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

[Trilby]

I'm not what you would call a fan of GI Joe, but there were some amusing bits, especially around the period Steve Gerber was working on the show, like the episode "The Wrong Stuff", penned by Stanley Ralph Ross, where Cobra takes over the airwaves with pro-Cobra programming and swipes are taken at the state of TV and Saturday Morning Cartoons.

Then there was the Gerber-penned episode "There's No Place Like Springfield" where Joe operative Shipwreck finds himself waking up in a hospital, apparently suffering from memory loss; years have passed, Cobra has been broken up, GI Joe victorious and he's married with a daughter, living in a town called Springfield. But he starts wondering if he's going crazy, if he's losing it, if reality and illusion are getting mixed up in his head.

This is how you stick it in the 80's!

 

[Coolio55]

I'm not what you would call a fan of GI Joe, but there were some amusing bits, especially around the period Steve Gerber was working on the show, like the episode "The Wrong Stuff", penned by Stanley Ralph Ross, where Cobra takes over the airwaves with pro-Cobra programming and swipes are taken at the state of TV and Saturday Morning Cartoons.

Haha. I recall another one of the writers reminiscing on his stint on "The Little Clowns of Happytown"

https://buzzdixon.com/home/christianity/how-much-responsibility-do-i-bear

I worked on a show called The Little Clowns Of Happytown, an attempt to deliberately engineer a show for kids with no conflict, no violence, no "victim based humor". For example, we couldn't have the little clowns actually throw pies at one another, but a little clown could place a pie on the ground and then another little clown could accidentally trip and fall face first in it.

Beyond any shadow of a doubt, the show was an abomination in the eyes of God and man. We shall speak of it no more.

 

[A Grey Cat]

I see plenty of muslim women on the daily, but very little of them actually wear a headscarf. Back in school my classmates moms still wore one, but they themselves didn't.
They still did ramadan, halal etc but they were more than happy to abandon this part of their original cultures and their families allowed it. And these were of a bunch of different cultures, Turkey, Iran, Syria, Palestine, Morocco, Afghanistan, etc.

As far as I've seen it's the same in other western countries with higher muslim populations, the girls that wear headscarves are likely a minority of muslim girls, yet its basically the only type of muslim girl the media will portray because otherwise she'd just look ambigously brown.

Agreed. In reality unless you're in a Muslim country under total sharia law like Saudi Arabia or wherever the taliban is in control. Most arays don't give a shit about head covering...more so if they're later generation ones who've never even been to the middle east. Just eat halal, fast when it's radaman and that's all...MAYBE shove your face into a rug twice if not five times a day but even then.


But since they can't have some brown character walking around without a head covering, they always animate them with hijabs on always. Cause if they didn't, their retard audience of overgrown kidults wouldn't stop asking "wait is that girl Mexican? Half black? Or arab?

 

[Commander X]

Haha. I recall another one of the writers reminiscing on his stint on "The Little Clowns of Happytown"

https://buzzdixon.com/home/christianity/how-much-responsibility-do-i-bear

That's one of the things that really hit American animation, turning most of it into the slum of Saturday Morning Cartoons by the late 1960s, because the hackiest writers and producers were running things, for every writer who chafed under the creative restrictions put on them as much as any skilled artists/cartoonists were, having to accept that sort of direction and guidelines and so on, there were plenty those willing to go along with that sort of formula for creative sterility - all of the hacks and failed sitcom writers and amateurs and brownnosers and nepo hires who got into writing Saturday Morning Cartoons as far back as the 1970s and stayed there because they couldn't make it elsewhere - these were the sorts of people who were all too willing to go along with and enforce spirit-crushing dictates from the higher ups "it's got to be safe, there have to be Important Lessons, no going off-model for even a little bit, no attempting to visually jazz up the scripts, no creative freedom whatsoever".

Of course, after some years, in the 1990s and 2000s of more creative freedom for animators, we have had to endure new breeds of hacks in charge of shows.

 

[Lone Star]

View attachment 6674915

This year will mark the first time EVER that Teen Titans Go! has taken up the entire Cartoon Network schedule for a week straight. The only other year that comes close is 2017.

Gee golly, it's sure a mystery how that show manages to get so many views that they keep bragging about.

