For those who don’t know, the Anime Superhero Forums (animesuperhero.com), which both Damon and I are members of, has been down for repairs since February 3rd, and it’s now March 23rd and the site still hasn’t been fixed yet. The forum’s moderators have assured us that the site will return, but no one can say exactly when.
However, someone has since created a temporary AS forum that can be used while we’re waiting for the real one to return. animesuperherotemp.freeforums.net.
Neither of us have created an account there yet (Honestly, I don’t know if it’s worth it), but in the meantime, we’re both still here of course, and also are still on Tumblr. If you’re missing the Anime Superhero Forums, you can visit the temporary AS site. You know, if you feel like it.
Twin Images 
Ironically, ASF went down shortly after I started to take a mini-sabbatical from it; I was getting tired of all the negativity. Granted, there hasn’t been a ton of positive animation news to report or discuss so far this year, what with Disney planning even more live-action remakes of their classic films, streaming services cancelling and/or dialing back on animated projects in general, coupled with Zaslav and Warner Bros. Discovery’s nonsense (yeah, we got some possibly good news from CN’s new prez Michael Ouweleen about Cartoon Network’s future three months ago, but I haven’t heard a solitary peep about CN or WB Animation since then beyond adult cartoons, which I’m generally not that into — Sidebar: last night I watched the first episode of Digman! on Comedy Central because there was nothing else on; it wasn’t Brickleberry bad but it wasn’t anything I need to go out of my way to watch, sorry–so while I will be glad when the site returns (as there are good people on there that I enjoyed conversing with), I’m kind of enjoying the break from it right now.
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Yeah, I admit that I’m not so much interested in returning to the Anime Superhero Forums as much as I’d like to maintain contact with my online friends/colleagues on the Anime Superhero Forums that I can’t converse with otherwise, since I’m not on Twitter (Twitter was toxic even before Muskrat took it over, now it’s just more of a right-wing cesspool) or Facebook or anything. I’ve considered joining Reddit, but I’m not really sure how that site works.
Also, you’re right about the AS Forums being mostly gloom-and-doom talk over the last few weeks and months, and I don’t need to be surrounded by negativity. And before anyone suggests that Damon and I start our own forum, we did that back in 2004-2005. I’m not interested in maintaining another message board; I just want to create and talk about cartoons and geek culture stuff.
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I’ve been hoping that the forums would’ve been fixed sooner since there’s plenty of news and ideas that I wanted to talk about (such as how good Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur is, the cast for Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, clips and thoughts on how good Barbie: Skipper And The Big Babysitting Adventure is, and the unfortunate cancellation of Ridley Jones).
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Well, Random Twinsanity’s no longer pinned, but it’s still open. If you like, you can post news and opinions in the comments section of that post, or even this one, until ASF is back up.
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So 2 weeks ago, a new Disney Channel show came out called Kiff. The show is created by South African creators Lucy Heavens and Nic Smal (with Kiff being some kind of slang being cool). Kent Osborne (who worked on shows like SpongeBob SquarePants, Camp Lazlo, Phineas And Ferb, Adventure Time, Steven Universe, and Summer Camp Island) is the show’s story editor. It’s a show about a squirrel named Kiff (voiced by Kimiko Glenn) and a rabbit named Barry (voiced by H. Michael Croner) going on all sorts of misadventures in the town of Table Town. Animation is done by Titmouse. Though mainly known for action shows like Motorcity and Niko And The Sword Of Light, they’ve also done comedies, such as Future Worm and Bless The Harts. The show’s creators have stated that the show has many notable comedic influences, including Animaniacs and SpongeBob SquarePants. You can watch the first episode on YouTube if you’re interested in checking it out.
https://www.animationmagazine.net/2023/02/kiff-creators-lucy-heavens-nic-smal-gives-us-the-scoop-on-their-colorful-disney-comedy/
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Yeah, I’ve seen ads for Kiff!. It’s on Disney Plus too, IIRC. It looks…interesting; I may check this one out. I’m not crazy about the characters’ big beady “deer-caught-in-headlights” eyes (a nitpick I also had about Comedy Central’s Digman!), but I’m happy to see Disney launch a cartoon that’s a pure comedy (with a female lead no less, and one who has other things on her mind besides falling in love), not another superhero show (I can’t make myself interested in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, though I hear it’s good; I’m just going through superhero fatigue right now) or an arc-heavy genre buster like Amphibia or The Owl House; shows like those just aren’t my jam, but I remember reading Disney saying that The Owl House would be the last show of that nature that they were going to greenlight for a while.
Now if we could just get an all-ages comedy cartoon starring the Sensational Six.
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1. I think it’s more that there could still be story driven shows made, but made more for Disney Plus and less for Disney Channel. Though it’s worth noting how a show like Hamster And Gretel (which is also an action comedy like Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur) is slowly building up more story driven elements, but has a heavy comedic tone. I do wish Kiff premiered a few months later since it’s somewhat overshadowed by Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur (which I like).
2. In regards to that last comment, I don’t know if there could be a show like that in the near future. The status of the Paul Rudish Mickey Mouse shorts (Mickey Mouse 2013/The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse) is currently unknown. There’s 20 regular episodes on Disney Plus and the seasonal specials from last year, but nothing has been said about the show’s future after that. It’s also unknown if Disney is going to greenlight a non-preschool Mickey show in the future given how the more safe versions of the characters in the Disney Junior projects are still going strong. I mean, Mickey Mouse Funhouse was greenlit for a season 3 before season 1 even finished airing.
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Warner Brothers has both Looney Tunes Cartoons and Bugs Bunny Builders. I don’t see why Disney couldn’t do both. After all, the Mouse House had no issue with running the 2017 DuckTales reboot at the same time as the Disney Junior Mickey & Friends shows.
