By Vaidehi Rawool
If you happen to belong to the much normal and ancient (meaning entirely boring in today’s day) generation of the late 1990s, then you would have definitely felt your heart melt at those cartoon network pictures doing rounds on social media. No one feels the pain of not being able to watch great quality cartoons more than us, the 90s kids (or so we believe).
From the Loony Toons to the Road Runner Show (a personal favourite) to other shows like Jhonny Bravo, Courage the cowardly dog, The Powerpuff Girls ( cue their theme song), the Justice League (to all those Flash! fans), Dexter’s Laboratory. Cartoon Network was literally like the equivalent of Google today, you could find any cartoon for any taste however distinct it may be.
There was Ed Edd n Eddy for the late night mind totally zapped out of energy. There was Fairly Odd Parents for those who believed in magic at that time, there was Tom and Jerry loved by all regardless of their age. Dexter’s Laboratory was enjoyed more for the sibling rivalry than the science in it. Each one of us felt like we were a part of Bay Blade and Pokémon.
So many shows, so much of love, addiction and staring at screens! Those were the golden days. Wonder what went wrong then? Why did Cartoon Network suddenly decided that these shows weren’t really upto the mark and it should start catering to the relativity of the audiences more?
Many points come to mind then. Probably, with the influx of many new cartoon channels springing up like mushrooms launched Cartoon Network into a frenzy to be apart from all of them. The management was taken by the ideal of ‘Swadesi’- indigenous and decided that India would like to see those shows that are made in India! Most probably the generation of now isn’t as taken with the western cartoons as much as the then generation was. Probably cartoon network decided to outsource creativity? (More like no creativity at all). Was it because they go too taken with the Chinese and Japanese type of cartoons and decided to air them all day long (!)
The best thing about all those shows at that time was they fed one’s imagination, made people more creative. Nowadays it’s just bright neon coloured balls dancing all over your screen while a fussy kid in the background stares blankly at the telly, while drooling into a puddle newly formed near his feet.
How can a channel go from being so nice and lovely to bizarre and unruly? Well, we’ve asked this question about Miley Cyrus and landed onto no answers yet, so CN seems like a far cry.
Whatever happened to it, the only thing needed in life is that we need to get our beloved CN back, how long can one watch cartoons on YouTube, totally defeating the purpose of that site? It’s time we stop sheepishly smiling on being trolled about the fact that we are the 90’s generation and bring back our beloved characters in their reel life, don’t you think?
