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

[ShiftyBoi]

Yes, its consistently bad.

Minor PL, but my first GF (who turned out to be a crazy psycho) was a huge fan of this show, so I may have some sour grapes (and yes we were both adults at the time). It was also my first exposure to what we nowadays would call woke culture (thanks in part to said GF).

Kids Next Door was basically everything I didn't like about Chip n' Dale's Rescue Rangers except with few, if any, of the positives. The stakes could change on a dime. One episode Number One treats being kicked out of the KND as the worst event in the world, another he's willing to leave just because someone has a picture of his ass (which of course they show at the end because CN was run by pedos--and yes I do in fact remember people obsessing over that).

The characters had no consistency. One episode dude is autistically obsessed with following plans, the next episode he's all like "who needs plans when you've got these devices?"

Oh, and every episode was an obvious play on some movie, in ways that would even make Family Guy say "geez, dial it back a bit." Like I recall one episode being a Lord of the Rings parody except about flushing a dead goldfish down a drain, and for some reason they had Number Three acting like Gollum and Four acting like Frodo, bending them over backwards to make the parody work. This led to the universe being basically nonsense.

And none of the villains ever had actual plots. They all just had some power or ability that put everything on autopilot. Even in that fucking movie, the old shadow being just touches the ground and it sends out this wave that turns people old, sort of like that Ducktales episode with the golden goose except not treated as a natural disaster.

Doesn't help that the heroes are fucking assholes. Number One finds out the Delightful Children are actually an old KND team that got hit with a mind-control ray, and as said mind control is re-asserting control they give a heartfelt "we love them and we miss them" speech.... and One's only reaction is to be a dismissive asshole about it. Or how about the girls finding out that One is under the control of a "boyfriend helmet" that they KNOW is gonna eventually merge with his brain, this thing is apparently known in their universe.... and they don't care, at all. It's Two and Four who want to save him. Three and Five just go back to their comics.

This is before you get into the issue that a lot of the KND's own rules and inner workings are just... wrong to the point of almost being evil. They mind-wipe you as soon as you turn thirteen unless you're fit for service... and they're the good guys! Fuck that, I'd rather join the adults.

I recall hearing a rumor that Warburton actually lifted ideas from fanfiction. Most notably apparently the final episode reveals that Number Three was secretly always depressed but just hiding it (I was never autistic enough to read KND fanfic, but I had that psycho GF).

And yes, I know its spelled "Numbuh" and not "Number" but I refuse to honor this show's retarded baby spellings.

Which can we talk about how this show is a key example of "writers don't understand children?" The characters are supposed to be ten, and yet for some reason they act like they're five (including the retarded spellings). It also writes the kids as basically, little adults... including in romantic matters, when they're ten. I especially notice this with the higher-ups, one of whom I recall being this extreme career-minded woman.... she's ten.

To be fair, some of it seems like Warburton was writing basically a sort of 1950s idea of childhood. I couldn't help but notice you never see these kids playing video games or something except briefly, but they are said early on to have a one-a-month routine of going out and buying new comic books. Like, fine, Warburton was just writing the childhood he remembers.

In fact a fan theory I remember liking was that the whole show was in these kids' imaginations. I'd have been fine with that (indeed I kinda liked that pilot episode which implied they only think they're fighting tyranny when actually they're just causing a ruckus).... but then why is their imagination so boring, so full of flat shapes and muted colors and boring-as-fuck technology? When I was a kid, my imaginary base had an underground arcade and a secret entrance to what at the time was the best mall, and my cat could fire lasers out of her eyes. But see, my childhood was awesome.

And I know you shouldn't judge a show by its fanbase, but I'm just tossing it in there.... most fans I met back in the day turned out to be either literal children (understandibly these were the ones with the least amount of fucktardery) or adults who were crazy (and yes, in some cases legit pedos). don't take this the wrong way: I'm not accusing you of being crazy, a pedo, or a literal child, I'm just saying most of the fans I met were. And the adults in the fandom very much did try to inject politics. This was actually what led to my breakup with that crazy ex--she went on about how on this forum she and her friends were taking a stand against Bush and I said "you know most of these people are literal children and don't know what the fuck you're on about, right?"

