Were the 2000s really that bad for animation?

[Dwain345]

Mr Enter said that the 2000s was the worst decade for cartoons and animation in general. The 2000s had some good cartoons, but also many bad ones like heavily censored dubs and mean-spirited cartoons. So, do you think that the 2000s was the worst decade for animation?

 

[Silverstar]

I don't listen to anything Mr. Enter says. He's one of the worst YouTubers out there, hands down.

All of the noise about "(Blank) was the worst decade ever for animation" is stupid. NO period was perfect. NO decade didn't have its' bad cartoon shows or movies, even the so-called "Golden Age". And every decade has/ had shows that brought in people. It's a stupid argument, so it doesn't surprise me in the least that a hack like Enter would make such an argument.

 

[Pooky]

Interestingly the other day I stumbled upon (and read) an old thread that discussed this very matter (similarly it seems to have been started partly in response to Mr. Enter!), I thought some good points were made there including a spirited defence of 70s animation by @wonderfly, which is usually my own personal go to for animation's "worst decade" (with caveats).

For me (at least if we're talking about US animation) it was a step-down from the 90s, and was improved upon by the 2010s, but I might give it the edge over the current decade based on what we've seen so far, but then history often looks more interesting than the present.

 

[[classic swim]]

From my experience the 2000s were a whirlwind of promising change for animation, so no.

Enter just doesn’t leave his house.

 

[JMTV]

I wouldn't trust John Enter, if I were you, because the same talentless hack cannot even take criticism to save his own ass. Screw him!

As for the topic at hand, no. I don't think the 2000's was that bad for animation. No era was perfect, but I think the 2000's was the decade were companies are going through a major influx and the executives deciding on what to do their networks by gearing towards different demographics in order to become more profitable, especially for cable TV for kids.

Kinda like how it is now with streaming, except kids 6-12 shows has become an afterthought to the executives since the target demo are moving on to social media.

 

[Fone Bone]

The best animated series of all time, Justice League Unlimited aired in the 2000's. So no.

 

[Dr.Pepper]

I think the start of the decade was pretty solid, but it was kind of lacking a bit in the later part of the decade. Not that everything was horrible.

 

[Pooky]

When you look at Animated Films in the 00s, I think most would say Pixar were at their peak and many would say they were a highlight of the decade. When you look at Animated films as a whole it might be a different story, but I think if you look at the first half of the decade there are two ways of seeing it.

Looking at it one way, if you've any fondness for the traditionally animated American feature, it was a pretty bad time, the format effectively died, something which has not yet successfully been reversed, it was being devalued by cheap product being thrown into theatres in the hope of getting a quick buck, and the more ambitious films were being largely rejected, whether you think this is because audiences were rejecting lacklustre films or because they had simply moved onto the newer, shinier world of CG animation is kind of irrelevant. On the flipside whether or not Shrek was a breath of fresh air and whether or not it does or does not hold up is up to you, but I think few would deny as early as Shark Tale there were signs of a long line of mediocre assembly line CG animated films, not quite the exciting future we were promised in the early days of CG.

But looked at another way...don't think about their overall quality, don't think about the reviews or whether they've got big fanbases now, don't think about how they fared at the Box Office, just picture the first image that comes into your head when you hear these names, all from a 5 year period; Fantasia 2000, Chicken Run, Pokémon 2000, Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, Dinosaur, Titan AE, Emperor's New Groove, Digimon: the Movie, Monkeybone, Shrek, Atlantis, Osmosis Jones, Monsters Inc., Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within, Recess: School's Out, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Lilo & Stitch, Hey Arnold: The Movie, The Powerpuff Girls Movie, Treasure Planet, Eight Crazy Nights, Rugrats Go Wild!, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Home on the Range, Teacher's Pet, Yu-Gi-Oh! Pyramid of Light, The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, The Incredibles, and, if you count it, Team America.

