Unpopular Opinions of the Animation World

All of us have opinions, views and tastes which just aren't held by the public at large. But you need not be scared or ashamed to share them any longer. Here is the thread where you can share those less-than-popular opinions about animation and cartoons without fear of derision or persecution. Just state them here. And no flaming or arguing please; we're all entitled to our views, popular or not.

I'll start:

I find Peanuts to be highly overrated. The strips and specials have their amusing moments, but by and large I find it to be very dull, depressing and even a little mean-spirited now. Nonstop losing, unrequited love and failure gets seriously old after a while.

I like Marvel's Super Hero Squad Show. There, I said it. I don't care how goofy and silly it is, I don't care if hardcore comic book fans consider it to be a blight on Marvel's various franchises, I enjoy the series precisely because it's so goofy and silly. And I love the concept of all of Marvel's characters residing in in single city as a setting. Yes, it's just set up to sell toys, but I still love Superhero City. I love it.

I don't mind or even care that CGI has become the dominant animation style in animated features now. I'm sick of people bemoaning the fact that CGI exists and acting like computer animation is the first sign of Armageddon. I'm also sick of people bad-mouthing Flash animation. CG and Flash are just like everything else: there are good and bad examples of each. I wish folks would learn to judge cartoons by the quality of the art, writing and direction, not solely by how they're animated.

Johnny Test is not the abomination that most people make it out to be. Sure, the show's writing is kind of weak and the stories can get very repetitive at times, but it's an OK concept and some of the characters are at least interesting ideas. JT would actually be a pretty decent show, if they would just get rid of the title character, whom I find to be an annoying, generic twit.

I think I'm starting to seriously dislike 'adult' cartoons now. When did 'adult' come to mean as scatological, trippy, lewd, crude and unfunny as possible? I'm done with all of Seth MacFarlane's shows, and Adult Swim is really starting to rub me the wrong way. The only good shows on AS are the early Aqua Teens and Robot Chickens, and China, IL and Mary Shelley's Frankenhole have their moments. The less said about AS's live-action 'comedies', the better.

Avatar: the Last Airbender just bored me. I know a lot of people really loved this show, but I found it to be very dull and slow-moving. I liked the concept of the Benders and I liked Toph, but beyond that A:TLA just never clicked with me.

I've tried and tried, but I just can't get into Adventure Time, and I probably never will. People on Toon Zone especially never stop heaping praise on AT, saying how wonderfully quirky, compelling and deep it is, but at best I find myself scratching my head over it, at the worst it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I don't like how it's so often lacking in form and structure: it tries to be simultaneously a comedy, a stoner show, an action show and a drama, and doesn't succeed at any of them. I kind of like Jake, he has some good lines now and then, although his spotlight episodes tend to be kind of weak. Finn I just can't get into at all, though I've tried. I didn't really like the Fionna and Cake gender-swap episode (though the majority of TZ loved it), but I will say that I probably liked Finn's female counterpart Fionna more in her one appearance than I ever have or will like Finn himself.

Lupin the 3rd is flat-out one of the best anime ever made, and it's seriously deserving of more praise than it's ever received in the US.

Rocko's Modern Life is simply the single best thing Nickelodeon has ever put on the air. Ever. On a semi-related note, there have only been about 3 really good or above average Nicktoons: Rocko, Angry Beavers and KaBlam!, IMHO.

While I don't hate Hanna-Barbera, I've never felt like the works of that studio belong in the same category as the likes of Warner Bros and MGM, or even Jay Ward. It's not the limited animation, their shows, characters and humor have never really gelled with me for whatever reason. Even H-B's most major productions like The Flintstones, Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound were just 'meh' at best to me.

I find the unabashed love, praise and adulation for Cartoon Network's Toonami block to be annoying and a little shallow and sad. I enjoyed the block too back in the day when it was good, but the way some people hype this show to the sky and act like it was the single greatest achievement in human history is just ridiculous. As if these shows were somehow made 100 times better just because they were surrounded by bumpers of a robot talking with the voice of Steven Jay Blum. I honestly like the Miguzi bumpers more.