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I think the reason why stuff like Bugs Bunny Builders and Looney Tunes Cartoons can run at the same time similar to the Disney Junior Mickey Mouse shows and non Disney Junior projects is that each show has something that the other show doesn’t. It’s most likely for marketing so that kids don’t get confused about which shows are made for which kinds of kids. Case in point, Bugs Bunny Builders takes place in a location specific to that show (LooneyBerg), which doesn’t pop up in Looney Tunes Cartoons (a show that doesn’t use locations that are specific to it). Daffy’s cousin Billy is created for the show, but I don’t think she’d pop up in non-preschool media. There’s also how the Looney Tunes Cartoons Halloween special came out the same week as new Bugs Bunny Builders episodes, but that’s the only time the shows had premieres around the same time as each other. They’ve otherwise never intersected when it comes to when they drop episodes.
The same case can apply to the Disney Junior projects and how each show has things that aren’t in others. Case in point, Duckberg is in DuckTales 2017, but not Mickey And The Roadster Racers. In a similar vein, Hot Dog Hills and characters like Cuckoo Loca and Billy Beagle are specific to the Disney Junior shows, but have never been used outside of Disney Junior shows. Donald has an Uncle Manny in Roadster Racers, with said character being made for that show and nothing else. While the Disney Junior shows have aired at the same time as non-Disney Junior shows, the fact they’re all CGI as opposed to 2D animation probably helps people more clearly see which shows are made for which audience.
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Thank you guys for promoting the temp forum on this blog! (I’m the guy who started it.) There had been zero activity since I started it a month ago and was starting to give up hope. Then I checked it out after seeing your post and noticed that people are posting there now. Thank you for reinvigorating my faith in this forum.
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No problem. 👍 I figured that one reason why there wasn’t a ton of activity on the temporary forum was because a lot of people weren’t aware of it, so we’d at least let folks know that it’s out there while their waiting for Anime Superhero.com to come back.
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Remember about 2 years ago when My Adventures With Superman was announced? It was originally for both Cartoon Network and HBO Max. Now it’ll premiere on Adult Swim instead.
https://comicbook.com/anime/news/adult-swim-my-adventures-with-superman-show/
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If My Adventures with Superman and Unicorn: Warriors Eternal are going to be occupying [adult swim]’s newly acquired 7PM hour (and that’s what it’s looking like), then clearly Mr. Ouwleween is relaxing what constitutes as “adult” animation. It would appear that the first hour or two of [adult swim] will instead be a less extreme Toonami, or a Miguzi 2.0, if you will, and you know what? I’m not totally against this idea. Fans have been wanting to see action cartoons return to CN for years now, and this might just be the thing to scratch that itch, then the adult animated comedies can still later at night. This also leaves Cartoon Network 7 hours to be Cartoon Network, now that Cartoonito ends at 12 noon.
And before anybody starts in with the expected “RIP Cartoon Network” rhetoric, WBD is teaming up with Corus Entertainment to produce a new Total Dramarama special, so the CN brand is still very much in effect, and Mr. Ouwleween claims that CN Studios will be co-existing alongside WB Animation, not synergizing with it or being swallowed by it.
This seems to be tying in to Ouwleween’s previously mentioned plans to remake CN into an all-ages animation brand, and if we get new, good shows from it, Cartoonito isn’t killed for it and the likes of Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera aren’t forgotten, then I’m OK with that.
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Interesting. Just this morning, I read an article on Deadline.com that Adult Swim may be starting at 7 PM by May 1st, and that Unicorns: Warriors Eternal would be airing on AS. I still think that 7PM is too early for an adult programming block, but it’s not too bad, considering that with Cartoonito now ending at 12 noon instead of 2 PM, that still leaves CN with 7 hours of programming before transitioning into AS.
It’s looking to me that Michael Ouwleween is attempting to blur the line between Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, which I guess isn’t too surprising what with the FOX shows exiting AS due to Fox Entertainment now being owned by Disney. I say if CN is going to expand AS’ audience to include big kids as well as young adults, then they should remove the word “Adult” from the block’s name. They could use a name that Damon (Silverstar) suggested on this site years ago: CN PM.
It almost seems like CN US will undergoing a change similar to what’s already happened in Canada (As of March 27, Teletoon was re-branded as Cartoon Network Canada and Cartoon Network Canada was re-branded as Boomerang Canada. Perhaps Boomerang US may eventually be re-branded as the new Cartoon Network while CN US will become…something else.
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Hey there, Star Bros. It’s me, JMTV. This is my first time commenting on your blog. I know about your blog for a while now, and I read your stuff numerous occasions, and I do enjoy it.
Ever since Anime Superhero Forums went down in February, I was taking a bit of a time off from this site beforehand because of how toxic and negative it is. I’ve been going through rough shit IRL as it is (not sure if it’s okay if I can curse on here, but you know what I mean), but adding another layer of negativity and toxicity on ASF just makes me want to blow my head off. So I need to step away for awhile for the sake of my mental health.
However, there’s a lot of animation news that has been going on for the past couple of weeks that I really need to talk about something in order to get things off of my chest.
It’s been a month Anime Superhero Forums went down and I’ve not heard any updates since
then. I did tried and visit to other alternatives, but most of them either not that good or weren’t very active as ASF was.
Now, I’m going to be commenting on Twig Images since I love talking to you guys and it’s pretty active on here, but it’s going to be temporarily until Anime Superhero Forums comes back, for who knows how when. I’m new to how WordPress actually functions, so it’s gonna take time for me to get used to it.
So yeah, here I am.
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Welcome, JMTV. Glad to have you aboard! 👋 I haven’t joined the temporary site yet either, because it’s not terribly active right now and I needed to take a break from Anime Superhero.
You can post/comment here as often as you like, and yeah, you can curse here if you want. Just as long as you’re not harassing anyone.
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Thank you, Goldstar. 🙂
I’ve seen the temporarily ASF site for a bit. I didn’t signed on there (and have no interest in it) since it wasn’t as active as much, but it’s nice to see that someone was able to kept the legacy of ASF alive until real one recovers soon.