 

[Trilby]

That's one of the things that really hit American animation, turning most of it into the slum of Saturday Morning Cartoons by the late 1960s, because the hackiest writers and producers were running things, for every writer who chafed under the creative restrictions put on them as much as any skilled artists/cartoonists were, having to accept that sort of direction and guidelines and so on, there were plenty those willing to go along with that sort formula for creative sterility - all of the hacks and failed sitcom writers and amateurs and brownnosers and nepo hires who got into writing Saturday Morning Cartoons as far back as the 1970s and stayed there because they couldn't make it elsewhere - these were the sorts of people who were all too willing to go along with and enforce spirit-crushing dictates from the higher ups "it's got to be safe, there have to be Important Lessons, no going off-model for even a little bit, no attempting to visually jazz up the scripts, no creative freedom whatsoever".

Of course, after some years, in the 1990s and 2000s of more creative freedom for animators, we have had to endure new breeds of hacks in charge of shows.

This was why Ralph Bakshi's Mighty Mouse happened when it did in 1987. We really needed that wake-up.

 

[A Grey Cat]

This was why Ralph Bakshi's Mighty Mouse happened when it did in 1987. We really needed that wake-up.

We need a new make up call only thos time in stead of ass kissing yes men where happy to live in mediocrity we need someone to call out....huh ass kissers happy to live in mediocrity....and agenda pushing.

Gee golly, it's sure a mystery how that show manages to get so many views that they keep bragging about.

The funny thing is, not long ago mrenter once said the kids, who ttg claims to be exclusively made for as am excuse to why the writing is the way it is. Were growing up and would soon be "too old" to care about it. Put aside the idea of "nobody growing up anymore in current year. " for just a second to realize what enter failed to take into account is. Just because someone who's 10 years old and watching ttg in 2013, only to out grow it a few years later. Won't eventually have kids of their own to watch the show especially if it keeps running.


Like spongebob before it, ttg has managed to transcend generations appealing to kids in both 2013 and 2024. And there are a lot of reasons for why but the big one? Ttg is one of the few western cartoons parents don't need to be too worried about their kids watching it. Or sure the writing is asinine at best and it's still a bad show, but unlike moon girl it doesn't have an episode with a trans character wearing kneeepads with rainbows on it.


Ttg is a safe if bland and asaine show that warner/cn can always count on to bring in numbers without pissing off and scaring away the normies who don't want woke agendas shoved in their faces.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I can't remember and can't find the post, who was it who said that TTG was secretly anti-British and hilariously based, and does that continue to still be true?

 

[AnOminous]

Ttg is a safe if bland and asaine show that warner/cn can always count on to bring in numbers without pissing off and scaring away the normies who don't want woke agendas shoved in their faces.

I never really understood the overdone hatred for TTG. Maybe I'd get it if I cared about the original, but I really just don't.

It seems harmless, aimed at its target audience, and doesn't give off an offensive odor. What's the issue? Just don't watch it if you don't like it.

 

[Cave Fisher]

We need a new make up call only thos time in stead of ass kissing yes men where happy to live in mediocrity we need someone to call out....huh ass kissers happy to live in mediocrity....and agenda pushing.



The funny thing is, not long ago mrenter once said the kids, who ttg claims to be exclusively made for as am excuse to why the writing is the way it is. Were growing up and would soon be "too old" to care about it. Put aside the idea of "nobody growing up anymore in current year. " for just a second to realize what enter failed to take into account is. Just because someone who's 10 years old and watching ttg in 2013, only to out grow it a few years later. Won't eventually have kids of their own to watch the show especially if it keeps running.


Like spongebob before it, ttg has managed to transcend generations appealing to kids in both 2013 and 2024. And there are a lot of reasons for why but the big one? Ttg is one of the few western cartoons parents don't need to be too worried about their kids watching it. Or sure the writing is asinine at best and it's still a bad show, but unlike moon girl it doesn't have an episode with a trans character wearing kneeepads with rainbows on it.


Ttg is a safe if bland and asaine show that warner/cn can always count on to bring in numbers without pissing off and scaring away the normies who don't want woke agendas shoved in their faces.

Last time I checked, TTG sucked, but it's the only cartoon still being made on the channel aired at actual kids and not just toddlers or 20 year old Tumblr users. I'm not surprised it's their main show.

 

[A Grey Cat]

I never really understood the overdone hatred for TTG. Maybe I'd get it if I cared about the original, but I really just don't.

