Who Killed Animation?

[Music] So lately every time I go online I'm greeted with an obituary for another animated TV show and it's starting to feel like a full-on cartoon Armageddon I mean Warner Brothers took down Looney Tunes and Warner Brothers was built on Looney Tunes surely that's cause for alarm despite the pandemic's animation Boom the broader landscape looks Bleaker than ever so is the industry dropping a giant anvil on animated television let's find out in this wisecrack Edition is animated Television over okay before we get into it I want to thank this video sponsor betterhelp now if you've ever experienced anxiety depression or just felt really overwhelmed better help is a resource that can help you feel better and as I've talked about before I have struggled with my mental health and my life and going to a therapist and getting to talk things out has been wildly helpful and growing Point as a person and really getting a handle on some of that stuff now better helps network of more than 20 000 therapists are ready to listen to and help you after taking a brief questionnaire you get matched up with a therapist whose expertise fits your unique needs and thanks to betterhelps remote model you can work with a therapist whose skills might not otherwise be available in your area and again like I was hesitant start therapy when I did for the first time found it kind of scary and vulnerable but opening it up to another human being and connecting and talking about you're going through is just so so helpful and in the event that you and your therapist aren't a perfect match you can easily switch to a new one for no additional charge so join the more than two million people who have taken charge of their mental health with better help by visiting betterhelp.com wisecrack or just click the link in the description when you do you'll get 10 off your first month that's better help.com wisecrack and now I let's get back to the show the year 2020 it was terrible for almost everyone and everything except for extreme introverts pelotons and animation as live action shows stopped in their tracks the pandemic made animated Productions more appealing to Studios and streaming services thus the Golden Age of Animation was born now after being relegated to the sidelines of respected television for years animation was finally King thanks to a boom in green lightings the first year of the pandemic shows like blackish and one day at a time had animated episodes Dua Lipa did an animated music video and animated reboots of live-action shows like Norman lear's good times were shoved into the production Pipeline and the voices of oscar-nominated actors even started showing up the groundwork had already been laid for adult animations ascendance because streaming services didn't have access to high viewership content like sports they had to expand into other niche and adult animation seem perfect for Millennials who grew up with The Simpsons King of the Hill and South Park in their DNA but what comes up must come down with Netflix's recent cancellations of popular animated shows like inside job or might judge's bad crimes before it was even released AMC's cancellation of Pantheon and HBO Max's removal of Aquaman king of Atlantis and close enough adult animations short-lived golden age is spiraling toward the Dark Ages and even at its peak in 2021 when more adult animated shows were released than ever viewership was decreasing with Cartoon Network Nickelodeon and Adult Swim losing a quarter of their views what gives why does it feel like adult animation is dying okay so um how best to answer this well unfortunately adult animation has more problems than Bob Belcher has pun names for birders he calls it the meat Saya let us know your favorite in the comments but let's start with the first issue American adults don't understand animation as a medium whether they're making it or consuming it and before you get mad we don't mean you you American adult watching this you get it you understand you're one of the good ones almost since its Inception public perception of Animation has been that it's a genre for kids we did a full video about this so check it out there are two problems with this but Guillermo del Toro put it best when he recently tweeted animation is Cinema animation is not a genre for kids it is a medium what our friend Guillermo is getting at is that animation is its own art form not merely a genre of Cinema medium means the form of Storytelling that you're doing I.E a book a movie or a play while genre is the type of story you tell within that Medium i.e.a murder mystery a comedy or a drama to say that animation is for kids is as silly as saying that impressionist paintings are for toddlers or the jazz is for only your mom's strain second husband also if you're watching this Dale I hate you also I heard you guys have sex and it didn't last long and when she used to do with my dad it would last all night long Dale my dad knew how to lay it down and you're you're a piece of [ __ ] this misconception of Animation as a genre and not a medium isn't just a problem with people who consume animation but also with the entertainment industry itself look no further than the Golden Globes where there's a best animated film category much like there is a best comedy musical genre category American creators further demonstrate their misunderstanding of Animation as a medium and their refusal to treat animated masterpieces as finished products rather than just material to be adapted for example JJ Abrams is currently trying to make the live action version of your name third highest grossing anime film of all time but hey it's not like JJ Abrams has ever taken a beloved um you know property and then just like [ __ ] ruined it we also see this with Netflix live action adaptations anime like Cowboy Bebop YuYu Hakusho and one piece which basically nobody asked for now filmmakers shamelessly do this with American IP as well Disney's whole