(and also, yay, I can finally curse. And trust me, I will never harass anybody.)
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So we can swear? Hell fuckin’ yeah!
I only replied to this to make that joke.
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New update from the Facebook page: The site could be back by the end of this week. The forums are still questionable, though.
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Yeah, that’s good to hear.
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Yeah.
Hi JMTV! Long time no hear!
So, have you seen Kiff and/or Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur yet?
Other than that, yeah, at this point, they might as well rename Adult Swim to CN NITE, not unlike what they in Japan.
And y’all beat to me reporting that news of the site coming back.
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Hey there.
No, I haven’t seen Kiff nor Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. I only seen bits and pieces on some of the promos. It just not for me. I have no interest in watching them.
I don’t know if they can change Adult Swim to CN at Nite since brand recognition and popular programming are one of the main reasons why Adult Swim are still around today, but what do I know?
TBH, I’m not a fan of Adult Swim all that much, so seeing them getting the 7pm slot was unnerving to me, but not surprising. At this point, I don’t really care.
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I once made a thread about this on the forums, but I figure I can also talk about it here. There’s something interesting when you compare a certain aspect of these 4 shows, My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, Littlest Pet Shop 2012, Polly Pocket 2018, and Strawberry Shortcake: Berry In The Big City. They’re all young skewing, slice of life, girl centric shows produced by DHX Media (known as Wildbrain for the past few years) that have one thing in common, a mean girl character. There’s Diamond Tiara for MLP, The Biskit Twins for LPS, Gwen Grande and later on Bella Bigowski in Polly, and Raspberry Tart in Strawberry. However, I think the timeframe of when these shows came out determines how they’re written. The former two came out in the early 2010s while the latter two came out in the late 2010s/early 2020s.
Diamond Tiara is the typical mean girl in how she keeps picking on the Cutie Mark Crusaders for not having a cutie mark. She was seen as a divisive character due to how much she did it on top of not having enough depth at the time. The season 5 episode “Crusaders Of The Lost Mark” does attempt to give her some depth, though not everyone thought it was executed well. Regardless, after this, you’d think she’d be fleshed out more, but she ended up being relegated to background appearances. Series director Jim Miller mentioned how he and the writers wanted to flesh out her character more, but then Hasbro thought her story was done and didn’t want her to be used anymore.
And then we get to LPS, with the Biskit Twins having a similar role in how they keep picking on Blythe. They’re also similarly divisive, but to a more notable degree because of how it seems like they’ll be nicer people, but then they turn back to normal. Season 4 does attempt to give them more sympathetic appearances, or at least times when they aren’t antagonistic. Season 5 probably would’ve made them more likable, but then Hasbro cancelled the show after season 4, with Julie McNally Cahill saying how low toy sales caused this.
That brings us to Polly Pocket 2018. The character of Gwen Grande is the dimwitted granddaughter of Griselle Grande, and thus tries to help her steal Polly’s locket that can grow and shrink things. Some episodes like “Con Job” show how she doesn’t always see eye to eye with her and just wants a normal life. She’s also shown to be nicer than her even if still an antagonist, though she’d still pick on Polly when left on her own. Presumably, season 2 could’ve made her a friend to Polly if she was developed more. However, after season 1, the show went on hiatus for 2 years, and when season 2 came out, the show would undergo extreme changes. This included going from 22 minute episodes to 2 11 minute segments, and writing out the Grandes as if they never existed. Why that’s the case is still unknown since there’s still no official explanation for it after all these years. However, season 2 did introduce Bella Bigowski, who fills the same idea. Coincidentally, she and Gwen are both voiced by Rhona Rees. Anyway, Gwen was introduced early on in the season (I think the third episode), where was shown to be a Kerpow (the show’s version of karate) rival to Lila. She would pick on her and boast about how she was better. She makes a few appearances where she’s like this, but then in “Halloween Queen” (the second segment of the 11th episode), we find out more about why she’s like this. Lila kept beating her at everything throughout the year, and she wanted to prove how good she was. The two they have an exchange where they talk about how they’re great people and are equally skilled, and become friends afterwards. She then finds out about Polly’s locket secret in the season 2 finale (which is episode 13), and from season 3 onward, she’s officially a friend to Polly and goes with her in adventures. She can still be somewhat critical, but she’s much nicer and more well meaning. We even find out in season 3 that’s she’s a duchess and she doesn’t want to be treated all fancy like. That’s pretty interesting.
Now we talk about Raspberry Tart from Strawberry Shortcake: Berry In The Big City. Unlike other versions of the character, she starts out as more an antagonist in wanting to prove she’s a better baker than Strawberry. However, her antagonism is also not shown too often. Of her 6 appearances in 2021, she’s an antagonist in 4 episodes, and the other 2 (a Christmas episode and a New Year’s Eve episode, the final episode of the year) show her in a somewhat prickly, but friendlier light, actually getting along with Strawberry somewhat. After that, she had a large absence, and when returning in the second half of the season, she becomes more a reluctant ally. Though still critical of Strawberry, she doesn’t antagonize her anymore, even teaming up with her when they have a common goal. The episode with Johnny Cake Cobbler (who’s a conman) showed that they could be friends, but are hesitant to approach each other about it. The episode right after that, which is about throwing Raspberry a surprise party, reveals that she has parents who aren’t that attentive, thus earning more sympathy from the audience. This then leads to the season 1 finale Bake Off, where she competes against Strawberry, but doesn’t antagonize her. In fact, when she thinks Strawberry deliberately sabotaged her, she’s shocked. This then leads to a food fight where they have fun and officially become friends. Similar to Bella, she can still be somewhat critical, but is still more open to helping Strawberry when she needs it.
It’s definitely something to think about.
