Things in animation that haven't aged well

[Tommypezmaster]

The Emoji Movie had a bunch of Emojis bullying a kid (Gene) for no real reason. Adults bullying kids should be considered outdated nowadays. Also, why does the kid (Gene) sound like a 50-year-old man?

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

Also, Xiaolin Showdown. Imagine trying to tell someone in 2022 that you watched a show starring multiracial kids voiced by white voice actors and one of them was an Asian kid with a completely yellow face who misuses slang and the reboot introduced another yellow-faced Asian boy named PING PONG. Even though the creator herself is Asian, that still seems like a premise that would elicit a knee jerk response.

Just to clarify, Grey Griffin, who voiced Kimiko in the original series, isn't fully white as she's half Mexican from her mother's side.

 

[DogBoneController]

There's a Pink Panther short where Pink works at a Chinese restaurant and both the waiter and the chef had buck teeth, thick mustaches and somewhat slanted eyes. Only positive thing I can say about that is they at least had pupils, but that's hardly an excuse since the short was made in '71.

 

[Ace]

The Emoji Movie had a bunch of Emojis bullying a kid (Gene) for no real reason. Adults bullying kids should be considered outdated nowadays. Also, why does the kid (Gene) sound like a 50-year-old man?

To be honest something like the Emoji Movie as well as that Wreck it Ralph sequel would have been better received had it been shown in theatres in like 2010 when social media was just blossoming.

Making jokes about the internet? Really? They feel like jokes grandparents would make just discovering these things exist. It's way too late for that.

 

[Pooky]

Gong with the Pink and perhaps a few other exceptions aside, the 1993 Pink Panther series has probably aged worse than the original shorts, due to a recurring character called "Voodoo Man", who isn't really a racial caricature as he's basically a Tribal Mask with Blue arms and legs, but his stereotypical "native speak" probably wouldn't fly now. Timon & Pumbaa had similar characters (albeit with a somewhat clever twist, which I won't spoil), which has earned some episodes with these characters a content warning on Disney+, but confusingly not others. Although the Crash Bandicoot games continue to use this kind of imagery and dialogue to no great controversy that I'm aware of, so I could be wrong.

 

[90'sKid]

In an episode of Fairly Oddparents Wanda says that school is "The safest place in the Kid Universe". While this seemed out-of-touch back in the 'day, what with rampant bullying and all, but it becomes MUCH harsher with the rise in school shootings.

So no, Wanda, school isn't so safe anymore.

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[Mr HooPoe]

I'm pretty late to this part of the thread but:

I used to think meta humor and 4th wall breaking stuff was pretty clever but over time it just got overused and stale. Now it just feels like a way to make whatever you're doing look smarter than it actually is. I think a lot of other people think the same way.

Meta-humour in general is a tricky concept, and as someone who adored it in my adolescence I think the real problem is more that I loved it if it was baked into the show's premise itself. Usually that's not how meta-humour is used, rather as one of various types of humour spread out over a show with a more straightforward concept. So even if a show like Chowder or The Angry Beavers tends to use a plethora of meta-humour throughout its run, it'll still be just another gag in a show filled with plenty of gags already. It's something that's become incredibly easy to abuse too, so while there are actually many different ways to make a joke in this vein, we usually get stuck seeing so many used in such a lazy way that the novelty becomes lost with time.

Now here's another idea: cartoons that have baked meta-humour into their structure are prone to aging poorly. That doesn't make them bad, just harder to understand as time goes on and media evolves. That being said, the extent of this can vary depending on how, well, timeless the material is. Or how niche and specific it is.

An example of great meta-humour that maintains a sense of timelessness might be the famous Looney Tunes short "Duck Amuck", which hits Daffy Duck with an onslaught of assorted gags by a hidden cartoonist. In a vacuum (i.e. isolated from the rest of the franchise and general media) there are few things one would be able to argue get lost in meta-contextual reading, probably because the short's dilemma is one of Daffy versus the Creator. The short does indulge in filmmaking techniques, but nothing much gets lost in translation regarding the tropes being used even if they become archaic looking back (a cartoonist doing it all at his desk still remains an inspirational image to this day). Certainly, Looney Tunes had often managed to find plenty of clever meta-contextual uses for humour, most notably the subtle effect of Wile E Coyote holding up signs for us to read (I also fondly remember "Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers" for its fakeout ending before Bugs insists the story will include his payback arc). And they tend to thrive for breaking the fourth wall in storytelling mannerisms that maintain a universal understanding. But "Duck Amuck" is the go-to choice when one talks about Looney Tunes and its clever meta-humour.

