Remembering the cartoons of the 90s - Scooby Doo, Swat Kats, Ninja Robots - I miss them!
Last night, I was miles away from sleep and in a happy zone. I had just finished watching the Man from U.N.C.L.E (great movie btw. Love the soundtrack that plays when Solo takes the Buggy over the water). and was browsing around on my hard drive. I decided to clean it up a little; remove duplicated files between my other hard drives and tidy up the files and folder structure.
I have one folder called anime and looking at it brought up many old memories. I am sure any one who is a 90's kid will consider it a gold mine and will be hit by a big wave of nostalgia. This folder contains most, if not all of the cartoons and the cartoon series that I used to watch as a 8-15 year old kid. To go through them, was such a rush of nostalgia for me.
The days went past in my mind. Those days, when I was 10 years old, all these cartoons used to be shown on Cartoon Network. I started to watch cartoon network from the days when it would start at 6 in the morning, and end at 9 in the night before the channel broadcast old black and white movies.
The 1992 logo of Cartoon Network. Source: Wikipedia
I remember the timings quite meticulously. Centurions used to air at 3pm, Swat Kats at 4pm, Ninja Robots at 4.30pm. Scooby Doo used to air at 8pm and The Popeye Show at 8.30pm. It was the last show of the day before I went to bed. I was never a fan of other cartoons such as Dexter's Lab, Johnny Bravo or the like. It seemed too kiddish to me. I was more a fan of the superhero stuff.
Scooby Doo in all his glory. Over 45 years now.
Fastforwarding to a couple of years later, I guess it would be the high school days. Pokemon was big back then and I would watch a episode at 8am in the morning before rushing to school. By this time, Swat Kats and Ninja Robots had been taken off the network. Justice League used to air at 5pm, followed by X-Men evolution at 5.30pm.
One of my favorites: Batman The Animated Series was on at 7pm I think. I remember pushing the limits of time allocated for tv to watch Batman before getting down to do my homework. Batman has always been one of my favorite cartoons and still is. Batman Beyond was another kickass cartoon series as well. The new take on Batman was something that was exciting for me and I dove into the series with gusto. I remember the time when Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker aired on tv. I got home late from a family function that day and missed the first 15 minutes of the movie. I was really pissed at my mom for that, and she never understood why it was such a big deal.
It was a big deal.
I can go on and on, and never finish the list; He Man and the Masters of the Universe (I love the end credits soundtrack), Tintin, Ghostbusters, Spider Man The Animated Series, ThunderCats were all exceptional cartoons for that time. One of my favorite series was the Land Before Time cartoons. That sequence in the first movie when Little Foot was born still remains one of my favorite to this day.
I got goosebumps watching this. Really, cartoons those days can today be considered masterpieces of storytelling and anime as the mediums.
Cartoons like The Real Adventures of Johny Quest, Captain Planet, The Road Runner Show, Wacky Races, GI.Joe, they were absolute gold. I will not even mention Tom and Jerry. It is an absolute all time classic.
The nostalgia trip seems unstoppable now. I really miss those days.
Which brings me to the present, and I kind of feel sad for todays kid who are literally fed garbage as cartoons. Half of them are absolutely ridiculous, such as Oogy and the cockroaches (cockroaches, really? Come on...), Ninja Hatori (ding ding ding crap), and a bunch of other nonsense. Even the all time classic Tom and Jerry has moved on to cel shaded animation and weird and ridiculous stories that make me cringe. The charm is gone and it looks like it is lost forever.
Looking back at these things, I think about how influential these cartoons have been in my development in my childhood days. With no cellphones and internet, cartoon network was my way out. Indeed, it was the only channel I ever watched in those days. Swat Kats was where one of my earliest motivations for aircrafts started. Batman was probably the most influential character back then. I loved the character, and grew up reading a bunch of comics and learning more about the batman universe and the comic book storyline. You see the influence today (my username!).
I guess what I am trying to say is that I feel quite sad that kids these days will never get to see some of the greatest cartoons (Dare I go there?) ever made. These cartoons were not the heroes we deserved, but the heroes we needed.
I guess I should be glad for still having a collection of these all time classic cartoons on my hard drive (Should I make a second copy?). Hopefully, one day, when these cartoons will come back into popular culture, I will be well equipped to lead the change.
Cheers!
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Check some of my posts on my blog related to travel and photography
Backpacking the United Kingdom - A Travelogue with amazing pictures
Recovering from a broken wrist and racing motorcycles and travelling
Man half of these mentions are definitely not the ones I would ever choose to re watch hahaha
But I'll just assume that's down to difference in countries, alot of the ones you mentioned were not received very well or even not broadcast at all, while the ones you mentioned as kiddish certainly were.
Billy and Mandy was badass! I was into the Cartoon network "kiddish" vibe!
Then again I was way more kiddish at the time, guess it also depends on your age that you were watching?
How did Dragonballz not make it onto the list? Or Samurai Jack? Dexter was epic too! Pink and the Brain was epic also... what was that other warner brother spin off? Animaniacs!
I just remember the amazing music 🎶
Oh and DARK WING DUCK! "Let's Get Dangerous!"
I started from around 8 years I think. Do not remember exactly.
Dbz didn't make it to the list because it wasn't telecast on CN. Samurai Jack was brilliant. But in face of other cartoons, Samurai Jack was not high priority for me. I loved the animation in that, and the story!
Dexter's lab were shows I watched, but they didn't stick much with me as time passed. This list has mentions of the cartoons I still relate to after all these years.
For that matter, I also would watch Disney (uncle scrooge, Donald duck, Micky mouse, that series where the bear is a pilot) but over time I think I was more inclined towards superhero shows. Johnny quest was way ahead of it's time (kinda like the matrix) and that's why I loved it.
To sum up, this list is what I loved from the glory days. I'm sure you'll agree with some and disagree with others. :) Cheers!
Yup, down to difference between the countries, and also what age you started watching, and inclinations etc :)
In Australia we had a show called cheese tv. It was the best morning cartoon show ever!. It ran for about 30 mins and ran a few different series of cartoons. They were amazing!
Indeed. The late 1990s and early 2000s were the best times. Kids these days have absolutely crappy cartoons to watch.
You know what killed cartoon Network, bad advertisement for Aqua Teen Hunger Force. If you know the history of the both.
Sorry, no idea of aqua teen hunger force. Never heard of it.
the show was about talking food on Adult Swim. I'm pretty sure it was the creator of Cartoon Network or the CEO who thought it was okay to leave pictures around Subways in York City, the people thought it was a bomb threat but it was bad advertisement so he stepped down. The new CEO wanted to change Cartoon Network to CN real( live action TV channel) he cut out all of the cartoons and put in live action TV shows, a couple of them were pretty good though, he killed Toonami and later on he he saw how much people didn't like the new Cartoon Network so he changed it back but it's never been the same.
It's because of these cartoons that my English is good. Feel sad for new generation growing up watching Chhota Bheem lol. Our childhood was the best!
Agree with the English part! Yeah sad that they have to watch crap like doremon, oogy and.. of all other animals... Cockroaches! Quite sad!