What will 2020s kids nostalgia consist of?

[AnimatedFan01]

Since there's already a 2010s kids nostalgia fandom surfacing on YouTube, Tumblr, Twitter, etc., what do you think the kids of this decade will be reminiscing on in the next 10-15 years when they become tweens/teenagers/young adults?

From the top of my head, I think the following will garner nostalgia in 2020s kids compilations in the near future:

Games:
-Among Us
-Fortnite (more of a late 2010s game but still relevant today)

Cartoons:

-Amphibia
-The Owl House
-The Loud House (again, more of a late 2010s toon but still relevant today and will no doubt go on for a looooong time)
-Smiling Friends
-The Ghost of Gholly McGee
-The Patrick Star Show
-Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Year's
-Teen Titans Go! (see TLH)
-Seasons 12-present of SpongeBob
-Craig of the Creek
-We Baby Bears
-Most of Cartoonito
-Danger Force

Live-action shows:

-Henry Danger
-Side Hustle
-That Girl LayLay
-Whatever other kidcoms are airing on Nick or Disney (I'm not familiar with much past Game Shakers and Raven's Home respectively)

Movies:

-Turning Red
-Lightyear
-Encanto
-Minions: Rise of Guru

Unfortunately, I think the nostalgia won't be as strong with this decade due to the COVID pandemic.

 

[Perla Magica]

Games:
-Among Us
-Fortnite (more of a late 2010s game but still relevant today)

There's also Poppy Playtime. I saw few Huggy Wuggy plushes around gift stores.

 

[Fone Bone]

There's also Poppy Playtime. I saw few Huggy Wuggy plushes around gift stores.

Poppy Playtime? Huggy Wuggy? Are those real things? Man, I am out of the kiddie pop culture loop.

 

[wonderfly]

Kinda feels like Marvel movies are sliding off the pop culture landscape. Do you really think 10 years from now people are going to be saying "Man, do you all remember how awesome it was to watch Eternals and Moon Knight for the first time?"

(they're fine, don't come at me, just talking about how things are changing in pop culture).

The Pandemic did a system shock to the pop culture landscape, and I think the 2020's have yet to introduce their "personality".

But I didn't think "the 90's" kicked in until 1992 or 1993, and "the 2000's" didn't kick in until 2002 or 2003.

 

[Red Arrow]

But I didn't think "the 90's" kicked in until 1992 or 1993, and "the 2000's" didn't kick in until 2002 or 2003.

It depends though. Digimon premiered in 1999, but doesn't it feel like a typical early 2000s cartoon? (same with Pokémon honestly) Eminim's song "My Name Is" is from 1999 but also feels like it's from the early 2000s.

(But I'm from 1997 so I wouldn't know for sure, my idea of what's "90s" will be different from yours)

 

[Dr.Pepper]

I get that some of these are a bit “older” but I still see kids latching on them, so I can see today’s kids being nostalgic 20 years from now:
Movies:
-Frozen
-Encanto
-Luca
-Turning Red
-Minions/Despicable Me

TV Shows:
-Paw Patrol
-The Loud House
-Teen Titans Go
-Amazing World of Gumball
-Owl House
-Stranger Things
-Mandalorian

Video games/toys:
-Minecraft
-Fortnight
-Among-us
-Five Nights at Freddy’s
-Huggy Wuggy
-pop-it’s
-Squishimals
-I don’t know if they have a proper name, but those reversible plushes (typically of an octopus)

Poppy Playtime? Huggy Wuggy? Are those real things? Man, I am out of the kiddie pop culture loop.

Huggy Wuggy got banned from recess where I work. The kids were chasing each other saying stuff like “oh no it’s Huggy Wuggy!” and I just assumed it was something they made up. It wasn’t until my principal told me that I knew it was from a video game.

It depends though. Digimon premiered in 1999, but doesn't it feel like a typical early 2000s cartoon? (same with Pokémon honestly) Eminim's song "My Name Is" is from 1999 but also feels like it's from the early 2000s.

(But I'm from 1997 so I wouldn't know for sure, my idea of what's "90s" will be different from yours)

It kind of seems like there is a lot of overlap between the end and start of a decade.

 

[Asa]

Blues Clues & You comes to mind.

But yeah, I feel like as the decade progresses, we will be seeing more games, books, animation, live-action, etc. that many 2010's babies will see as 2020's kid nostalgia.

 

[Pooky]

Unfortunately, I think the nostalgia won't be as strong with this decade due to the COVID pandemic.

Bear in mind though that WWII-era nostalgia has been a big thing ever since the war ended, even and/or especially among people who lived through it. Something being a terrible time to live through doesn't prevent people from romanticising it.

Movies:

-Turning Red
-Lightyear
-Encanto
-Minions: Rise of Guru

While I'm sure it will be remembered fondly by some people unless its fortunes really turn around on Disney+ I can't see Lightyear becoming a huge nostalgic touchpoint for kids. Rise of Gru feels like it's already building off existing nostalgia, although I guess a lot of stuff these days does (see also Spider-Man: No Way Home).

