I still remember the video cassette that my uncle gave me when I was seven, of a few Warner Bros. Cartoons, With Little Red Riding Hood, two bugs bunny ones, Three eggs Tom, Dick and Harry (Harry fails to come out of the egg and gets lost with only a pair of legs out of his shell) and I hazily remember something about stone age men and a dino which saves them from trouble. From then on, for more than a decade I was addicted to these moving drawing that enacted and said things which made me laugh my head off and roll over my back. I think it is the impersonality, the underlying (for want of a better word) mockery, the humor, and creativity that appealed these to me the most.
I haven’t been a great fan of Tom and Jerry, the early ones of Joseph Hanna & William Barbera for MGM, partly due to the lack of dialogue and the constant theme of cat chasing the mouse and mouse getting away, which can get slightly boring. Then there were Flintstones and Jetsons, both of them, the real world interpolated to the stone and the space ages and perfectly timed for fun during lunch during summer holidays. And Scooby Doo, which bored me with the recurring “Oh! Those Pesky Kids!!” (Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes provided better detective stories :P). And Yogi Bear, Huckle Berry Hound (Oh my Darlin’! Oh my Darlin’! Oh my darlin’! Clementine!) and Smurfs (Ooooohhh I Lurve those blue people). How can I forget Dexter with his ever curious sis DeeDee and the occasional appearance of Mandark, Dexter’s Arch Rival who had a thing for DeeDee). Then my favorite , Bugs Bunny with its carrot munching, extremely kühlheaded, “Gee, Whats up doc?” . Johnny Bravo (Heyyy Pretty mama!!!), Pinky and the Brain, Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, Top Cat(Hes the most tip top, tadadada, Top Cat!), Dial M for Monkey, The road Runner show (Which I thought was a poor cousin of Tom and Jerry) and a gadzillion others.
Does anyone remember Crocadoo which came in ’96? The show was pathetic but the title song was quite catchy. There was also this “Today’s Cartoon Network Thing to Do” coming up with really bizzaire things. Laf-la-lympics, where Scooby’s Team always came first closely followed by The Yogi Yaahooees and The Really Rottens always at the bottom, hosted by Pink Panther and another cat I don’t remember. DonWanObeKanobe and Sheep in the big city (There were only two or three episodes of this I think), Another time they came up with a bird playing songs by Josie and the Pussycats.
The real low for Cartoon Network came when it started playing (No not Pokemon/CardCaptors/Jackie Chan Adventures) Flintstones kids and Scooby Doo Kids, where the focus became CateringNewCartoonsForACartoonHungryAudience rather than creativity and exploring the realms of the human psyche. They came up with all sort of things like Courage the Cowardly Dog, and OH! I dont remember because I switched over to Nickelodeon 😛 . All those Nickelodeon fans might remember Rugrats, The wild Thornberrys, and Hey! Arnold. They started another channel PoGo, or was it already there? with Enid Blyton’s Noddy, and Bob the builder and some hotdog like daschund…
After going to NITK i just lost touch with Cartoons and the telivisions. Now I dont know what is going on there…
Cartoons/animation are really wunnerfulthings. I really hope they make better ones, for this generation kids will really miss some thing.
Well, Thats all Folks!!
In a reader
The NITK Numbskulls Page 
It gets worse. You now have Scooby Doo in Hindi! :p
Well, was there ever an alternate ending possible to Tom & Jerry? Replacing the mouse every week isn’t a viable option you see.. They did try their best getting t&J to gel in some episodes[ against other cats, the dog[ or some other combi like that], or the house owners], but there was a limit.
Road runner was worse. I actually felt sorry for coyote.[ partly because he was using all cool-acme stuff, and it never worked, and the physics was all-screwed up all the time]. The physics bit is a new realization. hehe
Japanese people are good for animation. Not for creating well-remembered characters,and definitely not for the script. my opinion.
I absolutely loved Swat-Kats. Coming back from school.[ 4.00]. and Power-zone series playing. Wawesome.
Dexter, Johnny Bravo. Nice timepass. Primarily because of catchy character attitudes.
And Bugs-bunny is right at the top.
“This generation kids will really miss something”. Yes. Yes. Pikachu, and whatnots are not the way to go.
Oh my God, even though I’m still in a very cartoon watching age, but I haven’t really watched them for a while. This one brought back so many memories!
I love Dexter! And Laff-a-lympics! Man, I remember almost everything you’ve mentioned. Except the Smurfs. I never watched that. And Johnny Bravo was sort of boring. Even Flintstones. And Top Cat, I used to hate that.
