90s vs. today

I remember waiting for Captain Planet on Wednesdays. I did not know how to read a clock, but my mom did, so I was completely dependent on my mom to call me when Captain Planet was about to start. It was some day for me. The other weekdays were booked for Sindhbad, Robin Hood, Small Wonder, I Dream of a Jinni, Bananas in pajamas, Knight Rider and X-file. Even though I was too young for X-files, my father used to bribe me with it only to make me study.
I do not remember watching any other cartoon other than Captain Planet before going to school, but I do remember the very first day I saw Disney Hour. I could not tell on which time and channel it was running. I remember how amazed I was by seeing a half human and half fish girl with a talking fish and a family of rich talking ducks. By the way, these two cartoons are known as Little Mermaid and Duck Tales.
I was excited to see them again. Every day after school, I used to look for them in every channel, but there was no sign of it. However, I discovered if I do not stop for Ice Cream after school then I get to see another cartoon, which had a dancing mouse with a crazy duck (Mickey Mouse and Friends and Donald Duck), so I stopped waiting for Ice Cream and started coming home early.
A couple of months later, I discovered that the half-fish half-human cartoon aired on Sony when the two hands of the clock stand straight like a stick. I was happy that I’d invented a new time by my own. One point for me!
At school, I tended to keep it secret because I wanted it to be only mine. I only shared it with my teacher not because I liked her, but because she asked me what I had done the other evening: I had not completed my homework because I was too tired after watching cartoon for an hour, and I had gone to bed. I was four back then, so these little discoveries had made up the best moments of my life. My mother used to bribe with Disney hour and Good Morning Disney to make me behave well. I became a very polite kid for a while who did not ask for ice cream after school, and did not want to stay on the field for to long only because of my new discoveries.
I remember watching Sponge Bob, Aladdin, Goofy, Rugrats, Recess, Looney Toons, Timon and Pumba, Tais Pin and so on with my little brother.  Looking at the clock every now and then, we used to wait for Disney. We did not have Disney channel or any other channel, which was only for cartoons, Disney Hour was all we had. As five and six-year-old kids our ultimate dream was to have a TV channel, which would be only for cartoons.
Our dream came true when the cable man showed me the new channels. My eyes bedazzled when I was written on chess box cartoon network. My little brother and I were literally jumping because we have something special. All we wanted to do was to watch cartoon. So many Super Heroes only on one TV channel. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Justice League, Swat Cats, Ninja Turtles, and Jokey Chan’s Adventurers. I was under the spell of Cartoon Network. It did not only have just any super heroes; it had the legendary super heroes of all time. Beside that, it had Flintstones Family, The Jet-sons Family, Dexter’s Laboratory, Jonny Bravo, Road Runner, and Tom and Jerry and so on. Those were the best days of my life.
Cartoon network had the charm to preserve innocence of the kids, but now when I watch cartoons with my five-year-old sister, I see everything has changed. My baby sister can’t even tell who is Batman and she has never heard of Swat Cat. She says, “Cartoon network is boring”. I am afraid to say that she is right. Right after it turned to CN TV, it started getting worse. Wonder Woman got replaced by Power Puff Girls, Justice League by Ben10, Flintstones Family by Chaudière and the show Dexter’s Lab at one 1.30 am in the morning. There were no sign of other cartoons I used to watch.
The channel has good cartoons like Megas XLR, Young Justice, Transformers, Star wars (animated) but she can hardly understand them. She knows about X-men, Super man and Batman because I told her about them. She never watches those when I am not around. She watches Doremon, Chen Chan or something that sound similar to that.  All of which were somehow teaching her to lie and hide things from us. In Doremon, there is character named Nobita who hates to study and never does his homework, and who is always late for class and seeks for alternative helps by a robot from future. I am not saying that all of these are teaching her to cheat us; however, it is showing her the ways to cheat and to lie. Even though in every episode the robot says these things are bad, but how is a five -year -old supposed to understand that?
Cartoons suppose to be fun, but not complicated. My sister watches Barbie, and then puts on make-up to look like her. She is five years old who talks about first kiss and love stories and getting married to live happily ever after. There are good messages behind every story, but kids have their own ways to interpret that message. I’m not upset because she is not watching my favorite cartoons; I’m sad because she is not enjoying her childhood, and she does not get to watch the cool cartoons I had in my childhood. 

Author: Tasnuva Kalam Tonny

Source:  AUW Spectrum, originally published on  Jun 8, 2013
 *About AUW Spectrum: Former student-run magazine club in its operation from 2011 to 2014 at AUW