Tuesday, August 4, 2009

[Editorial]- "Where is Scrooge McDuck Hiding At?"

(Originally posted in the June 2008 issue of the SFC Newsletter)

It seems the future of cartoons is in jeopardy. They are being replaced by preteen sitcoms and reality shows, which are fine for an older audience. But what about the younger children who are too young for this?

I remember watching "Garfield and Friend", "Tiny Toon Adventures", and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" every Saturday morning. You can now find a new incarnation of TMNT, but it’s not as good as the original. It seems the current trend is to remake old cartoons. Can‘t the studios come up with any new ideas of their own? Surely, there are writers out there, like me, with lots of imagination, who can come up with new, exciting cartoon characters and stories for today’s kids. Stories you can remember generations from now.

Not being able to sleep one night, I turned the television on and flipped through the channels. I ran across a cartoon on the Disney Channel. I watched for only five minutes before I was disgusted. The story, the humor, and the animation were terrible, in my humble opinion.

After a few more nights of not sleeping, I decided to record some cartoons during the day for me to watch. I was shocked when I looked at the television listings and couldn’t find any of the cartoons that I grew up with! In fact, there were hardly any cartoons on at all. What happened to the creative original cartoons that I grew up with? What happened to the after-school cartoons?

In my area, there is only the Cartoon Network and the Disney Channel for cartoons. The Cartoon Network shows some of the dumbest cartoons ever made. There is not an ounce of thought in them. The only two classics that are aired on the channel are "Scooby Doo" and "Tom & Jerry."

The Disney Channel does carry some cartoons, but definitely not enough of them. They rely heavily on pre-teen shows. Most of the shows are spin-offs of other Disney movies. No, it is not an original idea. But it seems that the writers think that the audience, young and old, are not intelligent. The animation is done poorly, the characters are not likable, and there is not much of a plot.

I remember coming home from school and watching the Disney Afternoon shows back in the late ’80s and early '90s; shows like "Gummi Bears," "Ducktales," "TaleSpin," "Chip 'n Dale’s Rescue Rangers" and "Darkwing Duck." Some of the characters from the shows came from other movies, but the shows had original stories and characters that you enjoyed watching. Thankfully, I have these and other cartoons on DVD now. I prefer to watch them over and over again instead of the mindless effort that they are putting on the screens these days.

Maybe I should team up with Scrooge McDuck to help me write some new adventures based on some of the classic cartoons I grew up with. I had so much fun as a kid, imagining some of these characters were my playmates. We had so many great adventures together. You never know. Perhaps one day, I could write the continuing adventures of these cartoon characters I grew up with.

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