I don't know about the rest of you, but I love Adventure Time. If there's one thing I would take away as my favorite thing culturally about this decade, it was the return to form of Western animation, in large part thanks to Adventure Time.

Sadly, we are nearing the end. Based on what I have heard, there are only about a dozen episodes left. Do you think there will be another revitalizing force like Adventure Time? Could you ever imagine the show being rebooted like Samurai Jack or Sonic the Hedgehog?

Where do cartoons go from here? Discuss! (This would also be a great space to discuss AT I think, and I'm more than happy to do so.)

There will probably be another generation of Adventure Time in a decade or more, considering it was arguably the definitive cartoon of the 2010s. Better this version end with dignity that plummet into seasonal rot.

Good riddence. For a "deep" comedy cartoon, it was neither deep nor really funny. I sat down with my mom to watch some of it because she was curious about what kids are watching these days. Growing up on the Flintstones herself, and sitting with me and my sister to watch Courage the Cowardly Dog when we were little, she wasn't exactly impressed either.


It's like the writers took their humour from minor office jokes. And they love to insert stoner questions into every conflict in effort to seem thought provoking rather than just writing an interesting action plot like Oban Star Racers or Gravity Falls. Not to mention an art style that left much to be desired. It has unfortunately led to a trend of "cal arts" style cartoons with dry sitcom-like humour, which in turn leads to strange flip flop pacing when they do get serious with their plots. See Star vs the Forces of Evil, a show I did enjoy for the first 10 episodes, as an example. 

Hopefully we'll see a return to more grounded comedy cartoons like the Flintstones, Danny Phantom, Invader Zim, and Spongebob, that convey their humour through relatable adult situations. And hopefully the return of action cartoons aswell like W.I.T.C.H, Teen Titans and Avatar. I'm enjoying Miraculous Ladybug and RWBY so far, despite some issues. And some of pilots from SDC 2017 looked interesting. 

No offense, I love the original Teen Titans and Zim as much as the next guy, but Spongebob? Yuck! (Maybe classic Spongebob though, that wasn't half bad.)

I love the CalArts era of cartoons and I'm sad to see it go. I hear what you're saying about the depth and humor, and in all honesty I think the CalArts toons simply never got a chance to develop to their full potential. Part of the problem with broadcasting on a network is you create at the pleasure of the network. Animaniacs was fortunate in its ability to get crap past the radar, but it's by no means a deep toon either.

I think that was sort of the problem with putting these shows on primetime and it's a classic catch-22; if AT had been on Adult Swim, the humor might have been coarser but not smarter and it never would've developed beyond a cult audience. On the other hand, the current iteration has always been tethered to having to appeal to younger audiences. Do you get what I mean?

No offense, I love the original Teen Titans and Zim as much as the next guy, but Spongebob? Yuck! (Maybe classic Spongebob though, that wasn't half bad.)
Seasons 1-4 were a hell of a lot funnier than most of AT.


I love the CalArts era of cartoons and I'm sad to see it go.
The style was not pretty. It's like watching a drug trip. I miss the angular style of 00's cartoons like Zim and Fairly Odd Parents. The older Gunnerkrigg Court comics adopted this style (I like their new style too) and reading it reminded me of how quaint cartoons used to look. Their art style reflected the odd atmosphere.


I hear what you're saying about the depth and humor, and in all honesty I think the CalArts toons simply never got a chance to develop to their full potential. Part of the problem with broadcasting on a network is you create at the pleasure of the network. Animaniacs was fortunate in its ability to get crap past the radar, but it's by no means a deep toon either.

I think that was sort of the problem with putting these shows on primetime and it's a classic catch-22; if AT had been on Adult Swim, the humor might have been coarser but not smarter and it never would've developed beyond a cult audience. On the other hand, the current iteration has always been tethered to having to appeal to younger audiences. Do you get what I mean?

