movies/tv Are cartoons getting better or worse?

[HoovesOnIce 74]

I have a feeling that plenty of people have asked this before but do you find that cartoons are improving or becoming worse as the years pass? You can count animated movies or animated television series. I want to hear what you think. Are cartoons getting better or worse. Please do give a well written description on why you think that way about your choice.

[Glike 487]

I feel the average is different. Back then, or at least when I was younger (I'm 18 right now) there were plenty of enjoyable cartoons. Fairly Odd Parents, Teen Titans, Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Ed, Edd, n' Eddy, Lilo and Stitch, etc.

 

But for the most part, none of them had a huge overarching story that really drew you in. In terms of individual episodes, they were great to watch, but if you looked at the big picture they weren't anything too special.

 

Now we have what are, in my opinion, garbage shows such as the majority of Nick's current programming, the Powerpuff Girls reboot, etc.

 

But there are more gems now that really immerse you into the universe and have very talented and recognizable staff working on them, such as MLP, Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, Star vs the Forces of Evil (which I haven't seen but I hear is really great).

 

So, I feel there are a lot more cartoons that are being produces that are less enjoyable, but at the same time there are these absolutely amazing cartoons that come out every once in a while.

 

Also, we're older now, so what may have been enjoyable to us as kids isn't typically applicable anymore. It's difficult to see it from a child's perspective now.

[Megas 27,550]

No, I still think they're good. At the very least, it's still better than the late 2000's

[Fluttershyfan94 5,742]

Well as someone that has watched cartoons for his entire life, I would say they've been getting better. The quality has gotten better and overall they're very good. I think personally that older cartoons relied much more on humor then anything else, the animation were good for their time but now animation is just well amazing. You would assume that at least the humor has been lost but it hasn't, like it's all still there exactly what I fell in love with. Really there's just so many good animations today that there's almost too much. So yeah, I'd say they've been getting better or at least are the same way they've been they have at least definitely not been getting worse in my opinion.   

[Concerned Bystander 2,902]

There are peaks and troughs, I grew up in the 80s with great cartoons like 'Doganian', 'Around the world with Willy Fogg', 'The Mysterious Cities of Gold', 'Thuderbirds 2086' and of course the original 'Transformers' to name but a very few.

 

I've never really stopped watching cartoons since then, sometimes there hasn't been much good on offer, but some other times you'd get something like 'Animaniacs' or 'Rugrats', and later, 'Samurai Jack' and 'Johnny Bravo'.

 

Nowadays, as well as the obvious MLP FiM, there is also 'The Amazing World of Gumball' and 'Adventure Time', all three of which I would rate as highly as any of the best cartoons from the decades that I've been watching them.

 

So no, I don't think cartoons are getting better or worse, every generation has had a few good ones, a very few great ones, and a bunch of sub-par ones.

[Leave a Whisper 703]

One half says, back in my day cartoons were awesome and kids don't know what Saturday mornings really are. The other half says, there have been several I like throughout the years and there are plenty of cartoons from my childhood that sucked.

 

So...about the same?

[Jon the VGNerd 882]

Worse, at least for Cartoon Network. They still have not revived classic, legendary shows for it and are still reluctant on adding classic shows back. Sure there's the PPG reboot, but its not enough. There needs more and CN isn't giving any.

[baba_booey 4,302]

To be honest, they're getting much better IMO.

Sure, there is some crap out there like Breadwinners and Teen Titans Go, but if I were to rank my favorite cartoons of all time, most of those would most likely be cartoons from this era, with some of my favorite being Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, MLP (of course), We Bare Bears, Rick and Morty and Star vs the Forces of Evil among others.

 

Plus, I actually don't really think that many 90's shows were really that "great," or at the least they haven't really aged well. While there are some I really like, others I have trouble getting into myself. (Early) 2000's are great, although I still consider the 2010's the best era for cartoons thus far.

[Moony the Cat 3,702]

I dont watch that many, but for the little i understand and know, i think it has gotten worse again.

 

First the old Cartoons were very Cheesy, than came the middle ones, which actually were great and now pretty much everything gets more light hearted again and almost everything is cheaply animated in Flash.

 

Cartoons are really going downhill for me.

[Emiko Gale 199]

I honestly think cartoons from 2000 onward are better and more memorable than the stuff from the 90's...Sure the stuff from the 90's is nostalgic but not many 90's cartoons hold up like Avatar: The Last Airbender hold up and the original Teen Titans hold up.

 

And there is such a thing as bad, poor, and cringeworthy 90's and 80's cartoons.

[Dreambiscuit 9,575]

As a rule, every era has its good and its bad. 

Looney Tunes were the classics I grew up with on TV. If you see them uncut they're even better. I also had a steady diet of Scooby Doo, Rocky and Bullwinkle and tons of Hanna Barbara crap.

Looney Tunes had stunning animation and in many cases brilliant writing. What it lacked was ongoing story arc and character development.

Rocky and Bullwinkle was not so brilliantly drawn, but the writing was crisp, funny and original. it made up in content what it lacked on the cover.

Scooby Doo is something I loved as a kid but not anymore. I liked 'What's New Scooby Doo?' because it had a little more fun playing with the characters, but that's about it. 

Then along came Tiny Toon Adventures, my all-time favorite. It gave us great writing, characters and animation. Not just a 'Baby Looney Tunes' as it may look on the surface, but an intelligent show slyly written for both kids and adults without dumbing it down or overexplaining the plot and morals. 

