Western Animation - Discuss American, Canadian, and European cartoons here (or just bitch about wokeshit, I guess)

I've been curious for awhile what Kiwis think of girl-oriented cartoons? Like I know My Little Pony has an autistic fanbase, but aside from that, what do you think of the show itself?

What do you guys think about the classics like Rainbow Brite, Jem and the Holograms, Strawberry Shortcake, or any others you might've seen?
I think I liked Shortcake and MLP when I was REALLY little, as well as Jem. Never really cared for them past like age 5 though (and even before then I thought Dragontales was better). I was too busy watching shit like Inspector Gadget and Super Friends, or maybe Thundercats and Transformers if I was lucky. The girls in those shows weren't losers, and the guys were cool, so I was a lot more engaged by them.
 
I've been curious for awhile what Kiwis think of girl-oriented cartoons? Like I know My Little Pony has an autistic fanbase, but aside from that, what do you think of the show itself?

What do you guys think about the classics like Rainbow Brite, Jem and the Holograms, Strawberry Shortcake, or any others you might've seen?
I haven't seen many for obvious reasons but one that I caught bits and pieces of is the original WITCH animated show. It seems pretty girl oriented and it's animated by a French studio. I'd say it contains some mature elements suited for early teens. Animation style is similar to that of Code Lyoko's.

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So let's derail, again.

I mentioned a few days ago, I was babysitting my niece and showed her a bunch of these shows from the 1980s and it made me realize that despite being for little girls, a lot of them go incredibly dark places. Like one of the ones we watched--this thing called Rose Petal Place--has the villain slip a voice-sapping drug to the heroine, then shove her in a dark room. The heroine says she'll die in there... to which the villain basically says "sucks to be you" and closes the door.

Me and my niece were both like "What. the. fuck."

..... Aaaanyway though:

I've been curious for awhile what Kiwis think of girl-oriented cartoons? Like I know My Little Pony has an autistic fanbase, but aside from that, what do you think of the show itself?

What do you guys think about the classics like Rainbow Brite, Jem and the Holograms, Strawberry Shortcake, or any others you might've seen?
I remember my little sister used to rent the Rainbow Brite move a ton from Blockbuster, and even as a kid I noticed how dark it got.

Also the unicorn had like the deepest gruffest voice ever.

EDIT: I may be thinking of She-Ra with the horse.
 
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And losing the person who understands that the most didn't help either.
Not that Faust herself was actually that good a writer or anything. Apparently some of the dumber ideas (including them fighting a chaos god for the season two opener, and Twilight being trained to be Celestia's "successor") were actually her ideas.

My biggest regret is that the show never dropped the superhero aspect but instead kept trying to crowbar it in, even though it was obvious from episode one that it just doesn't work. It strikes me almost as if someone on the creative team had a pathological need to keep that aspect come hell or high water, and it just did not organically mesh with what the show had evolved into.

@SteelPlatedHeart yeah She-Ra's horse definitely had the deeper and gruffer voice.
 
I've been curious for awhile what Kiwis think of girl-oriented cartoons? Like I know My Little Pony has an autistic fanbase, but aside from that, what do you think of the show itself?

What do you guys think about the classics like Rainbow Brite, Jem and the Holograms, Strawberry Shortcake, or any others you might've seen?
I've seen a few episodes of MLP. Wasn't bad, but not something I'd be interesting in binging.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Vyse Inglebard
Exactly.

Rule Number 1 of Animation: Never cater to man/woman-children. That’s how we got to where we are now.
It’s more of like animators having to know to know who their audience is and how big is that audience for that series to succeed. However, instead of directing children’s cartoons to children, they direct it to themselves and people who act like them (aka manchildren) and they know it but are too egotistical to recognize that as a problem. That is why most children cartoons in Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon nowadays fail because animators are too stupid to see that their audience that they want is a minority and the majority of the audience on a children’s network is children that are not interested in watching their self-inserts. That is why series like Bluey despite being watched by manchildren should still dedicate their future episodes still to children. If you want to add a more mature theme, they have to make it universal and understandable and enjoyable for not just the adult or teen to enjoy, but mainly the child. That is why George Lucas, no matter how much you hate his prequels or not, always intended for Star Wars to be directed to children in episodes I-VI, which is why millions have fond memories of the original trilogy and prequel trilogy. Compare that to the sequels which was made for manchildren who are nostalgic for an old era.
 
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>They don't know about Zootopia +
I'm sorry I have to break the news to you.
I hate how a lot of modern Western animation (and anime) tries to appeal to modern pop culture (including Klaus, which I liked), because if there is anything that I wish to be bombarded to oblivion, one has to be Western pop culture, especially if that culture is very Californian/West Coast-based. I wish to see stuff that is periodically unrelatable yet relatable in a humanistic sense, like the 1960s of The Iron Giant and The Incredibles, the old London aesthetic of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and the Victorian atmosphere of the Corpse Bride.
 