It's a remarkably visually diverse list of films isn't it, and I'm limiting myself to the ultra-mainstream films that were released on 2,000+ screens in the US. Whether or not they belonged it's quite something to think of Gary Baseman, Craig McCracken/Genndy Tartakovsky and even Klasky Csupo's art styles moving around up there on the big screen. Studios were throwing everything up on screen and seeing what sticks, and it was possibly the greatest range of Animated styles up on American cinema screens since the 50s. I'm not sure it was that great to live through, but it seems remarkable to me in retrospect.

 

[Goldstar!]

Teen Titans (TAS) premiered in 2003.

Megas XLR premiered in 2004.

The Incredibles also premiered in 2004.

Chowder premiered in 2007.

The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack premiered in 2008.

Wreck-It Ralph premiered in 2012.

Mr. Enter doesn't know what the smeg he's talking about.

Seriously, if Mr. Enter isn't the worst animation critic on the internet, he's definitely in the top 5. The man does nothing but state his personal opinions as facts and throw temper tantrums over things which are incredibly trivial. I don't get why anyone would value that guy's opinion on anything. Just the sort of opinion that I would expect from Mr. "Pixar should've acknowledged 9/11 in Turning Red!" What a Hacky McHackerton.

 

[The Overlord]

The best animated series of all time, Justice League Unlimited aired in the 2000's. So no.

Yeah, there was a ton of great action shows from that era: Justice League Unlimited, TMNT 2003, Teen Titans, Avatar the Last Airbender, etc.

I find that Mr. Enter was definitely cherry picking when he said the 2000s was the worst decade for animation. You can find trash content in any decade and ignored the good stuff, declare a decade the worst.

 

[ToonsJazzLover]

Nah, although the second half of the decade was pretty weak with a few exceptions

 

[JoeMabbon]

A decade that had Samurai Jack and Transformers Animated can't be all bad, right?

 

[Classic Speedy]

Uh, no. Besides what everyone already mentioned, the anime boom was in full swing thanks to Toonami/Adult Swim.

 

[mqg96]

I'm going to try to put together reasons I've noticed over the years.... but I'll start here... the 2000s was the first full decade of major change for animation for both TV and cinema in a way we had never seen in animation's entire existence decades prior. Around the turn of the millennium we witnessed TV go from cel to digital and cinema go from 2D/hand drawn to 3D/CGI.


We witnessed the 1st season of SpongeBob being cel to the 2nd season of SpongeBob being digital. We witnessed Ed Edd n Eddy's earlier seasons cel to its later seasons being digital. We witnessed the DCAU transition from cel to digital throughout Batman Beyond's run. The Simpsons, Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Lab, Johnny Bravo, Hey Arnold, Rugrats, Pepper Ann, Dragon Tales, etc. the list goes on. Dreamworks had some early movies that were hand drawn but eventually remained permanently CGI especially once Shrek blew up. Disney transitioned throughout its weird 2000s era phase while Pixar was blowing up at the time. What's wild is that barring anything crazy that happens in animation, we may never see a transition in animation this drastic again our entire lifetime. I think that's what makes this short lived era of animation so unique around the turn of the millennium...


Why do I start with this long paragraph? Because I believe this contributed to a lot of the 2000's in animation getting the mixed opinions it got, because it was a transitional time for animation so some ppl couldn't get used to those changes with the newer at the time cartoons coming out as the 2000's decade went on. The quality in both 2D digital cartoons and CGI movies started looking much sharper in details and rendering once you get to the late 2000's and 2010's especially on the big HD screen, but starting out in the early to mid 2000's some early digital and CGI cartoons did look very lackluster when you look back at those compared to now. There are some exceptions...


and final take... if I'm being truly honest, if we're talking about brand new premieres on TV (not reruns or already running shows), I think the first half of the 2000s for cartoons was just as amazing as the 90's and 2010's, like 2000-2005 specifically were great... only the second half of the 2000s was lackluster. 2006-2009 was very lackluster and forgettable for brand new at the time cartoon premieres and people are not wrong when they say this. During the late 2000's... If you wanted a good lineup of no further than PG friendly cartoons for reruns and premieres..... Boomerang, Nicktoons Network, and Toon Disney/Jetix had the best content imo, so with basic cable for Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network you were screwed in the late 2000's. But once 2010 rolled around, boom, Cartoon Network and Disney XD were killing it with so many premieres and that would continue for much of the 2010's. I think animation in general was in a Renaissance age for much of the 2010's including in cinema as well.

