Unpopular Opinions About Western Animation -

[ZepFloyd94]

Disney's Robin Hood is criminally underrated

The 1994 Spider-Man cartoon wasn't that good in hindsight. It could've been great if it wasn't for Fox's overly ridiculous guidelines.

Disney's theatrical shorts in recent years have been more interesting than Pixar's.

The Looney Tunes Show was actually pretty good. It's a shitty show if you're expecting a faithful new interpretation of the characters. But watch it as it is, and it's enjoyable on its own merits, give or take a few weak episodes. Besides, it's way better than Loonatics Unleashed.

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

Well, some people are probably thinking this will stop people stinking up the Unpopular Opinions About TV thread...

The last Disney film that is even good is Robin Hood, and that only on the strength of its cast. (C'mon, Terry-Thomas? Pat Buttram? Andy Devine? Peter Ustinov?!) Everything post-Walt is a long, slow decline, especially in the fairy tale film arena... with occasional bursts of quality, of course.

Action cartoons dropped really badly in quality after Pokemon came out.

Many, many cartoons from the 70s and 80s aren't that bad - there's a sort of period charm to them, in my opinion...

And of course, Avatar is a terrible show that does not deserve the title of the best Nicktoon of all time.

And is it me, or do most cartoons these days feel like they were made by hipsters?

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

I can't get myself to watch Codename Kids Next Door because it reminds me of a childhood friend I used to watch it with that I lost contact with and might even have died.

 

[Somar]

Bob's Burgers isn't that good. Like I agree it's better than the newer Simpsons and Family Guy episodes but that's not really saying much.

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

The golden age of animated film was the 70s and early 80s.

 

[Lackadaisy]

Cartoons are for children, but animation is universal. (ie: The Powerpuff Girls vs. Disney's Fantasia)

 

[John Titor]

Can't really get into most of John K's stuff. Having said that, I do respect him as an animator and think he at least knows what he's talking about even if he kind of comes off as a dick.

EDIT: This aged poorly, huh?

 

[tlegg]

I feel the disney 80's renaissance started Basil of Bakers street. and the recent crop of good movies started of with meet the robinsons.

Sanjay and Craig is a hugely underrrated cartoon

 

[Lucky Wildcard]

I never cared much for Animaniacs outside of Slappy and the Warners. Also, Pinky and the Brain were decent, but they didn't deserve a spinoff. I'm surprised this show even has the fanbase that it does.

 

[Darwin Watterson]

Bob's Burgers isn't that good. Like I agree it's better than the newer Simpsons and Family Guy episodes but that's not really saying much.

I've watched a few episodes of Bob's Burgers and it's had some funny moments here and there. Its main problem, though, seems to be that it isn't really sure what it's trying to do. The creators can't really seem to decide if they want the show to be more grounded in reality like King of the Hill, or more zany and wacky like Family Guy or The Simpsons.

Also, I can't stand those low-budget "improv" animated shows like Home Movies and Dr. Katz.

 

[friedshrimp]

Spergy as hell but whatever.

90% of the cartoons people sperg about nowadays (Adventure Time, Steven Universe, most 90s cartoons...) aren't that good. Folks just like them cause it caters to their political agenda (or as @Steamboat_Bill said, it caters to hipsters), it recalls their 90s nostalgia or because they jump on the hype bandwagon way too quickly.

The Critic to this day is still great and fantastic.

Honestly all the Disney films made since the 2010s haven't been that good, the only exception being probably Wreck It Ralph.

And agree about Avatar being freaking overrated and Bob's Burgers being underwhelming.

Persepolis is really underrated. I just wish in these "animation fandom" hipster-circles that plague the Internet more attention was given to more adult animation like this movie or other similars (Triplets of Belleville, Walt with Bashir) over staying only with the (american) kiddie stuff. Like people dislike foreign animation unless it's the mighty anime, and that's really sad and ignorant.

Sometimes I think foreign or not that well-known animated movies are better than the mainstream Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks stuff.

