Hi I'm Dranzerstorm
You may remember me as a regular contestant on the caption battle contest.
Welcome to Retro Retrospective, my world dedicated to the old guard of the Otaku world; expect some reviews of the old & obscure, and in-depth geeky knowledge with the occasional top ten and I now have a logo.
Little info about me
Well I'm British and I'm in to all things animated and nostalgia.
I've grown up with every cartoon going and have watched hundreds of anime.
Oh and to answer a question I was asked once, no I don't wear glasses in real life, I would wear Loke's sunglasses though.
First off, I would like to offer my thanks to theotaku and my fans for the showcase on Facebook, it really inspired me to write more and hopefully I can continue providing my usual British wit of writing to the website, so to celebrate I'm pulling out one of my biggest lists, the 100 cartoons may have been cancelled but this list and it's follow up list showcases the worst animations of all time. Cartoons & Anime will both be accepted and requests are open to suggest any series I don't list in the dishonorable mentions to be added to the main list. Without further interruptions these are the dishonorable mentions, spared from the Top Ten list. Yeah these shows are that bad
Android Ana Maico 2010: It's soooooooo boring, a good looking character doesn't mean it'll be used for a good story.
Comic Party: I still hate Comic Party with a passion, a mixture of the most annoying fans mixed with it's most hypocritical critics.
Mega Babies: Rugrats on acid channeling Ren & Stimpy.
Matt Hatter Chronicles: A story where you enter the movie world to fight B-Movie monsters sounds like an idea that couldn't possibly go wrong; yet it did and this was the result.
Slugterra: Turning slugs into a new collectable toy range was never going to catch on, not to mention scraping the barrel of ideas.
Teen Titans Go: Despite all the terrible things that have been said about it, I don't find it as bad as some of the other shows I've seen.
Fanboy & Chum Chum: As long as this show exists Nickelodeon will always be haunted by the fact that it picked this over Adventure Time.
Sanjay & Craig: But in all seriousness Nickelodeon deserve the pain it gets for all it's poor decisions and this Regular Show ripoff is just another one of those crappy shows.
Uncle Grandpa: I don't hate it, I know it looks really terrible but I just don't hate it.
Almost Naked Animals: Has got the humor of Spongebob, at it's worst it's atrocious, at it's best it's barely funny.
Kung Fu Dino Posse: A shameless Ninja Turtles ripoff
Johnny Test: A show that doesn't deserve to stay on air for the length of time that it has.
Elliot Kid: Over active imagination is one thing, make believing everything like you're on drugs is just wrong.
Idol Densetsu Eriko: All the worst qualities of Jem and the Holograms.
Dragon Booster: The worst you can offer from a CGI action show.
Long Runners: They did good in the past but seasonal rot is still rot.
4Kids: More a company problem than their products.
Failed Pilots: At least they realized they failed, Allen Gregory, Bubsy, Doozy Bots, Saban Moon, Battletoads, Defenders of Dynatron City, The Groovenians are all just examples.
Preschool Shows: You know my rules by now, I can't review preschool shows because the target audience are too young to defend it. If I had my way, Peppa Pig would be the worst cartoon of all time.
Video Brinquedo: Their work consists of copying popular animated films so horrifically it makes China facepalm in disgust but they do films and were looking at animated series.
So that gives you a fair idea of what to expect, now the fun bit is seeing what else is possible to dig up from you guys, the viewer, thanks again everybody.
Okay, back to some really serious reviewing, no more distractions, except I want more hot apple Drambuie. No! Reviewing time and I shouldn't encourage drinking.
(Respect your country's drinking laws and drink responsibly)
Now for some Rugrats.
Rugrats was one of the starter titles for Nickelodeon's Nicktoons, a show told from the point of view of a group of infants if they were actually speaking and a secondary plot often featuring their parents. A typical episode would feature a problem that only a baby would understand or a situation where one of the parents does something and the babies get involved or the antagonist of the group Angelica trying to get her way, the show was a long runner for Nickelodeon until Spongebob began and even went beyond with a spinoff tween show.
Rugrats as a concept is nothing new, especially when you consider that the Muppets did the whole babies thing years earlier but the main fundamental difference is that the adults are not only shown but are often involved with an episode plot, and it's the adults that really sell the show to a higher audience when you consider the amount of hidden adult jokes within the series; this one below as an example.
I'll let the viewers work that one out.
The point is Rugrats sold so well to an adult audience, particularly those who are parents because they can understand every joke being said and have probably dealt with the situations on show, and with my generation becoming parents themselves, they now have a new appreciation for Rugrats as they now understand what their parents found so funny.
It's that special kind of generation link that makes Rugrats one of the best cartoons of all time and even if the content of the show is heavily dated, the situations and plots aren't.
So if you think today's Nickelodeon is a mess of mindless shows with no redeeming qualities and toilet jokes with it's only decent showing being Legend of Korra, then take a trip back in time and remember when Nicktoons actually did a good job.
I think everyone is familiar with the chronic decay going on within Nickelodeon at the moment as it continues to survive on shows that have flogged too many dead horses, along with new content that survives on toilet humor alone and yet another Hannah Montana clone that so doesn't rip off Disney Channel; but when did this all go wrong? When did Nickelodeon pull their greatest faux pas?
Well it's because of this show. Chose that one because that's what Nickelodeon seriously needs to ask themselves right now
Yep Nickelodeon are doing crap because of Adventure Time, but why Adventure Time? Well lets go back to late 2008, early 2009 to find out.
