Have You Ever Noticed...

[K'Mok]

I love the animated series. I've required my sons to watch it...but there is something that stands out (at least to me).

Here we have a show ostensibly created for children. Granted it was created 35 years ago but have you ever listened to the vocabulary levels of these shows. Many college students WISH they could speak so well.

And the topics...
Considerably more mature than your average "sponge-bob" episode.

[Stephen of Borg]

indeed, it definitely lived up to it's name

[Mark Matus]

Speaking as someone who watched the show when it first aired, who was in the intended age range they were looking for, I thouroughly enjoyed the show... It made you think, and of course the writing was far ahead of what was being broadcast for children at the time...

[TribbleWrangler]

As a 12 year old when the series first started, I loved it. it didn't insult my intelligence.

[Writtenimage]

Cartoons have really dumbed themselves down over the past 20 years or so. I wish more toons were like the trek animated. Over the past several years, very few made for kid toons have been remotely intellegent. (the batman and justice league series come to mind). Cartoons have been 30 minute toy comercials for years, but havent always been so incoherent. Im a big transformers fan, and even comparing the original 80s series to the later incarnations, shows a definite trend of dumbing down.

[Douglas Chalmers]

I agree. I love cartoons and all things animated and even as a young child allot of them were just plain dumb. One thing i have noticed is that it is rare even in cartoons that have a plot through a series it is rare that anyone goes into the more unpleasant side of things. I know they are theoretically for children but when i was young there were a few that had really dark patches. Now most are sweetness and light even when they have a subject matter of tyrany (E.g. Storm Hawks). They only one that I can think of off the top of my head that was aimed fairly high when i was young (Apart from ST TAS - Which was on re-runs at something like 6am) is Bucky O Hare.

[Dave Francoeur]

I felt that The Animated series was trying to teach kids something important with each episode where as most cartoons of the time were just simple storytelling.

[Admiral Bruce]

I love the Annimated series but I have completely unrational problem with it. Kirk has black eyebrows! Blonde people don't have black eyebrows!

[BakulaBabe]

That bothered me too! When I watched the show, I couldn't stop staring at his eyebrows! They were really annoying.

I found this site with pics from TAS...

http://www.startrekanimated.com/tas_cast.html

...and his eyebrows still bother me!

[T'Mynn Enz]

I wodner if the people in the stuidos hadn't become stupid themselves hence the inane dumb cartoons of today.
It's shameful how brain numbingly idiotic most 'toons have become. I dislike "Spongbob Squarepants" it's ripe for subliminal impantation for sure, b/c the poor being watching it already ends up spaced out with drool running down the chin.

I hadn't seen The cartoon version of Star Trek, anyway I an get a copy or borrow one?
Although there are a few 'toons who've retianed their higher IQ and have multiple layers of depth to the story.

"The Last Airbender" for one. Good animaition, lots of story telling layers not jsut a surface one dimensional one.
Even my husband likes it.

[Writtenimage]

The animated trek series is wonderful. but yeah, very few toons these days are even remotely intelligent. the last i watched regularly was the Justice league unlimited (and the animated JLA and BAtman series that preceded it.) they were good, and not dumbed down.

Though i have to admit that i have giggled a few times at sponge bob...

[T'Mynn Enz]

What about Net Flix? I could see if they offer it.

[Admiral Bruce]

Interesitng thing with Annimated. It was TAS that used the line 'Beam me up Scotty' and also intorduced Kirk's middle name.