Old vs. New versions of shows

S

sly phy .. ouija bonfire

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In recent times there have been updated versions of old shows, new versions of shows from the 80s like Transformers, He-Man and TMNT, even Justice League can be seen as a new version of Super friends.

Now most of the new versions are considered better not just because of better technology, but also because of better writing.

Also has the writing for cartoons dramatically improved since the 80s, did cultural norms change to allow more focus on characterization and plot that just wasn't there in the past? Why do you think the new versions are often better then the old ones?

Now was there anything in the old versions of the show that you liked better then in the new versions?
 
I'm definitely not going to say that it's black and white, that all the new versions are better than the old. Here's a short rundown of what shows I feel were better than others:

2002 He-Man > original He-Man
Original G.I.Joe > Sigma 6
Original Transformers > Armada/Energon/Cybertron > Robots In Disguise > Animated
2003 TMNT > Original TMNT
Justice League > Super Friends
Batman:TAS/TNBA > Batman TB&TB > The Batman

So sometimes I like the newer versions more, sometimes I like the originals more.
 
imo Older versions of shows are always superior to newer ones, with very few exceptions. This is because they either stem directly from the original source (i.e a comic book) and the culture of it's era, or are in pure unchanged format. Change is not often for the better, especially when you create something that works fine as a show then evolve it. That's like making a machine and changing it. Unecessary for the machine and often stupid for it's operations indeed also.

There are a few examples however i can think of which demonstrate this is not always the case. Tintin is a good one. The original tintin cartoon was not canonical whereas the second one is far more like the comic books. I can't think of any other examples. Most series with more versions like Spiderman are always at their best in the original.
 
It depends on the individual show. I've seen examples of older versions which are superior to newer versions, and I've seen examples of the reverse. There have also been cases where the ideal show would be one which combined elements of both.
 
The newest version of He-Man was really good, but I'm a sucker for the old look of the series and it really seemed kind of "magical" for whatever reason, I own them on DVD and watch them from time to time, but the same goes for the newer 2002-ish series. TMNT from the 80's was great and I love the series, but the 2003 relaunch is a little more watchable but I still love both and it's hard for me to decide, 2003 for the action and 80's for the memories I suppose.
 
Well, the example which instantly springs to mind here:

X-Men: TAS, and then Evo and Wolverine & The X-Men.

Seriously, it's very annoying to me that people think the latter two are better than the former - the former is frequently criticized on the basis of bad animation, but it's low budget '90's style, so it's to be expected.

I loved X-Men: TAS up to the last episode, and have never ceased to. It never failed to engage me, perhaps the only big pitfall which plagued it was the tradition of inexplicably turning Magneto over to Xavier's side.

By contrast, while I'm a huge Evo fan, even I can admit the first season sucked big time, set up basically as fast as possible, comical portrayal of Wolverine, felt far below TAS in terms of how serious it was clearly meant to be. And I don't view Wolverine and the X-Men as "bad," but it's far from as good as TAS.
 
1. Justice League VS The Superfriends:
I go with JL as the characters could be distinguished even without their powers. Superfriends they pretty much had the same mentality with their powers/skills being different. Doesn't mean I dislike Superfriends. Just means I prefer JL.

2. I'd say that both TMNT are equally good. The 1987 cartoon for being a decent comedy/action and the 2003 episodes for the continuing storylines.

3. For that reason I prefer Batman TAS and BTBATB equally as well. But if my comment concerning JL and SF might seem contradictory, Superfriends while they likely intended it to be semi-serious failed to do so and end up as a show that you have fun joking about more often.

But while I enjoy The Batman, I'd say that it fails to be as good as either show as it never really found it's identity. It tried to be a beginning of Batman, only to become a typical Batman cartoon and then a Brave and The Bold cartoon. The other two Battunes on the other hand know what they want to be and do what they are best at.
 
I pretty much agree with all this. It all depends on how new versions are handled. Sometimes they're better, sometimes they're good, but sometimes they just suck.
 
I agree with two exceptions ...
Original Transformers > Beast Wars/Machines > Unicron Trilogy > Animated > Robots In Disguise
and
Batman TB&TB > Batman: TAS/TNBA > The Batman.

But yeah, sometimes the new ones are better, sometimes the old ones are.
 
Mostly new for me. I immensely prefer Beast Wars to any other Transformers series, but BW wasn't the first, G1 was, so it's more like 'middle' than new or old. I prefer the newer Ninja Turtles, He-Man, Iron Man, and Spider-Man cartoons compared to the older ones as well.
 
Here are two remakes that should be in this discussion.

Johnny Quest - it had three remakes, one in the 80's, two in the 90's. Personal I thought the original was the best.

The Jetsons - Looking back at the reruns on Boomerang, I thought the 80's remake was excellent, but the original 60's version is still better.
 
I wouldn't consider the new TMNT necessarily better than the old one, both are very different interpretations and enjoyable for different reasons.


And I don't think the new is necessarily better, it really depends on a series by series basis, not to mention you'd get biased opinions by people who grew up with one etc.
 
old is gold, period...

Transformers Animated? TMNT 2003? Spectacular Spiderman? Batman 2004? SW: Clone Wars 2008/09? New Care Bears who look like Teletubbies?

Come on...! Original series/old shows are the best... why?
cooler and better animation
more action
enjoyable
they are originals - without them the remakes wouldn't exist

and it's not just about remakes, it's about todays shows in general, they are dumb...i mean, they all look the same...and are boring to watch...

I still watch old shows today (cartoons)... why? because they are good, superior...
 
That logic doesn't quite work when you consider the newer versions are often closer to the source material they are based on, then their older counterparts.

The new TMNT cartoon is far closer to the comics that created tMNT in the first place.

The Justice League cartoon is far closer then the comics then Super Friends.

Plus with those two shows, the plots and characterization is far better (as well as the animation) then thier older counter parts.
 
I've said it before and I'll say it again: not every old cartoon is good and not every new cartoon is bad.


Shows should be judged by the individual quality of the shows themselves, not by what year they were made in or whether or not said show is a remake.

Some "new" versions of shows are of a higher quality and have better things to offer than their predecessors, and there are plenty of "old" shows which were crud even back then.
 
X-Men: TAS > X-Men Evolution: X-Men TAS despite its faults in the animation the show still stands the test of time. This show was like reading a comic. They for the most part stayed true to the comics and characters. They never really held back on some issues like racsim and surprisingly religion. X-Men EVO was pretty much X-Men In Name Only prety much take all those sterotypes from Total Drama Island/Action and put them in X suits and thats about it. I wont rank Wolverine and the X-Men since its only got one season under its belt and I need at least two to compare it to the 90's.

Beast Wars > G1 Transformers > Pretty much everything else: Beast Wars was an evolation of the 80's show. It took all its good aspects and built up on them. Lets face it there aren't any characters better then Dino Bot, Cheetor, Optimus Primal, Terartulas, Megatron. I can keep going on but I'm not going to. The rest of the shows have just been one misdirection after the other.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2K3 > Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 80's-90's: This one is pretty hard because there so diffrent from each other and they have both diffrent strengths and weaknesses. For the most 2K3 is better I think this show just had a better quality to it for a longer periode of time then the 80's. The 80's show got stale after awhile and when they tried to rejuvinate it with some life it was to late and the quality just wasn't there.
 
Am I the only one in the world that liked Transformers: Armada? I thought it was a great remake and had great character development, but whatever, clearly it's not as good as the one-dimensional G1...



Did you make it past the first season or not? It had plenty of X-Men awesomeness! They had some good story arcs after the first season.
 
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