If it's not a good game or catholic...who do you call?...why Pokematic "Hi."
So if you don't know already, I'm a fan of cartoons and Cartoon Network. Animation is a great medium because you can do things in it that just look bad in live action (see Scott Pilgrim for an example of such failure, text review and rant podcast). So where do I go for my cartoon needs? Nickelodeon? No it's all Schider's Bakery right now, and SpongeBob. Disney Channel? LOL nope. DisneyXD? Well I don't get that channel unfortunately. Nicktoons? Getting closer but still no. It's Cartoon Network, the network for cartoons (except for those dark times). For years they had the mix of action and comedy, and in Courage's case, light horror. If you wanted action, there was Toonami. If you wanted comedy, there was cartoon cartoon Friday's. It was fun times.
In recent years we've fallen on some rough times. It's not just that Cartoon Network is giving all it's air time to a terrible cartoon that actively tries to be terrible, or that Cartoon Network is rebooting all it's popular action cartoons as comedies (Teen Titans Go, PowerPuff Girls 2016, and Ben 10 reboot), or that they have given up on anime and let the most popular anime franchise in North America go to their competitors (after 10 years of airing Pokémon, Cartoon Network didn't acquire the license to the Sun and Moon series and now it airs on DisneyXD); all of are symptomatic of a larger problem, Cartoon Network has given up on action.
Don't believe me? Lets look at what they did with their reboots. Lets look at the cartoons they rebooted for a new audience; Teen Titans, Powerpuff Girls, and Ben 10, all originally action cartoons. The reboots? All comedies. What about their original shows? Gumball, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, We Bear Bears, Clarence, and Adventure Time are all comedy based cartoons. The most action of them is probably Steven Universe, but even SU puts more focus on Steven just living his life, and not Steven trying to save the world. Where're the Samurai Jacks, or Megas XLR, or Transformers, or Symbiontic Titans? Boys like action.
"But action doesn't sell" you say. Really now? What are the highest grossing movies in recent years? Marvel super heroes and star wars. Who likes super heroes and star wars? Boys. What shows have successful toy lines? Action cartoons. No 7 year old wants to have Grizz, Ice Bear, and Panda toy sets where it's them going to the super market or going on dates; they want ninja turtle and foot clan action figures that they can make fight. They don't want to be normal gumball who is a normal kid in a weird world for Halloween, they want to be Optimums Prime. Boys have a natural attraction to gross and violent, so as Denis Leary said in Small Soldiers "don't call it violence, call it action, kids love action."
"Well action cartoons are just too expensive to produce, and just don't deliver the return on investment now adays." If you're basing your judgement on WB cartoons like Teen Titans, Young Justice, and Batman the Animated Series in comparison to Teen Titans Go, you have a point because the WB cartoons definitely had a larger budget. But lets look at the other reboots. Powerpuff Girls classic had fairly limited animation. They reused the same cycles and did a lot of moving "still frames" (no different drawing, just sliding stills apart to show emphasis). It was probably made on a similar budget as PPG 2016. I've seen internet critics make PPG 2016 "fight" scenes truer to the source by speeding up the video and adding in sound effects. Like, someone with a $100 budget was able to turn the comedy series of PPG 2016 into an action series just by making some small edits. It really isn't that hard. Ben 10 Reboot looks to have the same level of speed and detail as the original, but it just focuses on being funny instead of being super powerful. Plus, look what Nickelodeon and Disney did with their action cartoons. Nickelodeon made Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with what looks like a rather limited TV budget still full of action when they need it to be. They just show the heavy fighting off screen and have the light fighting happen on screen. Star VS The Forces of Evil looks like it costs about as Teen Titans Go, but we still get all the delicious action of Star and Marco battling the monster of the week.
"But, we need to have a successful toy line for an action cartoon to be considered a success, and kids just don't want toys anymore." And how do you measure the success of a comedy cartoon that doesn't have a toy line? Looks to me like you gauge their success by ratings and ad revenue and episode sales. There is nothing stopping you from doing that with action cartoons.
