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

[Castoreum]

I don't understand how Fixed not only got greenlit but that Tartakovsky is doing it. Like it must be some kinda humiliation ritual for everyone who worked on this project.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I don't understand how Fixed not only got greenlit but that Tartakovsky is doing it. Like it must be some kinda humiliation ritual for everyone who worked on this project.

Apparently Genndy said it was based off his friend group dynamic--back in 2009.

 

[Niggerphobe]

And I didn't watch much of the 1st season but is this supposed to be Michael again?


Still femboyish but less so than his drag queen reject look last time I saw him.

I found his new look

 

[Colon capital V]

The Samurai Jack finale wasn't that bad, come on.

I'm still fucking pissed they essentially backtracked to that one episode with the monks where there was a time portal for Jack to hop through to kill Aku and stop the bad future from happening, but he instead went back and saved them even though killing Aku would have prevented them from getting killed by the Guardians of the portal. This finale is essentially that episode's ending but Jack actually pulls into the portal.

You can excuse it by saying "well he's an ancient samurai warrior that probably didn't fully grasp time warping shenanigans by that point", still doesn't make it any less gay to where Jack prolonged all his friends' suffering to essentially go into the portal in the end and leave them behind to fight Aku even if the bad future never happened.

Speaking of, RIP to the Guardian's prediction of Jack's future from the portal that went no where besides becoming its own plot in the comics.

 

[Basic Blond Boy]

that's.......odd. Really REALLY odd if true. "Tak And The Power of Juju" was a fever dream to most people I talked to back when it was new. More so than "Fanboy and Chum-Chum"! To attempt to revive it when studios still listen to fake users/robots on the interwebs is a bold strategy cotton. May they never touch MLaaTR at this point.

Not really, this is a game revival being done by THQ Nordic who recently had success with SpongeBob, Destroy All Humans and many other remakes. While I am sure Nick is involved, Tak was THQ's creation more so than Nick, so think of this more as a video game revival than a Nickelodeon series. Should also point out it started as a videogame series, Nick just attached themselves to it with the hope to have a crossbreed IP that would be both a series and videogame simultaneously, though complications made it so the game trilogy and spin-offs came out way before the series.

 

[Cave Fisher]

Spoiler: JEWJEW & THE POWER OF TICTACS

Holy shit, its been awhile since I've heard that series. I mostly remember seeing Tak from Nicktoons Attack Of The Toybox and that one cartoon that sometimes played on Nicktoons.
I don't know what the point of bringing it back just to remake the same game, but with all the more fee-fee hurting tendencies softened, there's no way anyone was thinking "Man, I wish we could play the exact same kinda obscure game but probably more expensive, but man, the african influence in this vaguely african themed game makes me so uncomfy!"

I hate it when media takes a favorable look on casual child abuse. I've seen clips where kids are scolded by cops for calling 911 after being beaten by a parent, where people are discouraged from comforting crying babies so they can "cry it out," and most recently a clip where the child protagonist is treated like shit at home and moves out and the whole family gaslights him and the lesson is that "you shouldn't try to grow up too fast" and nobody learns a lesson except the kid, who was a victim.

I already had a distaste for that sort of thing when I was a kid, but now that I'm older with a lot of younger relatives, it makes me look back on how many kids' show lessons boiled down to (and probably still do) "Shut up, stop being your parent's problem, don't complain or question your place. Don't be independent, don't grow up too fast, but outgrow whatever they tell you to."
The proud family example was particularly egregious considering how bad of an idea locking a young girl out of the house past curfew in this day and age is. Not that it was ever particularly a safe idea, but people are getting crazier and crazier.

 

[The Mighty Banth]

This guy does a lot of nice dinosaur themed animation, this one in particular highlights the changing depictions of dinosaurs in both behavior and looks throughout the last 200 years.

