Blog Talkback: Toons of the 2000s: Bottom 5 Cartoons

Yeah, Mulan II was nothing compared to the original, but it wasn't that bad...

And I found Emporer's New School funny sometimes... Definitely not one of my favorites, but I think Coconut Fred should replace that. :)
 
Yeah, that one is pretty much right up there.



True and one other thing to keep in mind: the 90's was pretty much the apex of the 'X-TREEEEEEEME' Liefeldian-esque superhero. I'm not sure when the backlash against that started, but that too would have damned Loonatics had it been release in the 90's.

As for the others... Well, I only saw 'Stimpy's Pregnant' from the APC and I wish... I wish I could have have gotten that time back, or have gotten a strong enough brain bleach. Billy West has my total admiration for backing out on this horrific trainwreck.
 
Why was Adult Party Cartoon so boring for the most part?

For someone like John K. who always whines about animation not being fast paced or cartoony enough, he sure found a way to create a 22 minute series where almost NOTHING happened in it.
 
In Mulan II's case, it made the list because we voted it most over other potential Disney sequels. I don't know about the other mods and admins' opinions on this movie, but personally the reason why I can't stomach it is how much it misses the point of the original.

The first wasn't really about gender roles and how China was faulted for having a system where women were made to be subdued and dominated by men. It may look like it, but it was about Mulan taking her aging father's place in war while unintentionally discovering her true potentials within. She never really questioned or challenged how society worked.

So it boggles my mind that suddenly she's a feminist who has to make her case known throughout the film. It feels like a haphazard attempt at an Aesop/Girls needing role models. Plus, there's all the other plots I mentioned on the list I also didn't like.
 
That's certainly true. The first movie mainly dealt with Mulan trying to see her own potential while sparing her sick father from fighting in a war. China's society was barely touched upon, other than women could not fight in the army. Mulan became much more of a role-model figure in the sequel than she did in the original film. There was even that scene where she was teaching some of her moves to little kids, but that was a fairly pointless part of the movie in the long run. While Mulan did stand up for herself in the first movie, she still retained her shy/non-assertive demeanor even after she saved China. Here, she was too much like an activist for my taste.

As for Mushu, even though he was a huge jerk, it didn't seem to bother me too much. Maybe it was because he was somewhat like that in the original, with deceiving Mulan, but I agree that he goes too far to the point where he's completely unsympathetic.
 
Yeah, when I saw the first episode, I was wondering to myself, "What the hell am I watching?" really there wasn't even a plot to it, same thing goes for Ren Seeks Help. Which I'll admit was my favorite episode out of the APC toons I saw, but that isn't saying anything since I only saw like 3-4 episodes. I thought that episode actually had a chance to make a plot happened, then it gave us that ending where everything went crazy. I'll admit that the animation was the only thing going for it, but it's stuff like this that makes me want a show that has a coherent story over it, not gross out over gross out joke and look at how fancy my animation is.

I can barely even remember the events of the episodes I watched from that show, I just know the first toon was a bunch of gross out joke and Ren and Stimpy are gay jokes, which if I wanted to hear, I'd go somewhere else on the internet, Ren Seeks Help for being a story about John K's childhood, and then there was one that was a continuation of Fire Dogs short from the old show.
 
Seems like a pretty fair list, although people have posted some other good suggestions in this topic. The only one I'm not quite sure about is Mulan II - I mean, yeah, it misses the point of the original movie, and yes it's totally inferior, but I'm not so sure it qualifies as one of the "bottom five cartoons of the decade." Heck, from what I've read, some of the other cheapquells sound far worse, particularly The Jungle Book Two... :ack:

Then again, I only did see Mulan II when I was really young, so perhaps my age at the time is clouding my opinion now. Don't think I'll be watching it again anytime soon, though. :p
 
He does. His style is fun to look at... but his writing sucks.

To put it simply, ever notice how the episodes of Ren and Stimpy after John K. was fired were funnier? Not everyone will agree with me, but that's how I personally feel.

I will have to agree that Mulan II was unnecessary to add to the list. It's a Disney straight-to-DVD sequel, don't expect a masterpiece.
 
