Is Cartoon Network Making a Comeback?

Sorry for going so long without posting. I'm going to make a real push to get back on the wagon with writing.

Today I'm wondering aloud... is Cartoon Network starting to recover some of its glory? I mean, yes, they are continuing to show loads of live action crap like the Scooby-Doo movies, Destroy Build Destroy, and Hole in the Wall. And of course they still have their share of bad cartoons, like the utterly godawful Mad, as well as shows that I just plain have no desire to try, like the umpteenth Ben 10 iteration or Generator Rex.

But... Regular Show is hysterically funny. Scooby-Doo: Mystery, Inc. is astonishingly entertaining. Young Justice is roughly on par with the lesser entries in the DCAU, which is to say it's quite good. Sym-Bionic Titan is excellent, by turns funny, exciting, dramatic, even occasionally a little scary or sexy. And of course Adventure Time! is the best damn thing in years.

Simply put, right now, Cartoon Network has more good stuff in a typical week than any time since the early 2000s. It's too soon to call this a comeback--most of the shows I mention have yet to reach 20 episodes--but it's legitimate grounds for hope.

Will Convergence Kill Traditional Animation?

In comments on the last post, Ian Perez (our first commenter ever! All hail Ian!) expressed concern that the convergence of live action and animation is bad for animation:

As an animation lover, I look at this trend with some dismay. Animation is already looked down upon by some segments; now that it's losing its one trump card, I expect that traditional 100% animated features will go down the wayside, and we'll likely never see something like "The Secret of NIMH", "The Last Unicorn" or "The Great Mouse Detective" again.

I'm not worried about this at all. Every time a new medium or genre of art emerges, fans of the old media express dismay. "CGI is going to kill 2D animation." "Home video is going to kill movies." "Radio is going to kill live orchestras." "Writing is going to kill oral performances." (No, seriously, Plato worried writing was going to destroy society. He also complained about how today's youth dress strangely and don't listen to their elders or respect tradition.) It doesn't happen.

Now, it's true animation is going through a bit of a bad spell on American television right now. Cartoon Network pretty much took over in the late nineties to early two-thousands; the major networks no longer bother with early afternoon or Saturday morning cartoon blocks. And Cartoon Network itself is showing more and more live action as part of their ongoing network decay. I'm not worried, for a few reasons:

• Fox is showing The Simpsons, Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, and American Dad every weekend, put the first two in wide syndication, and occasionally experiments with other animated sitcoms.
• Comedy Central is also releasing a couple of new animated series for adults this year, along with renewing South Park for several more seasons.
• Although Cartoon Network has created a lot of new live action crap, they are also still commissioning new animated series, some of which look really good. (I am counting the days until Adventure Time! with Finn and Jake comes out).
• Television animation was nothing but half-hour toy commercials when I was a kid. Then came the Disney Afternoon, the Warner Brothers-Spielberg co-creations, the DCAU, the birth of Cartoon Network... there have been dark times before, and it got better.

Ian's comment was mostly about film. Again, I'm not worried; animation in film is the healthiest it's been in my lifetime. Every single movie Pixar has made is a hit, and almost all of them are wonderful movies as well. Most of Dreamworks Animation's movies aren't as good, but they've mostly been hits, too. And if Princess and the Frog is anything to go by, Disney is ready for a second renaissance.

Not to mention, if all else fails, there's always Japan.