Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with another installment of Shaman's Thoughts. This past weekend, The Internet got a first look at 'Thundercats Roar': a new reimagining of The Thundercats, with a lighter and more comedic tone (as opposed to the more serious 2011 reboot). The internet took to this as well as the internet takes to many questionable reboots/reimaginings of beloved old cartoons (Spoiler Alert: It wasn't good). Some of the criticisms thrown the show's way were just, like the fact the show seemingly looks the same as a lot of Cartoon Network shows nowadays.
But I'm not here to insult Thundercats Roar or the crew working on it, for all I know the show could come out & it could wow folks of all ages proving to be ahead of its time. But when I first got word of this series one thought entered my mind: What the hell happened to action cartoons?
I'm sure many of you reading this have already written my post off as cheap clickbait & saying: "Action cartoons are still around doofus," to which you aren't wrong in doing so as yes Action cartoons are alive and well in the various Marvel animated series on Disney XD and Netflix is finding success with Voltron Legendary Defender, and its making more strides with the new She-Ra series making its way to the streaming service.
And if we're still judging series based off single images, then this looks like its gonna be pretty sweet.
But if you the reader will humor me as I grab my metaphorical cane and sit in my rocking chair for a moment here, I remember a time where more story-driven action/adventure cartoons were everywhere and programming blocks were dedicated to them. I'm sure the obvious one that comes to the minds of many is Toonami but there were many others in Kids WB, BoomerAction, 4Kids TV, Jetix. For the longest time it seemed that cartoons where the focus was on action and story were the premiere cartoon.
But that seemed to change in the last 8 years, starting with Adventure Time and Regular Show. Shows started drifting away from the action as its main focus and more on comedy, and there was also a shift in artstyles for a lot of cartoons, some shows started to look a lot simpler and less detailed; and it was something that definitely picked up with Teen Titans Go in 2013.
And looking back on it now, the 2010-2013 time period was when we saw the winds start to change as far as what the norm for animation on T.V. was. It was definitely around that time period where action cartoons began to fade away from T.V. We saw the cancellation of shows like Generator Rex and Young Justice. Ben 10 Omniverse (A soft reboot of the Ben 10 Franchise with a lighter, more kid friendly art style and tone as opposed to the darker Alien Force and Ultimate Alien) premiered. And The Legend of Korra, a series that was heavily promoted by Nickelodeon when it first premiered, was quietly taken off T.V. and sent to Nick's website and digital-cable only channel to finish its run.
Why would you get rid of animated series like the Korras and the Young Justices and go with comedy-heavy shows with more simplistic artstyles? If I were to guess it would probably be because shows with a simple look would be easier and/or cheaper to animate and if the art appealed to the younger demographic I'm sure they're meant to appeal to, they're gonna want to buy toys based off of these cartoons. Sad as it is to say, animation is still a business and in a business you have to go with what's popular in an attempt to make maximum profit. The previous Nickelodeon Ninja Turtles cartoon that started in 2012 and ended last year (Which to me was one of the last pure action cartoons on basic cable) was probably given 5 seasons because even after nearly 3 and a half decades, The Ninja Turtles still sell toys like gangbusters.
That brings me back to the point I was making about "mainstream" animation going through a transitional period. I can't speak for everyone when I make this claim, but I know for a fact that around the time Cartoon Network started making live action shows, they lost me. A lot of the shows I watched had ended/was cancelled and, sorry for the Regular and Adventure Time fans out there, I couldn't connect with the new cartoons at the time; and so I moved on to video games, manga, and anime (A.K.A my peak years as a weeb). I came back to watching Cartoon Network on a more weekly basis when Young Justice premiered. Of course by the time it premiered, Adventure Time & Regular Show both were out for months and had garnered their fans.
By 2013, you had 2 shows that attracted a new, bigger, and younger audience that could probably make you a good chunk of money from merchandise. These had shorter length episodes, were wackier and people could hop on in at any time. On the other hand, you had a show that an older audience resonated with, had a continuity you had to keep up with to fully get what was going on, and took itself more seriously but it didn't sell toys like you wanted it to. At the end of the day, something had to give, and unfortunately, that show was Young Justice.
That brings us to our current year; and while there are shows like Star vs The Forces of Evil and Steven Universe that do dedicate episodes to delving deeper into their characters and world, it feels as though most of the advertising for cartoons is on: "Hey, watch these wacky fun shows,"
And where does that leave the more action heavy cartoons? Well they're going the way that a lot of television seems to be going nowadays and they're being pushed to streaming sites like Netflix, and wherever else you can share video on the Internet, where people aren't bound to the rules of a Network, where they have more freedom to tell the stories they want to tell the way they want to tell them; and in the current landscape of animation, perhaps that's for the best.
To bring it back to the show that motivated this entire cluttered essay: I get it. I am not the target audience for Thundercats Roar. But to deflect any sort of criticism by saying "It's for kids" is worse than any sort of criticism I feel. "It's for kids" should explain why a cat man is fighting an ancient mummy with his magic sword, not the look or potential quality of the show; and again, I'm not insulting the show, I'm not insulting the crew working on the show, it could be great when it comes out for all I know. But this initial backlash for it to me is the culmination of 5 years of brewing animosity for a lot of cartoons currently on television.
Everything you liked as a kid doesn't always hold up when you grow up, I get that, but some of the best animated series from when I was a kid were those that I could watch today and have a better appreciation for right now. Shows like Avatar The Last Airbender, Justice League, and the original Teen Titans, had the very basic concept of "Hey, watch good guys beat up bad guys!" that appealed to the youngster in me. But as an adult, I was able to better comprehend the stories they told, have much more of an investment in the characters and their struggles; and even share my experiences with a friend or loved one.
And this all ages appeal in animation is something that I believe we're slowly losing in this new wave of mainstream cartoons. I'm sure kids will love Thundercats Roar the same way they love Teen Titans Go, but is it something that they could share with a family member or a close friend 10 years from now? Time will only tell on that one...
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