50 greatest cartoons: INTRODUCTION

i admit, animation undoubtedly ranks as my dorkiest interest. cartoons are for children, right? bright, flashy, loud, artless time-fillers created to distract the kiddies while mom pours herself another glass of Chardonnay, right? the majority of animation produced for television IS indeed aesthetically bankrupt and cheaply produced; the product of the toy industry's marketing directives. unfettered nostalgia or just sheer ignorance keep the memory of pedestrian, hackneyed horseshit like He-Man or Transformers alive in our generation's popular consciousness. there has been some stylistically innovative animation created for television since Hanna-Barbera introduced their inexpensive, assembly-line method of production in the early '60s - Ren & Stimpy is the most obvious example - but, for the most part, the "golden age" [always kind of a problematic term] of animation is long dead and gone. even animated shows i love, like The Simpsons or South Park, are great because of writing, character development, and performance; the quality of the animation itself is rather substandard.

the "golden age" of animation [roughly 1928-1963] was founded upon the theatrical short; seven to ten minutes in duration, created by various studios as filler to be screened among newsreels, live-action shorts, and feature films at movie theaters. it's important to remember that many of these cartoons were just as artless and shitty as television animation. however, the best efforts by the best directors at the best studios [Warner Brothers, Disney, MGM, UPA, and Fleischer] rank among the the most enduring artifacts of American popular culture.

like many of America's best idioms, the animated short straddles the divide between high and low art. at its most ambitious, the animated short strives for the respectability and cultural significance of the painting or even the feature film. at its most pandering, it caters to the lowest common denominator, reveling in lowbrow humor and cheap, trite sentimentality. however, like jazz, the screwball comedy, or the Southern Gothic novel, the animated short is a distinctly American form of entertainment, reflecting not only the foibles and weaknesses of the American people, but also good ol' fashioned spit-shine-polish ingenuity. simultaneously crass and sophisticated, mawkish and cerebral, the animated short abounds in idiosyncrasies, energy, and innovation.

when i was a young 'un, cartoons became one of my "obsessions" [after dinosaurs and U.S. presidents]. my parents gave me several books on the subject, including this, which i received for my ninth birthday:



as anyone reading this probably well knows, i love lists and i have attempted to view every cartoon contained in the book. back when i had money to frivolously spend, i obtained many of them on VHS or DVD. my friend Kyle and i started more than once to view all that i owned in one sitting, usually we lost interest. now, because most of the cartoons in the book are available on Youtube, it is possible to view ALL of the them.

i will be viewing, rating, and reviewing the 50 cartoons featured in the book in clusters of five.

just for a point of reference, here are the criteria the compilers of the book used for evaluation:

- originality
- artistry
- animation
- music
- humor
- personality
- concept

here we go, here we go.