Looking back at cartoons that ignited the imagination of Generation X

If you’re a ’90s millennial ,then you remember rushing back home from school just in the nick of time to catch your favorite cartoon shows as an aside to your lunch (or rather the centre), and those lazy Saturday mornings which were yet again reserved for a slice of animation. You also perhaps bemoan the loss of those cartoons every time you accidently see the listings of the cartoons that rule over television screens now. Well, this piece here is a tribute or rather a take-a-lookback of sorts at those much-loved and dearly-missed cartoons.

Scooby Doo, Where are you!

microcosmic city with the help of cartons which they collected from the local junkyard and you’d recall the desire to create games rather than look them up on your cell phone’s application stores. They were a ridiculous lot with a bizarre whistle based introductory sound track, and surely each episode was worth a watch and even more.

Swat Kats

Talk about cats being something other than symbols of swanky jazz musicians. Swat Kats was a show about a feline duo that started from the bottom. Having lost their jobs as law enforcers they took matters in their hands by becoming vigilantes and flew a rather technologically advanced jet. With an array of weapons and just one aim in sight: catch Dark Kat, the show was a complete hit among the youth of the day.

Codename: Kids Next Door

They took the dream childhood tree house to the next level. They were not simply a group of children up to nothing. Guns made with toffee machines and a tree house with screens, they were always busy solving problems and fighting pirates that raided their suburbs. This was one of the cartoons which compelled most children of the day to get out and start their own Kids Next Door clubs and go around hunting for adventures in their localities. The prime appeal lay in the fact that two spoons, a rubber and chewing gums could actually become the raw material for guns.

Samurai Jack

If you’ve seen this show then you’ve perhaps provided your child brain with the most fertile expression of art in colors and pathos in a story. A samurai goes up against Aku, a dark demonic figure who must be defeated and sealed into captivity, in order to attain a near spiritual essence of duty. The show marked itself out for a wide range of awards not only due to the well executed plot but also for the animation which worked with color rather than embossing lines, and a whole range of sound elements drawn from traditional Chinese influences.

Dexter’s Laboratory

This cartoon series was among the fist one’s to encourage a desire for in-home laboratories across the country. He was tiny for his age, disturbed by the oscillating presence of his sister Didi who would pull off some peculiar dance moves. Will.I.Am even made a song for Dexter which had a pretty catchy tune. Dexter goes into memory as one of those unique characters which was a cause for kids to take interest in the scientific spirit of the world and enable many to engage with the fun side of it.

The ’90s were a period when foreign cartoons had reigned over televisions. Now things have undergone an evident transition as is made visible by a lot of indigenous productions like Roll Numer 21 and Chota Bheem. These cartoons though have been subject to criticism by many elder brothers and sisters who tell their fellow toddlers about a time when cartoons were a whole lot different, and perhaps even better.