5 Shows That Ruined Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Qubo, Discovery Family and Starz Family Forever

I don’t have a good set-up for this one. Except that this show EXISTS.


Bless you OG cretors. Bless you wherever you may be, and bless you for this being the last thing you produced before your time. There is just no justice in this world.

Of all the flavors of Loonet Tune that exist, this is my least favorite by a huge margin. Yeah, it’s worse than the hated Space Jam sequel.

I said it!

Anyway, onto this cartoon. Aside from being the proud owner of one of the most horrible theme songs I’ve ever heard, it’s also not much like Looney Tunes at ALL. Yeah, there’s no anvil falling, there’s no bombs, there’s no snarky signs - nothing like that. No, in this show, Baby Sylvester is a misfit trying to fit in .

I have no what idea what they were thinking.

Alright, let’s start the problems with the art style and animation. I hate them. The original show didn’t have the best animation, but it at least had good character designs. Here, the art style is just… off. The character animation is pretty stiff, and the colors are noticeably muted compared to its more vibrant, lively, and MUCH better animated predecessor, Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries ? I guess the style was meant to distinguish it from the previous shows, but it’s just not good. I HATE looking at it.

Content-wise, it’s just very DULL. It’s not very funny, most of the episodes are just recycled parody plots you’ve seen over and over again in other cartoons. Sylvester are your typical misfit, though I’ll admit the premise is funnier on excursion .

Oh, the voices, what the hell happened to Bugs? Most of the voice work is nothing to write home about, but Bugs’ voice is the worst Bugs out of any of them, mainly because of Sam Vincent's voice work sounds more like Cosmo from FOP rather than being Bugs. It becomes pretty unbearable, pretty quickly.

I don’t have much else to say, except that this kind of change-up does NOT work for Looney Tunes - probably mainly because it’s BARELY Looney Tunes to being with, although this is not the ONLY Warner Brothers cartoon to get a radical change and go in a new direction. Oh yes. We are GOING there.

… huh? … I’m… I’m sorry.

I’m just a little mesmerized about the fact that… this exists. This show… exists. So… this is a show about kids going to a special school, a la Mucha Lucha in a town where that usually happens, of course. Did I mention that they were school kids? As in, the audience that it's aimed at? And this is a kids’ show? In 2010? Who thought this was a good idea- oh. Corus. Of course.

Yeah, my old pal Corus Entertainment is back to torment me again. Now, I gotta say something. I’ll admit, I was pretty harsh to Corus back in the day because five of the a few of their cartoons are what I considered the worst of all time: Pearlie, Being Ian, Will & DeWitt, World of Quest, and Yakkity Yak, the latter of these which I’ve gone on record calling THE worst show Canada has ever made…

… and I still hold to that. For those of you that need a brief refresher on my feelings on the show, I think drowning in a septic tank full of shit and battery acid while getting devoured by the ghost of Jeffery Dahmer is slightly more fun than watching Pearlie.

Now, I wanna ease up on Corus hatred for some time… but then they go and make shit like this! Now, this show is pretty much like Mucha Lucha but replace mask wrestling with super heroes (redundant, I know, and I know it’s a cartoon, but they make the kids far more morbidly bratty than they actually are in real life. Just sayin’), and a… (I hate myself for saying this) buttload of toilet jokes. That’s pretty much the show in a nutshell. Because it’s Corus, that means you will see a lot of repeated stock sequences that are just used to cut on time ACTUALLY animating something- wouldn’t be Corus without cutting corners- and with pretty mediocre voice acting, despite Ron Pardo being involved as one of the more notable talents, his performance is pretty… ho-hum. Just stick with Ripping Friends.

Also, apparently Christian Potenza was one of the voice actors in the show. Well, guess it beats being in that shitty 2002 Disny rip-off from Dreamworks, doesn’t it? At least this show CAN be entertainingly awful. I’m stressing the “can”, because I think by the point I got that far into the show I had completely gone insane. This is the kind of show that you watch, and go delirious just from the sheer fact that it EXISTS. Do not think about it too hard, and just… let it be a memory of a time long past, of one of the titans of TV animation (*snrk*) who has since left their legacy as… completely and utterly humiliating themselves.

I hated so many of your shows, Corus… but life just ain’t the same without you.