I very clearly remember that lazy sounding Crocadoo music but I cant exactly recollect which wind instrument it was played on…. I actually liked the show too. It was just too dumb!
There was a time when I knew the entire schedule of CN for the entire damn week by heart and I would never miss any single thing that i wanted to watch!
Laff-a-lympics was good and so was this Race thing between many racers which included Penelope Pitstop, the Professor and some Cavemen with some clubs to drive the car. That was really the high point of the day.
But sadly now everything sucks on CN. God knows what happened!
@Pranesh
Hey! That had started when Pokemon came!!! Its funny listening to Scooby shouting for help in heavy south indian accent 😛
@Logik
I suppose you cannot let the cat catch the mouse, but it gets boring anyways… Swat Cat was awesome, 4 o’ clock yeah!!
@Ish
Smurfs came for about a few months sometime in 98/99 mostly.. Youtube has a few episodes, if you want to have a look..
@ Akshay N R
I always felt that Crocadoo music was someone pretending to be a musical instrument and making that sound with their mouth 😛 .. It was the seven dwarfs with Penelope Pitstop
The Swat Kats. The Centurions. Batman of the Future- which was absolutely brilliant, pity they aired very few episodes.
Jonny Quest.
funny…. i was thinking of blogging on the same. anyway.. i’ll keep this comment as short as i can.
for me, it was talespin and duck tales on DD that started it off… though back then i couldn’t for the hell of me understand hindi.
i got quite sick of tom and jerry pretty early on, but scooby doo was and continues to remain an eternal favorite with me… and also the various spinoffs – josie and the pussycats, goober and the ghost chasers, blue falcon and dynomutt. i guess there are more.
btw, the line was “…and I would have succeeded if it weren’t for you/those meddling kids” followed normally by “and dog” from scoob.
one johnny bravo line i remember is “you smell a kind of pretty… wanna smell me?”
ahh… top cat… benny, choo choo, fancy fancy, spook and brain.. and officer dibble too. too awesome a show, though i didn’t like it much to start with. and the theme song and the closing credits video are the best i’ve found.
croc-a-doo… it was such a brainless show, i hated it coz it replaced one show i really liked.. i forget which. though later i found it good timepass. ‘lazy’ describes the theme song best. and i liked the constant catchphrase of “croc-a-diddly-double” or some such things.
the all-star laff-a-lympics didn’t always have the scooby doobies winning… there were a couple of episodes where the yogi yahooeys won too. they were hosted by snagglepuss and the wolf from “it’s the wollf!! -that’s who it is..- it’s the wolf! it’s the wolf!”.
the flintstone kids were there from very very long back, they used to be telecast in the mornings. that’s where captain caveman and son originated from.
the race thing akshay talks about is called “wacky races”, and the seven dwarfs are called the ant-hill mob. penelope’s car is called “butterfly”… i really loved her southern accent. and the show was the perils of penelope pitstop, and man i really loved the villain – The Hooded Claw.. and his manic laughter.
power zone.. i liked the milder cartoons low on sfx – spaceghost, sha-zaan, galtar. swat kats was a favorite too… especially the commander and his niece.
how come you didn’t mention popeye???
did anyone watch goldie gold and action jack? and inch-high private eye?
how about other old faves like richie rich? i liked all the contraptions prof. keenbean devises. still manage to catch a show or two.
the smurfs were damn cute.
why do i not find any mention of little lulu on this page?
the older looney tunes cartoons without any of the major stars are my favorites… like there was this one on ‘the house of tomorrow’, and another about a collection of books.
the later shows weren’t so bad… MIB was okay, Extreme Ghostbusters were excellent. cardcaptors seems to be liked mostly by girls.. that was the only jap anime i’ve liked.
i started liking pokemon, and for a period of time was a bit knowledgeable about various pokemon and their characteristics,mainly thanks to my younger sister and cousins. i stopped watching however thanks to my sis getting serious about her studies and finding that three shows of pokemon a day (yes, they did telecast it so many times) wasn’t quite worth it.
to wind up, i’ll say i don’t dislike the newer toons only because they are bad, but more because i can’t identify with them anymore.
of course, this excludes courage the cowardly dog and all the rest of the Cartoon Cartoons – powerpuff girls, ed edd n eddy, mike lu and ogg, and all the action-and-bloodshed oriented ones.
@ Monk
Johnny Quest, Excellent!!!
