Disney Television Animation Tribute Exhibition

Art

Disney Television Animation Tribute Exhibition

March 13, 2018 By Joshua Ching

I’m sure a lot of people my age can relate to this post. The reason why is because I think Disney cartoons especially Disney cartoons from the Disney Afternoon block was something a lot of people my age grew up with.

When Gallery Nucleus announced that they were teaming up with Disney Television Animation, Cyclops Print Works, and Oh My Disney! for their Disney Television Animation Tribute Exhibition, an homage to Disney television cartoons from throughout the years I thought, “I really need to go to this.”

I feel really fortunate to have Gallery Nucleus. Not only is it fairly close to my home, but they have so many programs and exhibitions that fit so well for my site.

The exhibition itself was pretty cool. Although they had a few pieces dedicated to more recent cartoons the majority of pieces on display focused more on the cartoons from the Disney Afternoon block from the ’90s. This is probably because the Disney Afternoon was such a big part in establishing Disney as such a powerhouse in the animation scene.

From what I could tell after doing some Googling, the Disney Afternoon block was Disney’s attempt at incorporating more animated series into its portfolio as well as getting into the syndicated cartoon segment. Launched on September 10, 1990 from 3-5 the Disney Afternoon was launched with its initial lineup consisting of Adventures of the Gummi Bears, DuckTales, Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, and TaleSpin. As the years progressed shows were canceled in order to make room for new ones. These shows included Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop, Bonkers, The Schnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show, Aladdin, Gargoyles, The Lion King’s Timon & Pumba, Quack Pack, and Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series.

Like I said earlier, I feel a lot of people my age grew up on the Disney Afternoon, just because the ’90s were such a good time for cartoon. Smartphones and tablets were 15-20 years away and even widespread use of the internet was still a good 5-10 years away. If you wanted to market something towards kids you had to do it with a cartoon which is pretty much why every cartoon you could think of back then had an accompanying toyline. On top of this the Disney Afternoon was easily accessible to kids. The 3-5 timeslot was perfect to intercept children coming home from school. Also, I’m not sure if this was the case in all markets, but where I lived, the Disney Afternoon aired on network television so even kids who didn’t have access to the Disney Channel because they didn’t have cable or satellite could still watch it. Also some of the shows from the Disney Afternoon were granted extra exposure but they were also being aired concurrently on Saturday mornings on ABC and CBS.

Despite its initial success, competition from cable networks such as Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon as well as network animation blocks from UPN, The WB and Fox forced Disney to enter into an agreement with the Leo Burnett agency who established a partnership with Kellogg’s to market and distribute a revamped and downsized version of the Disney Afternoon block.

The final nail in the coffin came when Disney partnered up with UPN to create a new children’s block, a spinoff of Disney’s One Saturday Morning dubbed Disney’s One Too with the final airing of the Disney Afternoon block taking place on September 3, 1999.

This exhibition was really nostalgic for me because the Disney Afternoon block encompassed so much of my childhood as a kid. I used to watch these cartoons religiously as a kid when I got home from school and I also had most of the NES games which I played religiously as well. Even when some of the cartoons were canceled I still remember being able to watch reruns of it somewhere on the Disney Channel.

Doing some more research it looks like all the shows from the Disney Afternoon have been released on DVD and were at one point or another rerun on the Disney Channel and on the Disney Channel’ssister channel, Toon Disney. Currently I don’t think any of the shows are still being broadcast however with Disney planning on launching their own streaming service I’m hoping this means they’ll be making a return.

Until then please enjoy my pics of the artwork from Gallery Nucleus’s Disney Television Animation Tribute exhibition.