80's/90's carton appreciation thread

[Terthna]

Growing up I found few if anyone I knew knew of the same ones I did, but fortunately these days its been easier to find those who did these are just a few of the ones I remember, I have more if people want me to post them.

I have vague memories of seeing the show when I was really young, but I'm mostly familiar with The Centurions from when Cartoon Network used to run reruns of it.

 

[Aaron Fox]

Amen.

Just look how they butchered Thunder Cats!

We started with this:

Which was incredible art and especially animation for its time, and still holds up pretty well today for a 35 year old cartoon.

Then there was the 2011 reboot:

From what I gather, it was polarizing among fans. No wonder, purists never like any changes, but just from watching the intro (not the episodes themselves) it looks like a decent modernized take for the series, with all the old recognizable elements of the old one, improved graphics and animation, an updated theme song. Sure, they might have gotten some things wrong, maybe the spirit of the series wasn't exactly the same - never watched so I'm just guessing here. It looks maybe a bit edgier and grittier in that image, which might put off some old-time fans, but it was at least a decent shot at a reboot.

Then, we have this abomination, which is exactly what you're talking about:

WHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!????????????????????//

Because the marketing data told them to. The biggest problem right now is that animation (and video game) companies, in general, are being dominated by not someone that understands both the business and creative side of things, usually, it's either someone that is essentially a marketing exec or someone that is purely business that is able to please the stockholders/investors.

I've already said my piece about Star Wars and how it became a dumpster fire, and I have said my piece about diehard fans and how they're generally a blight on any fandom they try to dominate...

 

[Ash's Boomstick]

The issue is that they are trying to sell to certain demographics to make a load of money, some series have been known to be incredibly successful ratings wise but dumped because those watching it are not those who buy the merch. It says a lot that the cartoon and animation types of thirty to forty years ago are better than almost anything these days, they look better, the stories were better even if they were basically toy ads.

Funny thing is with the generation that grew up back then, they would likely watch something similar now, might even buy the merch (Transformers have recently relaunched older G1 style stuff and its selling well to the fans) and share it with their families because its similar to what they had back then. Current art styles look boring, unfinished or just plan awful and lazy compared to back then, that Thundercats series was just one of them.

 

[Aaron Fox]

The issue is that they are trying to sell to certain demographics to make a load of money, some series have been known to be incredibly successful ratings wise but dumped because those watching it are not those who buy the merch. It says a lot that the cartoon and animation types of thirty to forty years ago are better than almost anything these days, they look better, the stories were better even if they were basically toy ads.

Funny thing is with the generation that grew up back then, they would likely watch something similar now, might even buy the merch (Transformers have recently relaunched older G1 style stuff and its selling well to the fans) and share it with their families because its similar to what they had back then. Current art styles look boring, unfinished or just plan awful and lazy compared to back then, that Thundercats series was just one of them.

The thing is that Poe's law is in full effect here when it comes to cartoons. The ones that are still remembered today are only remembered because they weren't shit. For every He-Man, Transformers, and Gargoyles, there was just crap. It also didn't help that SpongeBob exists and kind of nuked the cartoon landscape...

... which reminds me...

 

[Ash's Boomstick]

Believe me I also remember the utter tat from back then as well, such as these.

 

[Aaron Fox]

Believe me I also remember the utter tat from back then as well, such as these.

That's... that's just bad.

But yeah, SpongeBob kind of caused problems for the cartoon industry as a whole. That and people not liking nitty-gritty in their fiction in general.

 

[edgeworthy]

The thing is that Poe's law is in full effect here when it comes to cartoons. The ones that are still remembered today are only remembered because they weren't shit. For every He-Man, Transformers, and Gargoyles, there was just crap. It also didn't help that SpongeBob exists and kind of nuked the cartoon landscape...

... which reminds me...

"What do you want to do tonight Brain?"

 

[Aaron Fox]

Oh yeah, I have some vague recollections of that show. Didn't it get cancelled suddenly, though? I remember coming home to watch it one day only for there to be some other show on instead.

Yeah, it didn't sell well, but I'll have to say it was several floors up from its previous incarnations. The biggest problem was that it changed directors halfway through and went out of its way to repeat the original while killing off the new villains in the process.

"What do you want to do tonight Brain?"

"Try to take over the world!"

... yeah, one of the few things that I grew up with back in the day.

To add...


It must be noted that I loved the TV show first then my parents bought the Railway Series (the Reverand Audry book compilation book that I have literally had its binding all but completely shot I loved it so much).