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@sofiablyth2014:
Generally, I feel that if a show must have regular antagonists, it’s better when they have an actual reason to be against the protagonist rather than being mean just for the sake of being mean. Of those examples that you listed above, the only ones that I’ve seen are Diamond Tiara and the Biskitt Twins. In the case of Diamond Tiara, I like how Diamond Tiara turned babyface and stayed that way for the remainder of the series. It wasn’t a one-time-only thing where DT went right back to hating the Cutie Mark Crusaders by the end of the episode.
One reason why the Biskit Twins didn’t work for me was because their antagonism felt very forced to me because Whitanny (sp?) and Brittany had no reason to hate Blythe; it was “we’re the bad guys, so we have to do bad guy stuff”. Initially the show’s writers tried to say that the Biskits disliked Blythe because she didn’t drop down to her knees and worship the 2 of them when they first met, but here’s the thing: no one ever worshipped them. The other kids all either actively disliked the Biskts or were just indifferent to them. We never saw even Whittany and Brittany hanging out with any other kids, so it’s not like they had a clique or anything. I particularly didn’t like it when an episode of Littlest Pet Shop would end with the Biskits getting away without receiving any kid of come-uppance (“The Nest Hat Craze”) or worse, be given a happy ending that they didn’t deserve “Fued for Thought”, “Two Pets for Two Pests”).
One thing that I do like is that all 3 characters were revealed to have mothers who are alive and well, thus turning the tired trope of the dead/missing mother on it’s ear. I did think it was funny when the Biskit Twins’ mother Eliza showed up on the season 4 premiere and Whittany asked her “Where have you been for the last 3 seasons?”
@jackelmagnet76:
I likewise haven’t seen Moongirl and Devil Dinosaur yet, despite my having Disney+. I’m just kind of super hero-ed out right now. I need a break from capes. I haven’t seen an entire episode of Kiff yet. I saw a clip of of it and it looks…fine. Nothing about it made me laugh out loud, but I wasn’t repulsed by it. It almost looks like Disney is trying to have their own SpongeBob Squarepants, which is OK. The only thing about Kiff that I don’t care for are the characters’ enormous bugged-out eyes, like a deer in the headlights.
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So there’s a new Looney Tunes DVD movie coming out called Taz: Quest For Burger. It looks like Taz is voiced by Steve Blum, and the child character for the movie is voiced by Hadley Gannaway (she’s done voice work on Frozen 2, TOTS, Lego City Adventures, and Monsters At Work).
https://store.cineplex.com/Product/taz-quest-for-burger
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I wish I could edit comments. Anyway, here’s the official article on Taz: Quest For Burger. It’s written by Bryan Condon (who worked on Thundercats Roar and Aquaman: King Of Atlantis), directed by Ryan Kramer (who worked on Looney Tunes Cartoons and Uncle Grandpa), and is produced by Mark Marek (who worked on Kablam and MAD and co-created Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs).
https://www.animationmagazine.net/2023/04/all-new-looney-tunes-movie-taz-quest-for-burger-spins-to-digital-in-june/
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This is probably the sort of thing I’d post on Anime Superhero if it were up:
Am I the only one on YouTube who’s not having a fangasm about Lackadaisy? I saw the pilot short and yes, it looks really good, definitely a beautiful piece of animation considering it was made without a huge budget or the backing of a major studio, but I have zero interest in the premise, characters or subject matter. Everyone else on the internet is absolutely gushing over this cartoon, and I just don’t get it.
Who is this supposed to appeal to, aside from furries? There’s no reason for the cast to be anthropomorphic cats, they just are for some reason (though they occasionally do cat-like things like hiss, purr and wag their tails around). Fine, but then it dares to try and have mature subject matter, complex plots and layered characters. Really? Figure out your tone, Lackadaisy. You can have your cartoon about 1920s era cats running a speakeasy, but don’t then expect me to take it seriously. Shows like Lackadaisy give me category placement trouble; it’s not funny enough to be a comedy, not serious enough to be a drama. What is it?
-That said, I could watch this all day.
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Sorry for double posting. New episodes of Looney Tunes Cartoons return tomorrow, and this clip came out.
https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/daffy-duck-elmer-fudd-face-off-looney-tunes-return-first-look-clip-nest-effort/
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Here’s the teaser trailer for My Adventures With Superman.
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Temp forum:
https://forum.toonzone.net/
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This one looks like Reddit.
This temp forum is actually made by some of the moderators of the official Anime Superhero Forums. However, it’s still got a few bugs that need to be worked on. I haven’t yet decided if I’m going to post on either of the temporary forums yet, but if I do, it will be one or the other, not both.
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I did tried the temp forum, and I gotta be honest, I wasn’t really feeling it.
The UI felt like Reddit mixed with Twitter, except not as appealing. There were pretty glitchy, very disorganized, and wasn’t as useful compared to ASF. I know it’s for temporary when the real ASF comes back, but it didn’t left a good impression on me.
Don’t take my word for it, this is just only my experience.
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So I’ve been watching the new Monster High show produced by both Mattel Television and Nickelodeon. An episode from a few weeks ago (Horroscare) apparently teased the idea of a possible romantic relationship between Frankie (who’s nonbinary in this series due to explicitly being referred to with they/them pronouns) and Cleo (who’s voiced by Kausar Mohammed, a queer Muslim, in this series). I know no one here has seen the show, but I wanted to talk about this mostly because of how this show was developed by Shea Fontana. The various shows she’s developed (where she usually has some kind of producer and/or story editor credit) are the 2015 DC Superhero Girls show, Whisker Haven Tales With The Palace Pets, Dorothy And The Wizard Of Oz, Polly Pocket 2018, and Action Pack. All of these shows have either little or no romance in them. It’s pretty understandable for the latter four shows since they’re more explicitly marketed to young kids (Whisker Haven is a Disney Junior show, Dorothy aired on Treehouse TV in Canada and would air in the US at very early times, Polly airs on Family Jr in Canada and the similarly younger skewing Kids Street and Universal Kids here in America, and Action Pack is Netflix Jr). DC Superhero Girls 2015 is an older skewing kids show, and does slightly tease Wonder Woman/Steve Trevor, but it’s a very small part of the show since it otherwise puts more emphasis on family and friendship. The new Monster High show similarly emphasizes family and friendship more, though this possible teasing of a romance does seem a bit unexpected from the other shows she’s worked on since they usually don’t make romance that much of a big part of them, or at least tease it as such. I’m not complaining. It’s just interesting to note.