"Uhhhh, parents are more adverse to letting their kids watch action than they are to comedy, so we want to make a cartoon that's the accessible." There is some merit to your argument. I remember my parents were rather strict with what I watched as a kid, and I do remember that there were more action cartoons on their "no list" than comedies, and more comedies on their "fine list" than action; but I think you're being a tad to cocky with that statement considering what you air. TTG is TV-PG, for parental guidance suggested, definitely not something I would be allowed to watch as a youngin. We Bear Bears would probably be considered too mature for me as it deals with teen issues and adult issues. Gumball would likely be considered too visually stimulating, and therefore not be appropriate. TMNT though would probably be fine because it's about good prevailing over evil.
Look, I know I'm not the target demographic for Cartoon Network. Turner networks would rather have me watch Adult Swim. I'm just saying that they need some variety, specifically in the action category. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
Showing posts with label disney xd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disney xd. Show all posts
Saturday, May 20, 2017
Friday, October 9, 2015
There is NO Variety in Childrens Entertainment Channels, and Pokematic Explains Why That's Bad.
I'm a bit disturbed by the lack of variety on channels like Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney XD, and Disney Channel.
If it's not a good game or catholic...who do you call?...why Pokematic "hi."
Before I jump in, this is NOT going to be a "everything was better in the 90s" blog, or about the quality of the shows on children's entertainment channels. There will be some mention of it, but this is true for all channels (except maybe FXX).
So I was walking to class one day and I had the realization that there is next to nothing on air on children's entertainment channels like Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Disney XD, and somewhat on Disney Channel. What am I talking about? Well I have shows that I watch on those channels. I like Steven Universe, Star VS the Forces of Evil, Girl Meets World, and...well I don't watch much Nickelodeon anymore, but I checked the schedule and it holds true; these channels don't show a wide variety of shows anymore, and that's a VERY bad thing.
At the time of writing this, Cartoon Network is going to air 3 different cartoons in a 9 hour period; Clarence, The Amazing World of Gumball, and Teen Titans Go, with TTG occupying about half that time.
In that same 9 hour period, Disney XD will air 6 different shows. Better but on other days I've seen it when it's just 4 shows.
Disney channel will air 5 shows, and Nickelodeon will be airing 6 shows.
Now obviously Cartoon Network is the worst, but the REAL problem is that most of the time these guys air 5 episodes in a row, and then mix in some stand alone episodes to bump up those numbers. For example, Nick is airing 9 episodes of Spongebob in a row. Now this is bad.
Here's what I'm talking about. Back in my day, these channels had 15 shows in their arsenal, many times more. Many series wouldn't air more than twice a day (once in the morning and once in the afternoon/evening). Maybe a Spongebob would air 3-4 times, and some only aired once a day. There were even a couple that didn't air every day and only aired a couple times a week. And the channels were MUCH better for it.
So why is it better? Why is it better to have 15+ series air in a day when you could focus on a couple core series? First off, more diverse viewer base. A common practice among professional investors is to diversify their assets; don't invest everything in 1 or 2 companies, put it into 20 different companies, or more if you can afford to. If all you have on is teen titans go, or COPS, or Spongebob, people won't switch to your channel to see what's on. If they don't like the 1 or 2 shows you're airing, they won't go to your channel. EVERYONE had that issue with G4 in it's late years. All they aired was COPS, and everyone that didn't like COPS stopped checking in on G4 because they knew it was just going to be COPS. If you have many different series, people will just turn away from the channel for that 30 minute period if there's a show they don't like, and then check back to see if it's something they like. If all you ever show is that 1 show they don't like, then they won't tune into the channel. If you bet everything on a couple series, you risk alienating potential viewers. If you air a wide variety of series, there is a much higher chance that a viewer will find something they like and stay loyal to the channel.
