If you’ve been watching kid-vid networks like Nickelodeon lately, you’ve undoubtedly noticed some new commercials for General Mills cereals such as Cocoa Puffs, Trix, Lucky Charms, Reese’s Puffs and Cookie Crisp. Apparently after nearly a century of these mascots acting out their own individual shticks in their own respective commercials, lately General Mills has opted to place their various mascot characters together (except for Lucky the Leprechaun, who still appears in his own spots) in a new series of ads promising to “make it Saturday morning everyday”. Cartoon Network should be receiving a royalty for these spots, since they owe more than a little inspiration from their shows’ respective titles and visual aesthetics. Peep out this spot, which call to mind CN’s Uncle Grandpa and The Amazing World of Gumball, right down to the use of the 04b30 font and the voice of Kevin Michael Richardson as a talking orange.
-OK, I just figured out that the big blob is supposed to be a Reese’s Puff; at first I thought he was distant cousin to Gloop and Gleep from The Herculoids.
There’s also these new Lucky Charms spots, which are more than a tad reminiscent of CN’s Adventure Time.
-Now of course, whenever a company or studio does something new with an existing set of characters or a franchise, especially when said characters are ones people 21 and older grew up with, there comes the usual rallying cries of “CHILDHOOD RUINED!!” and “They’ve destroyed my memories!!”. Now as an adult who grew up watching the General Mills commercials, I suppose I’m now supposed to be all butt-raged and insane with anger at this new campaign. Am I? Let me see….
Yeah, this isn’t a big deal for me. Yeah, the company is bandwagon jumping onto the Adventure Time/Gumball/Uncle Grandpa visual aesthetic like so many of CN’s shows are employing right now, but that’s apparently what’s selling with kids these days, and lest we forget, the goal of every commercial product is to SELL as much as possible. Few things are simultaneously sadder and more hilarious to me then reading comments from people crying about how some new cartoon or movie or TV show or something or other has raped their innocence or whatever. That ain’t the case, for 2 reasons: First, your childhood memories haven’t been ruined by these new spots, because that’s not how memories work. You can still remember the old spots and they’re archived in many places, these newer ads haven’t wiped the older commercials from existence. Second, and this is the big one, these spots are aimed at KIDS, not at you. This is no different than Cartoon Network hiring different voice actresses to play the Powerpuff Girls in their upcoming reboot…
…Or Disney giving the Seven Dwarfs new designs for The 7D.
In the case of each, while I’m not 100% certain why these changes were made (though I have my theories), the fact that they were made isn’t sending my world crashing down around me. The children whom these spots are aimed at aren’t whining about the changes, since they barely remember the older spots; it’s doubtful they’ve even seen them all unless they regularly visit them on YouTube or Retro Junk. Nostalgia doesn’t work on a generation that doesn’t know of its’ existence. Keep in mind that General Mills has been doing many of these shticks for years now, in some cases, decades; they probably just figured it was time to try something different. they might have just felt like they’ve done all they can do with the “Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids!” or “Catch Lucky!” premises.
And I know that we’ve made a couple of these points before in other entries, to that I’ll say this: I’ll make you a deal…
We’ll stop commenting on this crap when you stop saying it.
Hey, have ya heard the news? There’s a new Justice League show coming to Cartoon Network. A little something called Justice League Action.
For the uninformed, Justice League Action is a brand new, quarter-hour series from Warner Bros. Animation that will be coming soon to Cartoon Network.
Featuring the return of Kevin Conroy as Batman, the Dark Knight will join with Superman and Wonder Woman and the rest of DC’s iconic team of heroes in a series that promises to put the action back in heroics. Whether defending the Earth, facing invaders from space, or battling the bizarre forces of magic, the always-rotating team of Justice League heroes, are up to any challenge. Episodes will be eleven minutes in length, meaning that the action will be tightly-paced and exciting. And awesome!
Along with Conroy, Cartoon Network have announced that several other beloved DC Animated voice actors will be contributing to the series, including Mark Hamill as the Joker (!!!), James Woods as Lex Luthor, Diedrich Bader as Booster Gold and much more. Sam Register (Teen Titans Go!) will serve as executive producer with Butch Lukic (Justice League, Batman Beyond), Alan Burnett (Batman: The Animated Series) and Jim Krieg (Green Lantern: The Animated Series) serving as producers.
-So after a decade’s wait, we’re finally getting a new Justice League show. Now you’d think folks would be happy about this news….
