The Best And Worst Of Animation/Anime In 2002

[pabcool]

Well, IMO 2002 Has Been Hell In The Animation Biz. But There Are Still Lots Of High Points, So What Do You Think Are The Best And Worst Moments Of Animation In 2002?

[joshualane]

Why do you think it's been "Hell" this year in animation?

I think it's been great and here are some highlights for me:
- More animated theatrical films this year than any other
- CN continues splendidly with Toonami, Adult Swim, etc.
- He-Man is back and better than ever
- Pokemon has finally been replaced as #1 animated series...and by the brilliance of Spongebob!
- Oscar for Best Animated Feature
- The Anime Network is coming
- DVD becoming more popular which means more animated releases for fans
- Walt Disney Treasures series of sets continuing

Here are some low points though:
- Transformers Armada...just sad to see what's become of the Transformers legacy
- Beyblade...I mean seriously...spinning top battles?
- Digimon dropped from Saturday mornings
- Weekday animated programming replaced by talk shows

I'm sure I'll be able to think of more good/bad points later, but that's all I have for now.

[Matt Hazuda]

Worst moments: Nick premieres Butt Ugly Martians and Super Dumo Sumos on their SLAM block. Transformers: Armada premieres on Toonami. Disney not doing everything possible to let Sprited Away suceed. WB and their idiocy in premiering the Powerpuff Girls Movie the same weekend as Men in Black 2. Manga manages to screw up the release of End of Evangelion on DVD and not give any of the extras they promised for it even though they delayed it for 2 years.

Best moments: Yu Yu Hakusho and Inu Yashua premiere on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block. He-Man premieres on Toonami. Kim Possible premieres on The Disney channel. The announcement of The Anime Network from ADV Films. ADV Films releases the Neon Genesis Evangelion Perfect Collection on DVD. Excel Saga and FLCL finally released on DVD in the US :D

[RZetlin]

Worst:
-Disney gives limited release for Spirited Away.
-Looney Tunes Babies
-Saban shows in limbo
-Foxbox (They replace Digimon for this?!)
-Announcements of more cheapquels
-Beyblade
-Manga Entertainment releasing an unprofessional letter b*tching about the EVA: Death and Rebirth review in Newtype USA

Best:
-Release of Newtype USA
-Annoucement of Anime Network
-The continuing exposure of anime to the public. (Eg. Techtv)
-Cartoon Network continuing support of anime

[Artemis]

What is this "Hell" you speak of? Sure, bad things happened, but all the good things that happened outweigh the bad things, IMO.

[Mynd Hed]

Well, most of the best moments of 2002 have been either A.) announcements of things that will not come until 2003 or later, such as the Big O 2 and the Anime Network, or B.) U.S. releases of things that were previously available in Japan, such as Berserk and Hellsing. It doesn't really feel right to count such things as the best moments of 2002, since they really belong to other years.

However, there is definitely one high point of 2002, in fact in my opinion it is THE high point in animation for the entire year, and quite possibly the decade thus far: Waking Life.

Waking Life is, simply put, the most intelligent, original, entertaining, wonderful animated film I have EVER seen. It is good to know that American animators can still produce works that are capable of blowing away almost anything Japan has to offer, if not in technical animation quality, in originality, creativity, and intelligence. It's not that I'm ungrateful to Japanese animators for all the great entertainment they've given me over the years, but in a field where America is so often outdone by our friends across the Pacific, it's nice to know that every now and again we can at least play in the same ballpark, WITHOUT shamelessly imitating our Asian brothers. Far too many American animators nowadays attempt to match the Japanese level of animation quality by simple imitation, but Waking Life doesn't fall into that hole: it is almost completely original and unique.

[mbaker]

High Points:
- More animated theatrical films this year than any other
- CN continues splendidly with Toonami, Adult Swim, etc.
- He-Man is back and better than ever
- Pokemon has finally been replaced as #1 animated series...and by the brilliance of Spongebob! I guess yellow is A hot color these days.
- Oscar for Best Animated Feature
- The Anime Network is coming
- DVD becoming more popular which means more animated releases for fans
- Walt Disney Treasures series of sets continuing
- Kim Possible turns out good despite clueless promotion, and mixed reviews.
- Warner Home Video releases the uncut version of Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker on DVD
- Warner also releases Batman:TAS, World's Finest, Subzero, and Justice League on DVD
- Scooby-Doo is back, and better than ever in "What's New Scooby-Doo"


