Monday, August 06, 2012

Ask Me Anything #23



It's the first Monday of the month which means it's time for "Ask Me Anything," the monthly feature in which you get to do just that. So, if you have questions about my work, my influences, movies I may have seen, books I may have read, food I may have eaten, or anything else that I might possibly have an answer for, go ahead and ask and I'll do my best to answer.

Head down to the comment section and post your question. I'll either post my answer in the comment section as well, or answer it in a special post all its own sometime later in the month.

Please take the time to view the previous questions so that we don't wind up with a lot of repetition. I've been asked a lot of good, thought provoking questions in the past as well as some really banal ones, all of which I tried to answer. You can see the previous questions by visiting Ask Me Anything  #1#2 ,  #3#4#5#6 , #7 , #8#9,  #10,  #11,  #12 , #13#14,  #15 , #16#17 , #18 , #19,  #20,  #21 and #22.  Answers not found following the questions can be found in the archives section for each associated month under Ask Me Anything.

Now ask away.

5 comments:

Robert Pope said...

American animation arguably found it's nadir in the early to mid-eighties with a massive amount of toy-driven afternoon programming, most of which has now either been re-imagined for the animated medium or made into live-action movies of varying degrees of success. Did any of these properties resonate with you, and if so, why, and if not, also, why?

John Rozum said...

No. I was being turned off from American animation a few years before this took place. What did it for me was the Scrappy-Doo element in which pretty much every cartoon series from Scooby-Doo to Plastic Man was saddled with an annoying infant version of the main character.

I tried to watch and enjoy Thundar the Barbarian, but the tremendous restrictions on cartoon violence made that show inane in that Thundar would slice the tips off the spears of his enemies and they would then drop them and run away. It seemed insulting rather than protective.

By the time shows like The Smurfs, G.I. Joe and Transformers came along I was long gone from watching cartoons, and if I did come across them, I found them uninspired and even more objectionable on the anti-violence stance than Thundar.

I toe dipped back into watching American Animation with the mid-late 80s Mighty Mouse, New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and a couple others and didn't really get into it again until Batman the Animated series and a handful of the new Cartoon Network shows like Dexter's Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls.

The half hour toy commercials are back full force now, with only the stipulations that the shows can't accept advertising for their featured product. They seem to be of a better quality though with The Clone Wars and My Little Pony, but stuff like Ninjago affronts me the most as being a blatant toy commercial.

Because I never had an attachment to shows like Transformers, I've never been interested in seeing the movies. Though, even having grown up with Yogi Bear I stayed away from that one to. Of course if there were ever a live action Herculoids movie I'd probably be first in line.

Michael Jones said...

I too never followed the cartoons of the 80s, in fact, I don't think I ever watched Super Friends!

The question is: What was your favourite theme music from an animated cartoon? Spiderman is a given but I preferred Jonny Quest. As a Herculoids fan, I'm speculating that you're a fan of a Hanna Barbera toon.

John Rozum said...

Jonny Quest cannot be beat.

Robert Pope said...

I'd almost have to break it into categories: "comic book," "cartoony," ect. "Quest" is the greatest "comic book-y" to be sure, but the syndicated Flintstones titles, to my way of thinking, are just the greatest. "The Alvin Show" had a mighty good open and music, too, of course...