Posts

Canadian Cartoons Are Great

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  Today, the popular cartoon YouTuber Saberspark uploaded a video talking about the infamous “fart episode” of the 2023 Total Drama series. The comments were filled with hatred and generalizations towards Canadian animation. These terrible comments are not the fault of Saberspark, but it is true that the “big users” in the cartoon community are (mostly) Americans who spread myths and stereotypes about Canadian cartoons. This has bothered me and a few others for quite a while, so here, I’m going to prove why Canadian animation is great, actually, and dispel common misconceptions All Canadian cartoons are about fart jokes - if you say stuff like this, you clearly have never seen a Canadian cartoon outside of Total Drama and Johnny Test. That’s like if I said “all anime is naughty tentacles” or “all American cartoons are about anvils falling on your head.” And don’t act like your precious USA cartoons and anime are exempt from toilet humor. One example of an anime with toilet humor i...
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Where are the teenage/YA cartoons?

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Recently, two cartoons that were slated to be on Cartoon Network, Unicorn: Warriors Eternal and My Adventures With Superman, are now going to be on Adult Swim. To me, this move makes no sense. These shows could have diversified Cartoon Network’s very barebones lineup, but they were shoved to Adult Swim. I sorta understand Unicorn, as it is dark (but definitely not on the same level as Primal, one of Genndy Tartakovsky’s other shows), but My Adventures with Superman? That show seems pretty innocuous. It has a bright color palette and doesn’t seem similar to Harley Quinn or the later seasons of Young Justice.   This reminds me of the desperate need there is for teen/YA-oriented western cartoons. In western animation, there are three primary audiences:   Preschoolers; anything rated TV-Y, shown on PBS Kids, Nick Jr, Disney Junior, or Cartoonito. Example: Doc McStuffins.  Big kids/elementary school crowd; anything rated TV-Y7, can be seen on Nickelodeon, Cartoon...
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Boys Like Girl Leads Too

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  Recently, an animated adaptation of the comic strip Phoebe and Her Unicorn   was cancelled by Nickelodeon, who claimed that boys won't watch cartoons with female protagonists. This incident shows how out of touch TV executives are with the audiences of their shows. Contrary to popular belief, gender doesn't matter. A good show is a good show, and if it's good, then anyone, including boys, can watch it, and history has proven that time and time again. Here are just a few examples: Winsome Witch is a series of Hanna-Barbera shorts that aired during The Secret Squirrel Show . Even in the 1960s, Hanna-Barbera knew that boys can watch shows with female leads. Winsome Witch  is about a witch named Winnie, and the magical mishaps she gets into. She's just as clumsy and hilarious as any other male H-B character, and she doesn't have a sidekick. While she is obscure nowadays, that's just because the various backup segments in Hanna-Barbera shows aren't very well-k...
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Follow up to cringe culture essay: animated film edition

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  Animation IS cinema My post about cringe culture, fandoms, and kids media, which you can read here , briefly mentioned how outsiders mock animation fans for using animated kids shows to say that animation is for everyone. I want to follow up on that point.  I had the displeasure of seeing an awful post on my Twitter timeline that went “the ‘animation IS cinema’ people always pick the dweebiest movies to make their argument. Just post Beavis and Butt-Head Do America guys, nobody would disagree” Wow okay mr edgelord. You sound like a stereotypical Disney Channel bully.  The ‘animation is cinema’ image comes from The Mitchells vs the Machines, which is a family-friendly movie that many hold up as a good example of an animated movie, and how animation is for everyone. This gets mocked by outsiders who think that this movie uses the “Grubhub art style” or some BS like that. As you can see, people who act like that think animation is only for children, and plug their ears and...
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On Cringe Culture, Kids' Shows, and Elitism

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"i'M nOt rEaDiNg aLl tHaT" Ok, scroll down for the TL:DR. Recently, the CEO of Disney, Bob Chapek, has stated the animation is only for children . Never mind that this is the same company that owns The Simpsons, and was founded by a guy who said, and I quote "You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway." Naturally, this has caused universal backlash within the animation community, with many people defending animation as a medium for everyone, not just kids. However, the animation community was also mocked by outsiders for using kids' shows, such as Gravity Falls, to prove that animation is for everyone. In fact, the animation community (more specifically the western animation community) has always been cruelly harassed by outsiders for watching cartoons, especially ones aimed at children.   There is nothing wrong with watching children's shows AT ALL. Watching kids' shows doesn't make you immature, a pedophile,...
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Top 3 Terror Tales of the Park Stories

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  Ever since Season 3 of Regular Show , it became a Halloween tradition for it to air Treehouse of Horror -esque episodes with different scary stories told by the characters. Needless to say, these were the highlight of every Cartoon Network Halloween in the 2010s. Without further ado, I will state my top three TTOTP stories. 3. In the House (TTOTP I) Rigby decides to egg a wizard's house on Halloween night, and consequently, is cursed by the wizard to become a house himself. This story has some of the most unsettling body horror I've ever seen in a kids' cartoon. Rigby's transformation into a house is GRUESOME. Muscle Man being skinned alive was also pretty disgusting. The amount of nasty detail put onto the wizard's design looks like it came straight out of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack . One Easter egg I liked was that inside House!Rigby, there was a portrait of Eileen, showing that Rigby secretly had a crush on her. This story did a good job of making ...
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‘Spirit Rangers’ Review

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  This last May, a lot of Netflix cartoons were scrapped because they don’t give two shits about animation (except for The Boss Baby, that is). Having been looking forward to Spirit Rangers since its announcement, I was worried that it was also canned, but luckily it survived and is finally here.  The series centers on three Native American siblings named Kodi, Summer, and Eddy, who are the rangers of Spirit Park and can also transform into animals. It is a preschool show, but is enjoyable for all ages.  The animation is stylized and beautiful. There are a lot of vibrant colors and gorgeous character designs, especially on the animals.  Our three heroes are likable and realistic kids who overcome their flaws to save the day. They’re not perfect, but they work hard to be heroes. Their animal friends are also enjoyable and memorable, especially Coyote with his hilarious egotism. Lizard, by the way is voiced by legendary voice actress Cree Summer, who is part of the Pla...
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