Low Points:
- Transformers Armada...just sad to see what's become of the Transformers legacy
- Beyblade...I mean seriously...spinning top battles?
- Digimon dropped from Saturday mornings
- Weekday animated programming replaced by talk shows
- Warner Bros. and their idiocy in premiering the Powerpuff Girls Movie the same weekend as Men in Black 2! Not to mention giving it very little promotion outside of Cartoon Network, and selling it as A kids movie
- Di$ney dose everything they can to make Spirited Away fail in the U.S.
- Looney Tunes Babies. 'Nuff Said.
- Di$ney announces more cheapquels
- Foxbox (Let's hope the New Ninja Turtles series can save it.)
- The Live Action Scooby-Doo Movie becomes A hit.
- The Rock will star as Johnny Bravo in A live action crapfest

[Beat]

Worst

Transformers Armada- The end of the TF legacy.

[pabcool]

Originally posted by Artemis
What is this "Hell" you speak of? Sure, bad things happened, but all the good things that happened outweigh the bad things, IMO.

Basically Scannel And Hellner's Doing.

I Just CAN'T Get Over The Pac-Man Thing. It Creeps Me Out. I Didn't Like 2002 Too Much Animation-Wise.

Here's My Opinions:

Best:
-The Anime Network Is Announced.
-Spirited Away Was AMAZING.
-International Channel And TechTv Get More Anime.
-How Revolucionary Waking Life Was.
-Spirit. A Wonderful Movie.
-Adult Swim Gets The Rights To Futurama.
-The Animated Oscars.
-Anime Becoming Popular.
-Kim Possible On Disney.

Worst:
-Cancellation Sprees Of Good Shows.
-Nick Destroys SLAM!
-Digimon Is Replaced By FoxCrap... Umm... I Mean FoxBox.
-Nick Reaches An All New Low.
-Hellner Damages CN Like Never Before.
-Transformers: Armada. God Help Me.
-The Pac-Man Live Action Movie.
-The New Breed Of Nicktoons Are Delayed.
-Lil' Pimp Is Announced.
-Di$ney SEVERELY Underpromotes Spirited Away.
-Cheapequels Reach An All New Low.
-Di$ney Tightly Holding The Rights To Detective Conan.

[SpotLane]

Best

New Futurama is finally shown
The helded back episodes of Teacher's Pet finally air
I finally got to see Yu Gi Oh Uncut and subbed

Worst

ABC cancels Teacher's Pet to bring over Fox's old shows
FoxBox
Baby Looney Tunes
Jimmy Neutron TV Series
Tarzan and Jane "The all new movie"

[rmarti3926]

BEST

(On a personal level)

- The arrival of Lupin III
- Love Hina
- Mobile Suit Gundam - Char's Counterattack
- The world television premiere of Anastasia (I plan to see it.)

(On a professional level)
- The arrival of Lupin III
- The sudden rise of Anime
- The announcement of The Anime Channel
- Spirit (I haven't seen the movie but I heard is good.)
- The announcement of a Duck Dodgers and Teen Titans series
- The announcement of Ghost in the Shell and Big-O 2.
- The season finale of Justice League.
- The Looney Tunes movie coming to theaters soon.
- The Cowboy Bebop movie coming to theaters soon.

WORST
- Baby Looney Tunes (What else?)
- More Di$ney cheap-quels
- Disney's stupid underhandling of Spirited Away
- CN cancelling of Rejected (Just becuase of two little words)
- WB releasing the Powerpuff Girls movie on the same weekend as MIB II.
- Roger Ebert comparing Townsville's massive damage in the PPG movie to 9/11!
- Transformers Armada (of course)

That's my two cents.

[Daniel P]

BEST

Hey Arnold, "The Journal"
Futurama coming to CN next year
CN orders new seasons of the Popeye Show


WORST

CN takes Bugs & Daffy off the air
Invader ZIM cancelled
The Super Duper Sumos airs on Nick
Baby Looney Tunes premeire
Disney and their %@#$ cheapquels
Disney barely promoting Spirited Away

[zarius]

The Best to Happen:

-He-Man returns to the fold

-Home Movies FINLALY starts to make it big with a fantastic third season

-Hey Arnold: The Movie propels the football head into Big-gun territory (albiet tempoirairily)

-The PreMiere of Evangelion in the U.K on the Sci-Fi Chanen

-Powerpuff Girls hit the big screen

-Pokemon loses it


The Worst

-Crap cartoons Spongebob and Kim Possible Blind the general public with their unorginal and lame jokes and characters

-SPongebob is number one cartoon

-Foxblock ditches Digimon

-ZIM is axed

-Di$ney sells out with cheapquels, and above-stated Kim Posisble

-Hey Arnold ENDS

-The Simpsons Lose it

-Futurama ends

[pabcool]

Originally posted by dacp3

Disney barely promoting Spirited Away
[/list]

I Thought You Couldn't STAND Anime. Spirited Away Is As Anime As You Can Get.

