Cartoons I Watched As A Child [For Better Or Worse]

There was a lot of crap to cut through when widdling down a list of crap I watched as a kid. Omitting the live action Nickelodean programs [which were awesome -- I mean who didn't like Salute Your Shorts?] I realize that my mom did an awesome job as far as raising me, but I'd have to say the old idiot box did its fair share of damage on my imagination.  Feel free to snicker and jeer as I reminisce and pine over some embarassing moments. FOX Kids, Kids! WB, Toonami, even some crap from Channel 55 [Cleveland] is thrown in this list for good measure. Maybe you'll see something you liked...or still love.

Get to learning after the jump.

Eek The Cat & The Terrible Thunder Lizards -- Apologies for the quality of video [hey I didn't upload it so get off my case]. Eek and TTL was probably my barometer as a child as to how many ingenius ways pain and violence can be depicted on a children's show. I'm sure this show probably isn't as good as I remember it, but man there were so many references to Alfred Hitchcock and Sci-Fi movies...how could I not love this show? I think it two maybe three seasons [too lazy to IMDB it]

Rescue Rangers -- Upon watching this episode of Rescue Rangers, I realize that not only was the music freaking sweet, but the voice acting talent were pretty hilarious. Geez, Monteray Jack has to have one of the most annoying accents I've heard in my cartoon viewing life. I was big fan of Zip though.

David The Gnome -- Pretty sure I never liked David The Gnome. My mom would always put it on whatever station played this show on saturday mornings and I had to watch it before the 'grown-up cartoons' came on the Sci-Fi channel [Project A-Ko/B-Ko, Blood, Vampire Hunter D]. I picked this clip, because it encapsulated everything I liked and hated about the show. That and I never knew there was a death scene for David and his wife. The art was crazy, kinda reminded me of Winnie The Pooh.

C.O.P.S. -- LOVED C.O.P.S., couldn't get enough of this show. Well, actually that's not entirely true, because they always aired reruns mid-season of a cartoons [see also: X-Men, Reboot and Spider Man]. The episodes were great, again great music and weird voice talent. Always good to see cartoons nodding to old film and classic actors [Cagney was consistently referenced on this damn show it got kind of sickening].

The Real Ghostbusters -- Crap, couldn't get the intro music for C.O.P.S. or The Real Ghostbusters, but this works just as well. One of my favorite cartoons and one of my favorite villains -- The Boogeyman. Hindsight is 20/20, I use to like Egon, but man does his voice sound wooden. Bill Murray and Dan Ackroyd doing their own voice work was pretty sweet and the animation [similar to C.O.P.S. and cartoons of this era] was repetitive, but the backgrounds were very painterly and modernized.

Talespin -- If you didn't like Talespin as a child, then you probably grew up to be a murder. I think that's a science fact. On paper, kind of a dumb idea. Let's take the Jungle Book characters and give them jobs in present day. It works. To the point of me leaning my favortism towards this show and less in that of the Gummi Bears.

Where On Earth Is Carmen San Diego -- Whoa...how did I miss that gospel song intro? This show grabbed my by the intro, because Reboot and Transformers: Beast Wars was pretty popular at the time and 3D was this futuristic concept [gimmick] that was being shoved in just about every cartoon at the time.

Cowboy Bebop -- Okay, so Cowboy Bebop snuck in that part of my life when I was clearly too damn old to be watching 'cartoons', but Toonami had that line up didn't they? There was nothing like this show on television and though some of us Americans were getting serial animes on the late end [see also: Sailor Moon, Dragonball and Fist Of The Northstar] the localization and quality music really hold up. That is so hard to come by, hell, just look at my list. A LOT of my childhood stuff doesn't hold up well over time.

Outlaw Star -- Truth be told, I don't remember much about Outlaw Star, the stories always got muddled for me. Probably because it was pretty boring, but the intro and outro music were pretty cool.

Bots Master -- There was no reason any child or adult should ever watch Bots Master. Why did I? Maybe it was because I had to be up at 5:30am in order to catch the bus for school. The robots didn't make sense, but that's okay because this cartoon had a special 3-D mode during an action sequence that was just as mind bendingly idiotic as the plot.

Ronin Warriors -- I embrace this clearly weird Japanese translated cartoon that may or may not have been inspired by Voltron. Because the backdrop of a [once] metropolitan Japanese city was so well realized and the voice talent [though inconsistent] was so unique, I will look past the last seaon of Ronin Warriors. The last season is akin to the last season of Newsradio or Ned & Stacy...so awful everyone who was a fan erased the tradgedy from their conscious mind.

X-Men -- After a spirted debate with a couple of friends I can honestly say that the 90's run of the X-men is the best we are going to get in regards to what was both good and awful about the legacy of the Marvel mainstay. Look, when you look back at these episodes -- they are fun and cheesy, but due to voice acting and really terrible story lines [seriously why did we do an episode featuring X-Force?] the X-men got skipped over for the following.

Superman: The Animated Series -- Truth be told, as a character, I hated Superman. The all-American hero from a place very far from America never really made sense to me. The visual style and having Lori Petty voice over occasionally kept me watching from time to time. Plus I was suffering from Batman:TAS withdrawal.

Animaniacs -- What didn't they parody? Plus having segments like Good Idea/Bad Idea were pretty darn cool, but I liked when they wedged in Pinky & The Brain as well as Good Feathers. Quality block of time sucked out of my youth.

The Tick -- '95 was a great year for cartoons. As I type this I realize that most of that most of these cartoons were running or rerunning all during this time. The Tick was a favorite [and if they ever reinvent it please use Patrick Warburton from the live action because he was the only thing awesome about that show] it made fun of the screwball antics of most comic book stereotypes and plot structure. Very meta.

Aeon Flux -- Don't tell my mom I watched this.

Batman: The Animated Series -- I could have put The Simpson's or Beavis and Butthead or even Ren & Stimpy, but this was the cartoon that interested me the most. Much like Arrested Development or the movie Office Space, I can always go back and watch certain gems and see something new or laugh at something that's always struck the same chord with me. Didn't really dig the spin-offs though I hear they weren't bad, this one cartoon took up years of my life. Sad, but not regretful.

Comments

[Armil@broadway musical tickets]

As a child , they love watching those kind of cartoons , they will sit in the sofa holding remote control and watched the show 24/7 a day! that's how ridiculous it is.

Thanks for sharing!