OK, but maybe you have the most popular series ever that all the kids love. Maybe you have a Spongebob that 90% of the target audience likes. Then why not air it all the time? Well now you're running into the risk of people getting episode burn-out. I love Star VS The Forces of Evil. I enjoy Teen Titans Go. However, won't watch the same episode 10 times. Back when Nickelodeon only aired Spongebob, iCarly, and Victorious in 2012, I liked all 3 series, but I began to dislike iCarly and Victorious because it was the same 20 episodes over and over again. Spongebob was OK because there were over 100 episodes available, but eventually it would get old because I would see the same episodes day in and day out. I'm getting the same experience with TTG and Star. I'm sure I'm not the only one. All the shows airing right now only have a couple seasons, which means 30 episodes at most. If you're airing the show 8 times a day, you're going to burn through your backlog in less than a week. If the series only airs twice a day, you're good for half a month before you have to rerun. And at that point, you were kind of ready to see the episode again.
Now one of the largest losses from this is the special that is the Marathon. When I was a kid, it was special to get 6-12 episodes in a row. It was something that was advertised. Recess back to school bash, spongebob summer splash, the nicktoon beach party; all marathons of 1 series, and you looked forward to it. Now, it's just normal.
Now here's the truly sad part, the channels don't have to limit themselves to a few series. They don't have to regularly marathon a couple series, cartoon network especially. All of these channels have a giant backlog of TV series in their arsenal. I'm not saying "bring back the 90s," but cartoon network could definitely air reruns of young justice and batman the brave and the bold. I'm not saying "revive the series and make new episodes," but you can rerun the hundreds of old episodes you have. After you air all the episodes, just take it off the air and replace it with a different series. They're alienating viewers and they don't have to. I just wish they would have a little more variety. Well this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
OK, I need to address FXX and Every Simpsons Ever Forever. For those of you who don't know, FXX is currently airing episodes of The Simpsons over and over again, in a perpetual marathon 5 days on and 2 days off. Here's why FXX can get away with it with the Simpsons forever; because there are 522 episodes of the Simpsons. When they did every Simpsons ever, it went on for 2 weeks strait, and no episodes were aired more than once. After that finished they do 12 hour marathons of The Simpsons 5 days a week. They continue to do every Simpsons ever because it's almost impossible to get episode fatigue when there are over 500 episodes to watch. I tune in and I don't think I've ever seen the same episode more than 3 times.
If it's not a good game or catholic...who do you call?...why Pokematic "hi."
Before I jump in, this is NOT going to be a "everything was better in the 90s" blog, or about the quality of the shows on children's entertainment channels. There will be some mention of it, but this is true for all channels (except maybe FXX).
So I was walking to class one day and I had the realization that there is next to nothing on air on children's entertainment channels like Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Disney XD, and somewhat on Disney Channel. What am I talking about? Well I have shows that I watch on those channels. I like Steven Universe, Star VS the Forces of Evil, Girl Meets World, and...well I don't watch much Nickelodeon anymore, but I checked the schedule and it holds true; these channels don't show a wide variety of shows anymore, and that's a VERY bad thing.
At the time of writing this, Cartoon Network is going to air 3 different cartoons in a 9 hour period; Clarence, The Amazing World of Gumball, and Teen Titans Go, with TTG occupying about half that time.
In that same 9 hour period, Disney XD will air 6 different shows. Better but on other days I've seen it when it's just 4 shows.
Disney channel will air 5 shows, and Nickelodeon will be airing 6 shows.
Now obviously Cartoon Network is the worst, but the REAL problem is that most of the time these guys air 5 episodes in a row, and then mix in some stand alone episodes to bump up those numbers. For example, Nick is airing 9 episodes of Spongebob in a row. Now this is bad.
