Anti-Nostalgia

[Leave a Whisper]

I never liked this board game.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6MX2hxmfx_Q

Ponyfan

I forgot about that!

[Galactica]

Folks, this isn't a thread about stuff you hated as a child
Quite the opposite.

Have any of you guys gone back and watched the original THundercats? Or Heman?  The dialogue is almost hysterically bad.  Of course, it was written for 3-5 year olds so I guess they get a pass.

Bwahaha, these are the 80s cartoons I came to love ironically. I recently had a He-Man/Transformers/Bravestarr/She-Ra party with two friends (one of which had never seen G1 Transformers) and we laughed so much we cried. It was great. Especially the swearing! YOU BOOB! FOOL! And the animation budget. And Swifty's smoker voice! Ha, I could go on.

As a kid I really loved Thundercats. Now I'm like "how are there adults who take this seriously?"
I was active in the Transformers fandom, I saw how G1 is treated almost religiously when actually it was rather silly and borderline crazy. We watched that episode where a hotel heiress (she is named Astoria Carlton-Ritz, lmao!!!) falls in love with an ugly plane Transformer and he smacks her around and stuff A+ content!

Yeah Heman is at least funny and kinda gay which I love- but Thundercats- wow it's kinda moronic. It was a bit of a shock to me as I remember LOOOOOVING that show as a 4 year old. I guess i wasn't very bright, haha

And yeah the cartoons in the 1980s had some MESSED up content.  I don't know how many of you ever watched JEM but the Misfits (or at least the main one) is a legit homicidal maniac- they actually trap one of the Hologram gals in a volcano in one episode- before it explodes ???    Anyway...  now kids aren't even allowed to have bad guys as far as I can tell...  somewhere in between would be nice for the kids I think...

[Zapper]

I don't know how many of you ever watched JEM but the Misfits (or at least the main one) is a legit homicidal maniac- they actually trap one of the Hologram gals in a volcano in one episode- before it explodes ???    Anyway...  now kids aren't even allowed to have bad guys as far as I can tell...  somewhere in between would be nice for the kids I think...

Feel free to post about Jem in my cartoon thread. I really love Jem because it was doing something fresh back then. And the creator, afaik, really tried to push the envelope when it came to characters. As much as she could given the restraints of a doll line in the 80s.
I think it was freaking amazing how dangerous Pizzazz was. She could have collaborated with Cobra or the Decepticons She wasn't one of those "I'll ruin your outfit" meangirls. She was that kind of girl who'd stop at nothing. She'd drop an anvil on you for trying to book her gig.
And then by the end of the show they all were redeemed out of nowhere, lol!

[LadyMoondancer]

I love He-Man so much as a kid but man, it has such stilted and oft-repeated animation.  (The reason, as I understand it, was that they kept their animation studio in America rather than moving to cheaper South Korea with everyone else, so I do at least appreciate the intent.)

The Dungeons & Dragons cartoon did not age well, it has a real "70s cartoon" vibe to its dialogue and scripts, even though it was made in the 80s.  I looked up an episode that fans like to describe as "the darkest ever!!" and the dark part was . . . after Venger (the main bad guy) almost kills the protagonists' pet baby unicorn, one of kids thinks they should kill Venger.  Which COULD be a dark episode, except!  It's all done in that pseudo-70s style where the protagonists are not allowed to outright state that they want to kill him, aren't allowed to say the word "death" or "kill" . . . Yeah, it ended up being really mild and I was disappointed.

As a kid I begged to see MLP the Movie (1986 one) and, man . . . watching it now, that is one boring movie.  The Care Bears one is way better. 

[Ponyfan]

I love Jem but as an adult you have to wonder how the Misfits never went to jail for all of times they tried to kill/get rid of the holograms. Eric does mention in one episode that he has a good lawyer and that’s how he got out of jail.

The original Care Bears specials (Land Without Feelings, Battle the Freeze Machine) and the 2nd Care Bear movie still hold up for me as well as the original Care Bears series, the one that came before the series with No Heart.

I used to love Adventures from the Book of Virtues on PBS. It didn’t come on very often though. Sone episodes were finally released on DVD several years ago and I bought a DVD. I still like it but it lost dobevof the appeal it had. Same with Wishbone. I used to love Wishbone, bought a DVD and don’t think I’ve watched a single episode on the DVD.

