Friday, October 24, 2008

Cartoons-I love them!





Sitting in front of the desktop in a pleasant winter afternoon, sipping my favourite tea(nothing can match the tea made my mom),while listening to my favourite songs---can it get cozier than that?
Right now I finished watching 6 back to back episodes of Fox Television's Spiderman. It was one of the first cartoons I watched back in fifth grade (thats when dad decided he had enough of DD1 and it was time for cable tv). I still remember a morning about 8 years ago when I first watched this cartoon.It was 8am-9am saturday show,and I was getting late for school.My memory fails when I try to remember which episode it was,but I get a feeling it was "attack of the spider slayer".
It was cool,fifth grade.Besides Spiderman,there were many others which still remain permanently etched in my memory---Tintin,for example.I first watched it at 7 am in the morning(Flight 714).Then there was Robocop, Swatkats ,Captain Planet,Johnny Quest,Dinosaucers, and ScoobyDoo! I used to wake up at 5 am every morning to watch The new Scooby Doo movies(1 hour)-- and when my mom used to scold me,dad would say that she should respect how religious I am,thoroughly devoted to my cartoon.
and then there was Hiedi.Simply Amazing.I used to hurry back from school on saturdays to watch this one(1pm-2pm).Even my dad and sister liked it.

After I had watched each episode of Spiderman about 4 times,Fox Kids decided to air new cartoons during 6th grade----Ironman,Dungeons and Dragons,Batman,Silver Surfer,Fantastic Four,X-Men,and some others. The Silver Surfer story really used to touch me(it still does).Just imagine an 11 year old boy getting emotional because of the sacrifice Silver Surfer made for his planet! Though I liked the concept and story line of X-Men,it got pretty confusing because the episodes were not shown in continuity.and it was irritating watching D&D because those guys always got very close to getting out of that world.(Those familiar with the story would understand).It was the same feeling which restrained me from watching Silvestre and Tweety,and why I still not like Tom and Jerry.I mean,come on! Let the cat eat its food for once.I used to watch a few episodes,firmly on the cat's side,but then switch off my TV in anger and disgust.
and how ironic it was that my friends named me "pussy cat" back then.(though it was for an entirely different reason-a corruption of piyush to push to pushy to pussy). and how ironic is it that my current nickname is puppy or dog!
Then there was the advent of a totally new genre of cartoons in 7th-anime-when the CT went through a changeover. G.I.JOE,Speed Racer and the awesome Toonami animes-Cardcaptors and Dragon Ball Z.gosh! Dragon Ball Z was too great to be a human creation.( not an overstatement) The concept,storyline,characters . I used to wake up till late midnight for the 12 am - 1 am back to back episodes.When the first saga was over(I dint know there were more),I thought shit,the story is over-it was amazing.But then the next saga started,and whoa ,it was even more gripping.It was more than disappointing when the CT stopped the show in the middle of the storyline.
There were many good shows after that,a new improved version of XMen, Justice League,another Spiderman(though not even close to the Fox Kids one),and Jackie Chan adventures.
After the CT went berserk and stopped all these shows,I turned to Disney.
Now,after 2 years of TVlessness during 11th and 12th,I have turned back to reliving those moments of 5th and 6th on the internet.It feels great.I digged out new episodes of Spiderman,and believe me or not,Dragon Ball Z was the one who helped me get over 'She who must not be named'.(Laugh out loud)
Meanwhile,I am desperately searching for English episodes of Heidi.

7 comments:

pgm said...

im surprised no one's commented on this entry as yet!
You remember stuff like Robocop? Thats cool... my cartoon watching career goes back to age 5 though, and I can barely remember the stuff that used to come then. He-man and all...
One of these days, all us grown-up-kids should sit together and relve all the madness: Thunder Cats, Ninja Robots, Voltron, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Superhuman Samurai, SWAT Kats, The Centurions (poewr extremetremetremetreme) and what-not!
Can't believe you dont like Tom and Jerry. Our teacher RECOMMENDED that we watch it to destress during our boards!!!

