So, as usual, I spent an unbelievable amount of time thinking about what to write for my blog, and then an idea just came up out of nowhere. I was going to write about the "new" classics compared to the "classic" classics. As I scanned the current animated landscape for such a show, I realized that nothing on TV now fits that category, except The Simpsons (For the purposes of this post, I will exempt it by calling it the exception that makes the rule). I had to go back to He-Man and Thundercats, but that was, like, 20 years ago; and both had more of a "cult" following, like X-men, today. Since then, what animated show can we reasonably call a "classic" (or soon can)?
The quality of animated TV series', like pop music, has diminished to such a point that we are relegated to singing the praises of the likes of South Park and Family Guy (like Young Jeezy and Fall Out Boy) both of which, by justice, should be taking a sound thrashing in the ratings.Live-action TV shows have gotten so much better, in terms of produciton quality, character development, story, creativity, entertainment value - any aspect that you can think of. Take Lost, 24, Rome, Prison Break, West Wing, for examples. Even sitcoms have stepped it up: Seinfeld, Married with Children, Drew Carey, and Friends (sorry, I hardly ever watch sitcoms anymore, but they are still recent) are all very well done, though technology for sitcoms can't add that much effect.
So given the facts that TV production, generally, has drastically improved, that the creativity level has drastically increased (partially due to the availability of new technology), and that new technology can add so much to animated shows, wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that these shows should have advance along with the rest of the sector? Even in films, animation seems to have kept fairly close, partially by declining in quality in recent years along with live-action films.
When will another Popey, or Bugs, or even Mighty Mouse come along again? WB made an effort in the early/mid nineties with Tiny Toons and Animaniacs. Both of these were pretty good, but I seemed to get sick of them pretty quickly. AH! Maybe that is it. Maybe our attention spans have shrunk to such a level that unless someone makes us pay $25 and sits us in a dark room with a tremendous screen, we just won't watch a bunch of drawings do stupid stuff. Whatever the reason, it is certainly unfortunate for the kids today who have to stay up until like midnight to catch a rerun of X-Men and The Tick.