And sure, I’m WAITING for you guys to joke about the fact that I’m disliking a show about asses, of all things, but… a man has his limits. The gag reflex can only be pushed so far before you throw up, and this is one of those shows that I get that unnerving feeling like I’m watching someone else’s porn, and I’m distressed to think that there’s someone who could be getting off to it. I know I’m not one to talk… but there’s better asses out there, guys. You don’t need to stoop this low. Come on. There IS such a thing as “too desperate”.

Anyway, this is getting weird. NEXT!

Okay, so I’m sure that El Chavo Del Ocho does not need an introduction from me. I’ve talked about it quite a bit here, I put Yakkity Yak as one of the worst of the decade for being a blatant copycat of the El Chavo with nothing good to offer and just barely at that.

Obviously, I hate the show… but I at least understand why something like Yakkity Yak existed at such a time period. I understand, from a business perspective, why a show like that existed, why it was made, and why it got ridiculed, but at least it had potential to be a cash cow franchise , and it’s one of those semi-remembered embarrassments of the time. So, as far as SHAMELESS knock-off goes it has earned its spot in history… if you can call it that. That wasn’t the only one, but it WAS the worst one. It’s the one that offered nothing new to the table, but a show like that doesn’t have to be wildly original to work, it just needs to be stupid fun, and what more could you ask for?

I’m going on about this because I understand why a show like that existed… in the 2000’s. Yes, the El Chavo brand is still strong, but at this point there is NO room for rip-offs. Been there, done that. Any attempt to copy the Mexican classic- which was a stupid idea from the get-go- will just make you look cheap and lazy. But you could at least make it stupidly enjoyable, right? You could get SOMETHING out of it, RIGHT?!

What I’m dealing with next isn’t so much a cartoon as it is more of a… pest.



WHAAAAT?!
Come on! You gotta give me THAT one! Besides, it at least had BETTER set up than any of the jokes on THIS abomination!

So, this show is pretty stupid, but I’m sure that’s not very surprising. What IS surprising is that this show is also one of the most irritating things I’ve ever had to sit through.

Admittedly, it’s no more stupid of a premise or title than El Chavo- you ARE getting what you’re sold- but there’s a couple of… let’s just say, minor issues with this show.

First of all: this show’s theme song? Probably the worst there is- which is saying a lot considering that pretty much each and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE SHOWS HAS AN AWFUL THEME SONG. From Tak and The Power of Juju’s horrific, brain-melting nonsense, to Baby Looney Tune’s annoying screaming and blabbering, to House of Mouse's… whatever the hell that abomination of a reboot theme song that was supposed to be, to even upcoming entries on the list, such as Be… Be Co… never mind. Point is, theme song sucks majorly, and it’s a perfect reflection of the show.

The animation is some of the most flawed I’ve seen in a while. To those of you that know your animation terminology, it feels as if the show was animated with only keys and no in-betweens. What this means is that the characters will jerkily move from pose to pose, and this REALLY stands out in the action, which looks choppy and unfinished. I’ve seen flipbooks with more fluid animation than this TV-quality show- this is utterly PATHETIC. Yeah, I know shows like South Park exist, but South Park’s style and animation fit the kind of show they’re going for- a crude comedy show. This is supposed to be an action-comedy show. Granted, not all animated comedy shows have stellar comedy, but action shows are… a different story. Yes, you CAN do both at the same time- Chop Socky Chooks did it, but I didn’t expect anything along the lines of that out of this, but the fact that the animation on this show is BARELY any better than something like Yakkity Yak, there is just no excusing this. I don’t try to pick on one point for too long, but this legitimately bothers me because, just looking at the show from stills, the character designs aren’t too bad. The colors are just… kind of a wash of every bright color under the sun, and it doesn’t look like it’s going for something too radically different from something like Danger Mouse 2015 ,or Mr. Bean: The Animated Series , or its MOST obvious comparison, El Chavo Animado , yet this horrendous animation makes it hard to WATCH, let alone enjoy.

