Are we in a new golden age for cartoons?

[wildojinx]

Think about it, not counting prime time or adult cartoons we have adventure time, gumball, looney tunes show, phineas and ferb, regular show, gi joe renegades, transformers prime, dan vs, my little pony: friendship is magic, avengers: united they stand, young justice, generator rex, heck, i'll even throw in fish hooks and ben 10 (not a big fan of the latter, but i can see why its popular). All entertaining and well written shows IMO.

[Orange]

Very well could be, it'll depend on how nostalgic people feel for these shows in 10-15 years. But this is the best cartoons have been in a LONG time, IMO, fantastic shows on all major networks, can't complain

[forgottensinpwf]

I'd say we are. Or at least to the point where the writing is getting good again.

[Mr. Emoticon Man, TF Fan]

Avengers: United They Stand was the old Avengers cartoon; I think you meant to refer to Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

[britishbulldog]

Some good cartoons to be sure. However, poor kids don't know the joy of getting up at 5:30 in the morning on Saturday to watch cartoons on all the network channels until 11.

[riseofsetian1981]

Honestly? No. For me I grew up on Superted, GI Joe, Ghostbusters, He-Man, Centurions, Thundercats, Chuck Norris and the Karate Commandos, Toxic Avenger, Swamp Thing, Captain Planet, Tiny Toons, Transformers, Mr. T's cartoon, and the list goes on.

To me those were and are the golden years of cartoons. I find it sad that kids today don't know real cartoons.

[riseofsetian1981]

Only ones that came remotely close was when Cartoon Network had Toonami with Dragonball Z and Gundam Wing.

[Red Impact]

We've had a ton of good animated shows as of late. Starting with Avatar: The Last Airbender, we've finally started filling in the the whole that was left when JLU went off the air.

Some of the stuff today are a lot better than some of the shows I grew up with ever were.

Jun 13, 2011 23:25:32 GMT -5 riseofsetian1981 said:

Only ones that came remotely close was when Cartoon Network had Toonami with Dragonball Z and Gundam Wing.

I hated both of those shows, with a passion. Biggest pieces of crap ever to get popular to me.

Looking back, I realize just how cheaply done a lot of cartoons I loved as a kid were. There were definitely high points (Gargoyles, Freakazoid, Animaniacs and all it's variants, to name a few), but there was so much crap as well that's too easy to ignore for nostalgia.

[zeez]

Jun 13, 2011 23:24:56 GMT -5 riseofsetian1981 said:

Honestly? No. For me I grew up on Superted, GI Joe, Ghostbusters, He-Man, Centurions, Thundercats, Chuck Norris and the Karate Commandos, Toxic Avenger, Swamp Thing, Captain Planet, Tiny Toons, Transformers, Mr. T's cartoon, and the list goes on.

To me those were and are the golden years of cartoons. I find it sad that kids today don't know real cartoons.

I agree. There's some good cartoons today but they don't compare to the animated goodness we had in the late 80's/early '90s.

[wcw]

Its all subjective. I must say though adult swim is awesome (I know not part of the conversation) but Venture Bros, Superjail, Robot Chicken, Boondocks (Coming back for another season), and I know not on Cartoon Network but Archer and American Dad kickass. If only Frisky Dingo could come back.

[N E O G E O B O Y S]

never get the mentality of ''those kids don't aprreciate real cartoons''

In all honestly tons of time we saw them with nostalgia glasses, at least IMO today kids had good cartoons as we had them back in the day, maybe in less amounts, but they still had them, at least personal taste, but I can't stand northamerican cartoons from the 80's, but at the same time, japanese cartoons from the 80's are awesome, today I think that North American Cartoons from now are better than the japanese ones

[Orange]

Jun 13, 2011 23:59:24 GMT -5 N E O G E O B O Y S said:

never get the mentality of ''those kids don't aprreciate real cartoons''

In all honestly tons of time we saw them with nostalgia glasses, at least IMO today kids had good cartoons as we had them back in the day, maybe in less amounts, but they still had them, at least personal taste, but I can't stand northamerican cartoons from the 80's, but at the same time, japanese cartoons from the 80's are awesome, today I think that North American Cartoons from now are better than the japanese ones

Couldn't agree more. In the 90's I grew up with good music, good cartoons, etc. etc. The best ever? Absolutely not, and I don't know why but I'd take a lot of current cartoons over some of the stuff I grew up with. Kids today have it better than we did, they got entire f***ing channels that air cartoons 24/7 with great cartoons to boot, they got it great

[HMARK Center]

I try not to include "adult" toons in the conversation, but even just focusing on stuff for kids, we might be getting back there.