This is a pretty good list except that where was Tom Goes to the mayor? It was worse then mouse and Assy combined. Not to mention it actaully ushered in something even more terrible to Adult Swim. Also you might as well add all the Transfomer series that came out in 2000 none of them were very good.
 
Am I the only one who thinks Xavier: Renegade Angel belongs in the top 5, or at least honorable mention?

The low-budget video game design is hard on the eyes, the voice acting is poor, and the attempt at absurdist humor falls woefully flat for me. I know there are those who say this show is a surreal and intelligently crafted satire, and while I do *get* what they're trying to portray, it doesn't mean I have to like it. This show is apparently an acquired taste to just enough people that adult swim keeps renewing it.

And for those who actually liked Transformers Armada and are wondering why it merited honorable mention, there are more reasons even than Matt mentioned in his blog post.

1. When the show starts with a human kid saying, "Hi, my name is Rad, and I'd like to tell you about the Transformers" there is really only one direction it can go from there. It's an easy candidate for the worst moment in all of TF history.

2. A show with "Transformers" in the title should actually have Transformers in the premiere episode, not a very brief shadowed cameo teaser at the very end. Halfway through watching the episode, I felt like Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park asking, "Now, eventually you might have Transformers on your Transformers show...right?"

3. The production issues: rushed and incomplete animation, poor dubbing, translation issues, etc.

4. The digression into blatant toy marketing as it was in the 80's, as Matt mentioned in his review.

Combined, so many negative elements made the show hard to watch for the entire 4-season run, even for Transformers fans.

I did, however, enjoy the Armada PS2 game, even though it had its fair share of flaws and gamer frustrations.

I'd say that depends on your POV, but G1 (the original series) had a whole lot more going for it than Armada. For starters, it sported an outstanding voice cast and many memorable episodes that weren't plagued with the kind of crap that Armada had. And G1 also includes the 1986 film, which Armada fails utterly by comparison.

I agree as well. There were a lot worse cartoons than "Emperor's New School" in the last decade. But what I dislike most about the show is J.P. Manoux's performance of the title character. I'll grant that this might be due to the voice direction, but Manoux doesn't even attempt a marginal sound-alike for David Spade, and his rapid-fire performance is actually so different from Spade's that it changes the character. He comes off more annoying than Kuzco was at the beginning of the original movie. The series is supposed to be a continuation of the film, but it feels like Kuzco simply reverted to his old ways and went back to being a wisecracking jerk.

I wouldn't watch the show at all if it weren't for the performances by the late Eartha Kitt as Yzma and Patrick Warburton as Kronk.

Again, it's all in your own perspective. Granted, Tom Goes to the Mayor looked cheap and fairly crappy, but the characters and plot were quirky, odd and bizarre which somehow ended up having appeal and entertainment value to what would become a cult fandom following, which resulted in Tim and Eric getting their own show.

I like the show, but even objectively the worst episode of Tom was nothing as bad as 12 Oz. Mouse or Assy McGee. Mouse was just too weird and slow, and Assy was just a one-joke character at best.

I assume you're referring to Beast Machines, which actually premiered in 1999. There are many TF fans who would agree with you, but technically it doesn't qualify for this list.

I actually enjoyed Beast Machines though. I find that if you watch it objectively as a stand-alone series outside of TF continuity -- a sort of Elseworldsesque/What If? kind of story -- it's highly entertaining. It has a dark tone, deep character development, an intriging storyline, and a great visual style (and the animation still holds up). And while there are some minor nitpicking things I dislike about the series (particularly the ending), overall I was highly entertained by it.
 
Anyways onto the list. As much as I hate Armada and Energon and the deserve to be be on the dishonorable mentions list (Armada in particular looking like something Akom made) and the fact that Energon has horrible CGI (Heck, even comparing Energon's CG to Ratatoing is a joke, as the latter even beats that). You got to admit that the voice actors were trying and that the 2D in Energon looked pretty decent.

Loontics, I kinda like it, but I also kinda hate it. It's stupid, borring and at times way to incomprehensible (I'm supprised that I could spell that without resorting to the word corrector) for its own good. But the style is decent, plus the voices do an admirable (if not great) job.

Haven't seen the rest aside from Avengers (which was a waste of characters, The aniamtion was pretty hokey, plus Iron Man sounded flamboyant).
 
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