Now let's go in the other direction. There are quite a few shows that have used meta-humour as the backbone of their storytelling but opt for a more specific style of humour, one that makes sense if you've seen so much of a medium that it's worth bringing down with a go-for-broke puncturing of the fourth wall. And I have a show close to my heart to work for this.

I once said that I adore Cartoon Network's Sheep in the Big City, which I still do, but it is very much a product of its time that indulges in so many cultural aspects of television that its half-life of relatability acts more quickly than something like "Duck Amuck". (In fact, even when it started airing in 2000 it felt like a product of another time, unless one noted the occasional modern reference like a Matrix style kick.) The series maintains an exhaustive list of meta-contextual elements that builds the backbone of every episode and employs an archaic mixture of tropes that includes a narrator, various TV program spoofs, TV commercials, PSAs, a person ending each episode with a rant (something that might reflect the usage of some shows employing stand-up routines between scenes perhaps?). All of this is embedded in an old-fashioned country vs city routine with a jazzy score and simplistic designs. It's a concoction that talks directly to the audience in a way that goes well beyond winking; it's also this very thing that makes the show such a product of its time, obliterating the fourth wall in matters that would make sense mostly if you have a background in 20th century television and have passing familiarity with a few recent things. Such TV structures are passe nowadays, and the show's means of updating it is simply to take the mold that Rocky and Bullwinkle came up with and push it to a logical extreme appropriate for the more demanding viewer. But it doesn't really update the core material at all, nor do the meta aspects stick to something that's endured nowadays.

It doesn't make the show any less side-splitting, but passing time (especially with new styles of watching TV) has made it feel much more dated than those Looney Tunes cartoons.

Off the top of my head, I'll also throw in assorted episodes of The Amazing World of Gumball which can decide on what episodes will be meta based on what the show's so well established and run with it in hilarious ways...though a lot of the show's meta-humour is bound to date quickly at the rate that Internet culture evolves.

 

[Francisque]

These days people are sensitive pretty much about anything, by taking things out of context and making them sound offensive

Luckily we still have a decent show like South Park

 

[SuperSuck64]

All those kids cartoons about following your dreams and how you can achieve anything if you work hard and believe in yourself.

Because as the current state of the world proves, people who work hard for something have all their work automatically undone by forces stronger than them and even if we achieve our dreams it won't be worth it in the end because it comes at a massive cost and something horrible will happen that completely negates everything and there's nothing we can do. Hard work will not get you there either because the job market is dictated by nepotism and connections and the barrier of entry has been raised impossibly high meaning you can never get anywhere through sheer skill alone unless someone important cares enough to acknowledge your existence.

 

[Classic Speedy]

All those kids cartoons about following your dreams and how you can achieve anything if you work hard and believe in yourself.

Because as the current state of the world proves, people who work hard for something have all their work automatically undone by forces stronger than them and even if we achieve our dreams it won't be worth it in the end because it comes at a massive cost and something horrible will happen that completely negates everything and there's nothing we can do. Hard work will not get you there either because the job market is dictated by nepotism and connections and the barrier of entry has been raised impossibly high meaning you can never get anywhere through sheer skill alone unless someone important cares enough to acknowledge your existence.

This defeatist attitude is like a self-fulfilling prophecy. "I'm not going to bother trying to get anywhere in life because it's all nepotism and connections anyway." And then you don't get anywhere in life.

Are there some who have an unfair advantage? Absolutely. And is the moral you mentioned a bit sugar-coated and idealistic? Yeah, probably. But at the end of the day, you're still responsible for your own path.

And let's not kid ourselves: Connections are very important. You may not think it's fair, but that's how it is. People are more willing to work with you if they know you. How do people know you? By getting yourself out there in some capacity.

 

[Goldstar!]

All those kids cartoons about following your dreams and how you can achieve anything if you work hard and believe in yourself.

Because as the current state of the world proves, people who work hard for something have all their work automatically undone by forces stronger than them and even if we achieve our dreams it won't be worth it in the end because it comes at a massive cost and something horrible will happen that completely negates everything and there's nothing we can do. Hard work will not get you there either because the job market is dictated by nepotism and connections and the barrier of entry has been raised impossibly high meaning you can never get anywhere through sheer skill alone unless someone important cares enough to acknowledge your existence.

You know, I wouldn't even bother getting out of bed if I had this attitude. No one ever got anywhere in life with the belief that "You're just going to fail anyway, so why even try?" Is the current system perfect and unbiased? Definitely not, but just sitting on your couch and complaining about everything like Bad Luck Shleprock accomplishes nothing. Even if you get 100 rejection letters, you're still putting something out there for people to see.

 

[Silverstar]

This defeatist attitude is like a self-fulfilling prophecy. "I'm not going to bother trying to get anywhere in life because it's all nepotism and connections anyway." And then you don't get anywhere in life.

