My birthday is on Tuesday, so I’ve decided to take it easy between now and then and just do some easy, rambling posts.  Today’s posts is on my love of cartoons.

I guess you could say that in many ways, I’m still a kid at heart.  If you were able to peer into my Netlfix history, one of the things that would probably jump out at you would be the number of animated movies and cartoon series that show up.  Whether it’s watching Disney’s Hercules movie (thanks for the heads up, Rae!) or the 1980’s G.I. Joe series, I just love my animation.  In some ways, I suppose I just love the simplicity of it all.  Plus, I also love the various stories that can be explored through animation.  To name just a few of the cartoons I love, both past and present.

Thundercats.  What can I say?  I guess one might argued that I had a thing for furries before I even knew what furries were.  But yeah, the anthropomorphic Thundercats, their powers, and their adventures completely mesmerized me.  Or maybe that was Mumm-Ra.

Smurfs.  I think this is one of the first Saturday morning cartoons I ever started watching.  I was fascinated by Papa Smurf.  And to this day, I swear the show kept hinting that someday, Baby Smurf would become the new Papa Smurf.  Though the one thing that annoyed me about the show was the introduction of Granny Smurf in 1989.  Excuse me, but from the beginning of the series, it was made clear that before Gargamel made Smurfette, there were only boy smurfs.  So where the heck did Granny Smurf come from?

X-Men/X-Men: Evolution.  If I’m being perfectly honest, I love just about any superhero cartoon.  These two X-Men series were probably my favorites.  Superman was just too perfect.  Batman was either too dark or too campy.  But the X-Men always seemed like real and often complex people who just happened to have superpowers.  Plus, I had a thing for Nightcrawler.  (Okay, I still do.)

Princess Mononoke.  Okay, hardcore anime fans are probably going to scream that I’m referring to an anime movie as a “cartoon.”  To be honest, I see them all as cartoons, just cartoons of a different kind and possibly with a different target audience in mind.  (Bear in mind that Bug Bunny cartoons were originally intended for adult audiences.)  I love the imagery and deep theological, environmental, and sociological issues explored in this movie.

Kim Possible.  Because who doesn’t love a rocking teenager whose motto is “I can do anything”?  And I have to admit, Ron’s dorkiness grew on me.