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

[Commander X]

The Simpsons was tolerable - not good - well into its run, but it really became bad after the switch to digital ink and paint.

While I do like some of the earlier seasons, I kind of wish the show had never been successful, because it helped feed the idea that "adult" animation in the US has to be a certain kind. Thanks in part to The Simpsons, TV executives are still chasing the family sitcom format 36 years after the Simpsons debuted. You can say this about most animated sitcoms, from the Simpsons to Family Guy to South Park and Richard & Mortimer - they all fall under the same adult sitcom clone label I feel. Even if they were once good at some point executives learned the wrong lessons from every single one of them. The only other shows that I think have done as much damage to US animation have been all of the Adventure Time/Gravity Falls/etc. wannabes that followed in their wakes.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

CartoonBrew reported recently that the Looney Tunes classics are gone from Max. Looks like they really are just throwing out their golden goose.

 

[Starscream's Loyalty]

Went to see The Day The Earth Blew Up. Reviews here:

Spoiler: My take

Cute but could've done without some of the toilet humor, but the bar is so low right now I'll let it be. There wasn't much of it, 2-3 instances. One was verbal and kids won't bat an eye at it unless you haven't supervised their media intake. The other two were butts/farts which i chalked it up to John K's former sugar baby--I mean Katie Rice. That's who it is right? I saw some of the influence in some style shots...

Liked how they had some vintage homage to Art Deco, the swing/rockettes number, and Bob Clampett and Tex Avery. Made my heart warm at the easter eggs. The professor looked like he was straight out of Venture Bros. Got major Fleischer vibes from his laboratory. I had their Superman series on DVD.

8 out of 10

Spoiler: Papa Starscream's

Being an old time fan, he made peace with the fact that they cannot or will not revert back to all the old fashioned styles and bits. But the slapstick, when it happened, made him laugh. He likes physical humor above all else. Thought that they respected Porky and Daffy enough. He thought Petunia was a cute addition for Porky. Thought it odd that there were no other animals though, like Wile. E or Bugs or even some other lesser known Tunes. He said they could have done without any toilet humor, and it was a bit longer than he liked. Cut down 20 minutes and he'd give it a better score.

Satisfied 6.5 out of 10. Papa Starscream is content

 

[Kari Kamiya]

He thought Petunia was a cute addition for Porky.

Did... did he not know Petunia is an old character? In that she debuted in 1937?

(reeee Vimeo https://vimeo.com/228486248 )

 

[Trilby]

Did... did he not know Petunia is an old character? In that she debuted in 1937?

(reeee Vimeo https://vimeo.com/228486248 )

Odd he didn't at all.

 

[Starscream's Loyalty]

Did... did he not know Petunia is an old character? In that she debuted in 1937?

(reeee Vimeo https://vimeo.com/228486248 )

No he did not, which is shame on him and me both. We liked her. Will have him watch more 1930s LT

 

[invisibult plus+]

The first chapter of ENA: Dream BBQ is out.

 

[NSJAP]

The first chapter of ENA: Dream BBQ is out.

Spoiler: She's perfect

Spoiler: My favorite new character design

 

[Chromeo]

The Simpsons was tolerable - not good - well into its run, but it really became bad after the switch to digital ink and paint.

While I do like some of the earlier seasons, I kind of wish the show had never been successful, because it helped feed the idea that "adult" animation in the US has to be a certain kind. Thanks in part to The Simpsons, TV executives are still chasing the family sitcom format 36 years after the Simpsons debuted. You can say this about most animated sitcoms, from the Simpsons to Family Guy to South Park and Richard & Mortimer - they all fall under the same adult sitcom clone label I feel. Even if they were once good at some point executives learned the wrong lessons from every single one of them. The only other shows that I think have done as much damage to US animation have been all of the Adventure Time/Gravity Falls/etc. wannabes that followed in their wakes.

The shows aren't "damaging" animation by being popular, that's ridiculous. If the Simpsons, or Adventure Time, or whatever, had never existed some other show would've taken their place and executives would push everyone to copy those instead. The damage isn't from any one particular popular program, it's from cowardly executives at networks who only want to greenlight programs that look like things that have already succeeded. You can't blame the popular shows for being popular, you have to blame the executives.

 

[Commander X]

Warner's respect for the Looney Tunes continues!

Warner Bros. To Raze Looney Tunes Building On Lot

A little cartoon history is about to be history on the Warner Bros. lot: the studio is razing the single-story building where Looney Tunes was once housed.

Deadline understands that Building 131 will be torn down to create more base camp space for the myriad HBO shows that are shooting on the Burbank, CA. lot. The nondescript building, which is located in the far corner of the lot off of Forest Lawn Drive, will not be replaced.

 

[invisibult plus+]

Warner's respect for the Looney Tunes continues!

Warner Bros. To Raze Looney Tunes Building On Lot

For reference, it's in the lower right corner.