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Apparently, Baby Looney Tunes and Sylvester And Tweety Mysteries will be airing on Discovery Family starting next month. The commercial is slightly misleading since it says “new episodes”, implying a revival, when they just have the rights to air the old shows.
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Discovery Family is being a little loose with the language there. Both Baby Looney Tunes and Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries have been out of production for years, but they’ve never aired on DF before, so they’re “new” episodes for them. Cartoon Network did the same thing years ago when they started airing reruns of Hanna-Barabera’s The Addams Family ABC Saturday morning cartoon from the 1990s, promoting it as a “new” series, when in actuality, CN was just airing the reruns. It was only “new” in the sense that it never aired on the channel before. Interestingly, that one clip of Sylvester talking wasn’t from either show; it was from one of the Looney Tunes theatrical shorts.
It’s not surprising that we’re now seeing more WB shows on the Discovery owned channels and vice-versa. Corporate synergy and all that. Ironically, we don’t get Discovery Family anymore since we switched from DirecTV to YouTube TV back in June 2022.
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Yeah, it’s already started; WBD are cross-promoting like crazy. One of the Discovery channels (I forget which one) is going to have an entire reality show built around that Barbie movie that Warner Brothers is coming out with. The show is basically a giant commercial for the movie. Shameless, but they can do that now since they own both.
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Yeah, I heard about that. At first, I didn’t believe that mostly because there is no footage of the promo online, but now this is real, and I find it really interesting, but not surprising at the same time. WB has done that in the past ever since they bought Turner back 96′ and they cross-promoted Kids WB shows onto Cartoon Network and vice versa. So, now Discovery is getting that piece of the pie.
I would say its a bit of an improvement for Discovery Family since it’s not another ended Hasbro show nor a cheap reality show #277, but that’s not saying much.
Oh, BTW, speaking of Discovery Family, I’ve heard that Hasbro’s contract with Discovery has been extended until 2025. Yippie-Skippie….. /s (eyeroll)
(sighs) Whatever. I don’t watch that channel anymore, so I don’t really care. They don’t deserved my view.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_programs_broadcast_by_Discovery_Kids_(Latin_American_TV_channel)
I would say that the American schedule is where the variety is lacking. When you look at Latin America (where it’s still called Discovery Kids), you’ll see that the channel has aired all sorts of programming that hasn’t aired on the US channel, from Sesame Street to The Adventures Of Puss In Boots to Wow Wow Wubbzy. That’s insane.
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Yeah…I tried out the temporary forum that the Anime Superhero mods put together, and I’m with @jackelmagnet76; it’s just not worth the effort. The overall look of the temp site is OK, but the interface is kinda crap. You can’t edit your posts, and that’s a problem for me because 9 times out of 10, I need to make an edit for something that I’ve typed for whatever reason. You can’t quote an earlier post either. Maybe the mods will add those features eventually, but the real AS Forum might be back up by the time that happens. I’ll just wait for the official Anime Superhero Forum to come back online, whenever that is.
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Yeah, I definitely feel ya. Although, I did use the temp forum once in a while just to get use to it, but eh, it just not the same as the real ASF. I really hope the real one comes back.
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So one of the more recent episodes of Bugs Bunny Builders (Cousin Billy) showed something that’s ultimately just an Easter egg, but I want to talk about it. The episode has the Looney Builders being asked to build an art studio for Daffy’s cousin Billy Featherbottom. Two of the paintings she shows off are of characters who haven’t appeared in the show yet. One is of Granny with Yosemite Sam and Mugsy (I think that’s his name) and the other is of Elmer Fudd. It’s interesting when you consider how this is (so far) the only time human characters have appeared in the show. The show kind of reminds me of Chico Bon Bon: Monkey With A Tool Belt (another preschool show focusing on an all animal construction crew of sorts) since that show also didn’t have any any humans, though this was a bit unexpected.
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Slight correction: the character with Granny and Sam is Rocky, not Mugsy. Mugsy is Rocky’s big right hand goon. Still, that’s a clever way of working the human characters onto the if they’re not going to appear in person.
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1. So I saw my schedule for Discovery Family if anyone is interested. Starting May 1, Baby Looney Tunes airs every morning at 6:00 for a whole hour while Sylvester And Tweety Mysteries will air Saturdays and Sundays from 11:30am-12:30pm.
2. There’s a very interesting interview with Genndy Tartakovsky, mainly in regards to Primal and Unicorn Warriors Eternal. At the near end, he mentioned how he would find it nonsense in thinking that something that may look goofy can’t be emotional. He mentions the scene in Snow White of the dwarves, who are very goofy looking, crying over Snow White’s death, and how it actually has an impact despite how goofy they look. I’m guessing it’s meant to be something of a “don’t judge a book by its cover” statement and how people should give things a chance and see that there’s room for all kinds of storytelling regardless of visual appearance.