But what is a horrible theme song and abysmal animation without annoying characters to back them up? This show suffers from the same problem that Be Cool Scooby_Doo suffered from- bland token hero characters, but it’s four instead of six, which you think would make it better but… no, mainly because these guys are actually WORSE. We still have the main protagonist (Scaredy=El Chavo), the fat rival (Sally=Nono), the creepy old man (Nestor=Don Ramon), and the bitch (Momma=Dona Florina). I’m not gonna single anyone out here because ALL of these characters get their turn at the wheel to be as annoying as humanly possible. I can’t believe I’m saying this in Sidekick’s favor, but they all only mildly annoyed me as far as their characters are concerned, THESE assholes are unbearable… the voice acting doesn’t really help matters. It varies from bland to, again, obnoxious. “Obnoxious” is really the perfect word to describe this show, as even the villains are both majorly obnoxious AND cliché.

What this show does to stand out from the one its steal- I mean, taking inspiration from is… I guess more fourth wall jokes. More blatant, laying out there, “how stupid do you think your audience is?” fourth wall jokes; though in all honesty, ALL the jokes in this show are so lame, cliché, and taken from better shows that it only makes it that much more transparent how uninspired it was- from its conception, to the animation, to EVERYTHING THAT COULD HAVE MADE IT EVEN THE SLIGHTEST BIT FUN- sucked out and all you have is a show that is essentially the LEFTOVERS of the 2000’s cartoons.

There’s many things about this show that are more fun to laugh at, than with- such as the horrible voice acting, the ultra-dated-as-FUCK approach to be as “hip” as possible, the terrible animation, but this becomes much less amusing and more infuriating when you realize this shit got a second chance in reruns in the US in 2019. HOW?! How on EARTH did this get a US cult following? There are shows, FAR BETTER SHOWS, mind you that did not get to this mark- like New Woody Woodpecker, Twisted Tales of Felix The Cat, Kirby: Right Back at Ya!- how on EARTH did this turd get a second life in the states?! I don’t care if it was only Three seasons lasting for THREE YEARS! And hardly anybody even knows that it exists… for good reason, but still- this show got away with MURDER, and it just slipped on by like a fart in the wind.

If only this show had gone extinct as quickly as the next show on the list.

NEXT!

I’m sure we’re all familiar with our good friends, Mystery Inc. Yeah, these guys need no introduction. They’re not classic icons for nothing. They’re great team work will just never be outdone. Though that didn’t stop Warner Brothers from doing new and inventive things with the characters.

It’s no surprise that the OG entries are really about the only things that is universally beloved about Scooby-Doo, what IS surprising is that despite being a really malleable cast of colorful characters, for some reason nobody could really find a good way to use them when they were adapted to other things. The movies are clear proof of this.

When translated to the newer genes , results are generally more mixed, and we could argue ALL day about which ones got it right and which ones failed. But I think we can all unanimously agree on which attempt was the worst.


Don’t act like you didn’t see THIS one coming.

I have mocked this show plenty of times before, so I’ll keep this brief, but did they screw this one up.

The… shall we say, perplexing concept for this show is questionable enough- let’s make the Scooby and The gang EDGY, MAN! Okay, I’m probably overselling the edginess of it, because it’s really not that edgy- it’s actually VERY lame. But considering the original series and that their roots are very firmly planted in mystery & comedy, this is a very hard right turn into a direction that nobody was really asking for them to take. Surprisingly enough, however, the problem isn’t so much that it was trying to be hard and edgy, the problem was that it was actually trying to have it both ways.

It constantly went between being silly and goofy while also being action-packed and EXTREME, but this just doesn’t work because the show is tugging its audience at both ends and they feel uncertain on how serious you’re supposed to take it- assuming you could get past the bizarre premise to begin with. The show actually gets worse the more elements from the classic Scooby-Doo series are introduced into it, because it becomes blatantly obvious that this show is doing what it can to try and reign in classic fans while trying to grow a new audience. There’s also no excuse for the show to fail at that because, especially at THIS point in time, there WERE shows that were able to balance comedy and action to keep its audience invested. Ducktales 2017 is this show done right. Big Hero Six: The Seires, AND Rise of the TMNT also did it, while even managing to throw in some good drama that left fans wanting to see what happens.

