What Are You Watching?

[Dr. Insomniac]

I think it's because Mike Lazzo personally likes it even if nobody else does. Same reason why he greenlit that alt-right show last year.

[Avaitor]

I'm at the last couple of Batman: TAS episodes, and let me just say that it's still the best of its kind. Granted, the bad episodes are still bad, but while I feel that Justice League shows slightly more wear as the years go by, that first Batman run is incomparable. TNBA is iffy, but I think they were starting to get back into a groove with the last disc's worth of episodes. I kind of would like to have gotten another season or two of this, especially if "Beware the Creeper" is any indication of where it could have gone, but I'm ultimately fine with it ending so we could get Batman Beyond.

Next up- Samurai Jack. I've been wanting to give it a proper rewatch after getting the return, which will also be getting a second viewing from me.

[Avaitor]

Art Clokey's son has passed.

He was in charge of maintaining the Gumby brand, and helped with the recent restorations. It looks like his wife will be in charge of Gumby now.

[gunswordfist]

Rest in peace, Joe Clokey.

[Mustang]

Batman Ninja
I do regret buying it on dvd because it's only worth watching once. That being said I do think it was good for what it was. If you're going into it for your average Batman story I think you'll be very disappointed. I was going into it with an "action" mindset and while it's there I was unsatisfied mainly because you have Batman's crew (full of the boys) and only Batman is the one who got to shine. There is no way you have Red Hood and Deathstroke in the same movie and not have them throw down. I get it. This is Batman (he should have all the shine), and this is why I don't care much for Batman in general like most people. The action itself is over the top. Almost like some sort of parody and I think that's where it sort of lost me at. The majority of the action should've stayed as sword vs sword.

I doubt I'd buy another anime version of our heroes.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I liked bits and pieces of Batman Ninja. I got what I expected, a Batman anime written by the Gurren Lagann/Kill la Kill writer and directed by the guy who did the first handful of Jojo openings. It succeeded in that regard, and I had fun watching scenes like the giant Batman made out of bats, but there are issues like villains who seem like they're there only because of some quota and not because the writer had an interesting idea for them (like Ivy, Slade, and Penguin). And Damian forming a bond with the magic monkeys was goofy. I know he does something like that in the comics, but that doesn't make it less silly.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It's a tad better than most anime takes on Western licensed superheroes, but it still suffers from a lot of the same issues that make these sorts of features feel so sub-par, namely that the characters in question are pretty passionless and bare-bone representations of who they are in the source material. It's more of a style over substance affair. With Batman Ninja, it was enough style to keep it decent enough for a single watch, at least, but honestly I've been pretty exhausted with DC's DTV output for years now, and this is no exception.

[Dr. Insomniac]

It's a little funny they got someone named Roger Smith to star in a Batman anime though.

[Avaitor]

I've had some off time in the past few days, so I've been finally giving that Three Caballeros show a watch.

What I think is really interesting is that this is basically the anti-DuckTales in every way, shape, and form. You can tell the showrunners are doing everything they can to ignore Carl Barks to give us a Donald more influenced by his shorts and even other comic writers. As much as I admire Barks, I kind of like it, since it's different. Without the nephews, Donald gets to have a little more of a temper, while his good side is shown more with his dedication to his friends. The art style looks more classical, but at the same time, the animation isn't very fluid. Its stockiness reminds me of the recent Tom & Jerry show. And I like that the show uses professional voice actors, as opposed to NuTales focusing on hiring actors from cult shows.

Besides the iffy animation, my biggest complaint is that Jose and Panchito aren't the best-defined characters thus far. You could just as easily take them out to focus on Donald and lose nothing, aside Xandra talking about how they need to work as a team. I hope this improves soon.

[Dr. Insomniac]

It felt like the showrunners were trying to do Jackie Chan Adventures starring Donald Duck. Sheldgoose and Feldrake had that dynamic Valmont and Shendu had, for instance.

as opposed to NuTales focusing on hiring actors from cult shows.

It creates this tonal dissonance for me. Hearing all these guys like Bobby Moynihan, David Tennant, and Abed talk in their regular voices, but then Donald occasionally shows up with his usual Tony Anselmo voice. It makes Donald feel a little out of place in this show. Not helped by his dwindling appearances in favor of Webby.

