Greetings and Happy New Year Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back once again! I know, it's been a while. There's been very little activity here in 2017, a lot's gone one in the life of your dear Shaman. That, and a lot of laziness, have put a damper on my writing muse. But, it's a new year, and I have a new laptop, so welcome to a new installment of Shaman's Thoughts, my scatterbrain putting things together into a jumbled up mess of an essay. And in this, we kick 2018 off with a bang...and easy clicks: Teen Titans Go!
Before we begin, I'd like to say that this post was inspired by Shadow Streak's video last month discussing Cartoon Network's schedule at the time. Teen Titans Go...since its premiere in April 2013, the series to me has become the Sword Art Online of Western Animation in the sense that merely mentioning the series is sure to get very different reactions from people. Either complete ire or glee. Some think it to be the reason Cartoon Network is dying and the worst cartoon of all time, while others say the former party are just overreacting and that the series isn't as bad as people make it out to be.
I have something of an interesting history with the series, and as 2018 will mark 5 years since it premiered. I wanted to share my thoughts and history with the series, and how I think it's impacted Cartoon Network in the present and how it could impact its future.
I can't talk about this series without bringing up how it came to. In 2012, Cartoon Network ran a one hour block called "DC Nation", airing DC cartoons with shorts in between shows. Of these shorts, there was a series titled "New Teen Titans". These shorts used the same art style (albeit very chibified) and voice actors of the 2003 animated series. For those who watched the show when it was airing, like myself, these were really fun shorts with some nods to the show and the actual Titans comics themselves. You can find them all on YouTube (Of varying video quality), give them a watch.
These shorts created a buzz from Teen Titans fans. Seeing the characters they loved back again made them want to see more of them, they wanted the Titans back in a full on series revival; and the folks at Cartoon Network seemed to be listening. The shorts proved to be very popular and soon enough a new Teen Titans animated series was green lit. Naturally, I was very excited to see the new Titans show, although I was upset that the Super Best Friends Forever shorts weren't picked up for a full series.
Pay 'F' to pay respects...is that still a thing?
But when the first image of the series that we'd come to know as Teen Titans Go came out, people weren't exactly happy. Fans were expecting a full blown revival of the show they saw nearly a decade ago, and what they were getting was dumb silly shorts with a completely different artstyle; and what really didn't help TTG out the gate was the fact that right around the same time it was premiering, Young Justice was cancelled.
I remember the day TTG premiered. I went it wanting to hate it. I lost Young Justice and everything pointed towards this show being the reason why. When the first episode of the show aired however...I actually liked it. Sure it wasn't the old show, but for what it was, it was a lot more enjoyable than I expected it to be. Granted, some of the jokes didn't land for me (like Raven's MLP love cause "Ha Ha, Tara Strong voices a main character in MLP). But there was enough chuckle worthy stuff to validate the series.
After the fourth episode, I stopped following the show, catching it every once in a while, until something caught my attention. That was this picture:
Okay not this picture, but you get the idea.
For the first eight months of its existence, TTG was very disliked by people over the age of 10; and part of that reason was as I stated, was many people felt that the show had replaced Young Justice, as a sign that more serious, story driven DC animated series were a thing of the past and Teen Titans Go was the future. The writers of TTG have heard that and in 2014 the episode 'Let's get serious' aired. In it, the heroes of Young Justice appear and berate the Teen Titans for being too silly, echoing complaints of a lot of older fans. This was meant as a giant Take that to detractors of TTG, but to me it just came off as petty. The audience of TTG is little kids. Chances are, they probably didn't watch Young Justice, so going out of the way to specifically go after what could technically be a vocal minority, especially when the target audience is taken into consideration, seems kind of childish to me. And to make matters worse, they didn't even make a joke about Aqualad and Cyborg sharing the same voice actor in that episode. The joke was there on a silver platter, and that didn't even take it.
On top of that, a guy like me who was upset with Young Justice's cancellation he but didn't have that much of a problem with TTG, now has a problem with TTG. That's my biggest problem with this show, with the writers themselves: that every blue moon the writers feel insecure enough to write episodes that serve no other reason but address criticism; and most of the time, the episodes are pulling Straw man arguments in an attempt to shut down "Da haterz".
