Chronicling Cartoons

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 ). 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!!