Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Cartoon Crazies!

Who is your favorite cartoon character? My son changes his mind frequently. As for my daughter...it's Dora all the way.


I think back on all of the cartoon characters I have known and loved and some bring back some great memories. Do you remember these great shows?
Thundercats {Ho!}
The Smurfs
Rainbow Brite
Care Bears {sharing is caring}
GI Joe {because knowing is half the battle}
Jem {she's truly outrageous}
Transformers
Alvin and the Chipmunks {Before they hit the big screen}
Fraggle Rock
He-Man
Inspector Gadget {go, go gadget arms!}
The Jetsons
The Littles
Tailspin
Animaniacs {gnorf!}
Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers
Ducktales {Woo hoo!}
My question is...what happened? There were some seriously great cartoons when I was a kid. Most of them had morals to the story. You know, something you were supposed to learn in the quick 30 minute show. Alvin was always doing something naughty and Dave would show him the right way to do it at the end of the show. {BTW...do you remember the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie? Where they flew around the world in hot air balloons? Oh, it was SO good!}
Anyway, my poor kids are stuck with such dumb cartoons now. Some of them are down right inappropriate for kids too! Am I the only one that feels this way? Have you heard of these shows?
Ed, Edd and Eddy
Kids Next Door
Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy
Squirrel Boy
Camp Lazlo
George of the Jungle
Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends
Spongebob
Fairly OddParents
Now, I'm not saying that ALL of these are naughty shows. But most of them are just DUMB. I know there are a lot of Spongebob fans out there...but I am not one of them. Sorry! It's MY blog, so it's MY opinion. :0) Anyway...thankfully my kid prefers to watch Scooby Doo re-runs on Cartoon Network. He had an obsession with Fairly OddParents for a while there that drove me crazy. Timmy Turner is NOT a nice boy! Sigh.
I say...bring back the shows with the warm and fuzzy lessons for our kids. Even Thundercats taught us not to be egotistical, or that family is important. Seriously....
Am I the only one with a problem here?

12 comments:

Momma Mary said...

OH, I hear you on the cartoon crazies! It seems like SOUTH PARK is (or was when I was watching it) better at encompassing a moral value than many of the cartoons thrown at our kids today. One that really really gets me is Codename Kids Next Door... The Other is The Replacements...

Amber M. said...

My kids aren't allowed to watch Spongebob. Period. Who wants a cartoon to teach your kid how to talk mean to his friends?? Not me.

I miss the Smurfs. Seriously.

Unknown said...

Cartoons just seem to be animated soap operas or sitcoms. The goal seems to be to entertain the adult, but still be "for the kids" because it is done in animation. It is crap and it is no wonder that people are shooting each other at school. Also, the shows like Sponge Bob that dwell on cutting down each other, teaches our kids how to talk smack to each other and that its okay and funny. This promotes lowered self esteem in our kids, which leads to increased depression and suicide rates. Sorry...it just makes me crazy!

Unknown said...

i agree. so many of the older ones were so much better! did you ever see "kimba the white lion"? i used to love that one especially. nighty night, kathleen :)

Anonymous said...

So we did have great cartoons. I heard that thundercats was actually coming back or that they were going to make a movie .

Rachelle

Ashlee said...

Melanie...you sound like you are writing one of your papers for school! :0) But, I get your point. These cartoons do nothing to benefit society. They actually provide the opposite effect. It's sad.

Cameron said...

You already know my love of Thundercats, GI Joe, He-Man, etc. One you left off your list is Voltron. It was way cool. I used to make the lion robots out of legos.

Cartoons now days do suck. Although they make some decent super hero toons. I think the WB has them on Saturday morning.

We don't have cable, so when I was in Vegas last week I was excited to check out Cartoon Network (I'm a dork, I get it), but holy cow how far the mighty have fallen. What a totally useless channel. I had to content myself with ESPN instead.

Unknown said...

i'm a sucker for blast-from-the-past cartoons! The Littles! DuckTales! Animaniacs! Love love love this list!!

Alicia said...

I am such a cartoon snob here at my house. My kids have to go to their Grandma L's to watch the cartoons I won't let them, but that's another issue. My favorite as a kid was Smurfs, I was even a smurf for Halloween one, year, blue paint and all.

Montay said...

Very fun post I loved the smurfs and of course Smurfette

Bonnie B. said...

I too miss the smurfs. i used to get up at 6am on saturdays just to watch it. that is serious dedication. i HATE spongebob. and the only time i will let my kids watch cartoon network is if scooby is on, or an old movie. occasionally i'll let my son watch pokemon or yugio. i have to admit, though, i am a cartoon lover. always have been. and, sadly, i find foster's home to be funny most of the time. my favorite cartoon is charlie and lola on disney. that lola is a character!

Bridget said...

I LOVED Fraggle Rock. I haven't thought about that show in forever. Spongebob is evil. It's banned because the one time we watched it they said a bad word. "stupid." I am happy that is still considered a bad word in our house.