Highly recommend watching his work.Dino

 

[A Grey Cat]

Going back to foster's. I've rewatched the episode the big cheese....who the fuck thought cheese, would be a good idea? He was annoying as fuck in his first appearance but I can see it being seen as a mistake and never use him again Similar to the other hated character bendy, but he kept on reappearing.


I have to wonder was someone on the foster's writing staff the parent to a retard child? Or worked with them in the past? Because the way poor Frankie has to deal with cheese, from his constant freak outs, to the way he's so pants on head retarded and annoying. Really feels like someone was venting their frustrations at having to be around special ed kids all day.


With bendy he was an antagonist who we're supposed to hate and want to see get his comeuppance. With cheese what are supposed to feel? Find him funny? Or feel sorry for everyone who has to deal with him.

 

[Grand Duke Snowfall]

Going back to foster's. I've rewatched the episode the big cheese....who the fuck thought cheese, would be a good idea? He was annoying as fuck in his first appearance but I can see it being seen as a mistake and never use him again Similar to the other hated character bendy, but he kept on reappearing.


I have to wonder was someone on the foster's writing staff the parent to a retard child? Or worked with them in the past? Because the way poor Frankie has to deal with cheese, from his constant freak outs, to the way he's so pants on head retarded and annoying. Really feels like someone was venting their frustrations at having to be around special ed kids all day.


With bendy he was an antagonist who we're supposed to hate and want to see get his comeuppance. With cheese what are supposed to feel? Find him funny? Or feel sorry for everyone who has to deal with him.

All I know is that many people in the online autistic community claim Cheese as representation. Same with this “Goo Goo Ga Ga” girl who made me want to rip my eardrums out after one clip. I can’t help but feel at least a little insulted.

 

[A Grey Cat]

All I know is that many people in the online autistic community claim Cheese as representation.

I'd ask why the online autistic community would WANT a screeching, obnoxious yellow r Tard as their representation. But I think I'd just answer my own question.

 

[Autistic Gunspergings]

This guy does a lot of nice dinosaur themed animation, this one in particular highlights the changing depictions of dinosaurs in both behavior and looks throughout the last 200 years.

Highly recommend watching his work.Dino

oh fuck, this guy, totally forgot about him.
I found his channel from his "autodale" series. It was pretty neat but i havent watched it in a while so I honestly dont remember.

Playlist link for anyone interested:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ5VEKOKH8PCjZJYvjlinBtjjmKV_-dk1&si=Spdo-x_3ue3YPBxs

 

[The Mighty Banth]

oh fuck, this guy, totally forgot about him.
I found his channel from his "autodale" series. It was pretty neat but i havent watched it in a while so I honestly dont remember.

Playlist link for anyone interested:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ5VEKOKH8PCjZJYvjlinBtjjmKV_-dk1&si=Spdo-x_3ue3YPBxs

I hate to call his output slow, since quality takes time, but the gaps are big enough you forget about it until the notification and then you remember and get excited.

 

[Romeo]

After reading up with the shenanigans around the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers movie and wanting to feel the impact of character assassinations, I decided to fall into the Disney Afternoon rabbit hole and watched the original 1989 TV series Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers. Its theme song is probably the best I've listened to because of that there is a sense of mystery and epic-ness feeling that is to be revealed combined with a nostalgic 1980s vibe.

---

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers​

​

Character-wise, you have the classic chipmunk duo Chip and Dale:

• Chip being the ingenious and hard-working leader with attire based on Indiana Jones, voiced by Tress MacNeille
• Dale being the chill and lazy adventurer with tastes in movies with attire based on Chuck Magnum, voiced by gigachad Corey Burton

Then you have the original characters made for the show:

• Gadget Hackwrench, voiced by the VA of Chip Tress MacNeille, a blonde mouse inventor whose quirky yet feminine kindness created a sexual awakening for boys that it created furries, a Russian cult, and a lolcow
• Monterey "Monty" Jack, an Australian mouse who is the "strong man" of the group with an obsession with cheese and talking about adventures, voiced by Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime) and later Jim Cummings (Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and Pete)
• Zipper, the housefly who is the pet who is directed by the team to assist in "strong man" activities, also voiced by Corey Burton

