Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Random Thoughts: Some Favorite Cartoons

Every so often I get random thoughts in my head.  I've decided to start writing down these thoughts.  Here is my first random thought.  Let's see if I can keep it going.

A couple days ago I was thinking about some of my favorite cartoons, and I remembered a few of my recent favorite that I rarely hear talked about.  I'm not saying these are the best cartoons ever, but I sure enjoyed them. So without further ado, here are three of my favorite under the radar cartoons.

Fillmore! - Disney (2002-2004).
This show is about a juvenile delinquent who becomes an officer in X Middle School's "Safety Patrol".  The Safety Patrol is X's pseudo police department who investigates school related crimes.  The hook of the show was that it parodied hard boiled detective stories.  Crimes such as car theft and drug smuggling where turned into scooter thefts and tartar sauce smuggling.  The show played the crime parodies extremely straight faced and even had a deep voiced narrator to add to its grittiness.  Here is a clip to show you what Fillmore! was about.



Recess - Disney (1997-2001)
This show was about a group of Middle School friends who meet up during recess to escape from the trials of school.  The playground during recess is a microcosm of the larger adult world, with a leader, mean girls and snitches.  I loved the way that kids would get in trouble and they would help each out.



Codename: Kids Next Door - Cartoon Network (2002-2008)
The last and probably my favorite.  This show was about a group of kids who are secretly part of an elite agency that battled adult tyranny.  Adult Tyranny included forcing kids to wear ties, forcing kids to eat broccoli and refusing to give out candy.  I loved this show because it loved to parody pop culture, movies and TV.  Off hand I can think of parodies of the The Matrix, Star Wars Trilogies, Lord of the Rings, Aliens, and Air Force One.



Another episode, I couldn't find a youtube of this episode, but it is one of my favorites. Codename: Kids Next Door - Operation P.R.E.S.I.D.E.N.T.

I also thought about these shows and why I liked them.  I like these shows because they take the mundane things in life that we as adults take for granted or might be rather small in the grand scheme of things, however when seen through the eyes of children whose world view is a lot more limited, these mundane things are actually quite special.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010