But NOOOOOOOOOOO!
We of course have to get the usual barrage of fanboy wanking and complaints about JLA, mostly from 90’s Brats who are doing their usual yammering on about how this series is raping their memories or whatever. Before I give my own initial thoughts on this upcoming series, I’d like to address some these so-called talking points.
“Once again, it’s dumbed down for pre-teens. Another show made for 7-year-olds.”
Seriously, no shit, Sherlock. Cartoon Network is a KIDS’ programming channel. What did you expect? I honestly don’t get why so many people are so shocked and appalled to learn that a CHILDREN’S TV network puts out shows tailored for CHILDREN.
“It’s only 11 minutes, so it’s gonna be kiddie. You can’t tell a good action story in just 11 minutes.”
And you know this, how? Do you have a source to verify this info, other than the ass you pulled it from? How do you know what the show’s gonna be like when we haven’t seen a single frame of animation from it yet? Anyway, CN has been employing the 11-minute story format for YEARS now, so why is this such a shock to you? Sure, JLA probably won’t be as plot heavy as a half-hour show would be, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing; it could mean that the show will cut to the chase and just show balls-to-the-wall action, which can be entertaining when executed correctly. By the by, you know those shows Adventure Time, Steven Universe and Over the Garden Wall that fans keep telling me (and telling me and telling me and telling me and telling me) are so great and wonderful and deep and compelling and layered and blah dee blah? They follow the 11-minute format as well, so I’m failing to see your smegging point, aside from the one on your head.
And even if Justice League Action doesturn out to be kiddie, so what? Again, the show is for KIDS. It should only matter if the cartoon is GOOD. You’ve got the movies, the comic books, the CW shows, the graphic novels and the DTVs for more mature DC fare; let the kids have their fun kids’ shows.
“They should just make it like the 90’s Justice League show. Or just bring back Young Justice. That show was great. That those shows are gone is just not fair to us fans.”
Yeah, about that. I just have one message to impart to those who still need grief counseling because the DCAU went away and those who are still mourning the loss of Young Justice:
Frankly, I think it’s a special shade of sad how some fans try to make the loss of a few kids’ cartoons out to be some sort of dire moral issue, when in reality there is none. You can bad mouth CN’s shows all you want, but the fact of the matter is that times change, eras change and audiences change, and most importantly, kids’ interests change over time. Right now kids enjoy the shows on CN, Nick and Disney. Why should CN cater to you and not to them? Why is it such a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad thing that networks like CN air what their audience wants them to? They are a network and a business; it’s their job to cater to what they think their biggest audience wants most, and that’s what’s airing on there right now. In the future, it’ll be something else. Justice League ran its’ course and kids didn’t glom onto Young Justice; the toys weren’t flying off the shelves (to the point where Mattel, the the company producing the YJ toys, eventually withdrew their support of YJ; not a good thing, considering how action cartoons rely heavily on toy and merchandise sales for survival) and it had a bigger following among adults than it did with kids, whose ratings and viewership are the ones which matter to CN; when that happens, the show’s gotta go. That’s how TV works, that’s how it’s always worked. (This is also an important lesson for those who are overly nostalgic and want everything to return to the 90’s: just because it worked then doesn’t mean that it’d work now.)
You 90’s kids had your time to be catered to by CN, and those pining for Justice League, Young Justice and the like, those shows are available on DVD now, it’s not like the appearance of a new Justice League cartoon has caused those other shows to blink out of existence. Buy ’em, rent ’em, stream ’em and enjoy.
But by far THE most frequent complaint I’ve been hearing about JLA is this:
“This is just gonna be like Teen Titans GO!. FAIL.”
“So this is just Teen Tians GO! with JL characters.”
“Bah! This is just gonna be Justice League GO!: another stupid cartoon that’s Justice League in name only that thinks barf and fart jokes are funny!”
If I may put in my 2 cents here, I’d just like to say:
By Odin’s beard, will you guys STOP saying this show is going to be a clone of Teen Titans GO!? You don’t know that. All we’ve seen of this show so far is one poster. One. Frelling. Poster. You’ve all learned all this stuff about the show’s style and content and exactly what it’ll be like just by glancing at a single image?? Wow! The internet is full of precogs!
Carnac: “A job, a date and a life.”
Ed: “A job, a date and a life.”
Carnac: “Name 3 things that rabid fanboys and girls who bad a mouth a show before seeing it are in desperate need of.”