The early-to-mid 90's certainly were the golden age when cartoons were more creator/director driven and less about selling toys, spearheaded by 'toons like Ren and Stimpy, Rocko, Batman, the Spielberg ones (Tiny Toons/Animaniacs/Pinky and the Brain/Freakazoid), ReBoot, and of course I'll never fail to mention Mighty Max and Sonic the Hedgehog...two shows that were originally designed to sell products (toys and video games, respectively) that, thanks to the newfound freedoms granted to writers/directors of cartoons, became much greater than anyone could've predicted.

This era did carry over into some of the originals on Cartoon Network, but it did feel like a lull hit. Was it that us early 90's kids were aging, and thus many of us didn't notice some of the newer stuff? Entirely possible, but it seems that it's agreed on in some circles that the late 90's were a bit of, again, a lull period.

I think what's happening now is that we're getting back to kids not being treated like idiots, and writers being given that precious freedom to create stuff that's really watchable for all ages, while not losing it's core demographic.

Obviously, I'm partial to Avatar, and hope to see that tradition carried on with Avatar: Legend of Korra, but I think we're seeing more traditional animated shows appealing to adults than we've seen in quite awhile. Is it because the late 80s/early 90s generation is now growing up, and more accepting of cartoons? Or is the quality that much better? Or is it both?

[Citizen Zero]

I don't know where the heck all this '80's Cartoons Were Awesome' nonsense comes from. Speaking as someone who grew up during that era looking back most of them were glorified thirty-minute toy commercials. And bad ones at that.

Gimme Gargoyles or Batman or Tiny Toons over Thundercats or Transformers.

[Goldenbane]

I'm honestly not really sure.

I loved cartoons back in them there 80's, and I guess, on a personal level for me, that will always be the golden age of cartoons.

However, there have been some extremely amazing cartoons on in recent years, with JLU and Avengers: EMH being my two absolute favorites. "Reboot" shows like Masters of the Universe (200x) I feel had lots of potential, but just kinda got lost in the shuffle and stuff.

Of course every generation of cartoons has it's fair share of crap, but I won't get into that here.

[jrcz]

For me, there is only one watchable cartoon.

Then again, I haven't grow up with cartoons, so I don't have the love for them.

[Baixo Astral]

Jun 13, 2011 23:24:56 GMT -5 riseofsetian1981 said:

Honestly? No. For me I grew up on Superted, GI Joe, Ghostbusters, He-Man, Centurions, Thundercats, Chuck Norris and the Karate Commandos, Toxic Avenger, Swamp Thing, Captain Planet, Tiny Toons, Transformers, Mr. T's cartoon, and the list goes on.

To me those were and are the golden years of cartoons. I find it sad that kids today don't know real cartoons.

Ye be drunk on nostalgia, boy. Barely any of those comics even bear watching at our age.

[celticjobber]

Nah, if only for the fact that kids aren't as into cartoons (or tv in general) these days like they used to be.

And maybe I'm out of the loop, but I haven't heard of probably 70% of the shows listed in the OP. But I have a crappy cable company, so if it's on the Hub or something I wouldn't know about it.

Most would rather be on the internet or watching live-action shows like iCarly. With my nieces, the only cartoon they'll watch is Spongebob. Otherwise its "this is boring" or "this is for boys". And they have no clue who iconic characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Fred Flintstone are.

[The Ichi]

I always thought the 90s were more the golden age of cartoons than the 80s.

[hassanchop]

There's also the new Voltron in Nick Toons if that counts.