If they want to close it down, they could preserve it as a history museum and film their HBO shows some place else, but you know. For what it's worth, I don't want them to go to the other extreme of reusing their old IPs without doing anything else, like Disney does. If they really want to retire Looney Tunes and move on, that's fine. It's still a part of their history that got them to where they are today. This "kid's cartoon" talk is only half the story. Their approach to marketing cartoons is terrible and self-sabotaging. It seems to me that WB has no idea what to do with these IPs and just want to be rid of them. They're trying really hard to convince themselves that no one cares about animation anymore.

 

[starborn427614]

The shows aren't "damaging" animation by being popular, that's ridiculous. If the Simpsons, or Adventure Time, or whatever, had never existed some other show would've taken their place and executives would push everyone to copy those instead. The damage isn't from any one particular popular program, it's from cowardly executives at networks who only want to greenlight programs that look like things that have already succeeded. You can't blame the popular shows for being popular, you have to blame the executives.

"X damaged Y more than anything in the history of Z" is real midwit-tier analysis. Like you said, popularity isn't the issue here, it's execs looking to cut costs and follow trends.

 

[Endless Torment]

"X damaged Y more than anything in the history of Z" is real midwit-tier analysis. Like you said, popularity isn't the issue here, it's execs looking to cut costs and follow trends.

If X got popular instead of Y than X would be the thing that would be saturating everything so nothing ultimately would improve in the end. As you said what is the issue is the executives cutting costs or the ones who would rather hire special cliques and newbies while pushing out veterans.

 

[Commander X]

For reference, it's in the lower right corner.
View attachment 7149384
If they want to close it down, they could preserve it as a history museum and film their HBO shows some place else, but you know. For what it's worth, I don't want them to go to the other extreme of reusing their old IPs without doing anything else, like Disney does. If they really want to retire Looney Tunes and move on, that's fine. It's still a part of their history that got them to where they are today. This "kid's cartoon" talk is only half the story. Their approach to marketing cartoons is terrible and self-sabotaging. It seems to me that WB has no idea what to do with these IPs and just want to be rid of them. They're trying really hard to convince themselves that no one cares about animation anymore.

Back in Action was a flop so the WB said "well, it must be that kids don't like the LT characters" and they took the same lesson from the flop of Space Jam 2 "I guess kids don't like or know who the LT characters are because this congealed glob of IPs didn't go over with them! Let's remove the classic shorts from HBOMax!"

 

[Super-Chevy454]

Back in Action was a flop so the WB said "well, it must be that kids don't like the LT characters" and they took the same lesson from the flop of Space Jam 2 "I guess kids don't like or know who the LT characters are because this congealed glob of IPs didn't go over with them! Let's remove the classic shorts from HBOMax!"

And more and more people hate David Zaslav for screwing LT. At this rate I wonder if he's in competition against Bob Iger to see who'll be bankrupt first between WB and Disney.

 

[Ultraman Orb Dark]

And more and more people hate David Zaslav for screwing LT

You have to wonder if Daffy Duck killed Zaslav's parents or something with how much he tries to bury them.

 

[gata]

And more and more people hate David Zaslav for screwing LT. At this rate I wonder if he's in competition against Bob Iger to see who'll be bankrupt first between WB and Disney.

I feel almost every Hollywood studio/movie company is having a "lose millions of dollars and reputation" competition.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

I feel almost every Hollywood studio/movie company is having a "lose millions of dollars and reputation" competition.

Good, let it all burn down. They haven't made anything worthwhile for a long fucking time.

I can't remember the last time I saw a commercial for a movie or even a tv series and went "ooooooooo i wanna see THAT!"

 

[Kari Kamiya]

You have to wonder if Daffy Duck killed Zaslav's parents or something with how much he tries to bury them.

See, this is the weirdest thing. I understand that he's been trying to get Warner Bros. out of the red that it's apparently been in for a long time, so he made a lot of cuts and removed things that was just being a waste of space/was failing. Some of that was making animators pissy, but that shit was funny to me.

And then suddenly they took a money bribe to not release Coyote vs. Acme. Huh, that's weird and sketchy.

Then Boomerang got shut down. Honestly really sad to see, but they really hadn't been tending to it for years at this point, probably wasn't making money.

Then the Cartoon Network website got shut down. Not sure why that happened since CN is still on, but okay?

Then they removed a lot of the Cartoon Network line-up from Max including nearly all but the recent season of Teen Titans Go. Wait, what the fuck is happening?

Then they sabotaged The Day the Earth Blew Up's distribution, which is weird because they're thinking on selling the Looney Tunes brand and Ketchup wants to pick it up. Zaslav, what the fuck, dude?

The man has either had it out for animation from day one (and we might need to owe all of those animators an apology but I really don't want to do that because just look at those fucks), or he just doesn't like LT/thinks it's not worth keeping alive because of their own sabotage to keep kids from getting into it. Something's just not right here in WB just giving up animation entirely.

 

[DeadwastePrime]

how long before they stop making any animated content (and throw video games in there too why not) and shift focus solely onto live action stuff thinking it'll make more money