General Western Animation Discussion

Off-Topic
#1

Because we have a similar thread for anime and gaming, I figured we create a general discussion thread for Western Animation/Cartoons because most of us grew up watching western animation/cartoons in our childhood and in a way, it’s because of watching these cartoons that some of us got into anime. Plus we all like cartoons right? So here’s some prompts

  1. What’s your favorite western animation/cartoon show?

  2. What’s your favorite genre in western animation?

  3. Who’s your favorite western animation/cartoon character?

  4. What’s your favorite western animated film?

  5. What western animation show/cartoon are you watching right now?

Last thing to note is that anime influenced shows can be discussed here as well. So stuff like Teen Titans, Steven Universe, Avatar The Last Airbender (not the film), etc can be discussed here too. With that said, open for discussion.

1 Like
#2

I don’t watch much western animation other than Disney and Dreamworks movies.
While at my friend’s house I’ve seen MLP, Bob’s Burgers, Futurama, Steven Universe, Total Drama Island, and some other shows… But most of the Western cartoons I’ve seen parts of don’t have the things I look for in a show (meaningful plot and characters + aesthetic attractiveness).
I like Disney films because they’re nice to look at and usually have a cute plot that can entertain me for an hour.
I do like Avatar the Last Airbender (although I haven’t seen most of it). I also watch RWBY, if that counts.

My favorite animated film is How to Train Your Dragon (which may or may not be because of Toothless and the awesome score).

Do you know of any western cartoons that are similar to anime in terms of mood/atmosphere? I don’t know if I’m paying attention to the right western cartoons or if western cartoons just don’t appeal to me in general.

1 Like
#3

I just had a conversation on Twitter with someone about childhood cartoons~ I grew up surrounded by the glory years of animation, so you think I’d like the classics, but unfortunately I was also surrounded by anime for some early years, and they really outshone a lot of the story-focused shows in the west, and I’ve never been fond of the comedy shows, or the moral of the week shows.

Hmm… As a child - Probably… Either W.I.T.C.H or Time Warp Trio. W.I.T.C.H was a “cool girls beat up fantasy monsters” show, and it was based on a book/comic thing iirc. The story was pretty good for something I’d watch before school. Time Warp Trio was one of those educational shows, but it had a bit of Back to The Future in there. Kids get transported to significant moments in the past or future, and try to get through it without messing up the present.
Of recent - Adventure Time (before the good staff took a backseat.) The Marcy episodes were usually pretty strong.
Gotta give an honorable mention to a show from the 90’s though. Batman:TAS was great, and I think comics are awful, so it did a good job.
Oh, and Stay away from that TRAPDOOOOOOR.

I’m really bad at figuring out genres… There’s not enough overlap.

I don’t really remember many characters from childhood shows, so I’ll just say Marcy. She is bad at times, but the overall thing is good.

Gonna be all Disney here. There was a time when I had every Disney movie/cartoon/direct to video release. Boxes and boxes under my bed of tapes. Then mid-2000s I fell out of touch with it all…

Old - The Lion King. I’d love to say Hercules, and while that had some amazing music, the overall plot was pretty weak. The spin-off show for that was nice though.
The Lion King is probably one of the most popular choices. It has some good music, an interesting story to tell, and a great cast of characters. Oh, and it has a character named Taka! Woooo! Whereas a lot of Disney films were experimental - They did something interesting and new, but were meh in a lot of aspects - The Lion King felt like an amalgamation of everything Disney had learned over the years.
It also gave us an amazing grinding spot in Kingdom Hearts 2, so there’s some underlying bias to my words.

New - WALL-E. This is possibly the best modern Disney release.
Disney went a bit downhill after Brother Bear. Most of the newer films are bad, and a few are “Wreck-It-Ralph” level, which is like… Enjoyable, but not good. The only ones I’d actually call good are WALL-E, and at a stretch, Ratatouille (which is being devalued considering Shokugeki no Soma is the best part of Ratatouille on repeat.)
WALL-E had a nice cute story, with a touching romance, and a long line of fat people. What more could you want?

None. I’ve been thinking about Over The Garden Wall, and Gravity Falls. Maybe RWBY. They were all popular-ish on Tumblr, so you see them at lots of Cons. Can’t hate on something if you don’t know it~

What atmosphere do you couple with anime? You can go off the far end with like… Moomin style, or Digimon Adventure style, or Ghost Hound style. Then there’s stuff like Nichijou, or the playfulness of things like CFV, and YGOGX.

2 Likes
#4

The only show that I make it a point to watch is probably My Little Pony. I love me some miniature pastel equines. But my girlfriend watches a lot of American Dad, Family Guy, and the Cleveland Show, so I catch those pretty often.

