a man and his cartoons

Having long been a huge cartoon fan I have recently decided to try and build up my collection of cartoons.

Cartoons are one of the few things that my wife, my daughter, and myself can sit down and watch together. There are more than enough tvs in the house so we could conceiveably never watch tv together if we didn't want to. But alas, each of us has a very unique taste in cartoons as well. Both my wife and daughter like the cutesy stuff. I like action/dramatic type super hero stuff. Of course I like classic stuff like Disney (which my wife and daughter like too much), Merry Melodies, Looney Toons, Fleischer stuff, and others.

My wife likes Mickey Mouse. For a while I hated Mickey. Just about everything we owned was Mickey related. She's not into Donald Duck, Pluto, Goofy, or most of the others by Disney. My wife was born in 73 so a lot of her picks come from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Some Hanna-Barbera, Rankin/Bass, etc. for her. She likes movies more than series. The original Rankin/Bass "Hobbit" she liked. Some of Marvel's X-men and Spiderman episodes on Fox. More recently she's enjoyed "The Bee Movie", the "Shrek's", "Happy Feet",and "Ratatouille", to name some.

For my daughter she used to just like anything that was animation or a cartoon. Now at almost 16, she leans towards Anime more than anything else. "Inuyasha" is pretty much her favorite. She also likes "Chrono Crusade", "X", "Blood X". "Vampire Princess Miyu", etc. Some I can watch, some I just can't hang with (cutesy stuff).

I like a lot of stuff but I favor the super hero stuff. I was a kid in the 60s and 70s and although technology wise they can do more with animation than I ever thought possible (such as Beowulf, the Final Fantasy stuff, etc.), I still prefer the stuff from yesteryear. From the 60s I loved cartoons like Johhny Quest, The Herucloids, Space Ghost, Bird Man, The Galaxy Trio, Dino Boy, Mighty Mightor, Aqua Man, the Jack Kirby drawn Marvel characters that used to greet me as I returned triumphantly each day from kindergarten in San Francisco's Haight/Ashbury district. They used to show Thor, Iron Man, The Avengers, The Hulk, The Submariner, and Capt. America. I would take those primitive 2 dimensional cartoons over just about everything modern although I would take Thundarr the Barbarian over just about anything else.

Thundarr is pretty much the coolest cartoon ever made in my opinion.During Thundarr's short reign I was in my early 20s and pimpin' insane. Not a care in the world, just the fabulous non-stop action of the 1980s. I would stay up partying all night Friday just so I could make sure I watched Thundarr Saturday morning at 7am. I can remember worring while getting a piece of ass if I would still be able to watch Thundarr too. Piece of ass was usually available but I had to wait a week to see my show.

Modern stuff like Fox's X-Men from the 90s, Fox's Spiderman- also from the 90s, maybe the Batman animated series from the 90s, HBO's Spawn, some anime, that's about the best there is to offer out of the modern era I guess. Transformers season 1 is always cool. Currently I'm checking out Star Trek: the animated series from 1973. It has the real voices from the 60s live action series- except for Chekov. I didn't really like his voice anyway so, fuck him I guess.

Nice art for 35 years ago, the space scenes are cool, and the story lines are cool.

My daughter and I ( an occasionally even my wife and I watch) Le Chevalier D'Eon. Killer anime.

I like some regular (cutesy) cartoons as well. Classic Disney-yes. Fantasia is one of the best visuals I've ever had. Old Popeye, with the captains hat and black shirt, Betty Boop, early Porky Pig when he was huge, Mighty Mouse, Commander McBragg, Tooter Turtle and Mr. Wizard, Dudley Do Right, Fractured Fairy Tales, Underdog (Simon Bar Sinister's voice is quite common amongst elderly men it seems), Casper, Deputy Dawg, Klondike Kat (Savoire Faire is everywhere!) , Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse, the first couple seasons of Scooby Doo, the Go-Go Gophers, Pink Panther, etc.

My youngest son and I used to have an afternoon toon thing together. This was the 90s so he and I would start off in the early afternoon with Mighty Max. For me Max was cool but for young Master Esteves it was just another toon. His picks in the afternoon would be Tale Spin , Duck Tales, Rescue Rangers, Alladin, Goof Troop, etc. I liked these too. Mainly Tail Spin and Alladin.

With my beloved daughter who passed at age 4 anything was good. My daughter's favorite show bar none was The Teletubbies. I can't help but thing about her anytime I see or hear something Teletubbies. She liked Rolly Polly Olly, Powepuff Girls, Wallace and Gromit, Disney-period, South Park, etc. I don't think there could be anything I wouldn't love watching with her.

With my teenager: over the years I have hipped my girl onto cool clothes, cool music, cool toys, and yes, cool cartoons. Originally my daughter was just anything that was a cartoon or animated. Didn't really matter what, it was OK. Sort of like her taste for candy back then too. Didn't matter what, as long as it was candy. Or supposed to be. I watched her climb the cartoon watching ranks. She's really into Disney. She digs all the movies. The Shrek movies, Happy Feet, A Shark's tale, the Bee movie, Ratatouille, Ice Age, the Corpse Bride, even Beowulf.

Old favorite: Power Puff girls. Newer favorite: Inuyasha. She has a lot of anime she likes. Hellsing, Blood X, Vampire Princess Miyu, Chrono Crusade, X, Le Chevallier D'Eon, Devil May Cry,etc. Her and I watch cartoons together and her and her mom enjoy cartoons together as well but rarely can we all 3 watch a cartoon together. We watched Wallace and Gromit together. The Shrek movies as well.

If only toons meant what they once did. For me at least. Lords of light!