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

Commander X said:
Rick and Morty is a good example of this. Sure I find the show obnoxious, the Roiland seasons were unfunny but even I'll concede it had a coherent gimmick. When the "new writers" i.e. "women" came on board, they pushed this really sappy emotional crap that wouldn’t be bad for a "serious" cartoon but just didn’t fit the show’s vibe. They only doubled down on it as time went on, especially post-Roiland. I really have a problem with shows in any medium that want to sarcastic, cynical-cool, etc. with sassy characters but then try to go for unearned sentiment. You can't have thin characters that are mostly delivery vehicles for sarcastic one-liners and/or the scripters' screeds and/or cynical posturing for what feels like 99-percent of an episode and then try to wrench heartwarming moments from them that are so sappy they lack only a studio laugh track dropping "awwws".
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Eh, Rick and Morty was always like that though.
 
Hey mates, I'm back. This used to be one of my most visited and replied to threads on the site but I self-exiled after a massive cope session that will be the companion piece for this post. You can read it here, because just as that post was written with massive levels of salt and appetite for destruction this will be a little of the same but with some hopium. I'm simultaneously honoured and disappointed that nothing but my own posts showed up about what I'll be writing about and I'll be writing about stuff that has been public for 4-2 months now.

To honour the Brazilians that watch my every move, I'll start with Sociedade da Virtude, which if you are Brazilian that is into animation just made you shed a tear. Known to us anglos as Society of Virtue, it's a franchise of short limited animation vignettes which parodies superhero comics ranging from comic storylines to the then just novel concept of capeshit fatigue. Because yeah, this thing is old, about a month ago the most recent video they had made was released 5 years ago but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I consider Society of Virtue as an anti-thesis to Villanous, because in both half the appeal are the references but Society of Virtue is more matter-of-fact and with early Adult Swim levels of animation compared to the eye candy, manchild energy of /co/'s favourite lineup of waifus 4 years ago. Returning to it, I was surprised by how really only the mouths move most of the time but the style is so clean that you can just enjoy what they are doing with the dialogue.

The Society of Virtue is a super hero group in-universe but we follow several capes, most of them just competent enough to stop crime but none of them are caricatures. An example would be the most popular character, Majestic, who is introduced with the rest of the Society of Virtue asking her to dress more modestly because she is dressed like Sean Connery in Zardoz and all of her villains get in trouble so they can be spanked by her. She claps back by saying that is her choice to sexualise herself. Or Ginger Panther, who initially is just a crossdresser that invented a hero gimmick to justify to his girlfriend he was a crossdresser and ended up being one of the most competent capes and a fan favourite. There's even a subversion of how Garth Ennis subverted the X-Men into a grooming cult because Society of Virtue has the R-Men, a group with crappy versions of X-Men powers supervised by a chronically horny Professor R, who they take turns throwing light jabs at.

The best part is that this doesn't represent the best this franchise has to offer, it only gets better. Their version of Galactus appears because of a copyright infringement. They have three different versions of Batman, all lampooning a different era. And a series about a struggling actor with an escort sidekick that was hired to be the body double of Nicholas Cage.

I'll admit, it isn't all gold but what is really makes the gamble worth it. So why did it die for about five years? Same reason all promising things do, they ran out of money. In my previous post I mentioned every cartoon made in Latin America receives government funding and the fact Society of Virtue managed to be produced for 3 years and received two dubs is nothing short of a miracle because this didn't leave the Internet for a while and they only made a Patreon way too late, for which you would receive BLACK, a comic that strayed away from the comedy of everything else and was adapted at the end of production of the English dub. The comic is about Vigilante Noturno aka Black Badness (the kind of cool name only an ESL could come up with) and how he delivers justice being the one member of the Society without powers. It's legit good but it works because is so different from everything else, it feels like a fitting swan song for something that ended because of lack of money. Normally I would recommend always watching the original audio but there aren't subs for the original and the English dub was made by a studio that only existed for this. Nathan Eco sounds like Brad Jones doing a Batman impression and that sells it for me, he also voices Ginger Panther.

But this isn't a recommendation of a bygone web-series. This post is about snatching victories however small from the cruel realities of working in media.

Sociedade da Virtude managed to seduce that cruel, bipolar mistress known as HBO Max and got a mini-deal out of it. In December 31st of 2023, they dropped 12 episodes encompasing their greatest hits into a singular, concise narrative with a graphic novel art style and a year later, Sociedade da Virtude salva o Natal (Society of Virtue Saves Christmas) was aired in Adult Swim Brazil. And all of 2025 has been the channel hyping the new artsyle with a Member's exclusive sneak peek. This was something I was planning on writing about for a long while but recent events (read two months ago) sort of forced me to. Because there's another great victory coming from Latin America.

Sustos Ocultos de Frankelda (Frankelda's Book of Spooks) was a limited series for Cartoon Network made through grants and looked to be one of many 'one-n-done' deals. If you haven't watched it, consider adding it to your October rotation because it is the definition of comfy watch for the season. It takes from the tradition of shows such as Tales from the Crypt, Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids and Les Contes de la Rue Broca (btw, a show that was beloved in Mexico) in having the titular Frankelda be the author of the stories of each episode, all of it animated in beautiful stop-motion that feels like a perfect blend of Adam Elliot and Henry Selick.

One complaint that you will often see with cartoons made in Latin America and Spain is that they either feel too local or like they try too hard to feel American. Frankelda is a show that feels like something that could only have happened in its particular corner of the world without feeling like a Jorge Gutierrez pastiche as even the fact Frankelda is half Mexican, half English is unique to the location for it takes place in Mineral del Monte which is affectionately known as the little Cornwall due to Cornish and English migration. As such it takes aspects of both Mexican and English folklore that feels like something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.

