Cartoons ruined by executive meddling.

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Cheesus Crust

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I am so fucking depressed right now. I love Young Justice in the same way as I love the Legend of Korra. Animation is top notch and stories can be enjoyed by both adults and kids. Young Justice ends on its second season being replaced by Teen Titans Go! and another fucking Batman. Don't get me wrong I love Bats, but I hate how he's becoming the Wolverine of DC where he's almost everywhere getting a new major IP almost every year.

Anyway Young Justice is this awesome cartoon produced by Greg Weisman, Gargoyle fans will know who he is, which by the way is another awesome cartoon that was ruined by executive meddling.

My question is this, anybody else lamenting the loss of a good cartoon because of executive meddling? Doesn't matter if it jumped the shark or was just simply cancelled. Just has to be one of those "too awesome to last" cartoons.
 

rawfy

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I don't really know, but I have my suspicions....

Adventure Time Season 3 onwards. I had a blast with the 1st 2 seasons, really solid entertainment. Then it just started losing it's charm..It kind of just devolved into something that I can't enjoy as my adult self.

I imagine it has more to do with losing steam but it's possible that executive meddling could have contributed.
 

Lizardon

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Mar 22, 2010
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Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

The higher ups (Mainly Jeph Loeb) changed the second half of season 2 from what was planned by the creators. It was felt that the show was becoming to serialised so people couldn't drop in and out, and that the focus had drifted to far from the "Main Three" (Thor, Cap and Iron Man). They even brought in new, and in my opinion worse writers. So an overarching plot point about the demon Surtur was dropped and interesting ideas like Yellowjacket's instability were abandoned in favour of episodes about the main characters where the status quo was always re-established.

One of the most infuriating changes made was that Spider-Man appeared in one episode, and they had gotten the voice actor from Spectacular Spider-Man to reprise the role. After he had gone in and recorded everything and the episode had been mostly animated, the show was put on hiatus for the second season so they could premier it along side the movie and their new Ultimate Spider-Man show. I don't know the exact behind the scenes details, but the VA from Ultimate Spider-Man was brought in and dubbed over all of the lines. No one, not even the original actor or some of the people who worked on the episode knew that this had been done until it aired.

And after all that, they cancelled it anyway in favour of a new show more in line with the movies.

Oh I'm going to miss Young Justice. I really hope that the creators knew or suspected that this was the last season so we get a conclusion and not a cliff hanger ending.
 

infohippie

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I don't want to start an argument with this post, but I'm gonna say Alicorn Twilight. It might be too early to say for sure, but I am extremely concerned what this might do to season four.
 

Soviet Heavy

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Starship Troopers: Roughneck Chronicles. The executives didn't know if they wanted to market the show to kids or to fans of the R-rated movie it was based on. (It shares more with the movie than the book before anyone tries to correct me)

What resulted was a show that was of two minds. One episode would have threats of mind wiping and indoctrination propaganda, and another episode would have guys saying lines like "really deep doo-doo."

It's a great show, but it never finished, ending the series on a cliffhanger before a finale that never saw the light of day.
 

Angie7F

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Nov 11, 2011
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I feel like bleach and naruto were extended for way too long.
But i wouldn't be able to tell yu details because I stopped reading them ages ago.
 

Aaron Sylvester

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Angie7F said:
I feel like bleach and naruto were extended for way too long.
But i wouldn't be able to tell yu details because I stopped reading them ages ago.
I don't know about Bleach but Naruto (the manga that is) is still going lol. They're at what I can only assume is the "final" climax of the entire story, and they've been at it for the last 30 chapters or something. It's nuts.

Anyway to answer the OP's question, Season 3 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. I don't know whether "meddling" is the right word but the majority of that season was bland and uninteresting bar just a couple of stand-out moments, meanwhile Season 1 and Season 2 were literally BRIMMING with awesome moments and can still have me giggling like a madman when I watch them today.

Legend of Korra is good on it's own, but completely shrivels in comparison to it's predecessor Avatar: The Last Airbender. And unfortunately it IS in a position to be compared to it's predecessor which is why I (for the most part) found it pretty mediocre, and downright TERRIBLE when everything took a fucking dive in the last episode.
 