As far as I'm concerned, Codename Kids Next Door is patient zero for the rot that afflicts western animation nowadays, and is pretty much the worst cartoon ever made just for that alone. The atrocious writing, horrible art, and barely-there soundtrack would be bad enough, but it being my first exposure to how icky internet fanbases can be is a cherry on top.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

I can’t repost @skykiii but just a gentle reminder:



Pic related exists for a reason.

Spoiler: Oh, and one more thing

Codename: Kids Next Door is still a great cartoon after all these years. It would be nice to see a reboot where the kids are now teenagers in high school still coming up with plans like they are secret agents, but I dare say it would have been nice if this existed as something back in the late 2000’s.

 

[Anonitolia]

Codename: Kids Next Door is still a great cartoon after all these years. It would be nice to see a reboot where the kids are now teenagers in high school still coming up with plans like they are secret agents, but I dare say it would have been nice if this existed as something back in the late 2000’s.

no, it really wouldn't've
not if this abomination is anything to go by at least

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

no, it really wouldn't've
not if this abomination is anything to go by at least
View attachment 4807684

Call me insane, but I actually liked this spin-off. If anything, the Rugrats episode where it transitioned them into actual teenagers after hiding from Angelica in a closet was a pretty cool thing to me when I was a kid. It was like I was watching a time travel isekai before I ever found out what an isekai was.

Granted, I was a literal kid back then when this happened, so I would have been easily impressed by anything as long as it kept my attention.

 

[Anonitolia]

Call me insane, but I actually liked this spin-off. If anything, the Rugrats episode where it transitioned them into actual teenagers after hiding from Angelica in a closet was pretty cool thing to me when I was a kid. It was like I was watching a time travel isekai before I ever found out what an isekai was.

Granted, I was a literal kid back hen when this happened, so I would have been easily impressed by anything as long as it kept my attention.

I mean, same, but on rewatch it makes me want to tear my eyes out
So much weird weird shit in that show, makes me uncomfortable

 

[Commander X]

Well that Teenage Kraken trailer came out:

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken - Official Trailer (2023) Lana Condor, Toni Collette

Sometimes the hero you are meant to be lies just beneath the surface. Check out the trailer for Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken. The upcoming animated movie sta...

m.youtube.com

And I am not interested.

Anyways, I don't get why anime is so popular these days!

The character designs look like some studio exec said "Make it look more like Illumination and Pixar" but they couldn't just do a straight-up copy so they had to tweak it into some uncanny valley between those two looks.


"Kraken" looks so completely devoid of originality in terms of art style, animation or story that it may as well have been algorithmically generated by AI.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Not even Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs had ugly character designs, holy shit.

 

[Yamma Damma]

I stumbled on to something while browsing the "Nickelodeon" trending tag that is..........something.

John Fountain, a contributor on MLaaTR back in the day (he storyboarded and did other stuff I dunno), made an unofficial script that resolves the Jenny/Brad/Sheldon triangle in the original show and never got resolved. If anybody wants to spend some time to read it be my guest and report back.

 

[TVB]

View attachment 4807786View attachment 4807782
Anyways, I don't get why anime is so popular these days!

The character designs look like some studio exec said "Make it look more like Illumination and Pixar" but they couldn't just do a straight-up copy so they had to tweak it into some uncanny valley between those two looks.


"Kraken" looks so completely devoid of originality in terms of art style, animation or story that it may as well have been algorithmically generated by AI.

Fucking christ, at least DreamWorks was good at emulating Sony's own Spider-Verse aesthetic. They should never have ride the coattails on Illumination's boring (and in some cases ugly) animation aesthetic.

no, it really wouldn't've
not if this abomination is anything to go by at least
View attachment 4807684

Pre-School Daze was worse. At least All Grown Up had some very cool and funny moments.

 

[Lone Star]

I stumbled on to something while browsing the "Nickelodeon" trending tag that is..........something.

John Fountain, a contributor on MLaaTR back in the day (he storyboarded and did other stuff I dunno), made an unofficial script that resolves the Jenny/Brad/Sheldon triangle in the original show and never got resolved. If anybody wants to spend some time to read it be my guest and report back.

Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but weren't Jenny and Sheldon supposed to end up together? Imagine how current Twitter would fume if the creepy stalker "nice guy" managed to get the girl.

 

[TVB]

Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but weren't Jenny and Sheldon supposed to end up together? Imagine how current Twitter would fume if the creepy stalker "nice guy" managed to get the girl.

Well yea, Sheldon wasn't a creeper but more of a shy guy who is interested in Jenny. It's like with any other high schooler.

