Remembering the 80s cartoons – Part 4

I couldn’t sleep the other night and was flipping through the television channels. When I came across Boomerang, Thundarr the Barbarian was showing. I could not believe how excited I was to see it on television, I stayed up to watch it. Cartoons in the ’80s were great, before Sailor Moon there was Jem and the Holograms. We had Transformers and GoBots, the same cartoon really, but you loved one and hated the other. Smurfs and Snorks, Gummi Bears and Dungeons & Dragons filled our Saturday mornings. He-Man had the power of Grayskull and a really cool cousin named She-Ra. The Superfriends kept the universe safe from the Hall of Justice. Is there anyone out there over thirty and under forty who doesn’t know the statement, “Wonder Twins, Activate”?, and who hasn’t wondered all these years why Zan always had to take on forms of water? Did we ever really care why, in all the battle-centric cartoons, there was usually only one girl, like in Voltron and Thundercats? Cartoons were just fun to watch, they still are.

Saturday morning cartoons, on the major networks, are part of the Gen X past, but DVD releases are bringing the fun back. I have been able to share that part of my childhood with my niece, much to her dismay. Cartoons all had their tie-ins, that started with Star Wars, but how many kids did you know who didn’t have at least ten Smurfs, five Star Wars figures, and a Transformer or two? We played outside in groups of two or more, GI Joe versus Cobra, and sometimes Cobra won. Cartoons were just great silly diversions, we didn’t worry about political correctness or which social group might be offended. Where else, but the ’80s, could you have a skit on the Muppet Show about “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady”?

Cartoons from the ’80s are alive and well. With the release of DVD box sets and in modern cartoons like Family Guy, where you have to have knowledge of the ’80s toons to get some of the jokes, we can continue to enjoy them for years to come and share them with the next generation of cartoon watchers.