Is there a lack of serious american cartoons?

S

stephanielovexx

New member
In my opinon I wouldn't say there is a lack of serious fare but it seems to me that there is an overabudence of comedies now. I don't have anything aganist light hearted stuff and I'll always love comedies but as I've gotten older I tend to prefer toons that are more mature. I don't mean mature as in overly dark and depressing mind you, but in having a engaging plot and intresting characters to keep me hooked.

I'm a big anime fan as well and I don't like some fans false sense of elitism assuming all american made cartoons are immature and made for kids and animes are the only medium of animation that can tell good stories. I would like more of a balance between comedies and light heartedness and the more serious stuff.

what are your opinons?
 
Even if you're excluding adult comedies like Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park, Futurama, etc...

Action cartoons such as the end of the DCAU, Teen Titans, TMNT 2k3, X-men Evolution, and a few other shows is why it seems like there is a lack of serious American shows nowadays.

It doesn't help matters that both Marvel and DC are skewing younger nowadays, excluding Wolverine and the X-men and those DC Universe movies.
 
The only thing that comes to me off the top of my head are The Spectacular Spider-Man and Wolverine & the X-Men. I know a lot of folks accuse TSSM of being overly kiddified but I personally think most of those people are judging it by very superficial standards.
 
Wolverine and the X-men and Iron Man: Armored Adventures seems to be the most serious cartoons on TV currently. Though I'm not sure I'd call Teen Titans 'serious' animation. Outside of one or two episodes like Haunted and Birthmark, it was extremely goofy and crazy.

Overall, yes, there is a lack of it, which is a shame. Ironically, children's cartoons are the only real serious cartoons out there, since most adult cartoons skew the Simpsons and Family Guy crowd.
 
teen Titan's was dreadfully boring when it tried to be serous and was really only good in my opinion when it was an action comedy. batman the Brave and the bold is a better serous show then teen titans was, when it wants to be that is.

Also there is Secret Saturdays which is a great serous action cartoon. Sadly it's being over looked. Man is the story really good.
 
I think there is an overabundance of comedy cartoons. I don't mind a lot of comedies but yes, it seems that serious cartoons are almost non-existent nowadays.

One of the best american made animated shows Batman TAS was a serious cartoon. I don't know why there aren't hardly any serious cartoons on but I know that some serious cartoons are really good.
 
Sorry, but I really don't see how anyone could think that there's an overabundance of comedy cartoons right now. I just don't see it. If anything is being overdone in the kid vid department, it's boy centric action shows. Even Adult Swim's The Venture Brothers is beginning to sacrifice comedy in favor of more detailed, dramatic storytelling.

If you ask me, there's not enough animated funny on TV right now. We could use some more cartoons that are just funny and entertaining.
 
I would love to see some mature Western non-comedy series with adult sensibilities. Since that isn't going to happen any time soon, I usually focus on the voice acting, the direction, the animation, and the fight scenes (if it has fight scenes). If these areas are good, then I'll take it seriously.

I could never take Iron Man Armored Adventures seriously because of the boring and terrible animation and direction, the average voice acting, and the painful human designs. I'm struggling to think of a modern action cartoon that has a less appealing aesthetic. The characters have zero charisma.

I've been ragging on Justice League Unlimited lately, but that show at least had some of the qualities that I look for in a cartoon that tries to be serious at times.

Teen Titans, even with its writing problems, was a show that I could take seriously with at least some of its drama episodes. Birthmark is the greatest display of fear that I've ever seen in a Western cartoon. Haunted has one of the most affective fight scenes I've ever seen, with Robin actually begging Slade to stop his savage brutality.
 
A straight forward, non sci-fi, superhero or action oriented animated TV drama would be a very hard sell. The main attraction to drama is the acting, which wouldn't be easy to show in animated form. Acting is difficult to draw. Most cartoons characters don't do it. They have stock expressions. Unless it's superhero/sci-fi thing, many adults wouldn't take an animated drama very seriously. There have been a few attempts, but none of them have attracted a mainstream following.
 
Whoa hold on there bro. I definately don't want a cartoon that's overly dramatic, leave that mess for soap operas and Degrassi :D. All I want is a little more toons with intresting characters and good stories, that's all. And I'm not suggesting comedy and light-heartedness have to disappear, I just want a little more balance of both. I do agree with you on the overuse of boy-centric action shows. Is some more toons with female protagonists too much to ask for? Well, at least there's the upcoming Tara Duncan series :)
 
Not really. I could name plenty of both action and comedy American cartoons from this decade alone.


My problem is that very few shows from both departments are grabbing my attention.
 
Venture Brothers is hardly dramatic storytelling. It has a ton of comedy and immaturity in it One of the most recent episodes revolved around a pedophile Batman parody and was non-stop joke after joke. Venture Bros. might be the closest we have to a serious adult show right now, but it's far from being one; it has comedy all the time, even during the 'serious' parts. It is, after all, a parody first a foremost.
 
It's been happening for a while now.



Honestly, this comment kind of sums up why I have trouble swallowing the idea of these action cartoons being "serious". Comedy cartoons such as The Simpsons and South Park deal with actual real-life social issues, while action cartoons deal with expendable clone troopers - and yet it's the action cartoons that deserve to be taken seriously?
 
To be a fair, independant arthouse shorts aren't much of a substitute for a mainstream market. I doubt we'll see an animated drama airing alongside House anytime soon.

I can't speak for Clone Wars since I don't like it, or even watch it (but if it's anything like the rest of the prequels, I'm tempted to agree with you), but action shows that focus on character development, character depth, their growth and issues they have, and a serious plot-line , then I see no reason why not. Social issues in those shows seem more like a theme to springboard their comedy off of more than anything else. If they were more serious satire on the issue, like a documentary, then I would agree.
 
Actually, all of those shorts were made for television. Aired next to a heavy-hitter like House? Probably not, but they were aired nonetheless. Worth something, surely.



Yes, and action cartoons use "serious" subjects as springboards for their fight scenes. Look at Heart of Ice: a man losing his wife is used as an excuse to have an ice-themed supervillian. Secret Origins: nuclear disarmament is used as the basis for an alien invasion yarn. Deadly Force: Broadway learns that guns aren't as cool as they look in movies so that he and Goliath can duff up an arms dealer. Etc etc. Are these really that much more thematically sophisticated than, say, Homer's Phobia or Go, God, Go?
 
There have been many serious US animated series. There's only a lack of serious shows compared to Anime because Japan has a higher output of cartoons than other countries.

On the other side of things there's been quite a few Anime's I've watched where I've gone "this would be great show if it didn't have so many 'comedic' bits." Stuff with too many chibi faces and the like.



Or maybe they tell some serious stories and use the action as a springboard to show some deeper stories.
 
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