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Were have all the good children's programs gone.


Brushfire
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I was watching the local channels here on station in Misawa. I know that the Armed Forces Network isn't the pinnicle of channels, but I noticed that they were lacking the quality shows I remeber seeing as a kid watching the same channels. An epidemic has hit. While not nessisarily a bad one, it still kinda bugs me. There are no more American Cartoons in the afternoon lineup anymore. I come from the days when we had Ducktales, The Animainiacs, Doug, Rocko's Modern Life, Rescue Rangers, and so many other classics. It seems nowadays the only thing you can get is Anime or Anime-esque. While that is not a bad thing like I said, it still bothers me.

What is your thoughts on the matter?

I totally just realized that I spelled "where" wrong. Classic blunder.

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pinnicle... nessisarily... just realized that I spelled "where" wrong. Classic blunder.

indeed

The stuff they make for children today are something you probably wouldn't enjoy. Anyway, anime has taken over the world, and most animation from America is pretty much copying it. Stuff like Airbender looks like a carbon copy of Naruto, to me.

Also, you're in the army, be a man. Watch Legend of the Galactic Heroes.:<

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Also, you're in the army, be a man. Watch Legend of the Galactic Heroes.:<

Wow my spelling is terrible when I am forced to use Internet Explorer. Crappy workplace...

Sadly I am in the Air Force, not the Army. I did watch GI Joe however. That has gotta count for something.

Anyway back to the subject at hand, I do agree that some shows like Teen Titans try too hard to be anime but end up failing miserably. I was especially taken aback when I saw the Teen Titans movie. The amount of Japanese stereotypes was awful. It was made for kids but still they could at least pretend that the writers weren't complete weeaboos.

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The first half of the final animation sequence in Fantasia(1940) featuring "Night on Bald Mountain"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Ca_edg6RE

Is this shitty..? imo no :)!!

What was really prevalent during the 60's, 70's, and even partially the 80's cartoons is that there were alot of "Scooby-Doo" clones and vice versa...

Also there were shows that had awesome cover animation intros, but when it came to the actual shows themselves, they tend to be shit or poorly/lazily done...

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One more as this will be the last one from me.

The Real Ghostbusters - Ragnarok & Roll

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1JANez8_I0 (Part 1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15sJK6Fh_Ys (Part 2)

Somewhat of a personal favorite, a bit emo as I look back on it but still it point at the end is straight forward; as it actually has meaning but made so right in front of you instead of trying to be cryptic or incredibly profound like in other mediums.

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I don't remember saying Fantasia was shitty. And I wouldn't consider that to be a children's program, since it was a movie arguably geared towards all age groups.

1 - Yeah bad example and I wasn't trying to put words in your mouth.

2 - I actually do agree with you in respects that as I said on that same post, there were times that while an idea looked very good or at least interesting, when it was done the results were either very poor or lackluster/could-have-been-done-better.

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I think its not that there are less good shows, but it only seams that way.

Take SNES games for example. Growing up I thought there was not one single bad game for the SNES... well if you ever get a torrent with all the roms on it you soon realize that a ton of them are crap.

But you only remember the few amazing ones. I think the same holds true to some extent with kids shows these days.

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One of the things I've wanted to do once I become a multi-millionaire was start up a cable tv network with these sorts of cartoons showing in the morning every day during the week and after midnight on Fri/Sat/Sun. Nothing like a midnight showing of Tiny Toon Adventures.

So yeah, I'm taking donations if anyone agrees with me. Or maybe if you know Bill Gates or something and he could fork over a couple hundred million or so.

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Most of these shows weren't exactly what I would call timeless. Let's just let the kids enjoy their derth of entertainment geared towards their generation and culture. I mean, making your kids watch old cartoons is no different from being an English teacher who thinks the only books worth reading are "the Classics." To be sure, some of the old TV shows you saw as a kid are worth watching, but they aren't really inherently superior just because they are old.

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...AoJ's post...

I won't use my meme again (there is a thing of too much of a good thing) but that is a thing most guys like me need to adapt. Cartoons these days are more often meant for a young audience. As we've noticed shows like Avatar: TLA can easily be compared to other shows like Pokemon or even in some cases Naruto. (elemental/mysticism based abilities, improvisations of said abilities etc). Hell, Captain Planet was BIG on teaching about preservation of earth and its natural resources

Also most of them repeat a lesson that's usually hidden or in-your-face. Such as not giving up too easily/strive for a higher goal etc.

Then you have shows that of course had no such intentions and merely created for entertainment purposes such as Bleach, Teen Titans (though I have this odd feeling its trying to tell us NOT to become weeaboess by showing what it can be exxagerated) Metalocalypse, Home Movies...

It's simply the advancement of remixing everything from Aesops Fables to drama/comedy for an audience where animation is the preferred medium.

Edit: shit I had a great idea in mind and it didn't exactly come out on the post as I liked... The point is, they (new generation) are seeing all the great things we've seen in our old shows remixed into shows of today... May not agree on design, but so long as they entertain, that's all that it should matter...

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Most of these shows weren't exactly what I would call timeless. Let's just let the kids enjoy their derth of entertainment geared towards their generation and culture. I mean, making your kids watch old cartoons is no different from being an English teacher who thinks the only books worth reading are "the Classics." To be sure, some of the old TV shows you saw as a kid are worth watching, but they aren't really inherently superior just because they are old.

True enough.

Actually, from the title I thought this thread was going to be about the loss of old school edutainment programs like Sesame Street, Mr Roger’s and Reading Rainbow. With that in mind, from what I've seen, the shows for today’s kids focus more on the 'tainment' and not as much on the 'edu.' Combine that with what I’m willing to bet is a greater % of kids watching primetime shows like “America’s Next Top Whatever” and “Family Guy,” as opposed to the few age appropriate educational shows that are out there, and you’ve got some pretty crappy programming for younger American kids (education-wise at least). Because of that, I'd probably rather show my kids old shows more so than newer ones because in that sense, I think the older shows actually are inherently better.

But that's not what the thread's about, so yeah.

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Ahhh Captain Planet. I remember playing that on the playground as a kid. Everyone wanted to be "Wheeler with the power of Fire." I would usally arrive late and be stuck as Ma-Ti, who had the power of Animal Telepathy.

I recently obtained season 3 of the Animaniacs, and I gotta say there were alot of things I wouldn't have noticed as a kid. Alot of the jokes were really aimed towards adult pop-clulture. I was really immpressed. It was the same way with the Simpsons too.

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Ahhh Captain Planet. I remember playing that on the playground as a kid. Everyone wanted to be "Wheeler with the power of Fire." I would usally arrive late and be stuck as Ma-Ti, who had the power of Animal Telepathy.

... On that note...

From my own perspective, it seems like a lot of cartoons these days don't have a good direction from the beginning. They seem to be thrown out there haphazardly and hope that it catches on, and if they do, then they try to really take it somewhere. Not all are like this, though. Avatar is a good example of a good cartoon built on a good premise with a good writing staff. It isn't the greatest thing since swiss cheese, but it works for what it tries to do.

I do lament, however, the loss of a great many good shows that had great potential. I still can't figure out why those shows like Samurai Jack and Invader Zim were pulled off the air. Probably because their audience wasn't extensive enough.

I'm not sure if I can call this generation's cartoons "bad", but they do seem to go for either the lowest common denominator or least amount of effort for the most gain. Generally speaking, of course. EDIT: I'm not saying that "lowest common denominator" is a bad thing, but often, the LCD (haha) is a very generic premise or set of characters, which doesn't really deliver as well as something a little better written.

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