One thing that I’ll say I miss is Looney Tunes and Animaniacs. Despite the prevalence of referential humor, situational comedy, absurdist humor, observational humor, and dry humor, suspense humor is largely missing from television these days, and both of those shows really excelled at delivering on suspense humor. For the uninitiated, suspense humor is a form of slapstick where the audience can see exactly what is going to happen, and the fun comes from the suspense of waiting for it to happen. For instance, when Wile E Coyote straps a rocket to his back to chase the roadrunner, you know he is going to fall off a cliff, and he does, but first his rocket takes a little while to slow down, then he tries to lower his foot a few times only to find no ground beneath him, then he looks down, then he looks to the camera and holds up a sign saying “Going down,” and finally he falls for several seconds before “POW!” he hits the ground.

I’m not familiar with any current shows (western or otherwise) that make good use of suspense humor, but I’d love to find some.

Oh, I also really like Pixar movies, but I think that a lot of people do.

1 Like
#5

When I was really young, whenever it was a rainy day at school, instead of going outside for Lunch, we were allowed to stay inside. You either stayed in class and played, or you went to the hall and watched 40-something minutes of Looney Tunes on a big projector screen. I think they eventually stopped doing it once the show’s morals became somewhat questionable, but it was a fun time.

2 Likes
#6

By anime atmosphere I mean that it focuses on character development and pacing/plot. Most western shows I’ve seen focuses on the comedy, which makes me cringe.

Edit: I don’t want to imply all anime focuses on character development and plot, but those are usually the only anime I watch

#7

There are some shows that have that, but they generally have a lot of filler too. If we go by my past example, I watched specific episodes of Adventure Time, but not the whole thing. A lot of it is kinda boring, but there are some plotlines and episodes that are quite good. I remember compiling a list of “must watch” episodes for people who can’t sit through the menial stuff on reddit a couple years ago.

2 Likes
#8

I often wonder what things we’ll look back on and cringe about, because I’m sure that in its time Looney Tunes seemed pretty safe.

#9

I always remember it being fine. That, and the old Donald Duck shorts, were under fire at some point growing up though.

#10

Futurama without a doubt. This show is just way too good.

Comedy, I don’t really know any other kind of western cartoon. Western animation was created at first to be comical and it is doing it’s job pretty well. There are a few exceptions in movies such as Up or Toy story. However, even when the plot is dramatic, the execution is comic (in most cases)

Probably Soka from avatar ( I know there is a big debate whether or not Avatar is an anime, but it was made in America so it counts anyway). He is a lot of fun and Avatar is one of my favorite shows too. I also really like his character development throughout the story. He’s in my opinion one of the best comic relief character of the last 10 years (in animation)

I love The Nightmare before Christmas. The story is really original and it brings back childhood memories whenever I watch it.

Also recommend the animation movie called “9” for anyone who has not seen it. It was created by an obscure written and Tim Burton helped him during the production. It is one of the exceptions I was talking about earlier.
The story is pretty great and it’s definitely worth your time.

I’m currently watching gravity falls, I’m a couple of episodes behind unfortunately, but I really like where the story is going right now.

2 Likes
#11

I remember being disappointed by the ending of that film, but I don’t remember why.

#12

I was debating whether or not to count him as my favorite Western cartoon character as well, actually.

1 Like
#13

He’s pretty great; his character is well developed and important even thought he’s here for comedy which is great.
I am aware that Zuko has more development, but I just feel more sympathy towards Soka.

I also like General Iroh a lot, I didn’t put him as my favorite because he is beyond that. Iroh is one of these unforgettable, lovable characters that make a difference in the story, but also manages to make you think about real stuff like trust and forgiveness. Also, how important it is to relax and have fun every now and then, even in the middle of a great conflict.
He also makes me remember how tea is important because let’s face it, tea is freaking good.
I really liked the ending actually, it made a lot of sense, a small detail about it bothers me, but the general conclusion was great.

I really liked the ending actually, it made a lot of sense, a small detail about it bothers me, but the general conclusion was great.
The detail: How was the machine able to keep the soul shards? I understand how it sucked it out of the puppets, but how it kept it remains a mystery for me.

1 Like
#15

Finally, this thread! Oh how I had waited for this day to come.

What’s your favorite western animation/cartoon show?

Let’s start with the old ones. I always like Tom & Jerry. It’s morally wrong, it teaches (cartoony) violence to kids and it sparks controversies but overall I love the way it’s presented. I’m not usually a fan of slapstick comedy but this show nailed me. There’s something about the expression, the voice acting, the music scores and the exaggerated scream of the characters which are just funny. The show rarely has any dialogue but I actually like it because you can understand it (sorta) even without any words conveyed.
But I only like the first series (Hanna Barbera / MGM version). Beyond that everything sucks.
Oddly, Tom & Jerry had been crowned as one of the 100 best “anime” in TV Asahi poll 2005.