Here's what I'm talking about. Back in my day, these channels had 15 shows in their arsenal, many times more. Many series wouldn't air more than twice a day (once in the morning and once in the afternoon/evening). Maybe a Spongebob would air 3-4 times, and some only aired once a day. There were even a couple that didn't air every day and only aired a couple times a week. And the channels were MUCH better for it.
So why is it better? Why is it better to have 15+ series air in a day when you could focus on a couple core series? First off, more diverse viewer base. A common practice among professional investors is to diversify their assets; don't invest everything in 1 or 2 companies, put it into 20 different companies, or more if you can afford to. If all you have on is teen titans go, or COPS, or Spongebob, people won't switch to your channel to see what's on. If they don't like the 1 or 2 shows you're airing, they won't go to your channel. EVERYONE had that issue with G4 in it's late years. All they aired was COPS, and everyone that didn't like COPS stopped checking in on G4 because they knew it was just going to be COPS. If you have many different series, people will just turn away from the channel for that 30 minute period if there's a show they don't like, and then check back to see if it's something they like. If all you ever show is that 1 show they don't like, then they won't tune into the channel. If you bet everything on a couple series, you risk alienating potential viewers. If you air a wide variety of series, there is a much higher chance that a viewer will find something they like and stay loyal to the channel.
OK, but maybe you have the most popular series ever that all the kids love. Maybe you have a Spongebob that 90% of the target audience likes. Then why not air it all the time? Well now you're running into the risk of people getting episode burn-out. I love Star VS The Forces of Evil. I enjoy Teen Titans Go. However, won't watch the same episode 10 times. Back when Nickelodeon only aired Spongebob, iCarly, and Victorious in 2012, I liked all 3 series, but I began to dislike iCarly and Victorious because it was the same 20 episodes over and over again. Spongebob was OK because there were over 100 episodes available, but eventually it would get old because I would see the same episodes day in and day out. I'm getting the same experience with TTG and Star. I'm sure I'm not the only one. All the shows airing right now only have a couple seasons, which means 30 episodes at most. If you're airing the show 8 times a day, you're going to burn through your backlog in less than a week. If the series only airs twice a day, you're good for half a month before you have to rerun. And at that point, you were kind of ready to see the episode again.
Now one of the largest losses from this is the special that is the Marathon. When I was a kid, it was special to get 6-12 episodes in a row. It was something that was advertised. Recess back to school bash, spongebob summer splash, the nicktoon beach party; all marathons of 1 series, and you looked forward to it. Now, it's just normal.
Now here's the truly sad part, the channels don't have to limit themselves to a few series. They don't have to regularly marathon a couple series, cartoon network especially. All of these channels have a giant backlog of TV series in their arsenal. I'm not saying "bring back the 90s," but cartoon network could definitely air reruns of young justice and batman the brave and the bold. I'm not saying "revive the series and make new episodes," but you can rerun the hundreds of old episodes you have. After you air all the episodes, just take it off the air and replace it with a different series. They're alienating viewers and they don't have to. I just wish they would have a little more variety. Well this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
OK, I need to address FXX and Every Simpsons Ever Forever. For those of you who don't know, FXX is currently airing episodes of The Simpsons over and over again, in a perpetual marathon 5 days on and 2 days off. Here's why FXX can get away with it with the Simpsons forever; because there are 522 episodes of the Simpsons. When they did every Simpsons ever, it went on for 2 weeks strait, and no episodes were aired more than once. After that finished they do 12 hour marathons of The Simpsons 5 days a week. They continue to do every Simpsons ever because it's almost impossible to get episode fatigue when there are over 500 episodes to watch. I tune in and I don't think I've ever seen the same episode more than 3 times.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Where's Naruto Shippuden?
It's your best show and you treat it like crap. Let us fans know when it's on.
If it' not a good game or catholic...who do you call?...Why Pokematic "hi."
I don't care about the edits, they aren't that bad. I don't care about the dub and voice acting, viz does a good job with that. I don't care that it's on Disney XD and not Cartoon Network. But what I do care about is that the schedule is inconstant with no warning.
