By Lisa Anderson
My love for things British goes way back. Like many people my age, I grew up with Nickelodeon, the cable children’s programming network. One of my favorite shows was Danger Mouse, the first British cartoon to break into the American market, and its later spin-off, Count Duckula. Both were from the animation studio Cosgrove Hall.
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By Maureen
They don’t make ‘em like they used to: the nature of Walt Disney productions has changed. In the mid-1990s, the success of Toy Story brought the new (and previously untapped) market of computer animation into the picture. Disney’s computer-animated films have become very popular, and there are some quality movies affiliated with Disney. Recently, both WALL-E and Up have received critical and financial success. As Disney has begun to adapt their technology and marketing to the computer age, the overall tenor of their animated films has monopolized the genre.
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By Megashaun
Cartoons are typically not known for their musical scores. In fact, for many that I watched growing up, the music was often more of an afterthought (outside of the main title theme, that is). Incidental music in The Transformers, for instance, was so generic and overused that the show even shared many of its compositions (if they could be called that) with its counterpart half-hour Hasbro commercial, G.I. Joe.
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By Megashaun
I was in the sixth grade, eleven years old, and I didn’t understand why I wasn’t cool. I only knew I wasn’t. I liked Ninja Turtles and Batman in a time when everyone else in my class was into MC Hammer, Technotronic, and Public Enemy. I didn’t own any albums. I didn’t try chasing the girls. One of my classmates—a boy—asked me which girl I liked and I said I didn’t like any (which was a lie; I didn’t want that secret getting out and risk being made fun of for it) and he asked me if I was gay.
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