live action film strategy for the past decade has been to cannibalize its animated collection for live-action remakes that supposedly feel more adult I mean if you wanted to make them feel more adult just make the animals simple yet they've only succeeded in making movies that are both aesthetically worse and deeply uncomfortable not to mention that ironically when you consider all the special effects these live action movies are almost completely animated the industry's disrespect for animation doesn't stop there now animation TV writers are excluded from The Writer's Guild of America and are instead relegated to the animation Guild whose main focus is to represent artists and other roles associated with production now translation it does not have the time or resources to devote to animation writer interest or representation and for the cherry on top of Hollywood's animation [ __ ] Sunday animation writers make about half the paycheck of their live-action counterparts for doing literally the same job so inside Hollywood and out few people take animation seriously to make matters worse not only is adult animation misunderstood by the people who watch it and the people who produce it but it's also misunderstood by the people who make it the showrunners of adult animated shows like qforce Fairfax and big mouth come from live action backgrounds this isn't an issue if they're fans of animation and work with their storyboard artists to create a collective vision however because a lot of Animation inexperienced showrunners don't understand the animation production pipeline or how to use the medium to its full capabilities you end up with a lot of missed opportunities for fun visual comedy the bread and butter of the art form Velma is a recent example of the disconnect between artists writers and the production staff now artists with a clear love of the Scooby-Doo franchise revived a famous guest character Don Knotts but apparently no one in production picked up on that because they cast a voice actor who sounds nothing like the original look out it's the serial killer and he's even crazier than we thought old Oswald Fingerhut couldn't pay his parking fine in cash so he gave us merchandise bananas and 26 cans of chocolate in comparison all ages animated bangers like Adventure Time Steven Universe and we bear bears are board driven shows their showrunners work their way up as storyboard artists giving them a more fundamental under standing of Animation as a medium now this leads to more visual gags or gems like this [Music] so adult animation is already at a disadvantage with so many live-action comedy showrunners at the helm who don't have a full understanding of the uniqueness of Animation as a distinct medium and then even if a live-action showrunner does their best the narrow niche of humor in adult animation leaves them tonally pigeonholed no one's moving Velma a lady is giving birth in front of school this or at least get my ring light it's in the trunk that's the reason why adult animation often feels like a genre now tonally the jokes are mostly written to appeal to an audience of 15 year old boys hyped up on Contraband for Locos I don't like her I just I just think about her all the time and my ears get hotter yeah and your dick gets hot too oh maybe it's got a fever stick a thermometer in its little mouth when selling or pitching an adult animated show creators must argue why it's adult and typically justify this by incorporating sex violence drugs and crude humor making sure you folks aren't engaging in treason Espionage or anything else illegal well I can the result is a monolith of shows that feel and sound the same so do you want an actual [ __ ] or a mind [ __ ] either one requires less talking you know what I am back at the ranch I'm a breeding bull well what's that you gonna find out where you going fatty we gonna have a party this specific approach isn't inherently bad but due to lack of variety becomes boring over time now South Park was initially hilarious because you couldn't believe there was an animated talking Christmas Poo but now adult animation has been pushed so far in terms of shock value that you can't really surprise the audience anymore and when people do surprise an audience it's usually not in a good way well might as well really get in there with a scalpel then and there goes the face Beyond needless violence and jokes about sexual assault adult animated shows rely heavily on self-aware meta-humor which though funny makes it easier to disengage from the stories being told because even the characters aren't totally in it Velma even opened with a meta joke my name is Velma Dinkley and this is my origin story sure normally origin stories are about tall handsome guys struggling with the burden of being handed even more power and if they are about girls it's usually like hey what made this hot chick go crazy and if this didn't feel like a willing Detachment from the work itself then maybe this will change your mind you know what 420 is right um yeah it's code for adults who still watch cartoons this extreme form of ironic Detachment has become common in contemporary comedy and has contributed to adult animation feeling very one note now full disclosure we're not saying that crude meta humor is objectively good nor bad it's often very very funny hot dog my friend coach Steve who is me is gonna do sex on a lady the problem is if we only have one style of exploring adult themes through animation it's going to create a narrow audience and thus make execs think there is not a lot of interest in adult animation Beyond adolescent boys however there is hope there are successful outliers and relatively Earnest deeply emotional shows like BoJack Horseman Bob's Burgers Central Park great North and Tuka and birdie which provide different angles on the comedy and themes explored in adult animation these shows rely more heavily on the antics of interesting flawed characters who love each other