Hacker News Reader

Comment by AndrewKemendo | Hacker News Reader

It's because you were (presumably) a kid back then - and everything was much more magical then because it was your whole world and imagination. Just like old people now state how much better the 50s were, because that's when they were children.

I pretty much discount anytime someone says "It was better when I was a kid."

View on HN

There is actually something different with these 80s movies for kids _and_ adults. Part of it was some true courage in the story-telling, for what movie studio of today would allow a character like "Sloth" from the Goonies to end up in a movie? Darkness along with the light. And sincerity in both rather than vapid "sarcasm." These movies have soul and heart.

Not saying that similar movie magic is impossible now or in the future, but in the current world of profit-driven decisions on creative direction it seems unlikely for the foreseeable future.

Seriously? ANY pixar film puts those to shame in terms of depth. The entire back story of UP was about a widower; Finding Nemo, same story - talk about darkness and light. How about The Incredibles, Wall-E, Monsters Inc, all fantastic story telling and incredible depth. It even goes further back than 80s, to movies like The Sound of Music with the Nazis.

Again, your biases are only fuzzy nostalgia and it seemed bigger to you then cause your brain couldn't contextualize it as well.

What about Gollum?

I know what you mean, but sometimes it isn't pure nostalgia. I like hand-drawn non-CG animation a lot, but there aren't a lot of animated movies coming out now that have it. And cultures can change dramatically too. I liked it better when people weren't so distracted by their cellphones. (This is a fairly small change.)

If you really want blatant commercialization, see Pokemon, Digimon, Yu Gi Oh etc. The latter at least had an interesting plot, and deeper characters. But both are basically cheap adaptations of Japanese anime -- draw a few frames with action lines, sell millions of trading cards.

Compare that to, say, Spiderman for FOX Kids in the 90s. Every scene was carefully animated and the plot was deep.

And to prove it's not just nostalgia, there were cheap shows back then too, like all the Power Rangers knockoffs. Anyone remember "Samurai Pizzacats"? Kind of funny, but mostly repetitive power rangers formula.

Even Japanese anime knockoffs were better before -- like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

There is still good stuff today but it's few and far between. I'm inclined to think the business objectives have changed more than the kids' tastes. It's like people used to play immersive 3d games, real time strategy games, and now so many play addictive pay-to-accelerate casual nonsense like Farmville or Boom Beach or whatever. Did people simply change their tastes to get ripped off? No, it was directed by business. Actual quality is secondary now.

Well I generally agree that titles today are super lame compared to the awesomeness of my own childhood. But it's hard to remove my own subjective nostalgia from the equation, as someone pointed out above.

It may be possible that there is almost too much focus on "quality" now but it's the wrong kind of quality -- lack of errors, linear predictability, control of financial risk in the business of storytelling. Today's cartoons do not take risks, economic, artistic, or political.

I've been watching He-man b/c s1 is free on Prime, and noticed that wow the cartoons are way more interesting than the crap that's on TV today (Thomas-the-Preachy-Tank-Engine; Bob-the-Incompetent-Builder; etc.). There basically is no such thing as Saturday morning cartoons anymore! WTF?! But my son doesn't care. He isn't into He-man, and he does not seem offended by the preachy morality of today's kids' shows, or their slick ultracheap CGI...

I honestly think I'll raise my kids watching 80s and 90s cartoons and not show them iPads til they're 6 or so. I don't want them to wind up like this kid:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aXV-yaFmQNk

Oh yeah, tracking down video of Samurai Pizza Cats wasted many hours of my 20s, nothing like trying to rewatch the cartoons of your youth.

As for comercialised, TMNT was hardly pure on this front, in fact they helped pioneer it in western cartoons. Nothing blatantly commercial in the the 94 strong cast of the original 1988-1997 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures line. http://turtlepedia.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Teenage_Mutant_Nin...

Farmer Don and his Modern Mutant Tractor are totally not trying to fleece your parents hard earned money.

But seriously, at least they started out making awesome toys like the Turtle Blimp -http://turtlepedia.wikia.com/wiki/Turtle_Blimp_(1988_toy)

What I meant about TMNT is that back then the cartoons were fully animated, not showing 0.5 FPS with action lines. Japanese Anime got away with it by having deep story lines and funky stuff. US knockoffs in the 2000s had the worst of both.

Um Pokemon/Digimon/Yugioh are all made in Japan.

There are plenty of well-animated and well-written shows these days. Legend of Korra looks amazing. My Little Pony became a cultural moment but its popularity is founded in genuinely good writing and characterization.

Quality has always been secondary to business, you just remember the good stuff and forget the cash-ins.

I think part of it is a greater social bias towards capitalism. You used to be awesome if you made art, now you're awesome if you make money.

That's a different argument. I'm saying that I am not concerned with Disney monopolizing the rights to my favorite stories, b/c my kids will enjoy different stories that appeal to them b/c of the context they are growing up in.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com