"The Year The Cartoons Died" - anyone ever have that feeling?

[TMC]

http://www.toonzone.net/forums/toonzone-general-animation-discussion/301269-year-cartoons-died-anyone-ever-have-feeling.html#.UUQ-yiu3bl4

With the apparent cancellation of Young Justice and Green Lantern on
Cartoon Network, there's been a lot of talk about the death of action
cartoons on TV.

But let's put things in perspective, I think everyone at least once
thinks that "cartoons are dying" when a favorite show goes off the
air. Sometimes you have that feeling about the new wave of "action
cartoons" not being as good the ones you enjoyed, or sometimes it's
"comedy cartoons" not being on par with your favorites which are now
cancelled. Sometimes you just think all cartoons in general on TV
aren't as great as they once were.

For me it was the year 1990: The 1980's were over, and gone were
classics like "Transformers", "GI Joe", "He-Man", and "Thundercats".
Instead, we had the "Super Mario Bros. Super Show". Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles was at the height of it's popularity due to the live
action movie that came out that year, but for me, the cartoon was
starting to loose it's appeal (how many times can the turtles take on
Shredder and Krang before it gets stale?)

Besides TMNT, there wasn't any action cartoons! (Yes, I know there was
a new He-Man show in syndication, but my stations didn't carry it, and
it was almost universally hated). Comedy shows reigned supreme: Tiny
Toons was huge, but that's a comedy show, and Tailspin was just a
retread of the family shows already done by Ducktales and Chip & Dale:
Rescue Rangers (so it just looked like Disney was running on fumes). I
guess there was "Captain N: the Gamemaster" (the nintendo cartoon) but
it was kind of a let down...

What I didn't know was that the best was yet to come:

There wasn't a Batman: The Animated Series yet (started in 1992).
No Gargoyles yet (started in 1994).
No Exosquad yet (1993, I believe).
No "Cadillacs and Dinosaurs" (1992).
No "Conan the Adventurer" (1992)
"Pirates of Dark Water" aired in the fall of 1991, but that was about
the earliest "action" cartoon.

In other words, animation studios were in a reformat phase in 1990. We
were inbetween styles of action show.

So has anyone here ever experienced the thought of "man, it feels like
cartoons died this year!"?

http://www.toonzone.net/forums/toonzone-general-animation-discussion/301269-year-cartoons-died-anyone-ever-have-feeling-2.html

http://www.toonzone.net/forums/toonzone-general-animation-discussion/301269-year-cartoons-died-anyone-ever-have-feeling-3.html

[Professor Bubba]

In article

Post by TMC
With the apparent cancellation of Young Justice and Green Lantern on
Cartoon Network, there's been a lot of talk about the death of action
cartoons on TV.
But let's put things in perspective

Young Justice, the show I'd been following, had an enormous story arc
which required a considerable investment of time and attention by its
audience. The show is gone not because it was bad or it couldn't draw
a crowd, but because it didn't sell enough toys.

Why should an audience for a future series, built along the same
long-arc lines, bother to invest in it if its future is going to be
determined by toy salesmen?

[BTR1701]

In article

Post by TMC
http://www.toonzone.net/forums/toonzone-general-animation-discussion/301269-ye
ar-cartoons-died-anyone-ever-have-feeling.html#.UUQ-yiu3bl4
With the apparent cancellation of Young Justice and Green Lantern on
Cartoon Network, there's been a lot of talk about the death of action
cartoons on TV.

Cartoons died when they PC'd-up all the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner cartoons.
Elmer Fudd can't even hunt wabbits anymore because guns are evol.

[wolfagain]

Post by Professor Bubba
In article

http://www.toonzone.net/forums/toonzone-general-animation-discussion/...
ar-cartoons-died-anyone-ever-have-feeling.html#.UUQ-yiu3bl4
With the apparent cancellation of Young Justice and Green Lantern on
Cartoon Network, there's been a lot of talk about the death of action
cartoons on TV.

Cartoons died when they PC'd-up all the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner cartoons.
Elmer Fudd can't even hunt wabbits anymore because guns are evol.

Tex Avery's cartoons were TOTALLY non P.C. at lot of horny male
animals lusting after pretty sexy White girls..and won't ever be shown
on TV... many are up on archive.org

[Your Name]

Post by Professor Bubba
In article

Post by TMC
http://www.toonzone.net/forums/toonzone-general-animation-discussion/
301269-year-cartoons-died-anyone-ever-have-feeling.html#.UUQ-yiu3bl4
With the apparent cancellation of Young Justice and Green Lantern on
Cartoon Network, there's been a lot of talk about the death of action
cartoons on TV.

Cartoons died when they PC'd-up all the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner cartoons.
Elmer Fudd can't even hunt wabbits anymore because guns are evol.

That's because it's DuckSeason. ;-)

Cartoons also died when badly drawn, badly animated, badly scripted, cheap
rubbish like "Ren & Stimpy", "Spongebob Squarepants", "Super Dave", etc.
started filling up TV schedules. Thankfully such garbage has mostly
disappeared again.

[JRStern]

Post by Your Name

Post by Professor Bubba
In article

Post by TMC
http://www.toonzone.net/forums/toonzone-general-animation-discussion/
301269-year-cartoons-died-anyone-ever-have-feeling.html#.UUQ-yiu3bl4
With the apparent cancellation of Young Justice and Green Lantern on
Cartoon Network, there's been a lot of talk about the death of action
cartoons on TV.

Cartoons died when they PC'd-up all the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner cartoons.
Elmer Fudd can't even hunt wabbits anymore because guns are evol.

That's because it's DuckSeason. ;-)
Cartoons also died when badly drawn, badly animated, badly scripted, cheap
rubbish like "Ren & Stimpy", "Spongebob Squarepants", "Super Dave", etc.
started filling up TV schedules. Thankfully such garbage has mostly
disappeared again.

We have the prime-time cartoons like The Simpsons, but I'm not sure if
that's the same genre.

The classic cartoon shorts, and Saturday morning kids shows, vanished
from broadcast networks by about 2004. And of course political
correctness makes a whole lot of cartoon stuff impossible to present,
and what good is animation if you can't do impossible stuff with it?

Paradoxically this is at the same time that automation finally made
even good cartooning much, much cheaper than ever before. And in the
long run that will bring cartooning back, it's already possible to do
pro-quality work at home and in a few years it will be trivial.
Whether the networks or Hollyweird will have a hand in it, who knows.

J.