Ponyfan

 

[Shaz]

I'm not sure why I ever liked Barbie dolls, they're about the only toys that don't make me feel nostalgic. Then again, most of my Barbie doll games involved making them witches, vampires, werewolves etc, so once Monster High arrived I didn't need them anymore. (If they had had Monster High when I was little, I probably would never have bothered with Barbie.)

I can't think of a specific example, but sometimes I reread books that I loved as a child and can't imagine what I saw in them. Oh wait, I can think of some examples: C. S. Lewis and Philip Pullman don't really do it for me the way they did when I was younger, and Jacqueline Wilson really gives me the anti-nostalgia feeling. Possibly because I used to read her books obsessively at a time in my life when I wasn't very happy, so now whenever I see her books it takes me back to that. That's pretty much the definition of anti-nostalgia, I think. Nostalgia makes you think of times when you were happy and carefree and playing with ponies/beanies/whatever, anti-nostalgia makes you think of times that aren't so fun to remember.

[banditpony]

If I understand right, something you liked when you were little-- but now you can't get into it even if you want to?

certain anime/movies I loved as a little kid. But now... the themes are just really not my thing (and they weren't back then, but it was the first things I was exposed to. Isn't everything cool when you are 4 and your Uncle is like "Watch these cool things from Japan!!!).

Iczer specifically. Ugh, gore and robots... Bubblegum Crisis,  Godzilla... Robotech. (i'm sure there's a bunch more)

But the weird thing is, I love the characters and the style so much. I just can't sit down and watch it *at all*.

It creates sadness inside in a way, like I want to enjoy it like I used to... but I can't.

[Taffeta]

In terms of the G1 animation, I disregarded it mostly until FIM happened, at which point I became grateful that it wasn't FIM and thus now I feel more fondly towards it (aside the 4 eps I played to death and which my mother is still traumatised by this many years on). xD The comics I still have the same affection for as I did as a kid though.

Other shows - the original Thundercats. Loved it as a kid, cannot stand its moralising as an adult. I still find HeMan (the original) and SheRa watchable (except the voices in SheRa!).

I have a few DVDs of stuff I liked as a kid, and some of them, like Farthing Wood, I still have so much love for. Others, like the Demon Headmaster, I still love the original story but the sequels are meh to me now. And I guess the same for The Girl from Tomorrow, which I was literally obsessed with as an eight year old - I can watch the first season but the second kind of palls on me halfway through.

I sometimes look up things on youtube that I remember as a kid and actually some of them are funnier now I'm an adult (like Jimbo, Bertha) because of all the jokes added in to amuse the adults that as a kid you wouldn't have seen.

I don't really have nostalgia for toy lines from when I was a kid, though I have nostalgia for certain individual toys I had (and still have, those I didn't care for have mostly gone). Confused why I wanted the crawling baby doll as a kid because I hated dolls - I think it was the fascination that she moved...?

I guess my idea of anti-nostalgia is when they take something that was good in the old days and trample all over it, like they did with the Jem movie.

[freezestime]

Not pony related, but Sharkboy and Lavagirl. I saw it in cinema as a kid and loved it, got the dvd. As a teenager I watched it again with my boyfriend and oh my god, it's an absolute train wreck. Not magical or anything.

[LadyMoondancer]

Oh, I'm glad you mentioned She-Ra.  I loved it as a kid.  Started watching the new She-Ra (Netflix) and enjoyed it, so I wanted to revisit the original.

Man oh man, are the voices annoying / cringy in the original She-Ra.  And Catra just making rando cat sounds all the time . . .   For me the worst was Madame Razz, the minute she opened her mouth I was like "oh no.  No thank you."

[Leave a Whisper]

I'm not a fan of some of she-ra's voice acting either.

[nessa16]

Yes, actually.  Some movies and cartoons especially.  A few off the top of my head that I have revisited recently with this effect include Gummi Bears, Darkwing Duck, Batman: The Animated Series, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, and The Page Master movie.  @ Ragamuffin, I feel the same way about the MLP G1 cartoons, other than MLPTales.  They are more boring than anything.  I have the Care Bear series but have not had a chance to watch them yet.  I have not really been able to sit through episodes of the G1 cartoon as an adult.  I do still like the MLP Movie and Care Bears movies, especially the first one.  Those I know I watched as a kid, and still love them.

