Cartoons with a strong Sci-Fi theme: Are they not appealing?

Eh, lets not heap all the blame on audiences, here. A show can only be as smart as its writers, and what makes us think that writers are so much more educated than general audiences? Especially in the advanced science/engineering fields that you would need to do some serious sci-fi? I mean, seriously, how many people with a background like that decide they'd really rather write for cartoons?

And then there's the setting. For a good sci-fi series, (at least the serious 'sci-fi' ones, rather than those that just use science as a plot device) you've got to do quite a bit of worldbuilding. Establish and explain the tech, how the characters use it, the rules, the physics, how its changed society, yadda, yadda yadda. If your not careful, the show would drown in its own exposition. (See Ghost in the Shell: SAC. How often did that show degenerate into just a bunch of talking heads?) On the other end of the spectrum, if you treat the tech to lightly, you risk reducing it to technobabble. Like Star Trek Voyager. (Not animated, but you get the idea) Its a fine line to walk. And then there's the issue of whether or not the concept/characters/show is even good to begin with.

In theory, I really like Sci-Fi. But I haven't really liked to many sci-fi franchises. Titan AE, Iron Giant, ExoSquad, and....uh...thats really about it. (I liked Treasure Planet too, but that seems about as 'sci-fi' as Star Wars. Sci-fi in look alone.)
 
The writers/creators of Futurama were that intelligent. In fact, 4 of them held Ph.Ds. However, other than the Futurama anomale itself, your point holds true.



Futurama again :)
 
And yet, their vision of the future prominently featured the living heads of celebreties kept in jars. Including already dead celebreties like Richard Nixon... :sad: I don't think that an accurate portayal of thought-out science ever entered into Futurama, so the intelligence point is kinda moot.
 
I was referring to the intelligence of the writers themselves, not the writing. It was a response to your statement that writers may not even be as smart as the audiences.
 
If anyone is in doubt about the educational credentials of the Futurama writers, I recommend checking out the lecture on Bender's Big Score that details the mathematics jokes that were put into the series.

Sci-fi appeals to a certain type of person and unfortunately they're not in the majority when it comes to audiences. However, sci-fi shows do seem to have a nasty habit of being cancelled before their time [insert Bender's quote here regarding Star Trek].
 
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