Kids who grew up in the 1980s were blessed. While adults from that time only remember authoritarian anti-Communist jingo vs. authoritarian actual Communist nuclear terror, all stewing in an invisible health crisis, we were blissfully consuming sugary cereals and some of the finest animation options to ever grace a screen. Sure, the scripts were all ludicrous and hinged on logic that would blast even a child’s understanding of storytelling, but it’s all better than the weird videos on YouTube written for and by AI programs.
And yet, do not say that just because we had Transformers and G.I. Joe, we were rich. The really great cartoons lurked below the cultural landscape, toiling in the nostalgia mines. Their work made them strong, and they hold up in a way the frail former Masters of the Universe do not today. Here’s how you should have spent your youth: