By David G. Firestone
With season three of Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head doing well, it got me to thinking, what’s next for nostalgic cartoons? There are a lot of people who think that there should be more 1980’s cartoons that should get the modern update. I’ve heard people wanting their favorite childhood cartoon brought into 2025.
Here’s the problem: What most of these people forget is that many of these cartoons were poorly animated dreck that was meant to peddle toys, primarily dolls and action figures. The plots were rarely anything more than “good characters stop evil characters from doing evil things.” Outside of the various characters, the sets and plots were very interchangeable.
If you think I’m being harsh, go back and watch some of them. Between He-Man, GI-Joe, and Transformers, you’ll barely get through the first few episodes, before the lack of animation, and plot predictably causes you to turn off. Toy companies justifiably figured out that producing a cartoon so cheap it can’t lose money was a good way to sell toys, and the majority of 1980’s, and some 1990’s cartoons were proof.
Some might wonder: “Why not find a forgotten gem? Surely, there are a few gems to be found.” No, No there are not. There are no hidden gems to be found. Most of the 1980’s cartoons that fell to the wayside deserved their fates. Seriously, who in 2025, is clamoring for a reboot of Defenders of the Earth? Is there demand for Wolf Rock TV 2025? Would anybody be sad if a modern version of The Little Clowns of Happytown never got made?
We all like nostalgia, but we have to remember that time moves forward, not backward. Just because something was popular for a while does NOT mean it has to be remade for modern audiences. Some things can be brought into the modern era, some things should stay in the past.
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