Thaluikhain

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Wacky Delli, that copped a lot of flak. Especially melting the polar ice-caps with an orbiting laser to flood the studio, that was a bit excessive.
 

MrHide-Patten

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Aaron Sylvester said:
Angie7F said:
I feel like bleach and naruto were extended for way too long.
But i wouldn't be able to tell yu details because I stopped reading them ages ago.
I don't know about Bleach but Naruto (the manga that is) is still going lol. They're at what I can only assume is the "final" climax of the entire story, and they've been at it for the last 30 chapters or something. It's nuts.

Anyway to answer the OP's question, Season 3 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. I don't know whether "meddling" is the right word but the majority of that season was bland and uninteresting bar just a couple of stand-out moments, meanwhile Season 1 and Season 2 were literally BRIMMING with awesome moments and can still have me giggling like a madman when I watch them today.

Legend of Korra is good on it's own, but completely shrivels in comparison to it's predecessor Avatar: The Last Airbender. And unfortunately it IS in a position to be compared to it's predecessor which is why I (for the most part) found it pretty mediocre, and downright TERRIBLE when everything took a fucking dive in the last episode.
Well the original had at least the first 20 eps to ground itself before getting extended out to its 60. Now that Korra has been given a longer life span, I can only expect things to improve with the extra wiggle room.

Korra really lacked a Sokka character, Bolin tried, but be was moreso clumsy than sarcasm. If the original series didnt have Sokka it wouldnt have been anywhere near as good.
But im biase for series with strong female protagonists (especially toned ones, dem shoulders), I will publicly humailiate myself for female protagonists.
 

Blunderboy

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Soviet Heavy said:
Starship Troopers: Roughneck Chronicles. The executives didn't know if they wanted to market the show to kids or to fans of the R-rated movie it was based on. (It shares more with the movie than the book before anyone tries to correct me)

What resulted was a show that was of two minds. One episode would have threats of mind wiping and indoctrination propaganda, and another episode would have guys saying lines like "really deep doo-doo."

It's a great show, but it never finished, ending the series on a cliffhanger before a finale that never saw the light of day.
Yeah, that show is a strange beast alright.

OT - Okay it sucks and all, but I don't think you're actually like clinically depressed right now OP (Unlike me).
So hang in there buddy. :D
 

Aaron Sylvester

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MrHide-Patten said:
Korra really lacked a Sokka character, Bolin tried, but be was moreso clumsy than sarcasm. If the original series didnt have Sokka it wouldnt have been anywhere near as good.
Korra lacked a Sokka character, an Iroh character, a Katara character, etc etc. What I'm pointing out is that no show "requires" any type of character to be interesting, it is free to do its own thing. But it has to do its own thing really well. For me Zuko+Iroh were the bread and butter of Aang's story just as much as any of the other main characters, it's highly unfair to say "it wouldn't have been good if it weren't for X character" because there was a whole list of characters who made the show what it was, Sokka was good but not the be-all/end-all of characters.

MrHide-Patten said:
But im biase for series with strong female protagonists (especially toned ones, dem shoulders), I will publicly humailiate myself for female protagonists.
So how would you react if I said that I found Azula as a more likeable character than Korra? She wasn't a protagonist and was still more enjoyable to watch than seeing Korra doing stupid pointless hormonal teenage shit.
Hell, Katara and Toph top all of them and both were still only "side" main characters. Korra gives female protagonists a bad name lol. She spent most of the show doing nothing other than digging herself into shit, and finally got rescued by Aang in the last 5 minutes of the last episode....and he basically fixed EVERYTHING while the antagonists comitted suicide. Jesus H Christ. I wanted Korra to jump off that cliff to make something interesting happen.
 

Xpwn3ntial

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Since it's only cartoons, Big O.

Adult Swim shut down continued operations (and any hope of season 3) because they don't like Japanese cartoons, even though it paid off financially. If it didn't pay off financially, I'd understand. But hacking something because you don't like it? Fuck you, man.

Beffudled Sheep said:
Wasn't that because of a change in managhement? I think the original top dog that ran adult swik liked or at least tolerated anime but there was some sort of snafu that caused him to step down and be replaced by the anime hating prick we have now.
Man I miss Big O...
Something like that. Season 2 was greenlit because of the ratings season 1 had/has.
 

