Growing up in the Renaissance: How 90s cartoons shaped our generation
Correction appended
For me, the most difficult part of packing for college was dealing with my bookshelf. The hutch over my desk at home is full of DVDs, books and other assorted remnants of my youth. The bulky, one-shelved desks of my Northwestern dorm room only hold so many things. I was forced to decide which few items would represent me to a new world of people.
But I didn’t take obscure movies or intellectual-looking books. Instead, I went straight for my old and unplayable VHS tapes of Hey Arnold.
Why use children’s cartoons to express independence and adulthood? Even on a campus of 18-25 year old students, references to the pop culture of our childhoods can create a staggering reaction. On campus, I see cartoon throwback shirts everywhere. Between all the Captain Planets and Legends of the Hidden Temple contestants, Halloween looks like advertising for an afternoon lineup on Nickelodeon. In the dining halls, I’ve overheard countless discussions of those cartoons where simply name-dropping a character is enough to earn inexplicable adoration: “Do you remember ‘Rocko’s Modern Life’ on Nick??” “Oh my god yeah! And like, Heifer!?” “Yeah!! And the Bigheads!!” “Oh my god!!!!” The knee-jerk response to the mere mention of anything related to the era is something to behold.
This phenomenon indicates that members of generation Y share a common and almost-universal attachment to the cartoons of the first half of the 90s. The only question that remains is “why?” Why is 90’s animation so special? Why do 19-year-olds congregate to watch the same cartoons they watched when they were six? Why do I make friends by wearing my “Reptar on Ice” shirt?
History
A Golden Age of animation began in the 1930s when theatrical animations like Looney Tunes became massively popular, especially thanks to a boost from World War II when cartoons adopted relevant and topical subject matter. The period is also marked by the success of feature-length Disney productions such as Snow White. By the mid 1960s, however, most of the excitement around animation had fizzled out, and cartoons had moved from the big screen to a newer medium: television. Most televised cartoon shows were produced by Hanna-Barbera, and at extremely low budgets. Animation work was kept to a minimum (recall all the walk cycles and scrolling backgrounds), which marred the medium’s reputation. A 1961 Saturday Evening Post article accused the studio of “taking shortcuts only a television audience would tolerate.” Due to a decline in demand and profitability, Warner Brothers shut down their animation department. In 1966, Walt Disney died, leaving his company without any certain direction for the future. For the next twenty years, most cartoons were outsourced Asia and were continuously made at very low budgets.
In the early 80s, the laissez-faire Reagan administration loosened the standards on television, repealing bans on violent action programs and lowering educational requirements. Corporations took advantage by using cartoons to market toys. Think about it: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Thundercats, Care Bears, all of these shows primarily existed to sell toys. Please don’t take offense, 80s kids—these shows are very memorable, but the cartoons themselves were not standalone masterpieces.
Renaissance
By the turn of the decade, the doomsday clock was ticking on the animation industry, but from the darkness came a new era. Rather than die out, the animation industry entered a renaissance, where the ideals of the golden era were revived and restored to new heights.
The desire for a revival struck the cinema industry when Michael Eisner became Disney’s new chairman in 1987. Eisner was determined to put Disney animation back up on its pedestal and did so with features such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Little Mermaid. These mainstream successes affirmed that cartoons were a profitable and respectable business once again.
In 1989, the animated sitcom emerged when a cartoon short by Matt Groening made the move from the Tracy Ullman Show to primetime television. Almost 20 years later, The Simpsons remains on the air. Northwestern History Professor and pop-culture blogger Michael Kramer recalls the irony of the situation: “The most realistic show on television was a cartoon show, the one that got the essence of how [teens] were feeling.”
While some cartoons became more like live-action shows, some became all the more surreal. Ren and Stimpy (1991) best reflected the latter subset of 90s cartoons. It was violent, strange and graphic. It had blotchy white backgrounds in place of typical backdrop art. Kramer adds that the show represents “people trying to bring what was marginalized, the civic stuff, into the commercial realm.”
