Every now and then I'll see something like "If you understand this then you had an awesome childhood!" Bitch, my childhood was not inferior to yours just because we didn't watch the same shitty cartoon.
I was in elementary school and early middle school in the 90's. I'm more a 90's kid and Rym is more an 80's kid. I really like the 90's as a decade, because it seemed to have this really laid back, very liberal sensibility to it. Plaid shirts were in, Bill Clinton was president, and everyone wanted to save the rain forest. It was kind of the sarcastic, techy slacker decade next to the 80's high pressure businessmen and sexy shoulder-pads. The internet was brought to the masses, and grunge rock was in, but I was more concerned with captain planet and stopping animal extinctions. Really, many wonderful things happened in the 2000's and beyond, but I feel that for Americans, there were the Bush wars and the recession, which cast a dark cloud over that whole deal.
I was born in 85 and couldn't tell you all much of anything about 85-89. Kindergarten started in 1990 for me. So yeah, my childhood was the 90's. And I'm a whole lot older than some of you that are claiming to be older than the people that are claiming to have grown up in the 90's. That math doesn't work...
I was born in 86 so I suppose I’m a "90's Kid", but I don’t get kid's fondness for that era. What do they miss? The prevalence of neon colors? The crappy TV? The horrible comics? The XTREME spelling? Maybe being a teenager in the 90's was cool, but being a kid sucked.
The 2000's were way better. I actually envy my little brother. He gets all the good stuff and he can cherry pick the best stuff from the 80"s and 90's off of Netflix or the internet. Kids today don’t know how good they have it.
Or maybe my childhood just sucked and i'm projecting.
I was born in 76, so I'm definitely an 80's kid with a bit of the 70's in there (I actually vaguely remember seeing Jimmy Carter on TV while he was still president).
The 80's was the best time for cheesy action movies, IMHO -- especially ones starring Ahnuld. Classics like Commando and The Running Man come from the 80's, and despite coming out in 1990, Total Recall has more of an 80's movie vibe to it.
80's cartoons and stuff... mixed bag. I have to agree with Rym that He-Man and its spinoffs (and just about all the other 80's Filmation stuff) doesn't really hold up all that well. The art (if you just look at still frames) is pretty good, IMHO, but the animation is iffy (lots of recycled stock footage) and the plots are also pretty bad for the most part. Transformers G1 is okay, but the 80's cartoon favorite of mine that I think holds up the best is probably GI Joe G1. Saw the MASS Device miniseries on Netflix the other day and was pleasantly surprised. When I get a chance, I need to re-watch some of the supposedly classic two-parters like "There's No Place Like Springfield" and "Worlds Without End" to see if they hold up as well as my gut tells me they would. Granted, they aren't without flaws, but I think as far as your generic action cartoons go, they're pretty good.
Oh, and for all you old-school gamers clamoring on about starting on the NES, I cut my teeth on the Atari 2600 and ColecoVision. Aww yeah. :P
I'm going to have to disagree with you. American televised animation was pretty much all crap until Matt Groening introduced the idea of quality with the Simpsons, leading to the reason 90s kids exist: Nicktoons, Cartoon Cartoons, and MTV Animation. 80s takes the cake for the better films (the 70s beats both of them, mind you) but on the small screen the 90s win.
I'm going to have to disagree with you. American televised animation was pretty much all crap until Matt Groening introduced the idea of quality with the Simpsons...
Walt Disney, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, and Chuck Jones would like a word with you.
What? Better animated films in the 80's? No way! Theatrical animation had a huge renaissance in the 1990's, as well as ushering in the appearance of CG films. Give me an example of "better movies in the 80's." (Although, if you look at the Japanese market, I might agree with you. Ghibli, Akira, Wings of Honneamise? There was some really beautiful work being done in the 80's.)
I'm going to have to disagree with you. American televised animation was pretty much all crap until Matt Groening introduced the idea of quality with the Simpsons...
