Top 10 Reasons Why Cartoons Suck These Days

The Top Ten
1 Unlikable Characters

A problem with a lot of modern fiction. This probably shouldn't be number 1, but it's interesting that it is. I think the problem here is that these days show writers try and put themselves into the characters too much rather than creating characters for their target audience. It's become an outlet for the writers to express their own personality and opinion rather than a product produced for an audience. Doesn't make it bad, indeed it could be argued it gives it more artistic viability, but it also is clearly going to reduce it's broader appeal especially in this day and age where everyone is so aggressive about their own opinions. Cartoons should be fun, they shouldn't be a deep introspective view of the psyche of the creator.

2 Unfunny Jokes

People have difference senses of humour, this seems a tricky one to judge especially with so much content out there these days. I don't find a lot of them funny, but I'm pretty sure those ones weren't targeted at me so I'm going to have to disagree on this one. That this is rated number 2 though is interesting. Has humour changed that much?

If you want unfunny look at Jhonny Test, Sanjay and Craig, Fish Hooks, Fanboy and ChumChum, and Breadwinners. If you like any of these shows You have a bad sense of humor, and you see no quality in nothing whatsoever.

3 People Just Make Them for Money

Kind of.

Professionals always want to get paid. It's literally what makes them professionals. So I disagree in some respects, however I feel these days the ease of pumping out a cartoon thanks to being able to do it all cheaply on computers has created a problem where there is a far larger amount of rubbish around compared to the quality stuff (which is still there if you look).

I don't think it's fair to say financial motivations are the cause of the problem though. In many cases the writers are not doing it for money but to make some kind of political statement, but because they do have to do it on a budget and the art quality isn't their top concern they end up with low quality, overly political, rubbish. For me the issue is more that you can make these so cheaply they are basically letting anyone do it.

4 Lack of Originality

Look at pictures of the old retro Noggin interstitials, and compare them with the newest modern Nick Jr stuff, and see a very big difference in creativity and imaginativeness. Noggin was a literal wonderland with all the strange designs, high-contrast colors, easygoing yet weird music, some old-fashioned stuff to make kids think, and at the same time felt so cozy and safe. Nowadays, Nick Jr is very boring, minimalist, and one-dimensional. Simple isn't bad, but the way Nick Jr is now uncreative and it's so sad that kids nowadays will never be able see the world as it should be, imaginative, different, and looking for new opportunities and adventures with actual purpose, unlike stupid TikTok dances and "influencers" with no point.

5 Gross Out Gags

They rely on these gags over and over again as if they are catering to 4 year olds! There is nothing wrong with Mature humor!

I know, right? I'm sick of bathroom humor!

6 Lack of Effort

Lack of effort definitely. Except for shows like korra and gravity falls. Those shows really try their best, dispite their parent network constantly screwing with them

MOST have a lack of effort. Shows like Gumball are "exceptions".

Ugh! I hate things which are done without passion.

7 Boring

If you were a kid in the early 2000s, you'd remember Noggin and all the strange yet comfy designs and music, and how every show was so different from another. Everything had a point to it no matter how simple it was. Nowadays Nick Jr is pointless and boring, with some exceptions like Blues Clues and You, and Bubble Guppies (except the same jokes over and over again)

I mean, most cartoons have a "One episode story" but animes have the whole series to finish a story more than just a bunch of random things and fights each day, I know, Gravity falls had somewhat a story, but still we got all this ones that don't, anime in the other hand, not for everyone, but... More original than nowadays cartoons

8 Weak Plot-Lines

The only three shows with decent plots are Gravity Falls, Adventure Time, and Steven Universe. All three really started out strong. Adventure Time and Steven Universe kind of faltered after a while. They seemed to try to invest in characters who are already firmly likeable, waisting entire episodes on meaningless subplots. Gravity Falls was able to keep my attention until the end. The only thing I didn't like about it was that there didn't seem to be any real consequences at the end. Aside from those three, new cartoons really don't have any meaningful or interesting plots. There aren't any that are just supposed to be fun without plot, trying to create some silly plot that just takes away from any humor or fun. Older cartoons at least either had a plot or were just meant to be watched without needing to follow what happened before.

9 Bad Spin-Off Shows of Great Cartoons

Teen Titans Go and The Powerpuff Girls 2016 say everything about spin offs of great cartoons.

10 Teens Being Bratty and Not Getting in Trouble

Yeah, in Disney Channel, the sitcoms, teens do bad things and they do not even get in trouble for it. We need those spoiled brats to be grounded!

Whatever happened to the day when brats actually got in trouble and punished for being, well, bratty?

You mean Disney shows and Total Drama? Total Drama is not good enough to be a cartoon

The Contenders
11 Liberal Propaganda

Too many animated T.V. shows these days keep shoving leftist nonsense with no opposing side or counter argument without painting the opposing side as evil.

Plus I just love how some of the idiots here mock conservatives, talk about intolerance and double standards right?

Maybe you hypocrites should stop watching liberal fake news, just a thought

I kinda see this as kinda a reason why cartoons decline over time, like seriously, environmental messages are worn out, especially after E/I Saturday Mornings declined. Also, recasting white voice actors... boy oh boy... I mean, this mostly applies to adult cartoons, but still.

12 Too Much Toilet Humor

They're been doing this the wrong way since the days of Cow and Chicken. That show really sucked.

Fart jokes are not funny to anyone except for very immature people.