Ed: HEEEEYYY-YOOOOOO!
-Also, side note: on the subject of Teen Titans, I’d like to quickly address the following:
“Teen Titans GO! is a disgrace. It’s too goofy and silly. The original Teen Titans show was serious.”
This statement is erroneous on 3 counts:
The 2003 Cartoon Network Teen Titans: TAS was NOT “the original Teen Titans show”. The very first TV adaptation of Teen Titans was the series of animated shorts produced by Filmation studios, starring Speedy, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash and Aqualad. Yeah, I know a lot of younger people didn’t see those cartoons, but this is history, people. 5 minutes on Wikipedia could tell you that.
Teen Titans: TAS was NOT super-serious. At all. It had some intense, dramatic moments, but for the most part, it was goofy, very simplistic and very much watered down for younger viewers. Teen Titans: TAS was a silly show that was occasionally intense, not an intense show that was occasionally silly. I think some folks’ nostalgia tends to cloud some folks’ memories.
My problem with Teen Titans GO! isn’t that it’s a comedy or even that it’s silly. It’s that it’s base and unfunny, the plots make no sense, it rambles and falters, rarely coming to any logical conclusions and its’ characters act like sociopathic, amoral douche-nozzles. But at the end of the day, it does its’ job: keeping kids entertained, so it’s ultimately not worth raising a big stink about. TTGO! is swill, but it’s easy to ignore. Just change the channel or leave the room when it comes on.
Now that we’ve heard from the fan-wankers, these are my initial thoughts on Justice League Action: I’m not bothered with it not being Justice League: TAS since we’ve already seen that; I’d rather get something new. The shorter episode length doesn’t bother me either; we’ve gotten DC shorts before, and some of them have been quite good, plus I have a notoriously short attention span; if the show is good, I’ll watch it, I don’t care if it’s only 5 minutes long. I really don’t see JLA going into TTGO! territory; for one thing, folks like Alan Burnett, Jim Krieg and Bruce Lukic are involved, and they haven’t let us down, so I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. For another, CN already has TTGO!, why would they make another show that’s just a clone of that when they already air the original? If anything, JLA seems to be giving me a strong Batman: The Brave and the Bold vibe, and I’m cool with that ’cause I enjoyed B:TB&TB.
Kid-centric superhero shows aren’t an issue to me at all; the way I see it, shows like The Super Hero Squad Show, Super Friends and DC Super Hero Girls are like gateway drugs: they help introduce kids to these franchises in a way that they can handle and easily adapt to, and if said kids are interested enough, they can move on to the heavier stuff as they grow and mature. I say we withhold judgment of JLA until we’ve seen more and have more to go on.
Oh yeah, and for people who think a lot of these current superhero are tailored for 7-year-olds? So were the original comics. When you strip them down to their bare essence, the very concept of superheroes: dudes and chicks in tights fighting good VS evil battles against nasty alien invaders, crime bosses and super-smart gorillas, is at bare bones level, silly, goofy, ridiculous and far-fetched.
Today Cartoon Country looks at a Cartoon Network Web Premiere Toon circa 2001. Imagine if 70’s cartoon crime fighter Hong Kong Phooey (aka bumbling janitor Penry Pooch) had graduated from the Dragon Ball Z/Street Fighter/Naruto school of martial arts. Check it out.
-One YouTube poster said of this short: “So glad that did not fly or my childhood would have been ruined.”
Ah, no.
For one, I’m pretty sure this was never meant to be anything more than a one-and-done short (I do recall there being plans for a live-action HKP movie years ago, but evidently nothing came of that), and for another, even if that weren’t the case, how exactly would the mere existence of 1 new cartoon adaptation which you’re not even required nor obligated to watch ruin your childhood when your childhood has already come and gone? Cartoons and cartoon producers aren’t dicks with time machines, after all. Quite frankly, if you’re that resistant to change, it’s a wonder you haven’t tried to off yourself the instant you hit puberty. Personally, I thought this short was awesome, and I enjoyed the original series as a kid.
The original Hong Kong Phooey hasn’t gone anywhere. He’s still around, and his intro still rocks.
If there ever is to be a new Hong Kong Phooey TV show, movie or anything, I think it should be a mix of both: the silly slapstick combined with the ultra-stylized, over-the-top martial arts mayhem.
The following is old news, I realize, but do indulge me.
