I commented on a “Ronaldinho Gaúcho” comic a few days ago. The title character’s dog, Champ, was looking almost like Heart here except he was snoozing on the clothes washer.
So like Hobbes coming out of the clothes dryer and Champ on the washer, Heart is always a little loopy after watching too much television.
gmartin, Hanna-Barbera were amongst the leaders in the dumbed-down cartoon tradition in the 1970s. During their early days, their work was great, but they got lazy and stupid and so did the cartoons.
“The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy”, “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends”, “Spongebob Squarepants” (of course), and many other modern cartoons are far more imaginative, artistic, and memorable than the crud that Hanna-Barbera and the like put out in the 60’s and 70’s.
Jay Ward (Bullwinkle, Hoppity Hooper) and Leonardo Productions (Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo) showed that, as long as you had good WRITING, you could survive with limited animation, but H-B looked so cheap it made my teeth hurt.
It wasn’t until Nickelodeon started doing original cartoons like Rugrats in the early 90’s that TV animation was rescued from endless reiterations of Scooby-Doo (with special guests Abbott and Costello!), retreads like Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space (or worse, Gilligan’s Planet), and 30-minute toy commercials like G.I. Joe, Transformers, and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Animation in the 1970’s and 1980’s was a wasteland.
The Warner Bros. cartoons were of course unsurpassed in their excellence, but all of the good ones were created for the movies rather than TV. Even Chuck Jones’ work was bleeep in the later years, with all of those horrible Daffy vs Speedy Gonzales cartoons.
Speaking of old cartoons written for adults, does anybody remember Popeye’s muttering in the old shows? I wonder how he got that stuff past the censors…
I don’t think they HAD censors at the time, did they?
Animators have been notorious for sneaking things into cartoons, for years; it didn’t start with “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, with Jessica’s missing underwear (shown for 1/24th of a second) and Baby Herman fingering his nurse.
More recently, though, I know John Krickfalusi DID draw Ren’s tail creeping up Stimpy’s backside (similarly too fast to be seen without freeze-frame). He was unapologetic when caught out. The Ren & Stimpy Show probably ought NOT to have been considered a children’s show in the first place. And by the time they made it to Spike TV, where John K. didn’t have to worry about content restriction, the characters were simply too stale…
By the way, bigg, even though “The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse” was also known as “Ralph Bakshi’s Mighty Mouse”, credit for that show (which WAS very good) really belongs to the aforementioned John Krickfalusi. Bakshi ran the studio, but John K. was the “auteur” behind the show.
“Flintstones” had some good years, it’s true, but towards the end it degenerated into a parade of guest stars like “Ann Margarock” ond “Samantha Stevenstone” (or whatever name they gave Elizabeth Montgomery). And you have to admit, the animation was TERRIBLE.
I have vague but nonetheless fond memories of “Wait ‘Til Your Father Gets Home”, and I think there was another prime-time cartoon that followed shortly thereafter about a football player or something.
I can’t say I share your fondness for the 1980’s series you’ve listed, but by that time I was no longer in the targeted demographic. Care Bears and Smurfs hold no fond memories for me.
The coke-sniffing accusation was just dumb, though. If you see the segment in its proper context it’s clear that they’re crushed flower petals, and his reaction is clearly “renewed resolve”, not “artificially stimulated”. That was Rev. Dumbell Wildman again, wasn’t it? He’s been publically making an (‘donkey’) of himself for years…
And thanx, “Where’s Huddles?” is the show I was thinking of!
PS: You’re right of course about Chuck not being responsible for the appalling later Daffy/Speedy cartoons. But Jones’s early works were still his best by far. And in the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit a fondness for Bob McKimson’s work, even though most consider him the Ringo of the classic Warner crew…
i_am_the_jam over 15 years ago
Heh, I always felt that way around 1:30 pm on SatAM around 1984 :D :D :D
IncredibleWerekitty over 15 years ago
What happened to good cartoons?
i_am_the_jam over 15 years ago
Removed by the networks, sadly.
Yukoner over 15 years ago
Do not adjust your TV. There is a fault in reality.
Yukoner over 15 years ago
Do not adjust your TV. There is a fault in reality.
Yukoner over 15 years ago
Do not adjust your TV. There is a fault in reality.
green_engineer over 15 years ago
This is how I’m like after hours spent playing Guitar Hero!
wyrm282 over 15 years ago
Reason theres all these new cartoons: more ppl are tryin to make money.