@Wanderlust
and you say short? SHORT? 😛
Dint realise i missed so many… Popeye, Powerpuff girls, Richie Rich(Dollar the Dog was absolutely adorable)!! Casper and the angels!!Speed Racer, Atom Ant, Some dog and Doggy Daddy, The Adams Family, I am weasel (I R Baboon, lol), Wally Gator…
Little Lulu was really cute…
There was also Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius. Although I felt it was a copy of Dexter’s Lab, I liked ’cause it was the first 3D looking toon…
Blast from the past! Hehehe.. Man do I miss the old cartoons.. Or even disney movies… They’re just not the same these days! I loved the Jetsons, Richie Rich, Flintstones, Smurfs and Casper! Just to name a few! 😉
i hasten to add, snagglepuss wasn’t a panther, he was a mountain lion. don’t you remember his catchphrase, “heavens to murgatroyd!”
tuna, the keyword there was ‘as short AS I CAN’ 😛
ohh yess… how could i forget speed racer? and addams family? i hated wednesday and pugsley, though i liked Thing and cousin itt.
atom ant, winsome witch…. hanna barbera were brilliant, no?
the doggy = auggie doggie and doggie daddie.
wally gator… then there was magilla gorilla also no? gorilla in a petshop tries to escape but always comes back…
how about muttley? and his lookalike mumbly who was a detective? there was this show about a beagle called Beagle Beagle.
jonny quest – the real adventures, along with extreme ghostbusters was a whole new dimension to cartoons… they were serious, action packed.
no one remembers captain planet and all his villains? doctor blyte, hoggish greedly, nucum…?
not many people apart from me really liked tiny toons. it was about younger toons going to a looniversity where bugs, daffy, porky, sylvester, tweety etc taught. for some weird reason people got the idea that buster bunny was bugs bunny’s son!
just saw the tags on this post… you say ’90s cartoons. actually, these toons which we got to see, with the possible exeption of pokemon, are actually from the ’70s and the ’80s. sometimes even the ’60s.
that’s why shaggy wears bell bottoms.
i’ve to add this… when i started listening to western classical music, someone told me it sounded like “tom-and-jerry type music” 😉
huckleberry hound sung “oh me darlin’, oh me darlin’, oh me daaarlin’ what’s-her-name”. im not so sure if he ever said clementine.
Firstly, WHOA wanderlust and tuna!!! you watched a LOT of cartoons growing up! 😀 is a good thing only though. i watched quite a few too. wacky races, laff-a-lympics, little lulu show, richie rich and tom & jerry were my faves…
I remember crocadoo too – though just remember it as an utterly dumb show. 🙂 there was another pathetic one – ed, edd and eddy! hated that one.
Also liked scooby movies, popeye (the old ones only!) and swat cats.
Now how about a follow up which includes the most boring cartoons ever. Topping the list would be Top Cat Yawnnnn.
Dexter was and still is my fav. Mandark…wat a guy! Ha, hahahahaha, hahahahahahha. Much respect for Gennedy Tartakovsky(dunno if I got the spelling right)
And yes, I would love watching Lulu.
But why restrict to CN, what bout nick and its wonderful toons such as Hey Arnold, Rugrats etc
@preetzzz
Yeah disney movies were awesome too, Aladdin, little mermaid, etc
@ Wanderlust
Added tags…
Its been a long time since I saw, pink + cat = pink panther logic 😛
Mutley Mumbly werent a detective pair, i dont think so? Remember Mutley’s characteristic laugh , Teeeheeeheeeheee
HnB were brilliant, so was chuck jones…
Yeah forget the pollution control man and the planeteer 😛
And I thot the hound said, clementine? Or did eternal sunshine yada yada movie confuse me? (Cuz I knew its an old rhyme kind of song)
@AnsVad
I think Cartoons were the only things i watched 😛
@ Man on the moon
Mandark went “Excellent HaaHaaaa Excellent!! Excellent!!!”
Did mention nick 😛
@tuna:
muttley and dick dastardly were a pair, who were always trying to catch a messenger pigeon… which used to announce its arrival with a trumpet.
mumbly was this white dog in a dark yellow trenchcoat who used to mumble.. i don’t remember whether he snickered or not.. i’ve watched very few episodes.
huck hound.. im sort of confused now… coz i seem to remember an “oh me daarlin clement-i-i-ne” in a totally off-key way.
think mel blanc deserves a mention on this page… actually more than that.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Blanc
man of a thousand voices.
i somehow can not relate to the nick toons.. they seem too grown-up and not-so-innocent and not-so-mindlessFun. though hey, arnold! and as told by ginger were watchable.
