Animation Trends to Look foward to in the next decade

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Aegis_07

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Ok it seems every decade or so a new animation trend starts for carttons. It ranges from what we got in the 80s with the cheesy action cartoons. What we got in the 90s with the edgy, adult humor but still a kid show, tounge in check shows like Nick shows Ahh Real Monsters, Doug, Spongebob(late 90s), even Rugrats and the CN classics like Jhonny Bravo, Edd, Ed and Eddy, Cow and Chcken, Dexters etc.. and the late 90s through mid 00s(mainly 1999-2005) anime trend.

Now it seems the trend for tha last years of the 1st decade of the new milenium(2005-2007) were waterd down kids shows or live action shows on formerlly cartoon based channels(Nick and Disney). 2006-2007 has been freequentyl called the worst years for animation ever since that's when CN was really sucking. However it seems during this year CN and even Nick have gotten back to their roots to a certain degree with their shows especially CN with hits like Chowder and especially Flapjack which can be compared to the late 90s cartoons.

My question is what do you think the new trend for toons will be from the rest of this 1st decade (2009) and the fastly coming next decade (2010-2019). I think we'll actually start to see Disney and Nick getting more into animation again and CN strat making shows more similar to what they used to mkae. Also I think we may or may not get a new cartoon rennisance comparable to that of the early 90s- early 00s and possibly a anime renissance again if more actual good animes come to America.
 
'06-'07 was a bad year for CN, sure, but it's a bit presumptuous to say that it was a bad year for animation as a whole just because of that. Cartoon Network doesn't represent or encompass all animation around the world, you know.

As for predicting animation trends to come, I wish I could, but I can't. If I knew what the next big thing was going to be animation-wise, I'd be investing in it right now.
 
I'm hoping for (but not really expecting) a bit of a backlash against all this 3D CGI and Flash animation that's been so prevalent in the last few years, and a return to more traditional, hand-drawn, natural-looking 2D animation.

It could still be done in Flash, but just without abusing tweens and stuff. It is possible to just use Flash as an ink-and-paint/ editing program, you know. That's basically how I use it, and from what I've seen of other people doing that with it, you can get great results if you do it right.

Personally, I'm also really sick of this flat faux-retro 50's look that's developed. I say faux-retro because all these new cartoons that supposedly look "retro" have none of the charm or style of actual 50's stuff, they're just badly-drawn, simplified, flat and angular... Stuff like Fairly Odd-Parents, and to a lesser extent, Johnny Test and Total Drama Island. What I like a lot better is that comic style mainly from the 70's, where everything is really loose, scribbly and energetic, like Jules Feiffer, Paul Coker Jr, and early Lynn Johnston.

Of course, I wouldn't want that style to be adopted/ ripped off/ homaged" by the mainstream either, because if every new cartoon looked like that, I'd grow to hate it too. But it probably won't anyway, beacuse I doubt kids would like that sort of sketchy, 'unfinished' look very much.

I don't know if the above has much of a chance of happening, because over-tweening everything in Flash is pretty cost-effective, even if the results are bland and awful-looking, and the flat 'retro' style is perfect for Flash's tweens and symbols system. Ah well.


You know, even now, when you say '2019' I still think 'crazy futuristic world with flying cars' scenario.
 
I mean animation for CN not all animation. I mis wrotte that part.

But to Captainunjab why don't you like Fairly Oddparents or Johnny Test? I think Fairly is one of the remaining good animations shows on Nick and I've always found it entertaining. Johnny Quest took time to grow on me but when I actually sat down to watch it I enjoyed it and watch it every day on CN during the evening. The only show I actually tune into on Har Har Thursdays is Flapjack though. TDI on the other hand just doesn't seem a bit interesting to me. I watched 1 episode and thought it was corny and I still don't see how it gets the ratings it does.
 
Well, in this case I'm just talking about the visual styles of those shows, which use that sort of 'retro' flat style which is severely overused at the moment. I didn't really mean that the shows themselves are bad, although I don't find them entertaining myself.
 
I'm hoping animation aimed towards adults finally takes off. Fox and Adult Swim have shown how successful a block of more mature animated works can be, though it probably helps that most of those shows have syndicated reruns. I look forward to the day we have a balance of comedy and (hopefully) american-produced action on both blocks.
 
