"They Had Such Potential!"

How about Disney's Kingdom of the Sun? Yeah, that epic drama that turned into emperors new groove? Dont get me wrong, i love ENG but, i was saddened to read about Roger Aller's original story being thrwn out. Even 50% of the animation was already completed. Sure it was a typical prince-and-pauper scenerio and a predictable romance thrown in, but what intrigued me was Yzma's original treatment. She was an evil sorceress who wanted to 'snuff out the light' so that she can regain her youthful looks and take over the kingdom. Go on youtube, and listen to 'snuff out the light'. its probably the best unsung villain song ever:D.
 
Chowder... definitely Chowder. It had such fantastic production design, and they could've done so much with the basic premise of a idealistically sweet yet naive young boy in a bizzarely imaginative setting (which was so refreshing after so many rude and meanspirited protagonists in newer cartoons). The early episodes were promising -- and then they flanderized the characters and broke the fourth-wall so many times that my interest was gone.

I know a lot of people do love the show and herald it, Flapjack and Adventure Time as the saviors of Cartoon Network, but IMO in terms of writing and humor, Chowder is the weak link of these three (with Flapjack as an improvement and Adventure Time being all-out fantastic). Though I am very interested in the premise behind the series finale and will definitely watch it whenever CN airs it.
 
Billy & Mandy and The Fairly Oddparents.

Both had great concepts and Billy & Mandy had a very interesting take on the Grim Reaper. However, both fell victim to one-dimensional characters and poor writing. They started out cute, but fell flat (and even flatter in style when they get renewed for more seasons; even the animation was prettier in the early episodes for B&M and the pilot episode for FOP.).

Writing, lack of characters with depth, and soon-to-be flat art aside, Billy and Mandy was ruined by the very boring, predictable kid characters. And Fairly Oddparents, despite having great voice actors, had some seriously poor actor direction to the point where all the characters had no tones outside of the SHOUTING ONE.

I think Grim is really the only interesting character out of both shows.
 
I agree. It's been awhile since I have seen the Emporer's New Groove, but my brother watched it the other day and said that alot of the humor seemed forced.
 
Mlaatr's cast was better than any of the stories they were regularly given. Even with the best ones, there are things that could've made them even better.
It's not really a show that was "wasted potential", they just didn't realize the potential as often as they could have. I love Jenny, Sheldon, Brit & Tiff, Nora, Brad & Tuck unconditionally and always have, and I think it had potential to take things on a bigger scale rather than keep the characters as flanderized "one-joke" characters as they did so often. Love the characters like nobody's business, but, the show itself.... There are many good ones, of course, the series itself isn't bad on the whole at all. Of course, since the show was cancelled before it could be "finished", who knows, maybe they could've gone in the right direction eventually.
And what Animationerd said about that song. I miss Eartha Kitt...Of course, I saw Vexus before I saw Yzma as a tyke. :P
 
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