Initially, the series would be based on The Rescuers (1977) movie. Since Disney Animation was doing a sequel already which would later become the decent The Rescuers Down Under (1990), the idea was rejected. Tad Stones, the creator of the series, then proposed an idea to Disney leaders Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg of a team of mice rescuers, with earlier sketches of Gadget and Monty and a lead mouse character named "Kit." Eisner and Katzenberg liked the idea except the "Kit" character and Eisner asked Stones to replace him with more established characters-the chipmunk duo Chip and Dale.

Frankly, the chemistry in the team is probably the best, if the writers allow it. Chip is extremely decisive and directs everyone to most of their strengths: Dale is multitool: being a distractor, an assistant to Chip, and the frontman, Gadget creates helpful inventions for every scenario the team is stuck in, Monty is a mentor who is the strongman in fights, and Zipper is the pet that helps the team in scenarios that need a smaller size.

Although the team is ideal, the series ultimately suffered from character bloat. The episodes that would (kinda) work the best is if each character got the same amount of attention and worked together. If an episode gives the spotlight to a particular character, other characters of the Rescue Rangers team are dumbed down for it. I also noticed that majority of the series' plotlines based on a character spotlight is usually that character creating the most trouble for the team that they end up captured is also the ones that save the day. Episodes where a character leaves the team never sat right with me because they themselves felt so out of character and I don't think other Rangers would allow that to happen.

I also found the writers had more creativity in writing Dale and Monty because of how many pop culture references they can shove in (Dale with his love of movies and Monty with his past), and were able to make do with Gadget since she was the only female member of the team. I felt they struggled heavily with writing Chip since the only quality that he has is being a leader of the team (Sherlock Holmes is the best they could come up with, lol). I wish there was an episode that focused on Chip being a workaholic and thus him being a leader becomes a detriment. In the end, I did show an appreciation of Chip because he is probably the least self-centered in pretty much all the episodes I've watched except when he's competing with Dale.

I ultimately got bored of the series and quit halfway-through. None of the episodes did it for me, and I assume the series is just basically what kids keep themselves entertained after school. I felt the only thing that kept the series alive was Gadget being attractive and the amount of shipping people did between her and Chip or the lust people had for her (resulting in furries and the Russian cult). The character assassinations (and Chip getting cucked) in the film did not sting as much to me because the characters were dumbed down in a lot of the episodes. There was a comic line of 8 issues released by BOOM comics of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers in 2010-2011 and I honestly found it much more better-written and enjoyable than the series because of every character was played up to their strengths (although it was too melodramatic in some parts as if I'm reading fanfiction).

Soon, I was interested in another Disney Afternoon series: Talespin.

---

Talespin​

​

For a series that borrows characters from The Jungle Book (1967) to make something new, they did a really tremendous job at it. The theme song is also pretty good, though I will say not to the level of Rescue Rangers.

Character-wise, you have the characters from The Jungle Book:

• Baloo von Bruinwald XIII (Baloo the Bear), a black/sloth bear who is a professional yet laidback (and lazy) pilot who operates his seaplane The Sea Duck in service of his shipping company Higher for Hire, voiced by Ed Gilbert
• Louie (King Louie), an orangutan who owns an island that is a favorite outing for shipping pilots and is a good friend of Baloo's, voiced by Jim Cummings
• Shere Khan, an extremely ruthless billionaire tiger who owns the world's largest corporation, Khan Industries, and yearns for more money and power, voiced by the muddafucking Tony Jay (Judge Frollo)

Original characters made for the show:

