Wasted Potential

My bad. I get carried away sometimes. I thought of some more last night.

A Bugs Life. There's a great pixar film in here somewhere, but they rushed the story and didn't flesh out the world or villain much.

Antz too. It's Ayan Rand's anthem with ants in it but the characters are so unlikable and the designs so ugly, how the hell did they expect this to appeal to kids.

I haven't seen Cars, but I'm guessing it's not as beloved as other pixar films so it'd fit in this thread.

Oh and of course Bee Movie. This has so much potential to be a great animated classic but seinfeld dropped the ball, creating a film that imo bangs you over the head with its message rather than lets the story flow naturally.

I want to say the Simpsons movie too but recently I watched it again and i think it's as good as it gets considering the current state of the show.
 
I gotta toss this one: Dare Devil.

The movie obviously isn't an animation, but lets face it, its built on all things animation related.

I was actually very, very excited when I saw the announcement for this movie. I thought it was a marvelous chance to explore New York in the Marvel world between Spiderman 1 and Spiderman 2. It could have lined up the King Pin, built some good story up around him and gave us some more flavor to the marvel world. Maybe most improtantly, it may have set up the potential for a Dare Devil or Fantastic Four team up in a later movie.

Instead, the potential tie-ins were never realized, the look and feel of the movie just didn't (and still doesn't) match anything else in the Marvel Movie World.

But lets be honest, not only did the series not live up to the potential it could have been, it ended up being a train wreck.
 
Agreed.

I agree on Pok?mon's wasted potential as well. I think it would have been more interesting if the story did show Ash becoming a master, maybe even mentoring a younger trainer ? some actual purpose to it all. But no, he's just grinding his gears, wandering the land, making little to no progress on his team even after God knows how many seasons.
 
I know it was always meant to promote toys, but it feels like the cartoon over time became more and more like that, that's why the character's don't really grow, and Ash will never be a master (whatever that even means now) until the show ends.

I also agree on the case of Drawn Together. I always believed that if the show wasn't meant to target heavily towards adults, it would've lasted longer, and be more enjoyable.
 
I feel exactly the opposite...the movie should have had more action and less kiddie-level whoopie-cushion humor. Just like with The Black Cauldron, Disney had a chance to break their animation out of the "Disney Princess" rut and diversify, yet they choked and wussed out. :( Ditto Treasure Planet. Why make boy-oriented action 'toons, and then skimp on the action and add a bunch of lame jokes? In the early 00's, only Don Bluth's Titan A.E. really went to the wall with it's anime-inspired action and mature elements (like Cale's semi-butt shot and actual blood during action scenes) and lack of silly "gag" humor.
 
Really, no Drawn Together supporters in the thread? Sigh, fine, I'll have to do most of the work...

DT is sort of poorly written in the first season aside from a few clever moments (the end of the Captain Hero crippled episode, for example). When it let loose of its restricting reality show format, it blossomed into this insane, mean-spirited romp that benefited from halting the forced attempts to lace the characters with (what are supposed to be) bad one-dimensional traits, and just had fun with them. The quality of the writing greatly improved with some wickedly funny lines that are both legitimately shocking and hilarious.

It became notorious for contained off-the-wall randomness (as in, they still cared about the plot), and was extremely well written in terms of dialogue and comedy. Season three got even better with general themes and running gags, as "Breakfast Food Killer" had a brillant take on the world of cereal mascots, and proved that the show had successfully dove into just parodying animation in general, and doing it in such a silly, yet mean way. A mean way that had razor-sharp teeth.

You may see it as stupid shock and toliet humor, I see it as a wonderfully over-the-top, satirical take on animation that isn't afraid to tell the truth. And mind you, some of those lines, excuse my language, are damn funny...
 
I liked Drawn Together the way it was for the most part, which is why I didn't mention it. If I had to change one thing about it, I would have toned down the random toliet humor just a smidge, but other than that, I liked its insanity. ;)
 
Totally Spies was wasted potential. I really wanted something to happen there but seriously how far can you go with solving mysteries valley girl style?