The show could target children with its aesthetic and adults with its odd subject matter. The characters were frequently depicted beating each other half to death or partaking in other grotesqueries. In one episode, they collect Stimpy’s hairballs to sell for profit, and when Stimpy runs out of hair, he resorts to licking a fat man named Bubba for extra resources. Ren and Stimpy was punk. It brought unprecedented style to network television and cartoons. Not surprisingly, the show’s creator John Kricfalusi was fired two years later for irreconcilable differences despite the shows cult popularity.
Professor Kramer sees the popular interest in both types of cartoon as an attempt to come to grips with human experience. He suggests that it reflects people’s questions about reality: “What is reality? Is it completely surreal and cartoonish or is it hyper-real? Hence, this is the same period you have the reality show emerge. It’s all about how technology represents the real and the tone or mood of what life was like.”
New frames opened up to allow for a change in traditional approaches to television, and this potential was soon swept up by commercial entities.
In the early 90s, television airwaves divided up amongst new cable networks that appealed to much more specific audiences, an effect Kramer calls the “nichefication” of television. Entire channels could commit to one theme, a bold idea in a time before there were eight HBOs and ten ESPNs. The booming public interest in animation was evidenced by the creation of an exclusively animated channel, Cartoon Network. Also, pre-existing network Nickelodeon refocused their attention by developing a number of animated original series: Nicktoons.
Keys to Success
With so much newfound airtime and attention, cartoons flourished. Writers expanded upon the medium, developing cartoons in unprecedented new directions. Most animated programming succeeded and endured by embodying a few major principles.
For one, the shows were relatable, topical, and referenced the outside world. Not since the days of the Captain Planet had animation tackled real-world subject matter so directly. The Rugrats poked fun at proper parenting and child psychology with the ever-present references to Dr. Lipschitz. The Warner Brothers cartoons Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs parodied hundreds of years of culture from Edgar Allen Poe to George H.W. Bush. Rocko’s Modern Life was consistently packed with double-entendres. Kramer notes that this “double-talk” was the key to the success of the Muppets in the back in the 1970s.
Secondly, these cartoons utilized more intellectual complexity and dimensionality. In his book Everything Bad is Good For You, science writer and distinguished New York University resident Steven Johnson argues that new generations got smarter thanks in part to advances in the cognitive demands of modern TV. While a 1970s show such as Starsky and Hutch was very linear and had similar stories every episode, 90s TV was dynamic and strange, following several story lines at once. The avant-garde animation and incomprehensible realities of Ren and Stimpy or Rocko stretched the preconceived limits of television writing.
Newer shows also required an extra level of thought which Johnson dubs “filling in.” Viewers would have to fill in the blanks to imagine the parents in Cow and Chicken, to venture guesses as to (Hey) Arnold’s last name, and to understand any of the innuendo. The invisible hand of the entertainment industry pushed writers to give their shows this extra replay value in order to cater to the new aftermarket possibilities of the VHS and DVD.
Thirdly, these layers of newfound depth in cartoons made it possible for young viewers to make a strong emotional investment in the characters and the series as a whole. Hey Arnold is an example of a series with grounding in reality and a strong focus on character development, one that offers the viewer a chance to make an emotional investment in the show. With the first nine notes of its uncharacteristically jazzy theme song, Arnold represents all the best traits of the 90s cartoon. Composer Jim Lang recalls that from the start, creator Craig Bartlett “wanted to have a show that was about the kids that were in the show and what their relationships were to each other and what their relationships were with the world.”
Young viewers could immerse themselves in Hey Arnold, and imagine growing up in the boarding house and attending P.S. 118 with their animated peers and neighbors. The show was captivating in a socially interactive way, not just in the way one gets engrossed in the Autobot vs. Deceptacon action of Transformers.
Naturally, these traits can be applied to some shows more than others. Nevertheless, the presence of these factors indicates that children of the 1990s had access to a new class of cartoon. The decade produced some of the finest animation in the medium’s history. Perhaps the most noteworthy and curious characteristic of all, however, is the enduring relevance of these cartoons and their strange resistance to being outgrown.
Why college students still care
The ‘90s cartoon targeted both children and adults from different directions. Children benefited because in cartoons, the kids were the subjects, not just the audience. Cartoons depicted children from “rugrat” age through high school, and could inspire moral and social development customized for the age group. The lessons aimed to teach growing children how to manage their standing in society.
