What kid growing up in the 80’s didn’t love cartoons? Every Saturday morning and right after school, I’d watch all of them (GI Joe, Thundercats, My Little Pony, She-Ra/He-Man, etc).
Fast forward a few…. Uhh.. years…. and I’m a happy Amazon Prime and Netflix customer. I happen to notice that the Thundercats were just picked up on Prime. Awesome! I can relive part of my childhood, right? One Saturday, I go buy a box of Fruity Pebbles and some unsweetened almond milk. Why? Fruity Pebbles are the BEST CEREAL EVER and Almond milk because my ability to handle whey protein disappeared along with my youth.
I make my cereal, load up Prime and start listening to one of the best cartoon theme songs ever (at least from the 80’s.. and maybe only bested by DuckTales). I actually sung along with it, as was the norm as a kid.
If you are wondering: yes, I fully realize I’m a ginormous nerd. I also judge people on how they know Nathan Fillion, and still get angry every time I think about the Superman trailer where music from LoTR was re-used. #1 Superman desires original music and #2 don’t defile Gandalf’s death by reusing scene music. *deep cleansing breath*
Anyways, back to the point. I load up the first episode, munch my cereal, and start to relive a good memory from my childhood. Unfortunately, the more I watched, the more of my adult brain became completely and utterly repulsed at the lack of logic these characters showed. I always thought I was a smart savvy kid. Watching, I realized I was wrong. So. Very. Wrong.
Within the first 2-3 episodes, I just couldn’t take the poor logic and plot holes anymore. Hey, the prince wants to wander around in a forest of an unknown planet alone? Sure, sounds like a great idea! (Said no one ever, except in cartoons). Stasis pods where only one person ages and he looks like the cartoon anthropomorphic lion equivalent of The Rock? Sure, makes perfect sense.
So, I gave up on Thundercats, and moved on to something else. Hrmm.. My Little Pony the Movie. Another bad move. I don’t want to remember. Please make it stop.
But, it can’t all be bad? I rewatched episodes of He-Man, She-Ra, Jem, GI Joe. Ugh. My memories of my childhood have been tainted. As I looked online to figure out if I’m just taking things too personally, this did help. “Hefner’s pet rat”. Classic.
I ran across a Youtube video (which I apparently can no longer find), in which a cartoonist explains why these old cartoons are the way they are. Small bits plot for kids who naturally can’t handle big complex ideas. Makes sense. Makes sense until I watched some newer cartoons. The reboots of MLP and Voltron seem pretty solid. Actually, the New Voltron is pretty funny. I saw Warner Bros put out a reboot of Thundercats in 2011 (haven’t watched it, as it isn’t gratis).
Are kids just more savvy these days? Or, are production companies using today’s parents’ affinity for cartoons in sync with their children to create marketing opportunities? Blending better storylines to make the shows more palatable to parents, therefore making them more likely to buy toys for their kids?
Regardless, my childhood is ruined, but at least I have some awesome reboots to console me.
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