What Do You Wish Was Different In The World Of Animation Today?

[gunswordfist]

Some post Avaitor made reminded me to make this thread.

I wish Cartoon Network would have another animated shorts show like What A Cartoon or Premiere Cartoons. I'm sure they could easily get a bunch of old talent to come up with shorts for new cartoons and some new talent too. Then of course some get to go on and be full length shows like they did with Cartoon Cartoons (or something like that)

[Kiddington]

I wish this show would just go away.

For all the thing's that CN has done right lately, this is one misstep that refuses to die.

[Avaitor]

Well you know, that was going to happen with the Cartoonstitute. It got cancelled before hitting the screen though, but at least one pilot made for it got its own show. IIRC that show was Robotomy, but I can't really remember on the top of my head.

Nickelodeon was also trying to bring Oh Yeah! Cartoons back around that time, but it also didn't really go anywhere. But you might know that Adventure Time's pilot was made for that, which Cartoon Network eventually bought and the rest is history.

Um, I can't really think of anything myself, although I'd love to see another JBVO on CN, that'd accept anything they can fit into an hour-long block, be it recent episodes of Adventure Time and Regular Show, older Johnny Bravo and EEnE shorts, and Warner/MGM/HB classics. So basically what they're doing now with the Cartoon Planet revival, but with more variety.

I also think they should've made a block with anime series that didn't really belong on Toonami, like Hamtaro and Sailor Moon when they tried to bring it back. They kind of tried that when they brought Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! to the channel and aired them before Toonami, so I guess they should've extended that?

[Spark Of Spirit]

• Less shows about school - Seriously, I never enjoyed these types of shows as a kid and I wonder why kids do. School is school, TV is for fun! Even normal shows from my youth like Goof Troop rarely ever had school episodes and I never wanted more of them.
• Disney to get its act together - Disney has severely lost the plot ever since near the end of TDA forgetting what it means to make something "Disney-like" and instead resorts to aping everyone else. Their animated movies are doing so well, too. Why can't Lasseter do the same with the TV department?
• Nickelodeon to either embrace its history or stop milking Spongebob - The ultimate hypocrisy, really. You can't tell your own audience to move on when you keep milking a show that's well over a decade old at the cost of everything else on the network.
  
• Adventure shows, come back! - DuckTales, Gargoyles, Avatar, heck even stuff like Mighty Max. Bring back the adventure, less reliance on fighting and uncreative toy tie-ins would be nice.
  
• Less "loud" shows - Like Kiddington said. Just... ugh.
  

[Kiddington]

Nickelodeon was also trying to bring Oh Yeah! Cartoons back around that time, but it also didn't really go anywhere. But you might know that Adventure Time's pilot was made for that, which Cartoon Network eventually bought and the rest is history.

Technically, they did revive it... it just only aired for about a month and was pretty much DOA, thanks to Nick not promoting it.

That's actually further than where Cartoonstitute went, though. At least Random actually was on TV for a short time... all of the Cartoonstitute shorts, aside from maybe the Regular Show pilot, never made it that far.

[Avaitor]

• Less shows about school - Seriously, I never enjoyed these types of shows as a kid and I wonder why kids do. School is school, TV is for fun! Even normal shows from my youth like Goof Troop rarely ever had school episodes and I never wanted more of them.

Well that's becoming less of a problem nowadays. School-based shows were more of an epidemic during the mid 90's to mid aughts, but I think in the past few years, we've been seeing less school-oriented animated programing. At least as the main point of a show.

[/li]

[li]Adventure shows, come back! - DuckTales, Gargoyles, Avatar, heck even stuff like Mighty Max. Bring back the adventure, less reliance on fighting and uncreative toy tie-ins would be nice.[/li][/list]

Well, there is Adventure Time. Not perfect and it kinda is part of the problem with your next point, but it does what you're asking for here.

And like I said elsewhere, I want less licensed shows and spin-offs and more original ideas. I'll likely follow what Marvel and DC do until I die, but that doesn't mean that I'm not sick of watching the same old Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, Superman etc stories told over and over again. And 80's reboots need to go away already. Seriously.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I dunno, most Adventure Time episodes I saw equate to basically Regular Show in a fantasy environment

Another thing is more classic-style shows with classic humor. We had a bunch of these every decade since Looney Tunes came to the small screen but the last decade really fell off. Even The Looney Tunes Show went out of its way to "modernize" instead of offer kids classic-style humor. I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, but it's disheartening.

Less variety and less options every year.

[Commode]

I kind of want the "edge" factor to go away.  Plenty of great cartoons have been made where they were just simple fun, but after the success of the adult animation shows we've had a trend where they aren't as subtle with the adult humor(Adventure Time and especially Regular Show).  It's not hard to make a show that can appeal to both adults and children that doesn't have that "edge".

And I know it's a pipe dream but bring back cel animation.  Many of today's cartoons are too bright and the colors often times too saturated.  I liked the colorization of cels, even shows that were really colorful like Rocko weren't bright as hell like the digitally colorized cartoons.

[Avaitor]

Speaking of Marvel and DC, I HATE the current trend they have with their cartoons where they feel obligated to end a show before the next movie comes out. I mean, for example Kevin Conroy's Batman lasted through 4 different movies (even if you don't count JL, B:TAS and TNBA made it up to 3), while TB&TB had to end last year so Warner could make a new Batman show before the next film comes out.

