Action cartoons that are actually good.

F

ForTheLulz

New member
I can't help but notice that action cartoons, despite being quite well thought-of in certain quarters, have a tendency to be a bit, well, bad.

Let's start with the situation in America. Can anyone tell me how many notable action cartoons came out of the USA between the Fleischer Superman and Batman TAS? It's slim pickings. I can think of several that have made their mark on pop culture regardless of actual quality (Transformers, GI Joe, etc etc) and others which might have been genuinely good for their time but are now rather dated (Jonny Quest), but nothing that can really be described as an enduring classic.

B:TAS is acknowledged as a turning point in the genre, but things have been slow to pick up. Outside of the DCAU the only notable American action series I can think of - and I'm being generous here - are Gargoyles, Samurai Jack, TMNT 2003 and Avatar. Sitting alongside them are blunders like Loonatics and (God help us) the Biker Mice from Mars revival, suggesting that some people clearly haven't learned from Timm, Dini and co.

With The Incredibles and Beowulf things are looking a bit brighter on the big screen, but the lackluster cycle of action movies from a few years back (Tarzan, Atlantis, Titan AE, Treasure Planet and Sinbad) that helped sink 2D movies are still fresh in the mind. Outside America things are still looking patchy: Japan's doing well, but the only British entries in the genre that I know of are the muddled Fantomcat, the dull Captain Scarlet and the forgettable Legend of the Dragon. Dunno about the rest of the world.

In the end, what I'm wondering is this: why are action cartoons so revered by animation fans when the genre has such as dreadful track record?
 
as far as i know people only talk about or are fanatics about the good ones, like Batman Beyond, if they ever do that with the crappy ones its news to me.
 
Batman Beyond was, in the protagonist's words, shway, it had all sorts of action and drama, and was consistent and anime-like, it's proven it deserves to return to the fold through JLU's "Epilogue," why doesn't WB recognize such an oppurtunity when it's staring them right in the face?

Justice League Unlimited was also a great action show, vastly superior to the original JL barring Starcrossed.
 
How about the collective Marvel animated library? They had their share of successes.

There's also The New Adventures of Flash Gordon, which I'm midway through watching. The only flaw I can see is - if it even counts - excessive fanservice; besides that, it's excellent.

I wouldn't be too quick to count out the products of the 1980s, either. Just to name one, I might have been watching the "wrong" episodes, but G.I. Joe has never struck me as all that bad.
 
Despite their flaws and being school-based-fair, I'd say American Dragon: Jake Long and W.I.T.C.H. are both very solid action cartoons of later days. Bot have a continuing storyline that works to their advantage and I great deal of development in them, yet both died too soon.
 
I think it probably has to do with the fact that there aren't any similar shows in live action. I mean, they'd never be able to make a show like Justice League in live action. Look what happens when they try. Heroes and Smallville have had good episodes in the past, but overall both shows are lackluster, especially in the fight scenes. I don't think I've ever seen a fantasy show like Avatar even attempted to be done in a live action TV series. So, when we see an animated show that does it right, we have a tendency to latch onto it because it's all we have.
 
Yeah, the really bad examples tend to be forgotten, and that's kind of the thing: people see the genre in a very positive light even though it's produced so many turkeys.

I did a quick search and found this old topic:
http://forums.rabroad.net/archive/index.php/t-114596.html

Aside from having a surprisingly old post from myself (I was here in 2004? Crikey), it should give you a general idea of how well-regarded action cartoons as a whole are. I mean, American TV animation can be divided into two genres, comedy and action, and I still see no reason as to why action deserves so much attention when other genres out there are ripe for the pickin'.
 
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