And for others, I’m usually a fan of Disney theatrical (especially Pixar ones). I’m a sucker for Disney Princess, my favorite being Mulan. Not a fan of older princesses stories like Snow White (she’s 14 and she was dead and there was a prince kissing her. Dude, that sounds so wrong…) or Cinderella (the Prince Charming literally does nothing) but as the world’s view changing toward woman, the princesses are getting more independent and more liberal.

Sadly Disney is not doing 2D hand-drawn animation anymore because of popularity decline. (The last good thing in Disney hand-drawn animation was Treasure Planet or The Princess and The Frog but they weren’t popular so bye handdrawn hello CGI)

While in Pixar, I gotta say nearly everything they make is good to perfect (except for Cars franchise). They have a charm which captures not only kids’ hearts but also towards the adults too. In fact, a lot of their stories are too hard for children to understand and I feel like they should make young adult as their main target audience instead of marketing them to kids (except for Cars franchise). I love UP (and while it’s fun and sad and all, the show is filled with adult fears which kids may not understand) and Wall-E has a pretty good view about the future (yes, people being fat and lazy is not an impossible future at all) and although it is full with cheesy and expected romance, I totally love it. The musical score is great and the interaction of the non-human beings were very interesting (plus point the “heroine” being tsundere and all). Ratatouille is my other favorite show, an excellent masterpiece with beautiful musical score and it has a good moral of the story. The Incredibles is great too! It has great familial value and I believe this show is meant for the whole family. Seriously. This is great.
I can’t talk enough for everything good about Pixar (except for Cars) but I think they didn’t go well these few years especially with sequels/prequels thing (Toy Story 1 to 3 are great trilogy though) and Brave was just okay aside for the stunning animation. But then they made Inside Out which is another masterpiece. But they they decided to make another sequels (not a great fan of Finding Nemo so I’m not excited about Finding Dory at all, Toy Story 3 ended perfectly so we don’t need fourth one, The Incredibles 2 might be interesting… maybe. Cars 3 ugggh seriously they’re just milking money from the toys for the kidsssss. Why do kids love Cars so mucchhh uggghhh)

And let’s talk about… Frozen /grabs popcorn.

2 Likes
#16

Tom and Jerry was another one of the shows stirring up drama! I didn’t watch it much, but I enjoyed it when I did. Had a collection tape, and an episode showed before one of the Pokemon movies.

LET’S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS!
TO DEFEAT…
THE HUNS!

Of the classic Disney films, Snow White is probably the only one I have a negative opinion of. I didn’t like any of the songs, or Snow White herself. It was my little sister’s favorite Disney film for most of her life though.

I remember Treasure Planet being really popular. I never bothered with The Princess and The Frog, it doesn’t look appealing to me.
There have been a fair amount of modern Winnie the Pooh films though. They are always good.

I used to like Pixar, but I kinda stopped between Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo. I liked bits of WALL-E, and Ratatouille was manageable, but everything since then hasn’t been very interesting. Much like Ghibli films, they don’t feel like satisfying stories. They might be more attractive to kids, they might have larger budgets, they might have more merchandise, or a better grasp of what characters become popular… There are a lot of things that Pixar does nowadays, but I don’t think they tell compelling or memorable stories.
It’s strange though. I still like children’s anime. You’d think I’d still like children’s movies.

Frozen was okay. A bit bland and predictable, but I think it was well designed for the young female audience it was aimed at.

2 Likes
#17

The Legend of Korra :smile: Honestly, it had humane personalities, especially during the season 3 and season 4 episodes.

#18

How young is “young”? :stuck_out_tongue:
I know a lot of girls at my school really loved Frozen, but I just thought it was a mediocre film. I liked Tangled a lot more definitely not because of Flynn Ryder or anything. What I did like about Frozen was that it focused on Elsa and Anna’s relationship just as much as it focuses on Anna’s relationship with the male leads.

1 Like
#19

I’d say mid-teens and below, where I live at least. Outside of that, I think older people would only like it as a family film.

#20

Western animation, eh? These days it’s mostly just some Futurama, Family Guy and South Park every now and then when I got nothing better to do, and of course The Simpsons until a few years ago

Now let me try to remember what I watched when I was younger… I definitely remember Darkwing Duck, DuckTales, Chip 'n Dale, Road Runner, The Wacky World of Tex Avery, Looney Tunes… and a few others, but I don’t remember them right now

Anyways, DuckTales Intro is still awesome

I feel like I saw a few episodes of that, but I don’t remember it very well

2 Likes
#21

It was about a group of girls that gained special powers. The powers both defined a personality trait and a flaw of the person who received it, iirc.
They get transformation sequences, and fancy wings, and then they fight fantasy monsters and villains. There were conflicts over the girls being a team, the existence of a fantasy world, the nature of their powers, and of course, the fights they have to survive.