I like the G1 cartoons a decent bit, actually. I watched every episode as an adult and they held my attention more than FiM's later seasons. I wouldn't call them masterpieces but they're nice. I can't name a whole lot of bad ones, just boring ones, like The End of Flutter Valley, and the Ghost of Paradise Estate. The Care Bears cartoon feels like the same thing over and over.
With MLP n Friends, some parts may not have been exciting, but I stuck around to watch the whole thing. With Care Bears (and late FiM), I would click off the video and have it be background noise a couple times because there wasn't anything going on.

I have literally tried to watch the G1 boxed set I have a dozen times and just cannot get through the first few episodes.  Maybe I need to skip the first few and just start somewhere in the middle because I honestly can say I have never made it that far because the first few bore me to tears.  I make it through the specials but I cannot get past Ghost of PE.  I see you listed that one as boring, so maybe I will skip that one on to the next lol.

Yes, actually.  Some movies and cartoons especially.  A few off the top of my head that I have revisited recently with this effect include Gummi Bears, Darkwing Duck, Batman: The Animated Series

All of these hold up so well for me Funny how that works. Especially Darkwing Duck is so hilarious to me, even more so as an adult. That show parodied so many superhero things and was rife with puns.

To be fair, I once again could not get through the first episode of DWD.  So, maybe I just need to push on.  I used to love it as a kid but now I find DW's voice grating and annoying.  I forgot that Launchpad is also in this show.  He's always a side kick with everyone lol.

I still enjoy the original Thundercats. And that's an over-exaggeration of Goonies. They did a lot of adventuring, trap solving and thief dodging.

I have not watched ThunderCat's recently but another I liked as a kid but only had one episode on tape from my brothers.  Might have to look into it again.  The Goonies are still a cult classic and epitome of 80s movie kitsch in our family.  It is quoted often.
He-Man's dialogue is pretty bad and Battle Cat's alter ego is just pathetic.  So is He-Man's Prince Adam(?).  Suuuch a dunce.

I also hated that one game where you hafta match up blocks before the timer stopped and they'd fly out. But I can't remember the name.
Looked it up, its called Perfection.

Perfection, every type A child's nightmare lol.

I was active in the Transformers fandom, I saw how G1 is treated almost religiously when actually it was rather silly and borderline crazy. We watched that episode where a hotel heiress (she is named Astoria Carlton-Ritz, lmao!!!) falls in love with an ugly plane Transformer and he smacks her around and stuff A+ content!

Astoria Carlton-Ritz?!? Hysterical!

I don't know how many of you ever watched JEM but the Misfits (or at least the main one) is a legit homicidal maniac- they actually trap one of the Hologram gals in a volcano in one episode- before it explodes ???    Anyway...  now kids aren't even allowed to have bad guys as far as I can tell...  somewhere in between would be nice for the kids I think...

Feel free to post about Jem in my cartoon thread. I really love Jem because it was doing something fresh back then. And the creator, afaik, really tried to push the envelope when it came to characters. As much as she could given the restraints of a doll line in the 80s.
I think it was freaking amazing how dangerous Pizzazz was. She could have collaborated with Cobra or the Decepticons She wasn't one of those "I'll ruin your outfit" meangirls. She was that kind of girl who'd stop at nothing. She'd drop an anvil on you for trying to book her gig.
And then by the end of the show they all were redeemed out of nowhere, lol!

I actually watched Jem for the first time as an adult.  And I loved it!  I was very surprised but I binged on it thoroughly during nursing school.  I would totally watch it again.  Never much into the dolls though.  Thought they looked rather man-ish.

[Zapper]

Nostalgia makes you think of times when you were happy and carefree and playing with ponies/beanies/whatever, anti-nostalgia makes you think of times that aren't so fun to remember.

That's a pretty good explanation and way of looking at it.

[Broken Irishwoman]

I've got one, though I'm sure no one here knows it.

When I was about 15, I was a huge fan of a Dutch band called Skik. However, I went way too far with it, I was basically a hysterical groupie, my mental health wasn't the best at that age. Because of that I absolutely DREAD it when I hear them on the radio, because I am so ashamed of my crazy behaviour back then.

[Pinkie21]

I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anti-nostalgia.  I’ve always preferred media from my childhood to stuff today.  I guess I might be a little embarrassed by my obsession with boy bands in the 90’s, but otherwise  I like everything from my childhood a lot more than stuff of today.