TheRedHatt over 15 years ago
Destroyed by the Shrinking Laser Beam Ray Gun !
Templo S.U.D. over 15 years ago
I commented on a “Ronaldinho Gaúcho” comic a few days ago. The title character’s dog, Champ, was looking almost like Heart here except he was snoozing on the clothes washer.
So like Hobbes coming out of the clothes dryer and Champ on the washer, Heart is always a little loopy after watching too much television.
Asrial over 15 years ago
Well, I still like Inspector Gadget, All Grown Up , JCA. Rugrats movie was cool as well. As told by Ginger.
BlueRaven over 15 years ago
gmartin, Hanna-Barbera were amongst the leaders in the dumbed-down cartoon tradition in the 1970s. During their early days, their work was great, but they got lazy and stupid and so did the cartoons.
fritzoid Premium Member over 15 years ago
“The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy”, “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends”, “Spongebob Squarepants” (of course), and many other modern cartoons are far more imaginative, artistic, and memorable than the crud that Hanna-Barbera and the like put out in the 60’s and 70’s.
Jay Ward (Bullwinkle, Hoppity Hooper) and Leonardo Productions (Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo) showed that, as long as you had good WRITING, you could survive with limited animation, but H-B looked so cheap it made my teeth hurt.
It wasn’t until Nickelodeon started doing original cartoons like Rugrats in the early 90’s that TV animation was rescued from endless reiterations of Scooby-Doo (with special guests Abbott and Costello!), retreads like Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space (or worse, Gilligan’s Planet), and 30-minute toy commercials like G.I. Joe, Transformers, and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Animation in the 1970’s and 1980’s was a wasteland.
The Warner Bros. cartoons were of course unsurpassed in their excellence, but all of the good ones were created for the movies rather than TV. Even Chuck Jones’ work was bleeep in the later years, with all of those horrible Daffy vs Speedy Gonzales cartoons.
Radical-Knight over 15 years ago
Speaking of old cartoons written for adults, does anybody remember Popeye’s muttering in the old shows? I wonder how he got that stuff past the censors…
fritzoid Premium Member over 15 years ago
I don’t think they HAD censors at the time, did they?
Animators have been notorious for sneaking things into cartoons, for years; it didn’t start with “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, with Jessica’s missing underwear (shown for 1/24th of a second) and Baby Herman fingering his nurse.
More recently, though, I know John Krickfalusi DID draw Ren’s tail creeping up Stimpy’s backside (similarly too fast to be seen without freeze-frame). He was unapologetic when caught out. The Ren & Stimpy Show probably ought NOT to have been considered a children’s show in the first place. And by the time they made it to Spike TV, where John K. didn’t have to worry about content restriction, the characters were simply too stale…
fritzoid Premium Member over 15 years ago
By the way, bigg, even though “The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse” was also known as “Ralph Bakshi’s Mighty Mouse”, credit for that show (which WAS very good) really belongs to the aforementioned John Krickfalusi. Bakshi ran the studio, but John K. was the “auteur” behind the show.
“Flintstones” had some good years, it’s true, but towards the end it degenerated into a parade of guest stars like “Ann Margarock” ond “Samantha Stevenstone” (or whatever name they gave Elizabeth Montgomery). And you have to admit, the animation was TERRIBLE.
I have vague but nonetheless fond memories of “Wait ‘Til Your Father Gets Home”, and I think there was another prime-time cartoon that followed shortly thereafter about a football player or something.
I can’t say I share your fondness for the 1980’s series you’ve listed, but by that time I was no longer in the targeted demographic. Care Bears and Smurfs hold no fond memories for me.
fritzoid Premium Member over 15 years ago
The coke-sniffing accusation was just dumb, though. If you see the segment in its proper context it’s clear that they’re crushed flower petals, and his reaction is clearly “renewed resolve”, not “artificially stimulated”. That was Rev. Dumbell Wildman again, wasn’t it? He’s been publically making an (‘donkey’) of himself for years…
And thanx, “Where’s Huddles?” is the show I was thinking of!
PS: You’re right of course about Chuck not being responsible for the appalling later Daffy/Speedy cartoons. But Jones’s early works were still his best by far. And in the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit a fondness for Bob McKimson’s work, even though most consider him the Ringo of the classic Warner crew…
Decepticomic over 3 years ago
Yeah, I’ve felt that effect before.