During the early 1980s up till the mid 90s, a sizable number of epic classic action cartoons were aired in America and the West.
Naturally, they were broadcast in many countries worldwide including Pakistan where access to Western media has been available ever since television was launched from the late forties and early fifties.
These cartoons were perhaps the more adored and admired than cartoons ever have been in history. As I today read and hear of how these cartoons soared in popularity in America, Pakistani channels simultaneously were hit with these same cartoons in the nineteen eighties and early nineties. Their popularity was so great that they even spread to the non-English speaking middle class.
With their soaring popularity in Pakistan, some of these cartoons had to be dubbed in Urdu. Even the opening theme of Ninja Turtles was dubbed. I was born in 1986, so I was pretty much a part of this time era. It was a truly extra-ordinary childhood.
At school in Karachi, my kindergarten classes were filled with chatter of these cartoons. Lunchtime/recess was dominated by the pretense of living in the worlds of the cartoons and playing the roles of the characters featured in them.
Various Pakistani franchises took advantage of the boom and marketed material from sweet wrappings to stickers, lunchboxes and other cheap products.
These cartoons reached their peaks from the mid nineteen eighties till the mid nineties. There were so many various cartoons such as SilverHawks, He-Man, Bionic Six, Turbo Teen, Ninja Turtles, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, The Transformers, Tiger Sharks, Mr T and my favorite one of all ThunderCats.
I believe ThunderCats was also probably the most popular of all cartoons as it was also dubbed into Urdu and aired on various Pakistani channels more times than I can count.
The video rental/sale stores were stacked with VCR tapes of ThunderCats and other cartoons of that time era.
Note that the above cartoons mentioned are only a handful of the cartoons that aired during the eighties and nineties and perhaps the most popular. There were several other animated shows that I was not exposed to until now and still those that I have yet to see or hear of.
My middle class friends in Pakistan knew some of these cartoons even better than I did. Even till today, I have yet to find anything in the media that can match these cartoons. Many people who grew up with them in the same time era as me agree on this.
Watching these cartoons today does not mean simply seeing the action all over again. It actually takes me to the days of my childhood in Karachi. A time where school and friends were amongst the most fun parts of life. A time when life lacked serious responsibilities and was full of happiness.
These cartoons also take me back to a certain familiarity that childhood brings you. Being in an environment in your first decade leaves strong feelings of familiarity in your heart and mind. These feelings will probably be with you throughout life.
The cartoons of the nineteen eighties and nineties were an important part of this "familiar environment."
When you watch these cartoons again as a young adult, you turn on one memory of the familiar environment which automatically turns on all the other memories/feelings of that time.
As already mentioned, watching these cartoons is not just about watching the action. Not then, not now. Because as a child my English was not as advanced as it is now, (Urdu is my native language) I was not able to grasp their themes properly. However as I grew older I began to understand the themes behind most of the ThunderCats episodes.
For instance a big game hunter who goes across the galaxy hunting and imprisoning his targets for fun. He seeks the ThunderCats as his new challenge and puts up quite a bullyish attitude until his defeat shows him to be a coward.
Another episode showed Lion-O the ThunderCats leader, prematurely attack an alien because of the alien's ghastly appearance. This resulted in a battle between him and the alien. Only at the end of the episode, did Lion-O realize his mistake, that judging an individual based on his/her appearance is wrong.
There was even one great episode where Snarf the weakest and powerless of all the ThunderCats managed to rescue all the other ThunderCats from enemy captivity.
The enemies underestimated him and so he managed to catch them off guard and save his friends. Even some of the other ThunderCats were also amazed how he was able to pull-off the rescue. The end scene of the episode left Snarf and Lion-O uttering Lion-O's saying "you never know what you can do until you try."
Just about every episode carried behind it a moral theme or lesson that children and adults could learn from or deeply think about.
Though I did not watch too many episodes of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, that cartoon too carried themes of morality in it's episodes. Mr T followed along the same lines. At the end of his animated episodes, he would appear live in front of the camera and speak a few lines.
After one of his episodes, Mr T spoke of it's theme and his message "now listen up, this is serious! If you plan on doing something wrong, even if the reasons are good, think twice! Because you may get yourself and everybody else into a whole lot of trouble. Take it from me- Mr T."
SilverHawks was another popular cartoon but worked on slightly different lines. Instead of preaching morality, the cartoon covered scientific facts, particularly astronomy as it was set in outer space. So SilverHawks also had useful themes, except in a different area.
Another extremely positive thing these particular cartoons had in them is that they did not represent any country, at least most of them anyway. Because many of these cartoons took place in outer space or different planets, there was no representation of any single country in them, something that most Hollywood movies seem to lack.
Many Hollywood films are centered around America and have made action heroes such as Superman and Spiderman into American icons. Movies made on the characters often have scenes of the them holding an American flag, possibly to remind the audience which country they belong to and/or are loyal to weather Marvel or DC.
Superman even has had a traditional theme tagged behind him: truth, justice and the American way which is repeated in the cartoons and movies.
Most of the 1980s cartoons had no such themes. They either showed humans and other species working as a team to protect society from villains or simply humans working as a whole to defend the world or in the case of ThunderCats, humanoids fighting evil (ThunderCats appeared to be human with cat-like abilities and characteristics, both physical and mental).
The ThunderCats even had a theme behind them: Truth, justice, honor and loyalty.
Any sign of nationality in that? Various other 1980s cartoons such as Defenders of the Earth, The Centurions and others were simply of characters protecting the Earth outside the boundaries of nationality or ethnicity.
So even when these Western-produced cartoons were aired and dubbed in Pakistan during their peaks, a parent or even adult should not have had to worry about Pakistani youth watching them and having their religious, cultural or political beliefs being manipulated by them.
In fact, these cartoons with their themes would have very much the opposite affect of children upholding core human values of peace and justice that every human society and civilization has struggled to strive for.
These positive, educational, borderless themes combined with excellent quality animation, plots/adventures and dialogue is what made them so special. They were giving children basic knowledge, good values, positive for every nationality- all through the means of entertainment.
Sadly Bollywood and Hollywood have often done quite the opposite.
In North America I have noticed much of fictional materiel from cartoons, movies to video games is discarded within a few years of it's release. When I traveled to North America in the 90s, almost no one had heard of ThunderCats, SilverHawks or similar cartoons.
Even with the rise of newer 1990s cartoons such as Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the realm or X-Men, Spiderman, Batman & Superman (the animated series), the nineteen eighties cartoons still aired on Pakistani channels from their time, the eighties right up till the end of the nineteen nineties. Is it even a wonder why?
These cartoons were a very important and special part in the history of film and animation making and popular culture. Always in the future whether tens or hundreds of years from now when newer fictional material comes out, all film makers and people in Pakistan and around the world must always look back to these nineteen eighties cartoons to learn from.
They had extremely unique, special and important roles in the history of film and animation making as well as human society. Something we can all learn from, regardless of our culture, nationality, ethnicity or race. We must never forget them and their benefits.
People interested in the cartoons of their childhood or those interested in popular media of that generation should visit http://www.back-to-the-80s.com/index.html or other sites such as http://www.80scartoons.net/
There are many groups on social networking sites such as twitter which provide information about these 1980s cartoons as well as video sharing sites as myspace and YouTube which have clips or even some full episodes of these cartoons. If one is lucky some Urdu dubs can also be found.
