• Are current cartoons on television REALLY all that bad?
    245 replies, posted
[QUOTE=garrynohome;33604732]I can't tell if you're admitting it or not but yes the show is controlled by Hasbro and is in fact a 22 minute glorified toy commercial. So the main point is to maximize profits. This was achieved by having as few voice actors and actresses as possible, and using Flash based animation with an 8 bit color scheme(3 red, 3 green, 2 blue) which is poor to say the least. You also get the standard low quality flash animation detail and although it might be argued that can be attributed to flash itself, nobody forced Hasbro to use flash.[/QUOTE] You can say that about any show. As I mentioned earlier, Symbionic Titan was canceled because they [i]couldn't[/i] sell toys. Executive meddling is one of the largest factor to why so many shows nowadays are really crap. Hasbro was really loose when it came to the show, giving the artists a lot of creative freedom; something a lot of shows lack. All they wanted was a show to help sell the toys, and they could care less how they did it. On another subject; to be honest, I'm clueless as how Adventure Time and Regular Show continue to operate. Those two shows seem like Cartoon Network is trying to appeal to an older audience (us), but you could at least defend that Adventure Time appeals to twelve year-olds. I have heard that executives at CN do like Adventure Time personally, so that gives it a lot of life. I have no idea how Regular Show continues to exist. [editline]6th December 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=n0cturni;33605498]I think a lot of it owes to how unmemorable the new cartoons are. Nothing you see in today's shows really affects you to the point where you can't help but remember or change your view on something. Pretty much anyone who grew up watching cartoons in the 90's would be familiar with the phrase "omelette du fromage" as more than just a French phrase. Cartoons don't do stuff like this anymore (It won awards if I remember correctly; and I can only find the Italian version on youtube): -media snip-[/QUOTE] I think that's part to do with nostalgia. When you're a kid, you remember things a lot more to the point they can stick with you your entire life. If you watched Dexter's Lab as an adult back then, it probably wouldn't have the same effect, and it would've been just another gag in the show.
it's stupid nostalgia glasses bullshit. The shows are all exactly the same.
[QUOTE=McNab;33603150]Yeah you either like it or hate it. A certain skit that was a crossover of toy story 3 and the bourne ultimatum had me gasping for air it was so funny, thats what made me like it.[/QUOTE] Really, what's killing it for me is how they managed to butcher Spy versus Spy. That used to be one of my absolute favorite things about MAD, both with the (original) TV show and the magazine. Now it's just... really unimaginative, for the most part. Honestly I could go on and on as to why I dislike the show (for other more legitimate reasons) but Ben pretty much summed up what I wanted to say. The show's good in theory, but they're just not properly pulling it off.
let's end this mlp discussion [url]http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/cr/ff/32594-episode-58-my-little-pony-retrospective-g4[/url] This is probably the best review of the show I really can't disagree with him, so just stop getting of subject any more
[QUOTE=Vedicardi;33605701]it's stupid nostalgia glasses bullshit. The shows are all exactly the same.[/QUOTE] Please stop saying that. As an individual who didn't have cable growing up I can assure you that cartoons today do indeed suck.
[QUOTE=JohnFisher89;33606046]let's end this mlp discussion [url]http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/cr/ff/32594-episode-58-my-little-pony-retrospective-g4[/url] This is probably the best review of the show I really can't disagree with him, so just stop getting of subject any more[/QUOTE] I somehow managed to disagree with him on every single point he made (except the facts on who was who) and not to sound too flamey here but a few of his opinions sound outright delusional, and the music made me go into convulsions (again!) Glad to have learned how to pronounce Faust though.
[QUOTE=lapsus_;33595084]Cartoons these days are shit. The drawn ones are unfunny and contentless just like the animated ones, now reduced to talking-animals and their routines. Do you remember the funny, colourful, full of cliché, accompanied by an orchestra enternainment brought by Well these days are over. Now year after year TV shows get worst, and the 3D animation movies are getting boring and all alike. The only one that stands out the crowd is UP by Disney Pixar[/QUOTE] That's a matter of opinion.
