How come so many people are hard on today's cartoons?

Not even Adventure Time?? :p

Seriously, though, did anyone think that when The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo and The Simpsons first hit the airwaves, that they'd achieve iconic status and they'd still be talked about and shown today? Hardly.

No show is born a mega-hit. Legends aren't born, they're made. And that lucky clique only achieve that status over time.
 
Crap, forgot about that (Marceline must be pissed at me:p). But yeah, I don't think it should pumped out with the label "Future Legend". But at least 3-4 season into a show, it should pretty much be decided.
 
I don't get people who like old stuff just because they grew up with it. I tend to move on when it comes to cartoons, especially if they go downhill, like FOP (and now Spongebob, I hardly ever watch that anymore). I used to be a huge Disney fan, but lately their new stuff is kind of lame (Princess and the Frog was really meh in my opinion), so my enthusiasm has faded a little, although I still like the classic stuff. I know a guy whose uncle is a Muppet NUT. He has all this puppet junk and says that the Muppets are as good today as they were when he was a kid and they should make a comeback, and his nephew (my friend) and me are like, who needs them? LOL. Puppets! Who cares? I guess I'm not a fanatic about anything. I just like what I like - for a while - and then I move on...
 
Well, in the end, each decade has its gems, and each decade has its crap. The crap tends to outweigh the gems, but that is true of everything.

The 80's had gems in "The Real Ghostbusters" and "DuckTales." If I had to pick the two top quality shows of that decade, those would be the ones. Sure, I enjoyed others, but I find them hard to watch again without cringing.

The 90's was different, and I credit Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett's "Batman the Animated Series" with cartoons really growing up. It gave other production companies the courage to attempt to equal or better it (whether they succeeded, your mileage may vary). But we got "Gargoyles" (yes, I had to mention it, you know me), and "Beast Wars" later on. Timm and Burnett brought us "Superman TAS," and then "Batman Beyond" as that decade came to a close. I've also got to mention the unsung and mostly forgotten "ExoSquad."

The 00's are fresher in my mind, for obvious reasons. I think we had a lot of gems. My personal favorites being "Avatar: The Last Airbender," "The Spectacular Spider-Man," "The Venture Bros," parts of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," and "Megas XLR."

There's been crap in all of these decades also, and we all have our personal lists, but that's beside the point.

And, I apologize for the tangeant, but the DCAU is really Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett's. Alan Burnett was Paul Dini's boss, and Bruce Timm's partner on these shows. He executive produced the entire DCAU, and I have no idea why Dini (who did spectacular work on the DCAU and was one of the chief architects, don't get me wrong) gets Burnett's credit.
 
I think that four big head in the BTAS era were Burnett, Timm, Dini, and Radomski. When Radomski left, Murakami took over for TNBA, STAS, and BB. Burnett left when JL started, while Murakami hung around for the first JL season and a few episodes of the second before Dwayne McDuffie joined up, and later James Tucker was promoted to producer for JLU. That's an oversimplification, of course, but I think that they were the driving forces. Basically, Timm was the most constant, absent only for SubZero (along Rhadomski, Dini, and Burnett, though much of the TV crew was still working on it) and Mystery of the Batwoman, for which Burnett actually returned.
 
Flash animation has the tendency to look more limited than the average television animation, and with the typical flat style that comes with it, and that's it's become more prominent, people have grown tired of it.

I don't mind it so long as the Flash animation is good, or the show's writing makes up for it.
 
I've seen stuff on the internet done by one guy that's better animated (and better looking) than the stuff on TV, which is just wrong. Flash can look decent when they want to, but the fact is people use it because they're lazy, so they put minimal effort into it.

The only good Flash show I've seen was made in France.
 
Personally, I blame that on the fact that most people on the internet put time in effort into it, while not working on a set deadline, while most TV shows have a set deadline and have to get it out ASAP. Really, that's the only thing that does hinder Flash on TV from time to time.

