>Defending The '80s (Part Five)| My Response to HG Revolution

Originally Posted by Jeff Harris

HG Revolution wrote a response to my rebuttal spawning from the Defending The 80s article. Now, it's my turn to respond to him:

Now, you seem to be getting very defensive about the '80s, but what I have to ask is simply "why"?

I feel the need to defend the 80s because out of all of animation history, this is the decade perceived by a lot of animation critics as one of the worse if not THE worst. It kind of irritates me that people find very little positive to say about the works that came out of that decade as well as the in-roads that came about because of the decade. It's always the same old arguments that the cartoons are overcommercialized, unimaginative, and downright bland. My argument is that they weren't ALL bad.

Admittedly it wasn't the worst decade of animation as some people might make it out to be. However, has there really been a good decade for animation in quite some time?

Nope. Every period of animation had great shows and shorts and terrible ones. There's no 100% good animation decade, and I know that the 80s wasn't the best either. Personally speaking, the only two decades I feel were the pinnacle of animation were the 40s and the 60s.

Now here's what HG had to say after I pointed out that dividing animation by country can make one lose an argument:

No, you don't. Now, if Japanese and American animation artists both got equal amounts of license and freedom, I'm sure the Q:C ratio (as I'll call it) would be equal between the two nations. However, the animation INDUSTRIES of the two nations are so different that writing an article about the two together without acknowledging the differences would result in a general lack of clarity.

That may be true. However, truth be told, animation became more of an international medium in the 1980s than in any decade. Animation from Japan had always been seen as a foreign curiousity, although viewers never saw any clear difference at the time Astro Boy and Gigantor first soared into our households in the 60s. By the 70s, as animation was getting worse, Japanese animation (for the same budget) was getting better, and only after Star Wars became a global success did American animation execs give a better look to animation from Japan and the sudden realization that they could easily bring already-completed shows to the States in the new decade and they could also co-produce animated projects in Japan.

Remember, the 80s was the decade where a lot of titles were animated outside of the US and studios like Toei, Sunrise, and TMS became prominent in the credits of the shows you and I watch. And I'm not talking about the direct imports like Voltron and Robotech (both of which were compiled of multiple, non-connected shows). G.I. Joe, Transformers (yes, I know the underlaying property was created in Japan, but the series was largely an American investment), Muppet Babies, Thundercats (the animators of this show created the core of what is now Studio Ghibli), and the initial offerings from Walt Disney Television Animation were all animated in Japan. Mighty Orbots was the first Japanese-American co-production setting the stage for future endeavors like Spider-Man (the show was co-produced at TMS during its entire run), Big O II, IGPX, Afro Samurai, and Powerpuff Girls Z, among others. The animation industry in Japan is interconnected with the industry here in the States, and the 80s was the first decade the interconnectivity showed.

Crap is still present in all eras. The '70s had the largest pile, but the '80s were still pretty bad. Just because the '80s is the lesser of evils doesn't make it a good period overall.

No, it doesn't make it a good period overall. But honestly, again, has there been a truly good animation period? Nope. The 90s had good shows and plenty of bad shows as well. The current decade also is comprised of a mixed bag. Whether it's political and puritanical correctness or just plain bad animation direction, animation has always had periods of duality. Do you judge animation of the 90s under the same microscope as animation of the 80s? If not, you really should see shows like Katie and Orbie and The Wacky World of Tex Avery, among many.

DiC surprised me a lot in the 90s by making two entirely different shows with the same character in the same year. They produced The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog for weekday consumption and Sonic The Hedgehog for Saturday mornings, and they're as different as night and day. The animation, designs, and writing was so different on both shows, one who didn't know any better would have been shocked to learn they were produced by the same company. Is there any excuse why they couldn't spend as much energy on TASH just as they did on SatAM? Heck no. And you have the bad and good side of the 90s with that one franchise alone.

On a similar note, yes, Dragon Ball Z premiered in the 80s, but it's no more of an 80s show than The Simpsons is. Think of it as carryover heat.

But looking at the decade as one big whole totally ignores the progression of animation trends in America. The first half of the decade was ultimately just a continuation of the '70s, only with the derivative mystery shows replaced with derivative toy cash-ins.

The same argument could be same about the 90s. The first half of the decade was ultimately just a continuation of the 80s, where the creators and animators created more original fare and learned from their mistakes of the first half of the 80s where many of them got their start. Ren and Stimpy wouldn't have gotten out of the front door if Beany and Cecil and Mighty Mouse weren't made. The success of Walt Disney Television Animation inspired Warner Bros. to get back to basics, not to mention they saw the 50th anniversary of A Wild Hare, the definitive Bugs Bunny cartoon, as an excuse to publicly reintroduce the animation department. Warner Bros. also benefited from the shutdown of Filmation, which gave many animators and writers their start in the industry.

People don't really talk about the second half of the 90s too much, primarily because the Children's Television Act became enforced and killed Saturday morning animation on broadcast television, limiting creativity on that side. Of course, broadcast television blamed the death of Saturday mornings on cable television. A lot of the blame really goes to the rise of the studio-owned networks, which limited variety on television. Remember, in the first half of the 90s, Disney fare was seen on CBS and ABC and Hanna-Barbera stuff was on ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox. By the end of the decade, Disney shows were only seen on Disney-owned networks (at this time including ABC) and Hanna-Barbera was only on Cartoon Network. The Pokemon effect killed the original Kids' WB and Fox Kids by the time the 2000s began. Remember that period when everybody wanted to have their own Pokemon-like show?

Look, I'm not saying that the 1980s was the greatest decade ever in animation. It was far from it. However, the decade wasn't as bad as everybody makes it out to be. There WERE good shows in the so-called "pre-Renaissance" period and there WERE bad shows in the so-called "Renaissance" period. It'd be foolish to believe that there was just one totally good half in the 80s and one totally bad half in the 80s, which is why I defend the decade as a decade, warts and all.