I miss the days when cartoons were about violence, promoting negative racial stereotypes, and objectifying women. Of course I'm talking about Popeye the Sailor (although I also would have accepted Johnny Quest). I got the Popeye 1933-1938 DVD boxset for Christmas and it rocks. The early Fleischer Studio's Popeye was so badass. He hit this distinguished mexican gentleman in the face just for smiling at him. Then in another one, he kicked the crap out of a bunch of endangered animals. If kids today were growing up on this instead of Hannah Montana and That's So Raven, we'd be winning the War on Terror right now.
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The animation quality of some of these older shorts are really amazing too. It doesn't really come through on these Youtube videos, but when you see them remastered on the DVD, they're pretty stunning. Made-for-TV cartoons didn't have anything on Fleischer Studio's theatrical shorts. Even today, most don't come close to the detailed backgrounds and the fluidity of animation. Plus, despite how simplistic the Popeye stories were, there was a lot of creativity in the way they were executed. I rate them 11.9/10.
Post your own favorite cartoons from golden age of American animation (preferably with YouTube linkage), before children's entertainment got hijacked by liberal communists and we had to watch stuff like Captain Planet.