The decline of action cartoons?

[I.R Joey]

It's interesting but over the last two years or so I've gotten the impression that this is a lull period for action cartoons in the U.S.A. Even as I look at the T.V landscape now I see only a few true action cartoons. By true action cartoons mind you, I mean shows that aren't action/comedy such as Kim Possible, Totally spies, Megas XLR, Danny Phantom, and My Life as a Teenage robot. Not to insult the charecter of such shows, as I'm quite fond of some of them but I kind of miss the more dramatic action cartoons of the past two decades. In the year 2004, just ten years ago we had BTAS, Gargoyles, Iron man, Fantastic Four, and X-men, I think Ninja Turtles was still in production, Sonic the Hedgehog Sat am was there, Street Fighter I believe was on at the time. The year before we also had a personal favorite Exo-squad, and the year after we would have Spiderman. I could think of more I'm sure yet When it came to the modern age I had a genuinly hard time thinking up shows that have premeired or been in production over the last two years.

He-man and the Motu (Canned).
Static Shock. (Still in production I think, or am I wrong?)
Samauri Jack (believed to canned, and without a conclusive end:( )
Justice Leauge. (Now going into JLU)
X-men Evolution (canned)
MTV Spiderman (canned)
TNMT.
Teen Titans (this one is a tough fit, while I do like the show, more then I thought I would, in some ways it has more in common with the animes Kare Kano or FLCL than the other shows listed).
Those were all I could think of.

In fact it seems that many of the action shows on the airwaves are imports from Japan. Any thoughts? Is it just the fact that networks are starting to prefer the lighthearted fare or what, or is it something else?

[Rover_Wow]

Simple. Cartoons have always been about the humor, with the more serious shows taking a backseat. Sure, the best shows might be the dramatic ones (read: Samurai Jack), but humor has, and always will be, popular (ISTR Roger Rabbit has a line to the effect of: "Cartoons are supposed to make people laugh".)
As for the whole Samurai Jack getting canned thing... I must have been the only one to see it coming. Back when we discussed Bad Plot Escapes (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?p=978122), I said:

With Samurai Jack being based on a premise, one is tempted to wonder if the CN will let it live long enough to resolve everything.
Hellcat said:

I think CN intend to give it a proper end. They've treated the show with respect thus far.
Well, Hellcat, I was right, you were wrong.

[I.R Joey]

Well okay...I'll give you the point in regards to so called "Funny" shows signifigantly outnumbering "Action" shows but it seems to me that the number has become even more unbalanced then usual, or that many shows are hybrids.

[GL2k2]

Coming from someone who went to school for animation, the industry is geared toward comedy cartoons. That's all they taught us in school was comedy, I felt like I was learning to be a comedian. I'm not a light guy and I don't want to do that stuff, but these schools are made for getting people jobs in the industry.

I will only say this, America is all about money, other countries are about the arts. If someone has an animated series idea for action wise stuff, you would think this would be a great time, because everything now can't be compared to it. But alas, you won't get far. I think Batman, Justice League, Gargoyles, and Samurai Jack are and for the time being will always be the best action cartoons ever.

The big problem is the talent that are capable of doing some good action stuff are not. And that's even sadder, but it isn't totally the artist's fault.

[sterfish]

I've also seen that decline in American action cartoons and it's sad, really. I think what did it in is the influx of anime. I'm an anime fan, so I'm not saying anime is bad, but because American companies are so cheap, anime has almost completely taken over action cartoons. It's much less expensive to license and dub a show from Japan than to produce and create a new show from scratch.

Maybe in the near future, more creators who are influenced by and grew up with anime will get the opportunity to create their own homegrown non-comedy animated shows. If we're especially lucky, maybe one of those shows won't be made with the thought that it should be kid-friendly.

[MonkeyFunk]

I've always found action animation to be pretty overrated anyway.

[Jamie]

Actually, it's pretty simple. Action cartoons just don't repeat well in the U.S. Shows like The Maxx and Samurai Jack do just fine the first time they air, but nobody tunes in after that. The broadcasters skew towards comedy because that's what the audience watches.

*shrugs*

[Chris Wood]

Hear hear! At last somebody's said it. From the early 80s to the late 90s good action animation was plentiful. These days it's a rare breed. Depressing but true.

One problem may be the apparent drop in age for the key viewing demographic, leading to more younger skewing programs like Pokemon and Fairly Oddparents. In years past these kinds of programs were always balanced with serious action shows, but now it appears they have center stage.

Another possibility is that action figure sales aren't what they used to be in this PS2/Internet age, and so it's harder for action shows to get financed.

[HellCat]

Simple. Cartoons have always been about the humor, with the more serious shows taking a backseat. Sure, the best shows might be the dramatic ones (read: Samurai Jack), but humor has, and always will be, popular (ISTR Roger Rabbit has a line to the effect of: "Cartoons are supposed to make people laugh".)
As for the whole Samurai Jack getting canned thing... I must have been the only one to see it coming. Back when we discussed Bad Plot Escapes (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?p=978122), I said:

Hellcat said:

Well, Hellcat, I was right, you were wrong.
....Did you really need to quote me? You were right on a point, there's no need to parade harmless statments of other members around -_-

[Juu-kuchi]

Yep, we do have a lack of action oriented shows in American animation. The only notable one right now is Justice League, where it's serious and all that.

Only action fix now in my opinion is in Japanese anime.