Western Animation - Discuss American, Canadian, and European cartoons here (or just bitch about wokeshit, I guess)

[Judge Holden]

So my toddler niece has been full on with her princess phase, but yesterday when she was visiting she happily ordered me to sit with her and watch cartoons. I expected some brainless disney or bluey shit and mentally prepared myself to tune my brain out....but then as I surreptitiously checked my phone I heard an all too familiar opening theme...

Spoiler

Turns out her princess phase has evolved into something far worse. She made me watch the entirety of the first season with her and from how much she was giggling about next weekend she is probably gonna make me watch it with her every time she comes round.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

So my toddler niece has been full on with her princess phase, but yesterday when she was visiting she happily ordered me to sit with her and watch cartoons. I expected some brainless disney or bluey shit and mentally prepared myself to tune my brain out....but then as I surreptitiously checked my phone I heard an all too familiar opening theme...

Spoiler

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wuxulP3rAWk

https://youtube.com/watch?v=TrS6Tkt78V4
Turns out her princess phase has evolved into something far worse. She made me watch the entirety of the first season with her and from how much she was giggling about next weekend she is probably gonna make me watch it with her every time she comes round.

If you separate yourself from the baggage it's usually a nice enough thing

 

[MrLisReal]

Got this trailer for some kind of animated show. They didn't even attempt to be subtle, it's straight-up about a transwoman with magic. I'm more aware of this guy being trans than of anything else that's going on in Olympia.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=bLsdPsiLmzo

You can just hear those strained vocal chords trying to reproduce a feminine voice. Hope all those feminine voice lessons were worth it tranny!

 

[penninkfaget]

toddler niece

she's part of the show's target audience, at the very least

 

[Cleverbot]

So my toddler niece has been full on with her princess phase, but yesterday when she was visiting she happily ordered me to sit with her and watch cartoons. I expected some brainless disney or bluey shit and mentally prepared myself to tune my brain out....but then as I surreptitiously checked my phone I heard an all too familiar opening theme...

Spoiler

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wuxulP3rAWk

https://youtube.com/watch?v=TrS6Tkt78V4
Turns out her princess phase has evolved into something far worse. She made me watch the entirety of the first season with her and from how much she was giggling about next weekend she is probably gonna make me watch it with her every time she comes round.

That actually sounds really sweet. Just don't let her use the Internet unsupervised.

 

[Sleazy Car Salesman]

Guys, I'm trying to watch Brother Bear. I remembered the overall story being decent but holy fuck I forgot how desperately they tried to be funny with those fucking moose and all the other animals. It's so annoyyyyyinnnnnng.

Brother Bear is basically Ice Age but written by people who didn't understand what made Ice Age charming.

Turns out her princess phase has evolved into something far worse. She made me watch the entirety of the first season with her and from how much she was giggling about next weekend she is probably gonna make me watch it with her every time she comes round.

My man, I say this entirely without irony, MLP:FIM is a legitimately good children's show. It's got a decent production value, most of the characters are pretty fun, and the writing and VA work doesn't make you as the babysitter want to kill yourself. If you ignore all the brony shit it's a good old fashioned kid's cartoon like the kind they used to air in the early 2000s.

 

[Judge Holden]

My man, I say this entirely without irony, MLP:FIM is a legitimately good children's show. It's got a decent production value, most of the characters are pretty fun, and the writing and VA work doesn't make you as the babysitter want to kill yourself. If you ignore all the brony shit it's a good old fashioned kid's cartoon like the kind they used to air in the early 2000s.

I get that, and I agree with what you and others have said about the show in and of itself not being that bad in the context of a literal baby child show for literal baby childs. Its more the wider context that makes me feel like some kind of cosmic joke was being played on me to come face to face with what is by now a legitimately ancient well of autistic horror. She is still a little too young to understand much of it but she enjoyed it plenty and it beats 99% of the currentyear cartoon slop so I don't mind enduring the occasional vietnam flashbacks while watching it with her.

Now if it was steven universe she put on I would have dropkicked her out the goddamn window

 

[Kari Kamiya]

So apparently foids on tiktok are lusting over conan o'brien's character in toy story 5

Literally gooning to a potty-training toy. Perhaps these women shouldn't ever breed.

 

[Sleazy Car Salesman]

Literally gooning to a potty-training toy. Perhaps these women shouldn't ever breed.

PERHAPS?