3. Disney really seems to be pushing Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures (the first Star Wars show made for Disney Junior) as a big thing given how it’s not only airing on the Disney Junior block and channel, it even has encores outside of that (the first two episodes will be simulcast on Disney Channel, Disney Junior, and Disney XD, and it has some airings at like 11:00pm on Disney Channel itself). The show is basically guaranteed to get a second season.
https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/adult-swim/genndy-tartakovsky-primal-sequel-unicorn-warriors-eternal-interview
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https://www.animationmagazine.net/2023/04/apple-tv-to-play-with-medicom-toys-berbrick-animated-series/
There’s this new DreamWorks show coming to Apple TV called Bearbrick, which is based on a toyline. Meghan McCarthy (known for working on My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic and Centaurworld) is the showrunner for the series. This is the third DreamWorks show to come out on Apple TV after Doug Unplugs (a preschool show) and Pinecone And Pony (which isn’t a preschool show).
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Merry Little Batman (a Christmas film that was originally coming to HBO Max) will now come out on Amazon Prime Video. Not only that, it’s getting a spinoff series called Bat Family. It makes me wonder if other WB/CN projects (like the Gumball movie, Scooby Doo And The Mystery Pups, and those 2 Looney Tunes movies) could also get picked up there.
https://deadline.com/2023/04/merry-little-batman-bat-family-new-dc-animated-tv-series-prime-video-1235338559/
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Batman: Caped Crusader is also going to Prime Video. At least I have Prime Video, even though I never look at it. I can’t get excited about yet another Batman project. DC and Warner Bros. should give Batman a Bat break and focus on some heroes who aren’t Batman or his supporting cast. At least there’s My Adventures with Superman, which will be airing on Cartoon Network and Max simultaneously.
Scooby Doo and the Mystery Pups has been scrapped by WBD, along with Tweety Mysteries and Family Mash-Up . It won’t be airing anywhere. In the case of Tweety Mysteries, if it had happened, it would have been the first Looney Tunes series to be consciously aimed at girls. But it's not too late, WB. You can always make a Lola Bunny focused series.
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Eh, I can’t shed a tear over the loss of Mystery Pups; my enthusiasm for that show was dampened once I learned that the only OG characters returning were going to be Scooby and Shaggy. I’m tired of Fred, Daphne and Velma always getting shafted, in this case, essentially turning their characters into puppies. If WB wants to do a Scooby show with a puppy character, why not bring back Scrappy? It’s been over 15 years; I think most of the Scrappy hate should’ve subsided by now.
And sorry, but I legit don’t care about any Batman projects anymore. I’m personally Batman’ed out. I’d like to see James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DCU features less or no Batman for the first couple of years so they can finally give the spotlight to other DC heroes.
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A teaser trailer for an upcoming Disney movie called Wish came out.
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Here’s an article about the upcoming Disney Channel show Hailey’s On It, which was announced before, premiering June 8 on Disney Channel. The show is about a girl named Hailey Banks (voiced by Auil’i Cravalho), a risk-averse but resourceful teenager on a mission to complete every item on her long list of challenging — and sometimes impractical — tasks in order to save the world. Joining her is Manny Jacinto as the voice of Scott, Hailey’s best friend, and Gary Anthony Williams as the voice of Beta, an artificially intelligent operating system from the future.
Recurring cast members include Cooper Andrews, Julie Bowen, Josh Brener, Sarah Chalke, Nik Dodani, Judy Alice Lee, Amanda Leighton, Joy Osmanki, and Nico Santos. The guest cast includes Brian Jordan Alvarez, Blake Anderson, Mick Foley, Jack McBrayer, Bebe Neuwirth, Chris Parnell, Tim Robinson, Natasha Rothwell, Brandon Mychal Smith, Martin Starr, and Weird Al Yankovic.
The series is created by the duo of Devin Bunje & Nick Stanton. They previously created the Disney XD show Gamer’s Guide To Pretty Much Everything, but have tons of animation experience on shows like The Replacements, The Emperor’s New School, Phineas And Ferb, The Penguins Of Madagascar, and Turbo Fast.
https://www.dgepress.com/disneybrandedtelevision/pressrelease/haileys-on-it-from-disney-branded-television-premieres-thursday-june-8-on-disney-channel-disney-xd-and-next-day-on-disney/
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Pass. “Tweens who have to save the world” shows just aren’t my thing. I’m not really a fan of tween shows in general, plus I’ve basically had my fill of quests, missions, villain-thwarting and world saving premises.
Not for me, but those who are interested can have at it.
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One thing I do find interesting here is that it says that the show will premiere on a Thursday and then drop episodes on Disney Plus the next day on Friday. It makes me wonder if future Disney Channel shows will follow this idea, premiering on Thursday night and then drop on Friday on Disney Plus. Previous Disney Channel shows that followed this general mold (premiering at night and then coming out on Disney Plus a little later) usually did so by premiering on a Friday and then having the show drop on Disney Plus with early episodes on Wednesday (The Ghost And Molly McGee, Hamster And Gretel, and Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur). Kiff was originally going to follow this since it premiered on Friday March 10, but then dropped episodes on Disney Plus on Saturday March 11 rather than Wednesday March 15. It’s worth mentioning that this drop model is in stark contrast to recent Disney Junior shows like Eureka and Superkitties, where they premiere early episodes on Wednesday on Disney Junior, Disney Now, and Disney Plus on the same day rather than waiting for the next day to put them on streaming.
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Yeah, same here. I did saw the teaser today, and I was like, “eh, no. I’ll pass”. The premise didn’t sound appealing to me, and I’m not a big fan of the character designs. TBQH, I already grew out those kind of tween shows a long time ago because it felt so formulaic and corporately manufactured.
Oh well. I’m not the target demographic for this show anyway. If you guys are interested in Hailey’s On It, then be my guest.
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I know I’ve been talking a lot about Disney lately, but I think this is worth mentioning. Craig McCracken once pitched Kid Cosmic to Disney, but it was rejected and picked up by Netflix. Well, in this tweet from 4 months ago, he says why. The show was originally going to be a boys action show on Disney XD, but Disney wanted to put more focus on animation for Disney Channel by focusing more on having female protagonists. It’s something I find interesting, though I’m not complaining. It’s good to have more shows starring female protagonists, though the fact it seems to be more actively pushed for by higher ups is interesting. When looking at Disney Television Animation, there’s a ton of shows (both currently airing and upcoming) that star female protagonists.