Cartoons were going through a rough patch as they were losing popularity faster than a celebrity trolling on Twitter, so Frederator Studios, fresh from counting their money from the successful Fairly Odd Parents franchise set another series of shorts to look for new talent called Random Cartoons which consisted of a number of works from various creators mostly from the Nicktoons stable but had a few from Cartoon Network and surprisingly Doug TenNapel of Earthworm Jim fame. One of the big successes from the show was Pendleton Ward, fresh from his work on Flapjack over on Cartoon Network with another creator named J.G.Quintel, who came up with Adventure Time and another show named Bravest Warriors; the Studio needed two TV shows and a Web Show. Pendleton Ward's two shows both got picked for TV and web respectively while the third show picked was Fanboy & Chum Chum by some nobody.
Afterwards Nicktoons were keen to make Fanboy & Chum Chum but weren't so keen on Adventure Time until Cartoon Network bought it off them and premiered it a year later and the rest is history, Adventure Time along with Regular Show saved the Cartoon Industry and Nickelodeon was left licking it's wounds which keeps getting more painful everyday especially when Fanboy & Chum Chum continually get voted worst cartoon ever by pretty much every wannabe commentator on Youtube.
To sum up, Nickelodeon chose Fanboy & Chum Chum over Adventure Time and ended up giving what is currently the World's Most Successful cartoon today to their biggest corporate rivals.
I'm not even going to dignify that with a facepalm, it was such an idiotic decision that I'm kind of glad they're getting punished with crap shows. This isn't the first time Nickelodeon turned down a quality show that went to Cartoon Network, they did the same with Ed, Edd & Eddy because they wanted creative rights over it which the creator rightly refused and that became not only Cartoon Network's longest running show but one of the longest running Canadian shows.
But what about the future? Adventure Time can't be on forever and Pendleton Ward has already stepped down from the show. Well Steven Universe is a hit and Uncle Grandpa despite it's short comings is surprisingly good, heck even the new Teen Titans Go series is fun in places. As for Nickelodeon, they have more toilet humor, which is their plan for the next few years and to be honest Spongebob & Fairly Odd Parents have decayed so much in quality that they probably should quit, so expect Nickelodeon to be cartoon free in a couple of years. I'll start writing Nicktoons' gravestone now.
Throughout my childhood I grew up on Nicktoons much in the same way I grew up on Disney & Cartoon Network, but there were a few gems that I missed mainly because I lost a lot of interest in cartoon channels when they started running out of ideas or thinking that kid sitcoms are worth more money.
One of the gems I missed was Danny Phantom.
Danny Phantom is by Butch Hartman of Fairly Odd Parents fame, which seems to play against type being a superhero cartoon but Hartman seems to manage just fine.
The story is about Danny Fenton, (I see what you did there) an unpopular teenager who attends Casper High School in the town of Amity Park. (Barely into the review and already there are two reference jokes)
Danny's parents are working on a ghost portal to try and bridge the gap between spirit and human worlds when it doesn't work until Danny's friend Sam persuades him to switch on the machine only for Danny's DNA to get fused with Ectoplasm, making him half ghost. After fighting a malevolent ghost, Danny decides to become a superhero in order to stop other evil ghosts, alongside friends Sam and Tucker.
This setup is familiar to anyone who's been watching Kim Possible & American Dragon, as the cartoon is pretty much those shows, only done by Nickelodeon instead of Disney; its another example of Nickelodeon jumping on a current trend but unlike Nicktoons sad ripoff of Regular Show, Sanjay & Craig, Danny Phantom not only works but manages to surpass it's rivals by being original.
In theory the setup shouldn't work, being a half ghost should be impossible even in the most mixed up cartoon world, but credit to Butch Hartman, he does it well.
Even when the most obvious character tropes are used to make up the cast, it's not immediately obvious when viewing the characters on screen.
For example, Sam is essentially Goth Lisa Simpson, but first impressions don't give that image so it makes you want to watch her more, the same can be said about other characters such as Jazz, Tucker and Danny himself.
The action can vary between good and predictable but never becomes boring as the diverse cast of villains can often save a bad episode.
Overall Danny Phantom is a good series bordering on great, it has a well written cast of characters, along side good music and an easy to digest plot. I only wish I viewed it when I did.
Sorry it's a couple of days late but here is the Cartoon Vault review for Angela Anaconda.
Angela Anaconda started as a short on Nickelodeon's Kablam, a series featuring numerous cartoons much in the same vein as Cartoon Networks Cartoon Cartoons production.
Despite the fact that Action League Now was the best series, only Angela Anaconda actually became a full on cartoon when it got picked up by Fox.
Yes this hideous cut out cartoon managed a 65 episode series but god knows why, it's awful.
Let me explain how this was made, basically a number of photos were taken of willing models and the faces were animated onto cartoon bodies, problem is it's not just creepy but makes everything look cheap in terms of production.
So the show is about Angela who kindly reminds us in the opening theme song that it's her show, much in the same way Doug does. In fact there are many similarities between the two; both enjoy self indulgent fantasies, both are social outcasts apart from a small group of equally weird friends and both can't shake off an annoying bully but while Doug at the very least is likeable to a certain extend, Angela on the other hand is very obnoxious and pretty much all her fantasies revolve around getting revenge and you have to wonder if they deserve it sometimes, even Nanette Manoir, little Miss "I can't speak French but it makes me look better if I fake it anyway"
Actually that's another thing, I find it odd that a Canadian show would put in a fake French character for laughs, which comes across as slightly uncomfortable but it's not nearly as bad as Angela gets particularly when in one episode she fakes Agoraphobia to avoid school which to real sufferers is very awkward and offensive.
Like I said before, this is bad, Johnny Test bad. While it is a neat animation technique to use cut out pictures it's not such a good idea to form the basis of a full on cartoon using said method. Flash animation and Robot Chicken suit this style better; but still were stuck with the haunting memory of this show ruining Digimon.
Now as I have some days off and lots of free time so more entries will come thick and fast.
