Cartoon in Real Cities

[Crash]

Okay, a lot of cartoons take place in generic, undefined locations. Lots of others take place in very specific, yet imaginary locations. (Like the Simpsons, taking place in 'Springfield'.) And then there are a select few cartoons that take place in a specific, real place. And that place always seems to be New York. Just about all the real-location cartoons I can think of--Gargoyles, TMNT 2003, The Real Ghostbusters, most of the Marvel toons--take place mainly in New York City. And then most of those specifically in Manhattan...

From the animes I seen/loosely followed on messageboards, they tend to take place in Tokyo, or some made-up place.

Looking at Disney movies, they've only got one set in NYC, but several in London.

So, a quick thesis, aniation seems to focus on the single major city of the local culture, and that's pretty much it. Second tier cities--say, Chicago, Miami, Kansas City, Osaka, Dover, etc--pretty much get ignored. Am I wrong? Are there many series/movies out there that aren't set in the New York/Tokyo/London axis?

(I suppose South Park would be one these exceptions. Even though the real South Park is not so much a town as it is an empty stretch of valley...)

[Undrave]

Well... a few exemples I can think of :

-Mighty Ducks the Animated Serie: Anaheim off course

-Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi: Osaka, and it's alternate dimension equivalents

-the Anime Zipang has the characters visiting many real locations besides Tokyo.

-Jacob Two Two: Montreal

-Delilah and Julius: The Academy is at an 'undisclosed location near Halifax' in Nova-Scotia.

-Roses of Versailles: Happens of course in France in real location.

I'm sorta out of ideas for now...

[Anthonynotes]

Hmm...

"Animaniacs"'s segments at the Warner Bros. studio takes place in Burbank (or wherever the WB studios are located in the sprawling mess of suburbs collectively dubbed "L.A.").

"Jackie Chan Adventures" took place IIRC in San Francisco.

"Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries" featured Granny, Sylv and Tweety travelling to various real-world cities.

[Wussycat]

IIRC, the dam that Norbert and Dagget lived in was in a different real life state all the time.

[tb4000]

Biker Mice from Mars took place in my area, Chicago.

Ace Ventura took place in Miami.

Garfield took place in Muncie, Indiana. There was one show that mentioned that Jon Arbuckle was of Muncie, Indiana.

And yeah, in tv and movies, NYC seems to be the default place to live. I never know why they don't use other cities.

[Tay the Cat]

The various Digimon series take place in Tokyo.

[Neo Ultra Mike]

Family Guy takes place in Quahog Rhoad Island which is a real town in the small east coast state (similarly American Dad takes place in Langley Falls, Virginia, also a real place. Guess despite all the craziness that goes through it Seth wanted them to happen in real places).

In King Of The Hill everyone lives in Arlen, Texas.

And Futurama takes place in New, New York. (Which dosen't exisit... yet, but it might one day. Besides that means the flashbacks take place in present day New York which I would believe count).

[Wussycat]

In King Of The Hill everyone lives in Arlen, Texas. Arlen doesn't exist.

[kempobot]

Family Guy takes place in Quahog Rhoad Island which is a real town in the small east coast state
In King Of The Hill everyone lives in Arlen, Texas.
quahog isn't real according to wikipedia (i know it's not the most reliable source), a "quahog" is in fact a type of hard clam shell and doubles as a regional slang term for vagina, much like the word "clam." and knowing seth macfarlane he was probably thinking of the latter...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quahog_%28Family_Guy%29

and as for arlen, texas mike judge just fused the names "alrington" and "austin" (the two places where he grew up) together.

but as for animes and whatnot (aside from the ultra fantasies and sci-fi ones) i wouldn't be suprised if most of them took place somewhere in, inbetween or around the tokyo-osaka metroplex.

[Net1360]

The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series (1987-97)-Never mentioned that they lived in New York City. The short-run live action one (97-98)
and the present-day (2003-Now) animated series does.

OTHERS INCLUDE:

American Dragon-New York City.

Juniper Lee-Orchid Bay. No doubt near San Francisco. Only does it exsist?

101 Dalmatians-a place called Grutely near New Orleans. It doesn't exsist.

Johnny Bravo-Arron City (Arron is Elvis' middle name).

Jackie Chain-San Francisco.

House Of Mouse-Downtown Hollywood.

Timon & Pumbaa-Kenya, Africa and anywhere else they travel.

Fairly Oddparents-Dimsdale. Somewhere in California.

Danny Phantom-Amity Park. Somewhere in Wisconsin.

Robot Boy-San Francisco. The famous bridge gave it away in an episode in which he confronted his brother.

The Archies-Riverdale (California, I guess).

[pseudowudo]

Here's some more Cartoon series that featured real Cities.

"Totally Spies" - Beverly Hills, California


"The Proud Family" - Los Angeles, California


"The PJ's" - Detroit, Michigan (everybody can rule this out, since technically, it's not a cartoon but a 'claymation' series.)

[umaiki]

Sailor moon! :D!

Many of the places used are based on were the author lived, for example, the game place is based on a real gaming place lool! (it's not a convinience store!)

[Rurouni Kenshin]

Megas takes place in New Jersey, and Kenshin takes place in various Japanese cities throughout the show.

[Chiptooth]

Freakazoid! was set in Washington D.C.

[mammy2shoesfan]

The Archies-Riverdale (California, I guess).

Oh I always took that to be the Riverdale in The Bronx (lol just kidding).

[DarthGonzo]

The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series (1987-97)-Never mentioned that they lived in New York City.

No so, I don't remember the episode with the robot police officer very well (??) but the show was titled "New York's Shiniest."

[Jave]

The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series (1987-97)-Never mentioned that they lived in New York City.They showed the Twin Towers in one episode. They even mentioned them by name, I think.

[Skeeter]

Juniper Lee-Orchid Bay. No doubt near San Francisco. Only does it exsist?

I think Orchid Bay is supposed to be the Juniper Lee-universe equivalent of San Francisco.

All five seasons of Digimon take place in different, real life districts/wards of Tokyo: Adventure and 02 are set in Odaiba and Tamers in West Shinjuku. I forget in which districts Frontier and Savers are set in (or even if it was said where Savers takes place).

-Kim

[JDWeil]

Pluto and the Armadillo takes place in Belize, Brazil, A rarity for a Disney short.

[The Weed Of Cri]

Both Robocop cartoons (the Marvel Animation show and the Alpha Commando series) take place in Chicago.

Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame is set in Paris.

The main cast of Ben 10 have travelled to numerous real U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C., Cincinatti, and Buffalo.

Both X-Men cartoons retained the comic central location of Xavier's school on Long Island.

Lilo Stitch is set in Hawai'i, but I don't think the actual town is ever named.

The central locale of Martin Mystery (the school Martin & Diana attend) appears to be fictitious, but they have gone on missions to many real locations, including London, Paris, Hollywood, and Anchorage, Alaska.

Excel Saga's "City of F" is apparently Fukuoka. A movie theater (now closed) owned by the company I work for recently turned up in the manga.

[Undrave]

Actually in the French version of Martin Mystery has the caption at the bottom of the screen state "Torrington Academy, Sherbrooke, Quebec", those captions seem absent from the English version.