Ben 10 Reboot; Unwarranted Hate?

[K.Rool Addict 718]

I'm probably going to sound like a heathen here, but I actually find myself enjoying the new Ben 10 reboot, despite never liking any of the previous Ben 10 series. I don't mind the larger focus on comedy. It comes off as a Jackie Chan Adventures/ Static Shock/ MLaaTR/ Powerpuff Girls- type of show. A nice balance of sillyness and action, with some pretty aesthetically-pleasing visuals to boot. Not every episode is a "home-run" and I'm not claiming the show to be amazing or anything, but every episode I have watched thus far I feel both interested enough to continue watching as well as fairly satisfied with it after it's over; which is not something I can say for the vast majority of other cartoons out there. 

 

 

I know most people will claim "Oh it's just Teen Titans Go bastardization all over again". Honestly, I feel as though even Teen Titans Go gets more hate than it deserves (and this is coming from a HUGE fan of the original Teen Titans). But Most assuredly, TTG is an enormous step down from the original show it spun off of. With Ben 10 I feel the opposite. The original show just sort of... bored me. Ben 10 strived to deliver a more "serious" type of kid's show which was typical at the time with the likes of Avatar TLAB and the aforementioned Teen Titans, to name a few. But Ben 10 always came off as a bit too immature, while simultaneously taking itself too seriously. It is hard to put into context, but it simply did not hook me like the other two examples I provided. I wasn't all that fond of the whole "scifi-aliens" overtones in the original. Nor did the visuals do much for me; they just seemed so drab and lifeless...

Again, I don't mean to shit on anyone's childhood here xD The new Ben 10 just does much more for me than any of the others in the Ben 10 series.

Edited May 17, 2017 by K.Rool Addict

[Crusaders Forever 88]

I fell the same way. To me the new show reminds me of the orginal, but a little more jokey and cartoonish. The same elements of the orginal is the there; however, they put more emphise on the cartoon side of it than the orginal show. I'm really enjoying the new Ben 10 though. I think it's fun just like Adventure Time is fun... Now that I think about it though. That is why I like the new show. It reminds me a lot of Adventure Time, without being Adventure Time.

 

[PinkiePie97 913]

I don't watch this show myself because I was never even into the original (I don't hate it, though), but I'm glad you've been enjoying it. You certainly aren't alone in liking a hated show. I like The Powerpuff Girls reboot, despite all the hate it gets (still prefer the original, though). There's nothing wrong with liking the new Ben 10.

Edited May 18, 2017 by PinkiePie97

[K.Rool Addict 718]

Teen Titans Go, Ben 10, and PPG 2016 are the main rebooted CN shows, right? Are their any others I am forgetting, perhaps even other shows on different networks? None come to mind.

Out of those three, I would give the following ratings:

• Teen Titans Go - 5.5/10 - Some decent, witty humor in a select few episodes. Call backs and continuity to the original is rampant across the board (complete with in jokes only fans would know). The show clearly does not take itself seriously at all, and intends to be as stupid as possible (which I generally don't mind since lampshading is "a-ok" in my book xD)
• Power Puff Girls (2016) - 5/10 - Colorful, laid-back, occasionally charming. Unfortunately, the new PPG has disappointed me too many times to count to let it's strengths shine through. Oftentimes, awful animation errors plague the show. In general, the character models just look "off" to me. And the inclusion of modern age tween pandering memes, cultural references and the like come off as extremely cringy. It's a shame since there are several things I do genuinely like about the show. Unlike most rabid fans of the original, I don't actually think the new voice actresses are inherently inferior to the old ones. Some of the line delivery can be iffy in places, but the voices themselves just sound "right", especially for Blossom.
• Ben 10 (2016) - 7.5/10 - Pretty much already summed this up above, but I like the balance of action to comedy. I like the new art style and the "cutesy" chibi-ish look of the main characters. I like the vibrant colors and the artsy fartsy painting-esque backgrounds. I like the general atmosphere, the "monster of the day" format, the voice acting, and countless other things. It's cool to see a reboot like this maintaining its core appeal while simultaneously building upon it to suit my own preferences xD Which is something I can unfortunately not say for the above two reboots. 

