Things in animation that haven't aged well

[The Overlord]

Animation has been around since the 1920s and thus not everything has aged well from past animation looking back now. Of course, there is a ton of racist animation from the 1930, 40s, 50s, etc, but that's shooting fish in a barrel. So I am going to go with stuff from a bit later:

There is one G1 Transformers episode that is pretty racist, so much so that Casey Kasem quit the show over it:

Thief in the Night - Transformers Wiki

tfwiki.net

There is also one Futurama episode that is pretty anti-trans:



But I think in terms of something less obvious, I think BTAS Mad Hatter as a sympathetic villain doesn't work today. I think he would be effective as a creepy or sinister villain, but it's hard to find him sympathetic today.

What bits of animation do you think have not aged well?

 

[JMTV]

Lovely.

I would say Twisted Sister from PPG Classic and Everyone Knows It's Bendy from Foster's.

Can you imagine if those episodes were to came out today, a lot of people on social media would've canceled the hell out of Craig and Lauren.

Runner up: Song of the South, for obvious reasons.

 

[Dantheman]

Along the lines of the Transformers bit mentioned earlier, an episode of G.I. Joe had Dusty refer to an Arab character with a derogatory term for such people.

 

[Classic Speedy]

Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips and Tokio Jokio, due to racist Japanese imagery and stereotypes, but also because we've been allies with Japan since the '50s, so that dates it quite a bit.

 

[JoeMabbon]

Motorcity's general pro-car ethos wouldn't fly today. There's a scene where Mike makes the argument that cars in and of themselves represent freedom which would probably make people upset. There's also a number of instances where characters, primarily Texas, use gendered insults. They're in character and he's not portrayed as righteous for using them, but it would still upset the wrong people.

 

[Dr.Pepper]

I don’t know why this was the first thing that popped into my head, but in the original series of Ducktales, Scrooge fires a gun at Fenton and he counts the bullets as they go by, which lands him the job of Scrooge’s accountant. Such casual use of guns won’t fly today.

 

[Pooky]

In some ways his scandal almost seems quaint by today's standards, but parents might find themselves stifling a few snickers if they're with their kids while they're watching the episode of Arthur featuring a saintly portrayal of special guest star Lance Armstrong as himself (assuming it's not been withdrawn).

I would say Twisted Sister from PPG Classic and Everyone Knows It's Bendy from Foster's.

Can you imagine if those episodes were to came out today, a lot of people on social media would've canceled the hell out of Craig and Lauren.

I always felt a little bit uncomfortable about the character of Cheese from Foster's, might just be me though.

 

[JMTV]

I always felt a little bit uncomfortable about the character of Cheese from Foster's, might just be me though.

I'm with you on Cheese. Even as a kid, I effing hate him. He's such a annoying nuisance and he continued to piss me off as the show just went along.

 

[Zanneck]

I'm with you on Cheese. Even as a kid, I effing hate him. He's such a annoying nuisance and he continued to piss me off as the show just went along.

Bloo sucks, but Cheese is so much worse. To be fair, thanks to Kid Cosmic existing and proving to me what a good cartoon is from the guy..... I can proudly say Foster's was Craig McCracken absolute worst show outta all of the shows he's ever made and just a Low Tier (Bad) show in general, IMHO.

The only thing saving it from being Garbage Tier in my mind are the films, which are the only thing I can fondly remember from such an otherwise bad show. And not enough to re-watch them anytime soon, neither.

 

[JMTV]

Bloo sucks, but Cheese is so much worse. To be fair, thanks to Kid Cosmic existing and proving to me what a good cartoon is from the guy..... I can proudly say Foster's was Craig McCracken absolute worst show outta all of the shows he's ever made and just a Low Tier (Bad) show in general, IMHO.

The only thing saving it from being Garbage Tier in my mind are the films, which are the only thing I can fondly remember from such an otherwise bad show. And not enough to re-watch them anytime soon, neither.

I agree. Even though I fond memories of watching Foster's as a kid, I think it's one of the most overrated CN show from the 2000's.

 

[Kitschensyngk]

There is one G1 Transformers episode that is pretty racist, so much so that Casey Kasem quit the show over it:

You mean the episode that took place in the fictional Middle Eastern nation of...Carbombya?

I saw that one. I'm not surprised that Kasem, being of Lebanese descent, got upset.

For me, it's any show from the 90s that tried to be COOL or EXTREME.
I never liked Rocket Power, for instance, but as I remember that show, time has not been kind to it.

 

[SweetShop209]

In some ways his scandal almost seems quaint by today's standards, but parents might find themselves stifling a few snickers if they're with their kids while they're watching the episode of Arthur featuring a saintly portrayal of special guest star Lance Armstrong as himself (assuming it's not been withdrawn).

The two Arthur episodes where he played himself, "Room To Ride" and "The Great McGrady", were pulled from airing. The latter episode involves a major character getting cancer, which is a pretty serious topic. As such, it was remade for season 24 with the one major change of Uncle Slam (a fictional, in universe wrestler) taking his place.

 

[Pooky]

Interesting, thank you. I also didn't realise he was on there twice. It does look like both episodes can be rented/purchased on Amazon Prime though, at least here in the UK.

 

[stephane dumas]

With the #MeToo mouvement, I doubt Johnny Bravo with some of his antics would have been made today.

 

[JMTV]

Space Jam. The whole movie was basically a long 90 minute commercial featuring Looney Tunes and Michael Jordan. Oh, and having a outdated soundtrack featuring R. Kelly (shudders).

