He’s so wealthy that there’s literally nowhere on Earth he can’t afford to go. And in a way, Scrooge McDuck also has a TARDIS. There is literally no end to the stories you can tell with that basic premise. One of the reasons that show is older than Jesus is because, aside from the fact that they can recast the main actor, the Doctor has a machine that lets him go anywhere in space or time. But I think another key to its longevity was the fact that it’s quite similar to Doctor Who. Firstly, simply by dint of the fact that it wasn’t terrible it was already head and shoulders above pretty much any other cartoon on the air. I mean sure, I watched the show and I liked it fine, but what is it about this story about three duck kids and their miserly grunkle that made it to 100 episodes? Couple of things.
The massive popularity of DuckTales is something that’s always confused me a little. You have Transformers? We have Transformers: Prime. You have Thundercats? We have Thundercats 2011. You have My Little Pony? We have Friendship is Magic. Eighties, I hate to break it to you, even our remakes of your shows are a tenfold improvement. Adventure Time takes Twin Peaks to school with its pure surrealism. Gravity Falls is unfolding an ongoing mystery plot with a skill and intelligence that The X-Files and Lost could only dream about. Contrast that with today: American animation studios are consistently making shows for kids that are better than most of the stuff they make for adults. Pearl from Steven Universe is one of the most fascinating, layered, tragically flawed characters on television right now, period. Yes, occasionally an episode of Transformers might get through that still holds up today but these were very, very rare exceptions (I’m talking exclusively about American TV animation I should hasten to add). Sure, there were talented people working on them, but they were people, not gods, and there simply was no way to contend with the forces of microscopic budgets, corporate mandated toy-schilling and stiflingly conservative broadcast standards and create something consistently excellent or even good. Pretty much every cartoon made for television from the nineteen fifties to late eighties was garbage.
Know how I know? Because cartoons have never been as good as they are now.
Cartoons were not better in the eighties than they are now. Now, I am an eighties kid by birth but I converted to the church of 21st century animation a looooong time ago so let me put this one to bed.
God love them, they’ve suffered through so much.
Couple this with the radiation from the hole in the ozone layer frying their brains and the still lingering effects of Chernobyl and quite frankly it’s a wonder that your typical eighties kid can tied their own shoes, much less attempt an objective assessment of the state of made for TV animation then and now. And lead is well known to have a harmful effect on intelligence. I do not claim ownership of this material. New to the blog? Start at the start with Snow White.)Įighties kids have a tendency to loudly proclaim that the cartoons they grew up with, your Masters of the Universe, your Transformers, your My Little Ponies were so much better than the cartoons made for kids today. All images and footage used below are property of their respective companies unless stated otherwise. (DISCLAIMER: This blog is not for profit.