@Wanderlust
If You remember something about Huckle Berry Hound going over a hill where The sings ” Oh! me daarlin’ … clemen” as he goes uphill and the “i-i-i-ne” comes as he plummets down…
Forgot Timeless tales, which aired Emperors New Clothes, Puss in Boots, Thumbelina, and assorted others
ohh yeaaah!!
timeless tales was nice.. then there was Big Bag which came on sunday morning just before timeless tales…. heck, i really did watch nothing other than cartoons!
Ohh i miss those cartoon watching days..I loved Tom n Jerry and Dexter..never liked Bugs Bunny…of course He-Man and the masters of universe & Spiderman. Still now I watch every animation move released ..favorite being Finding Nemo and Ice Age. I really don’t understand what kids like in Pokemon and all those Japanese cartoons..I find them v weird n violent!
I have watched my share of cartoons and still do (much to the amusement of my parents) but over the years I have come to feel that most cartoons aren’t really suitable for children below 10. Tom and Jerry is very violent. while it is nothing when compared to Sin City or Kill Bill types that I enjoy, i still feel that they are not exactly impressionable children material. I think most cartoons glorify violence. One has to keep in mind that the kids watch the cartoons with very different eyes to adults. Watch a random episode now… and tell me if I am wrong.
When I have kids, there is no way I am going to let them watch Tom and Jerry. I will wait until they are asleep and then watch them secretly.
@tuna back in action finally…good to see tat 🙂
mee no cartoons fan but hav watched a few like flintstones n swatcats n dexter’s thanks to my bro!
Ps does moodi+carttons remind u of something 😉
take care
@ Karthik Ram
Ive heard of instances, where a kid put his little brother in a washing machine to get him cleaned have been cited as bad influences of cartoons on children. but then watching Tom and Jerry wouldnt influence violent behavior so much. Im not sure if, forcefully preventing children will keep them from the powerful lure of these. They will always find out a way to sneak a peek.
@sg
It sure does, A pathetic attempt at quizzing, The team sitting in front of us, and one whole packet of Goodday Chocochips 😛
@karthik ram:
tom and jerry… it’s just slapstick humour, isn’t it? it isn’t gory, or demeaning. it is stuff you can laugh at (atleast the older episodes were, the new ones, i dont really like), without too many repercussions.
they aren’t disturbing, or edge-of-the-seat or any one of those things that really influence kids’ minds.
and it’s cat and mouse… a cat’s inherent tendency is to chase mice… and this one mouse gives it back to the cat. and seldom without provocation. it’s always tom who makes the first assault. kids sympathize with the mouse.
similarly, bugs bunny never attacks elmer first… only after a certain amount of provocation, he says “of course you reelize, this means war!”.
kids don’t think of these capers as violence. growing up watching t&j, i was always with the awareness this is just a cartoon, not real, and such tricks in real life would be dangerous…. the adults made that much clear to me. anyway these things are so fantastic no kid would repeat them… or if they do, the number is only a tiny fraction of the total number of kids who try shaktimaan feats… IMO, humans performing any action influence kids a lot more than cartoon of animals.
compare with a movie like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai… so complicated, so teary, the kid there not at all childlike… it gives kids all sorts of new ideas.
that said, story-based cartoons like oswald or kipper are better-suited for kids.
and that said…… i wouldn’t advise kids to watch TV at all. and if they did, certainly not without a responsible adult guiding them.
Amen to that.
@ Reema
Nice to have a fellow cartoon lover around …
How can anyone forget Tintin? I guess was aired sometime back in 2000 on cartoon network. Don’t know whether its still running.
Tintin is better in print than on TV. somehow the wackiness and sense of adventure doesn’t translate well onto the screen.
Not really a cartoon, but I loved that “ek chidiya, anek chidiya…ek taare, anek taare” slightly low quality filler on doordarshan; those simbble days!
Just read vishal patel’s take on ek anek … And i bet You’ll like that video even more.. Google for details..
hey! i wanna know where i can get the video commercial of cartoonnetwork
the song who appears in this commercial is:
“It’s time to do that thing today…
The Cartoon Network thing to do!
So listen for that thing we say…
For once you’ve done that special thing,
It’s the Cartoon Network, thing you did, today!
The Cartoon Network thing… you did!
(Love ya.)”
@ildely,
I haven’t the faintest idea! Tell me if you get it…
ildely:
try youtube. They MUST have it
could we plz together form a petition type of a thing and request cartoon network folks to air those toons again. plz plz plz plz plz
I dont know! I dont think getting them to air is such a problem…
That they dont make stuff like those anymore, that its not the underlying humour which strikes you, but brazen strokes in the drawing, that it becomes showy technology rather than art for art’s sake, which is of greater concern!!
But, maybe its just a phase in cartooning…