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

Even though the director of the original trilogy is said to direct the live-action adaptation, why is this even in the works?
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I know the answer.

Fucking beat me to it, I can see why this is in development, How to train your dragon was enormously profitable as a dreamworks franchise but its run its course and doing a live action film seems pointless considering there is so little that could be added. I can just see the discount LOTR Style visuals right now.
>the horrible live-action reboot is canned
>replaced with an animated one done by the series' original creator
>that doesn't look like dogshit
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For once, light has pierced through the darkness.
Cartoon Network strikes gold for once. Even though I probably won't watch it because I'm a little fatigued of the constant PPG shilling that CN has done in the past half decade I'm glad to see their taking it seriously and are improving the production values with the original creator. I'm just hoping we eventually get the Gumball movie at this point since I'm wondering where that is exactly?
 
Cartoon Network strikes gold for once. Even though I probably won't watch it because I'm a little fatigued of the constant PPG shilling that CN has done in the past half decade I'm glad to see their taking it seriously and are improving the production values with the original creator. I'm just hoping we eventually get the Gumball movie at this point since I'm wondering where that is exactly?
I remember reading something a while back that no one really wanted to do the Gumball Movie and it was just some CN/HBO mandate before they got to move on to another thing. Given the merger, it seems to be canned, and if the former is true, maybe that is a good thing. I cannot really say what is happening with it though.
 
I remember reading something a while back that no one really wanted to do the Gumball Movie and it was just some CN/HBO mandate before they got to move on to another thing. Given the merger, it seems to be canned, and if the former is true, maybe that is a good thing. I cannot really say what is happening with it though.
The whole industry has taken a huge financial hit over the last couple of years, shows getting canned 80% of the way through production, or single season orders being split into two seasons post production are the norm these days. If something's gone quiet, there's a good chance it's gone to the project graveyard unfortunately. It's a shame though, as Gumball gives the vibe that the people who make it genuinely love the show and what they do.
 
Fucking beat me to it, I can see why this is in development, How to train your dragon was enormously profitable as a dreamworks franchise but its run its course and doing a live action film seems pointless considering there is so little that could be added. I can just see the discount LOTR Style visuals right now.
I guess the two shows, which were on streaming platforms and consists of completely different characters, were not as popular as the trilogy (and its television series).
 
I guess the two shows, which were on streaming platforms and consists of completely different characters, were not as popular as the trilogy (and its television series).
I had no idea these even existed, and yet apparently the second one shat out 4 seasons in under a year. These can't be any good, can they?
 
Cartoon Network's lineup of new shows for 2023 is finally here, including a sneak peak of the new Powerpuff Girls reboot directed by series creator Craig McCracken.
Should have commented earlier, but god fucking damnit, Fionna and Cake is still happening, and like a week after I posted my relief about it potentially getting canned.

The show will likely be fine, but why? Fionna and Cake was only liked as a concept and for fan-fic shipper shit. Is there really anything that Fionna and Cake can do for a series? If they wanted to continue AT, why not just build off the finale’s ending and have a Shermy and Beth series. Ooo is completely different in their timeline, there could be a lot of cool things to explore to make a series connected but distinct from AT. Ehh..whatever, I just hope Ice King is good.

As for the other announcements, Superman sounds good, but I am sure Gunn has fucked it. Then there’s Batman which feels like it has the trio from hell behind it, so I hope it just doesn’t. Bruce Timm may have been an artist on BTAS, but given the increase of horny in his works, I think it is best he stays off Batman unless Dini is there to reel him in. Then we have Reeves, who made probably the most overrated Batman film that was really just a shitty retooling of The Long Halloween. Then finally, Jar Jar Abrams is there, the ultimate death blow to this production. Add in no Kevin and Gunn likely getting involved and this will be a shit show.
 
I think I would describe Steven Universe as ultimately a shallow experience.

It had a lot of potential. It promised a galaxy level epic story, magic, lore, mystery, secrets etc. I‘ll also give Rebeca Sugar some credit in that she did some good ground work like her magic system. And yes some characters were interesting.

It did feel like it was building to something great. And then… nothing. I ended up just felling empty

In hindsight it’s even insulting how much this show wastes your time with filler, boring side characters, and plots, that ultimately amount to nothing. It wants to touch adult themes like family abuse, depression, and trauma. But then proceeds to give childish solutions to those problems. “Just hug it out and cry!”

It wastes your time, because it was very obvious Rebeca had nothing to say beyond her pink diamond reveal. It’s no wonder the show peaked so early, and why she tried to do said reveal as late as she could.

For me its just peak wasted potential.
I think there was a lot of potential for this show, there are legitimately brilliant episodes involving the first couple of fusions and the iconic Garnet sub arc and leading up to the first introduction of the diamonds and even the last arc of the show has some pretty amazing action sequences, character drama and tension and almost deliver with the galaxy level story adventure it promises.

