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

  • 🐕 I am attempting to get the site runnning as fast as possible. If you are experiencing slow page load times, please report it.
At the final season of Venture Bros. All I can say is that this show somehow restored some hope about western animation can be good.
CAN be good, but the Venture bros is so outside the norm that you shouldn't get your hopes up.

The Venture brothers had 2 good things going for it that other series'/writers don't understand.

1. It's parody based out of love. In reality, the show is just a riff on silver age comics and 70's/80's Saturday morning cartoon tropes.

In most other shows, the punchline is simply "Lol, isn't that so stupid? Other people are dumb and we are smart for pointing it out". The Venture Bros. instead understands it's stupid, but makes a world where that stupidity is part of it. I think there's a scene where someone describes the Villains as "Trust fund babies with too much money and not much else to do." And that's perfect. It's highlighted when the Monarch hires a bunch of hood rats to be his new henchmen.

The world doesn't just accept that there are heroes and villains and laugh along the way. In the show, this culture of "super science" and such is portrayed as weird to those who aren't connected to it. It's also portrayed as something tiresome and possibly damaging to those who don't have a choice to be a part of it. Some people are really in to it, some people aren't.

While it would be easy to play the usual trope of "Ridiculous world with a few straight men" It's not.

and

2. The show knew how to change things up, both in Plot and Theme.

I don't feel like finding the interview, but one of the writers (I think Doc Hammer) mentioned that they don't want the show to feel one note. There are specific seasons where they went out the way to have the main characters "win more" and "lose more".

If you go back and watch every episode of the show, it's not a show where the protagonists always win. It's also not a show where they always lose.

A lot of other shows or modern writers are always trying to subvert expectations, and that usually manifests in anything but a "happy ending". That's fine, but it's one note, boring, and tiresome.

These two points lead to the world and characters feeling real.

This is something that most modern writers can't grasp. Whether or not it's because they're too preoccupied with writing their "fantasies" or if they are that disconnected with reality, the Writing in the Venture brothers is different.

And despite the fact it's a pretty goofy cartoon, I personally think it's one of the best TV stories out there.
 
I fuckin' love The Venture Bros, but one description of it always stuck out at me: "it's a parody that became a straight example of the genre."

I mean, it's not wrong in the slightest when one considers it eventually had non-ironic drama, action, adventures, mysteries, and deep plots as the characters themselves went from one-note archetypes into complex and multifaceted personalities. It's a perfect example of what made comic books, action-adventure cartoons, and such media so much fun in the first place!
 
Apparently in the new Spiderman cartoon he's going to be a streamer.
54202.png
Can't wait to see Peter in the IP2 thread
 
I do want to say that kids fucking love Moana, so I'm willing to bet children are the reason Moana 2 did so well. I've seen so many little kids dressed like Moana lately (albeit with sweaters/pants underneath because it's December and I don't live in Hawaii.)
do they? or is it a diseny adults that have kids thinG?
I remember when Moana came put I thought it was okay, I liked 2 songs (Shiny and Your Welcome) but I don't remember anyone wanting a sequel or a live action remake (special thanks to Dwayne "the rock" Johnson's ego and the Disney company's greediness for that one)
I know that "your welcome" was big in the AI song scene for a little while so people must have liked it but aside from a few theater kids did anyone like "shiny"
Apparently in the new Spiderman cartoon he's going to be a streamer.
View attachment 6714964
Can't wait to see Peter in the IP2 thread
look kids! I know about all the "safe and good" parts of the internet! think I'm cool and hip!
 
Apparently in the new Spiderman cartoon he's going to be a streamer.
View attachment 6714964
Can't wait to see Peter in the IP2 thread
speaking of animated Spider-Man, the original 90s show went actually pretty hard at points:

 
I fuckin' love The Venture Bros, but one description of it always stuck out at me: "it's a parody that became a straight example of the genre."

I mean, it's not wrong in the slightest when one considers it eventually had non-ironic drama, action, adventures, mysteries, and deep plots as the characters themselves went from one-note archetypes into complex and multifaceted personalities. It's a perfect example of what made comic books, action-adventure cartoons, and such media so much fun in the first place!
Whoever said "if Venture Bros. was made by anyone else it would be the most obnoxious shit to ever exist" was right, in the hands of people other than the creators it would have ended up like a show such as that Harley Quinn show or that Velma series, shows which are the embodiment of series that are primarily "Lol, isn't that so stupid? Other people are dumb and we are smart for pointing it out". Publick and Hammer are naturally funny gentlemen, you can tell just by listening to their commentary tracks on VB DVDs. Most other animated series are written by people who got into "comedy" are writers with at least one deservedly failed sitcom under their belts, or people whose highest goal is hoping to work on live-action garbage TV like sitcoms.

Anyways, it's a shame they didn't get a chance to close with a proper final season and had to settle for a film to cap it off - apparently they really wanted to do at least one more season but were given a big no. From the rumors, Venture Bros. was cancelled mostly out of spite and malice from some Adult Swim executives. Depending on the rumors, the reasons vary but are all based on pettiness over intra-network struggles, or something.

Adult Swim is now run by women who's entire personalities revolve around shipping and bad sitcoms. I believe they're the ones responsible for greenlighting those lame female focused shows on [AS] that last two seasons at most because nobody watches them.
 
Last edited:
speaking of animated Spider-Man, the original 90s show went actually pretty hard at points:
View attachment 6717991
View attachment 6718010
Because why would we want spider-man 98 and resolution to an unresolved storyline when we can have web head streaming minecraft and talking in brainrot?


Edit: And I say that as someone who think xmen 97 is..OK at best but will admit the people behind that show got their stink of 2020s all over it despite the name 97....but let me put it to you another way.


Morph going by they/them? Cringe yes but not QUITE as despicable (or pandering) as this:
1733454251107.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Watching this space for somebody to review Creature Commandos. Is it actually good or is it Reddit? I'm not spending money on HBO MAX to find out.
It's okay so far, obviously the selling point is seeing the new DC canon. There's definitely some of the tiresome things from modern adult animation in there; needless sex and characters trying too hard to be hip. Also you have a guy going off on "Woke feminists" just a moment into the first episode; welcome to the James Gunn DCU people 🤦
 
It's okay so far, obviously the selling point is seeing the new DC canon. There's definitely some of the tiresome things from modern adult animation in there; needless sex and characters trying too hard to be hip. Also you have a guy going off on "Woke feminists" just a moment into the first episode; welcome to the James Gunn DCU people 🤦
Every time I hear about the lefty shit coming into some entertainment I just think "Wow, look at all that woke getting put away. It's almost like it was never there."
 
  • Like
Reactions: BerserkKing99
Back