What I Miss: Cartoons

Recently I've been thinking about the rare availability of quality cartoons.  As a kid I rarely watched TV but some of my favorite things to watch were cartoons.  I remember watching the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the mornings, but mostly I remember watching cartoon specials.  My older sisters or Mom would tape the specials for me on our VCR so I could watch them again and again.  

I watched them so much that I wore some of the tapes out.  I had three favorites.  The first was "Snoopy: The Musical."  I can still sing most of the songs from this wonderful gem.  The second was a tape that had several different Garfield shows on it.  My mom especially liked Garfield. 

The third is the reason I'm writing this post.  I use to LOVE the Looney Tunes.  Most of what we had on tape were season specials that played classic Looney Tune segments.  Bugs Bunny was my favorite and I remember more than one shopping trip in the Warner Bros. Store in NYC.  Last night I watched The Bugs Bunny RoadRunner Movie.  It had some of my very favorite segments in it and it's hosted by Bugs Bunny himself.  It really made my day, made me laugh like I was seeing them for the first time, and also made me smile to remember how much I loved them as a kid.  

Below is a short trailer for the film. 

When Ryan and I first started dating, we enjoyed "Dexter's Laboratory."  It was a story about a boy genius with a secret lab in his basement.  He fought evil villains as well as dealt with his older sister DeeDee.  It's been awhile since I've seen it, so I can't really remember what we liked about it so much.

Some cartoons that are being produced today are quality, but most are obnoxious and not all that funny.  Last summer I spent six weeks at my sisters house and had a lot of time to watch cartoons with my nephew who was 5 at the time.  He watched some things that weren't really aimed at anyone but his specific age group and I didn't mind them, but I didn't really pay much attention either.  "Ben 10: was one of these, it wasn't bad I just didn't care for it much.  "The Fairly Odd Parents" on the other hand are extremely obnoxious and happen to be

on the list of things my sister does not care for my nephew to watch.  They promote bad habits and obnoxious noises, and of course kids find them funny but there is never much of a story.  

My favorite from the summer had to be "Chowder."  This was a cartoon about a "bear-cat thing" who was an apprentice to a chef.  They live in this imaginative and colorful world of food and cooking.  The things they make are all made up and there are always great stories about adventures and misadventures.  Perhaps one of my favorite parts of the show is the theme song which I enjoy sining with my nephew.