BTW, I'm not interested watching A New Legacy either since it's nothing more than a long 90 minute Warner Bros jerkoff section just to shill HBO Max.

 

[Goldstar!]

I always felt a little bit uncomfortable about the character of Cheese from Foster's, might just be me though.

Yeah, I'm choosing my words very carefully here, but I've always suspected that Cheese may have been a subtle take on mental retardation, so it was hard to laugh at his behavior without feeling guilty (this, coupled with the fact that the character just wasn't funny). I never much cared for "Random = funny" type of characters; it takes true talent and skill to successfully pull that off, and Cheese as a character just never did anything for me. That Cheese was also very unpleasant to look at didn't endear me to the character any more. I've spoken to a fan who wanted to believe that Cheese was autistic, but he honestly came off more as "special needs" to me. Playing a character's apparent disability for laughs just isn't cool.

I apologize if I offended anyone with my above statements. That was not my intent.

 

[Silverstar]

Space Jam. The whole movie was basically a long 90 minute commercial featuring Looney Tunes and Michael Jordan. Oh, and having a outdated soundtrack featuring R. Kelly (shudders).

BTW, I'm not interested watching A New Legacy either since it's nothing more than a long 90 minute Warner Bros jerkoff section just to shill HBO Max.

I saw Space Jam: A New Legacy; you're not wrong, it is a feature-length plug for Warner Bros. and a giant commercial, but so was the first one. I'm not going to sit here and say that New Legacy was a great movie or even a good movie, but I'm a big enough Looney Tunes geek that I enjoyed a lot of their antics (though I would've much preferred a funny Lola instead of the bland cipher we got and I really wish we had gotten 40's screwball Daffy Duck instead of 50's Freleng-Jones Daffy, but I did get a kick out of the WB, DC and Hanna-Barbera cameos (plus the single [adult swim] one--I won't spoil if for those who haven't seen it) and I thought the WB Server-Verse concept was kind of cool visually; yeah it was basically WB's Ready Player One, but I still thought it was kind of fun, like pulling all of your favorite WB toys of your toybox.

In short, not a great film, but I got (mostly) what I wanted from it. I don't need for there to be a third one, though.

 

[JMTV]

I saw Space Jam: A New Legacy; you're not wrong, it is a feature-length plug for Warner Bros. and a giant commercial, but so was the first one. I'm not going to sit here and say that New Legacy was a great movie or even a good movie, but I'm a big enough Looney Tunes geek that I enjoyed a lot of their antics (though I would've much preferred a funny Lola instead of the bland cipher we got and I really wish we had gotten 40's screwball Daffy Duck instead of 50's Freleng-Jones Daffy, but I did get a kick out of the WB, DC and Hanna-Barbera cameos (plus the single [adult swim] one--I won't spoil if for those who haven't seen it) and I thought the WB Server-Verse concept was kind of cool visually; yeah it was basically WB's Ready Player One, but I still thought it was kind of fun, like pulling all of your favorite WB toys of your toybox.

In short, not a great film, but I got (mostly) what I wanted from it. I don't need there to be a third one, though.

Okay, that's fair.

 

[JMTV]

Yeah, I'm choosing my words very carefully here, but I've always suspected that Cheese may have been a subtle take on mental retardation, so it was hard to laugh at his behavior without feeling guilty (this, coupled with the fact that the character just wasn't funny). I never much cared for "Random = funny" type of characters; it takes true talent and skill to successfully pull that off, and Cheese as a character just never did anything for me. That Cheese was also very unpleasant to look at didn't endear me to the character any more. I've spoken to a fan who wanted to believe that Cheese was autistic, but he honestly came off more as "special needs" to me. Making a character's disability the subject of laughter just isn't cool.

I apologize if I offended anyone with my above statements. That was not my intent.

No no no no. You're fine, you're fine. As someone who's autistic myself, I hate him even more now.

Also, this might piss so many people off, but Ed Edd n Eddy hasn't age well, either.

 

[Goldstar!]

I saw Space Jam: A New Legacy; you're not wrong, it is a feature-length plug for Warner Bros. and a giant commercial, but so was the first one. I'm not going to sit here and say that New Legacy was a great movie or even a good movie, but I'm a big enough Looney Tunes geek that I enjoyed a lot of their antics (though I would've much preferred a funny Lola instead of the bland cipher we got and I really wish we had gotten 40's screwball Daffy Duck instead of 50's Freleng-Jones Daffy, but I did get a kick out of the WB, DC and Hanna-Barbera cameos (plus the single [adult swim] one--I won't spoil if for those who haven't seen it) and I thought the WB Server-Verse concept was kind of cool visually; yeah it was basically WB's Ready Player One, but I still thought it was kind of fun, like pulling all of your favorite WB toys of your toybox.

In short, not a great film, but I got (mostly) what I wanted from it. I don't need for there to be a third one, though.

I agree with this. I didn't hate either Space Jam movie (both the original and New Legacy had their strengths and weaknesses), but Warner Brothers, please don't make a Space Jam 3 or Race Jam or Skate Jam or Golf Jam or Slam Jam (wrestling) or Home Run Jam (baseball) or Kick Jam (kickboxing) of Goal Jam (soccer) or anything like that. I think the LT/sports mash-up premise is exhausted. If you want to make another Looney Tunes movie, just make another Looney Tunes movie. Just come up with an original storyline that involves the Looney Tunes and make that movie.