Saturday Morning Cartoons

From 1956, this is one of my Tom and Jerry favorites from Hanna-Barbera: Tom's Photo Finish.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Not just a classic but a 1946 Academy Award winner, this Tom and Jerry cartoon features Tom performing the Hungarian Rhapsody #2 by Liszt while he and Jerry mercilessly go at it.

Here's The Cat Concerto.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

From the 1944, it's the Tom and Jerry swing-era classic The Zoot Cat, from Hanna-Barbera and producer Fred Quimby.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

From 1950, Hanna/Barbera's Tom and Jerry classic, Texas Tom.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

I want to start a weekend trend around these parts, and it's borne from the fact that the truly great cartoons -- the ones I remember from my youth all the way into my late teens -- have vanished from Saturday mornings. The timeless classics, which miraculously really are as fresh and funny today as they were when they were created half a century ago, have been replaced by the worst kind of soulless, Disney-concocted dreck, just brimming with over-stylized pre-packaged hip.

This cannot stand.

Put simply, a kid raised on Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry will turn out smarter, sharper and generally cooler than a slavish little rugrat weaned on nonsense like Hannah Montana, Zack and Cody and Yu-Gi-Oh!

Tell me your kids will still be quoting That's So Raven two decades from now, or that Emperor's New School will have a shelf-life beyond a couple of years (when the cultural touchstones it so cleverly tries to tap into have evaporated, leaving its humor completely anachronistic).

So, here at Malcontent Central, we're bringing back the immortal classics on Saturday mornings. Why? Because they rule -- that's why.

To kick it all off, I figured it makes sense to go with the cartoon that I referenced a couple of days ago while writing about, of all things, Rachael Ray.

From 1950, here's Chuck Jones's brilliant Rabbit Fire.