PRA Declassified

American cartoons were exhillirating and entertaining, like a wild and entertaining ride through a colourful, fantastical world where anything seemed possible. Cartoons from Great Britain were more akin to a storybook than a movie. They were safe and comforting and warmly familiar but very rarely offered the highs of  their American counterparts. American cartoons were a bag of candy, British cartoons were a cup of tea and biscuit. In Australia we were exposed to many of these British cartoons due to our main children’s channel ABC having links with British channels BBC, Thames-ITV and Channel 4 among others. They must have got a truckload of these shows per year on some discount offer. Many of the shorter ones were used as fillers in between longer format shows.

If American cartoons were from the big city, then British cartoons were from just down the street. Perhaps it was Australia’s British roots that made them seem sort of familiar? I grew up in the hills of South Australia where it would often be cold in winter and these cartoons were like a cosy blanket. They were not sugary and bright or full of snap, crackle and pop. They were often darker looking in their tones even to the point of glum. They always looked a little underdone or rougher around the edges than other cartoons too and this made them feel very accessible but also meant that they could very quickly become a little depressing to watch. They were closer to a throw away newspaper comic strip than a slick superhero comic with a glossy cover. Whenever a British cartoon came on I wouldn’t switch it off but I would usually feel like I was slightly coming down off the American cartoon before it.  Maybe they provided the necessary mouthful of blandness between sugary meals?

The cartoons that spring to mind off the top of my head are Bananaman, Danger Mouse, The Ratties, Raggy Dolls, Henry’s Cat, Willo The Wisp, Superted, Jimbo, Count Duckula and Bangers & Mash.

These cartoons definitely fill with me with a comforting sense of nostalgia and do feel like part of the family, father than an exciting foreigner.  They were full of puddles, gumboots, umbrellas, cobbled lanes and average looking brick lane houses and bedrooms with smokey chimneys. They were occupied by bobby policeman, double-decker buses and woodland creatures living in little houses, nestled in tree trunks. They were like a cup of tea on a dreary cold day at your grandmothers’ house,  greasy, vinegary fish and chips eaten from newspaper on the windy docks of the town or baked beans and egg on toast.

Occasionally they’d leap out of this world into something a little more ‘out there’ in the case of Superted. Humour-wise they were a lot more subtle than the American cartoons. Dryer and usually peppered with historical references or jokes. Many of which probably went over our heads. Their theme songs were often more rambunctious and less smooth and tight than other cartoons too. Often their theme songs would be damn right irritating but this somehow added to their ‘ugly’ charm.

Here is one of the worst theme songs for The Ratties. Have a watch and cringe and see why I wanted to drown myself in my own bubble bath after I heard this one.

But then sometimes they would hit a really great little tune that was so loveable and warm to hear and made you excited to enter the world you were about to watch. This one was of my very favourites. The Raggy Dolls

The simple superhero theme song for Bananaman was also great in an understated way.

One style that the British did best I think was stop-motion. Some of the most memorable and well done series of the era were in this style. The Trap Door, Noddy, Morph, Wind in the Willows, Paddington, The Wombles and Fireman Sam . While many of the characters walked like they had clubfeet or some inner ear problem, they were charming and cute because of this.

Noddy was one of my favourites and when looking at it now was incredibly trippy.

I think what made many of these cartoons likeable was the fact they were unpolished and unpretentious, but they sort of knew it. They often looked as if they were drawn with a marker in about ten minutes, or animated  using cut outs with a popsicle stick in the case of Captain Pugwash a looseness that American cartoons would never have dared entered on a mainstream level.

Next post: Cartoons from Japan

Growing up on this big island and culturally embryonic country we call Australia, most of the TV and specifically cartoons I watched as a kid were imported  from overseas. Of course cartoons from the U.S.A were the most prominent like many English speaking countries and hugely influential on Australian children including myself,  but we also had regular doses of cartoons from our ‘mother country’ England and then increasingly more and more from our neighbours of the Asia-Pacific region, Japan. Add to the mix cartoons from Canada and throw in a dash of the occasional European import and that was our cartoon diet growing up. The era I am specifically referring to here is roughly from the years 1984 through 1994. A decade where my generation was fed some of the most memorable, forgettable, horrible and iconic TV cartoons from across the world all in the same sentence. I’m going to take my mind back to that period and recall from a child’s perspective what the different ‘flavours’ was of this cultural mish-mash we were beamed via out TV sets.

American Cartoons

Still the most vivid and prominent in my mind.  They certainly left an aftertaste or ‘buzz’. This is probably half to do with the fact that they seemed to make up a bulk of what we watched but also cos they seemed to have a lasting flavour, whether good or bad and even when bad you still kind of wanted more.

Cartoons from the U.S felt like Saturday mornings. They were fun, colourful and sugary. They were fruit loops for the eyes and bubblegum for the ears. You knew when an American cartoon came on that they really knew what they were doing. They had everything down. The exhilirating and catchy theme songs that would echo in your head for the whole day, the tie-ins to toys, cereals and happy meals and the somewhat expected yet satisfying and comforting formula that the episodes would play out using. These were not organic cartoons but highly synthesised, chemically enhanced and highly produced works that left others in their wake. They were processed and pre-wrapped in colourful packaging and tasted like that really fake strawberry flavour and smelt like that even more fake grape flavour. They were genetically modified cartoons with super strength, super fun and super colours. When i say colourful I mean it; Gummi Bears, the Wuzzles, The Smurfs, The Care Bears, Rainbow Bright, The Popples, Pound Puppies, Muppet Babies and Poochie are just some that spring to mind. They were soooo cute and soooo colourful and happy that it sort of made you want to scream at the TV with happiness. It was an anxious, sugar high happiness that made you want to run around the block laughing. The cartoons were also really tight like a well drilled pop rock group. They were fast, dynamic, pulsating with energy and usually had an element of wit or slapstick humour so they never really depressed. You wanted to hug the TV when they came on and you felt like these cartoons were hugging you back and grabbing your hand and pulling you in to play in their world. Even writing this entry, I have a smile and I’m typing really fast just remembering the feeling.

Obviously in addition the load of new stuff we were shown many of the American classics like Scooby Doo, Top Cat, Yogi Bear and the Bugs Bunny Show. I could tell these cartoons weren’t new like many of the others as they didn’t contain fluoro pink or pastel purple in their palettes but they just had pizazz. They felt like a really funny uncle, who was a bit old but still had it. They were entertainers in that vaudevillian way and that was never lost on me as a child.

Then of course was the action! in American cartoons. They did this better than anyone. He-Man, She-Ra, Dinosaucers, COPS, Bravestarr, Thundercats, Transformers and of course Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were all filled with this. It was like sugar mixed with steroids and it worked. It made you want those action figures so much that you felt you could tear down your bedroom wall if you didn’t get them.

I remember distinctly racing home on the afternoons to watch the Ninja Turtles with my brother and hearing that theme song was seriously akin to a hit of some sort of drug. it just made me feel so good. I would sing along to it, hold the action figure or trading cards in my hands while it was and not be able to wait until tomorrow’s episode. It was unlike any feeling I have ever felt since. A pure obsession and I had no idea this was so cleverly concocted like a synthetic flavour enhancer, so kids like me all around the world would be swept up in such an uncontainable fervor that they would be possessed to raid the toy stores for any bit of merchandise with a Ninja Turtle on it. It was Turtlemania and it cut through Australian culture like Leonardo’s katana blade through a foot soldier. It tasted like pizza (naturally), salty snack treats and ice cream all washed down with some invisible cola or some bizarre green ice cream/soda milkshake. This cartoon gave you acne even before you had hit puberty. It made boys into boy-men overnight.  Ninja Turtles in a way spelled the end of the ‘ultra cute’ cartoon on our TVs and suddenly killer, mutant amphibians were among the poochies and puppies and everything around it suddenly felt so uncool in comparison,

Then of course came the new wave of American more adult,  cheeky and witty cartoons; The Simpsons, Ren & Stimpy, Beavis & Butthead and Eek the Cat. We knew by this stage that these cartoons were American and anything American in the early to mid-90s in Australia was considered ultra cool. NBA, sneakers, rap music, toys even candy or as we say ‘lollies’ like push-pops came in and were so popular. But what made these cartoons cool were that they didn’t seem ‘kiddie’ and ‘lame’ like the care bear cartoons of yesteryear seemed by that time. They were the new crop and felt like they were made for me as an 10 or 11 year old who would rather play with a Super Soaker 20 than a fluffy toy. These cartoons even parodies the cutesy cartoons of the 80s in them.

Next Post: Cartoons from the UK