• Kit Cloudkicker, a 12-year old brown bear cub who is the navigator for Baloo and Higher for Hire and attempts to balance out Baloo's lazy personality with reasonability, voiced by R. J. Williams and Alan Roberts
• Rebecca "Becky" Cunningham, a brown bear and a single mother who owns Higher for Hire and The Sea Duck who is a workaholic that aims to earn the most money to support her family and the business and has to keep up with Baloo's shenanigans, voiced by Sally Struthers
• Molly Cunningham, Rebecca's daughter, though acts like a whiny child in my first impressions, does everything in her power to make sure her mother is happy, voiced by Janna Michaels
• Don Karnage, the eccentric red wolf (most likely based on the leader of the dholes in Rudyard Kipling's Second Jungle Book) leader of the Air Pirates that raid air shipping lanes, voiced by Jim Cummings
• Wildcat, a clumsy lion mechanic in service for Higher for Hire but is really good at fixing things, voiced by Pat Fraley

The company of Higher for Hire can be seen as a mixed nuclear family: Baloo (pilot - father figure), Becky (business owner - mother figure), Kit (navigator - son figure), and Molly (daughter figure), and this dynamic can see in several episodes.

Cut scene from the Talespin movie regrettably, which you feel the bear family at Higher for Hire coming together​

The series' main co-creator Jymn Magon initially attempted in creating Who Framed Roger Rabbit!? but with The Jungle Book characters called B-Players and kept pitching the idea to Jeffrey Katzenberg, who called his idea retarded and told him to go back to the drawing board (reminds me of a 2022 movie, huh). Magon was inspired by works of the 1940s like Casablanca as well as Hayao Miyazaki's works (Hikōtei Jidai (manga for Porco Rosso), Castle in the Sky) to create a 1930s Art Deco setting based on shipping and air pirates with The Jungle Book characters. When Katzenberg read the prompt, he was extremely excited and quickly greenlit the project.

When you watch the pilot movie, I found the series to be the most creative series of Western animation (thanks Japan) that I've seen, of which you get epic plane battles, tension, and family drama, in different settings from the beautiful tropical skyline of Cape Suzette to the dark cavernous lair of the Air Pirates, which can be both enjoyed by kids and adults. I did not watch all the episodes, and there were some average episodes that I've watched, but when there is an episode that hits hard, it hits really hard. These episodes felt like its own thing rather than a set of references like Chip 'n Dale. I highly recommend watching these if you have the chance:

• Episodes 1-4: "Plunder & Lightning" - the pilot movie of the series: a gateway drug for kids and adults to be into the series and to be invested in planes, characters, and setting
• Episode 16: "Her Chance to Dream" - an emotional episode of Becky who is stressed from being a workaholic and Baloo's shenanigans found herself attracted to a ghost who promises to give her an ideal romantic life
• Episode 35: "The Old Man and the Sea Duck" - another emotional episode where Baloo gets amnesia of which he forgets how to fly his plane and ultimately found himself in an airstrip with an old lion in the middle of a desert, of which the lion then helps him re-learn to fly; the ending of the episode makes you do some thinking and when you get it, it's really endearing on what you realized just happened
• Episode 38: "The Time Bandit" - a really fun episode where Baloo disinforms the world that it's Saturday instead of Friday to skip work and get paid earlier. After apologizing to Becky, Baloo, Becky, and Kit then attempted to deliver goods to a foreign communist country that fell for Baloo's trick that ultimately led to Becky being arrested to be executed and Baloo and Kit trying to find ways to convince that nation that it's Friday and not Saturday.
• Episode 43: "Jolly Molly Christmas" - another good emotional episode where Baloo, Becky, Kit, and Louie attempt to make Molly's wish come true by convincing her that Santa is real

I only watched a few of the episodes but I aimed to watch more of the series because I found a lot of these episodes to be enjoyable for adults. Speaking of Becky, I honestly found her more endearing than Gadget. I found her nagging and threats to Baloo if he did not complete his deliveries funny and cute thanks to the motherly voice of Struthers. Struthers' work really shines in "Her Chance to Dream" because there is a ton of emphasis of the melancholic depression of Becky's voice as Becky chooses between a romantic dream and real life to support Molly as a mother in an emotionally devastating conclusion.

