Bluff's Castle Corner

Or, people don't want 2D animated movies, they want Disney-like movies Internet users have repeatedly expressed the sentiment that they want 2D animated movies to return, usually accompanied by attached images of Treasure Planet, Atlantis, The Road to El Dorado, Anastasia, The Iron Giant, The Prince of Egypt, Spirit, and Sinbad. Then when 2D animated movies do get released nowadays, whether in theaters or on streaming platforms, those same people ignore them. They think foreign movies, such as Robot Dreams and Chicken for Linda, are yucky, they still think anime is all just violence or tentacle stuff or whatever 90s stereotype. People understandably made a big stink about Coyote vs Acme being shelved, but didn't show up to support The Day the Earth Blew Up. People correctly state that animation is for everyone, only to clutch their pearls over an adult animated movie. So recently, the trailer for Sony Pictures Animation's Fixed, directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, was released....

  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...

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...

  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...

  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...

"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,...

  We'll have a gay old time, indeed. Hanna-Barbera has been an obsession of mine for almost a year now. Their cartoons are still pretty fun to watch, but they obviously run the risk of being outdated in today's society. Here, I will be speaking on Hanna-Barbera's relationship to a group I'm a part of -- the LGBT community. Obviously, due to censorship and homophobia, there couldn't be any LGBT characters on TV or in film back in the day, much less positive ones. If a gay or at least ambiguously gay character did appear, they were an unflattering stereotype (lisps, limp wrists etc). Despite this, H-B unintentionally created one of the gayest cartoon characters ever - Snagglepuss. Heavens to Murgatroyd! He's pink, is into theatre, and talks like this , even. Ever since the first Snagglepuss cartoon aired, there have been rumors and jokes that he was gay. In order to stop the rumors that the character was gay, they added a female love interest for him named Lila Li...

 In 2017, I made this video about some of my personal favorite cartoon Christmas specials. But truth be told, that list was highly weak and lacked some of my other favorites. The wait is over. It has come time to shine a light on other amazing Christmas specials. OLIVE THE OTHER REINDEER Olive the Other Reindeer  is an amusing little thing. It's based on a children's book, and so the special emulates the feel of a pop-up picture book. The result is very surreal and kinda awkward to watch today, but it was surely cutting edge for its time. Matt Groening was the director of this special (in fact, this is his only work aimed at kids), resulting in the special being incredibly hilarious and intelligent. Kids and adult alike will have a smile on their face almost the whole time. FROSTY THE SNOWMAN Frosty the Snowman  is one of Rankin/Bass' few works that aren't stop motion, but that's okay. Frosty is charming and adorable through and through. The character designs have ...

  Put on your yarmulke Here comes Hanukkah So much funukkah To celebrate Hanukkah! Even though I'm a goy, I enjoy learning about Jewish traditions, and Hanukkah cartoon episodes in particular taught me a lot as a youngster. Yesterday, The Ghost and Molly  McGee , a great show you should watch, premiered a special Hanukkah episode, "Festival of Lights". As tonight is the first night of Hanukkah, consider this editorial my Hanukkah present to my Jewish readers, subscribers, friends and followers. SPOILERS AHOY! As Libby has now found out about Scratch's existence, she invites the McGees and Scratch to celebrate Hanukkah with her and her mom in their family bookstore. There's a power outage in town, but luckily the bookstore has a generator. Molly and her family learn all about Hanukkah traditions, such as playing dreidel and eating latkes. Scratch in particular adores fried food. This is pretty basic stuff, but the way it's presented is so entertaining, like the...