You'll have a yabba dabba doo time... You'll have a gay old time

During our stay at the Thai hotel in the Christmas holiday, I sometimes flicked the remote control to the Boomerang TV channel and watched some classic cartoons, such as The Flintstones, The Merry Melody Shows, Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear and the Fantastic Four. It was like taking a trip down Memory Lane.

When I was a schoolboy, I never watched the soap operas in the evening, always choosing the seat at the dinner table with my back to the TV. But after school, I would rush home and switch on the TV to the welcoming tunes of the Merry Melodies shows or the Flintstones. Then for the next hour or so, I would have a good laugh at the duels between Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner, Tweety and Sylvester, and Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny, as well as the funny episodes that happened at the town of Bedrock.

By the standard of spectacular hi-tech animations, those hand-drawn cartoons yesteryears look sadly outdated, like an old photo album with yellowish pages and photos of fading colours. Some plots also smack of being rather silly and repetitive. But there is something fascinating and romantic about those vintage productions, something in the music, the characterisation and the voiceover that appeals to one's nostalgia and makes these cartoons true classics. Old wine becomes more mellow with time.