80s Nostalgia: Cartoons were cooler back in the day. Oh yes.
Youtube is a very naughty thing, sometimes. Last night my girlfriend and I, both of us with projects to work on, spent three hours watching intro pieces to 80s cartoons. Transformers, He man and the Masters of the Universe, Dogtanian and the Muskahounds, Thundercats, M.A.S.K, She-Ra, Jem and the like. The night disappeared in a blur of 2D animation and catchy theme tunes, and we came to the joint conclusion that they really donl;t make them like they used to. What happened to the memorable them,e tune? The jaunty lyrics? Who can forget tunes like the opening to The Lost Cities of Gold? (Yeah, I hear you all singing “Children of the sun…” right now) It does seem that the recent resurgence of interest in all things 80s has been caused by an abject lack of anything new and memorable in years.
And 2D, cel shaded anbimation is much cooler than the uber flashy CG fests around now. Seriously. The stuff onscreen actually seemed to have some mass to it. Granted, these endless action fests were blatant advertisements for related merchandise, but the content of each episode has proved to be memorable across the generation divide, and even though the animation, music and attitudes are dated, they remain huge fun to watch. Plus, they are nowhere near as patronizing as kid’s shows
One weird thing that viewing these things again, as an adult, is that you tend to try and over-examine every aspect, whereas your younger self just accepted what was on screen. This can lead to viewers losing some appreciation for the source material, but for me, if anything, it has made me love those flawed, ludicrous things even more. Mind you, that over-examination of things we loved as kids is one of the big draws to the geek industries, for which I’m grateful for, but you should never forget that these things were made for kids and should be viewed as such. Have some fun. Disengage your brain, ramp up your suspension of disbelief, and enjoy.
Big kids? Yes we are, one and all. Damn proud of it too. Now, where’s my sherbert?