But this isn't a recommendation of a bygone cartoon. This post is about snatching victories however small from the cruel realities of working in media.

Estudio Fantasma has the honour of giving Adult Swim its first original show in Spanish, Mujeres con Hombreras (Women Wearing Shoulder pads) and later this year Soy Frankelda (I am Frankelda) will premiere for plebs in HBO Max proving that the little ghost writer from Hidalgo isn't done with us. It likely will premiere in Mexican cinemas, but I don't trust beaners showing up for the good shit considering how they ignored The Book of Life for Coco and their pretty shitty attempt at a Day of the Dead movie. Did I mention is the first movie entirely animated in Mexico? Soy Frankelda premiered in the Guadalajara Film Festival with blessings from Del Toro (still remember someone told me my script reminded them of his movies) and won the Satoshi Kon Award at Fantasia Film Festival. Some people even got together and made free advertising for it in wplace's New York. The fact a stop-motion show and movie, produced in the third world, during the reign of Zaslav managed to survive is nothing short of a miracle.

This is a celebration post but also comes with some cope, anxiety and even resentment. I'm not gonna lie, I'm proud and jealous and know this isn't sustainable. But life isn't about a sustained plateau of success, is about how we climb those valleys of hardships and harness those little victories. This thread can be pretty negative, as it should, but I wanted to share some stuff that makes happy and miserable at the same time and I hope it makes your day or night a tad better.
 
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seth.webp

Seth has some nerve crying about this after creating one of the most cynically immoral shows on television, which regularly commodities murder, torture, rape and abuse as a total joke.
 
The greater a'tuin said:
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Seth has some nerve crying about this after creating one of the most cynically immoral shows on television, which regularly commodities murder, torture, rape and abuse as a total joke.
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I actually think this makes sense coming from the Family Guy creator.
Modern Family Guy, whether Seth meant for it or not, is incredibly judgemental towards dysfunctional or weird people. Like I can't think of a single scene where a character is validated for being the way they are, everyone is just miserable and cynical towards each other, even the family we're supposed to like.
It's become animated Jerry Springer at this point. The point of the Simpsons was to say that dysfunction in the American family wasn't bad, the I think the point of Family Guy now is to reassure the viewer that they aren't as trashy as the characters.
 
The greater a'tuin said:
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Seth has some nerve crying about this after creating one of the most cynically immoral shows on television, which regularly commodities murder, torture, rape and abuse as a total joke.
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He hasn't sat down and seriously written for Family guy in decades at this point. He is more a voice actor than a writer for it at this point in terms of actual labor he puts into it. Its mostly just a paycheck and he clearly doesn't give much of a shit about what the show is actually saying anymore.

Same can be said for American dad, though that show has a much better staff of writers than modern family guy. Then there is the Orville, a show he pours his heart and soul into which does follow from that quote.
 
The greater a'tuin said:
Seth has some nerve crying about this after creating one of the most cynically immoral shows on television, which regularly commodities murder, torture, rape and abuse as a total joke.
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Not defending Seth specifically, but often cynical humor is a way of coping with reality taking a giant steaming shit in the face of whatever idealism you have left on a nearly hourly basis.
 
AnOminous said:
Not defending Seth specifically, but often cynical humor is a way of coping with reality taking a giant steaming shit in the face of whatever idealism you have left on a nearly hourly basis.
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Do we think Seth McFarlane cares about any of that shit or does he just want to make cheap jokes?
I'm not saying you can't make these jokes for these reasons. I just doubt McFarlane dose.
 
PrettySneakyCis said:
my six year old, because she has both a one-track mind and an impeccable taste
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Wil E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoons will always remain excellent. By far, the best were directed by Chuck Jones.

And the reason why Jones' cartoon will stand the test of time is one word: discipline.

"This is the vital factor in all comedy or drama. Is what are your disciplines?" - Chuck Jones


So I salute your daughter's exquisite taste and long live Looney Tunes! :semperfidelis:
 
The greater a'tuin said:
View attachment 7793515
Seth has some nerve crying about this after creating one of the most cynically immoral shows on television, which regularly commodities murder, torture, rape and abuse as a total joke.
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He's not entirely wrong saying this, he's just the wrong guy to say it. Much like Quagmire was the wrong character to tell Brian off because it's McFarlane letting McFarlane have it.


AnOminous said:
Not defending Seth specifically, but often cynical humor is a way of coping with reality taking a giant steaming shit in the face of whatever idealism you have left on a nearly hourly basis.
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I blame the rap music. 🚬

seriously having a steady mental diet of depressing news media, antisocial media, "reality" shows, terrible celebs getting fame and money for being terrible, using therapy and trauma as new excuses to be evil and animation still being treated like kid stuff that anybody can do? Feels bad man.
 
H3H3 Podcast Higlights said:
A response to a statement no one asked for

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This is just the typical "X never changed. IT ALWAYS BELONGED TO ME!" that happens after every shitty reboot leftists are programed to love.
Correct me if I am wrong (basically only watched gumball when it was on TV), but isn't this clip from the later seasons were at random they would bitch about REAL issues?
Like the ""gag"" about how our SEXIST society hasn't changed since the 50s, or the episode where DRUMPF was heckin gentrifying their town?
 
AbduluCthuluZulu said:
Yes, don't you remember the ancient caveman paintings depicting women's frustrations that they couldn't take the same hunting jobs as men at the time? Or trying to spread homosapien guilt over the Neanderthals getting colonized?
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Don't forget the push for the "homo" in "homo sapiens". Coastal caves were full of rainbow colored prints of … well, let's say they were fingers.
 
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