Action cartoon with female lead . . . can it work?

Ooh, some more advice:

Get a pilot made, and let it go viral online. The internet is an animator's best friend in this age, why limit your cartoon to just a few people when you can let everyone in the whole world see it. Once a pilot becomes an internet phenomenon networks, will be lining up to pick up the rights to make it a full on show, because they see for themselves that the show is a hit.
Making a story bible will help too. With an outline, a season's worth of ideas, character designs and settings, etc. Actually, you should do both, have the pilot up on youtube, and have a website for the story bible.

Also, keep in mind that you don't have to go to a network to get your show picked up. Going to any animation studio who's interested in producing animated series would be good too. They can even produce a pilot for you. The downside is that there's no guarantee that your show will get picked up on television, or at least air in the U.S. Your show might end up getting picked up by a channel in Europe instead.

Also, when Cartoon Network came to my art college, they told us that just pitching a simple sentence will get them interested. It's all a matter of it being a good idea and getting in contact with them.
 
This is gonna be a bit harsh so I'll keep it quick.

Does the opportunity exist: Yes, definitely. Networks are fickle but they can most certainly be sold on things.

Do you personally have a showballs chance in hell? Unless you're already in the industry (which I assume you are not since you're posting this); no.

And it's not because you have a female lead, it's not because it's serious, and it's not because of the overall concept. It's because you are NEW. If you are going to try pitching this directly to networks/studios, don't, you won't get anywhere. From my understanding, you have to already be in the industry to get anyone to listen to you, you have to have worked on a few other shows before you can pitch anything, and even then it's hit and miss. Network execs are fickle, fickle creatures who are very set in their ways, and if you want anything to air on TV you have to navigate the convoluted little maze they've built.

To be honest, you will have an easier time getting a cartoon made if you create a webcomic, or write novels. If it becomes popular (and therefore, lucrative) enough, the networks will come to you.
 
Jem, She-Ra, Powerpuff Girls, and Kim Possible were all shows that contained heroines, but I don't know that I can say that any of them were definitely "action cartoons." But regardless of my opinion over whether or not previous shows can only be classified as action cartoons, I would say that yes, action cartoons featuring a female lead certainly is something that can work. I am just continuing to wait for a specific cartoon featuring a female lead to come around. I suspect that it will be titled "Wonder Woman."
 
How would I go about getting a pilot made, though? It's not like I can approach like, say, Titmouse about it. Not yet anyway. It would be a lot more helpful if I had drawing skills but frankly I don't have any.



Oddly enough, the place where I'm getting the most professional attention right now is through novels (also a local paper but it doesn't seem to be as serious so far). I'm not holding my breath on the novel thing, though.



You really think I would be so stupid as to make the female lead unattractive? Really?
 
Attractiveness isn't just physical, especially in animation. It's identifiable characters, interesting traits, not a mouthpiece for the author's own feelings. That is what I mean by unattractive as well as physical qualities.
 
I always thought Kagome was the lead character more then InuYasha.


Sounds a bit like Dana Sterling of the Southern Cross.


Seems to me you can worry about all the hypothetical reasons for your cartoon to be rejected, then find there is a whole other set of reasons for it to be rejected, or most probably get no reason, or even find out they suddenly want just the things you omitted.

If you make the cartoon that you love, then at least one person will love it.
If you're told changes need to be made, then you'll know you've only made the changes that were necessary and not have a list of things you'll wonder if you could have gotten away with.

If you're so worried what some network boogieman is going to think, maybe the most pandering project you can think of is a better place to start then your dream project.

I've got to wonder why it's so important to you to have a female lead in the first place?
 
I disagree. I think female protagonists do have variety. Look at Young Justice for example, Miss Martian and Artemis are two action protagonists and they are very distinct from one another. Wasp from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes who likewise is an action protagonist and she also is very distinct from Miss Martian and Artemis.
 
You just summed up how I feel about the matter. As long as they're written as people and not 2-D archetypes, you can have a gambit ranging from virtuous to psychotic. That's the fun of it. To just define it as "Girls can only act in Way X" is just ludicrous. Imagine if you did the same thing with males. It would be horrifically boring. That's why I say "Write people, not archetypes". It's why I liked Dirty Pair so much. They wore skimpy outfits sure, but their characters and interactions were a lot of fun to watch, as well as the crazy situations they got put in.
 
How did we get onto this? My only response this Martin Juneau conversation is: let's just get back on topic.

I think for an action cartoon a female lead should be able to kick butt, however that shouldn't be all there is to her. She shouldn't just be made to be the 'action girl', the 'damsel in distress', the 'dutiful girlfriend', or any other clich?. They should all be fleshed out, flawed, characters not just fitting some role.
 
Whether you feel it gets "old" or not is a subjective opinion. The fact of the matter is that objectively, there are both positive and negative female portrayals in such a genre, and sometimes they DO work as entertaining leads--as it pertains to thrust of this thread.

I also think you're gender stereotyping a little too. If you take things further, you could say that girls don't like to punch, kick, or do any sort of violent action, which basically means that according to this logic, females shouldn't be leads in action cartoons. I'm exaggerating here, but I'm just taking your thought to its logical conclusion. There are just as many "guys with guns" as "girls with guns." type of cartoons. It's just that people don't label guys as often as they do girls.
 
Hmm, there are lots of women in the military. And a lady-friend of mine's favorite past time is going to the gun range and playing with assault weapons.

But, then, I guess they're all bland people.
 
They're rare because they're overdone. There were entire decades centered around that type of character and everything that could possibly be done with that stereotype has been done. We've all moved on from that cliche because not only is it pretty insulting as a whole, but because there's really nothing for it to offer audiences any more. It's tired and old hat.

I think writing female characters as characters first is a step up from that.
 
I agree with this. The pendulum swings too far in either the "domesticated" stereotype or the "feminist/perfect Mary Sue" stereotype, and it's time we started putting characters in the middle, giving them flaws but also giving them strengths. Female characters don't need to be perfect to be engaging.

I didn't go in-depth on my female lead because I'm nervous about describing her in heavy detail, so all you guys have is a vague reference to an "action girl" stereotype. I apologize about that.
 
Exactly, I listed Demona earlier, but she is very, very, very far from "Mary Sue." In fact, she's so flawed as a person that flawed is too weak a word.

But, from the same show. Elisa Maza is a cop, carries a gun (Marvin hates her already ;)), but she is also very flawed. She's too impulsive sometimes, and is definitely capable of selfishness.

Angela is smart, but naive.

Fox is Xanatos's equal, but full of self loathing, as revealed in the Eye of Odin incident.

Hunter/Robyn Canmore from "Hunter's Moon" and the "Bad Guys" comic may have stopped hunting gargoyles, may be more enlightened now, but is still quite bigoted towards them. Yama falls in the "some of my best friends are gargoyles" category, and he kind of knows it.
 
I think the anime based shows are also worth discussing. I suspect a preference towards Shonen subs means you're inclined to think of Shonen heroes voiced by women as being female which is how you get Teen Titans' Terra being more or less Lyserg from Shaman King, as well as Toph being turned into a female character during production of Avatar.
 
Demona isn't a female lead though, she's a villain. I find that in general, villainesses tend to be better written for exactly the reasons you describe.
 
Back
Top