Cartoons aren't what they used to be

Our nephew Kelan is staying with us, and Friday morning he was up before I left for work and was watching cartoons. At least, I think they were cartoons.

Actually, whatever he was watching prompted me to post a question on Facebook: Just when did cartoons turn into poorly drawn ... well, for here, junk?

Seriously, I know 3-year-olds who draw better than these alleged animators. The one Kelan was watching, and an apparent favorite of his, featured just a bunch of blobs of different colors. One had what appeared to be stubble representing possible a cat, or maybe a rabbit without ears. Another had petals and apparently was a flower. A third looked like a potato with stick-figure limbs and dark spaces instead of eyes (the optical kind, not the usual potato eyes).

And I’m not really sure what the plot or story or whatever was. One piece seemed to involve the stubbled blob and flower sharing dreams, and the other appeared to have some sort of paranormal plot involving envy. I think, I wouldn’t guarantee it.

Man, these aren’t like the cartoons we had when I was a youngster. They had plot, snappy dialogue and action. They also weren’t intended to be educational and teach lessons, which seems to be a prerequisite these days for cartoons —except those on Fox and “South Park.” Sure, there were some TV cartoons that weren’t particularly well animated, more like static comic book pages with voice-over dialogue. And there were those interesting, if creepy, cartoons with Clutch Cargo and Space Angel in which people’s mouths were superimposed over static animated characters.

But, then there were the Warner Brothers cartoons —Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, the Road Runner and Wiley Coyote. The ones released for theaters in the ’40s and ’50s were the ones I saw on TV as a tyke, then a teenager, then a college student, and even sometimes now. There were jokes and gags for all ages, many of which would have gone over small children’s heads although they would laughed at the action. After all, Bugs Bunny in drag, or rewriting Civil War history with Yosemite Sam required a little more maturity on the part of viewers.

They were pun-filled, slap-your-knee funny and sometimes even had some barbed points. They were entertaining, and often connected with other pop culture or issues of the time. I still like the ones that had caricatures of the’40s movie stars (such as Bugs trying to return a penguin to his home and his repeated encounters with Humphrey Bogart’s Fred C. Dobbs character from “Treasure of Sierra Madre.”

Then there were the MGM Tom and Jerry cartoons, and Tex Avery’s wild animation with characters such as the deadpan Droopy, the sexy Red and the Wolf. Tom and Jerry were aimed more at youngsters. Tex Avery’s made youngsters laugh, but like Warner Brothers they had material for the grownups, too.

And I can’t forget Rocky and Bullwinkle, probably the most subversive cartoons on TV before the Simpsons. Rocky and Bullwinkle were filled with political satire, puns and adult-oriented (for adults, not dirty) plots. They were, and still are, hilarious.

Do you remember that the Flintstones and the Jetsons were prime-time shows and, again, not just for kids originally (think a Stone-Age “Honeymooners”). For adventure, there was Jonny Quest, also in prime-time when it started. I was such an avid fan I still remember some of those stories.

Those were the days, not like now when “animators” splash ink on a page and call it characters, or technogeeks create CGI angular characters.

The ones I’ve seen don’t have the soul or the spirit of those old standbys, the ones that could make you cackle with their slapstick, smile slyly and chuckle at the satire or inside jokes and didn’t leave you shaking your head asking, “That’s entertainment?”