movies/tv Are cartoons going to far?

[Avalionis 201]

i stopped paying attention to most of the industry when fosters ended. I feel like the majority of the animation industry no longer cares about clever writing, original stories, good characters, or actually funny jokes and focuses on putting out a large quantity of material. All but one of my favorite animated series (you can probably guess which one) are relatively old or are no longer running. I love shows like Dexter's lab, MLP, Fosters, Avatar the last airbender, Powerpuff girls, and rugrats because they are original and well made. The creators put a lot of effort into the show and made the best product they could. These shows had great concepts, good characters, good writing, and many other great aspects.

 

I feel the same way about the Simpsons and Family Guy now. I saw a clip on youtube, of the Simpsons, where Burns was running for State Governor...he asked about the artists painting of him saying "Why are my teeth showing like that?" His agent said "That's because you're smiling." "Oh" Burns simply responded. We didn't laugh so much back then, but 20 years afterwards, it becomes one of the funniest things ever. Now though? Their idea of funny, is something happening, but never happened at all. Ex: the Simpsons being banned from Springfield forever, only to come back 20 minutes later, and everyone pretends they never banned them in the first place.

 

Family Guy though is a bit different...Peter often used to say random stuff from time to time. When Brian worked for the Police as their drug sniffing dog, Lois asked how his day was. He goes into this rant of sorts, and after he's done, they all look at him, wide eyed, while Peter simply looks at Chris after a few seconds of awkward silence and says "You know, what I haven't had in a while? Big League Chew."

 

I find, they don't do the random stuff so much anymore...now, it's more of seeing who they can offended, without getting pulled off the air again...plus make the show look extra good, because everyone's into "High Definition" these days. Other cartoons are just as guilty. They don't care about the storyline, or the characters. They don't care about what happens within 21-41 minutes of airtime...they only care about how the show looks...I mean, is that all the networks and some viewers care about, is "eye candy" these days? Back in the 80's Gi-Joe had PSA's at the end of every episode, teaching kids valuable life lessons and morals...are they afraid that kids will stop watching their precious "eye candy" if they have to listen to something "educational" in their programing now?

[AegisReflector 886]

Ever since the invention of modern-day animation, artists have traditionally tried to break barriers and override the censors into adding subliminal or well thought out writing/drawings into their features. I'd like to think of it as certain "periods": the 40's-60's were all about violence and slapstick with exploiting women, 70's-80's featured more grimdark/gruesome references with hints at drug and alcohol usage, and then the 90's-present is all about trying real hard to push the censors buttons using raunchy humor, like poop/fart jokes, sexual innuendos, taboo topics like suicide, religion, politics, etc.

 

With that being said, where does it specifically state that animation as a medium in general has to be "kid-friendly" or free of "immoral" material? Just because Walt Disney was a pioneer of the field and he was noted for his child-friendly creations doesn't mean it's a law for animation to be exactly like that. It's a form of art, and art as we all know can be taken anywhere that the artists see fitting.

 

However, I do find that today's modern animation, specifically in America, has gone in the wrong direction in terms of everything. Looking at Family Guy or The Simpsons for example, the animation looks VERY stiff and choppy and lacks the imaginative creativeness brought in before, and as with most cartoons today (obviously taking from the Family Guy formula), the writers use pop culture references so much that the entire field is being sucked dry from integrity and loses focus on what exactly makes people laugh, sad, or even a wink of an emotion.

 

This is partially why my Otaku levels are becoming even greater because when I look at Japanese animation, nothing really has changed. There are shows with many different genres ranging from comedy, action, mystery, ecchi, horror, etc. but when you look at American animation, you basically only have two: Comedy (Adventure Time, Regular Show, etc.) and Action (DC Block, Korra, etc.). We need more variety in the animation field if we are to gain back the "golden days".

[Erza 581]

Well, i used to be obsessed over Ben 10.
I really loved the original one.
But Ben 10 started to get awkward when Ben 10: Alien Force released...
It's just same story!
All he do is
1- Finding the watch
2- defeating Vilgax in the last episode.
Seriously, I hate Sequels too much!

