Dated Cartoons

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Mephisto

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Cartoons, like any other form of art and entertainment, has some that survive the test of time and others that, well, don't. Which cartoons do you think are the most dated? Jem, I think, is pretty dated. It's too `80s. The concept has survived. Shows about bands were done before and after but still...its content has dated.
 
A lot of old superhero shows are way too dated by today's standards. Between the simple plots and the bad animation, a lot of old superhero shows are just plain bad now.

Most of Superfriends is almost unwatchable. Same for any other superhero show from the 60's-early 80's.
 
lol. Yea. Those Hanna-Barbera/Filmation superhero cartoons are ridiculous now. It seemed like they were adaptating the strips rather than the actual comics.
 
Here's a few:
  • Barbie and the Rockers (I read somewhere this was made to try to pull in profits from Jem's popularity, so this is pretty darn 80s)
  • Tiny Toon Adventures (it's an excellent show and the animation is fine, but many of the jokes and content were something only somebody who was around in the early 90s could get. They also referred to the fact that it was the 90s a few times, so that dates it right there)
  • Muppet Babies (they heavily rely on pop culture from the 80s, such as Back to the Future, Ghost Busters and characters like Max Headroom)
 
I think The Simpsons will age about as well as the Looney Tunes have: some jokes will stay timeless, others will gain historical significance, yet others will just fade into obscurity (though a lot of said jokes were obscure and geeky already at the time), but overall it'll still be loved in the future.
 
Many episodes of Simpsons, Family Guy, and especially South Park. The problem with doing lots of things about cirrent issues is that they're dated within years of airing. Total Drama Island might be since it's a parody of reality tv shows.

EDIT: Oh! Almost everything from the 80's. The animation, the slang, the music, not to mention horrific hair and shoulder pads.
 
The Simpsons premiered 20 years ago. In other words...it hasn't dated. Those early episodes are still considered classics. Anything that's 20 years old and still popular is not dated.
 
Superfriends is plain ridiculous indeed. The Wonder Twins alone would sink the show, when you count everything else...

Just about anything my Hannah Barberra or Filmation and most 80s shows are just plain HORRIBLE today. Even the ones considered good back then suck! (Transformers G1 I'm lookin' at you!)

Even some of the worse show of todays have better storylines -.-
 
Which messes up Evangelion......................
To answer the origial question most episodes of South Park now because they rely on recent events....which won't be recent in a while. And shows that mention what year it is
 
Hasn't hampered the Looney Tunes, which similarly had references from the '30s and '40s. I figure, as long as you have multiple sources of humor and not just references that will become dated, shows will have lasting appeal. That's why I am in the camp that doesn't think Family Guy will be as bad off as some think, unless people years from now don't respond to the OTHER forms of humor in the show that aren't '80s/90s references.
 
Family Guy was dated from day one, unless you think everyone was making references to The A-Team, The Incredible Hulk, and the Kool-Aid Man in 1999.
 
Doesn't seem like a very good argument to me. It's been ten years and the references Family Guy used in the first season don't seem that dated yet. It's going to be a long time before people forget the Kool-Aid Man or the A-Team, not to mention Hulk.

The sort of FG jokes that will no doubt be dated are stuff like the Christian Bale cutaway, or the cutaway with Stewie hurting himself stomping grapes.

Certain pop culture references can stay relevant for a while. Others unfortunately can not.
 
I think how dated cartoons will become in time will mostly depend on the overall quality. There's a reason Terrytoons and Woody Woodpecker aren't as fondly remembered as Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry.

Most of the pop-culture references in The Simpsons and Family Guy are to stuff that's already dated (from the 80's and before), so those shows can't be pinned to a particular era or decade by references alone.

If I may quote Matt Wilson on this subject





There are tons of glaring flaws in the bulk of the cartoons Hanna-Barbera, Ruby-Spears, DIC, and Filmation created in the 80's (such as bad animation, weak writing, preachy morals and so on) that people who watched them as kids would have overlooked but become crystal clear in retrospect.
 
If you're gonna make fun of something it might as well be something people are bound to remember. Young Frankenstein is still considered a great movie because people know who Frankenstein is. They get the joke.
 
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