Review: Boomerang App
As a huge cartoon fan I was pretty excited to see more options to watch classic cartoons that I don’t seem to come across too easily these days. In the dark days of 1991, there were few TV channels that was dedicated to just cartoons all the time. The reasonable options was to rush home after school or get up super early in the mornings on the weekends to catch a mini marathon. By 1992, Cartoon Network was formed for non stop cartoons and I was introduced to a ton of shows like Looney Tunes, Wacky Races and later on to Johnny Bravo, Dexter’s Laboratory and I AM Weasel. Plus I was one of the many viewers in 1995 that dialed in to vote on the What a Cartoon! You’re welcome anyone born after 2000 for the awesome cartoons we have now.
During the early programming of Cartoon Network, Boomerang was a block that was dedicated to classic cartoons from the 50’s and early 70’s. Many shows created by Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and other creators in the Hanna-Barbera studios were now easy to find and newer cartoon fans got to see slap stick toons that were pretty simple to understand. A lot of these shows were short, to the point and did not have any major story arcs, so it was great to jump in and watch hours of random shows.
Today, Boomerang is not only it’s own TV channel, there is a stand alone streaming service to give viewers of all ages the chance to watch selected cartoons from the past 50 years. At the time of it’s launch Boomerang’s SVOD has a modest collection of TV series and full movies to watch, including exclusive content such as the newest series of Tom & Jerry, Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo.
Boomerang offers two plans: $4.99 a month or $39.99 for 1 year. Each plan offers a free trial, so you can figure out what best suits your cartoon needs. Boomerang is available on the iTunes store, Android Market Place, and Google Play, as well as Desktop access from the website. There is plans for expansion to game consoles such as Xbox & Playstation, and streaming devices like Amazon Fire & Apple TV.
I got a 30 Day Free Trial to explore and watch classic cartoons, getting nostalgic over series that were really hard to catch on TV. I spend the first day watching Atom Ant because the theme song was really catchy and seeing people get clobbered by a peppy ant in a helmet can brighten any day. The next few days was watching Magilla Gorilla and Huckleberry Hound get into trouble doing human jobs. Also I learned that Magilla Gorilla is a financial nightmare for a pet shop business. Of course, seeing Courage the Cowardly Dog is now considered an old classic that hits me right in the aged gut. It also got me to realize how spoiled kids are today for not waiting to get a David Lynch-inspired cartoon series. In the growing collection of series to stream, I am hoping for more shows from Tex Avery in the future and I want to see Johnny Bravo once again influence a generation of karate posing, sun glass wearing teens soon. I recommend giving the app a download and watch cartoon history at convenient pace.