Is the Era of action adventure cartoons for kids over?

[The Overlord]

Is the Era of action adventure cartoons for kids over? I feel like there was a good era of action adventure cartoons for kids starting with Avatar the Last Airbender and ending just recently.

You had stuff like Steven Universe, She-Ra, Owl House, Amphibia, etc, even something like Adventure Time to a lesser extent. They were usually defined by epic scope and an on going story.

However after the current crop of adventure cartoons for kids ended, they really have not been replaced with something in a similar genre. I feel like the only show like the only show in this genre that is still airing new episodes is Dragon Prince on Netflix. Why do you think this genre of shows petered out?

 

[JMTV]

I guess the reason why the action adventure cartoons for kids seems to be dying out is because of streaming.

The aforementioned shows you listed are on cable channels (except for one), and certain networks don’t want to air them since 1) kids have short attention spans and they don’t usually follow ongoing story arcs and tend to lose interest, and 2) they moved on to other things like watching stuff on YouTube or playing video games like Minecraft.

With streaming, you don’t have to wait at a specific day and time to watch your favorite show when you can just pull up a show from a streaming service and watch them there, anytime and anywhere.

It would be nice to see more action adventure cartoons for kids, but I don’t think Hollywood is looking for that right now, unless they get their financial act together.

 

[Light Lucario]

I'm not sure if I'd consider Steven Universe an action adventure series. It may not be inaccurate, but I just never really considered the series as such myself.

I feel like the issue is more on network higher ups thinking that kids aren't interested in action adventure series more so than anything else. I think that they want more immediate results from a series and having more episodic or comedic series where kids can just jump into them anytime would be more appealing to them. Depending on the demographic, I think that kids would be willing to check out more action adventure series. I just don't think that higher ups want to give them more time to find an audience. Streaming is a factor too when it potentially makes it easier for action adventure series to find that audience.

 

[aegisrawks]

I dont think so topic creator. People say that and it might seem that way but The Owl House did GREAT in ratings. It was the last big hit from Disney. I think there is demand and it just needs to be a new series to meet this unsupplied demand.

 

[cartoonnetworkpoke]

Eh nothing is truly over. It just might take awhile till it comes back.

 

[Goldstar!]

I'm not sure if I'd consider Steven Universe an action adventure series. It may not be inaccurate, but I just never really considered the series as such myself.

On a similar note, I never thought of The Powerpuff Girls as an action cartoon. I've seen fans place PPG in the action genre, but I've always thought of the series as a comedy cartoon that pokes fun of the superhero genre. To me, PPG is no more an action show than The Tick or the Adam West, Burt Ward Batman was an action show. PPG was a funny show that was occasionally intense, not an intense show that was occasionally funny.

In any case, Craig McCracken is planning to launch a reboot of The Powerpuff Girls at some point. How the reboot will differ from the original PPG remains to be seen. However, if you consider PPG to be an action cartoon, there's that.

 

[Frontier]

On a similar note, I never thought of The Powerpuff Girls as an action cartoon. I've seen fans place PPG in the action genre, but I've always thought of the series as a comedy cartoon that pokes fun of the superhero genre. To me, PPG is no more an action show than The Tick or the Adam West, Burt Ward Batman was an action show. PPG was a funny show that was occasionally intense, not an intense show that was occasionally funny.

In any case, Craig McCracken is planning to launch a reboot of The Powerpuff Girls at some point. How the reboot will differ from the original PPG remains to be seen. However, if you consider PPG to be an action cartoon, there's that.

I remember The Powerpuff Girls could be pretty brutal with the action sometimes...

 

[SweetShop209]

In any case, Craig McCracken is planning to launch a reboot of The Powerpuff Girls at some point. How the reboot will differ from the original PPG remains to be seen. However, if you consider PPG to be an action cartoon, there's that.

I remember he mentioned somewhere (though I have to find the information) that he wants the new Powerpuff Girls reboot to be more serialized, presumably similar to his Netflix show Kid Cosmic. The latter show has a good mix between action and comedy like the former, so I'd expect something like that.

Back to the topic at hand, I'd say changing times are a factor here. You still get kids action shows aimed at the typical 6-12 demographic, but there's also more emphasis on making adult action cartoons and preschool action cartoons.

 

[JoeMabbon]

It hasn't been mentioned here, but I gotta bring up Unicorn and My Adventures with Superman being transferred to adult swim. Neither of these shows contains anything that would preclude them from airing on Cartoon Network, but for whatever reason they're airing on adult swim.

 

[Ace]

Superhero movies were the big trend the past decade or so nothing says they couldn't succeed with action show. Even more kids focused stuff like Spiderverse can succeed so I don't see why they couldn't succeed today.

I more so blame the trend of networks favoring episodic shows to fill their schedule over more serialized stuff because you can only rerun those shows a number of times which is what led to the decline of the action genre. Cable was unlike Sat AM broadcast where they only had a single morning to air cartoons and action shows mostly thrived on SatAM.

Even right now Disney Channel favors episodic shows like Big City Greens over their more serialized ones probably because they can fill their schedule with reruns and get good ratings from it.

 

[Kirben]

No, they are still around, if you search the various streaming services, and look more worldwide. It depends what you are looking for in an action adventure. More recent series are aimed at younger children, and many tend to focus too much on the comedy side.
I really enjoyed Amphibia, and Owl House, but I also recently enjoyed Wolfboy and the Everything Factory too.

 

[The Overlord]

Superhero movies were the big trend the past decade or so nothing says they couldn't succeed with action show. Even more kids focused stuff like Spiderverse can succeed so I don't see why they couldn't succeed today.

I more so blame the trend of networks favoring episodic shows to fill their schedule over more serialized stuff because you can only rerun those shows a number of times which is what led to the decline of the action genre. Cable was unlike Sat AM broadcast where they only had a single morning to air cartoons and action shows mostly thrived on SatAM.

Even right now Disney Channel favors episodic shows like Big City Greens over their more serialized ones probably because they can fill their schedule with reruns and get good ratings from it.

Yeah, I purposefully did not count super hero cartoons because those cartoons have around since the 40s and are not quite in the same genre as Avatar and the other cartoons that borrowed elements from it. I also think the superhero animated TV content from the 2010s was rather pitiful.

I feel like superhero show has a more mundane setting with a superhero who fights a rogues gallery and goes on patrol to fight crime. Usually with the type action adventure cartoons I am talking about it's usually a kid hero in a sci-fi or fantasy usually dealing with some sort evil leader or evil empire, rather than a rogues gallery. I feel like superhero cartoon are a different genre of than the type of action adventure cartoons I am talking about.

 

[Zorak Masaki]

Superhero movies were the big trend the past decade or so nothing says they couldn't succeed with action show. Even more kids focused stuff like Spiderverse can succeed so I don't see why they couldn't succeed today.

I more so blame the trend of networks favoring episodic shows to fill their schedule over more serialized stuff because you can only rerun those shows a number of times which is what led to the decline of the action genre. Cable was unlike Sat AM broadcast where they only had a single morning to air cartoons and action shows mostly thrived on SatAM.

Even right now Disney Channel favors episodic shows like Big City Greens over their more serialized ones probably because they can fill their schedule with reruns and get good ratings from it.

Maybe the solution is to make more episodic action shows, or at least have a show that has an overreaching arc (which keeps the fans coming back for more), but doesnt get in the way of the core plot of the episode in question. Justice League/Unlimited did that well (though there was no real arc on JL until they went to the unlimited format).

 

[Antiyonder]

In general I'd say the best thing to do is to just spend money anytime a product associated with action fare is available, even if just DVD and Blu-Rays, or taking time to binge any of interest.