“[Cartoons] were suspicious of authority,” says Kramer. “They teach you not to earnestly accept everything, and that the world is not a totally safe place.”
Meanwhile, the adult-friendly themes, double-entendres and pop culture references entertained an older and more learned subset of viewers. Even shows without mature content could hope to charm adults.
“We always wanted [Hey Arnold] to be something that the parents would enjoy sitting down and watching with their kids,” says Lang.
College students balance both of these worlds at once. They are at a crossroads of childhood and adulthood and are afforded the ability to appreciate cartoons at both levels. The unexpected side effect of being adult-friendly is that when the kids turn into adults, they still enjoy the programming for new reasons. Mature references aside, these shows are inextricably linked to many students’ formative years.
For viewers who actively engaged the characters of these programs (via imagination), watching a cartoon at any age is like seeing an old friend again. Nostalgia alone is a good enough explanation for why a college student would still enjoy an old cartoon, but the emotional depth, cultural relevance, and the ability to speak to many age groups are special features that combine to keep ‘90s cartoons special after all these years.
Epilogue: What happened next?
If you asked my 14-year-old brother what his favorite shows are, he’d list the same ones that I would: the Nicktoons that were originally made between ’91 and ’96. Why didn’t he take to newer programming? Sadly, while cartoons came on strong at the dawn of the decade, things didn’t stay the same. In 1997, education standards came back strong, insisting that most cartoons have moral and educational value. These regulations may have hampered the creative potential for some shows.
On newer programs Jim Lang has worked on, he remarks that “show structures were really very consistent from week to week.” Lang refers to late-90s shows like Lloyd in Space, noting that “they don’t take the chances the writers on Hey Arnold took. “Nowadays,” he adds, “there’s a ton of very sweet, very safe animation for little kids, not the same amount of story stuff.” Lang and Arnold creator Craig Bartlett are now developing educational cartoons for PBS. Nickelodeon’s lineup, meanwhile, is almost completely live action these days.
And so the ends were sealed on the renaissance of animation. Kids who were able to catch original Nicktoons on television stuck to them and then flocked straight to Adult Swim as soon as they got the chance. “[Adult cartoon shows like] Metalocalypse. That’s where cool animation’s gone,” says Lang. Children will get older, and their tastes may mature with them. With the new generation of Family Guy, South Park and Adult Swim at the forefront, the fact that even college-age kids aren’t too grown-up to appreciate the cartoons of their childhood is a true testament to the quality and power of cartoons in the 1990s.
Updated 3/28: Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs are Warner Brothers cartoons, not Disney cartoons. North by Northwestern regrets the error.
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Chronicles of winter move -in Or you can return home.
oh man, this article rules. I still watch hey arnold all the time. i wish these shows were still on tv!!!
CR
January 7, 2009 at 11:25 pm
Hey Arnold and Rocko’s Modern Life were fan-tastic. I miss 90s cartoons so much. Great article!
T
January 9, 2009 at 1:22 pm
nice job dude, I really like the conclusion you made about why college kids are the most relevant, being at the crossroads and stuff
John
January 15, 2009 at 12:12 am
How does this article not have a single mention of Doug?!
Sajid
January 15, 2009 at 11:44 am
Great article, I can’t agree more with it. Shows like Tiny Toons and Ren and Stimpy will stick with me forever (in a positive way). The only thing I have to criticize about your article is that Tiny Toons and Animaniacs weren’t made by Disney, they were products of Warner Bros.
Napalm
February 6, 2009 at 10:00 pm
I was just looking for a list of all the old 90’s cartoons and I found this wonderful article. It’s so well written, researched and true.
My boyfriend and I just recently had one of those moments where we recalled “Pinky and the Brain” of course we started singing the theme song over the phone. Thank you for writing this, I now can understand somewhat why cartoons pretty much suck now days.
I will never forget when it was actually worth it to get up early on Saturday mornings JUST to watch the cartoons.
