Cartoon Wars Part II

In my previous entry, I began my countdown of best cartoons of all time with three different styles that were effective in their own right to earn the privilege of making it into my list. I was thinking I can actually rank them as my Cartoon Wars series grows, so for now the prelude of each blog will feature an updated ranking of the animated series:

#1. Batman The Animated Series (incredibly sharp and excellent production)

#2. Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends (way, way, way ahead of its time, heavily influenced Southpark, Ren & Stimpy, Monty Python, The Simpsons, and many others)

#3. Animaniacs (wit comedy of the 1920s and 30s, well molded into the 90s)

Now, on to today's three:

Scooby Doo, Where are you!

Like my first entry in which I included Animaniacs and I mentioned that while it was a great cartoon, it wasn't on the same level as The Simpsons, Batman or Southpark, something similar happens with Scooby-Doo. SD is a great cartoon, and that's pretty much about it. It's a great animated series that gets a lot of respect. It's so great, that Southpark featured an episode that payed a very beautiful tribute to Scooby-Doo.

The Scooby Doo gang

Its greatness comes from pioneering in many areas where other animated series barely gave a glimpse. It was one of the first cartoons to feature a group of friends, with a regular and recurrent theme. Next, it was one of the first (if not the first) cartoons to feature a recurrent theme about mystery and investigacion in detective format. It also was the first saturday morning cartoon to feature a laugh-track. Then, it was one of the first (if not the first) cartoons to actually deal with the horror/mystery/suspense genre, while simultaneously being a comedy/family oriented. This last element is in my opinion what makes Scooby-Doo a great cartoon. It actually acknowledge the possibilty of the existence of ghosts and paranormal phenomena, but at the end of the day, slammed it with a scientific and reasonable explanation that it was all caused by humans that planned elaborate hoaxes with personal interests on achieving an evil goal.

Another strength of Scooby-Doo is that it pioneered the "ensemble" characters that became the norm in the eventual TV Sitcoms of the 90s. You had the straight-faced guy, the beauty queen, the nerdy chick and the stoner hippie, along with a cowardly but lovable dog, each one with its own distinct personalities but somehow molded perfectly as a whole. So while adults had their own detective/crime investigation shows, Scooby-Doo was a cartoon with a detective/crime premise, but oriented for kids. It's one of those cases where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

On to the technical and visible variables, the drawings were nice. The scenario (dark and spooky most of the time) was fantastic. The music and soundtrack were perhaps the best elements to give Scooby-Doo the scary feel it needed to produce a combination of both suspense and entertainment for kids.

Most of the episodes featured believable plots (for both adults and kids), and the consistency of how the group worked to solve each mistery was always well developed. It was a great cartoon because it provided enough material for the audience to enjoy, as well as make the viewers interact with the characters. I mean, ask yourself:

• How many times did you try to solve the mistery on your own?
• How many times did you try to solve the mistery before the gang?

I'm sure the answer to both questions is: "more than I can remember". And that's why Scooby-Doo belongs in the list.

Tom and Jerry

I'm sure you have heard that old saying: "sometimes you get more with less". That is the logic with Tom and Jerry. It's a simple cartoon about one of the simplest things one could imagine that could occur in our own houses:  A cat and mouse chase.

Tom and Jerry

For more than 20 years Tom Cat and Jerry Mouse entertained crowds over and over again, with countless plots, plans, battles, wars, you name it. It never got old and it incorporated a tremendous amount of violence, never seen before in cartoons. Sure, no characters were "killed" per se, but a 20 Ton wrecking ball falling over Tom Cat's head was enough to send a message to cats all over the world not to mess with any mice!


Another strong aspect is how the cartoons incorporated music with the plot and flow of the episode. The soundtrack no longer was unrelated to the show. Instead, the characters acted, moved, danced and behaved along with the beat, rythm and pauses of the music, which was mostly classical. Therefore, it also served to popularize the works of Chopin and Liszt.

