Why are newer cartoons so shitty?

[Wildchild]

I need an neutral third party perspective on if newer cartoons are actually of a worse quality than say, cartoons 10, or even 5 years ago.

It seems like 10 years ago, cartoons focused on a broader audience from kids to teens, while cartoons today seem to focus entirely on a small range of ages as their viewer set (young kids, older kids), instead of trying to incorporate a wide variety of groups in their userbase.

Maybe, I'm getting old, or am overly pessimistic, but cartoons such as Teen Titans Go, and even that new loony toons cartoon seems to be depressing to me. I mean, compared to shows from the 90's and early 00's such as Dexter's Lab and Roccos Modern Life.

Did people who grew up during the 80's have a similar intolerance towards cartoons in the 90's and 00's?

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

I couldn't tell you, seeing as I'm a product of late 1990s/early 2000s. But I can tell you flat out that there's always been shitty cartoons. It's just that there's more of them these days because animation's a "quick & effective" tool these days.

Though really, you could apply it to all forms of media nowadays.

 

[KatsuKitty]

They don't want to spend the money on good cartoons. As recently as 15 years ago, most cartoons were painstakingly hand-animated and you'd get things like hand-painted backgrounds. Now, almost everything is cheaply cranked out in Flash, so the animation is very cookie-cutter and all has the same feel since it's produced in the same product.

 

[Tailypo]

This is kind of a subjective topic, especially since a lot of people who bitch about modern cartoons refuse to take off their nostalgia goggles and acknowledge that shit cartoons existed in the 90s. I do agree that the quality of animated shows has fallen a bit during the 00s when Flash became the go-to animating tool for most companies, but I also think we've seen some improvement around 2010 and onwards.

 

[Zeorus]

Why do adults give a shit about cartoons?

 

[Sperglord Dante]

They don't want to spend the money on good cartoons. As recently as 15 years ago, most cartoons were painstakingly hand-animated and you'd get things like hand-painted backgrounds. Now, almost everything is cheaply cranked out in Flash, so the animation is very cookie-cutter and all has the same feel since it's produced in the same product.

I think it's a cyclical thing; cartoons get great production values for a time and then become super cheap another long stretch. At least we're not worse off than in Hanna fucking Barbera's heyday.

Besides Cartoon Network (which went through a renaissance with Adventure Time and Regular Show) I don't really watch cartoons regularly, so I wouldn't be able to tell how bad the other stations are doing.

 

[YI 457]

Lack of drugs and/or inability to be easily amazed.

 

[Dr. Boe Jangles Esq.]

Because all those wacky, fun cartoons you remember from childhood? They were made by absolute nutters who were borderline unemployable. It's not much of a shock that big companies like Nick or Cartoon Network have tried to reduce the crazy in their workforce. Jhonen Vasquez is a (incredibly gifted and insightful) lunatic who fought the network constantly over the age appropriateness of his content. Rocko's Modern Life was a 4 season sex joke that I still can't believe was an actual thing. Ren and Stimpy was... well, it was Ren and Stimpy.
Our culture has shifted to a place where risky business moves like that just aren't worth the trouble, particularly considering how sensitive people are about media right now.

 

[TheProdigalStunna]

most of the cartoons of your childhood were shit too

 

[AnOminous]

They don't want to spend the money on good cartoons. As recently as 15 years ago, most cartoons were painstakingly hand-animated and you'd get things like hand-painted backgrounds. Now, almost everything is cheaply cranked out in Flash, so the animation is very cookie-cutter and all has the same feel since it's produced in the same product.

Perfectly good animation can be made in Flash, and shitty animation looks less shit. It replaced schlock animation by skid row drunks.

Go back and look at some of the really terrible Hanna Barbera animation for examples, or shit like He-Man or the Smurfs for examples of run of the mill toy-selling animation. That shit was terrible.

 

[Billy of Hills]

This sure is some tasty bait @Wildchild - maybe you'll catch an entersperg

Why do adults give a shit about cartoons?

Please, everyone, read the above and reconsider your life choices.

 

[Trans Fat 41g]

What can I tell you, no generation of TV, animated or not, ever stays the same. It just helps to actually move on from what will never happen again and just enjoy what you can.

Besides. Kids TV. You're not the demographic.

 

[Strelok]

If you're asking why media hyper focuses on demographics instead of broader appeal like it used to, one only needs to look at the TV media environment. Where before each network might own 2 or 3 of the channels on your cable box, now every network has about 70 different hyper-focused channels. I know on my box I have at LEAST 10 channels dedicated solely to crime documentaries. Unless you are a Broadcast station like the three letters, you have to specialize.

 

[TL 611]

The writers are on less mind bending drugs now cartoons aren't weird-as-shit creations anymore, theyre just vaguely round shaped humanoids doing boring shit.

 

[SP 199]

Because you touch yourself at night

 

[Dr. Boe Jangles Esq.]

The writers are on less mind bending drugs now cartoons aren't weird-as-shit creations anymore, theyre just vaguely round shaped humanoids doing boring shit.

And what is art without hallucinogens?

 

[Joan Nyan]

most of the cartoons of your childhood were shit too

*All

 

[TheProdigalStunna]

The writers are on less mind bending drugs now cartoons aren't weird-as-shit creations anymore, theyre just vaguely round shaped humanoids doing boring shit.

tell me about it! Ren and Stimpy, that shit was like Looney Tunes ON L.S.D.! I bet there was a big ol cloud of weed smoke billowing out of the Spumco headquarters; John K. be on that shit 24/7

 

[Sanshain]

Because nobody wants to compete with MLP.

 

[Trans Fat 41g]

Because nobody wants to associate with networks that feature MLP.

Fixed.