are episodic in nature. Regular Show is the most popular one that comes to mind, each episode is just another crazy adventure. But other cartoons are beginning to experiment with story line development. The biggest one starting the storyline craze was Avatar: The Last Airbender. Others begin to follow, including My Little Pony.
Fluttershy: WE WERE MENTIONED IN DANIEL'S BLOG??
My Little Pony, I say? Yes! Although less so than Avatar (and really, it's tough to beat Avatar in terms of story telling), My Little Pony follows the story of Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia, who is sent to Ponyville to discover the power of friendship. Although it sounds incredibly cheesy, there are major plot developments, one of the most recent (and spoiler-filled :P) development being the transformation of a specific pony to an alicorn, a winged pony.
Is this actually a storyline? It's debatable, a lot of the episodes are episodic, 20 minute independent blocks in nature. But the bigger point is that there are developments in certain episodes that change the flow of future episodes. Certain episodes must be seen in a certain order in order for it to make sense. And this is a big change from nonsensical and unplanned nature of shows like Tom and Jerry and Mickey Mouse.
Relationship Development
When I mean "relationship", I don't necessarily mean love relations. Though it is one of those things that has drastically changed. There were usually those pairing of characters you always wanted to see together, just because of how obvious the crush was: Doug and Patty, Arnold and Helga. Hey Arnold was a weird one because the show ran until 2004. The Hey Arnold movie, released in 2002, actually had a scene where Helga confessed her love for Arnold and then kissed him. But the cartoon continues on from 2002-2004 as if nothing had happened. This is sort of explained at the end of the movie where she denies to Arnold that she ever had feelings for him, but really? You can't just keeping moving on the same as a kid when someone says they have a crush on you and then kisses you!
Newer cartoons are slowly getting rid of this phobia of "shipping" people together. They even create drama from it. Look at Avatar, where it's clear that Aang has a crush on Katara. Sokka even gets multiple girlfriends during the series. We won't even talk about how Nickelodeon completely blew up The Legend of Korra with relationship drama, that's just too obvious. But other modern cartoons had relationship development as well. Adventure Time, although seemingly episodical, actually has an underlying story line that is developing, especially beginning in season 3.
ADVENTURE TIME SPOILERS
If you are watching Adventure Time, you already appreciate modern cartoons, do not continue to read this. If you aren't watching Adventure Time, maybe this will convince you to give it a chance!
Finn, originally having a strong crush on Princess Bubblegum, is now in a relationship with the Flame Princess. Jake the dog has a serious relationship with Rainicorn and they eventually have babies!
I'm not saying that love relationships make a cartoon better. Love is icky! But I believe that by being aware of network of relationships that each character has, one can string an incredibly interesting world that isn't immediately presented every episode but still has an impact in the way the audience perceives every action. As a cartoon creator, it's something worth developing if you highly value your cartoon. So people who attempt to establish this in an interesting manner deserve a shot to be watched.
P.S. The creators of Adventure Time even implied a lesbian relationship between Marceline and Princess Bubblegum! (Though they quickly retracted any implications because of issues :P)
This brings us to our last point....
Audience Awareness
Cartoon creators these days are finding a new audience besides kids. There is a good portion of adults, aged 20-30, who are becoming avid cartoon watchers. It makes sense, this is the portion of kids who had 90's cartoons and are going to college with the mindset "Now I'm free, I can do what I wanted to do as a kid but couldn't because of parents!"
We always hear about those crazy Disney conspiracies, how the priest in The Little Mermaid had an erection, how the stars in The Lion King spelled out "sex". Yea, that's cute. But what if every episode of a cartoon had that?
My Little Pony, Adventure Time, Regular Show, these are just some cartoons that are "designed" for kids but have humor that appeal to older crowds as well. The inside jokes, the implications, it all creates something that is both "appropriate" and "inappropriate" and it's really great!
I mean, Regular Show was based off a short called "2 in the AM" where two guys working at a gas station try acid. How this got sponsored by Cartoon Network is a little crazy.
There you have it. Some of the big reasons why I think we need to give new cartoons a chance. I'm not saying that these cartoons are inherently better. They're simply something different, something new designed for a different audience, made with a changing world in mind. So the next time someone screams "MAN, STUFF FROM THE XX'S WERE SO MUCH BETTER", take a second and think before you immediately join the angry mob, the hive mind, and use that time to form your own opinion =)
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