While running during the 1940s and 50s, most of the routine of each short ran a vaudeville-like act. The characters never spoke (although secondary characters would), which one could say was the only element of realism in the show when it came to viewing it as a cartoon about a cat and a mouse. Everything else had Tom and Jerry interacting as if there were two regular human beings who battled each other endlessly, one predating and the other one for survival.

Tom and Jerry was the first hit cartoon of legendary producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, who went on to produce several other successful shows including Scooby Doo (named earlier), The Smurfs, Top Cat, Huckeberry Hound, The Jetsons, The Flinstones and many others. As time passed, it was passed on to other animated show legends such as Chuck Jones, and then to Warner Bros.

I wish I could really tak more about this cartoon, but like I said at the beginning, sometimes you get more with less, and that is the case with Tom and Jerry.

Looney Toons

Undoubtly, the best cartoon show of the golden era of animation.


What else can be said about Bugs Bunny and his friends, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, Pepe Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, the Tasmanian Devil and many others.

Each character is a complex portrayal of human personalities and emotions, and I guess that is where the success of the show rests:

• Bugs Bunny: the level headed, "know-it-all", clever one of the pack, who normally outsmarts everyone else. He has many catchphrases that became legendary in popular culture, such as "what's up Doc?" and "of course, you realize this means war!" He is highly confident of himself, and sometimes comes across a bit cocky. I always perceived him as the leader of the looney toons, and that's why his somewhat "best friend/arch-rival" Daffy Duck is jealous of him all the time. I think Bugs represents the well-being human we all want to be at the end of the day: smart, good natured, down to Earth, honest and fair.
• Daffy Duck: to me, Daffy was the second in command in the Looney Toons pack. Unlike Bugs who was pretty much consistent for the duration of the show, Daffy underwent several personality changes, that ranged from the most evil, to the most good hearted person you could ever see. Sometimes he would be Bugs antagonist, and other times he would be his best friend. He would also play a pilot, an astronaut, a cowboy, a robber, a nurse, a baby sitter, a detective, a nerd, a bully... the range of characters was so wide you could argue it could be infinite. Overall, Daffy represents the emotions that deal with ambition, such as greed, envy and jealousy. He had this inferiority complex, always feeling (or actually becoming) second fiddle to someone else, whether if it was Bugs or Marvin the Martian during the conquering of Planet X. Daffy isn't really a bad person, it's just that he feels he has to overcome and surpass everyone around him, even if those people are way more talented or successful than he is. As an adult now, I will go as far as saying that Daffy Duck is by far the most complex character of Looney Toons.

• Porky Pig: Porky split his time between being a sidekick of Bugs, Daffy, or someone else, and having shows where he was on his own. Personally, I preferred Porky as a sidekick rather than seeing him on his own. I say this because the character to which he was sidekick of, normally lost touch with reality, and Porky normally brought them back to the real world. Porky represents the sentimental side of human emotions, being very soft-spoken, quiet and well-mannered and sometimes even extremely shy of himself. That doesn't mean he was weak or soft. He was innocent but straight when it counted. Most of the times he was a follower, and when the main character had lost the battle, he would come back to the rescue and save the day. Porky became a huge influence in other sidekick characters in cartoons to follow, such as Penny in Inspector Gadget and Spot in Hong Kong Phooey.
• Elmer Fudd: Elmer was a classic hunter, wealthy industrialist character. He was the main atagonist of Bugs Bunny, always looking to kill him during "rabbit season", which apparently he never got right. He also hunts Daffy during "duck season" as well. I'm quite sure he's somewhat of a reference to the typical American country man, who would live a life of leisure in the city and go hunting on vacations or weekends, not minding or caring for the consequences of hunting. 99% of the time he's outsmarted by Bugs. He fared a bit better against Daffy, either because Daffy is not as clever as Bugs, or because Bugs simply set some trap that benefited him, but threw Daffy under the bus.