It's not so much that I want vulgarity in cartoons. National Lampoon Family Vacation isn't a cartoon, but alot of popular comedy cartoons draw similar humour from it. NLFV was funny because the writer was drawing from his own crazy adventures driving with his clumsy family to Disney Land. Many of the events that occur in the film are an exaggeration of what he experienced as a child. It resonated with so many people because many of us have gone through something similar. For a live action film, some situations became cartoonishly wacky, but could still be understood by audiences. It's satire.
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Adventure Time's humour draws from some niche corner of the Internet that only those people would get. I can recognize some of the jokes because I browse the net frequently, but the humour was never really that funny on the web to begin with, much less on TV. I'm aware that humour is subjective, and the video above may not resonate as much with some as it does with me, but AT and Steven Universe seem to be better known for their serious moments than their humour.

Different tastes as far as the art style goes, I like it personally. But hey, GKC! I didn't think anybody else read it. Good comic that.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I love Adventure Time. If there's one thing I would take away as my favorite thing culturally about this decade, it was the return to form of Western animation, in large part thanks to Adventure Time.

Sadly, we are nearing the end. Based on what I have heard, there are only about a dozen episodes left. Do you think there will be another revitalizing force like Adventure Time? Could you ever imagine the show being rebooted like Samurai Jack or Sonic the Hedgehog?

Where do cartoons go from here? Discuss! (This would also be a great space to discuss AT I think, and I'm more than happy to do so.)


I think it's great. I definitely think it blazed a trail when it comes to cartoons in the 2010's especially as it was released at the beginning of the decade and was hugely influential. I actually love cartoons of the 2010's in general I think it's a better decade for TV animation than the 2000's were, and I was a kid in the 2000's (so you'd think that would make my view biased!) I just think 2010's cartoon's creativity are off the charts especially Adventure Time. As for where catoons will go next I'm not sure but I can't really see it getting even better than this!  ;D

Different tastes as far as the art style goes, I like it personally. But hey, GKC! I didn't think anybody else read it. Good comic that.

I started reading back in 2011 when TV tropes used it as one of their trope images. The art style and characters looked cool. Now I'd say it's probably one of the best comics I've ever read.

On topic:
I can understand people's preference for early '10s CN over late' 00s CN because the network was making some suicidal decisions during the latter era. Though admittedly I didn't have CN on satallite in the late 00's, so I can't speak from experience on how bad it was back then. I only heard about what I "missed" on CN Real fairly recently.

What I can't understand is how anybody could objectively say 2010s Nick is better than 2000s Nick, or 2010s Disney over '00s Disney. And I'm not just taking about the early '00s either.

How is Breadwinners or Harvey Beaks objectively better than Danny Phantom or El Tigre? Since when did crude humour trump good storytelling in Nick cartoons? The Loud House is good, but it's alone in a barren wasteland of forgettable cartoons on the heels of a once thriving network.

Disney isn't as bad with Disney XD(Gravity Falls, Svtfoe, Murphy's Law), but almost everyone I've come across that has either watched ToonDisney and it's sister cartoon channel Jetix, or has watched Jetix shows online after the network died and was replaced with Disney XD, prefers the Jetix Era(2004-09) over the Disney XD era(2009-present).
Why? Because Jetix was a rare occurrence of a children's cartoon channel that hosted the mother load compilation of the greatest storytelling cartoons of the decade. The number of beloved animations aired on the channel was staggering. It's hard for the Disney of today to compete with the luck they had in the 00's.

Think about the most recent Disney or Nickelodeon sitcom that was popular? Much less a feature film? After Sweet Life on Deck and Victorious, I can't.

Even moving to the Adult Swim stuff. Rick and Morty is a wonderful show, sure. But I am currently more interested in Swim's creepy faux infomercial segments, because to me, they are the remaining shining beacon of brilliance from a network that once aired The Boondocks and Futurama.

And don't even get me started on the Saturday morning segments that no longer exist today like ABC kids. Or kids divisions of specialty channels like Discovery Kids.

I love Adventure Time. I actually relate to quite a lot of it because I was a spaced out kid who thought a lot about existence, the universe, meaning, all that jazz. It's sad to see it go but it's best to see it leave on a high note.