In the case of comedy shows I'm guessing that they'll focus more on random, bizarre humor, judging by what I see in most Adult Swim shows, as well as "Chowder" and "Flapjack."
 
I'd be okay with that. If these two shows are any sign, we might also see a more "fun" style of animation, like Chowder's looseness and mismatched colors, or Flapjack's hodgepodge.

What I really want to see is a colored pencil/marker/crayon-ish look to animation, sort of like Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Closest I've seen so far is parts of ChalkZone.
 
I meant Test but what would be the point of me saying Quest on purpose?

Anyways adult animation can be hit or miss. At one end we have great shows like Duckman and at the other we have those very low budget AS shows like Assy McGee. I mean Aquateen and the AS Originals based off old Hana-Barbera classics are fine but alot of the AS are crappy unless you count the shows they bought and didn't actually create. I mean SuperJail is an adult cartoon and was even compared to the classic MTV cartoons but that show has yet to make me laugh once.

One thing I hope for is MTV start producing cartoons again because their shows were all better then probably 75% of the AS lineup.
 
Nickelodeon and Disney Channel were never cartoon based channels. They always had live-action.

But animation trends to expect? If I had to take a stab: more movie based cartoons. With Barnyard, Penguines of Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda, I suppose more companies may be looking towards that. Aside from that, who knows? What I would like to see is more epic animated action shows like W.I.T.C.H. TAS, but those tend to not do very well so I'm not holding my breath.
 
It's neither fair nor accurate to group Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel in that particular category, as neither Disney or Nick were ever all animation based channels, nor did they ever claim to be.



The main reason why Johnny Test receives so much hate here at Toon Zone is because Cartoon Network runs the series about 50 times a day. Overall, Test isn't that bad a show. It's not great, mind you, but I've seen much worse. For me, the main thing that drags down Johnny Test is Johnny himself. If they would get rid of Johnny, the show would be great.
 
Nick and Disney had more animation then live action during most of the 90s and some of the 00s mainly Nick so the cartoon based statement has validity. Not to mention the live action shows of Nick and Disney past were 10 times better then any live action shows they show now. Even Stephens and hell even Lizzy Mcguire are better then any current Disney show and nothing on Nick in terms of live action compare to Kenan and Kel or the actual good seasons of All That that were actually funny.

Also on the Johnny Test argument the show is actualy pretty good but I don't see why they would say it's ripping of JQ because of it's name when they are nothing alike at all. Ripping on the name of a show seems very pointless.

Also the only time Nick even really showed live action were TeenNick. Throughout most of the day it was animation with Rugrats, Ahhh Real Monsters, Rocko's Modern Life, Doug, Ren and Stimpy, 3 Angry Beavers, Hey Arnold as well as numerous others.
 
I'm guessing that you've never watched Nickelodeon before the birth of Nicktoons. Nick has always had plenty of live action programming on it's schedule. Heck, one of Nick's biggest hits in the 1980s was a live action import from Canada, You Can't Do That on Television. There was also The Tomorrow People (also from Canada). Also, during the hours of preschool shows, Nick's schedule was dominated by the 6 hour Pinwheel (a Sesame Street inspired preschool show that featured live actors and puppets in sketches with animated segments sandwiched between them), as well as live action host shows such as Fred Penner's Place, Capelli and Company and The Elephant Show. Even after the birth of Nicktoons, some of Nick's biggest hit shows were non-animated ones; e.g., The Adventures of Pete & Pete, Salute Your Shorts, Hey, Dude, The Secret World of Alex Mack, Are You Afraid of the Dark? (another Canadian acquisition), Clarissa Explains it All, All That, all of which made their debuts before the TEENnick block. Bottom line: Nick's schedule was never all animation; it was at least 50% live action, therefore, Nick should not be considered a cartoon channel.

Incidentally, the cartoon about the beavers was titled The Angry Beavers, not 3 Angry Beavers. There were only 2 beaver brothers (Norbert & Dagget), not 3.
 
For TV? Probably not, but I wouldn't be surprised if more webcomic authors either commissioned webtoon adaptations or produced them directly (A webtoon of, say, Dinosaur Comics would even have a luxury that Homestar Runner and Happy Tree Friends didn't have at first; a built-in audience)
 
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