[QUOTE=JohnFisher89;33606046]let's end this mlp discussion [url]http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/cr/ff/32594-episode-58-my-little-pony-retrospective-g4[/url] This is probably the best review of the show I really can't disagree with him, so just stop getting of subject any more[/QUOTE]I have to admit, good review. Very well, back on topic.
[QUOTE=Rhodry;33584888]That reminds me of the whole "nostalgia makes things better" situation. I'm sure that Bakugan, Duel Masters etc are no different cartoons than stuff like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh! but we instantly think it's a terrible show and support the ones we used to watch. They're really the same thing, just a show to support a toy market.[/QUOTE] [IMG]http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/6995/totallynotrippingoffpok.png[/IMG] [B]Totally not ripping off Pokemon[/B] Look up on YouTube "Bakugan theme song", it's absolute tripe compared to the first few Pokemon theme songs. Anime isn't some fine wine that gets fermented by nostalgia. The show is built on a premise that has been done before and the voice actors are bland if not awful. I liked the first few seasons of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh because they were good, now it's just cashing in on the fanbase. [editline]7th December 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Rhodry;33607066]That's a matter of opinion.[/QUOTE] Everything's a matter of opinion! You can look at a painting and say it sucks while some pretentious art professor will obsess about how wonderful it is.
[QUOTE=MIPS;33581946]Something went wrong somewhere when My Little Pony is rehashed 15 years or something after the original airing and it's still a grand hit with [i]everyone.[/i][/QUOTE] The whole team are cartoon veterans. The majority worked on 90s and early 2000s cartoons. That's why it's a hit.
[QUOTE=Hidole555;33610069] [B]Totally not ripping off Pokemon[/B][/QUOTE] I didn't say anything about ripping off pokemon. I'm just referring to the fact that all of these childrens animes are just support for a toy line.
[QUOTE=Rhodry;33610256]I didn't say anything about ripping off pokemon. I'm just referring to the fact that all of these childrens animes are just support for a toy line.[/QUOTE] This is true
[QUOTE=Capitalist Dog;33581974]Yes, they really are that bad. I took a peek at some of the garbage they are showing on Cartoon Network (the whole network went to shit after Toonami ended, imo) and it's absolutely disgusting. Sexual references and cancerous humor galore.[/QUOTE] [img]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_f9vwp0bVFLE/SccpSr6KzTI/AAAAAAAAAHg/y7VdZxxEdjk/s400/image.jpg[/img] Whenever he showed up you just knew there'd be a sexual reference and yet everyone and their moms liked DBZ. I don't really like most cartoons today. It'd be cool if they'd decide to throw all the episodes of Tintin in again though. [editline]7th December 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Rhodry;33610256]I didn't say anything about ripping off pokemon. I'm just referring to the fact that all of these childrens animes are just support for a toy line.[/QUOTE] What do you think the Mario cartoons were made for?
[QUOTE=Recurracy;33611311]What do you think the Mario cartoons were made for?[/QUOTE] Toyline was a generalization. It could mean anything from actual toys, figures, trading cards, movies, video games and various other merch.
[QUOTE=Vedicardi;33605701]it's stupid nostalgia glasses bullshit. The shows are all exactly the same.[/QUOTE] Recently I watched some older cartoons that I had never seen before, and some newer cartoons recently to test the nostalgia theory out. IMHO, even without nostalgia as a factor, the older shows were still mostly better.
[QUOTE=Vedicardi;33605701]it's stupid nostalgia glasses bullshit. The shows are all exactly the same.[/QUOTE] Even though I hate that term I have to agree.
[QUOTE=Rhodry;33610256]I didn't say anything about ripping off pokemon. I'm just referring to the fact that all of these childrens animes are just support for a toy line.[/QUOTE] Modern ones anyway, 5-20 years ago it was done for video games (and it was decent anime to). But that being said are you trying to suggest it isn't a pokemon knockoff? I didn't have to see more than the ads to know that it is. [editline]7th December 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Derp Y. Mail;33610167]The whole team are cartoon veterans. The majority worked on 90s and early 2000s cartoons. That's why it's a hit.[/QUOTE] They're all complete has-beens though. Don't get me wrong some of their older stuff is nice but now ehhhh.