But overall, I disagree with Mr. Enter completely. The only decades in animation that were better than the 2000's were the 90's and 2010's. The 80's while not bad, was nowhere near as good as the 2000's, I would still take the 2000's a million times over the 80's, and the 70's was just awful. I'm not sure about the 60's & earlier I can't speak much of those decades.

 

[khuddle]

From my experience the 2000s were a whirlwind of promising change for animation, so no.

Enter just doesn’t leave his house.

Those shut-ins are the worst.

 

[JMTV]

and final take... if I'm being truly honest, if we're talking about brand new premieres on TV (not reruns or already running shows), I think the first half of the 2000s for cartoons was just as amazing as the 90's and 2010's, like 2000-2005 specifically were great... only the second half of the 2000s was lackluster. 2006-2009 was very lackluster and forgettable for brand new at the time cartoon premieres and people are not wrong when they say this. During the late 2000's... If you wanted a good lineup of no further than PG friendly cartoons for reruns and premieres..... Boomerang, Nicktoons Network, and Toon Disney/Jetix had the best content imo, so with basic cable for Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network you were screwed in the late 2000's. But once 2010 rolled around, boom, Cartoon Network and Disney XD were killing it with so many premieres and that would continue for much of the 2010's. I think animation in general was in a Renaissance age for much of the 2010's including in cinema as well.

THIS!!! SO MUCH THIS!!!

 

[Moe]

No but when I was teen to young adult, I admitted that I had biased view on some animation shows after 2000s because of digital paint and not anymore now after I embraced digital paint. I had to revisit and watch animated shows came out in 2000s and they are good. I love Justice League (and Unlimited), 2003 TMNT, 2004 The Batman, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Teen Titans, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Rugrats: All Grown Up!, Chowder and many others.

 

[CassieTheDragon]

Teen Titans (TAS) premiered in 2003.

Megas XLR premiered in 2004.

The Incredibles also premiered in 2004.

Chowder premiered in 2007.

The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack premiered in 2008.

Wreck-It Ralph premiered in 2012.

Mr. Enter doesn't know what the smeg he's talking about.

Seriously, if Mr. Enter isn't the worst animation critic on the internet, he's definitely in the top 5. The man does nothing but state his personal opinions as facts and throw temper tantrums over things which are incredibly trivial. I don't get why anyone would value that guy's opinion on anything. Just the sort of opinion that I would expect from Mr. "Pixar should've acknowledged 9/11 in Turning Red!" What a Hacky McHackerton.

I'm not anti-Enter, but he has said some stupid stuff, especially during his early days.

Also Wreck-It-Ralph came out... in the 2010s. Not the 2000s. Enter didn't mean "the 2000s century". He thinks the 2010s were really good for animation.

 

[PicardMan]

I thought the 00s were a popular era of cartoons. It was the golden age of action cartoons (Teen Titans, Justice League, Samurai Jack, Avatar the Last Airbender), the height of Spongemania (with Fairly Oddparents, Danny Phantom, Jimmy Neutron, and My Life as a Teenage Robot being super popular Nicktoons). Kim Possible was an iconic Disney Channel cartoon. From my point of view, the 00s could possibly be the best decade in animation history. Since I was born in December 91 and was 8 in 00, I guess I can lay the claim of being an 00s kid?

 

[Fone Bone]

I thought the 00s were a popular era of cartoons. It was the golden age of action cartoons (Teen Titans, Justice League, Samurai Jack, Avatar the Last Airbender), the height of Spongemania (with Fairly Oddparents, Danny Phantom, Jimmy Neutron, and My Life as a Teenage Robot being super popular Nicktoons). Kim Possible was an iconic Disney Channel cartoon. From my point of view, the 00s could possibly be the best decade in animation history. Since I was born in December 91 and was 8 in 00, I guess I can lay the claim of being an 00s kid?

I agree with your take. Mr. Enter is out of his mind.