It’s kind of wild how some people will look at shows that are over 20 years old and start comparing them to the modern standard of television and berate the show or fans of the show. If we ever had reboots made of 90’s or 2000’s cartoons they would be nothing like what they were before due to how heavy the TV censorship is now. The Powerpuff Girls reboot is proof of that.
These are products of their time; they’ll have a lot of aspects to them that would deem them as problematic or outdated by today’s standards, and most jokes, designs, and other things would definitely not fly today.
This doesn’t make them bad shows either, for a lot of those old shows were what crawled before other shows could run; things that were considered inclusive media back then would be perceived today as a negative stereotype and so on.
Danny Phantom had sexist jokes and a lot of negative stereotypes, but the show had a lot of interesting creativity that just never really went anywhere.
Xiaolin Showdown had questionable design choices but was actually considered inclusive for its time, and the writing? Awesome.
Johnny Bravo would definitely not air today despite the creep actually getting beaten up by women, and that’s what made the show funny.
Ren and Stimpy has SO MANY adult jokes and themes that it would NEVER air today, but it was so fucking funny, and all of those themes would go way over kids heads.
These shows are simply products of their time, but they are by no means awful shows; there was amazing storytelling, character growth, action, and animation quality that would never be given the budget today. A lot of positive things that these shows provided to kids would never be put into the blindingly oversaturated, puppet-rigged, and dumbed-down kid shows of today.
As someone who’s nearly 30 and grew up during the time of the greatest cartoon roster periods and had access to every cartoon channel available, I can watch the shows that would be considered problematic today and acknowledge that these shows were by no means perfect, but also know the fact that they were actually what paved the way for modern shows to be as progressive as they are today.
The networks learnt from these shows what worked and didn’t work and then took that knowledge onto their future IPs.
Watching these shows that are considered problematic by today’s standards and enjoying them doesn’t mean you don’t recognise that, because you know those shows don’t embody those issues and that there’s more to them than that.
Does it impact the story the show is telling? Does it impact the way characters treat other characters? If the answer is no, then just keep watching; these shows are great in their own way in an era that were the steps to the shows of today.
You can just say ‘oh damn, that was fucked’ then keep watching, or just turn it off if it’s not for you. :/
If you’re going to put other people down for enjoying these older shows, shows that are either older than you or you were barely talking when they were airing, and you never watched them once in your life. Sit down, watch them, then get back to us after. If not, be quiet and let people have their fill of nostalgia.