Walt Disney, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, and Chuck Jones would like a word with you.
Ah, but they weren't originally produced for TV! Those were shorts that would screen before theatrical features, and were later rebroadcast on television.
What? Better animated films in the 80's? No way! Theatrical animation had a huge renaissance in the 1990's, as well as ushering in the appearance of CG films. Give me an example of "better movies in the 80's." (Although, if you look at the Japanese market, I might agree with you. Ghibli, Akira, Wings of Honneamise? There was some really beautiful work being done in the 80's.)
I'm going to have to disagree with you. American televised animation was pretty much all crap until Matt Groening introduced the idea of quality with the Simpsons...
Walt Disney, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, and Chuck Jones would like a word with you.
Ah, but they weren't originally produced for TV! Those were shorts that would screen before theatrical features, and were later rebroadcast on television.
They were still televised long before The Simpsons was a twinkle is Groening's eye.
I have an Oswald the Lucky Rabbit shirt, Chuck Amuck is one of my top 5 favorite books of all time, and twice I ran "Walt Disney and Ubbe Iwwerks, the American Tezukas," did you honestly think I didn't know about any good animation before the 90s?
EDIT: Also, Walt wouldn't like a word with me. Walt couldn't draw a polar bear in a snow storm well.
I'm going to have to disagree with you. American televised animation was pretty much all crap until Matt Groening introduced the idea of quality with the Simpsons, leading to the reason 90s kids exist: Nicktoons, Cartoon Cartoons, and MTV Animation. 80s takes the cake for the better films (the 70s beats both of them, mind you) but on the small screen the 90s win.
Note that I didn't say that the 80s cartoons were as good as The Simpsons and a lot of the stuff that came later. I just said that some actually hold up surprisingly well (and was only talking about one of them, GI Joe, which I had seen a few episodes of recently), especially given the constraints of the 80's and the fact it was merchandise-driven.
Do I think that GI Joe was better than The Simpsons? No, although I find it difficult to compare an action show to a comedy show directly. Same may or may not apply to many of the other examples you gave.
Now were there crap GI Joe G1 episodes? Certainly, although I don't remember exactly which ones because they were, well, crap (although I do remember "Cold Slither" for exactly how crap-tastic it was). However, the MASS Device miniseries was fairly well done as a sci-fi/military action tale for the time, IMHO, and there were a couple of two-parters that got notoriety for their writing. The trippy "There's No Place Like Springfield" (which featured a reference to The Prisoner by having the protagonist live at Number 6 Village Lane) counts as one. "Worlds Without End" had the characters transported to an alternate reality where Cobra won and they actually showed the corpses of their counterparts from this reality on screen. Nothing groundbreaking compared to what came later, of course, but it's still pretty impressive for an 80's toy commercial show.
Oh, and GI Joe: The Movie had the most awesome opening sequence of any cartoon ever. If you disagree, you're either a communist or a terrorist (or both!).
Edit: FYI, "There's No Place Like Springfield" was written by Will Eisner Hall of Fame comic writer Steve Gerber.
I accept any and all chances to be called a communist terrorist, regardless of whether or not I agree with the statement (I haven't seen the GI:Joe movie).
The movie itself was bad to meh. The opening though is borderline Metal Wolf Chaos levels of awesomeness (and yes, I'm comparing it to Metal Wolf Chaos for a very good reason). Here's the Youtube link to it.
I've found a compromise between Ron Paul people and everyone else: we keep fiat currency but add gold standard currency alongside it. I call it "complex currency".
I've found a compromise between Ron Paul people and everyone else: we keep fiat currency but add gold standard currency alongside it. I call it "complex currency".
My compromise is they shut up and I don't punch them in the teeth.
The joke was "complex" currency as in 3+4i. Fiat currency is the imaginary numbers, and gold standard the real. I probably could have worded it better.
