What We Wish Was Different in Toontown Today

The title says it all: What do you wish was different or would like to see changed in the world of animation these days? For me:

I'd like to see Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Boomerang to get their collective acts together. Disney, stop milking Phineas & Ferb and Nick, stop milking SpongeBob, and both of you realize that you can still be producing quality original cartoons. (This goes for their live-action efforts as well.) And Boomerang, get off your lazy duffs and just start trying, for corn's sake. Turner split Boom from Cartoon Network and made it into an entire channel, and then they just use it to loop the same 12 shows all day. They only air about 1/4 of the shows which they have available in the Turner vaults. Is it really too much for Turner to show every episode of every show that they own on Boom, and designate certain hours and days to certain eras and decades? If Turner has so little interest in doing anything with Boomerang, then they might as well have left it as a programming block on CN.

Speaking of CN, I'd like to see The Powers That Be at that network to finally get the point that no one wants to see live-action on a channel with the word CARTOON in its' name. 'Cartoon' is not a dirty word, CN.

I'd like to see the return of intelligent adult cartoons, not the rude, crude stoneriffic junk that permeates the likes of Adult Swim and FOX's Animation Domination these days. You don't have to be dirty, crass and lol wut random to appeal to adults. On that subject, I'd like to see Adult Swim get cut back, have it start later and not air every night.

I'd like to see the return of fun animation blocks on weekday afternoons and in prime time. I miss blocks like SNICK, Miguzi and Cartoon Cartoon Fridays. They gave me something to watch on afternoons and Friday and Saturday nights.


I'd like to see more original ideas, cartoons which are totally new: new characters, new worlds, new shticks, shows which aren't reboots, updates, sequels, prequels or midquels of some other franchise which already exists.

I'd like to see less shows set in school. As a kid I hated school, the last thing I wanted to do is spend my free time watching people in school. (To be fair, this is more of an issue for live-action shows than cartoons nowadays.)

Getting back to Disney, I'd like to see them make more good shows based on their existing properties which are designed to appeal to more than just preschoolers, in addition to more original shows. Why can't we have another Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop, Tail Spin or even Bonkers in this day and age?

And finally (for now), I'd like to see more gender balance in cartoons and less re-usage of shopworn stereotypes. Less of the "boys/dads are idiots who have no real talents or skills beyond causing or getting into trouble" and "girls/moms are these annoyingly perfect, smug creatures who never make mistakes and live to remind their male counterparts how stupid they're being" tropes. Can we see a smart, capable male protagonist and a wacky, comically flawed female protagonist once in a while??