About drawn together that is one of my favorites but I really didn't like season 3 it's like it went to far I can't put my finger on it. I was immune to it's vulgar humor and it really didn't really have what season 2 had. A handful of episodes were good but even those could have been better but spelling applebee's, breakfast food killer, and the first half of N.R.A.R.A.Y are some of the funniest.
 
I think I might be the only person left who actually enjoys "Pok?mon" exactly the way it is. People who were expecting this show to be some kind of finite saga were deluding themselves from the start. The fact is, Satoshi is the most recognizable human character on the show, and as long as it stays popular, he won't be going anywhere. The writers have compensated for that by making him a very outgoing character who wants to keep challenging himself and visiting new regions. I get the sense that even if he did become Pok?mon Champion like so many people want him to, that still wouldn't stop him from exploring.

Instead, everyone wants his journey to end and for some new trainer to take his place. Really, what makes you think a new trainer wouldn't be exactly like Satoshi? This is a shounen anime, all those male protagonists are pretty much the same.

But you know, even I can't deny that "Pok?mon" has wasted its potential now and again. Not right now, of course - Shinou has turned out to be the best saga in the entire run of the show (yes, better than Kanto; contrary to what you may believe, everything was not better when you were 12 years old). But back in the Jouto saga, the show hit a slump where character development was deemed unnecessary, and every episode became all about showing off one Pok?mon for 25 minutes. In nearly every Jouto episode I watch, I immediately start thinking about how it could be better (improve the first Nanako episode by having Satoshi feel bad about defeating a rookie with his Lizardon; improve the Donfan episode by having Takeshi develop a bond with Hiiragi; improve the Hoho episode by expanding Shigeru's role and delving into why he's gotten so jaded, thus foreshadowing the battle at the end of the saga; etc.).

Really, the best thing I can say about Jouto is that Musashi and Kojirou and Nyasu never once failed to make me laugh - especially when they picked up Sonansu. I love that clueless little blob of stupid.
 
I'll have to second Chowder. The first season was amazing. It had a lot of clever and snappy jokes. Then, somewhere during season two, the writers looked through the funniest jokes in season one and just decided to write nothing but those jokes. The reason why things like the VA car wash were so funny was because they were unexpected, and came out of nowhere. Now these type of jokes are in every episode. Same thing goes for other things, like the use of Gazpacho. He's funny, but he's been shoehorned into almost every episode this season for no reason, except "Gazpacho is funny so let's put him in this episode". At this point, Chowder feels like it's trying too hard to be funny instead of the natural flow of humor it had in the beginning. At least it got canceled before it could become terrible.
 
i got one you guys might not remember. Disney's Dinosaur.

This movie was a success when it was released but fast forward nine years later, next to nobody remembers that it ever existed. Not suprisingly thanks to it's cliched story and bland, one-dimensional characters. It's a real shame too because it's probably the best looking CGI film Disney ever made.
 
I'd have to agree with you. And in my personal opinion, They should've used Gorgonzola more instead of Gazpacho; He was a very underused character. Oh well, at least there's "Adventure Time" and "Regular Show" to look forward to.
 
Hope you don't mind making it a little easier for those who aren't familiar with the Japanese names.

I think I reluctantly agree on Chowder, but everything about it has been said already.
I kinda wish it could've gone on for a little longer,
so maybe that it could have a chance to get better.
"YOU. WILL. DIEEEE."
Good times, good times.
 
Even if i'm a bit tired of this negativism about animations in this forum, here's my lists of wasted potential cartoon:

Darkwing Duck: I watched it as a kid and i found out funny, but i rewatching it on DVD few years ago and i don't understand why it's being a classic by some fans. The characters don't evolue very well and the villains aren't good at all. (90's cartoons was often unentertaining as usual mostly for saturday mornings)

I can say the same about Bonkers. Another favorite of my childhood but now i know better about animation, i think it's a disgrace to cartoon comedy with poor animations, characters designs and knock-off gags from Warner cartoons.

Steamboy was a very well written movie with a great premise but as long the movie start to end, the writing lost their sense. Instead, we have a cheesy melodrama with a predictable ending.
 
I hate admitting it, but Chdr is right. Now that I think about it, the show really does try too hard to be funny. Sometimes it worked, most of the time it just didn't.

I'll miss the show, but I guess its cancellation is good considering a third season could've been a whole lot worse.
 
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