But I agree that the childish message Sugar seems to want to display for any conflict drama resolution that we should forgive our enemies through peace and love is probably the biggest kick to this show. It’s too simplistic a message and nullifies so many of the exciting arcs building up to these great Villains

I can also never forgive it for being the ground zero for pushing all the gay shit in childrens cartoons nowadays I understand why since it’s the norm but I’d have to question whether the actual target audience of SU really care about Troon stuff being peddled at them. The one thing that is genuinely great about the show is it’s music, and really does deserve all the praise it gets.
This is a genuinely beautiful song and Rebecca’s vocals shine in it.
 
god fucking damnit, Fionna and Cake is still happening [...] but why?
girl power, fan pandering, and squeezing as much cash out of a former cash cow as possible probably

The one thing that is genuinely great about Steven Universe is it’s music, and really does deserve all the praise it gets.
I find this really funny because I was following this show from like the start of season 2 all the way to its end and I never got the appeal. I was always a lot more interested in the lore- the concept of these holographic aliens storing their data in gemstones and combining their powers to fuck shit up when needed or even physically portray how strong their connection to another gem might be was always way more awesome to me. The music just seemed hit and miss- I never really liked any of Steven's songs (which were a lot of them), and the songs always seemed to come out of nowhere, so I never paid much mind unless they interrupted cool reveals or something.

Now that I look back on it though, a lot of the music is better than I remember, especially in the context of a TV series. Shit like It's Over Isn't It (i'm not sure if that's the title, but the chorus will always have me thinking of it in my head) and Stronger Than You was pretty good even back then, and is way better now. The full version of Love Like You is also stellar- Rebeccah can sing very very well, it's a crime she pretty much only sung this song- I remember the reveal of its full version being the final time I truly felt that I loved the show, and it came after years of drought and questioning if watching along for more stuff about Homeworld and the Crystal Gems was really worth it. I'm not even going to mention how every single character in the show has a signature instrument that enters the soundtrack when they're the focus of a scene, because otherwise i'm going to devolve into childish squealing about how fucking cool that is. It's an absolute crime that similar tricks are almost never utilized elsewhere.

For some reason there's a serious drought of musically-oriented (or even mildly musical) TV shows in general for any demographic past literal toddlers, and it's a damn shame. Some TV shows like Spongebob or the aforementioned SU have stellar soundtracks that really stick with you, but I can't think of any shows outside of those two with even remotely memorable music.
Why's that? Is there some sort of standardized schedule all shows stick to that makes producing memorable music for them really hard? Or do many creators just choose not to focus on music, and as a result their shows' soundtracks sort of just come out bland and forgettable?
 
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So, a thank you once again to whoever it was (I think it was @Vyse Inglebard and one other person?) who told me about solidtorrents.

There are, however, still some things I haven't been able to find.

Most oddly.... the two made-for-TV Jonny Quest movies, Jonny's Golden Quest and Jonny Quest vs the Cyber Insects. I actually have both on VHS tape (the former is recorded off of Boomerang back when it didn't suck) but seriously I need to fix my VCR-DVD combo unit so I can back this shit up.

I can't be the only one lately who finds old recordings (or old VHSes) are actually better than DVD releases most of the time due to the "time capsule" quality like seeing old commercials or remembering what channels were like before they were shit...

..........

Yeah, Jonny Quest. Might as well sperg about that a bit.

It's the kind of cartoon I wish I'd see more often: Just straight adventure stories (the original was apparently inspired by a radio series called Jack Armstrong). The 1960s version was described by one of my friends as "Scooby Doo but Hardcore." That's kinda accurate--most of Quest Team's villains were spies or hardened criminals who used guns, and usually died violent deaths. The only reason Dr. Zin survived is because he basically never was in the same room as the Quest Team, instead only ever communicating via monitors.

Naturally, when he finally did meet Quest Team in the 1990s Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, Zin died. I think there was also a thing where Zin turned out to have twin daughters or something?

On that note this series apparently has some weird timeline issues going on. The afformentioned movie Jonny's Golden Quest says that Dr. Zin is the reason Jonny doesn't have a mom--its kind of this franchise's version of "Joker killed Batman's parents"--but its generally accepted that this is true for the sake of this one movie (and possibly also Cyber Insects) but not for the larger franchise, which hints Jonny's mom still got kacked by a criminal but never fingers Dr. Zin specifically. Another weird timeline issue is when the 1980s and 1990s had a new character named Jessie, who depending on the story was either Race Bannon's biological daughter or else the daughter of a friend who Race adopted (the daughter I mean--pretty sure the friend was too old/dead for adoption).

.... The weirdest thing I ever heard is that apparently Jonny and Hadji's most recent appearances in animation were A) a fucking Tom and Jerry movie and B) in an episode of Jellystone.

Like... why?

If you don't know, Jellystone is basically a big get-together modern reinvention of all the classic Hanna-Barbera properties, but seemingly focused on the funny animals side--all the people who used to hang out on a flying boat with Yogi Bear (who is still the main character here).

