B: Animated

“Bob the builder, Can we fix it?

Bob the builder, yes we can!”

I was wondering what to write about today and I suddenly started humming this song.  Bob The Builder  was such a cute show. Though I was older, my sister was a kid when it started airing in India. Bob and his gang helped with construction, renovation and repair. All the characters and equipment were made of clay and In think it was one of the cutest animated series airing at that time. My sister didn’t see a lot of cartoons. But as a toddler this was one of her favourites, though she does not really remember it that well.

Another claymated series that used to air when I was a kid is Pingu; a show that revolved around a family of penguins living in the south pole. The show had no spoken language and nearly all dialogues were in penguin language. Pingu was also one of the cutest anthropomorphic charactors created for children.  I think Bob the builder reminded me of Pingu and that is why I was so enthralled by it.  

I remember watching a lot of cartoons and children’s shows as a kid. StarPlus used to dedicate one and a half hour to children everyday. They used to air Full House and Small Wonder and half an hour of either Donald Duck or Tom and Jerry.

Then ofcourse there was Cartoon Network. I was a big fan of this show called The Adam’s Family; a show about a family of spooky charactors. Scooby doo  was also  watched frequently. I was somehow not that big a fan of Tom and Jerry but yes it did make me giggle whenever I saw it.

I used to be at my grandma’s place and my cousin and I used to wake up early on Sunday mornings for a marathon session of cartoons. Captain planet, The Flintstone, Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes; all back to back. When we were a little older Powerpuff girls was added to the list.

Cartoons are weird these days. Neither do they teach morals nor do they make anyone laugh. Infact they are not cartoons, at all. They are just animated series that are supposed to entertain kids. Ben10, Pokemon, Digimon, Dragon ball and other Japan created animations are what children see these days. Have people stopped creating content for children? I think children would still love the original Hanna-Barbara shows if given a chance.

It can’t be helped, I guess. Television content has changed drastically over the years. All I can say is that our generation was lucky enough to see good quality cartoons we would still love to see re-runs of. We can still remember the words to the theme songs and sing it(even if it’s off key). And we can boast that we saw and loved better stuff.