Emily
March 3, 2009 at 7:57 am
So what your saying is the government ruined cartoons too? Ah the good ole days. Im going to be pissed if right now ever counts as the good ole days.
Ben
March 26, 2009 at 12:55 pm
It needed to be said. I’m glad somebody clearly stated it.
Jason
March 26, 2009 at 3:32 pm
“Are you not entertained”
So the reason that we had good cartoons was because toy companies wanted to advertise and sell toys (and they where allowed) and because cartoons where not constrained to educational programming.
If that’s the case Sell me toys and don’t educate me.
Education should be provided by parents, family members and teachers.
This is not say that education can not occasionally come from television. Didn’t prince Adam or He-man tell you a moral at the end of he-man cartoons, and didn’t the good guys always win so whats the damn problem?
I want cartoons with mutant ninjas giant robots evil scary villans comical side kicks and a great theme tune that I want to hear again and again. (No pony’s, princesses or teddy bears unless they know martial arts. football heads and insane talking animals are OK though) If I don’t get a good catoon fix I might become an evil villan myself, Adult swim/spike/bravo/cartoon network is not providing enough content that I like & want
Mr Lawernce
March 26, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Interesting to know why the content of cartoons changed in the late 90’s. I had been wondering that for a long time. The odd thing about it is that a lot of today’s cartoons like Chowder or The Misadventures of Flapjack now lack the adult factors that make them appealing to the older audience like the 90’s toons did while at the same time, they still have a lot of the inane references and goofy humor, but it appeals less all the same. Even if the standards of “education” in cartoons have been raised, I know that I learned more from those “disgusting and juvenile” shows back then than my younger siblings have learned from the newer cartoons.
Alex
March 26, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Sorry, but I’m going to have to disagree with your premise. Perhaps its because I’m just a smidge older and so grew up with the Transformers, Ninja Turtles, etc. and not Hey, Arnold and the like. I, and others of my age, appear to have just as much attachment to the shows we grew up with as you do with yours. I have a feeling anything one grows up with allows one to establish a culture with other people. Perhaps this is why college students talk about cartoons so much. Leaving home, often for the first time, and making new friends necessitates a mechanism for creating shared cultures.
And need I mention how attached some are to Scooby Doo and the lot? Hell I’m not even from the sixties (or perhaps it was the seventies) but I still have an enormous attachment to Top Cat. Cheap animation, trite plots, everything you would expect from Hanna-Barbera – but I watched it a lot when I was a kid.
Yail Bloor
March 26, 2009 at 11:13 pm
agreed
jea
March 26, 2009 at 11:21 pm
OMGZ max great article!
Yakov
March 27, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I’m with Yail. I grew up in the 80’s and have a whole subset of cartoons in my nostalgic vocabulary that college kids today don’t really care about that much. The fact that you mention “Hey Arnold” so much proves the point, since HA was primarily a post-millennium cartoon (that’s when it really came into it’s own). like HA, but it isn’t part of my nostalgic repertoire. Mine is composed of all of the stuff that hipsters now ironically (or genuinely, but pretend to do so ironically) reference. I also realize that many of the shows I love were completely awful. It’s hard to be nostalgic about Transformers if you were born after 1990.
“I have a feeling anything one grows up with allows one to establish a culture with other people.”
“mechanism for creating shared cultures.”
Bam. Right there. That’s all you need to know.
itsalljustaride
March 27, 2009 at 5:12 pm
While I agree with everything you said about cartoons of the early 90s, I don’t think you should discount today’s cartoons. Cartoon Network has had a resurgence in quality. Batman: Brave and the Bold, Transformers Animated, Flapjack, and Chowder are some of the best cartoons I’ve ever seen, even compared with stuff like Batman: TAS.
Sean
March 27, 2009 at 8:21 pm
I can’t be the only one to mention that Aqua Teen Hunger Force (represented in the t-shirt on the left of the top picture) is in fact a cartoon from 2000. A cartoon, I might add, that is still running and, as such, can hardly be considered a “generation shaping” show. And Transformers, it so happens, is a show from the 1980s. Maybe consider finding a new picture hunter. Or, at the very least, tailor your headline to reflect what you actually intend on talking about.