A couple of years ago, Disney XD acquired the rights to the dub of Naruto Shippuden not long after their re branding as Disney XD. I'll admit, I wasn't super happy about the Toon Disney becoming Disney XD, but once I foud out that that's where Naruto Shippuden would air after Naruto was canceled on Cartoon Network, I was looking forward to it. Sure all the other fans were all "this is so stupid, Disney is going to edit the shit out of it, why didn't they put it on cartoon network?" but not me. I went in with an open mind and genuinely liked the TV dub. I remember Viz releasing the first episode dubed for free via PSN, so I compared the uncut dub to the cut dub, and it wasn't all that bad. Sure, the time and day was a bit odd, Wednesday night at 8:30, but it was on and I watched it every week. Fast forward a couple of months, and the new episode wasn't there, it was a rerun of the suit life of Zack and Cody. I don't want to watch a TV show that I've seen already, I want new Naruto. I guess the hiatus was due to not having enough episodes. Well wait a few weeks and Naruto is back on Wednesday at 8:30.
Now I watch Disney XD regularly, so I know when they advertise. With a little warning this time, they change Naruto Shippuden to 9:00 on Wednesday night. OK, let us know, less weirder than 8:30 in my opinion. Well this goes on for months, but then Naruto drops off the face of Disney XD with no warning or explanation at all. I went months without watching Shippuden. Sure, I could have watched it subbed on Hulu like I did before XD, but I figured it was just another hiatus and would come back in a few weeks. Weeks turned into months and it seemed as if Shippuden has left the channel. I looked high and low to find when Shippuden would be on Disney XD, but aparently I just didn't look hard enough. I saw that it was on at 11 pm on Saturday, but those were reruns and I'm typically too tired to stay up later than 11 and actually get anything out of it. The Disney XD website was no help. The TV line-up websites I went to were no help. All seemed lost. Until last night.
Last night, I decided I'd see what was on Disney XD before I went to bed, and low and behold, Naruto Shippuden, an episode I haven't seen. I figured it was just a rerun that I haven't seen, but after some research, I found out it was a new episode. I was happy, but too tired to rejoice. After a little more research, I found that Disney XD changed the air date and time of Naruto Shippuden to 11 Saturday Night.
Disney XD hasn't handled Naruto Shippuden very well. I don't blame them for the lac of reruns at decent hours. Cartoon Network never even reran Naruto except for the Naruto Hundo so reruns even at crazy hours were still reruns. But beyond that, Disney has done a very poor job at handling Shippuden. Naruto Shippuden was the reason I started watching Disney XD, and for a while, the only reason. Many people came to Disney XD because of Shippuden, and found maybe some of their other shows entertaining. I saw some ads for Naruto Shippuden when Disney XD first started. They were promos saying "we're getting Naruto Shippuden" and after those, they were "we have Naruto Shippuden, watch it." But soon no ads were issued. What was probably their only reason for being successful, they just let go like it was that relative that you wish you didn't have. Then comes the hiatus with no warning at all. I watched only to find out when Naruto was coming back, but they never said. Only after it started airing again did they start running ads. While there was warning of new time slot to 9, there wasn't much. I think only in the week before did they say a couple of times, "Catch at the new time of 9." Then without warning at all, did they move it to a completely different day at a completely different time. There are no ads for Naruto at all. Trust me, I watch Disney XD regularly and there are no ads. I read somewhere that it is because of the violence in the current arc and the not wanting to tone it down to much. Disney, you are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for the rights for Naruto Shippuden, and it is probably the only reason XD is successful today. I ask that you show some respect for your awesome anime. I don't ask for reruns, I don't ask for an earlier time, all I ask for, is some recognition.
Well this has been Pokematic signing off and bu bye.
If it' not a good game or catholic...who do you call?...Why Pokematic "hi."