It seems harmless, aimed at its target audience, and doesn't give off an offensive odor. What's the issue? Just don't watch it if you don't like it.

Like you said fans who grew up with the original were not happy about the change in direction amd tone. It went from an awesome action packed superhero show that could go from intense and stylish to funny and relatable. One episode raven's father trigon could be Turning the city into hell on earth, the next the titans are fighting a nerd with a reality altering remote control inside a video store.


(Also it has those late 90s/ early y2k vibes like said video store fight or watching videos on a Saturday night with the buds)


Ttg was ALL comedy. Nothing but loud bright cartoon zany wackiness and THAT didn't sit well with fans of the original at least at first.


With time, and the fact that cartoons have gotten a lot worse than just being loud zany and and obnoxious. People have mellowed out and it's deff been one of those, "perhaps I was too hard on you." Momments. The same thing happened to the other infamous cartoons of the era; Johnny yest and post movie (but pre sequel) spongebob.

 

[Your Spiritual Liege]

Like you said fans who grew up with the original were not happy about the change in direction amd tone. It went from an awesome action packed superhero show that could go from intense and stylish to funny and relatable. One episode raven's father trigon could be Turning the city into hell on earth, the next the titans are fighting a nerd with a reality altering remote control inside a video store.


(Also it has those late 90s/ early y2k vibes like said video store fight or watching videos on a Saturday night with the buds)


Ttg was ALL comedy. Nothing but loud bright cartoon zany wackiness and THAT didn't sit well with fans of the original at least at first.


With time, and the fact that cartoons have gotten a lot worse than just being loud zany and and obnoxious. People have mellowed out and it's deff been one of those, "perhaps I was too hard on you." Momments. The same thing happened to the other infamous cartoons of the era; Johnny yest and post movie (but pre sequel) spongebob.

Plus it was not a good comedy - it was a very shitty, Family guy tier, string of sitcom skits, which is exactly why it was so popular with zoomers and (unfortunately) gen alphas - i watched the Teen Titans Go! To the Movies and it was an unfunny, cringy slog - there were moments that made mi smile, every now and then, but they were few and far between, to actually warrant wasting time on it.. Dunno how was the Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans, but i'm sure they did not miss the opportinuty to shit on the old canon.

 

[Cave Fisher]

Like you said fans who grew up with the original were not happy about the change in direction amd tone. It went from an awesome action packed superhero show that could go from intense and stylish to funny and relatable. One episode raven's father trigon could be Turning the city into hell on earth, the next the titans are fighting a nerd with a reality altering remote control inside a video store.


(Also it has those late 90s/ early y2k vibes like said video store fight or watching videos on a Saturday night with the buds)


Ttg was ALL comedy. Nothing but loud bright cartoon zany wackiness and THAT didn't sit well with fans of the original at least at first.


With time, and the fact that cartoons have gotten a lot worse than just being loud zany and and obnoxious. People have mellowed out and it's deff been one of those, "perhaps I was too hard on you." Momments. The same thing happened to the other infamous cartoons of the era; Johnny yest and post movie (but pre sequel) spongebob.

It's a shame that these "perhaps I was too hard on you" moments are almost ALL caused by our standards being lowered so much. The difference between how TTG, Johnny Test, and post-movie pre-sequel Spongebob were talked about in 2013 vs 2024 are reflective of the average quality of cartoons around the average viewer, so back in the early 2010s, they fell so underneath the standards of the time that people REALLY did not like it, especially when they were in the same age range of having been able to catch the original Teen Titans on Boomerang and like it (New Teen Titans also doing TTG's same shtick but better also kinda soured fans on it), meanwhile in 2024, the average cartoon is slop that makes you look back and wonder if things were really so bad back in the day.

 

[Basic Blond Boy]

Can someone explain why they're willing to air reruns of TTG but no other shows? Did they lose a bunch of licenses or something? I feel like if you were just going to air re-runs there's a shitload of content to pick from. Why is it all just one show?

Cartoon Network has been pretty much shut down as a channel. The main office was closed and the actual studio seems to be just a small part of the overall Warner package.

I think the most realistic answer you will get beyond @Vyse Inglebard showing the ratings is that Warner, like many channels, is pushing for streaming. All the actual content is on HBO Max now, so cut cable. Just being the TTG rerun channel will push people to Max while giving them a small sliver of profit from the ever decreasing cable pool.

