Cartoons: The Decline from 90's Standards

"Man! They are trying to suck our brains right out through our foreheads. I swear the government has to be behind it. It is completely numbing! It has to be a form of mind control. They have to be using this in Guantanamo Bay to get information! I can't believe they are subjecting children to this! Children! What is the world coming to? Is there no humanity left? God, are you there? It's me, Kady. (Choking up) Please, Lord...just answer me this one question...Where has all the good television gone?! It's like all the imagination has been sucked into the vacuum of space and we are left with this...horrendously written animation that the poor children of this generation are subjected to. What's really tragic...is that they don't know how horrible it is! They actually think it's good! Most have never seen the magic that is 90's cartoons...unless their parents are intelligent, saintly beings..." That is an excerpt from my monologue Numbing Control written about today's topic: 90's cartoons vs today's. I have to say, as expressed in my monologue, that 90's cartoons are, hands-down the best cartoons, and IMDb agrees that there is some good animation from that era. Although a few leaned to the weird and scary side, they were well written, well thought out, and they knew who they were playing to. They knew who kids were and how to talk to them through these shows. Some of my favorites as a kid have been ranked in the top 50 of the best animation of the 90's and they include...

1. Courage the Cowardly Dog with 8.3 stars
2. Rocko's Modern Life with 8.0 stars
3. Daria with 8.0 stars
4. Dexter's Laboratory with 8.0 stars
5. Pinky and the Brain with 8.0 stars
6. Hey Arnold! with 7.7 stars
7. Doug with 7.6 stars
8. Rugrats with 7.5 stars
9. The Ren and Stimpy Show with 7.5 stars
10. Ed, Edd, 'n' Eddy with 7.4 stars

As I got older, I would flip to my favorite cartoon channels hoping to find reruns of my favorites. I didn't find the shows I grew up with, but something rather shocking. Children's shows with terrible writing, equally bad acting, and no active thought put behind them. I found most of the programs to be offensive in that they assumed that children are stupid. They dumbed down everything so much that one would assume that the intended audience was infants instead of 5-12 year-old kids. One thing I have learned from having nieces and nephews, and I am sure most parents would agree, is that children are not at all stupid. They are wildly imaginative and think of things in ways that are so unique and untouched by society that, in some ways, we should be learning from them. They should be provided programming that is just as imaginative and smart as they are. I know there are some new animated shows on cartoon channels that are very popular and well-liked, but I have to point out that the intended audience is for teenagers and young adults and not children. There are good animated shows now, but, as I have said before, the audience, for the most part, isn't children. By user rating, IMDb lists these following shows as the "Highest Rated Animation TV Series/Mini-Series"...

1. Inanimate Insanity with 9.8 stars
2. Planetar with 9.8 stars
3. Diamond Forest Drummers with 9.8 stars
4. Cupid's Chocolates with 9.6 stars
5. Whisker Haven Tales with the Palace Pets with 9.6 stars
6. Rick and Morty with 9.3 stars
7. One Punch Man: Wanpanman with 9.3
8. Kinda Funny: The Animated Series with 9.2 stars
9. Avatar: The Last Airbender with 9.2 stars
10. Ajin with 9.1 stars 

All of the later listed shows that I have see are excellent. The writing, acting, and animation are incredibly imaginative, thoughtful, and the creators clearly had their audience in mind. I wish the same attention was brought to American children's programming instead of being condescending. In the mean time, those with children can always share the cartoons of their childhood until better programs come out.

I do not own any of the photographs or videos. My research is from www.imdb.com.