Ever try to revisit a cartoon from your youth? It usually doesn’t go well. Except for classic stuff like the Warner Bros. shorts, that stuff usually does not hold up, especially if you were a child of the ’80s, when all cartoons were just long toy commercials. You can’t recapture the time and place that made it special in the first place. But if you could erase your memory and relive them for the first time, what would you choose to watch? Here’s what we said on the latest Hours in the Attic:
Also, shame on me for forgetting the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon! It was just formulaic bullshit, like all these shows were, but to my young mind it seemed pretty epic. Tiamat the dragon, the dude with the giant purple skull helmet, the episode where they almost get home again. Epic!
Before watching, I thought to myself, if these guys don’t mention Robotech, I’m unsubscribing immediately. You saved the day, Eric.
I thought of you when I dropped the Starblazers reference, too.
Yeah. I still watch Looney Tunes whenever it’s available. We have a few dvd’s of Bugs and Daffy that remain in rotation and everyone loves that stuff. But Land of the Lost was horrible. It seemed so awesome as a kid. And the Super Friends? Ghastly. Really any of those Hannah-Barbera cartoons after the 60’s were just awful in every way. Animation, voices, the writing. They were able to offer Mel Blanc enough money to leave Warner Bros in the 70’s which pretty much ended their reign given that he did all the voices. But then they didn’t spend anything in the rest of the production so they sucked too. Captain Caveman was trash. But I loved it back then.
I LOOOOVED Super Friends … but yeah, you can’t watch it anymore. Looney Tunes still rocks the house, though. That stuff is absolutely timeless.
They really had a great formula that no one has been able to recreate. Except maybe Spongebob to a lesser extent.
You know, I’ve never seen Spongebob. Maybe a short clip here and there, but I mostly have no idea what it’s like.
Wow. Mad Mike Walker turned me onto Spongebob back in 99 when it was new and it’s the only other cartoon I let Sarah watch when she was little beyond little kid stuff. Spongebob is almost always hilarious to me. Plankton is my favorite. He’s evil but being plankton, mostly harmless.
I had a minor Superfriends revival in my late 20s when my drinking buddy and I realized that the great Ted Knight was the narrator in the first season.
The legendary Chuck Jones had a great line about the Hanna Barbera stuff that was flooding the airwaves in the 60s. He called it “radio with pictures.” Not only was he rightly calling out that animation for what it was, but he was using the point to illustrate how well WB crafted their stories using expression and physicality to create superior storytelling (his wordless Road Runner shorts being a prime example.)
That is a VERY apt description by Jones, Larry! Those classic tunes were highly visual. You could enjoy them on mute. The HB stuff, though I loved it as a kid, wasn’t like that. They were animated comic books — not surprising, considering comic legends like Alex Toth and Jack Kirby were involved with them.
Chuck Jones went on to do some epic Woody Woodpecker and Tom & Jerry cartoons too. Anything with his name on it eas pretty cool.
Agreed. In my opinion, Chuck was the best of the bunch…followed closely by Tex Avery (who had a short but very notable tenure at the Termite Terrace.)
Friz Freling did a a lot great Bugs shorts too. Some of my favorites are the Robert McKimson cartoons though. His Foghorn Leghorn cartoons still just kill me. “One of these days, I say one of these days that hen’s gonna get that dawg outta that rooster costume. And when she does, whoa nelly! “
Oh for sure…the entire gang was gold.
They really had an amazing formula. Mel Blanc was incredible. But like you saud even the voiceless ones were great. My buddy Chris Ratcliff and I used to experiment with lucid dreaming by putting WB vhs tapes on when we went to sleep. They provided great soundtracks and sound fx for dreaming and learning to dream lucidly. They weren’t just for kids. Carl Stalling composed the music for many of those shorts. He was incredible too.
Christopher, Robotech!
2 nights ago, I started re-watching Star Blazers, no lie.
That’s awesome. How is it holding up? My memory if it is incredibly vague. I recall watching it and liking it, but can’t remember a damn thing beyond that.
Well, knowing more of the history between the US and Japan now, much of it has alternate meaning, but the show overall is holding up mostly well, only a few episodes in so far. Some odd use of characters, mostly due to probably wanting to keep things simple, but they have a whole crew, hand chosen by the captain, of a hundred or so, but one guy is both in charge of the main battle ships weaponry and its gunner, and he is also the lead fighter pilot. Little things like that that would just get glossed over as a kid, but stand out tall and glaring as an adult.
Battle of the Planets
Speed Racer
Bakshi’s Wizards and his Lord of the Rings
Spider-Man (1967+ version)
Star Trek cartoons
Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings was and remains a huge favorite. I can recite every line, in character. Love it.
Star trek cartoons. Haven’t seen them in years. Wonder how they hold up? Also Planet of the Apes and Harlem Globetrotters cartoons.
They are all undoubtedly awful. Bank on it!
One thing about those HB cartoons that annoyed me even as a kid was the canned laughter. How bad is a cartoon if your audience of small children have to be prompted when something is comical. Scooby-Doo, although regarded by some as a classic, used canned laughter the whole time it was on. I watched all those HB cartoons as a kid. You can still catch them on Boomerang now. They’re terrible.
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