Are there some who have an unfair advantage? Absolutely. And is the moral you mentioned a bit sugar-coated and idealistic? Yeah, probably. But at the end of the day, you're still responsible for your own path.

And let's not kid ourselves: Connections are very important. You may not think it's fair, but that's how it is. People are more willing to work with you if they know you. How do people know you? By getting yourself out there in some capacity.

Word.

This is why, even though I'm not really a social media person, I try to maintain some presence on the internet and some socials: to keep my name and what I'm about out there so maybe I can make contact with like-minded folks and someone who can point me in the right direction and/or help get me started on my ultimate goal: making my own content as a paying career.

Just saying "Well there's no point in trying since everything sucks and it's rigged against me" is just a lame excuse to never put forth any effort. You can't hope to succeed if you don't dare to fail. Opportunity's not going to come knocking if it doesn't know where you live.

 

[Fone Bone]

It strikes me as less than a true insight about the nature of the business, and more as sour grapes.

 

[ShadowBeast]

To be honest something like the Emoji Movie as well as that Wreck it Ralph sequel would have been better received had it been shown in theatres in like 2010 when social media was just blossoming.

It wasn't just the internet jokes that made the Wreck-It Ralph sequel bad.

 

[Zanneck]

All those kids cartoons about following your dreams and how you can achieve anything if you work hard and believe in yourself.

Because as the current state of the world proves, people who work hard for something have all their work automatically undone by forces stronger than them and even if we achieve our dreams it won't be worth it in the end because it comes at a massive cost and something horrible will happen that completely negates everything and there's nothing we can do. Hard work will not get you there either because the job market is dictated by nepotism and connections and the barrier of entry has been raised impossibly high meaning you can never get anywhere through sheer skill alone unless someone important cares enough to acknowledge your existence.

Whatever, m8. I'm just gonna keep trying. Or find something else to excel at and build on it. Nowadays, you gotta wear more than one hat to get anywhere, as it is. Most rich people who didn't inherit their shiny coins and whatnot had to work at getting theirs some way, so..... Whatever, m8. I just can't entertain your negativity, no matter how hard things get sometimes (and not just for you. All of us and myself.). Good and bad times come in cycles - it's all about how you handle it. I just don't think you're handling it well all that much, unfortunately enough.
I've felt a similar way sometimes myself as you, but I can only do that so much before I gotta get over myself too, at the end of the day.

 

[John Pannozzi]

Similarly, there was a cartoon by Famous Studios (the folks behind Underdog and Tennessee Tuxedo) called The Go-Go Gophers which likewise hasn't seen the light of day in decades and it's not hard to see why: the cartoon starred a pair of Native American gophers named Ruffled Feathers and Running Board, the former of which spoke in excitable gibberish while the latter who spoke Tonto-speak would have to translate. In addition, the segments attempted to make light of the subject of prejudice and genocide; the 2 gophers were the sole survivors of a massacre that wiped out the rest of their tribe, and the series' antagonist, a cavalryman named Col. Kit Coyote, was clearly a bigot who spent the series attempting to finish the job by offing the 2 remaining gophers. At the time it was seen as an innocent take on the American frontier, but today it would be viewed as massively politically incorrect and 'cringe', as the kids would say, by modern standards.

The studio was Total Television, not Famous Studios (Famous Studios was the name for Paramount's animation studio around the 1940s and 1950s).
And I remember that the Go-Go Gophers segments were airing on Boomerang as late as the early (maybe also mid) 2000s. No joke.

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[Jean74]

Yeah as really the two gophers I remember that. One spoke in gibberish and the other was the straight man of the gophers. Dressed over as Indians.

 

[John Pannozzi]

After seeing Twitter destroyed in less than 24 hours how about the episode of The Simpsons guest starring Elon Musk? The show portraying him as a green visionary whom Lisa deeply respects seems a bit foolish in hindsight.

Similar things can be said for their episode guest starring Mel Gibson (I know @Classic Speedy said as much in a different thread on this board years ago).

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[Fone Bone]

After seeing Twitter destroyed in less than 24 hours how about the episode of The Simpsons guest starring Elon Musk? The show portraying him as a green visionary whom Lisa deeply respects seems a bit foolish in hindsight.

This post aged well. (Takes a bow).

 

[Pooky]

Just caught the Season 13 King of the Hill episode Lost in MySpace. As the title suggests it's about how everyone sure is on that MySpace these days. My initial thought, as someone who skipped the whole MySpace thing, was that would have been dated in 2008. Turns out I was wrong about that; the site peaked a little earlier that year and wasn't overtaken by Facebook until mid-way through 2009. Fair to say it's been pretty dated for a while now though.