My friend Ed and I have been working on a pet project for some time now, just a little something to takeover our free time and make us laugh. Ed’s an artist, so naturally the plan has something to do with art. I’m responsible for the writing and, naturally, the web design. Unfortunately I haven’t been as inspired as I had hoped, but I was struck with an idea this past week. The project is related to graphic novels, cartoons, etc, so I thought I’d revisit all of my favorites from the good ole’ days. A couple months ago I purchased Batman: The Animated Series on DVD, TiVo’s been recording episodes of Animaniacs for me, and I’ve been downloading episodes of Freakazoid courtesy of the Digital Archive Project. And of course, I’ve been reading old comic books like The Maxx, X-Men, and Captain Britain.

    All of this artistic nostalgia has brought up a great deal of old memories, but not necessarily in the format one might expect. This morning as I was watching Animaniacs, I started to get a funny taste in my mouth; my mind was recalling the taste of something delicious in its tangy sugariness. When Animaniacs was in its heyday, I was eight years old, living in Mississippi, and just starting out as a home-schooler. Perhaps subconsciously I missed the structure of public school, so I would create these funny little routines for myself. My personal favorite was Afternoon Cartoon Time. There was a little shop on the Army Engineers Post where we were living, and I’d beg my Mom to take me there to get a roll of Sweetarts before 4:00PM. Why? Because that was when Animaniacs was on, followed by my other favorite, Batman. Steven and I would laugh ourselves silly, I’d get a tummyache from all the citric acid in the sweetarts, but by the time dinner would roll around, there’d be a big smile on my face.

    Another thing I’ve noticed about these shows is how different they are from what’s out today. As much as I love Fairly Odd Parents & Spongebob Squarepants, they just don’t quite measure up. The endless inside jokes and cultural references, most of which sailed right over my head as a kid, are astounding. All these years later and there’s even more for me to laugh at as an adult. Animaniacs was impressive enough, but watching Freakazoid again is mind-blowing. In the two episodes I’ve downloaded, there were jokes about Sigmund Freud, David Lee Roth, Ray Charles, F-Troop, Harry Connick Jr, Johnny Quest, Siegfried & Roy, et cetera, et cetera. Apart from just developing my bizarre sense of humor, I learned a lot from these old shows. The best example I can think of is my love of opera. Have you ever thought about how many times Bizet’s Carmen is parodied by Warner Brothers cartoons? Bugs Bunny mocked it once with Yosemite Sam in one famous cartoon, but what made Animaniacs different was how they’d sneak in references to the opera itself and its composer. Kids would actually learn in the process of laughing. I’ve noticed that Fairly Odd Parents does a bit of this, and it is definitely more intelligent humor than, say, Jimmy Neutron (oh how I loathe that show), but it’s still not quite at that same level.

    Same goes for Batman, but in a slightly different way. That entire series, rather than jumping on the Anime bandwagon, developed its own unique artistic style. Even at the age of eight, I noticed that style and it inspired my appreciation for many artistic styles, including Art Deco, 40’s Futuristic, and Pulp Sci-fi of the early 20th century. For the sake of comparison (and because there was nothing else on), I tuned in to Justice League the other night and was frankly disappointed. Their attempts at style were nothing more than copying the same old traits of Anime that are seeping into every branch of American animation – strange simplified facial movements, Asian-influenced action sequences, etc. Same goes for Teen Titans, My Life As a Teenage Robot, and practically every other action-related kids’ cartoon out there today. It’s disappointing; the effort that went into the creation of Batman: The Animated Series, their attention to detail, and their creativity in developing a unique artisitc style had an impact on my childhood. The memories associated with this show are mostly related to the style they created. It was my first exposure to those aforementioned artforms, and that exposure was all I needed to delve deeper and learn more. If every cartoon these days is based on Anime, where’s the variety to spark each child’s individual interest? (Personally I can’t stand most cheap Anime, simply because I don’t appreciate the simplicity. The fact that the mouths move and yet their chins don’t, argh, I can’t overcome that distraction.)

    That’s exactly why I have such fond memories associated with Animaniacs, Freakazoid, and Batman; the creativity, the intelligent humor, the dedication, and the attention to detail. I appreciate the efforts of the creators of Fairly Odd Parents, Spongebob (it may be obnoxious, but it’s unique), and a few others, such as Samurai Jack. Even though I can’t stand watching Samurai Jack for the voice actors, I love its style and overall look. Yes, it’s Asian, but it’s not a copy of cheaply created Anime. I think Fairly Odd Parents is the one that stands out from the crowd, simply because of their efforts to make the humor more complex than just your average kid’s show. In essence, they don’t dumb anything down. It goes beyond just jokes for the kids and jokes for the adults. While always providing something simple to laugh at, that show challenges the viewer to think beyond just slapstick or poop jokes. A good children’s book will never settle at a young child’s reading level, rather it will encourage the reader to progress and fine-tune their abilities. I believe children’s programming should do the same, encouraging cultural and artistic awareness for the sole purpose of finding more to laugh about. The world gets funnier the more you know. Need proof? Look no farther than the infamous Monty Python – all of its members, save for one, went to Oxford or Cambridge. I wish more kid’s shows would follow that example, simply because I want today’s kids to be as inspired as I was by the shows they watched; I want them to have as many interesting memories as I do.