The funny thing is, not long ago mrenter once said the kids, who ttg claims to be exclusively made for as am excuse to why the writing is the way it is. Were growing up and would soon be "too old" to care about it. Put aside the idea of "nobody growing up anymore in current year. " for just a second to realize what enter failed to take into account is. Just because someone who's 10 years old and watching ttg in 2013, only to out grow it a few years later. Won't eventually have kids of their own to watch the show especially if it keeps running.


Like spongebob before it, ttg has managed to transcend generations appealing to kids in both 2013 and 2024. And there are a lot of reasons for why but the big one? Ttg is one of the few western cartoons parents don't need to be too worried about their kids watching it. Or sure the writing is asinine at best and it's still a bad show, but unlike moon girl it doesn't have an episode with a trans character wearing kneeepads with rainbows on it.


Ttg is a safe if bland and asaine show that warner/cn can always count on to bring in numbers without pissing off and scaring away the normies who don't want woke agendas shoved in their faces.

He also didn’t take into account that many, myself included, would end up growing up with it and having nostalgia years later. TTG is pretty stable with the now grown up TikTok generation that have really taken to the many unhinged sound bites of the show.

I have said it before, and I will say it again, it is Drawn Together kids edition. You can easily take out segments of the show and run them as shorts Family Guy style, giving it an easy rewatch-ability to stay relevant.

I can't remember and can't find the post, who was it who said that TTG was secretly anti-British and hilariously based, and does that continue to still be true?

Depends on episode, but yeah. Unironically one of the most based/unhinged kids cartoons of the 2010s, why is why I find it weird people call it safe.

Also, yes, there was an entire episode of Robin shitting on Britain and BTFOing the queen, going into some globo-homo conspiracy that Britain wants to control the US.

 

[Mr. 0]

TITANS GO

 

[A Grey Cat]

It's a shame that these "perhaps I was too hard on you" moments are almost ALL caused by our standards being lowered so much. The difference between how TTG, Johnny Test, and post-movie pre-sequel Spongebob were talked about in 2013 vs 2024 are reflective of the average quality of cartoons around the average viewer, so back in the early 2010s, they fell so underneath the standards of the time that people REALLY did not like it, especially when they were in the same age range of having been able to catch the original Teen Titans on Boomerang and like it (New Teen Titans also doing TTG's same shtick but better also kinda soured fans on it), meanwhile in 2024, the average cartoon is slop that makes you look back and wonder if things were really so bad back in the day.

You also have to remember how much the standards were changing at the dawn of the 2010s compared to the previous decade. By the time ground breaking game changers that raised the bar were hitting the scene. (Adventure time, regular show, gumball, and so on) shows like Johnny test, spongebob, and so on had been running for 7 to 10 years or more. Their Schick was seen as old and out of touch when compared to those aforementioned shows.

But time, nostalgia, and of course the fact that cartoons have gotten even worse in time have softened the hatred those shows once had. And while time can't make every bad cartoon of the past seem better in comparison it definitely has helped stinkers like Johnny, ttg, 1st rot era spongebob hell ill bet some people are even willing to send the "perhaps I was too hard on you," sympathy card to the likes of breadwinners, or even Sanjay and Craig at this point...but I can always be wrong.

 

[The Lawgiver]

I'm not what you would call a fan of GI Joe, but there were some amusing bits, especially around the period Steve Gerber was working on the show, like the episode "The Wrong Stuff", penned by Stanley Ralph Ross, where Cobra takes over the airwaves with pro-Cobra programming and swipes are taken at the state of TV and Saturday Morning Cartoons.

Then there was the Gerber-penned episode "There's No Place Like Springfield" where Joe operative Shipwreck finds himself waking up in a hospital, apparently suffering from memory loss; years have passed, Cobra has been broken up, GI Joe victorious and he's married with a daughter, living in a town called Springfield. But he starts wondering if he's going crazy, if he's losing it, if reality and illusion are getting mixed up in his head.

Gi joe's cartoon is fucking incredible because you'd have serious-ish plots and then by the end it'sjust absolute schizophrenic "I HATE THEANTICHIST!!!" shit with all your friends being revealed to be nanite grey goo clones remote controlled by scientists in a lab that were trying to basically haze you into revealing your personal info by making you think you got head trauma and forgot the last several decades of your life between "now" and the time they blew you off the side of a boat.

