Features

Cartoon Network turns 30 and millennials are nostalgic, feeling older than ever

November 13, 2022
Sezarr

WooWith a cartoon library of over 10,000 shows, especially popular ones such as Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory, ed, eddy And Eddy And teen Titanstelevision channel cartoon Network was a favorite in nearly every household in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

last month channel turned 30 And to celebrate it, the network screened an all-day marathon of cartoon classics, sending many on a nostalgic journey back to the golden ’90s.

Launched in India on May 1, 1995, cartoon Network offered a base for animated content for the cable TV watching generation aka Millennials, and has since maintained a great brand recall in the Indian market.

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Why was Cartoon Network different?

For those growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, India had a limited selection of entertainment options and shows cartoon Network There was a cut above the rest.

Agastya Pulapaka, a 21-year-old student of applied mathematics at the University of Washington, said the channel was a window to American cartoons.

,cartoon Network With the emphasis on on-screen entertainment what was required was to capture the imagination of a young child, making sense that was less dialogue heavy and more action-packed,” Pulpaka told ThePrint.

,cartoon Network was equal to my parents star world Night time entertainment,” said Pulpka.

show on cartoon Network He was known for his odd, individualistic wit and style. series like the Powerpuff Girls And courage the Cowardly Dog Often visitors came from far-flung corners of the country.

A unique adventure of courage, a cowardly dog ​​who must overcome his own fear to heroically rescue his owners from danger, one of the cartoon Network highly rated shows.

John Scaria, a 21-year-old student in Delhi, recounted some of his earliest memories of watching the show. Scaria said courage the Cowardly Dog was open to all kinds of analysis – some fan theories suggest that Courage suffered from schizophrenia and that what he saw was a manifestation of his fears.

“And as a child, that fear symbolized the unknown. You were either curious about this uncharted territory or stricken with fear,” he told ThePrint.

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binding language

John Y. John, a 32-year-old service design strategist based in Florida, USA, shared his ‘cartoon Network days’ while on summer vacations in Kerala. According to John, these cartoons facilitated language-building skills for children, helping them learn English words in the most fun and engaging way possible.

“I remember very well when two of my cousins ​​came to my house one evening. One knew only English and the other only Malayalam, but when we sat together in front of the TV, he started speaking in cartoon words – he would throw in cartoon names and words and that’s how they bonded. Used to go,” he told ThePrint.

Tejas Menon, 33, is the co-founder of geek fruita pop culture collective and podcast, said cartoon Network Aaj Tak has been consistently offering top class content.

Asked how American cartoons found resonance in Indian homes, Menon told ThePrint, “cartoon Networkwhen compared to Nickelodeon either disneyRanked because they made up stories about suburban kids living on cul de sacs, trying to make growing up fun. ,

Menon also explained how cartoon Networkwith its wide range of shows like Tom and Jerry, the jetsons And Scooby Doo, was able to provide animation education to children. He said the channel helped kids accept non-verbal entertainment and anti-gravity physics in a fun and generic way.

And Why ’90s Kids Are Obsessed With Nostalgia cartoon Network, According to Menon, the network was able to find a “sweet spot” between the post-Cold War years and the 9/11 terror attacks. He said that it felt like “an innocent time” and that the shows made then wanted to exemplify the carefree nature of growing up.

‘Ahead of Time’

cartoon Network It was one of the first TV channels to bring anime to young Indian audiences in the late 90s and early 2000s. pokemon, dragon ball g And beyblade He had his own wide popularity base.

According to a survey conducted earlier this year by the digital entertainment company jet synthesis83 percent of Indians preferred anime over other animated content. When cartoon Network anime offered in collaboration with toonamiThis paved the way for the release of the Japanese animation series on the OTT platform today.

cartoon Network It is also remembered for the variety it brought to the table. Ahmed Rehan Shaikh, a 23-year-old research assistant based in Bengaluru, said the shows he offered were “ahead of their time”. Includes one of Sheikh’s top watches the Powerpuff Girls.

“If you think about it, it wasn’t the most conventional show. It’s not very often that you have a single dad raising three superhero girls who goes from a crazy monkey with an exposed mind on screen.” fights,” he told ThePrint.

Menon similarly explained how the characters are in ‘Ed, Ed and Eddierepresented the “strangeness” of millennial culture. He also mentionedCraig of the Creek‘ in which Black was the lead character. He recognized the influences and references to Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation. Glazed in popular cartoon shows Dexter’s Laboratory. cartoon Network He was able to create a “unique grammar of storytelling” consistently.

Dheera Rini Singh, a 17-year-old student based in Bengaluru, said cartoon Network Always catered to a wide age group. “The animation and witty storylines were meant to connect with all age groups,” Singh told ThePrint.

On October 11, cartoon Network announced merged with Warner Brothers’ Animation Division. While worried fans expressed anxiety And #RIPCartoonNetwork started trending on Twitter, with the channel soon assuring them that they were not going anywhere.

ThePrint reached Warner Brothers for a comment but failed to elicit a response till the filing of this report.

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