[FoxKidsLover16]

Ive recently been rewatching some of "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" recently, since I am excited for the new Christopher Robin movie. I used to watch it all the time in the 2000s through the VHS Tapes and the reruns on Disney Channel's Playhouse Disney block.

I think its still a great show that holds up well even today. The characters are lovable with all of them having their own fun lines and moments, the show can get somewhat dark and intense at times for a Winnie the Pooh show (Its not that dark, but there is danger in the series), and it can be emotional at times like the episodes with Kessie the Blue Jay. I also love how its a 2D Animated Pooh show and that its the closest a Pooh show ever got to the classic featurettes. Also, the theme song is amazing. My favorite character is Piglet, since like him, I get anxious and nervous. He also has some fun episodes like the one where he plays with his shadow and the pigmy piglets one. Its a show I am glad to have grown up with and one of the few 80s shows that I can say is a favorite of mine. If I ever made a list of my favorite shows, this is easily going in there. Between Welcome to Pooh Corner, The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Book of Pooh, and My Friends Tigger and Pooh, New Adventures is easily my favorite (Though Book of Pooh was very good and I kind of like Pooh Corner. My Friends Tigger and Pooh was alright in my opinion)

One thing I noticed is that Disney Channel kept this show on for a long time. It debuted as a sneak preview on the network in January 1988 before going to ABC later that year. Then, it officially joined the network in October 1994 and aired all the way up until September 2006, which was long after Disney got rid of most of their old stuff from their network.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Disenchantment is fun.

[Avaitor]

Variety, of all places, made a pretty interesting list. It's a good idea to rank animated series following the splash of animation The Simpsons was responsible for, and I like some of the reasoning here. Obviously it's not perfect, and here are some notes I have, positive and negative:

-Big Mouth is definitely a surprise. I haven't got around to watching it in full yet, but I have seen that "life is a fucked up mess" sequence, which rubbed me the wrong way. It's the kind of unimpressive nihilism that Rick and Morty's biggest critics think it's guilty of. If the rest of the show is like that, I'm not interested.
-I like seeing OG Clone Wars on here over the recent series, but I think Samurai Jack ultimately should be here instead.
-Korra over Airbender is highly surprising.
-I do really like seeing Rocko not only make the top 10, but be the highest-ranked Nicktoon. The show still does wonders.
-Batman: TAS seems pretty low, but I think that's more a sign of the times than a knock on its quality. I feel like we're increasingly moving away from its influence as action cartoons are becoming less of a thing.
-I'm not sure about South Park being the best animated series to premiere since The Simpsons, but I'm really happy to see BoJack and Daria's rankings.
-Also, I'll never get the appeal of Lord and Miller.
-But really, no Family Guy is a good call.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I watched that Marvel Rising Secret Warriors thing on a whim, and it exemplified everything wrong with modern Marvel cartoons. Superheroes who commit wanton collateral damage yet we're still supposed to think they're inspirational. Poor design that does away with any shading or even fluid animation. Characters shoehorned in just because of the movies, with no foreknowledge as to how to make them work as a team. Really unfitting licensed pop music. And annoying comic relief. Squirrel Girl's just Bolin in a wig here. And there's a weird moment where she suddenly acts racist against Kamala, but then they go back to being friends soon after like it didn't happen? It tries way too hard to be the hip, trendy Marvel cartoon that can get down with the kids and teens, but it doesn't work. You'd think after over six tries, they would finally make at least one of these Disney XD Marvel cartoons that could even be half as good as Spectacular or Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Yet they haven't even made anything as entertaining as that 90s Spider-Man show. At least that had charm in its ineptitude.

Also, it's funny that Marvel's releasing this so soon before DC's running the third season of Young Justice, their show that's also meant to tackle teen issues with younger superheroes.

[Katie Holt]

I've been loving the heck out of Summer Camp Island on Cartoon Network and Hilda on Netflix.

Summer Camp Island is weird and cute at the same time. As for Hilda, I don't have a particular reason for watching it other than seeing a lot of hype for it on my Twitter feed, and thankfully, I was not disappointed.