Animaniacs follows closely on Tiny Toons' heels for the same reasons.

The Disney Afternoon shows like Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers was a great contribution by Disney's early TV works. Later, the movie spin-offs like Little Mermaid, Hercules, and Lilo and Stitch brought things up a notch with good writing and animation worthy of the name.

One trend I don't like is the sudden drop through the basement in TV animation with the stylings of most modern shows. Forgive me, I know there are fans here, but SpongeBob, Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Gumball, you get the idea. They're not designed in an appealing way and seem to be geared more toward being repulsive rather than attractive. I suppose that's easier to animate, but not fun to watch.

MLP and that style of character design is nicer to look at, and obviously well-written with care and attention to developing a long-reaching ongoing story.

New shows like Lion Guard, Sofia the First, MIles From Tomorowland, etc are nicely animated and are raising the bar across the boards. I hope they set a trend that will last. Even online shows like Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse are making a nice splash. 

With talk of a Tangled TV series things are looking up. I'd love to see a Zootopia series, it would be a perfect fit for regular episodes. 

All in all, there are ups and downs as illustrated here, there always will be. But I think right now, the way things are looking, we're on the verge of a big 'up'. 

Edited May 5, 2016 by Dreambiscuit

[powerpuff-tsubasa 448]

probably worse. i tried to get into today's popular cartoons (steven universe. gravity falls) but none have good humor and the writing was really weak

probably worse. i tried to get into today's popular cartoons (steven universe. gravity falls) but none have good humor and the writing was really weak

[EpicEnergy 23,139]

My opinion is that, in general, newer cartoons are much better than older ones. However, I also hold the opinion that it the quality of cartoons vary from each individual cartoon, as some newer cartoons are better than older cartoons and vice versa.

[Pastel Heart 6,466]

Better on some aspects, worse as a whole. I love MLP and The Owl House but nothing else really sticks with me with current cartoons as opposed to the dozens I love from precious decades

[Savy 5,075]

There's a lot of cartoons these days that I love, including The Owl House, and Amphibia.

But there's also a lot others that kinda aren't the best....

[Miss 6,222]

This post was from 2016 so not sure when they were talking about

I'm going to assume 2010 and above is new and prior to that is old. 

Imo, considering most of my favorite shows are from 2010 onward even though I grew in the early 2000's. Shows after 2010 are easily better. 

Alot of older, not all, were just random nonsense, wild. They were funny. And alot of it was well written funny. Or just ridiculous humor. Going back and trying to watch some of those shows feels tedious because every episode eventually starts to feel like the same thing. And even shows with plot often times just had the same "bad guy runs into good guy" good guy wins type of deal. 

Now alot of shows are more plot centered so it feels fulfilling watching every episode, or mostly every episode. Developing the characters and world building. Much more mature than how it was back in the day. 

While I could say this as an adult, not sure what this means for children. I've been of the belief that people think children are stupid and believe that some programs are too smart/grown up for children. Children are much more intelligent than most adults think, so these shows are definitely not too mature imo. 

[Splashee 28,560]

Most cartoons are heading the "popular" 3D direction. I am only watching Helluva Boss and am not interested in 3D.

[TBD 17,253]

Honestly worst in these cases for CN, Nick, and Disney. Netflix sometime (not counting She-Ra or MLP). It's complete garbage with no sense of humors. It's like allowing your kids to watch these could easily downgrade their IQ.  Even newer adult cartoon are surprisingly better.  But right now the only 'new' cartoons that I'm into are Villainous, Helluva Boss, Hazbin Hotel,  Bob Burger and Rick&Morty. 

[baba_booey 4,302]

I think at the time this was posted I would say so, although since my previous post I don't really have a definite answer. There's a few newer shows I really like (The Owl House, Animaniacs 2020, Helluva Boss) and others I do want to see (Amphibia), but at the same time I feel like since FiM, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe/SU Future ended, there really hasn't been much else that I've really "stuck with" per se. Probably a result of getting older, but still.

[Ice Princess Silky <3 13,210]

in my opinion, they're getting better. I love how thoughtful the content can be and how fluid the animations are.

[ZiggWheelsManning 9,750]

@Sleeping Silk  I think, visually, they are getting better.  

[Antiyonder 844]

Besides the reasons already given for why some have a more hopeful view point for animation today, well I think for me in particular it's like with comics.

First off I do agree with concerns about overusing past franchises (sequels/reboots), but sometimes it seems like some of those having that view are ironically keeping their viewing/reading options limited.  I guess I feel like my flexible tastes work in my favorite, and as such I'm always finding something I enjoy.

[EpicEnergy 23,139]

Hard to tell, like I guess it depends on your personal tastes. Sure there are some cartoons that are widely disliked and many new cartoons may not seem as good as the old ones, but that doesn't mean that cartoons in general are getting worse. I don't watch many of them though so I can't say anything for certain.

[Sonic Shimmer 4,131]

About the same I think. Every generation has a few great shows that stand out and a lot of generic filler that nobody remembers further down the line.

[Tao 7,453]

On 2023-12-14 at 1:32 AM, Sonic Shimmer said:

About the same I think. Every generation has a few great shows that stand out and a lot of generic filler that nobody remembers further down the line.

I agree with Sonic on this one, every gen has that one game,  one show,  one moment that stands out for them as a solo person.