Thursday, July 14, 2011

About This Blog

Hello, and welcome to Nothing But Cartoons, a blog that doesn't just watch cartoons, we go the extra mile and analyze the work, regardless of the cartoon.

I created this blog because when searching for blogs that cover older cartoons, I found that whatever blog I pulled up came in only three varieties: Dry, news-related animation blogs that talk about the business behind cartoons, blogs that basically put down entire decades or entire mediums as crap because back in their day cartoons meant something, man!, or blogs that just skimmed the top of several decades of cartoons and felt like the blogger is patting themselves on the back and going "Hey guys, remember that show called Animaniacs? Betcha don't remember THAT show! I'm like the only person to remember that show! Holy crap!".

I have no lofty dreams that I will become the next AVGN or the next Nostalgic Critic. I just want a little cozy space on the Internet to write about the cartoons I devour like a 10-year old with a sugar addiction. I'll try to make it both humorous and informative, but I can't make any promises that I'll be gut-roaring hilarious.

I want to have the cartooning blog that not only looks at the big name shows and movies, but also the shows and movies that people may not know about. So while I will cover shows everyone remembers like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and shows some people remember like Swat Kats, I'll also cover shows like THIS.
Pictured: An actual cartoon in the 90's.

Stuff I will Cover
*Animated films, both 2D and CGI.
*Animated shows, whether it's 2D, Flash or CGI.
*Films and shows that have some live-action segments but are mostly animation.

...aaaand that's really it. I know technically it's Animation but, I will not cover Anime. I'll be the first to admit that I've never really been into Anime or the style. Plus, personally, there are a ton of blogs out there that would be better at covering Anime than I ever would.

------------------------

I will just say ahead of time that the majority of this blog will probably be in the 80's-90's era, for several reasons. One being that I grew up in that era and truly think some of the best animated shows came in that era. (Yes, I too find Animaniacs and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to be amazing, amazing shows) The other being that the 90's animation blogs I've run into never really dig deeper into the bubbling cauldron of strangeness that was the 90's. I feel like everyone has a beloved show from that era that they remember, but what about the less successful shows, the ones that only get a "Huh? That was a show?" response if you mention the title?

Everything had an animated adaptation in the 90's. EVERYTHING.

This blog is going to be a rainbow smorgasbord of animated deliciousness without the cynicism and "I hate everything about this decade/medium/animation company and the people who watch this are Fascists!"-type of attitude you see on other blogs. Which isn't to say I won't cover bad animation and laugh at it. Where would the fun be if I can't laugh at stupid shows while I admire the hidden gems?

Yes, this existed. Yes, they thought adding a purple beaver would enhance the cast.

You'll never know what cartoons I cover next, unless of course I give away what I'm going to cover in which case you will know. Animated series, one blog will cover one episode. Animated movies will be covered in multiple parts. I'll try to post screenshots throughout my blog because visual aides are always a plus.

As you can probably tell from how crisp those last couple of pictures were, my screenshots may include things like slight blurring and little channel bugs, just because covering some of the more obscure shows and movies that never got DVD or even VHS releases often involves going to a video site and watching footage that someone had recorded.

Just warning you ahead of time that the quality could get as bad as this.
And, yes, if I cover shows that HAVE DVD releases, I'll try to use actual DVD copies. Just a little disclaimer before a Swat Team kicks down my door and carts me off to jail for copyright infringement. 

------------------------------

Because of this problem, I created an Availability meter that will appear with each post. The meter goes like so.
*Blu-Ray. -Means that the videos are in top quality and are in Blu-Ray. As you can probably guess, this will almost never appear.
*DVD -The most common quality. This applies to shows that got entire series box sets or even shows which only had some of their stuff on DVD.
*Online Only/Barely Available at all -This is for the shows that are the unlucky ones. In the rarest cases, only a handful of what used to be a two-season show will exist online. This will also apply if the episode is only available in a language other than English off a Russian website.
----------------------------------------------------

So sit back, crack open the Crystal Pepsi that's been sitting in your fridge for almost two decades, pull up a Youtube channel before they pull it for infringing on copyright, lie to your roommate or significant other that you're really doing something important, and dive deep into the world of cartoons.