Having said that, I didn’t read the god damn thing, being as how it’s a jerbillion lines long.
P.S.: Saved By the Bell was the best thing that’s ever happened to television. Anyone who says any different is a fucking communist.
rowrow
March 28, 2009 at 1:15 am
Man, fuck early 90s cartoons. BOOOOOOOOOOORING. Doug? Hey Arnold? That Howie Mandel abortion? Really? Think back… Search inside yourself: these cartoons SUCKED. You know this to be true.
Now, G.I. Joe? Transformers? TMNT? These shows were the shit. Think about it: I’m a 6-9 year old kid. Do I really want to watch a show about 6-9 year old kids? FUCK NO. I want to watch robots and mutants blowing shit up.
S
March 28, 2009 at 1:45 am
What about those great Disney afternoon shows? Darkwing Duck? DuckTales? Tale Spin? and of course the grandaddy of all those, The Gummi Bears? Those are the ones I’m nostalgic for.
Geo
March 28, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Sorry, double Post…
oh and you want a weird shared culture moment? My freshman year of College, a bunch of us guys started singing the old TMNT theme in the back of English Comp., and our PROFESSOR sang along!
Geo
March 28, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Great article. I love and miss the 90s even though chances are that I was in my childhood ignorant bliss. Above all, I loved the cartoon shows that I grew up with and I find myself constantly bringing them up for discussion with friends. Believe it or not, I have gained a greater perspective into an individual’s personality simply from discussing cartoons for a couple of minutes as opposed to hours of small chat. I am sure that much of the fascination with the cartoons can be attributed to the simple fact that we all grew up in a certain generation and therefore everyone has a soft spot in their heart for their generation. However, it is always great to analyze what made certain cartoons great in the 90s. Although I have a soft spot for certain 80s cartoons (Vultron. Robot Power.), I feel that it is pointless to argue back and forth as to which generation of cartoons was superior. Isn’t each subsequent generation supposed to learn and improve from the previous? At the end of the day, everyone will flock to Urban Outfitters to get some abstract T-shirt in hopes that someone will recognize the reference, regardless of era. I loved the article just because it highlighted the significance that cartoons play in the transition from adolescence to adulthood.
Let’s all hope for a sequel!
Kyle.
@all who like to point out that two of the cartoons on the t-shirts in the photo at the beginning of the article are not from the 90s, I believe this was done intentionally. The t-shirts are cartoon series from are chronologically from the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. All generations are discussed in the article but the center is on the 90s, as it appears in the photo. This was a deliberate and conscious decision.
Kyle
March 29, 2009 at 5:25 pm
I remember Alex Mac, AH! Real monsters, Are You afraid of the Dark? And Invader Zim. The cartoons that and shows that truly were awesome. The big heads always kinda scared me as a kid though lol. I remember running home from school just to catch the new episode of TMNT, or eating my cereal on Saturdays watching Tale Spin, and Gargoyles.
Where have the true shows gone?
Courtney
March 30, 2009 at 1:01 am
I like your article, I also liked it when I read something similar to it about 10 years ago. The difference was, the focus of that article was cartoons from the 80’s. I am looking forward to the next article similar to this, I expect it sometime around 2020.
Megatron
April 7, 2009 at 11:39 pm
“Man, fuck early 90s cartoons. BOOOOOOOOOOORING. Doug? Hey Arnold? That Howie Mandel abortion? Really? Think back… Search inside yourself: these cartoons SUCKED. You know this to be true.
Now, G.I. Joe? Transformers? TMNT? These shows were the shit. Think about it: I’m a 6-9 year old kid. Do I really want to watch a show about 6-9 year old kids? FUCK NO. I want to watch robots and mutants blowing shit up.”
Dude, I like your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. This is more or less exactly what I was going to post but you beat me to it. I want to shake your hand.
Cheeseburglar
April 9, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Well-thought-out analysis. I thank you for answering a question that has plagued me. I have been phrasing it as “Why do cartoons suck, now?”
Now if I could just stop singing the theme from Gummi Bears for a while. Or Duck Tales.