rather than seeing how many crotch shots they can cram into an episode as a result these shows have broader audiences but these are outliers not the norm let's say met up or not an adult animated show gets made well there's another problem because the bar is insanely high for a show to avoid being canceled after just one season not everybody agrees about when South Park got really good but there's consensus that it took a few years and shows from the early 2010s like Bob's Burgers and Rick and Morty were similarly given time to develop find their footing and build fan bases Rick and Morty's highest rated season is its third and for Bob's Burgers it's it's fifth meanwhile from 2020 to 2022 nearly 20 adult animated shows were canceled after just one season this is what happens when Tech and disrupter strategies are applied to animation and creativity artistically challenged execs throw money at the project don't pay attention to Quality then dump the show when it doesn't perform perfectly in its first season this is especially cruel considering that not only does it take shows more than one season to find their voice but it also takes more than one season to build an audience Netflix has been particularly vicious with its cancellation of shows in their first season Netflix makes these decisions by assessing how many viewers completed the show after the first 28 days receiving enough views in the first 28 days is tough enough as it is but it's even more difficult when Netflix puts virtually no marketing dollars into a lot of these shows before releasing them so even if there's a breakout animation that's super original and interesting it only has less than a month for Word of Mouth to spread and for busy people to get around to watching it and this creates a self-fulfilling prophecy because so many of Netflix shows are canceled in the first season people are reluctant to even start them then the show does get canceled proving their fears right and the cycle starts over if other streaming services follow Netflix's lead this means that unless a show is firing on all cylinders and manages to hit Rick and Morty season 3 numbers in their first season it's go in the way of simulator arcade game Roy in short American adult animation isn't over but it's at a turning point where it needs to change things up if it wants to stay relevant only there is a model under which adult animation thrives oh yeah Japan now as I'm sure you know Japan has a booming animation industry anime is their largest cultural export what makes Japan's animation scene so different from Americas is that they truly treat animation like a medium not a genre anime covers every age demographic and each has name designations for each type Shonen is geared towards boys under 15. sainin is for boys between 15 and 24. Shoujo is for girls 10 to 18 Joe says for adult women and Kodomo muque is for kids though plenty of people enjoy Fair outside their target demos not only does anime cross every age demographic it also crosses every genre we're talking adventure action comedy Slice of Life drama fan fantasy Supernatural magic mystery horror psychological sci-fi romance with subgenres like game cyberpunk demons Harem kids martial arts historical Mecca music parody police military post-apocalyptic School sports super power vampire and tragedy because Millennials are anime's largest demographic there's been a rise in more adult Millennial stories like the excellent saving 80 000 gold in another world for my retirement how much [Music] clearly creating anime that appeals to a wide diverse audience is paid off approximately 75 percent of everyone in Japan either watches anime regularly or reports having seen anime recently Japan is proof that it's possible for animation to exist as a medium that has something to offer everyone so if Japan can do it can we well the answer is maybe creators in the U.S have taken steps to expand what American animation can be with mold-breaking shows like undone and Primal we've also entered the world of anime with American Originals like Castlevania and blood of Zeus however while it's still early in the year by our calculations so far only 10 new adult shows are set to debut in 2023 in contrast to 23 in 2022 and almost 40 in 2021. the current status of adult animation is a far cry from the lofty Heights just two years ago I hate to be a downer but from this Vantage the future looks crappier than Jimmy Pesto's Pizza also you know that Jimmy pesto isn't around anymore because the guy who voices him did January 6th look it up but we so so love to be proven wrong about this but what do you guys think can American adult animation make a comeback can adults take back cartoons like they tried to take back the capital or should we give up and renew our subscriptions to Crunchyroll let us know what you think in the comments thank you so much to all of our patrons yes all of you for your support it means a lot to us if you want to join that Community that's fun and gets extra content check out the link in the description but thank you to all of you for hanging out for watching the videos for liking subscribing commenting all that sort of stuff it means more than you could ever know so thank you so much and don't forget to check us out on Tick Tock and Twitter but for now go enjoy some just bitching tunes and we'll see you next time [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: Wisecrack

Views: 145,018

Keywords: adult animation, animation, south park, rick and morty, archer, bojack horseman, tuca and bertie, boondocks, mental health, family guy, video essay, podcast, Wisecasts, Film analysis, philosophy, Show Me the Meaning, Wisecrack Edition, What Went Wrong, Wisecrack, hbo removing cartoons, hbo removing shows, velma, wisecrack, wisecrack rick and morty, wisecrack philosophy, wisecrack bojack horseman, wisecrack anime, anime

Id: RoD-UaRsERw

Length: 18min 58sec (1138 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 03 2023