Steamboat Wile E. Coyote (redone)

From "Talkies" to "flunkies" to "Genius, sheer genius", cartoons have shaped the minds of the dimwitted and dull to the creative. I think few people my age have not watched, enjoyed and been enriched (like uranium) with their being.

Of course I jumped carrying an umbrella hoping to float down gently. Of course I walked off a ladder trying to both walk forward defying gravity and also tried to walk normally while falling. Of course I dreamt of explosive devices that I could put on wings. I also drew, imitated sound effects, vocal folley artistry, and found humor in what was supposed to be funny, lampooning and not-to-be attempted at home.

Those cartoons, like many childhood memories both stick out and are hidden. They are part of my life. I never had to see cartoons in the theater, save for a Disney full-length feature, but it was great to see Wonderful World of Disney on Sundays and Cartoon Saturdays with 90 mintues of Warner Brothers. "Better give me a whole lotta [cartoons], eei-eeeeee-eeeee-eeee-eee-eee, hee!"+

I watch today with karate, as though everyone and his/her neighbor had a sensai for twelve years with a mastery of Shaolin monks of thirty generations, packing training into a compact and successful 8 years. I also see Fairly Odd 'parents, where an unrepentant fool is rewarded handsomely. Honestly, I can't think that ten or twenty years down the road kids will want to revisit these genius works.

I can expect Poke'mon, for 100-200 episodes can't be wrong, and a few others.

I think I liked the underdogs in "my generation" of rerun cartoons (WB especially), favoring Daffy over Bugs, Goofy over Mickey, and Donald over Mickey. I liked Yosemite Sam, his Darren McGavin talent for near-swearing and the vaudville slapstick (displaced in the 70s/80s) of the Three Bears with Bugs Bunny.

Wile E. was a stand alone, the Roadrunner, his Moby Dick, bringing peril to himself despite his opportunties for other food.

+ Leo Lion of Warner Brothers with a very memorable laugh