TTG and PPG2016 are like stark opposites to one another. TTG aims to shit upon everything sacred to the original Teen Titans in the name of comedy and often succeeds (imo). PPG2016 tries to capture the original show's appeal while bringing more character depth/ progression into the mix and unfortunately ends up failing the majority of the time. Both of these shows strive to do completely different things with series I once held dear, yet they both end up feeling very "mediocre" imo.

Perhaps it is my lack of fondness for the original Ben 10 that prevents me from feeling the same as with TTG and PPG2016. While the original Teen Titans and PPG were lofty 9-10/10's for me, Ben10 always sat around a 6-ish/10 :/ Idk, but I would at least like to believe there is something else there that makes Ben 10's reboot objectively superior to the other two in question xD

Edited May 18, 2017 by K.Rool Addict

[MasterOfHugs 45]

All in all this shows themes stay very true to the original, and it was not completely bastardized. My only major complaint with the show is that the art style looks like they outsourced it to middle schoorers with little art talent. Other than that, its not a bad show.

[cmarston1 5,951]

At this point in time, with how many incarnations of Ben 10 there have been, people have became burnt out with the franchise and aren't really willing to give it the benefit of the doubt anymore.

 

[SONICchaos 824]

On 5/19/2017 at 7:17 AM, cmarston1 said:

At this point in time, with how many incarnations of Ben 10 there have been, people have became burnt out with the franchise and aren't really willing to give it the benefit of the doubt anymore.

Pretty much this^ At least for me. I mean the Ben 10 franchise is 10 years old and has 5 separate series before this.

What else is there to do?

[PinkiePie97 913]

Good news for those who do like it: It's been renewed for a second season.

http://deadline.com/2017/05/ben-10-renewed-season-2-cartoon-network-wildvine-1202099461/

[Steve Piranha 28,782]

On 5/19/2017 at 10:17 AM, cmarston1 said:

At this point in time, with how many incarnations of Ben 10 there have been, people have became burnt out with the franchise and aren't really willing to give it the benefit of the doubt anymore.

 

The fact that the evident mistakes they've made starting with Alien Force built-up to it's death. I wasn't that into  the original Ben 10 (I did watched some episodes, it was just  a passing tv show for me) , maybe these kid-hero stories who doesn't take themselves too seriously and failing when they try to do so. Maybe because I was too old for that, but I can see why it was successful with the target audience of young boys, and I bet the main character being an audience surrogate is the main contributor of it

s success. Problem started with Alien Force. I think these time-skip stories where the plot scales into something more serious works, and I think Alien Force pulled it off in that regard, not only maturing the plot, but also the main character (ignoring the mandatory romance subplot between Kevin and Gwen). So the problem in my opinion is not growing up the franchise, but doing it too fast. You see, as soon as Ben 10 ended, I think they've premiered or teased Alien Force: IT DIDN'T GREW WITH THE AUDIENCE, KILLING ONE OF, IF NOT THE MAIN TOOLS THAT MADE BEN 10 A HUGE HIT. That single mistake escalated into an identity problem of taking itself seriously and not, and inmaturing Ben back again. Growing too fast started the problem, but their attempts to go back killed it. 

[Zyrael 1,471]

Well if there's one thing we need, it's more ben 10. 

 

But it's probably better, considering I don't really like any cartoon pre-2010 

[K.Rool Addict 718]

10 hours ago, Zyrael said:

But it's probably better, considering I don't really like any cartoon pre-2010 

 

[Zyrael 1,471]

3 hours ago, K.Rool Addict said:

 

I don't, what can I say? The original two ben 10 shows aired from 2005 and ended 2010. I didn't really like those either. 

 

spongebob's an exception though, because spongebob. 

[Guac 25]

character designs are pretty boring, specially the aliens this time around. still pretty decent, wouldn't mind having it on in the bg. it sticks to it's monster of the week formula and original characters, but it lacks any sense of style. the og ben 10 still looks great imo but this looks like any other show on rn. if you took out the cast and left all the bg characters in you could tell me it's an episode of we bare bears and i'd probably believe you.