[QUOTE=JohnFisher89;33606046]let's end this mlp discussion [url]http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/cr/ff/32594-episode-58-my-little-pony-retrospective-g4[/url] This is probably the best review of the show I really can't disagree with him, so just stop getting of subject any more[/QUOTE] "Making this new style of model animation as beautiful and smooth as possible." Sorry what? You can't disagree with him? So you're in favour of low budget flash based animation with extremely low levels of detail and an 8bit color scheme? I had to shut the review off right there because he clearly has no idea what he's talking about. I can't enjoy a show when I have to just listen to it because the visuals are not enjoyable. [editline]7th December 2011[/editline] [quote]They're all complete has-beens though. Don't get me wrong some of their older stuff is nice but now ehhhh.[/quote] Exactly. My life as a teenage robot and Powerpuff girls are seldom mentioned when people talk about amazing shows from the past. The creator and now consulting producer for the team Lauren Faust has been failing to get her original ideas off the ground for her entire career, and it's not just because studios only want to use existing franchises. The one thing that stands out for me is that she worked on the Iron giant which is a great, albeit under rated film.
[QUOTE=garrynohome;33616162]"Making this new style of model animation as beautiful and smooth as possible." Sorry what? You can't disagree with him? So you're in favour of low budget flash based animation with extremely low levels of detail and an 8bit color scheme? I had to shut the review off right there because he clearly has no idea what he's talking about. I can't enjoy a show when I have to just listen to it because the visuals are not enjoyable.[/quote] Looks decent to me, I could care less if flash was animating it or it was all hand drawn. I guess it is a matter of opinion, but the environments aren't terrible, the characters facial expressions are well done, you don't oftenly see the same character in the background. While it may not be the best and have its goofs sometime it does at least fit into the environment it is trying to promote. He isn't saying the animation is great, he is saying with the tools they have they did a damn good job of it. It would be like me saying "I hate the Flintstones/jestons/<any hanna barbara cartoon> because they have few characters and constantly reuse the same backgrounds!", I watch cartoons for slap stick humor, plot humor, and just because the characters are enjoyable to watch; not just the eye candy.
No it wouldn't, that's a horrible analogy. Hanna Barbera had very limited funds during the creation of their early shows, Hasbro has millions, even billions of dollars and they could allocate a lot more to the creation of their shows. The environments are low detail and have a low variation in color. The facial expressions are fine, I agree with that. But don't try and say that you don't often see the same characters in the background. They use a cloning method that takes the same background characters and swaps color sets. When you're meant to see a certain background character you will, but in cases where the animators found it irrelevant(most of the time) it's sets of characters copied.
[QUOTE=garrynohome;33616435]No it wouldn't, that's a horrible analogy. Hanna Barbera had very limited funds during the creation of their early shows, Hasbro has millions, even billions of dollars and they could allocate a lot more to the creation of their shows. The environments are low detail and have a low variation in color. The facial expressions are fine, I agree with that. But don't try and say that you don't often see the same characters in the background. They use a cloning method that takes the same background characters and swaps color sets. When you're meant to see a certain background character you will, but in cases where the animators found it irrelevant(most of the time) it's sets of characters copied.[/QUOTE] I only recall a few episodes seeing the same characters in the back ground. Also hanna barbara had quite a bit of money after the Flintstones and still kept the same low budget animation. I could also say shows like PPG, Dexters lab(this one did it a shit tonne), Johnny Bravo, 2 Dogs, Fosters Home, Scooby Doo, I could go on... But they all reused backgrounds and mostly low character models, basic back grounds, but that isn't what made the show good or bad, it was the plots, characters and cartoonish humor. The only shows I see pay attention to detail is anime, or cartoons like jakie chan adventures and usually I don't care that much about animation, but then again animation tastes rely on personal opinion.
Are we seriously back on MLP? Look, some of us like it and others don't for whatever reasons. Can we stop shitting up the thread every other minute please? There's other fucking cartoons we could be discussing.
