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

I am kind of surprised that Mulan II was there. Sure it was bad, but at least the animation was half-way decent, unlike Hunchback of Notre Dame II.
 
The lack of Coconut Fred and Da Boom Crew is kind of a let-down. The first was clearly WBA's poor attempt to leech success off of SpongeBob, and the other was infamously ripped apart by Matt Wilson when it first aired. I would've loved to see them revisited here.

Otherwise, a great list of the lowest of the low. I kinda disagree with Mulan II, but that's because I found some of the other cheapquels even worse.
 
Haven't actually seen Ratatoing, but I don't exactly care for the way the blog post on it was written. It doesn't really give reasons why it sucks, and instead resorts to over-exaggerated hyperbole on what you could be doing instead of watching the movie, which really only works if you've already described why something is terrible. Although, I suppose the original review does all the talking, so in that sense, I guess it's OK.

All that said, I have no problem with Ratatoing being on the list; even though I haven't watched the entire film, I've seen enough clips to know it's beyond poorly done, and the mere fact that it's a rip-off of Ratatouille means it earns its place on the list. Given that the studio frequently does this, it's clear they're nothing but hacks.

As for Adult Party Cartoon, I'm not a fan, but I will give it credit for something: It does have some catchy stock music by Jack Shaindlin (which was also used in early Hanna Barbera shows). And some of the animation was good, although I really don't care for the way the characters were drawn in the new series. They lack the charm of original R&S and, yes, even the Games episodes.
 
I did bring it up when we were discussing this post, but I figured it was kind of an easy target since it's already been ripped to dickens and back across the web; looks like no-one else felt the need to pick it up.

Although that other topic reminded me: I really should have nominated that Biker Mice from Mars revival. God, that was awful.
 
Yeah Coconut Fred was WAY WORSE than Loonatics Unleashed. I could actually watch episodes of Loonatics.

The only reason Loonatics is on there is because of the near worship of the Looney Tunes that goes on in here, making the show essentially a demonic sacrilegious anathema from day one, regardless of good points. :yawn:

They made Porky into a villain :D that was fun!
 
Avengers wasn't THAT bad.

It certainly wasn't good, but its actually fun for me to watch because of how corny it is.

Transformers Armada I actually enjoyed quiet a bit, but I do have to admit, it got much worse the longer the series went on. In retrospect, it maybe should have been a DTV movie or ended at episode 5.

Overall, I hope they weren't forced to watch consecutive episodes of any of these series just to make sure it was really THAT bad. THAT would be cruel and unusual punishment and I think a lawsuit may have been in order.
 
By that logic, Loonatics has some advantage over that because the series recycled backgrounds from Batman Beyond.

Don't get me wrong though, both shows were awful. I saw like half of the first season of Loonatics and totally regret it. I saw less than an episode of Coconut Fred and wanted to strangle the genius who greenlit the show.
 
Not a bad list at all. I really wanted to see Da Boom Crew revisited, though.

You might has well just posted a link to the Nostalgia Critic with a language warning, that would have been all you needed. :p

I never even heard of that. Must have really blew, then.
 
I never really knew Lunatics Unleashed was so bad, but I only watched one episode in my life and it didn't get me hooked like other shows did.
 
I actually liked Mulan II. Along with good animation (for a Disney sequel) it had great voice acting for all three sisters and some very cute songs. I really didn't see the problem with it besides the fact that it was historically inaccurate/politically incorrect, but those nitpicks are in "so what?" territory for me.
 
This is a pretty interesting list and I agree with most of the choices. I'm not surprised that Dino Squad and Emperor's New School were given as honorable mentions. I only saw a few episodes of Dino Squad and it felt much too corny for my taste and it did have an odd 80's feel to it. As for The Emperor's New School, I never liked that they got rid of all of the character development in the original movie to put all of the characters back to square one for a school-themed show. Plus, I thought that it was so annoying that Kuzco was even more selfish and acted more like a jerk in the series than he did in the movie. There were a few nice episodes here and there, but I didn't think that it was anything to write home about.

I'm not surprised that Loonatics Unleashed made the list. When I first saw the promos on Kids' WB, I thought that it would be pretty cool. I saw most of the first season and some parts of the second season, but it didn't really seem like a good show to me. I think that it had the potential to be a really interesting show, but I don't believe that happened. Though, in all honesty, I consider Da Boom Crew to be just as bad, or even worse, than Loonatics Unleashed.

I also agree with Mulan II. When I heard about this sequel, I thought that it would be fun since I generally enjoy most of the Disney sequels and I asked it for my birthday. To say the least, I was greatly disappointed with the quality of the movie. None of the songs were memorable, the three princesses were dull, the three soldiers falling in love with the princesses was a much too much obvious plot device and the way that Mulan went from a shy, but intelligent fighter to her behavior in this movie was just distasteful for me. Even if the sequels aren't as good as the original Disney movies, I tend to find them at least decent. Mulan II didn't really feel like a good movie to me at all. At least the ending was kind of cute, as well as how Mushu helped them out too, but it is one of my least favorite Disney sequels out there.
 
I kind of knew that Loonatics would make the top 5, after all when someone showed me all 6 reviews of it, they basically said that the only good thing was the background, which was taken from Batman Beyond, and the show did kind of bore me when it was on. I thought it was too generic. Though I am surprised that Da Boom Crew and Coconut Fred didn't make the list. The former for being yanked off the air without warning, and Coconut Fred for being a Spongebob rip-off.

Assy McGee, I was actually put off by the premise

Ren and Stimpy APC was one of the worse things on the list that I have seen. I know this is something DarthGonzo says, but it is something I agree with, looking at this show, it tells me more about John K's personal life than I wanted to know. That the the gross out gags they kind of went overboard.

Mulan II, I mostly enjoyed the other parts of the movie that involved the other 3 guys trying to woo the maidens instead of the plot point that Mulan was in.

Never saw Ratatoing, and reading the review, I don't think I want to.

All in all this was a pretty decent list.
 
This list was really hard to assemble, believe it or not. Part of the problem for a Bottom 5 is that every cartoon is someone's favorite. Another part is that if people sense something is going to be horrible from seeing the trailers, they're going to make every effort to avoid it.

We watched all of these cartoons before putting them in the list. In some cases we spent money to acquire these cartoons. I know Ed bought Ratatoing and I spent money to get APC via iTunes. None of the picks were made because of hearsay or they were easy shots. Several cartoons that have bad reputations were kept off of the list because they either had some good points or appeal to some audience that isn't made up of our readership.

Loonatics didn't make the list because it was an easy shot, nor did it make the list simply because of how it handled the Looney Tunes. It made the list because we felt it was poorly written and poorly executed. While I don't think even a Genndy Tartakovsky could have saved this concept, the production team turned out a terrible end product regardless... despite multiple opportunities to turn it around. That second season was the clincher for me. Had it been cancelled after one season it would have made Dishonorable Mentions.

The first season was a relatively straight (if badly executed) space action show with minimal Looney Tunes references beyond the characters themselves. When it tried to be an action show, it was alright. When it tried to be Looney, it misfired. Somehow the producers felt the solution to the show was to make it *more* Looney when it should have been *less*. That's when the show became toxic.

Do I think the show would have made the list if it were made by another studio? I'm not sure, and that's less our fondness for the originals and more because the show - mainly that second season - wraps itself so completely in its source material that comparisons are expected. That's the worst angle they could have taken with Loonatics. On the other hand, any show that features an Evil Rock Band battling the main team and expects us to take it seriously is probably not a good cartoon.

*ahem*.

Anyway, lemme recuperate more from putting myself through numerous crimes against animation.
 
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