 

[SpiderBitch]

View attachment 4807782

Idk why but the love interest kind of looks like a love child between this dude and larry from veggietales, with a few extra chromosomes.


Maybe I'm just racist idk but jesus the humans are VERY ugly, is this the movie they send naughty animators to work on as a punishment?

 

[TVB]

Idk why but the love interest kind of reminds me of this dude but somehow even uglier and more chromosones:
View attachment 4811080
Maybe I'm just racist idk but jesus the humans are VERY ugly, is this the movie they send naughty animators to work on as a punishment?

>cr1tikal
No thank you

But I do agree that Believe in Santa looks horrifying

 

[Lone Star]

Well yea, Sheldon wasn't a creeper but more of a shy guy who is interested in Jenny. It's like with any other high schooler.

He literally stalks Jenny and admits to it. Even tries to trick her with his Silver Shell identity into getting her to date him. I don't really care myself, I just know if he and Jenny ended up together, so many people would be fuming over it to this day.

 

[TVB]

He literally stalks Jenny and admits to it. Even tries to trick her with his Silver Shell identity into getting her to date him. I don't really care myself, I just know if he and Jenny ended up together, so many people would be fuming over it to this day.

Even then, it's still high school behavior.

 

[SpiderBitch]

Why is everyone who he voices so fucking ugly and blobby??

This is what the love interest looked like in some (likely legit) (corporate artsyle) concept art:

 

[TVB]

View attachment 4811626View attachment 4811628View attachment 4811632

Why is everyone who he voices so fucking ugly and blobby??

Quick question here. How large was his paycheck?

 

[SpiderBitch]

Some more info I found on Tumblr about Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken (the movie was initially announced with the title 'meet the gillmans'):



What if that one va is Hollywood's current token biracial homo and the skater isn't interested in her because *plot twist* he's gay?

 

[skykiii]

I can’t repost @skykiii but just a gentle reminder:

View attachment 4807634

Pic related exists for a reason.

Spoiler: Oh, and one more thing

Codename: Kids Next Door is still a great cartoon after all these years. It would be nice to see a reboot where the kids are now teenagers in high school still coming up with plans like they are secret agents, but I dare say it would have been nice if this existed as something back in the late 2000’s.

So I actually was in the process of editing my post to put the big rant behind a spoiler mark..... then a 503 error hit.

EDIT

Spoiler: Getting honest for a minute

So originally I had a snide remark saying "Ah well. Nobody was asking for spergposts to be put behind a mark back when I was gushing about Thundercats, just sayin'...."

But like... I decided "fuck that, I'm not gonna be a petty little chimp."

That's nowhere near being a double-standard like my snide chimp-side suggests. My Thundercats post was entirely complementary to the source material, whereas my Kids Next Door post was all about how bad the show was. Obviously positive views are gonna make people feel good. And clearly people here grew up with KND and nobody likes hearing that something from their childhood was evil and terrible and wrong... and it was admittedly kinda jew of me to let my feelings override that and just shit on it.

Full disclosure, this morning I looked up KND episodes on Youtube to see if maybe I'm being too harsh on it. Eh... much like MLP:FIM, Kids Next Door started out fine enough and I even said earlier that some early episodes were more my style, but the show just went off the rails almost as soon as a second season was greenlit. "Worst cartoon ever made" though? That might be going too far. The characters are unlikable except for Number Two and Number Three, but at least they're not aggressively grating like the cast of 2017 Ducktales.

Of course I'll always be biased by my own circumstances, and I do think there are artistic flaws with the show.... but I will say back in the day it was pretty much the only Cartoon Network original I could stand to watch--I really didn't like most CN originals then or now--so that it held my attention at all deserves some merit.

........

Oh yeah... Kracken Gillman thing... umm... looks like its gonna suck. To be honest I haven't really kept up with Dreamworks and Pixar and all that. A lot of their movies seem basically the same to me.

 

[TVB]

Some more info I found on Tumblr about Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken (the movie was initially announced with the title 'meet the gillmans'):

View attachment 4812193View attachment 4812201View attachment 4812217View attachment 4812241

What if that one va is Hollywood's current token biracial homo and the skater isn't interested in her because *plot twist* he's gay?

I'm hoping and wishing the movie flops and then DreamWorks will learn their mistakes from shit like this. They've always learnt their mistakes a lot