Sometimes though? Sometimes it's like that the whole way through in ways we would not see again till maybe that one 2000s era JP VN.

Like you said fans who grew up with the original were not happy about the change in direction amd tone. It went from an awesome action packed superhero show that could go from intense and stylish to funny and relatable. One episode raven's father trigon could be Turning the city into hell on earth, the next the titans are fighting a nerd with a reality altering remote control inside a video store.


(Also it has those late 90s/ early y2k vibes like said video store fight or watching videos on a Saturday night with the buds)


Ttg was ALL comedy. Nothing but loud bright cartoon zany wackiness and THAT didn't sit well with fans of the original at least at first.


With time, and the fact that cartoons have gotten a lot worse than just being loud zany and and obnoxious. People have mellowed out and it's deff been one of those, "perhaps I was too hard on you." Momments. The same thing happened to the other infamous cartoons of the era; Johnny yest and post movie (but pre sequel) spongebob.

A big reason why people were averse to TTG was the fact that insteadof a continuation it wasa spinoff andthe people making the spinoff never saw the original, a trend that would continue with many a show for the next several years till today, even INCLUDING actual sequels (See: clone high reboot where the og writers barely were involved and it fucking showed)
TTG got more self aware of it's status as it went on and would poke fun at itself on occasion, at least that's whatt was like when I checked on it a few years ago when it was still new. Fuck they even made crossovers with the actual thing it was intended as a spinoff toonce or twice from what I've seen out of context shit of online. From what I remember when that movie came out for it a short while back people kind of warmed up to it a bit. It's one of those cases where the reputation of something is tied more to how the network treats it than the actual thing itself.

Like for the last several yearsyou had teen titans go and the lakewood plaza turbo/ok.ko show (that one that had a sonichu reference in the pilot rememba?) as the main things that the network kind of shoved down everyone's throats with a heavy emphasis on TTG. Both of them generally were goofy nonsense lighthearted shows with meta humor/cheap looking animation but teen titans go got absolutely SHIT ON for it for all the various factors surrounding it's existence.

 

[Basic Blond Boy]

It's a shame that these "perhaps I was too hard on you" moments are almost ALL caused by our standards being lowered so much. The difference between how TTG, Johnny Test, and post-movie pre-sequel Spongebob were talked about in 2013 vs 2024 are reflective of the average quality of cartoons around the average viewer, so back in the early 2010s, they fell so underneath the standards of the time that people REALLY did not like it, especially when they were in the same age range of having been able to catch the original Teen Titans on Boomerang and like it (New Teen Titans also doing TTG's same shtick but better also kinda soured fans on it), meanwhile in 2024, the average cartoon is slop that makes you look back and wonder if things were really so bad back in the day.

Would disagree on this. TTG was being defended as early as the beginning. Enter wasn’t the only animation reviewer. RebelTaxi was also around at that time, with a bigger audience, yet said the show was good.

TTG has always been in the divisive area for cartoon fans, joined by a good chunk of 2010s toons like Steven and Korra on whether it is good or not.

In my view, TTG was always good. The standards for cartoons didn’t change, people just got over the hateboner of it being a TT series to see that it is a decent comedy. Hell, even as a Teen Titans show, you can tell the staff do like DC as they pull out some weird obscure shit about the company and universe quite often. I guess one of the heads of Brave & The Bold worked on it, and you can tell as many of the weirdos from that series cross into TTG. Also funny how B&TB did similar responses to haters as it too was fairly hated upon release.

A big reason why people were averse to TTG was the fact that insteadof a continuation it wasa spinoff andthe people making the spinoff never saw the original, a trend that would continue with many a show for the next several years till today

You are missing that TTG came out right as DC Nation was being discontinued, as if to add more salt into the wounds. It would have probably been better received had Young Justice not gotten cancelled in favor of it. YJ was a good substitute for that original Teen Titans audience yet also ended abruptly and for absolutely stupid reasons (it was cited that too many girls watched it for WB to properly sell merch).

 

[Introvertigo]

Some animated movie trailers for the thread:

Bad Guys 2

Wallace and Grommet: Vengeance Most Fowl, now appearing at the beginning of next year

 

[Trollblade69]

Well tonight I learned that Craig of the Creek is a show I should avoid for being deeply mediocre. Thanks, stray Toonami commenters.