News / Education
The Animaniacs' Greatest Hits
We had stupid cartoons when we were kids (He-Man being a prime example). The mid 80's were a dead zone of educational programming. MTV still played music and was awesome – but not educational. Cheap Japanese cartoon imports like Voltron and homegrown stupidity like the aforementioned He-Man made the cartoon programming of that era really absurd, excluding reruns of The Jetsons and The Flintstones, and redeeming only for the sake of nostalgia. Then came The Simpsons. I was in 8th grade (I think). The show made smart cultural references that appealed to adults while remaining funny for the kids. It was the first family cartoon worth watching since The Flintstones. The Simpsons, sadly, has been around too long; somewhere around season 6 or 7 it stopped being funny. However, at the height of the Simpsons' success, we got another great cartoon that only ran several seasons but will forever be remembered for being one of the smartest cartoons ever made -- The Animaniacs! In 2006 the whole series became available on DVD. I have recently re-discovered them through Netflix. The Animaniacs feature length movie, Wakko's Wish, is available on Netflix through instant view. The series itself is on Netflix as well, but you have to get it in the mail. 15 years after the fact, the Animaniacs is a new favorite for my boys.
If you want your kids watching quality and captivating cartoons, you can't go wrong with The Animaniacs. And wouldn't it be nice to be entertained yourself, for once, while watching the shows your kids watch? Here is a YouTube collection of some of the funniest, educational songs from the series (The Nations of the World song has some interesting fan attempts on YouTube which might be worth you time to view for a chuckle):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvy0wRLD5s8
Nations of the World:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDtdQ8bTvRc&feature=related
US Capitals:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNUDDaEOvuY&feature=related
Yakko's Universe Song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_J5rBxeTIk&feature=related
The Ballad of Magellan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM-igYjn6E4&feature=related
The Senses:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaHTeefeLYw&feature=related
Panama Canal:
