It seems it wasn't that long ago when you could pull up a bowl of cereal and tune in to watch some of your favorite cartoons. Yep that was the 90s. Cartoon Network hosted a whole variety of shows, some of which haven't been aired in ages, Nickelodean had many shows that were bent on comedy, yet very funny to watch. Disney also had a great lineup, as well as a few Disney movie titles that blew me away (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King). Those days were fun while they lasted, but now I tune in to any of those three channels and they're just a disgrace. I begin to wonder, what went wrong?

As I look at it, most of the cartoons used 2-D traditional cell animation, where people drew the characters by hand and painted the backgrounds to make them look stunning. Whatever it was that the artists turned out with, I loved the variety they showed to kids. The regular shows were great as well, pertaining to a huge audience with many needs and wants. But when the turn of the century approached, the shows started to degrade in quality, and a new format, CGI, was beginning to dominate. I don't hate CGI animation, but it just pales in comparison to 2-D. Why? Because CGI lacks a few elements that 2-D has, such as squash and stretch. It feels quite different to be watching a cartoon made of CGI rather than an older 2-D traditional cell animated show. 2-D brings the characters to life and the backgrounds look sometimes real, yet suitable for 2-D. CGI looks dull and lifeless, and yet since it's done all by computer mostly, it can be done much quicker and cheaper than people can do a 2-D animated cartoon. It pains me to see shows like Jimmy Neutron, because the concept is stupid and unoriginal. The cartoon completely ripped off Dexter's Lab, which in my opinion was a better show. I don't enjoy CGI in a cartoon show, because I just think it's not quite the same feeling as watching a 2-D cartoon.

Another way to look at it is that people have lost their imagination. In the 90s and earlier it wasn't uncommon to see a show with characters that throw original but hilarious lines. Or cartoons that were bent on drama but pulled the viewers in as to what could happen next. Last but not least, you had characters you could relate to. Cartoons of today are filled with adult jokes and unlikeable characters. To make matters worse, anime has practically dominated every major network that airs cartoons. Now anime was cool, back when it wasn't quite mainstream and it focused on a heavily built storyline that could sometimes be complicated to follow. Today it is just overproduced, cheap animated crap. American cartoons now use Flash instead of the more detailed cell animation. Flash is a great program for use on the Internet, but never is it good for a cartoon! The animation is atrocious as well as the dialogue.

I don't find myself happy finding a cartoon that is just god awful ugly in terms of quality. There aren't many cartoons worth watching, other than Family Guy, South Park, or Simpsons. But those shows are more bent for an adult audience. Kids cartoons have certainly gone down the drain, making me wonder if today's animators and writers simply got lazy and put some half assed idea into a concept that doesn't really work out that well. It seems that I can't find any good cartoon that I watched as a kid anymore. Toon Disney airs some of their older cartoons sometimes, but they are placed in a badly built schedule. The network is pretty much controlled by Jetix which contains some of the worst anime shows I've ever seen. Their other shows are just as bad. Which brings me to forming a channel dedicated to older shows. Like TV Land, the network only airs the older shows that an older audience grew up with. Until sometime decides to make a channel that airs 90s and older cartoons, my only chance to watch them is buying them on DVD sets. Right now 80s shows and cartoons are selling like hotcakes, and I don't think it will be long before we begin to remenice about the 90s and begin buying shows from that decade as well.

So to end a long rant, I'm depressed with today's crap. Cartoons haven't been quite the same as they used to be, and kids entertainment in general is just horrible. I think that in the 90s kids were worthy of attention and the entertainment industry seemed to concentrate on us, giving us all these beloved shows that we may perhaps talk about until we die. But now they receive the short end of the dough, having to watch cheaply produced anime, and god awful sitcoms and TV shows.