Are we seeing female leads in cartoons being portayed more positively?

I'm a bit surprised nobody mentioned Helga as one of the "imperfect girl characters". She was a love interest, sure, but not in the same light as a princess or superhero girlfriend. She was an obsessive, love-crazy bully, probably one of the few girl characters who tend to have a lot of bad luck. Some would say she was a main, but not-so-main character (IE: Bubbie from Flapjack), but usually when you mention Hey Arnold! to people, one of the characters they end up remembering most from the show is Helga.

Phoebe or Rhonda I would argue are more of "main, not-so-main" characters.

Hey Arnold! actually had a pretty decent cast of girl characters. Foster's Home was pretty decent on their girls too, with Goo and Frankie, but yeah, Mac and Bloo are the top dogs in that show.
 
The thing is, I think Phineas and Ferb is a 'switch your brain off' show. It's not totally mindless but really all it wants to do is make you laugh and enjoy yourself. It's not set up to be over analysed and send out messages to please demographics. I don't watch it expecting for boundaries to be challenged, I watch it to laugh at the gags and a grown man doing a pseudo-European accent.
 
I agree with Candace but cannot stand Isabella. Baljeet, Buford, and even Ferb have more depth than she does. The "Temple of Sap" episode, which I thought would reveal more to her character, was nothing but her saying "Yeah we can do this!" or obsessing over Phineas. I'm sure there's more they can do with her, so why don't they?
 
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