AnimatedFan01
Active Member
Not to complain or anything, as I do like some of the shows part of this new trend (e.g. Craig of the Creek, We Bare Bears, and Apple and Onion), but it seems ever since Ed, Edd 'n Eddy went out with Big Picture Show at the end of '09 and Adventure Time premiered, CN's original programs started to follow a new pattern and took a new change in format unknown to most past shows. Most of their newer shows are either slice of life that feel too realistic to be considered cartoony (e.g. Clarence, Craig of the Creek, and WBB, Summer Camp Island and A&O ignoring their anthropomorphic characters), or take surrealism to new extremes (e.g. Adventure Time, Regular Show, Gumball, Uncle Grandpa). The rest are fantasies which IMO feel too mature to appeal to kids and tend to garner more appreciation from adults and adolescents (e.g. Steven Universe, Infinity Train, Victor and Valentino, Over the Garden Wall). Another thing consistent with some of the shows I just mentioned is the same art style of very thin, pencil-drawn lines used for the characters, basically each show having the same animation style, and also their more realistic, slice of life ones containing minimal background music. Most of CN's shows from the late 90s and 2000s were drawn with thick enough lines (e.g. Lazlo, Gym Partner, Ed, Edd n Eddy), though at least Uncle Grandpa's drawing style is reminiscent enough of a mid-2000s CN toon. They also had reoccurring background music in most situations (especially Ed, Lazlo, Gym Partner, and Chowder) which made the events better to understand and overall complemented the upbeat cartoony nature of the shows, but BG music is not as common in their newer shows like Clarence or Summer Camp unless it's a climactic situation.
I'm not saying these changes have made the network bad or anything, but I kind of miss when their cartoons were just "in-between" in terms of wackiness and realism. Neither too bizarre to the point of questioning what's going on, nor too realistic that it just feels like you're watching a reality show in cartoon form. At least Apple and Onion kind of feels 50/50 enough to feel neither too surreal nor realistic, but I wish we got another wacky cartoon someday that's primarily a comedy.
I'm not saying these changes have made the network bad or anything, but I kind of miss when their cartoons were just "in-between" in terms of wackiness and realism. Neither too bizarre to the point of questioning what's going on, nor too realistic that it just feels like you're watching a reality show in cartoon form. At least Apple and Onion kind of feels 50/50 enough to feel neither too surreal nor realistic, but I wish we got another wacky cartoon someday that's primarily a comedy.