tymime's tumblr

What about Birdie's birthday?

Moxy from The Moxy Show (aka The Moxy Pirate Show aka The Moxy & Flea Show)

Something I’ve been thinking about lately, and one of the things I miss most about cartoons and kid programming in the ‘90s, is the hosts that presented them. Whether it was a show with multiple segments, or a several hour marathon of some kind, something about characters talking to you and telling you what was coming up next made your viewing experience feel like an event, something special, something that you, yourself, were involved in and participating in, and not just passively consuming.

This is something that’s been missing for a long time, and something that’s much, much harder to do in the streaming era. Sure, we can still watch Tiny Toons on DVD, and “binge watch”, as we call it these days, an entire season of our favorite shows. But there’s less of sense of interaction, however artificial it may have been, and less of a sense of the shows being specifically selected for the audience in that particular moment in time. There were also programs like Nick in the Afternoon (with its U-Pick gimmick) and JBVO, where you could actually directly influence what you watched. You do, of course, have the freedom to watch whatever you want if you subscribe to the right streaming services, but to me, it was the characters that made all the difference.

It sorta gave the illusion that these characters were alive, at least on some other plane of existence. It also has a similar appeal as old school variety shows like Ed Sullivan and Johnny Carson, or even Vaudeville and circuses.

In general, I miss the days when kid programming felt more like they were catering to us, instead of just telling us what we should like.

Our latest album, just in time for spooky season

Feeling like a kid again!

Full album of songs inspired by everyone’s childhoods (including late Gen X, Gen Y, and early Gen Z)

A lot of the argument in favor of 2010s cartoons is that they’re doing things no cartoons have ever done before. This couldn’t be further from the truth. I can get everything I could possibly want from ‘80s and ‘90s cartoons.

World-building and deep lore? TaleSpin. DuckTales (thanks to Carl Barks). Gummi Bears. My Little Pony. Ewoks. Aladdin. Gargoyles.

Dark and scary stuff? Too many to mention, but Disney and early Don Bluth films especially.

Complex, sympathetic villains? Darkwing Duck. The Raccoons. My Little Pony. Pokémon. Pinky and the Brain.

Long, drawn-out plotlines and/or quests? Any number of anime or action cartoons, really.

Sociopolicital satire/liberal agendas? Animaniacs. Pepper Ann. Recess. The Raccoons.

Ethnically diverse casts? Hey Arnold. Recess. The Wombles.

Strong female leads? Disney princesses. Hey Arnold. SWAT Kats.

Homosexual characters? Hey Arnold yet again. Mr. Simmons, to be exact.

Fourth wall breaking and meta humor? You’re kidding, right? That sort of thing has been around since Porky’s Duck Hunt in 1937, at least.

Also, Whatever Happened to Robot Jones was doing 1980s pop culture references before anyone else was.

There seems to be this impression that because of the popularity of Cartoon Network and Spielberg-produced Looney Tunes spinoffs that every TV cartoon in the ‘90s was pure slapstick silliness. There was a lot of that, but that was only one side to the whole picture. It seems to me that a lot of what came afterwards was a misguided reaction to that. It’s a testament to the ignorance of people who favor 2010s cartoons that they think they’re being innovative.

Aesthetic: ‘90s cartoons attempting to recreate pixel graphics

I grew up with one of these in a nearby mall. I was kind of fascinated with it...

I don't know about anyone else, but the Nintendo leaks have been filling me with a sense of wonder I haven't felt since I was a kid.

There's a kind of aura of mystery surrounding mid-to-late '90s games that I think has a lot to do with the clunky, awkward look and feel to them. Like your brain fills in the gaps and makes them look better than they really do, which probably has a lot to do with the tiny, blurry screens we had back then.

A lot of games nowadays are so smooth and perfect that even if there are secrets, they come across as thoughtful and deliberate, rather than obscure, bizarre or even unintentional.

It helps a lot that these leaks have uncovered stuff that so closely resembles the old playground/Geocities rumors, like PokéGods and L is Real.

I think the only recent game that even comes close to capturing this feeling is Undertale...