Those of us who grew up in the '80s tend to look at cartoons from that era in two different ways: we remember them fondly because they were a part of our childhood, but at the same time the '80s signified a significant decline in the quality of animation. While toys and games based on cartoon characters were certainly not an '80s invention, many of the cartoons from that era were essentially half-hour toy commercials weighed down by bad animation and stilted dialogue. Some may argue that televised animation never fully recovered from the rote quality that ruled most of the animation from that decade.
cereal:geek, a magazine set to launch in January of 2007, wants to aproach '80s cartoons in a positive way. According to the magazine's Web site, the creators hope to "challenge the perceptions of the reader." While I'm not a big fan of '80s animation, I do like the idea of this magazine, which, as far as I can tell, will not be yet another "hey remember this?" rehash of '80s culture. Rather, the magazine will actually take these cartoons seriously, and I have to say, I really admire that. Clearly, I have my own opinions of what was churned out by the studios during that era, but I'm not so much of stickler I'm unwilling to consider another point of view.
[via Cartoon Brew]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-07-2006 @ 1:38AM
Gavin said...
The idea sounds kinda neat at first, but the more I think about it, the more it sounds like a thin premise to base a magazine around. There are already enough websites about the topic, so do we really need a PRINT magazine about 80's toons? Don't they know that niche print magazines are facing tough times? Good luck to them.
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12-06-2006 @ 10:40PM
Alan said...
I was going to say you were wrong, but I was just over at http://www.80scartoons.net/toons/index3.html and was browsing the massive amount of junk churned out in the 80s. I was a kid then, and most of my favorites wouldn't hold up now, but I still wish I could buy "Thundarr the Barbarian"on DVD.
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12-06-2006 @ 11:03PM
Zack said...
This is the greatest idea for a magazine I've seen in years. I want to write for this so bad.
And while there WAS a lot of junk, there were definitely some real gems that compare favorably to most of the stuff on today. THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS, G.I. JOE, even non-animated stuff such as PEE WEE'S PLAYHOUSE and CAPTAIN POWER AND THE SOLDIERS OF THE FUTURE.
'course, TV animation had its renaissance in the 1990s with BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, ANIMANIACS, FREAKAZOID, all those prime time shows like THE SIMPSONS...
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12-07-2006 @ 10:24AM
A.M. Willey said...
You think the 1980s animation was bad???? Take a look at the 70s cartoons! The 80s was a breath of fresh air with Thundercats and GI Joe compared to that.
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12-07-2006 @ 12:11PM
B said...
The real problem with 80s cartoons was they were designed as toy delivery vehicles first, and entertainment second. A lot of them succeeded despite this handicap, but it did tend to hurt the overall quality. Another problem was the "me-too" tendency to imitate successful cartoons (See Snorks and Go-bots)
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