• Tweety Bird: my favorite character. Tweety is as deceiving as you can imagine. He looks and talks like a female, but he's actually male (and a true male, as shown in a few episodes in which he falls in love with some female bird); even his name is so... well... I don't even know how to describe it.... I mean, it's so goody goody, but hey, that's the least deceiving characteristic of him. He looks incredibly innocent and incapable of doing any harm to anyone, however nothing could be farther from the truth. He's very malicious and aggressive, and will do anything to make sure his adversaries suffer. Tweety represents that fake side humans have, and that feeling that sometimes even the most innocent people are capable of inflicting huge amount of pain and damage, to larger or shorter degree. 
• Sylvester James Pussycat, Sr: Sylvester is the equivalent of Tom (from Tom and Jerry), with a few differences, such as the fact that he talks (and talks with a lisp). Sylvester is also a bit less emotional than Tom, meaning that he actually develops plans and schemes to try to foil his opponent (Tweety Bird most of the time). Athough being an antagonist, he would never give up and he was incredibly persistent. I respected Sylvester when I was a kid, because I liked his interactions with his son, who really looked up to him more than a father figure, like a superhero. Sylvester represents your average person who keeps trying after failing. I also liked that sometimes he would switch sides and become a good character, most notably against Elmer.
• Yosemite Sam: undoubtly, Sam is the most violent character in Looney Toons. He has a tougher personality, he keeps yelling all the time and overall, has a more violent spirit. Whether he portrays a hunter, a guard, a viking or a cowboy, he always storms the room shooting his guns and screaming all over the place. While Elmer was the mannered antagonist, Sam would simply never compromise. He would also never win against Bugs, even if everything set in place would favor him, such as the time he tied Bugs up on a trampoline, and began to cut the trampoline with a saw, only to have the platform where he was standing on fall down, and the trampoline inexplicably stay firm in mid-air, against the law of gravity (but then again, Bugs didn't know much about law overall!!)
• Foghorn Leghorn: I really hated this character. I guess it was because I never really dug southern accents during my childhood. He's an anthropomorphic roosted, who is extremely cocky, to the point of being delusional. He's also very loud and obnoxious, and tries to get away with it even if whatever he is doing is not good. He represents that flamboyant aspect humans have, presuming about what they don't have and talking more and doing and achieving less.

• Marvin the Martian: next to Tweety, my other favorite character. Marvin is the epytome of efficiency and coldness. He doesn't hesitate to do whatever it takes in order to achieve his goals. He can be incredibly good and he can be increibly evil; it doesn't matter, which ever way is the best for him to reach his objective. I also like the way he tries to "negotiate" first, before engaging in a confrontation. Most of the time the other part doesn't agree with his proposals (which are quite fair and clever), because they deem him as small and not tough enough. Therefore, after negotiations fail, what happens next is a tremendous conflict of gigantic proportions: nations are blown, planets are blown, you name it. Marvin is also very funny, and as competent as he is, to me, he represents efficiency.
• Pepe Le Pew: undoubtly represents the romantic side in all humans, constantly in the search of love. Unfortunately, being a skunk, his romantic pursuits flee away from him, which I guess kind of represents that tweak we all have that makes our partners break up with us for whatever reason.
• Speedy Gonzales: if Sylvester was the equivalent of Tom, then Speedy is the equivalent of Jerry. It's as simple as that. Speedy is nothing more than a Jerry, who can speak with a mexican accent, and has the brains and cleverness of Bugs Bunny. Most of his shorts (if not all) involved him outsmarting Sylvester or any other cat (or cats) in cat and mouse chases.

• Wily E. Coyote and the Road Runner: I can't say much about these two, because as you may or may not know, these two characters were released as a parody/spin-off of Tom and Jerry. Surprisingly, despite already having Sylvester, Tweety and Speedy Gonzales, Wily and the Road Runner became a huge hit for the Looney Toons. Let's just say Wily is not smart (despite him thinking he is), and the Road Runner is too clever and is impossible to catch.
• Tasmanian Devil: I had to mention him! I mean, this is the wildest, craziest, most unpredictable character of all. He has zero patience, has huge apetite, and spins like a vortex through everything. The most amazing thing is that he wasn't too popular in the original 1950s run when he first appeared, but gained huge popularity during the 1990s.

There you have it, today's three!