When it comes to this series, it rubbed me the wrong way one time and I simply chose to not watch much of it anymore. Every now and then, I'll see a scene on YouTube or have an episode play in the background while I'm doing other stuff and yeah, there'll be something in the show that amuses me. Aside from that, I mostly ignore it; and that stems mostly from the fact that I don't watch a lot of TV nowadays.
Since its announcement, TTG has gained notoriety on the internet; and it's something of a hot topic to speak on in videos or blog posts (wink wink). A lot of people are tired from the constant talk of it, but it makes sense. For some people, talking about cartoons is how they make a living; and from a business standpoint you want to deliver the product that is sure to make you the most money; to do that, you kind of have to talk about what's popular. If you don't WANT to do that, then I hope you enjoy being for a more niche audience.
But even with a lot of vocal disdain, the show is a very big success for Cartoon Network and I think that success has put the channel in something of a rut. What I mean by that is, this:
This image was taken from the CN schedule archive Tumblr page
The picture above was Cartoon Network's schedule from Christmas to New Years' Eve. I know, it's a lot of yellow. Like I said, TTG is successful and from a business standpoint, it makes sense why CN has kept it around nearly 5 years. But I feel that success is hurting the channel. Now this isn't me saying that CN needs to get rid of TTG, but I am saying that they have become over reliant on it. The series has become CN's Spongebob. It's their mascot, the flagship show (as much as some hate to hear it). It probably has a fair share of merch that's raked in good money, not to mention the fact it's going to have a movie with a theatrical release this year, only the third movie made by CN show to do that.
It's all this that's hurting CN. I hate to be one of those old timey "Back in my day," sort of folks, but there was a time that Cartoon Network took chances with a bunch of different shows with different styles. Let's not even look back at the original Cartoon Cartoons, go back to the shows from early 2003 to to 2008. Kids Next Door, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Camp Lazlo, My Gym Partner's a Monkey, even Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi. Throughout those years Cartoon Network had so many different and weird shows; and yes, they all weren't winners. But the network was willing to roll the dice on them.
The Constant airing of Teen Titans Go isn't a problem because of the show's quality, but more that it's had a bad effect on Cartoon Network. It's become a crutch for the network, because it's guaranteed profit no matter what time it plays. Because of that, Cartoon Network doesn't feel the need to take risks with their other shows, instead going with what's considered the safest option. Not only is this pushing away other series like We Bare Bear, Gumball, Steven Universe and Adventure Time, but in an attempt to replicate that success, you're trying to make new shows with that exact same kind of style, tone, and humor (IE The PowerPuff Girls and Ben 10 reboots), and in doing so, the channel's going to become one giant blob of monotony.
Perhaps I'm not the person that should talk about this. After all, I did say earlier in the post that I don't watch much TV nowadays and TTG is made for little Jimmy coming home from school. But maybe its the kid in me, that grew up watching Cartoon Network; a network that, as it may sound, had a lot of influence on my life, do better. To not just be a one trick pony, but to be a horse of all trades; and as of the first week of the new year the CN schedule, while still being pretty TTG heavy, is more varied, showing a push for their new series Unikitty (Which I may take a look at later, who knows?) along with having more Gumball and their most recent show OK KO. It's not a huge change, but it is making small steps.
Teen Titans Go is a very interesting beast of a series. Do I hate it? Not really no, mostly because after 5 years, it's just not worth it anymore. But I will admit that the folks at Cartoon Network are overly reliant on it. But this year does see many new shows premiering on CN, maybe the network will start to cut back and allow these shows time to air and find an audience. Who knows what the future holds? What I do know is that TTG ain't going anywhere anytime soon; and while that statement is guaranteed to anger a few people, the fact that after five years (Despite Network assistance) the series is still able to garner such a reaction out of people and bring up discussions like this, it's gotta be doing SOMETHING right. What that is, I'll leave it to you all to figure out.
That'll do it from me guys, forgive me if this is a little disjointed. I mostly shot from the hip on this one. If you enjoyed this post feel free to check out my other 90 something posts, and check down in the description to see a link to where u could find me on social media and chat with me if you wish to do so.
Until Next Time Everyone, I am The Shaman of Animation.
Take Care...
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