Top 10 Cartoons From My Childhood. Do You Remember Them?

Can I Keep Stitch, Please Mom!

I always dig up some old Youtube videos at the start of each week to get over my Monday blues and this time, I landed on a pot of gold. One after the other I searched and found videos of some of my favorite cartoons from yesteryears. Well, cartoons from the 90s actually, but anything from the time before the Japanese took over, as in before the Doraemons and the Ben 10s and the others whose names I cannot remember, would actually be considered prehistoric now.

While prehistoric they may well be, they form the best memories of my childhood, the times when I used to fight with everyone for the rights to the T.V remote (some of the more viscous ones were aptly reserved for my little sister) and the times where cartoon discussion actually meant life and death in the school’s social circuit. As in you had better seen that episode and participated in the animated discussions the next day, else you were bound to be socially ostracized and permanently classified as a boring nerd!

Nerd I certainly wasn’t (well, at least I like to remember it that way) and I can prove it by showing you some of my favorite cartoons (in no particular order of preference). See if you can remember them all (or risk being viewed as a nerd by me):

The Flintstones

Quite possibly my very first encounter with family dynamics, I know now that I have learnt a lot from Mrs. Welma Flintstone (I’d rather not say exactly what) on how to build a good marriage. The cartoon in itself is a fantastic imaginative creation and even then, I used to love how they used the stuff that was available then (like dinosaurs and stones) to make modern day tools such as telephones, shavers and even cars! I must say that I love watching this cartoon even today (much to the silent censure of my husband who’d rather catch a movie or a football game instead). But me being an avid student of Welma’s you can easily guess as to who gets to watch what in my household (cat-got-the-cream smirk!)

Dungeons and Dragons

Yes, one more of my old favorites, Dungeons and Dragons revolved around the lives of 6 young kids and a unicorn as they find themselves roaming another world (where they accidentally reached after having taken a roller coaster ride… errr… maybe you might be better off just catching the beginning of the video to know more) trying to find the gateway back to theirs. I must say, this cartoon surely fed my hunger for both imaginative storytelling as well as adventure. Try an episode if you haven’t caught it yet.

Dragon Ball Z

This may just have been the start of the Japan domination in the world of animated cartoons but we at that time sure never noticed! I can safely blame this cartoon for some of my more violent thoughts today, like when I wanted to blow my sister and our friend Bunmi off with ‘ka-me-ha-me-has’ (I think that was what it was called) in 2011 (yup, that interesting pic sure is still in my FB pics for those who can’t quite imagine the visual).

I think I still love Piccolo a little bit and I remember how my sister and I used to stand up for our characters in each and every fight sequence. Uff, it was exhaustive fun. Maybe we should start it again Chu… what do you say, knowing that I need to lose weight of course. You up for another (not so mock) Dragon Ball Z fight?

The Jetsons

Quite the antithesis of the dear old Flinstone family, the Jetsons of the future certainly held their own charm and glamor. Now, who wouldn’t love jetsetting about here and there, having robots to do your chores and automated dressers to help dress you up (see, that part always fascinated me since even then, I hated dressing up to go somewhere, I’d rather have stayed in my PJs, all day and all night… not the same one’s of course). The family dynamics of this family too were really hilarious and I particularly liked Rosie the humanoid robot (not too difficult to figure out why).

The Addams Family

Ooooh… This was my absolute-est favorite-est cartoon ever-est… oops I meant ever! I still hum the tune now and then in fact. Sometimes, when I and my sister get together, we even do a chorus. Oh ya, we are still toddlers at heart!

Anyways, Morticia Addams has been on my ever-revered, most favored cartoon character pedestal for decades now and even today I have found no motivation strong enough to replace her. In one of my Gothic phases in fact, I was always on the constant lookout for her miracle drops (the ones that turned her red roses into black) and her black mermaid dresses (that I could never ever fit into, not then and definitely not now – and hence the short-lived-ness of my Gothic life phase).

The PowerPuff Girls

This was the story of Bubbles, Buttercup and Blossom, three superhero girls who were made out of sugar, spice and everything nice. The characters we cute, yet powerful and the messages of the cartoon strong enough to convince us to eat our broccoli and mind our manners. My personal favorite on the good side was Buttercup for her brand of macho-yet-girly appealed to me even then. Yet, the character that tops the list of favorites in this cartoon was the unrelenting super-villan Mojo-jo. Even today, I would recommend this cartoon to anyone trying to learn English for you see, Mojo-jo has the tendency to repeat every sentence he wants to say in several different ways, so isn’t that the best way to learn synonyms, direct – indirect and active – passive speech!

Captain Planet

Captain Planet. He’s our hero. He’s gonna take pollution down to zero…. na na na na… na na na.. Remember now? Oh this cartoon was good. the characters were great, Geia (the spirit of the Earth) was shown to be realistically susceptible to human plundering and the villains were adequately menacing and self-absorbed. The concept of Captain Planet (who was Earth’s last resort to protect herself) made out of the combined powers of Quami’s earth, Linca’s wind, Wheeler’s fire, Gi’s water and Marti’s heart was not only innovative but also appealing. I really, really wish this cartoon would come back and teach the kids of today the lessons that they really need to learn.

Tom and Jerry

Is there any cartoon list in the world that would not have Tom and Jerry in it? I loved this cartoon then and I love it now. I had seen this cartoon then and I see it now (and I will probably show it to my kids someday too). This was how cartoons were and in my mind this is how cartoons always should be (my cartoon gold standard). I always loved the original Hannah Barbara and Fred Quincy Tom and Jerry cartoons and have always vehemently hated their corrupted counterparts namely Tom and Jerry kids and all those other non-original versions. Call me orthodox but if you are one of the original fans even you would hate the fakes, wouldn’t you?

Popeye the Sailorman

Here’s one more of the oldies. Who can forget the spinach-eating, tattoed, muscled Popeye the sailor man, or his lanky girlfriend Olive or his perpetual nemesis Bluto? What I certainly cannot forget was me trying to check the muscle gain on my arms immediately after having mom’s spinach dinner and never quite figuring out how that particular health supplement worked for him but not for me. Maybe it worked only on men. What do you think laddies?

Talespin

I never quite liked Duck Tales quite as much as I liked Talespin, so in my list of 10, the former unfortunately didn’t make the cut. But it was worth a mention, just like Mowgli.

So anyways, what was the most appealing about the always in trouble Baloo (the pilot) and his sidekick nephew was that they somehow always managed to get on top of their troubles and beat them, no matter what came their way. I used to particularly enjoy the episodes that featured the sauve businessman Sher Khan.. ooh but I still find his voice raw and seductive. See, even then, I was attracted to all the bad guys.

Let me know if you have any more to add. Check out all the videos and you will forget that it is a Monday that starts off a possible shitty work week. Adios amigos.