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You know what funny thing about this? As much I really hated their business decisions, Disney did a much better job handling their animated series more than any other company could have done, to some extent.
If you look at the schedule right now, Disney Channel airs a lot more animated stuff than their live action stuff than the past several years, which I’m not complaining. Though, the only downside is that is lacking variety, but that’s just a minor nitpick. Then again, Disney Plus made DC irrelevant, so what do I know.
I remember 5 years when Owl House and Amphibia got greenlit for DC, it does seems like Disney want to focus on animation again back on the main channel, which I am so happy because for the longest time, I was kinda annoyed that Disney Channel wants nothing to do with animation as they wanted to focus on live action kidcoms for a song. Even if they did, put them on Disney XD. Now, I’ve nothing against XD, I thought it was decent for what it worth at the time, but it would be nice if DC has a healthy mix of live action AND animated stuff, instead of focusing on one instead of the other. That really makes me irritated at the time.
I guess due to cord-cutting and streaming, Disney trying to find ways to make themselves for relevant again, and what a better way to do it is to have more animated stuff on Disney Channel.
That’s why in 2018, during the network’s 35th anniversary, they greenlit Owl House and Amphibia. XD originals like Ducktales, Star Vs, Big Hero 6 being moved to DC. Soon-to-be XD originals like Big City Greens being moved to DC, and became a big hit. Phineas and Ferb and Gravity Falls for reruns, etc. You can tell that Disney was firing all cylinders in one year, and left XD wither away as a Toon Disney-esque rerun channel with no new premieres since then.
Things were going great until Disney Plus and Covid pandemic came along, and their major priorities has changed in a blink of an eye. Executives has left or changing positions, budgets being slashed, consolidating and restructuring, and with Disney TVA, they changed their format. Disney Channel is the home for episodic comedies for kids, while Disney Plus is the home for story driven shows for families. Ducktales and Big Hero 6 moved back to XD and ended their runs, Star Vs ended and never aired this show again, and the list goes on.
It has been quite of a journey ever since this change in 2018. Despite some major issues I had with the company, I do give them credit for being one of the better platforms for the most beloved animated shows of the modern era, even if their decisions were very questionable.
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While none of Disney Channel’s current animated fare appeals to me personally besides the Paul Rudish Mickey Mouse shorts (I wanted to like Kiff! but I can’t get into it for various reasons) I’m glad to see Disney take a genuine interest in TV animation again. Same deal with Nickelodeon: aside from some of the SpongeBob stuff and TMNT Mutant Mayhem I’m not really interested in any of the cartoons they’ve got right now but I’m still glad that they’re starting to care about cartoons again besides just SpongeBob and The Loud House.
If only Cartoon Network would follow suit. They keep promising us pie in the sky and all of these wonderful new toons that are supposed to be coming, but they’re going to have to work extra-hard to regain my trust after last year’s debacle. Maybe after HBO Max because just Max things will be different…
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Remember our CN PM idea? I got a new name for it: Cartoon Network Detour. Inspired by Teletoon Detour, which started out not as an adult block, but a teen block!
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That name I like. I read about Teletoon Detour. I assumed that it was Teletoon’s equivalent to Adult Swim. But, yeah, the name Cartoon Network Detour (or CN Detour) works for me.
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It BECAME the equivalent to adult swim after merging with Teletoon’s adult block at the time, Teletoon Unleashed, but it started out as a block for teens
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https://www.dgepress.com/disneybrandedtelevision/pressrelease/disney-branded-televisions-pupstruction-following-the-adventures-of-an-adorable-all-dog-construction-company-premieres-wednesday-june-14-on-disney-channel-disney-junior/
So here’s an interesting coincidence. I know you wouldn’t really be interested in the shows I’m talking about, but I do want to bring it up. There’s an upcoming Disney Junior show called Pupstruction, created by Travis Braun, which comes out June 14. It’s coming out within the same timeframe as the Disney Channel show Hailey’s On It, which premieres June 8. Why do I bring this up? Well, the first Disney Junior show that Travis Braun created was TOTS, which also came out on June 14 (specifically June 14, 2019). That show premiered within the same timeframe as another talked about Disney Channel show, Amphibia, which came out 3 days later on June 17. It’s just really interesting how both of Travis Braun’s Disney Junior shows came out on June 14, and within the same timeframe as a very talked about Disney Channel show.
Interestingly enough, both of his shows are those subject to early renewals since TOTS was renewed for a season 2 on May 8, 2019, and was given a season 3 renewal on August 5, 2020 (which was 2 days before season 2 came out). It’s a similar thing here where he mentioned on August 18, 2021 (not long after the show was first announced) that he was already picked up for a season 2 (though it wasn’t officially announced until January of this year).
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That is an interesting coincidence. Funnily enough, I’ve somehow managed to have never heard of T.O.T.S. before today, but yeah, the similarities and timing on these shows is noteworthy.
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Here’s a fun little interview with Chandni Parekh, the voice of Lola from Bugs Bunny Builders and Harley Quinn from Batwheels. She mentioned at around 18:27 that when auditioning for Lola, she gave 2 kinds of performances, one that’s more grounded and one that’s more goofy and silly. The latter performance ended up being picked, which is a good call since in the show itself, she’s as prone to acting goofy as the other characters. Also of note is that while recordings were done remotely because of the pandemic, she mentions not living that far from Eric Bauza. Them still being within proximity of each other does help in bringing the performances to life.
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Supposedly, Adult Swim will also gain the 6:00 pm hour. This is the only article mentioning this, but it’s worth thinking about.
https://cordcuttersnews.com/adult-swim-is-moving-to-6-pm-as-kids-stop-watching-cable-tv/
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Well, if that’s the case, then WBD should be putting more kids and family shows onto Max, not taking them off.