Kinda feels like Marvel movies are sliding off the pop culture landscape. Do you really think 10 years from now people are going to be saying "Man, do you all remember how awesome it was to watch Eternals and Moon Knight for the first time?"

(they're fine, don't come at me, just talking about how things are changing in pop culture).

It's hard right now to imagine, however long they go on for, the 2010s not being the MCU's big decade. That's when they did the first team up movie, that's when they did the film that everything had been leading up to for over a decade. Now they're in the "what do we do for an encore?" phase. No Way Home was a pretty good answer, but they can only do that once; I don't think a film uniting
Jon Bernthal with Dolph Lundgren, Thomas Jane and Ray Stevenson and/or Charlie Cox with Ben Affleck would have quite the same effect. I guess their encore has been doing what they did in theatres for streaming/TV, but it feels to me like, other than perhaps Wandavision, all of them seem to have been fairly popular while they were on but quickly pretty forgotten, maybe as an inevitable consequence of the MCU's non-stop content model.

That said, even these not particular well received movies like the current Thor and Doctor Strange 2 are still racking up massive numbers, so it seems likely some kids will be nostalgic for them in a few years. Can a movie be shrugged to a $1billion? Sometimes it does feel like it.

It depends though. Digimon premiered in 1999, but doesn't it feel like a typical early 2000s cartoon? (same with Pokémon honestly) Eminim's song "My Name Is" is from 1999 but also feels like it's from the early 2000s.

(But I'm from 1997 so I wouldn't know for sure, my idea of what's "90s" will be different from yours)

Yeah, might be a UK/non-US perspective, but the English-Language-Anime-Dub Boom feels like a 00s thing to me rather than a 90s thing, even though I know that's when it started.

 

[ilpuyopuyo]

I think Bluey may be likely a good choice.

 

[wonderfly]

It depends though. Digimon premiered in 1999, but doesn't it feel like a typical early 2000s cartoon? (same with Pokémon honestly) Eminim's song "My Name Is" is from 1999 but also feels like it's from the early 2000s.

(But I'm from 1997 so I wouldn't know for sure, my idea of what's "90s" will be different from yours)

Fair enough, though I was talking more about other pop culture trends. Like "Boy Bands" (which were huge in the 90's, especially from 1997 onward), were still popular in 2000 and 2001, and I think that era ended when NSYNC broke up in 2002.

If anything, Digimon in 1999 was a part of the rise of Anime that started in the 90's (with the introduction of Sailor Moon, then Dragon Ball Z, then Pokemon). Digimon "feels" more 90's than "Cowboy Bebop" (and the launch of Adult Swim in 2001).

Actually, a lot of this stuff I put into a "Millennial years" category (1997 to 2003). Stuff that doesn't feel totally 90's or totally 2000's. The "turn of the century" years kinda had their own pop culture feeling.

 

[Gold Guy]

Fair enough, though I was talking more about other pop culture trends. Like "Boy Bands" (which were huge in the 90's, especially from 1997 onward), were still popular in 2000 and 2001, and I think that era ended when NSYNC broke up in 2002.

Boy bands are still big....but now it's K-Pop boy bands that dominate social media.

Anyway, I don't know about movies and shows, but I guarantee that K-pop and Fortnite will be considered big 2020s nostalgia items one day.

 

[ToonDude03]

Here’s my two cents on what 2020’s nostalgia will look like.

Cartoons
- Craig of the Creek
- Big City Greens
- Hilda
- Victor and Valentino
- Amphibia
- The Owl House
- Looney Tunes Cartoons
- Animaniacs
- The Ghost and Molly McGee
- Jellystone!
- Kid Cosmic
- Hamster and Gretel
- We Baby Bears
- Dead End: Paranormal Park

Video Games
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Elden Ring
- Metroid Dread
- Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart
- Halo: Infinite
- Nintendo Switch Sports
- Gran Turismo 7
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Doom Eternal

 

[wonderfly]

Boy bands are still big....but now it's K-Pop boy bands that dominate social media.

Anyway, I don't know about movies and shows, but I guarantee that K-pop and Fortnite will be considered big 2020s nostalgia items one day.

Well, their were Boy Bands back in the 80's as well, but there was something about the late 90's/early 2000's Boy Bands that touched all of pop culture (that's why you would get characters like "Chip Skylark" on Fairly Oddparents), and why we had "4*Town" in the recent "Turning Red" (which was set in 2002).

And how can Fortnite eventually be remembered as a 2020's thing, and not remain tied to the 2010's? I'm not convinced on that one.

 

[Gold Guy]

And how can Fortnite eventually be remembered as a 2020's thing, and not remain tied to the 2010's? I'm not convinced on that one.

I guess it might depend when Fortnite "peaks", but the game is still breaking it's own records, so who can say that it won't get even bigger as the decade continues?