Remembering the cartoons of the 90s - Scooby Doo, Swat Kats, Ninja Robots - I miss them!

Last night, I was miles away from sleep and in a happy zone. I had just finished watching the Man from U.N.C.L.E (great movie btw. Love the soundtrack that plays when Solo takes the Buggy over the water). and was browsing around on my hard drive. I decided to clean it up a little; remove duplicated files between my other hard drives and tidy up the files and folder structure.

I have one folder called anime and looking at it brought up many old memories. I am sure any one who is a 90's kid will consider it a gold mine and will be hit by a big wave of nostalgia. This folder contains most, if not all of the cartoons and the cartoon series that I used to watch as a 8-15 year old kid. To go through them, was such a rush of nostalgia for me.

The days went past in my mind. Those days, when I was 10 years old, all these cartoons used to be shown on Cartoon Network. I started to watch cartoon network from the days when it would start at 6 in the morning, and end at 9 in the night before the channel broadcast old black and white movies.

The 1992 logo of Cartoon Network. Source: Wikipedia

I remember the timings quite meticulously. Centurions used to air at 3pm, Swat Kats at 4pm, Ninja Robots at 4.30pm. Scooby Doo used to air at 8pm and The Popeye Show at 8.30pm. It was the last show of the day before I went to bed. I was never a fan of other cartoons such as Dexter's Lab, Johnny Bravo or the like. It seemed too kiddish to me. I was more a fan of the superhero stuff.

Scooby Doo in all his glory. Over 45 years now.

Fastforwarding to a couple of years later, I guess it would be the high school days. Pokemon was big back then and I would watch a episode at 8am in the morning before rushing to school. By this time, Swat Kats and Ninja Robots had been taken off the network. Justice League used to air at 5pm, followed by X-Men evolution at 5.30pm.

One of my favorites: Batman The Animated Series was on at 7pm I think. I remember pushing the limits of time allocated for tv to watch Batman before getting down to do my homework. Batman has always been one of my favorite cartoons and still is. Batman Beyond was another kickass cartoon series as well. The new take on Batman was something that was exciting for me and I dove into the series with gusto. I remember the time when Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker aired on tv. I got home late from a family function that day and missed the first 15 minutes of the movie. I was really pissed at my mom for that, and she never understood why it was such a big deal.

It was a big deal.

I can go on and on, and never finish the list; He Man and the Masters of the Universe (I love the end credits soundtrack), Tintin, Ghostbusters, Spider Man The Animated Series, ThunderCats were all exceptional cartoons for that time. One of my favorite series was the Land Before Time cartoons. That sequence in the first movie when Little Foot was born still remains one of my favorite to this day.

I got goosebumps watching this. Really, cartoons those days can today be considered masterpieces of storytelling and anime as the mediums.

Cartoons like The Real Adventures of Johny Quest, Captain Planet, The Road Runner Show, Wacky Races, GI.Joe, they were absolute gold. I will not even mention Tom and Jerry. It is an absolute all time classic.

The nostalgia trip seems unstoppable now. I really miss those days.

Which brings me to the present, and I kind of feel sad for todays kid who are literally fed garbage as cartoons. Half of them are absolutely ridiculous, such as Oogy and the cockroaches (cockroaches, really? Come on...), Ninja Hatori (ding ding ding crap), and a bunch of other nonsense. Even the all time classic Tom and Jerry has moved on to cel shaded animation and weird and ridiculous stories that make me cringe. The charm is gone and it looks like it is lost forever.

Looking back at these things, I think about how influential these cartoons have been in my development in my childhood days. With no cellphones and internet, cartoon network was my way out. Indeed, it was the only channel I ever watched in those days. Swat Kats was where one of my earliest motivations for aircrafts started. Batman was probably the most influential character back then. I loved the character, and grew up reading a bunch of comics and learning more about the batman universe and the comic book storyline. You see the influence today (my username!).

I guess what I am trying to say is that I feel quite sad that kids these days will never get to see some of the greatest cartoons (Dare I go there?) ever made. These cartoons were not the heroes we deserved, but the heroes we needed.

I guess I should be glad for still having a collection of these all time classic cartoons on my hard drive (Should I make a second copy?). Hopefully, one day, when these cartoons will come back into popular culture, I will be well equipped to lead the change.

Cheers!

If you like my work, please upvote, resteem and comment. Thank you for reading!

Check some of my posts on my blog related to travel and photography

Backpacking the United Kingdom - A Travelogue with amazing pictures

Recovering from a broken wrist and racing motorcycles and travelling

What determines the outcomes of our life - A quirky take on what how our life is shaped by our choices

---

Cover Image Source

Batman Animated Series Image Source