V da Mighty Taco

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MLP:FiM after S1. Don't get me wrong - I still really do enjoy all 3 seasons so far and am among the few who think that S3 was overall better than S2, but something changed in the show a long time ago that started with Lesson Zero (a good episode that set a bad trend for the series). I don't know if executive meddling caused it however, but it hasn't been quite the same in a long time. The show just doesn't feel as lighthearted as it used to.
 

Cheesus Crust

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Lizardon said:
Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
Is that good? Is that the one where the opening episode features this super villain that can manipulate gravity? I'm a bit apprehensive of Marvel cartoons since most of them, in my current frame of mind, feel vapid. I mean the same can be said with most comic book cartoon adaptations but I dunno the only marvel cartoon I really ever fell in love with was X-men the Animated series even if I couldn't properly follow the plot I friggin loved that show.
 

Cheesus Crust

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Xpwn3ntial said:
Since it's only cartoons, Big O.

Adult Swim shut down continued operations (and any hope of season 3) because they don't like Japanese cartoons, even though it paid off financially. If it didn't pay off financially, I'd understand. But hacking something because you don't like it? Fuck you, man.
That is sick. What kind of a prick would do such a thing?
Abandon4093 said:
Sokka was the audiences anchor though. He played a pretty important role that was completely overlooked in the Korra series.

Sokka was the 'normal one', the foil to all the superpowred warriors that the show was littered with. He was always the one to point out how silly a plan was, or how absurd it was to be flying on a bison. His sarcasm just gave him meaning to the shows narrative beyond being the audience personal avatar... if you will.

Korra didn't have anyone like that. All the main cast (even ancillary characters such as the air bending kids) were all overpowered super beings. No real guid to take you through that weird and wonderful world and rationalise everything.

Don't get me wrong, still a good show. And yea, there are many other reasons beyond Sokka that made the first sage more interesting. And from a character development view. Zuko is probably one of the most interesting characters in the entire franchise.
I agree with the Bolin thing. Bolin was supposed to come off as this bumbling but adorable character.

Asami was the normal one but in a way felt like Zuko. Their both good looking in an evil seductive sort of way. They both have parental (daddy) issues, both also lost their moms at a young age. The interesting about Asami is that she never once excused her father for the bad things he did ala Zuko who just wanted to gain honor and only grew in character as he journeyed towards the kind of man he would become. Asami just went up and betrayed his dad, in fact if she hadn't the chances of Team Korra escaping would've been really slim.

The only reason why I think most of the characters fail to captivate me in the same way as the Aang Gang is 1.) We haven't gone that far yet 2.) Korra was meant to be a one shot thing, only the immense popularity of the show lead to new seasons. Now that we have three more to go we'll see how the other characters feel in the long run.

Looking forward to Tenzin's brother Bumi. I can excuse the kids being a bit OP seeing as how chiblockers probably have never encountered airbenders before that plus those kids are exposed to training at a really young age on a near daily basis. Airbenders strike me as being good at a young age specifically because of the environment that they used to be raised in and such.
Soviet Heavy said:
Starship Troopers: Roughneck Chronicles. The executives didn't know if they wanted to market the show to kids or to fans of the R-rated movie it was based on. (It shares more with the movie than the book before anyone tries to correct me)

What resulted was a show that was of two minds. One episode would have threats of mind wiping and indoctrination propaganda, and another episode would have guys saying lines like "really deep doo-doo."

It's a great show, but it never finished, ending the series on a cliffhanger before a finale that never saw the light of day.
Was this the CGI one? Christ that was awesome, I mean it had its great moments but it was overall good.
 

Cheesus Crust

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Blunderboy said:
Yeah, that show is a strange beast alright.

OT - Okay it sucks and all, but I don't think you're actually like clinically depressed right now OP (Unlike me).
So hang in there buddy. :D
I'm not clinically depressed more like functionally depressed. Young Justice and Korra represent so much to me in that it shows me that western animation is finally catching up to japanese animation in that its starting to have deeper and more complicated plots with very interesting characters. Such shows are rare for real TV let alone cartoons
 

titankore

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Gargoyles, Symbionic titan (Giant robot show cancelled due to lack of toy line?), MLP FiM (Let Lauren do what she wants!), Tron Uprising, pretty much all of the saturday morning tv show blocks, and many, many more.