Making Shere Khan an anti-hero instead of a villain was such a great move of the show's creators and felt really refreshening from other Western animation shows. Khan desires money and power but is extremely intelligent and honorable in his own twisted sense and will do anything that keeps his company stable and an entity not to be threatened with. He is Machiavellian but most of the time comes up on top in contrast to Lex Luthor in Superman: The Animated Series, and will ally with Baloo or rid him when he needs if his interests dictate. I honestly can't stop rewatching his scenes because of how good Tony Jay gives Khan an intimidating presence, akin to Michael Ironside's Darkseid.

Talespin is a must watch if you're looking for something refreshing and treats you like an adult. I just hope that Disney does not put their grubby hands on....


Archive

FUCK!

 

[FK009]

Talespin is a must watch if you're looking for something refreshing and treats you like an adult. I just hope that Disney does not put their grubby hands on....

When I was a little kid and visited my grandparents on the weekend, my Grandpa would take me and my older brother to the library, and we could check out a book and a movie each. I would always choose a VHS of Talespin, watch it as soon as we got home and it was always like watching the premier of a new episode. I loved the show as a kid, I love it now, and I’m glad you enjoyed it.

“Fuck” is an understatement.

If you want a microcosm into how they will handle it today, watch Ducktales 2017, and the (at least in my opinion) god awful last season (Louie and Dewey get dedicated storylines, put Huey gets screwed, and WTF were they thinking with Webby?) The way they handled the crossover in the Ducktales had me fucking seething. Granted, they likely had Disney putting restrictions on the team, but that doesn’t give me much hope for any future plans they might have for it, if the restrictions are still in place. The fact that Seth Rogen will be allowed to touch the property just sucks, and fills me with dread. I know found family is a loved trope nowadays, but knowing gender politics, They’ll fuck up Rebecca and Molly, and screw Kit over as well, if they don’t add their own OCs (donut steel!) and just make him Baloo wearing Kit as a skin suit. Honestly, I’m actually hoping that Darkwing fails just so they cancel plans for everything else.

 

[Tom Bombodildo]

This is all I have to say on the Disney Afternoon revival.

 

[Outer Space Traveller]

This is all I have to say on the Disney Afternoon revival.

I didn't know there were ducks that had "skin colour". Also you (twitter poster, that is) have low self esteem that needs to watch compilation of "nazis getting what they deserve" to feel better.

 

[Newcomer 42]

Nu-Ducktales was so disgustingly millennial and "Current Year" it wasn't funny... And yet, it's still not that bad compared to abominations that would come later, like Velma. Donald Duck, for one, was somehow more or less identical to his original self, while everyone else was a caricature of their OG selves at best, a mockery at worst. Then there's the one-note Elon MUSK stand-in who brought nothing to the plot.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

Donald Duck, for one, was somehow more or less identical to his original self, while everyone else was a caricature of their OG selves at best, a mockery at worst. Then there's the one-note Elon MUSK stand-in who brought nothing to the plot.

Donald saying that line was really fucking funny

 

[Edgeymcedgename]

Nu-Ducktales was so disgustingly millennial and "Current Year" it wasn't funny... And yet, it's still not that bad compared to abominations that would come later, like Velma. Donald Duck, for one, was somehow more or less identical to his original self, while everyone else was a caricature of their OG selves at best, a mockery at worst. Then there's the one-note Elon MUSK stand-in who brought nothing to the plot.

They had a musk duck?

 

[Newcomer 42]

Donald saying that line was really fucking funny

Which line? I only lasted for like half of the first season.

They had a musk duck?

https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Mark_Beaks

Not the same name, or course, but it's very obvious. Nu Gyroloose was also terrible, being an incompetent edgelord and worse, unfunny.