As someone who never really watched G.I. Joe (I played with the toys as a kid), I didn't understand any of that opening. Why was Cobra attacking the Statue of Liberty? Are they Nazis, or terrorists? Terrorist Nazis? Did he just shoot lasers out of an M16? Also, wouldn't the Statue of Liberty be utterly destroyed by all the MISSILES EXPLODING ON IT?
The joke was "complex" currency as in 3+4i. Fiat currency is the imaginary numbers, and gold standard the real. I probably could have worded it better.
Sorry, I wasn't sure it was a joke. And I knew it was a complex number reference, but I didn't get the whole "imaginary currency" connection.
Comments
The 2000's were way better. I actually envy my little brother. He gets all the good stuff and he can cherry pick the best stuff from the 80"s and 90's off of Netflix or the internet. Kids today don’t know how good they have it.
Or maybe my childhood just sucked and i'm projecting.
The 80's was the best time for cheesy action movies, IMHO -- especially ones starring Ahnuld. Classics like Commando and The Running Man come from the 80's, and despite coming out in 1990, Total Recall has more of an 80's movie vibe to it.
80's cartoons and stuff... mixed bag. I have to agree with Rym that He-Man and its spinoffs (and just about all the other 80's Filmation stuff) doesn't really hold up all that well. The art (if you just look at still frames) is pretty good, IMHO, but the animation is iffy (lots of recycled stock footage) and the plots are also pretty bad for the most part. Transformers G1 is okay, but the 80's cartoon favorite of mine that I think holds up the best is probably GI Joe G1. Saw the MASS Device miniseries on Netflix the other day and was pleasantly surprised. When I get a chance, I need to re-watch some of the supposedly classic two-parters like "There's No Place Like Springfield" and "Worlds Without End" to see if they hold up as well as my gut tells me they would. Granted, they aren't without flaws, but I think as far as your generic action cartoons go, they're pretty good.
Oh, and for all you old-school gamers clamoring on about starting on the NES, I cut my teeth on the Atari 2600 and ColecoVision. Aww yeah. :P
(Although, if you look at the Japanese market, I might agree with you. Ghibli, Akira, Wings of Honneamise? There was some really beautiful work being done in the 80's.) Ah, but they weren't originally produced for TV! Those were shorts that would screen before theatrical features, and were later rebroadcast on television.
I have an Oswald the Lucky Rabbit shirt, Chuck Amuck is one of my top 5 favorite books of all time, and twice I ran "Walt Disney and Ubbe Iwwerks, the American Tezukas," did you honestly think I didn't know about any good animation before the 90s?
EDIT: Also, Walt wouldn't like a word with me. Walt couldn't draw a polar bear in a snow storm well.
Do I think that GI Joe was better than The Simpsons? No, although I find it difficult to compare an action show to a comedy show directly. Same may or may not apply to many of the other examples you gave.
Now were there crap GI Joe G1 episodes? Certainly, although I don't remember exactly which ones because they were, well, crap (although I do remember "Cold Slither" for exactly how crap-tastic it was). However, the MASS Device miniseries was fairly well done as a sci-fi/military action tale for the time, IMHO, and there were a couple of two-parters that got notoriety for their writing. The trippy "There's No Place Like Springfield" (which featured a reference to The Prisoner by having the protagonist live at Number 6 Village Lane) counts as one. "Worlds Without End" had the characters transported to an alternate reality where Cobra won and they actually showed the corpses of their counterparts from this reality on screen. Nothing groundbreaking compared to what came later, of course, but it's still pretty impressive for an 80's toy commercial show.
Oh, and GI Joe: The Movie had the most awesome opening sequence of any cartoon ever. If you disagree, you're either a communist or a terrorist (or both!).
Edit: FYI, "There's No Place Like Springfield" was written by Will Eisner Hall of Fame comic writer Steve Gerber.
However, I don't get how you could realise it was a complex number reference without thinking of "imaginary currency".