The heated cartoon debate over at Peoplesforum has inspired me to create this, the Official Guide of What to Think About Old Cartoons:

Warner Brothers - It does not get better than Bugs Bunny. I could fill a dozen blog entries with classic shorts: the Barber of Seville, the opera episode, the hillbilly hoedown, the gremlins, etc. etc. I prefer the early, psychotic Daffy Duck to the later, failed conman Daffy Duck, but both had their moments. The Wile E. Coyote shorts took a limited premise and creatively kept it going for a long time, which is a damn hard thing to do. I'm not much for Sylvester and Tweety, mainly because I hate that damn smug little bird, although the Hitchcock parody was genius. Pepe LePew sucked.

Jay Ward - poor animation, yes, but incredibly clever and inventive. "Rocky and Bullwinkle" is one of those rare series that works on a kids' level and an adults' level. Even now, I'm still amazed by the amount of sophisticated comedy (mixed with groaningly-obvious-yet-still-funny wordplay) that's in these shows.

Disney - some of the old shorts aren't bad. "Fantasia" is a justifiable classic. I prefer the Carl Barks comics to the cartoons, though.

Tex Avery - While I respect the guy for creating Daffy Duck and Droopy, his own stuff was way, way overrated. Same gags over and over again. Yeah, yeah, it's a horny wolf leering at a curvaceous woman. I get it.

MGM - The early Tom and Jerrys are great - honestly, I prefer them over Sylvester and Tweety. And Droopy was a great character. Otherwise, not much here.

Universal - Woody Woodpecker is a serious contender with Tweety for Most Obnoxious Cartoon Bird of All Time. Just let them both get sucked into a jet intake, already.

Hanna Barbera - The early Jetsons are actually pretty funny. The Flintstones aren't funny once you hit 11. Scooby Doo is good for cheap laughs when you're a stoned teenager, but you wouldn't actually want to sit down and watch it again at this point. Otherwise, Hanna Barbera was a total crap factory.

Terrytoons - Heckle and Jeckle? Mighty Mouse? At least Terrytoons helped thousands of general managers at low rent, poorly rated UHF TV stations keep their jobs by providing them with cheap afternoon kid fodder.