Geoff
April 11, 2009 at 11:00 pm
WOW man you really hit the nail on the head!! I have toke it upon myself to collect all these classics for future viewing!! I have all the “pinky and the brain” cartoons “Animaniacs” and many more!! There great for 420!!
Thank you for this great article!!
Stumbled!!
James
April 14, 2009 at 7:10 pm
….DARIA?!?!?!!??!!?
UHHHHHHHH
April 16, 2009 at 6:49 pm
tl;dr
Anonymous
April 17, 2009 at 10:23 pm
This article was excellent. It made me realize why I am compelled to pop in or search for some old cartoons. It really is like seeing an old friend. I moved around a lot when I was younger, but no matter where I went I still had Doug, Arnold, Helga, Tommy, Phil, Lil, Chuckie, Angelica, Bart, Lisa, and many more as friends. I knew them better than the kids I went to school with at point. Hats off to these shows amazing creators and to you for such an excellent article!
Nikye
April 20, 2009 at 7:45 pm
I really miss all those old cartoons. Even educational cartoons were better then. Me and my roommates still watch the magic school bus! freaking awesome. I’m definitely glad to be apart of Gen Y.
Xander
April 24, 2009 at 5:26 pm
picture fail Transformers new movie aqua teen hunger force.. new cartoon on cartoon networks adult swim… why read an article that cant pick a picture to match the topic
Fhengs
May 15, 2009 at 12:04 pm
@Fhengs: you are dumb. Transformers is [originally] a cartoon television series that played during the 80’s. ATHF is a cartoon television series that played (plays) during the 00’s. Rugrats is a cartoon television series that played during the 90’s. From left to right in the picture: 80’s show, 90’s show, 00’s show. There’s a pretty clear intention there.
Corn
May 15, 2009 at 3:55 pm
I apologize, that should say from right to left. Nevertheless, you see what I’m saying. Great article.
Corn
May 15, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Wow, I’m so glad someone went through and finally explained why these shows were so great. I was wondering if they really were that awesome or if we just thought they were because we were being nostalgic. Amazing, amazing, AMAZING article! Virtual high five!!!
Jen from NH
May 20, 2009 at 7:42 pm
This is a great article. Am I the only one that noticed that the shirts are wrinkled? xD
Oliviahhh
July 17, 2009 at 11:50 am
I remember cartoons of the 90’s like Rocko’s Modern Life and the others like it had some crude humor. Kids love that stuff, or at least me and my cousins did anyway. The Angry Beavers was also a favorite of mine. I think Nick did a great job on quality toons.
Heather
July 30, 2009 at 9:56 pm
I have to echo this because it is the most relevant comment:
“Now, G.I. Joe? Transformers? TMNT? These shows were the shit. Think about it: I’m a 6-9 year old kid. Do I really want to watch a show about 6-9 year old kids? FUCK NO. I want to watch robots and mutants blowing shit up.”
Pook
July 31, 2009 at 12:06 am
Flapjack is a recent show that seems to be a throwback to the Nicktoon era cartoons. It’s a show that knows it’s a cartoon. It’s goofy, very strange, and sometimes grotesque in a way that reminds me of Rocko, with humor similar to early Spongebob, which is considered to be the last Nicktoon. A simple premise with colorful characters.
Hey Arnold was art, pure and simple. It showed just how great American animation could be: a mix of heart and comedy that was brutally honest and never sugar-coated the subject it pertained to. We’ll never see a show like it again. You appreciate it so much as an adult.
Impatiently waiting for season 3 of Metalocalypse. :/
Dani
July 31, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Nice article, but I have to echo the complaint a few others have made here – you’re too dismissive of the 80’s classics. Transformers, Voltron, G.I. Joe, TMNT, He-Man, Thundercats, etc etc. 80’s kids are still just attached to these cartoons as you 90’s kids are to yours, and for good reason.
Question for 80’s kids – do any of you remember Danger Mouse? Now THAT was a great cartoon!
chaospet
August 3, 2009 at 2:17 am
cool article. the evolution of cartoon movement is well documented. why is it that cartoons like the simpsons and transformers have stood the test of time and culture so well?
LMS
August 3, 2009 at 8:58 pm