In all honesty that actually looks pretty good. The only good 100% flash show, as far as animation goes, is Superjail, but that's because they draw the scenes first, trace them in Flash and don't use any of the tweens. Fosters doesn't count since it's part Flash.
 
Yeah it is done mainly in flash, like the MMO it's based on.

The series is really good and shows what a little time, effort, and money can do to a flash based cartoon. This is one of the best fight scenes I've seen, based only on animation that is. While I love the opening that was posted this clip shows what the show can really do.
 
I don't think that's a factor. Companies spend about 9 months to a year to make an episode of a TV show. If one guy can do 5 minutes in a few weeks in his spare time, then a team of people with actual financial backing should do a 20 minute episode just fine.
 
While I agree that nostalgia can be a factor in why some people are harder on today's cartoons, I also agree that it isn't the only reason. Sometimes it's just because of their own unique taste. For example, there are people who still prefer the first few seasons of Pokemon, even though I think AG and DP have better writing and development. It's just the way they view the show.

The issue of having different tastes also affects what cartoons people see as bad or excellent. Some people could argue that the He-Man series from the 80's was better than the remake and it could easily come down to their personal preference.

As for me, I generally don't compare shows from different decades. I might compare them if they're in the same genre, but outside of toyetic anime series, that's fairly rare for me. I just judge a show based on how it feels to me and what enjoyment I get out of it. If I like it, I continue to watch it and maybe buy its products. If I don't like it, I just stop watching it.
 
I really dont feel like looking back a bunch of pages to see what everyone has to say but I'm just going to express my thoughts to this. Now I'll start off that I used to be a person who used to knock off something for animation before I saw it myself. Now as far as I remember when I was hearing about most of the animation not being so good, I kinda guessed the "feel" of how the cartoons were done in the 90's. Being so wild and crazy for some of them, while others were serious. But I guess its mostly nostalgia.


Most of them that I heard and seen were not so good, while there were a few that I were that I tried not to keep my eyes glued onto. But however I tried watching Foster's while some of it has some pretty clever stuff, most of the stuff I cant even look at. I just miss good animated shows nowadays. I know most of them are good but they are just hard to find. But its like most cartoons nowadays are not even made by actual cartoonists and they are people who just do it for the $$$.
 
I guess that's what happens. You start with something original and cool (and not well known) and then it gains exposure, exploitation and then, when it's not cutting the cheese anymore, exile to the second-hand station or just straight-up explusion.

Fairly Oddparents, Season 8: Do I still get to go up against Nick's top show like I did six years ago?

Nick: Uh, no. You get to live on the lost-and-nearly-forgotten island of Nicktoons Network since you didn't pull in the whopping ratings.

Season 8: Do I at least get my enthusiastic viewership?

Nick: Nope. That died out about three or so years ago, you'll just have to stick with newbs or desperate, nostaglic cartoon watchers.
 
I think writing is important. Very important. But good visuals and animations is just as important, if not more. This is an ANIMATION medium, after all.

I'm at loss over the lowering standards of animation. Unacceptable, in my opinion.

Yeah, I'm sounding like John K here, but this is what I feel.
 
It's true. And most of those people don't even bother to look back at those old shows now and watch it with a more mature set of mind.

And as has been mentioned before, not all the cartoons we grew up with were great. I honestly didn't care for Doug as a kid, but it was the only thing that was on. Same with Aah! Real Monsters and several others...

The thing is, I can understand certain complaints, but the realization I've come across is that contrary to popular belief, the way that these shows are designed and written are very similar, regardless of its date. Besides that, the only real huge complaint you can make is just more cartoons are ugly now... oh wait, we grew up with Klasky-Csupo, didn't we?

Yes, a lot of cartoons that try to use 'hip lingo' nowadays are irritating. But pretending that it never happened in cartoons even as old as Hanna-Barbara is ignorant.
 
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