[QUOTE=C0linSSX;33617135]Are we seriously back on MLP? Look, some of us like it and others don't for whatever reasons. Can we stop shitting up the thread every other minute please? There's other fucking cartoons we could be discussing.[/QUOTE] More or less talking about animation at this point
I thought this was a debate forum, not an "opinions are facts" forum?? Anyway, I haven't really been up-to-date with modern cartoons, besides MLP. I've seen cartoons like Cat vs. Kid, which I actually thoroughly enjoyed with yawning. And then there's cartoons like Spongebob, in which now, is only bad because it has lost the same sense of humor it did when we were kids. No more cleverity, just ruckus-noise. Cat vs. Kid, I found interesting, maybe because I was tired, but I actually liked how the situations were thought up. I've only seen one episode though so the memory is dimmed. I think I could understand that it's difficult to mix in opinions on something that's so widely thought of around communities, and mixing in fandoms in there just makes it even more harder, to give a good argument on a debate forum. With that said, current cartoons aren't [i]that[/i] bad, it's just some things that were made for a target audience, has more-than-needed adult references to the point where it changes what kids like us used to be, to what kids are now. More perverted and wild. It's just a matter of an personal individual opinion, really. Can't really debate on a commonthought that will always end up going loosely. It'll only get worse as generations pass on, obviously. Just the important thing is, some people have an open mind on things, and others don't. And nothing will change that, it's just the way of life. So what do you do?
Most of it is meh. There are exeptions, mainly in the form of Futurama (obviously) and (as I've noticed since October) Adventure Time.
[QUOTE=Herr Sven;33618846]Most of it is meh. There are exeptions, mainly in the form of Futurama (obviously) and (as I've noticed since October) Adventure Time.[/QUOTE] Truthfully, I just stopped watching the new season of Futurama around the Space Whale episode. The first part of the season was pretty good (albiet not quite up to par with earlier seasons, especially the eyePhone shit), but the second part didn't really keep my attention beyond the first few episodes. Was that just a low point in the season or something? I may go back and watch what I missed.
You can use Spongebob as a measuring stick for how cartoons are now. It seems that the older shows were just more thought out than they are now. Saying that the new cartoons are just meant for the target audience just shows what kind of mindset the current generation has. From what I've seen, the shows seem to go for joke after joke like it's meant for those who will get bored if there is 2 seconds without some sort of random thing happening. It just seems like the shows are being milked for all they got and thus ruining the entire thing. I think that the old cartoons would fair just as well with a new generation. Who wouldn't want to watch Samurai Jack or Megas XLR, hell Teen Titans was also a good one. Have a show with a plot or some sort of epic story, it gives structure to the cartoon and you can build around that. You don't have to make every episode continue the story and that makes the random episode that much better. When it comes to the live-action shows there is no doubt that the old Nick was better, the last good one was Drake and Josh. And the ones before that were good because they were about [i]kids[/i]. Who didn't want to climb the fucking Aggro Crag or go through the Legends of the Hidden Temple's temple. And 'All That' was nothing but kids having fun portraying adults, you knew it was sincere. It captured the kid's imagination and put it in those situations. It took the spirit of how kids would imagine a world run by them and put it in a show. Now they have, what, I Carly?
i dont like that they say spongebob makes kids retarded when its clearly the education system that makes kids stupid as hell
[QUOTE=C0linSSX;33619218]Truthfully, I just stopped watching the new season of Futurama around the Space Whale episode. The first part of the season was pretty good (albiet not quite up to par with earlier seasons, especially the eyePhone shit), but the second part didn't really keep my attention beyond the first few episodes. Was that just a low point in the season or something? I may go back and watch what I missed.[/QUOTE] That ep was great. :( But yeah, the rest is definitely worth watching. If you want a deeper episode, you have Overclockwise, and for the funniest episode (imo), you have the last one; Reincarnation.
[QUOTE=Herr Sven;33618846]Most of it is meh. There are exeptions, mainly in the form of Futurama (obviously) and (as I've noticed since October) Adventure Time.[/QUOTE] Futurama is indeed a great show. It seems to have the same humour we all loved in The Simpsons, but newer Simpsons comedy seems way too forced.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.