This really needs to end.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Speaking of Marvel and DC, I HATE the current trend they have with their cartoons where they feel obligated to end a show before the next movie comes out. I mean, for example Kevin Conroy's Batman lasted through 4 different movies (even if you don't count JL, B:TAS and TNBA made it up to 3), while TB&TB had to end last year so Warner could make a new Batman show before the next film comes out.

This really needs to end.

I honestly don't get this at all. Kids who were already watching will continue watching and those that didn't will still not tune in. It can't be cheaper to build the same basic show (The Batman, let's face it) from scratch every few years for an at best marginal and short term viewership boost.

I kind of want the "edge" factor to go away.  Plenty of great cartoons have been made where they were just simple fun, but after the success of the adult animation shows we've had a trend where they aren't as subtle with the adult humor(Adventure Time and especially Regular Show).  It's not hard to make a show that can appeal to both adults and children that doesn't have that "edge".

I'm not a big fan of shock value as it is (I find it cheap and easy), but yeah, it really is quite tiring. You don't need "adult humor" to attract adults. Back in the day adults watched Tiny Toons and Batman and enjoyed them and neither went out of their way to separate adult content from kid content. They were the same thing.

And I know it's a pipe dream but bring back cel animation.  Many of today's cartoons are too bright and the colors often times too saturated.  I liked the colorization of cels, even shows that were really colorful like Rocko weren't bright as hell like the digitally colorized cartoons.

It's sad that animation is really so expensive to make. While I would really enjoy the return of cels... it just can't happen because of cost and how easy computers are to use. But I do completely agree with you and think most likely everyone else does too. Cel animation is better looking than computer animation as a whole.

[Rynnec]

More Action-oriented adult animation.Other than Spawn and Black Dynamite, I can't think of any that exist, let alone any that aren't based on an already existing property. Unfortunately, we're unlikely to get anymore because of the asinine logic of "cartoons = for kids", despite the fact that some things translate better into animation. Speaking of adult-animation...

I kind of want the "edge" factor to go away.  Plenty of great cartoons have been made where they were just simple fun, but after the success of the adult animation shows we've had a trend where they aren't as subtle with the adult humor(Adventure Time and especially Regular Show).  It's not hard to make a show that can appeal to both adults and children that doesn't have that "edge".

I'm not a big fan of shock value as it is (I find it cheap and easy), but yeah, it really is quite tiring. You don't need "adult humor" to attract adults. Back in the day adults watched Tiny Toons and Batman and enjoyed them and neither went out of their way to separate adult content from kid content. They were the same thing.

Completely agree with this.

Speaking of Marvel and DC, I HATE the current trend they have with their cartoons where they feel obligated to end a show before the next movie comes out. I mean, for example Kevin Conroy's Batman lasted through 4 different movies (even if you don't count JL, B:TAS and TNBA made it up to 3), while TB&TB had to end last year so Warner could make a new Batman show before the next film comes out.

This really needs to end.

It's not just Marvel and DC either, Transformers Animated had to end early so Hasbro could promote Revenge of the Fallen, and created (the rather boring from what I've seen) Transformers Prime as a replacement, I think this also happened to GI Joe as well.

[gunswordfist]

I'd kill for an adventure show like Avatar season 1 without the filler. And of course I'd love more adult-oriented action cartoons myself. I'm getting sick of people thinking anime can only be like that.

[Avaitor]

I'd love for more serials. Not like Avatar, with tons of filler, but something like the old Buck Rogers shorts they'd play in theaters. The Atom shorts on DC Nation had the right idea. I'd love for a show to contain a couple of adventure stories like that per an hour-long installment. You could easily raise the stakes for older viewers or save it for Saturday morning.

[Goldstar]

I kind of want the "edge" factor to go away.  Plenty of great cartoons have been made where they were just simple fun, but after the success of the adult animation shows we've had a trend where they aren't as subtle with the adult humor(Adventure Time and especially Regular Show).  It's not hard to make a show that can appeal to both adults and children that doesn't have that "edge".

Agreed 100%.

I'm so sick of everything animated having to be "tough" and "edgy". What happened to cartoons being just plain fun? I'm old enough to remember when every cartoon didn't have to have an attitude. The only thing that was important was the show's entertainment value.

I also wish that Turner would understand that "adult" doesn't mean be as dirty and random as possible. I'd like to see some more intelligent TV-PG rated cartoons on TV instead of the rude, crude, "stoneriffic" stuff that dominates Adult Swim.

I'd like to see more cartoons with female protagonists, and no, I don't mean more stuff like Bratz or Monster High that are all about makeovers, shopping and finding a date for the school dance. I mean more general shows which are general comedy and action oriented cartoons where the central characters just happen to be female. I'd like to see female cartoons characters who aren't so dang perfect all the time and who are just as wacky and comically flawed as their male counterparts, and also more animated families in which at least some of the male members aren't total morons and the female members aren't all boringly sensible.

I'd like for there to be no more separation between "boys shows" and "girls shows". Ideally, they should be one and the same.

[gunswordfist]

It's not just Marvel and DC either, Transformers Animated had to end early so Hasbro could promote Revenge of the Fallen, and created (the rather boring from what I've seen) Transformers Prime as a replacement, I think this also happened to GI Joe as well.
[/quote]What?! NO!!!! So Renegades won't be getting a new season. Dammit, I want more Sewer/Tunnel Rat.