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What is going on with this show????
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In the newest episode of The Proud Family, the hyper-woke girl’s black father scolds her white father and tell him to read this:
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this is so cringe because they honestly missed the bandwagon. there are a few people still fighting the robin diangelo fight, but she was only hip like two years ago and the discourse has moved on and now it reads like disney-come-lately desperately trying to be relevant. they bet that in the year it takes to bring an animated episode to completion that she would still be respected and she's not, not even among super wokes.
 
For what they're worth the 80s girl shows are fine as relics of bygone days and what western animation was like back then. 22 minute commercials meant to sell toys and cereal to kids...and also a glum reminder that once upon a time our society understood gender is binary and split between boys and girls for a reason.

As for their modern incarnations? For all the baggage ot has friendship is magic as a show is perfectly harmless. Even as western animation swung towards a more "support the current thing." It (mostly) avoided going down that road. Really I can repeat my opinion on bluey, an OK show for its target audience that doesn't appeal ONLY to its target audience that has a lot of unfortunate baggage to carry.

this is so cringe because they honestly missed the bandwagon. there are a few people still fighting the robin diangelo fight, but she was only hip like two years ago and the discourse has moved on and now it reads like disney-come-lately desperately trying to be relevant. they bet that in the year it takes to bring an animated episode to completion that she would still be respected and she's not, not even among super wokes.
Gee its almost like animation is a medium you can't use to voice a topical opinion with, because it's a long drawn out process and what's topical and relevant one minute can suddenly change the next.
 
What I find interesting about Friendship is Magic is that despite how most people talk about it. It definitely wasn't a lore based show despite it being thrown in with all the other lore cartoon shows. Since the show seemed to be a slice of life show most of the time and the episodes with lore were only like five episodes. Even the finale season only had three episodes that really tied to the finale.
 
I actually enjoyed Discord as a character. The whole “Q” expy was enjoyable, especially considering Picard later…
Admittedly yeah, when he turned good and became more like a stealth mentor, it seriously redeemed his character. But he just did not work as a villain.

Other than him, another thing I remember having serious problems with was Pinkie Pie. She was fine at first, because the show made it clear that even in-universe she's seen as a well-meaning eccentric and that even the other ponies kinda roll their eyes and put up with her.

But then they pulled a Webby* and decided Pinkie could do no wrong, she could do literally anything as long as it was funny (basically making her no different from Discord), everyone loved her (and anyone who didn't was either a villain or would come around by the end of the episode), and situations would always turn out in her favor. Remember that brilliant first season episode where she tries to stop a war by singing, and it just makes things worse? S2 and onwards would never have allowed that to happen.

The sad thing is I actually liked Pinkie Pie at first, but the show went and made her annoying. The best thing that's happened with Pinkie recently was her being the villain in chapter two of Poppy Playtime.

* (I actually didn't watch much of the 2017 Ducktales but I've read that Webby basically became a creator's pet. It wouldn't surprise me).
 
My biggest regret is that the show never dropped the superhero aspect but instead kept trying to crowbar it in, even though it was obvious from episode one that it just doesn't work. It strikes me almost as if someone on the creative team had a pathological need to keep that aspect come hell or high water, and it just did not organically mesh with what the show had evolved into.
Faust wanted to create a more superhero styled show with Milyway and The Galaxy Girls, but was pushed to develop MLP instead. This may explain the capeshit aspect of the show. Funny enough, Faust now makes exactly that, as DC Super Hero Girls is now back under her control for the 3rd rendition since she made the DC Nation shorts. So she was there for gen 1 and 3 of that, not sure about gen 2, but I am guessing no.

The show is pretty good for a girls’ series to answer a previous question. It feels like what MLP was supposed to be, or should I say, Milkyway. The DC Nation shorts were fun with Batgirl, Supergirl, and Wonder Girl hanging out. Then it got rebooted into a bland high school series with Wonder Girl replaced by Wonder Woman, and Bumble Bee, Kitana, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy added to the heroes cast. I guess, don’t ask why 2 villains and one iffy one are heroes now. Then Faust rebooted it again, kicked out Kitana, Harley, and Ivy, and replaced them with Jessica Cruz and Zatana. Honestly, surprised Wonder Woman wasn’t replaced by Wonder Girl who fits the teen dynamic better, and that Kitana, the Asian one, was removed. I believe the Faust version ended recently with a TTG crossover of all things, but it seemed genuinely well liked if interested.
 
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