This brings me to another flaw of the show- the characters. Aside from the uncertain tone, the biggest problem with this show is the characters. This Mystery Inc are not a group of heroes that you want to follow mainly because they are all boring, stereotypical heroes. You have your leader (who is actually kind of a douche), the big guy who speaks like a giant lug, you have the one guy who's the voice of reason, so of course she speaks logically. Then you have the girl. She’s only there to be the girl, because why else would you have a girl in your team? Though she’s doesn't even act EXACTLY like her original counterpart, in that she’s a very uninspired and boring character.

I’ll give the show this. Of all the shows on this list, this one at least is the darkest of them all, and it’s also, despite my complains, being Dark is the only thing it does well … again, assuming you can get past the fact that this is essentially a Scooby-Doo adult show gone wrong. The action is uninspired.

I still can never get over the fact that this show exist, but at least it suffered a quick death, and let’s hope that we never see anything like this again…

… though the next time Warner Brothers did a comedic reboot of a classic cartoon (Thundercats Roar ) it was actually REALLY good, so… maybe it can be- oh who am I kidding? No more of this shit ever again.

2017. The Home Stretch of the decade. And this was also the year where I grew sick and tired of Cartoon Network.

They were pumping out cartoons and seeing pretty much what stuck and what didn’t, though a lot of them never got the chance to really grow and see WHAT they could have ended up becoming, and the most tragic thing about this is that these shows… weren’t that bad.

They had some neat concepts, and seemed like they could have become better as time went on- like Pink Panther & Pals , or Bunnicula, or, my favorite of the bunch, Grojband. I really would have loved to see these continue, but they never did- probably because they never hit the success of the JUGGERNAUT that TTG became. From a business standpoint, I understand- you want something that hits that sweet spot. You want the feeling of capturing lightning in the bottle again. Trust me guys, I can’t find the words to stress just how HUGE of an impact TTG made, however, the aftermath of its success is that those that didn’t hit big… were just thrown by the wayside. There were some that made it and survived- some shows that I argue shouldn’t have stuck around for as long as they did (looking at you, Baby Ugly Eyesores), and some that look like they could have been something good, or at least fun… and then you sit down and watch it, and you realize that maybe it’s time to stop watching this network altogether.


If I were to pin the beginning of the end of CN, and its entrance into its Dark Age on one particular show, it would be this one. I thought I was the only one who felt that way, but no- a lot of my friends grew tired of the network one this show started plaguing the airwaves. I also thought this was just… whatever twisted version of “nostalgia” were instead of looking back something fondly, you shoot daggers in its general direction, speaking. But no, looking through this show again recently, it still sucks. It’s worse than Bordertown considerably, and that’s saying something.

Like Bordertown, its core problem is the lead characters, though this time we get TWO terrible leads for the price of one- and that is a VERY fitting statement because both Flint and Sam are pretty much the same character in two different bodies. They’re both hyperactive, annoying, and not that intelligent. They don’t even get to play off a good straight man who can react well to their shenanigans because if the character isn’t Flint or Sam (who as I established are the same idiot anyway), then they simply exist to get annoyed by them. That’s pretty much what makes this show worse, it’s the fact that even the side characters have not discernible personality of any kind except to get annoyed at what these two fools will do at any given time. It doesn’t help that most of the episodes of the show are basically nothing more than Flint and Sam annoying people- not too different from something that Season 5 or 6 SpongeBob and Patrick would do, but just imagine 90% of the series being nothing BUT that! So a lot of episodes end up playing out the same, and they make you question why you even bothered giving it a chance in the first place.

I’ll give the show a bit of credit here- the art style and animation are definitely unique. I don’t mean unique because no outlines . It was at around this time where it was almost impossible to swing a dead cat and NOT hit a flash-animated show, but at least with this art style, it manages to stand out. I mean, I don’t like it, because I don’t think it’s a style that looks good in flash, it’s pretty hideous, and it makes me wish the show was hand drawn, like the title cards that you see for the beginning of each episode, but it’s at least unique. It also, admittedly, makes better use of the 3D space than a lot of other cartoons of its kind did. I don’t think this show doesn’t have any merit to it, but it’s not WORTH sticking with it just to see some alright animation and maybe one or two funny jokes. This is what partially frustrates me about this show is that it COULD have been something more unique, or even more enjoyable, but it’s just not- it’s a drag to sit through, and it’s generally annoying.