CARTOONS WE REMEMBER BACK FROM OUR CHILDHOOD

    Back in the first decade of the 21st century, Cartoon Network provided us with many memorable and interesting shows which we can't forget even after growing up to love adult stuff (Friends and The Big Bang Theory). I still remember watching The Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack but it never occurred to me that Professor and Jack look almost the same. Don't get too much excited, this is not a repetition of fan-made theories, just my own personal recollection of those great works of fiction, an adult reviewing his happy childhood shows.

    Hi, my pseudo-name is Phobia Phineas and I can't make quality YouTube videos (or even crappy YouTube ones) so I waste my own writing about cartoons. My life sucks, doesn't it? I bet you'd think Courage's life sucked too. Courage was a cowardly dog from Courage The Cowardly Dog who was, as the name suggests, a cowardly dog i.e. a canine suffering from endocrine issues. That pink fluffy nervous creature who adopted by Eustace Bang and his kind-hearted wife Muriel, an elderly couple living in the middle of Nowhere and reportedly being haunted by all kinds of monsters except for a Skinwalker. Then there were three teenage friends who shared the element Ed in their names. There lives sucked too! They always wanted to earn some extra cash to buy Jawbreakers but, as crooks they were, the schemes never ended in them succeeding in making them enjoy that delicacy of theirs. Also, who can forget that failed womanizer and self-styled hotshot from Johnny Bravo who used to hit on pretty girls (except for his mother and the next-door underage neighbor). But he, seemingly a moron and eager to exclaim even puny matters, ended up being beaten to a pulp by his crush. It always was found awkward by me why the hell American women rejected such handsome a guy as Johnny Bravo. Was it because he had feet as his hair?

   Being a child means living in a fantasy world of yours. You can be a wizard who castes weird spells on his enemies i.e. the mean kids who bully you at school because they got bullied by their cousins in their infancy and those cousins were born fighting angels since birth. You can a superman (my own dream was to become a Kidman [a child Superman] right when a Muharram procession was under attack) and fly through the clouds. But Billy and Mandy from Grimm Adventures of Billy and Mandy never thought that a reaper would try to kill their pet hamster but, in the end, become their servant. Just the theme song of that show (just a creepy but powerful music) was enough to attract your attention. Two children controlling the Angel of Death? Looks like I know where the idea of Death Note came from! If we speak of magical wonderlands, there must be a mention of Dragon Tales which I used to love mainly because it had the word "dragon" in its name. You understood what I am implying. I loved that word because of Dragon Ball franchise. I used to recite its manga once a year. Dragon Tales follows the story of Amy and Mike who found a pebble using which they could get magically transported to a land of talking dragons. One dragon was more cowardly than that f**king Courage. One female one was sensitive and lacked confidence. There were two siblings, conjoined twins, two heads protruding from a single body. Their parents had the same physical features (husband and wife were two heads on the same body) so it looked eerily suggestive. Dragon Tales was overwhelmed by an adult show Winx Club, a poor remake of ancient fairy-tales and Harry Potter franchise with scantily-clad witches (good ones) trying to redefine the basics of friendship. But all of these cartoons didn't even exist for us when we were fans of Dora the Explorer which was pronounced as Dorah the Explorah. When we grew up, the mere sight of that show slow-paced show made us puke. Just take out the map and throw your Boots at that stupid fox, lassie!

    Baby Looney Tunes was much more enjoyable than Looney Tunes. A grown-up Bugs Bunny was irritable. So was Tweetie. You sometimes feel pity for those poor hunters and felines trying to kill their prey like the Good Lord wants them to do. At least in Baby Looney Tunes, they acted more friendly towards each other. I still remember the episode in which Daffy learns a swear word and constantly uses it in front of other animals. Whenever he uttered that particular offensive word, the actual thing was changed with quack voice. It took me years to discover that Daffy's actual crime was not to sound like an actual duck rather saying a bad word.

    Kids Next Door was one of those cartoons which hugely confused it. What the hell is wrong with kids? Where are there parents? Why are they fighting adults? Why One is bald? Why Three never opens hers eyes or ceases to grin? Why Four is such a loser? Why Five is black? Why is there a tree right in the middle of a town? Town reminds me of Townsville from The Powerpuff Girls. I once searched for that city on a map and found Townsville in Australia. It was revealed unto me later that Blossoms, Bubbles and Buttercup actually lived in a fictional Townsville which was supposed to exist in USA. The three girls looks cool but they lacked humanly features. I mean they didn't even have any fingers. Also, Professor was not their actual father so, as per shari'ah, those three women were living with a non-mahram.

    Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack were created by the same person. Dexter was a child prodigy who had constructed a huge underground laboratory for his crazy experiments. I used to think how he managed to engineer all that without anyone finding out. Who paid his bills? Samurai Jack looked even more confusing them Kids Next Door. Though I had memorized Aku's narration from its theme song ("Long ago in a distant land...") by heart, it seemed quite bizarre the way future world was shown. Strange humans, stranger non-humans and the strangest villain Aku! It was quite promising to see Samurai Jack returning to its final season on Adult Swim and reaching a satisfactory yet heart-wrenching conclusion.

    Moreover, Cartoon Network gave us Cow And Chicken and I Am Weasel. I used to watch that show without understanding even a single word the characters said. It was an alien world to me. American culture, American teens, American parents, American comedy etc. But I had Camp Lazlo, Chowder and Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends to make me feel more at home.

    But a show that I am proud to say I watched even when it wasn't dubbed in Hindi had been Ben 10. A boy gets a watch which helps us turn into an alien temporarily. What I found irrational was this: When Ben turns into an alien, he shouldn't retain his clothes because most aliens are larger than his normal human body so his clothes had to get ripped apart. But the most disturbing thing I saw on that show was the relationship between Gwen and Kevin. It was gross! There I just said that and I won't take it back.

    It was all I saw on Cartoon Network. There were Nickleodian, Hungama and Pogo as well. On Nick, I watched Cat And Dog and Spongebob Sqaurepants. Hungama offered us initial encounters to anime in Hindi. Doraemon, Kiteretsu and Kochikame made our childhood entertaining. Not just entertaining, emotional and philosophical. There are two episodes of Kochikame which make me feel uncomfortable when I remember them and I still have to take deep breathes and stop myself from crying. One was when Ryotsu remembers how one of his teenage friends became a pilot. The other one showed Ryotsu's past career as a detective and the death of his mentor whose grave Ryo never stopped visiting. That greedy corrupt policeman was a lovable character. Pogo awarded us Chhota Bheem and other stupid fantastical cartoons. I hate myself for liking them. They just help you pass time with comfort. See how the King of Dholakpur is an unworthy monarch who can't even handle his mortal rivals (while his village seems a constant target of evil spirits, probably because the farmers roam naked but somehow have world's wisest physicists among them). He always calls Bheem to help him negotiate with neighboring empires or fight foreign champions. They even had the audacity to show Hercules, Einstein and multiple Hindu gods in Chhota Bheem.

 

    I think it's enough for today. If you have forgotten about any of these awesome shows, do re-watch them and rewrite your memory.