So undoubtedly many of you have heard or read that Cartoon Network is going to produce a reboot of The Powerpuff Girls…without the series’ creator Craig McCracken.
These new character designs are OK. I’m not feeling the cowlick on Buttercup, but whatever.
Last June, it was announced that the new PPG series is going to have new actresses voicing the title characters. See below:
Hmm..looks more like a casting call for High School Musical or Glee.
Ah, to be young and cute…Oh, I guess I’m supposed to be upset and mad and start ranting and raving up and down about how CN hired new voice actresses as the Powerpuff Girls instead of hiring the original VAs. Let me think about it…
Nope. Still don’t care.
I mean, I don’t really understand why Cartoon Network decided to bring in new voice actresses or why Cathy Cavadini (Blossom), Tara Strong (Bubbles) nor E.G. Daily (Buttercup) weren’t considered or even contacted for the new series, but I’m not mad that they did it. Fans of the original PPG series consider CN’s hiring new and different actresses to voice the Girls for this reboot to be a huge slap in the face to the original VAs, but I just don’t see it that way. I find this action to be curious, sure, but I’m not infuriated by it. I suppose that it’s partially because I don’t much care about the new series being a reboot. I’m admittedly not a nostalgic person and am more interested in seeing new and original shows as opposed to rebooting shows from 20 or 30 years ago. Plus, it’s their show, CN can do whatever they want with it.
What does bother me, however, is how shamefully petty and small the fans of the 90s PPG show reacted to the news that the PPG reboot would have new VAs. Normally one would have to visit a preschool to see such immaturity, selfishness and temper tantrums, but at least preschoolers have an excuse for being immature and believing that the entire world revolves around them.
“You! Big person! I’m bored! Do something about it!!”
Seriously, though, I found how the fans of the 90s PPG series reacted to the news of the VAs to be a truly shameful and disgusting display of disrespect, rudeness and ridiculousness. There were insults hurled at the new VAs and threats of boycotts to the reboot.
“We’ll protest! We’ll boycott the new PPG! We’ll start a whiny petition until Cartoon Network decides to give the original voice actresses the job!”
To which, I imagine that Cartoon Network’s reaction was something along these lines:
Seriously, you guys and gals are no longer part of Cartoon Network’s target demographic. You’ve grown up and they’ve moved on. Who cares what you do? What these 90s brats need to understand is that this PPG reboot wasn’t made for them. Actually no reboot is made for them! They’re meant for a new generation of today’s kids. It’s supposed to attract a new generation of fans. That’s the whole point of a reboot. If you don’t like the new VAs, then fine. Don’t watch the reboot, but don’t hate on the new voice actresses just because they auditioned and got the job. Cathy Cavadini, Tara Strong and E.G. Daily are all still very much active in the voice over business. None of them are hurting for work, so it’s not like CN is taking food out of their kids’ mouths.
Having the original voice actors present alone isn’t a guarantee that a new show will be good. Have we forgotten about this already?
Teen Titans GO! has the same voice actors as Teen Titans: The Animated Series, and that show sucks noodles!
Here’s the thing: Amanda Lighton (Blossom), Natalie Palamides (Buttercup) and Kristen Li (Bubbles) are just like Cathy Cavadini, E.G. Daily and Tara Strong were 30 years ago; a bunch of actresses looking for a break. Don’t ruin their chance to shine just because you yourself can’t let go of the past. That’s your issue, not theirs nor the network’s. They have a job to do, so just let them do it. No one’s forcing you to watch this (or any) reboot. If you prefer the old VAs , then just watch the old episodes. it’s not like the original PPG series disappeared and there are no traces of it left anywhere. The original episodes are still out there for you to enjoy. The entire series is on DVD now. Buy it, binge watch it and shut the frag up! Let their kids have their fun. Instead of protesting and threatening to boycott the PPG reboot, perhaps you should work on moving out of your parents’ basements and getting a life?
Today’s Toons & Tunes is another Cartoon Network Groovie. Not much to summarize here: a unique take on a classic cartoon character, some arty animation, a cool musical mix (courtesy of Michael Kohler) and some wonderfully corny 1950’s-1960’s era kitsch relating to the Atomic Age. I try not to be one of those overly nostalgic people who pine endlessly about their favorite eras of TV networks and shows, but I do wish that Cartoon Network or Boomerang were still making shorts and fillers like this one. They were fun and helped them stand out among the other kid-vid/animation networks. Enjoy “Atom Ant”.
Twin Images 
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