Adventure time's OK, I guess, with just the right amount of maturity and childish jokes.

13 Ban of Guns

If it's only fiction, then it shouldn't hurt anyone. I support the idea of everyone having the right to bear arms and I cannot stand political correctness. I wish more people could do something to stop this ban.

Wow, no guns? No violence? That totally sucks and stinks, I want guns and action. It is just an animated show, not a real life incident. They should bring this back, I don't want cartoons to be completely boring.

Looking at you, Looney Tunes Cartoons on HBO Max, the only notable appearance without his gun before 2020 was What's Opera Doc? and that was set BEFORE gunpowder was affordable.

14 Bad Character Designs

Honestly, the animators are too lazy to create unique characters designs. Instead, they depend too much on computers. Just compare the simple laziness of Adventure Time to the well-animated Batman: the Animated Series.

What happened to good character designs like the ones back then? Why do nowadays cartoons have only lazy designs? This ticks me off, especially since I am an artist.

Different people do have different ways of designing characters, so there is really no problem with that.

15 Mean-Spiritedness and Sadism

Couldn't agree more. And that's what must be causin' lots o' people to behave inappropriately these days. I mean, what do those folks behind those shows think, that viewers will want to be influenced by those stuff? If so, they're sadly mistaken.

This is pretty much the problem with Television in general nowadays.

I know that they can be mean-spirited, but how are they sadistic?

16 Inappropriate Content

Inappropriate cartoons are made by idiots and loved by idiots! Real, real idiots!
Any inappropriate action in a show is already disliked by good people.
They think that it is humor but they are ruining people's lives with their stupidity and lack of creativity and knowledge.

Yeah, because shows like Ren & Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life were SO far from being weird and taught kids great morals.

Take the Yogi Bear movie for example. Utter trash and a complete abomination to the old cartoon.

17 They're Repetitive

The music is almost all the same and is all fast-paced and mostly unoriginal. Early 2000s kids' shows had a lot of old-fashioned music that sounded a bit slow and easygoing and was sung quietly, but at the same time sounded upbeat and fun. There was more creativity in shows before the mid 2000s than nowadays.

Phineas & Ferb is the best explanation.

18 Too Much Political Correctness

Shame that artists no longer have the freedom of drawing whatever they want due to stupid political correctness and executive meddling.

I don't think cartoons like these has something to do with politics.

19 Turned Great Shows Into Garbage

ONE Kids is turning weird for instance Daniel tiger of you have to go potty stop and go right away! We know that already make cool things like Daniels house gets destroyed during a hurricane something cool like that! That new show coming out lets go Luna it is so dumb no one is going to watch that "wah my plant Bob died I am so sad I can't get it to come back alive nothing will help"! Well it's a plant kid that's what happens no 3year old is going to watch that it is making kids dumb, crybabys and imuture!

Remember how great SpongeBob was but then after the movie we got terrible episodes like a pal for Gary pet sitter pat one course meal and many more. And it doesn't just apply with SpongeBob there are plenty of used to great but now suck these days.

20 Too Much Flash Animation

I agree! cartoons with hand drawn animation look better and flash animation looks bad. For example one of the reasons why wabit aka new Looney tunes is bad because of it has bad animation and the animation of the original Looney tunes is a masterpiece compared to this trash!

Beginners can use Flash Animation, but people who know how to animate? NO!
by the way I don't mind fluid flash animation.

21 No Effort Put Into the Animation

In anime, every scene can be drawn out very carefully. In the old days of cartoons, the physics and the backgrounds look pretty magical. Only a few shows today have these qualities like Steven Universe or possibly Gravity falls, maybe more. But, some are just basic sprites made in CGI, are literal pictures in a low resolution, or have a high noise value.

Yes and they so focused on action rather then surrounding or details. The realism is gone. For instance the new turtles are all straight lines with crude angles and corners. And people applaud them for having such great animation. GREAT ANIMATION? REALLY? The action pacing is incredibly fast to fast to even take in any details. Yeah if I flash you with a construction lamp you could say the drawings were great. But please look at them closely there lazy.

22 Lack of Ideas

I have more ideas of cartoons than 1,000 animators combined.
They make such useless and uncreative shows with no meaning and no creativity but rather add crap and garbage to form a kids show.
Lack of ideas is a bad cartoon.

23 Repeated Way Too Much on TV

Instead of actually letting us see the new episodes they up and flash the 3 year old episode we saw 100 times yesterday. It's as if they don't even want to see the newest ones.

Steven Universe is a perfect example of this.

24 Lack of Moral Values

Older cartoon had any moral values? Well, if you have seen the animated shorts from the 1910's through the 1950's you will see most of them had shown more moral values much more than what the recent cartoons of the 1990's to today ever had. Characters get punished, spanked, etc in some of those cartoons, something you don't see today. At least back in those old days before we were all born, artists had more freedom and did not have to worry about political correctness at the time.

What made the older cartoons likable is that they often show morals and consequences in the story. You rarely see characters that are bullies get spanked or punished for all the bad acts they do in today's shows as you'd expect in the older shows. Also, being political correct doesn't help, either.

25 Relying Too Much on Anime

To be honest, I like the anime-style found in most new animated series these days, so there shouldn't be a problem with it at all. Anime is very popular around the world, so why limit the style to just Japan? Let western artists draw anime if they want to, god dang it.

Any show can have an anime style like Wakfu is a French cartoon, but it is similar to the anime style.

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