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If only Zaslav actually gives a shit…
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https://twitter.com/CNschedules/status/1658916378101915683 https://twitter.com/CNschedules/status/1658917021713670158 IT’S LEGIT
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I suppose that this news should shock me, but it doesn’t. This whole Adult Swim thing is becoming eerily similar to when Disney launched the Jetix action block on Toon Disney back in 2004. Jetix was only supposed to be a programming block on Toon Disney, but because TD’s lineup was otherwise entirely made up of reruns, the Jetix shows got higher ratings than anything else on the channel. As a result of this, Disney kept expanding the Jetix block, giving it more and more hours until it felt like Jetix was the channel and Toon Disney was the programming block. At this rate, Cartoon Network will become a program block on AS rather than the reverse.
Silverstar is right. If more and more kids are abandoning cable/satellite TV in favor of YouTube and other internet platforms, then Warner Bros. Discovery should be pushing the kids and family content on its internet platforms a lot harder than they are now. Of course, it’s worth noting that cable TV in general is on the decline.
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I’m not really all that surprised.
Cartoon Network and Adult Swim are basically the modern day Noggin and The N. Two different demographics shared the same time slots (6am to 6pm).
Whatever. As long as that block keeps putting people’s butts into seats (along with more green in Zasalav’s pocket), they’re probably not gonna change.
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Exactly. People like Zaslav and his Wall Street shareholders care about money, ratings and shares, period, and while I feel for Cartoon Network’s fans, the Powers That Be have been digging their own grave with CN for a considerable while now, relying on just 2 or 3 shows for the past so many years.
(Of course, it’s possible that WBD is producing new shows and projects for CN; they did hire new talent, among them comedian Wyatt Cenac, to produce content for the channel, and animation takes more time to produce than live-action. Even if new CN projects aren’t actually coming from CN Studios but rather being outsourced to Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe, that’s still better than nothing.)
WBD could easily solve this matter by pivoting their new animated premieres to Max, making it the new home for Warner Bros and Cartoon Network shows, with them either simultaneously premiering on CN or they premiere on Max first then on CN the following day or vice-versa. This would both keep kids tuning in to CN and bring new subscribers (as well as keep loyal subscribers) to Max.
It’s such a simple and obvious solution that I’m surprised no one there has thought of it. Maybe, and this is a very optimistic maybe, the higher-ups at WBD are planning some sort of strategy here and are planning to execute said strategy once WBD begins raking in more profits (since we were all led to believe that the reason why WBD dropped the HBO part from their service’s name in the first place was because they were trying to attract more families and kids) but given their past track record I’m not betting danger money on it.
I just find slightly irritating how they trot out Michael Ouleween to promise us all pie-in-the-sky news about how they’ve got all this great new stuff planned for CN, then proceed to chip away at it, giving hour after to hour to [adult swim] and farming family favorites out to Amazon Prime Video. They have a serious branding, image and priority problem regarding this channel and that branch of their service and often it seems like they’re just deciding what to do on the fly, making pat choices on the spot as they go along. I hope they can eventually figure things out in a way that doesn’t permanently hurt them or irreparably turn off their fanbase, and do so sooner rather than later. I honestly have no clue what this company is going to look like in three to five years’ time.
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Looks like The CW’s live action Powerpuff Girls series is no longer happening.
https://tvline.com/2023/05/18/live-action-powerpuff-girls-pilot-cancelled-the-cw/
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
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No surprise there. You could tell that thing was going nowhere fast.
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Here are a bunch of titles from Disney Plus and Hulu are being removed from both services as of this month:
https://discussingfilm.net/2023/05/11/new-arrivals-for-disney-may-2023/
At least the cartoons and Disney Channel stuff are safe….for now. How long is anyone’s guess.
I gotta be honest, as much as it’s sucks that most of the content getting removed, at least it wasn’t as bad as HBO Max was last summer. Disney removing some of the content that nobody watches nor interested in them. With me, I never watched any Disney Plus Originals nor really cares about them all that much. There were some I actually do like Wandavision, but that’s about it(and even then, that show was backed up by the popular Marvel franchise). The main reason I got into Disney Plus in the first place was due to a sheer library of old shows from my childhood that I want to watch again. Sure, their originals may look enticing (I’ve yet to see the Mandalorian, for example), but it is just not my interest. It’s not my cup of tea.
With that being said, I hope the Mouse House put those removed D+ originals and Hulu content somewhere rather than pulling a Zasalav by wrote off those shows as a tax-write off and never being seen again. If that were to happen, I’d be disappointed(but not angry).
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In a perfect world, we’d be getting fewer hours of Adult Swim, not more. It would seem that Michael Owleween’s idea of an “all ages Cartoon Network” is just making the channel 90% Adult Swim. I’m not a huge fan of AS and its current programming, but I suppose that the branding won’t mean much if the shows on the channel are actually good, and if it’s not just action and dark cartoons. Don’t forget about the comedies. Adults like to laugh too. If this is truly the direction that Warner Bros. Discovery wants to take the channel in, then they should probably come up with a more general name for it that’s not so age specific.
Kids aren’t watching as much TV these days, opting instead to watch YouTube, Twitch, streaming services or play Fortnite or Minecraft and other stuff that kids didn’t have access to 20 years ago. I get that. However, if that’s truly the case, then WBD should be pushing Max as it’s go-to hub for kids and family-oriented programming. They can start by bringing back the shows that were removied from HBO Max last year and running Close Enough on AS where it probably should have gone in the first place.
Meanwhile, Nickelodeon continues to run until 9 PM (EST). Perhaps kids aren’t skipping TV so much as they’re just avoiding Cartoon Network because CN has been running the same 5 shows (Teen Titans GO!, The Amazing World of Gumball, We Baby Bears, Craig of the Creek and Total Dramarama) in a continuous loop for some time now. Just a thought.
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