Anonymous said...

hey.... its amazing to know that we share interest in almost the same shows...piyush.... and do u remember the show 'Ninja Robots' ... I simply loved it... and Heidi was such a nice show man.... I absolutely loved it.... Such a great storyline....Tintin was another awesome show...(I especially loved that long chapter in it which probably covered 4-5 episodes in which about 10 scientists go to some pyramid and get cursed ... and prof. calculus is also kidnapped ... and tintin along with snoopy and haddock sets out to solve yet another amazing mystery).... Then there was this johnny quest show... which made me feel out of this world.... I even watched the Fox Entertainent shows like spiderman, robocop, silver surfer, turtles... and yeah... how can forget the epic show => DragonballZ.... no words to describe it... I was literally spellbound (to not to move)for 1 hour when i saw the show on sundays...and yeah...not miss the swat cats... I loved their jet man.... wish i could fly that for once... and yeah.... Tom and Jerry aint that good really... though i liked the Tom and jerry kids ... which a bit funkier... well... Good times they were...

lwsam said...

Where do I start? ... The earliest cartoons that I remember watching were when Star Plus used to air English shows ... some of them which I still remember are as follows:
Robotech, which stopped airing in 1994, Voltron, Dungeons and Dragons, Jem, G.I. Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - the original TV show, Around the World in 80 Days, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, ...
Most of these shows have stopped coming.
Along side this was DD Metro. Some of the shows that I used to watch were:
Flash Gordon, Quack Pack, Goof Troop, Mummies Alive, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe - the original 1983 animation, SHAZAM, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, Aladdin, Spider-Woman - there actually was a show called that, and so on.
Then came Cartoon Network. I used to watch a lot from there, such as Power Zone cartoons - like the Centurions, Galtar and the Golden Lance, Sky Commanders, SWATKats, Ninja Robots, and shorts like Space Ghost, Galactic Trio, etc. After Power Zone ended, I used to watch shows on Toonami like Pokemon, Digimon, Transformers, Beyblade, etc.
After that came AnimaX and along with that came Toon Disney. After watching AnimaX, we can get to see the difference between good cartoon serials and shows that we thought were good. One of my favourite shows on AnimaX was Mobile Suit Gundam and its sequel Zeta Gundam. Apart from that I also like FMA, Samurai X, Get-Backers, Hungry Heart - I used to skive afternoon classes in I PU / 11th. just to watch it, Ghosts at School, Detective School Q, and a whole lot more.
Finally came DC++ - this is the sharing software used in College. New shows that I got / watched from here are as follows:
Gundam SEED - by far one of the best animes ever;
Death Note - note: start watching this anime as soon as you return to your hostel after your exam ends, and watch it till it ends as it is brilliant;
Basilisk
Gankutsuou - another stunning rendition of the Count of Monte Cristo, told from the perspectives of other characters such as Albert de Morcerf, Eugenie Danglars, Valentine de Villefort, etc.
...
Another show worth mentioning is Avatar: The Last Airbender, a show which airs on Nickelodeon, which is, in my opinion, one of the best cartoons ever, and is always worth watching.

lwsam said...

@ pgm:
One more thing, ... Superhuman Samurai is a TV show, NOT a cartoon,
and yeah, the Hanna-Barbara Tom and Jerry cartoons are superb.
Also, dont start watching DBZ if you are in college. Watch it first when it aired on CN, and then take the rest of the episodes from your college LAN.

pgm said...

@sam: bah! Am not into DBZ...
and lol, if ever there's a guy who has to remember shows from pre 95 period, it has to be you na!!!
I remember getting CN only in 95, when we went our neighbour's house and 'leartn' how to 'tune' the tv (oooh! :P) manually :P. But ya, the star plus ones were superb, even after CN came...

ok, so you're like the third person... no actually the 4th person who's recommended death note in the past 2 weeks (that too after ive heard of death note 6 months back!)

watched a bit of basilisk too..

and in terms of anime, you shld watch fsn (fate stay night) man!!!

LONG live sam-x and get backers!!!
(remember bunking JEE coaching to watch the last episode of one of the get backers series, only to have no current lol!!)

Piyush said...

@yatik
yea those tintin episodes were part of the "The curse of rascar capac" and "prisoners of the sun".those are my favorites as well.
I dint watch ninja robots much.but yea I loved the opening theme.

Piyush said...

@sam!:
This post has turned into a huge cartoons,anime database!
@PGM:
""im surprised no one's commented on this entry as yet!""
Since then this post has received the longest comments on my blog,and also triggered an hour long "sharing old-cartoon memories" session in our hostel involving our whole dep!