My two very favorite cartoons were from Terrytoons - Mighty Mouse and The Mighty Heroes - but I also liked Scooby-Doo and Pink Panther. Otherwise, I’d watch whatever happened to be on. ETA: I would also watch Rocky & Bullwinkle, though mainly for “Fractured Fairy Tales”.
That’s kind of complicated.
Warner Brothers did not acquire DC until 1989.
The Superman/Aquaman Adventure Hour (in the late 1960s) was by Filmation.
The Super Friends (in the early 1970s) was by Hanna-Barbera.
I went with WB. Daffy Duck was my jam when I was a kid.
By the way, Grrr, many of my childhood favorites were by Filmation (Tarzan, the Lone Ranger, Zorro, Flash Gordon, Blackstar, StarTrek: the Animated Series, Space Sentinels, etc.)
I may have to adjust my reply. I looked some up, and there were a lot more I watched that were HB that I never realized. Not just the Flintstones and the Jetsons, but Jonny Quest, Space Ghost, Frankenstein Jr, Inch High Private Eye, Wacky Races. Speed Buggy, Scooby Do, Josie and the Pussycats (and IN OUTER SPACE), Hong King Phooey, Quick Draw, Huckelberry Hound, Sealab 2020, The Roman Holidays, Wait till your Father Gets Home, oh my god
I never knew how dominating HB were when I was a kid. While I enjoyed WB more for the quality, I admit I was an HB junkie. By sheer volume I must admit HB was my favorite.
eta: Their animation still sucked. I should have made the connection.
For music, Warner Brothers was always the best. Hanna Barbera’s music was at a better level than their cut-rate animation. MGM’s was never more than an adequate “frantic background.” Paramount’s Famous Studios (who picked up Popeye when Max Fleischer went under) had that unique dirge-like brass music. IMHO, John Kricfalusi had the best ear.
That’s how they became dominant. They perfected the stock system where the same artwork was used over and over again. Tom&Jerry were non-speaking characters who spent large amounts of time in an endless chase, each episode shot entirely against one large background image, That was a bit easier for what was largely a two man operation but allowed for more detailed and well animated images. To produce Flintstones episodes on a weekly basis required more simplistic character designs and many more backgrounds in a single 1/2 hour episode. I recall someone referring to Fred and Barney a pair of two dimensional ventriloquist’s dummies. The reuse of images had to be the paramount concern, not new artwork. Many animators looked back at their experience at Hannah-Barbera pulling stock as paying their dues.
Yes! I loved Speed Racer, couldn’t wait for it to come on. I think I actually remember the episode with the train-sized race car, even though I haven’t seen any Speed Racer reruns since I was like 6 or 7. If I recall correctly, the train-sized race car was so big because some bad guys had stolen a bunch of gold, and in order to hide it, in typical Speed Racer logic, they built the giant train racing car out of gold and painted it. Never mind that it would weight a million pounds. I remember it crashed during the race and some of the paint scraped off, revealing the glint of gold underneath, thus foiling the bad guys’ plans.
You may want to check out some of the music of Raymond Scott. Carl Stalling borrowed a lot from Scott to do the music for WB cartoons back in the '40s.
Had to go with “other”. I think as a younger kid my favorites were things like Battle of the Planets, Starblazers, and Tranzor Z. Ulysses 31 for the few I managed to see. Later it was Voltron, Transformers, G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K,…
I’m still a big Tom & Jerry fan. The earlier, the better. I still think the MGM animation is superior to everyone else’s (except Disney), the gags funnier, and the music was wonderful racy jazz. But just like everyone else’s cartoons, all these qualities started falling into disrepair as the years went on.
I should have clicked “other”. Still in the MGM stable, the “Harman-Ising” early MGM cartoons are gorgeous works of art. There aren’t too many of them, but they’re wonderful.
Speed Racer for me, too. The one I remember most was where racers from all over the world were racing beneath a live volcano. I think everyone but Speed and Racer X died in lava or gruesome crashes or were otherwise trapped inside when the tunnel closed. It only opens once every hundred years or something.
Since my childhood was in the 40’s and 50’s, I would have to go with Scrooge McDuck, since very few of the ones listed were around so long ago.
But as a child-like adult, I really like Rocky and Bullwinkle, especially the way back series with Sherman the smart dog.
BTW - most minor sub-pit complaint to the OP @Grrr: Now I have to go back and watch Starblazers via the wonder of Youtube.
Thankfully, while the animation is dated (and not just H-B bad for epic cheapness) and I can’t stop snickering at the bell-bottom uniforms and deformed comic relief characters, it isn’t nearly as deadly bad as some from my childhood (my best friend at these ages was a huge fan of the OG He-Man cartoon which was Utter CRAP IMHO).
Close. Speed had found a time bomb and set it. The explosion caused the mammoth car to melt.
I live watching the show as an adult. The plots are so ridiculous yet entertaining as hell.
“The Fire Race”.
At 18:30 Spridle is underneath some medieval type execution device that would eventually cut him in half. Anyone have an idea what this contraption was called?
Huh. Am I conflating that episode with another one? I have a strong memory of an episode where gold was hidden by building the body of a race car out of it.
Ah, here we go: Race Against the Mammoth Car
The heat of the fire melts the car and everyone realizes that the gold was built into the car itself and so was never spotted by the inspectors.
http://udel.edu/~mm/anime/speed/episodes/raceAgainstMammothCar.html
I don’t know where people saw all those movie house cartoons back in the 1950s. I don’t remember any of them playing on my television.
The first cartoons that caught me were the Tom Terrific cartoons on Captain Kangaroo. But those were blown away by Rocky and His Friends (Bullwinkle didn’t get added until later), like going from childhood to the adult world overnight, even though I was nine when they started. I loved every segment, but especially “Peabody’s Improbable History” and “Dudley DoRight.”
No other cartoon lives up to those memories.
Felix the Cat, the wonderful, wonderful cat.
Of the ones listed in the poll, WB was definitely my favorite, so that one the one I picked. But I also really loved Inspector Gadget as a kid. But…
that’s pretty much my reaction to Inspector Gadget as an adult. Looking back, every episode was pretty much the exact same plot. The details were changed, but basically the same things happened in every episode.
I was also really into Danger Mouse for a while, a British import that aired on Nickelodeon in the States. A few years ago I found it on Netflix. That also wasn’t really how I remembered it.