Now if it was steven universe she put on I would have dropkicked her out the goddamn window

Steven Universe is such a weird show. I legitimately couldn't tell you if its audience demographic even still exists in the modern day.

 

[Chromeo]

Steven Universe is such a weird show. I legitimately couldn't tell you if its audience demographic even still exists in the modern day.

20 year old mentally ill college students? Of course those still exist. I took this photo at least a year ago, but my therapist's office actually has special Steven Universe screenings for use in therapy:

(I've googled the events and nothing came up, so I'm pretty sure I'm safe to post these and not dox myself)

 

[Kari Kamiya]

>therapeutic use of cartoons

Weak times create weak(er) men.

 

[The greater a'tuin]

I remember Conan being portrayed as more of a force of nature than a human being. I think Genndy will fail to deliver on that because he tends to always give his characters soft spots, and the Barbarian is supposed to have none whatsoever. He's a thief/conquerer, larger-than-life character, and I can't recall Genndy ever directing one of those.*

This point comes to mind when asked why the book Blood Meridian is suddenly popular amongst zoomers: they are never allowed villains like Holden anymore. They have known nothing but shallow contemporary allegories and vapidly "humanized" figures with recycled tragic insecure traits for antagonists. A timeless force of abstract absolute evil is a breath of fresh air.

 

[Newcomer 42]

I remember Conan being portrayed as more of a force of nature than a human being. I think Genndy will fail to deliver on that because he tends to always give his characters soft spots, and the Barbarian is supposed to have none whatsoever. He's a thief/conquerer, larger-than-life character, and I can't recall Genndy ever directing one of those.*

I'm sure it'll be pretty decent regardless; he'll likely fuse his Primal lead with Samurai Jack. It just won't be true to the Conan of the pulp stories.

*Even Aku (the shape-shifting master of darkness) isn't larger than life. Aku isn't like Napolean, where there's stories of him winning over whole columns of soldiers with a single speech. Instead he's cajoling, bribing, coercing, destroying, using subterfuge etc.

Then you remember wrong, because Conan is NOT invulnerable, winning by the skin of his teeth, loses his throne after a magician nearly kills him, falls in love with a woman he just met (and then he fucks her in front of her negro slaves, kek) and becoming moody for years after he loses her, etc.
I could see Spear from Primal turned up to 11 being a good start for a Conan figure.
As for Aku, he does destroy entire armies with his powers and he's quite almighty indeed.

Even though he does have a soft spot for pizza.

Extra thicc one.

but my therapist's office actually has special Steven Universe screenings for use in therapy:

For detecting those that deserve actual therapy, I guess.

>therapeutic use of cartoons

Weak times create weak(er) men.

If only it was good cartoons like Batman TAS at least...

 

[Legalize Asbestos]

They have known nothing but shallow contemporary allegories and vapidly "humanized" figures with recycled tragic insecure traits for antagonists.

That's been a weird problem of the medium in the West for a long time. Lots of villains who are either evil in a way that doesn't stand up to a shred of logic, or in a way where their behavior is somehow none of their fault. There was a glimmer of hope in the 2010s when the new crop of storywriters wanted to imitate the Japs and write antagonists with sympathetic rationales (eg. Lady Eboshi) - but we got the aforementioned trauma-creatures instead (eg. White Diamond).

Pure evil works in kid shows, but it is the villains with relatable goals that they fondly remember. Past toddler age, I think it's a much better dynamic to raise them on too, since they'll inevitably encounter the same temptations to evil in real life and realize they're acting like the Big Bad.

 

[Quijibo69]

20 year old mentally ill college students? Of course those still exist. I took this photo at least a year ago, but my therapist's office actually has special Steven Universe screenings for use in therapy:
Ver archivo adjunto 9205359
(I've googled the events and nothing came up, so I'm pretty sure I'm safe to post these and not dox myself)

I like to watch cartoons to relax for some strange reason. You need to play better cartoons, like ones that aren't Steven Universe.

 

[starborn427614]

Steven Universe is such a weird show. I legitimately couldn't tell you if its audience demographic even still exists in the modern day.

Ironically, they would be about the age that most of SU's actual fans are now. Try not to let the slow doom of time set in.

 

[AbduluCthuluZulu]

Turns out her princess phase has evolved into something far worse. She made me watch the entirety of the first season with her and from how much she was giggling about next weekend she is probably gonna make me watch it with her every time she comes round.

If it's any consolation, most fans and even some non-fans agree that the show becomes less of a slog after the first season.