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

Persepolis is really underrated. I just wish in these "animation fandom" hipster-circles that plague the Internet more attention was given to more adult animation like this movie or other similars (Triplets of Belleville, Walt with Bashir) over staying only with the (american) kiddie stuff. Like people dislike foreign animation unless it's the mighty anime, and that's really sad and ignorant.

Sometimes I think foreign or not that well-known animated movies are better than the mainstream Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks stuff.

It's like, feature animation is a wide and wonderful banquet of movies, with tons of different choices, and they're just picking at the rolls.

Why stick with what mainstream, modern feature animation is giving us when there's so much good stuff out there? What's wrong with picking up or downloading a copy of The Last Unicorn or Twice Upon a Time or The Triplets of Belleville?

 

[friedshrimp]

It's like, feature animation is a wide and wonderful banquet of movies, with tons of different choices, and they're just picking at the rolls.

Why stick with what mainstream, modern feature animation is giving us when there's so much good stuff out there? What's wrong with picking up or downloading a copy of The Last Unicorn or Twice Upon a Time or The Triplets of Belleville?

Sometimes I think it's Disney's fault the reason why animation hasn't really done something different in the last years, and that's sad. When the Disney boom in the 90s commenced, everybody wanted to rip it off, and then in the 2000s everyone wanted to be Shrek. Nowadays...I have no idea. I guess being topical is "in" I suppose.

Because those movies are old and problematic and don't have instantly relatable/attractive characters! As as we know, hipster millennial cartoon lovers do not like anything that existed before they were born, unless it's Star Wars.

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

Family Guy is okay for a chuckle now and then. The writers have issues though.

 

[Hellsperger]

The golden age of animated film was the 70s and early 80s.

Personally, I feel it's a shame no one else in Hollywood equaled Ralph Bakshi's work, and even Bakshi started to falter after he relied heavily on rotoscoping (he even admitted he only did so because of limited finances).

I think John K. is somewhat of a "do as I say, not as I do" kinda guy in many ways (i.e. his blog has tons of great insight into the animation process, but the fact that after nearly 5 years we still haven't seen the fruits of his "Cans without Labels" Kickstarter is unacceptable).

I think Loonatics could actually be considered so-bad-it's-good.

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

Personally, I feel it's a shame no one else in Hollywood equaled Ralph Bakshi's work, and even Bakshi started to falter after he relied heavily on rotoscoping (he even admitted he only did so because of limited finances).

Even if you ignore Ralph Bakshi, though, there was some good stuff coming out at that time. Imagine a film like The Last Unicorn being made today, and for kids. (Or Watership Down, but it's obvious something like that would never get made now.)

Bakshi did some good stuff, but even though I like Fritz the Cat, I'm with Robert Crumb in that it isn't a good adaptation of its source material.

 

[Hellsperger]

Speaking of Bakshi, I can't help but agree with everything he says here:

 

[Abethedemon]

I feel like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia would be better as an animated series.
I really like The Simpsons from season 14-18, they kind of got back in a groove, and produced some really good episodes, even though they weren't as good as they once were.
I can't get into Steven Universe. I think it would be better as a 22 minute series.
I really like the Gravity Falls episode "Dipper vs. Manliness," an episode a lot of people hate. While it is by no means bad, I'm not a big fan of the episode "the Time Traveller's Pig"

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

Here's some of mine.

- DiC 's animation was best during the early 80s and on "Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog".
- Speaking of Sonic, SatAM is the worst show of the DiC trilogy from a writing/pacing standpoint, while Underground was worse in every other aspect (animation, voice acting, characters, concept, et.al)
- I always thought Filmation had the better artwork (as in character designs and backgrounds) while H-B had the advantage over them in animation (not by much, but still).
- Reboot is so overrated, dated and boring it hurts.
- The Shrek films aren't all that great, they're not terrible, but I'm not a huge fan (especially with that "Shrek is love" meme).
- Modern Simpsons, while not great, can still produce a few chuckles out of me here and there.
- Ren and Stimpy < Rocko's Modern Life.
- Agree about the Bob's Burgers opinion @Steamboat_Bill has.

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

Moonbeam City was a ton of fun, and the fact that it didn't get a second season really bummed me out.