I don't care about the edits, they aren't that bad. I don't care about the dub and voice acting, viz does a good job with that. I don't care that it's on Disney XD and not Cartoon Network. But what I do care about is that the schedule is inconstant with no warning.
A couple of years ago, Disney XD acquired the rights to the dub of Naruto Shippuden not long after their re branding as Disney XD. I'll admit, I wasn't super happy about the Toon Disney becoming Disney XD, but once I foud out that that's where Naruto Shippuden would air after Naruto was canceled on Cartoon Network, I was looking forward to it. Sure all the other fans were all "this is so stupid, Disney is going to edit the shit out of it, why didn't they put it on cartoon network?" but not me. I went in with an open mind and genuinely liked the TV dub. I remember Viz releasing the first episode dubed for free via PSN, so I compared the uncut dub to the cut dub, and it wasn't all that bad. Sure, the time and day was a bit odd, Wednesday night at 8:30, but it was on and I watched it every week. Fast forward a couple of months, and the new episode wasn't there, it was a rerun of the suit life of Zack and Cody. I don't want to watch a TV show that I've seen already, I want new Naruto. I guess the hiatus was due to not having enough episodes. Well wait a few weeks and Naruto is back on Wednesday at 8:30.
Now I watch Disney XD regularly, so I know when they advertise. With a little warning this time, they change Naruto Shippuden to 9:00 on Wednesday night. OK, let us know, less weirder than 8:30 in my opinion. Well this goes on for months, but then Naruto drops off the face of Disney XD with no warning or explanation at all. I went months without watching Shippuden. Sure, I could have watched it subbed on Hulu like I did before XD, but I figured it was just another hiatus and would come back in a few weeks. Weeks turned into months and it seemed as if Shippuden has left the channel. I looked high and low to find when Shippuden would be on Disney XD, but aparently I just didn't look hard enough. I saw that it was on at 11 pm on Saturday, but those were reruns and I'm typically too tired to stay up later than 11 and actually get anything out of it. The Disney XD website was no help. The TV line-up websites I went to were no help. All seemed lost. Until last night.
Last night, I decided I'd see what was on Disney XD before I went to bed, and low and behold, Naruto Shippuden, an episode I haven't seen. I figured it was just a rerun that I haven't seen, but after some research, I found out it was a new episode. I was happy, but too tired to rejoice. After a little more research, I found that Disney XD changed the air date and time of Naruto Shippuden to 11 Saturday Night.
Disney XD hasn't handled Naruto Shippuden very well. I don't blame them for the lac of reruns at decent hours. Cartoon Network never even reran Naruto except for the Naruto Hundo so reruns even at crazy hours were still reruns. But beyond that, Disney has done a very poor job at handling Shippuden. Naruto Shippuden was the reason I started watching Disney XD, and for a while, the only reason. Many people came to Disney XD because of Shippuden, and found maybe some of their other shows entertaining. I saw some ads for Naruto Shippuden when Disney XD first started. They were promos saying "we're getting Naruto Shippuden" and after those, they were "we have Naruto Shippuden, watch it." But soon no ads were issued. What was probably their only reason for being successful, they just let go like it was that relative that you wish you didn't have. Then comes the hiatus with no warning at all. I watched only to find out when Naruto was coming back, but they never said. Only after it started airing again did they start running ads. While there was warning of new time slot to 9, there wasn't much. I think only in the week before did they say a couple of times, "Catch at the new time of 9." Then without warning at all, did they move it to a completely different day at a completely different time. There are no ads for Naruto at all. Trust me, I watch Disney XD regularly and there are no ads. I read somewhere that it is because of the violence in the current arc and the not wanting to tone it down to much. Disney, you are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for the rights for Naruto Shippuden, and it is probably the only reason XD is successful today. I ask that you show some respect for your awesome anime. I don't ask for reruns, I don't ask for an earlier time, all I ask for, is some recognition.
Well this has been Pokematic signing off and bu bye.
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