[GrimCW 658]

Honestly?  I don't think they go far enough.

 

But then again, the shit we got away with when I was a kid wouldn't ever pass the sensors now.  Take this for example.

 

 

That ain't happening.

 

FYI though that episode wasn't aired on Nick EVER. nor was the true pilot (which involved Stimpy thinking he was pregnant from Ren..... ) Among other episodes, including firedogs part 2.

They were released on the SPIKE network (censored), Netflix (Censored), and  DVD (uncensored) as the "Adult Party" disc.

But NEVER were they aired for kids, let alone during the entire actual lifespan of the original series.. At least not until that audience was adult.

Edited May 7, 2013 by GrimCW

[Emerald Flame 381]

You think that's bad? In an episode of Dan Vs., Dan tries to gas a city because the traffic is too bad (however, the gas is nonlethal). In another, he wants to bury a guy alive because he messed up his burger order. Needless to say, Dan Vs. is fucking awesome.

 

I love the violence, the innuendo, and the dark humor. And there was a lot more of that in the past than there is now. So I want to see more shows strap on a set of balls and get more people interested in darker humor.

[Mio Akiyama 145]

The OP was very disturbing, and I knew that Spongebob hit new lows, but damn. Adventure Time does have some dirty jokes here and there(but I think that's because of the older people that watch it. Except for a few where we all just went giggity to a quote). But wow Spongebob was my favorite show when I was like 9 or something, and it was HILARIOUS. Still shocked

[Splashee 28,566]

I just watched Helluva Boss Episode 1. The answer to this topic is: Yes!

[Flying Pencil 3,024]

Yes, they are going to far. 

[Pastel Heart 6,467]

Not far enough~

2D dismemberments are exciting!

[Here No Longer 5,277]

If I'm being honest, I don't even understand the issue. It seems people are just intolerant of creativity if it offends their sensitivities?

[Vefka 1,499]

On 11/2/2020 at 3:18 AM, A Wild Angel Dust said:

It seems people are just intolerant of creativity if it offends their sensitivities?

That's the case in almost all modern media

[cuteycindyhoney 13,315]

Am I the only one that turns off something I don't like? Having said that, I positively LOVE "Magical Girl Friendship Squad"! It's pretty raunchy. LOL!

 

 

Spoiler

 

Edited November 3, 2020 by cuteycindyhoney

[Xe__or 4,377]

Cartoons nowadays are more cringy than anything to be honest; they just try too hard, or their character designs are shitty - usually both.

[Splashee 28,566]

On 11/3/2020 at 6:55 AM, cuteycindyhoney said:

Am I the only one that turns off something I don't like? Having said that, I positively LOVE "Magical Girl Friendship Squad"! It's pretty raunchy. LOL!

 

 

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By that image alone, yes

[King of Canterlot 9,603]

On 5/1/2013 at 2:19 PM, Stormwind said:

i stopped paying attention to most of the industry when fosters ended. I feel like the majority of the animation industry no longer cares about clever writing, original stories, good characters, or actually funny jokes and focuses on putting out a large quantity of material. All but one of my favorite animated series (you can probably guess which one) are relatively old or are no longer running. I love shows like Dexter's lab, MLP, Fosters, Avatar the last airbender, Powerpuff girls, and rugrats because they are original and well made. The creators put a lot of effort into the show and made the best product they could. These shows had great concepts, good characters, good writing, and many other great aspects.

Yeah, I don't honesty pay the animation industry a whole lot of attention either, no shows they create today are nearly as good as some of the shows that you listed off there. A lot of the Nickelodeon animated shows that aired back in the 90's can sill be considered to be some of the best in the cartoon industry, it's a shame that channel has essentially tuned into the SpongeBob network though. Of course there are still exceptions, such as Gravity Falls, but I feel like most of shows on modern TV cable networks just aren't any good. I really only pay attention now to original animated content on the internet, stuff like Hazbin Hotel that's created by independent creators is the best.