>Excuse #1: Cartoons From The 80s Were Too Commercialized

There were a lot of cartoons inspired by toys, video games, and other merchandise in the 1980s. See if any of these titles spark up nostalgia:

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. G.I. Joe. Transformers. Pac-Man and Rubik the Amazing Cube. Jem. Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines. Shirt Tales. Robotix. Challenge of the Go-Bots. M.A.S.K. Pole Position. Care Bears. Laser Tag. Dragon's Lair. Rainbow Brite. The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin. Saturday Supercade. Bravestarr. The Smurfs. Captain N: The Game Master.

This is just a sampling of the shows of the 80s. But these weren't exactly the rule of the day. Shows based on merchandising rarely lasted beyond three seasons, while some were out in one. In some cases, the show outlasted the merchandise, like The Smurfs and Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, a series that actually acheived a significant popularity even though a lot of fans didn't know it was actually based on an ill-fated toyline that didn't look anything like the series.

Cartoons based on merchandising is nothing new. Cereal companies actually created mascots that could actually be used in animated series like King Leonarda. Matty's Funnies, which introduced Beany and Cecil to the world, was a series produced by Mattel Toys. Mattel also produced a series based on their Hot Wheels toyline. And it's not like cartoons based on merchandising disappeared with the 80s. The 90s had cartoons based on video game properties like Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter 2, Earthworm Jim, and, surprisingly, Mortal Kombat, which not only had a kid-friendly animated series in Defenders of the Realm, but also had figures produced by Hasbro.

4Kids Entertainment, originally a licensing firm called Leisure Concepts, made it their mission to create cartoons based on the merchandise they had a hand in getting licensees for, starting with Pokemon and continuing into the 21st century, hijacking Kids' WB and Fox Kids's lineups in the process. Say what you will about the 80s, but you can't say that a single licensor ever took over an entire network lineup.

What's another excuse critics of the 80s used. Oh yeah, they foolishly say that in the 1980s, "cartoons were bland and uncreative."