Yeah, I realised my children, barely a decade old, don't really know the cartoon characters I took for evergreen as a child: Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Tom & Jerry, Yogi Bear, Woody Woodpecker and Rocky & Bullwinkle. I mean they could probably name all of them, but don't really have an attachment or think they belong to a pantheon of any sorts.
I assume that companies foresaw this coming and decided not to invest in further developing or promoting characters that they couldn't have exclusive merchandising rights for the foreseeable future. Just making money off a new movie isn't enough if you can't have sole rights to license the t-shirts and have the current children introduce it to their children.
* She knows Mikey and Minie, I was sure about that, but I asked her anyway what kind of animal they are. [Hi from Argentina. In Spanish(es-ar) it's not obvious that "Mikey Mouse" is a "ratón".] She likes them.
* Surprisingly, she knows Tom and Jerry, but she thinks it's a cat and two mice (??). I guess my brother show her a few cartoons (??), and in some of them Jerry has a friend (??).
* All the other are dead. They have been good characters.
They aren't stuck with 6 TV channels to choose from and they don't have the privilege of Saturday morning cartoons to introduce all of them. They have curated experiences on streaming apps.
I assume that companies foresaw this coming and decided not to invest in further developing or promoting characters that they couldn't have exclusive merchandising rights for the foreseeable future. Just making money off a new movie isn't enough if you can't have sole rights to license the t-shirts and have the current children introduce it to their children.