And those of you who were trying to forget Yogi's Ark Lark and Yogi's Gang,.... I'm not sorry at all. I'd rather have people thinking about Yogi Bear than Steven Universe or Spongebob (on that note, am I the only one who finds it weird that nobody has tried to turn Yogi into a Five Nights at Freddy's fangame? I mean FNAF itself is already clearly taking a few cues, but just imagine if you got rid of Yogi by giving him pic-a-nic baskets....)

and yes, I'm aware that there's a Banana Splits horror movie which was itself probably meant to cash-in on FNAF.

I only watched like three episodes of Jellystone. It's okay, and I dug a few of its ideas. Others just seemed weird though.... "El Kabong" is no longer just a disguise Quick Draw McGraw puts on, its his actual name.

Weirder than that though is that apparently Jonny Quest and Hadji are in this series, as gay lovers. Okay, that last part is just SJW pandering (its weird though because it makes you wonder "what happened to Jessie?" I mean this is a show that also gender-flipped a lot of classic HB characters just so it wouldn't be a sausage fest but then you go and delete an actual female character?).....

..... But personally I find it weird that Jonny keeps getting shoved into the more "comedy" side of Hanna-Barbera when if anything, he fits in more with heroes like Birdman. I could perhaps see Jonny meshing with Scooby-Doo or Funky Phantom, but Yogi Bear?

You really want characters who once called a primitive tribe "heathen monkeys" hanging out with the bear who once had to fight a villainess named Lotta Litter?

But hey, as long as we're going there, why not have Jonny Quest vs Dick Dastardly and Muttley? Hell, Scooby teaching Muttley how to talk?

(That said..... I am aware there's a comic book called Future Quest which apparently places Jonny in with the HB superheroes. The TV Tropes page for that makes it sound like a published fanfic, but then, so do most comic books, so the most I can hope for is that its an interesting published fanfic).

........................... (and while I'm talking about fanfiction, how about Jonny Quest meets Detective Conan? Or how about [at this point Kiwis bop skykiii on the head and drag him out of the room just to end the damn post already] )
 
Did anyone see that big hero 6 cartoon they made awhile ago
There's two. There's the one that was a sequel to the movie and followed them continuing their superhero stuff which also featured a Stan Lee cameo. Pretty alright to be honest, could get grating at times but overall quite watchable.

Then there's a bunch of shorts all about Baymax I believe that I've not seen but hear I am not missing out.
 
For some reason there's a serious drought of musically-oriented (or even mildly musical) TV shows in general for any demographic past literal toddlers, and it's a damn shame.
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"Gotcha covered, bro."
 
Are Helluva/Hazbin musical? I haven't watched either of them past the pilots, I thought their sound mixing was a bit obnoxious. Please tell me i've been missing out, I'm so starved of good tv shows to watch atm haha.
Hazbin hasn't progressed past the pilot yet (come sometime this summer that'll change, assuming nothing catastrophic happens). As for Helluva, it is musical. There are songs, but there's no specific pattern. If you're missing out - again Hazbin hasn't had its first season out yet, so no comments there. As for Helluva - it starts out as a strong dark comedy, but it's slowly devolved into gay relationship drama between Blitzo and Stolas, which hopefully will change as Season 2 continues on.
 
Hazbin hasn't progressed past the pilot yet (come sometime this summer that'll change, assuming nothing catastrophic happens). As for Helluva, it is musical. There are songs, but there's no specific pattern. If you're missing out - again Hazbin hasn't had its first season out yet, so no comments there. As for Helluva - it starts out as a strong dark comedy, but it's slowly devolved into gay relationship drama between Blitzo and Stolas, which hopefully will change as Season 2 continues on.
aw damn, that's kind of a let-down. I'm all for dark comedy, though gay romance is usually kind of a turn-off as is romance in general, really, but gay romance is usually written much more poorly so it's an immediate red flag to me. I might give it a shot, though as of now I guess i'll wait and give Hazbin a look-see instead (when its first season comes out).
 
Some TV shows like Spongebob or the aforementioned SU have stellar soundtracks that really stick with you, but I can't think of any shows outside of those two with even remotely memorable music.
I will say it again, Adventure Time has some pretty damn memorable tracks between Remember You, What Am I To You, The Food Chain Song, I'm Just Your Problem, Time Adventure, Island Theme, Good Little Girl, Francis Forever (which was really just an indie song), I could go on. Hell even the background tracks are memorable in their weird chiptune, electro sound:

Also, should give a shout out to Total Drama World Tour, which had quite a good amount of great tracks under its belt and for being a musical series. Seriously though, who ever voices Courtney can sing:
 
I will say it again, Adventure Time has some pretty damn memorable tracks between Remember You, What Am I To You, The Food Chain Song, I'm Just Your Problem, Time Adventure, Island Theme, Good Little Girl, Francis Forever (which was really just an indie song), I could go on. Hell even the background tracks are memorable in their weird chiptune, electro sound:
dude, holy shit, I totally forgot Adventure Time. You're totally right, my bad. I should rewatch it, I haven't seen it since like 2015.
 
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