Are children's cartoons getting worse??
While reading another post on here a while ago, the topic of modern children's cartoons was brought up. The unanimous opinion was that present day cartoons are severely worse than the ones we grew up with. Albeit, nostalgia clearly plays a role in that decision, but I don't think that's just it. There have been a few shows that I've seen recently that I've found entertaining and would've enjoyed as a kid, but a majority of them are just flat out bad. Cartoon Network has introduced several remakes of their old shows, such as Teen Titans Go and the new Powerpuff Girls. These remakes are just disastrous: awful writing, lazy animation styles and a clear worsening of the already developed characters. I have heard that these shows are sometimes animated in a single day, and the episodes are around 10 minutes long! We have seen how long animation can take, and the fact that these production companies are able to pump out animated content (regardless of quality) is pretty astonishing. The writing speaks for itself. I will link a song from Teen Titans Go just to show you how mind numbing it is. The character issue is probably the biggest issue these shows have. Comparing the first three seasons of Spongebob to current ones, it is easy to see how the once lovable characters have changed for the worse. Spongebob is practically a child and loses all sense of maturity that he once had, Patrick is still stupid, but instead of coming off as comedic, he comes off as ignorant and rude, and Squidward is punished even if he has done nothing wrong. Most children's shows nowadays don't hold the morals and lessons that the ones of old do, which could also contribute to this decline in quality. Spongebob was my favorite show as a kid, and looking back at it now, I'm laughing and enjoying the episodes even more than I did back then because I understand them. I am curious to see if this is the case with our current generation. If that isn't the case, it will only help bolster the argument that old cartoons were created with more care and meaning. That's enough rambling for one evening. If anyone has an ironically funny moment from a bad kids cartoon, please share!
Teen Titans Go Waffles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HOlXJ2EJxw
Teen Titans Go Waffles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HOlXJ2EJxw
While I agree that there are a lot of mind-numbing, meme-pandering shows out now-a-days, I wouldn't say that cartoons are necessarily "worse" than they used to be. Sure, the first three seasons of Spongebob are hilarious and tightly written, and the later seasons have suffered significantly in terms of quality, but it's not like there are ONLY bad cartoons out today. Adventure Time, Regular Show, Steven Universe, and The Dragon Prince are just a few examples of brilliantly written cartoons that, though a few of them have ended recently, are still exceptional works. You may forget that there used to be just as many bad shows in the 90's than there are today, but we only remember the good ones because, well, they're good!
ReplyDeleteYes, I can see shows getting worse, but like Danny said, there are still a ton of great cartoons out there. I think the reason why we think that these shows are so "bad" nowadays is because we have grown older and cartoons have changed. If you think about it, it's kind of like music. The songs that our parents listen to is extremely different from the music that we listen to and while they may think that modern music sucks, we think that modern music is good. I think that the same concept applies here, children cartoons are not geared towards us, but rather a younger audience.
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