[Lonestarr]

Best:

- "Tokyo Pig" premieres on ABC Family, and there was much rejoicing and gut-busting in the land
- Lilo and Stitch
- Ice Age
- The Powerpuff Girls Movie
- Hey Arnold: the Movie
- "Kim Possible", a funny, if sometimes heavy-handed, show, premieres on the Disney Channel, proving that they haven't entirely lost their marbles
- an Oscar category celebrating the greatness of animated features
- thanks to Cartoon Network, I discovered fine anime like "Yu Yu Hakusho", "Inu-Yasha" and "Hamtaro" (you heard me!)
- the AS premieres of "Baby Blues", "The Oblongs" and "Welcome to Eltingville"

Worst:

- "The Weekenders", one of the best cartoons of the last decade is shunted to Toon Disney, which only 5% of the population gets to watch, while "Sabrina: TAS" gets to play every day on the Disney Channel, which everyone gets. I hope someone got fired for this*
- Warner Bros' inexcusable mispromoting of The Powerpuff Girls Movie
- effin' cheapquels!
- Fox stops beating around the bush and cancels "Futurama" and "Family Guy"
- While not quite the a-bomb I was expecting, "Scooby-Doo" made a butt-load of undeserved cash
- "Invader ZIM" gets the shaft, in favor of such "programming" as "Super Duper Sumos"

* - preferably with a flame thrower. :D

I'm sure I'll think of more later.

[Matsuo]

The best for me this year is........

I have fully embraced that which is anime! No DBZ and Pokemon for me any more! And I finally saw my dream girl! And uhh, Disney did some stuff and uhh, Manga sucks, and uh, I found out that if I diss Sponge Bob in class I get beat up... Basically....

Sponge Bob rules all.
Anime means crap to American adults.
And NGE is best the anime of all time.

[Daniel P]

Originally posted by pabcool
I Thought You Couldn't STAND Anime. Spirited Away Is As Anime As You Can Get. Eh, my tastes are widening... ;)

[StrangerAtaru]

Best of the Year: (to me)

-Saban goes out with a bang by finishing an excellent dub job on Digimon Tamers!
-End of Evangelion is finally released in the US. (thus showing the glory that is Asuka's final battle to all....and some other stuff.)
-Red Ribbon arc of Dragonball aired, making me realize how much Toriyama had going before the awkward (sometimes good, sometimes bad) mess of DBZ came out.
-Whatever Happened to Robot Jones?
-Spirited Away captivates world.....(although I have yet to see it yet)
-Many other great animated films released, including Metropolis, Lilo and Stitch, and, um, other stuff. (unfortunately, I have only seen Metropolis filmwise)
-G Gundam comes out. (and I meet another great anime muse: Allenby Beardsley!)
-Three words: The Anime Channel (come on Comcast! You know Philly needs this!)

Worst of the Year:
-Zoids CC/GF's ending withheld in US, not in rest of world.
-The whole AOLTW/Turner/Kellner insanities
-Di$ney still acting like idiots on animation (see cheapquels, underpromoting the 4th Pokemon movie and Spirited Away, their programming decisions on ABC Family, and did I mention cheapquels?)
-Fox Box (except Kinnikuman Nisei/Ultimate Muscle, a personal breakout hit with myself)
-Nick acting like idiots yet again (see underpromoting/cancelling ZiM, overdoing a certain sponge, continuing their Klasky Csupo loves, bringing forth the Sumo show, etc., etc.)
-Fox never realizing that the time to cancel The Simpsons is now (as well as their whole Futurama fiasco)

[Anthonynotes]

Best:
- Lilo & Stitch
- the Powerpuff Girls movie
- Ice Age a success (haven't seen it, but nice to see a non-Disney/Pixar-related film that's supposedly decent doing well)....
- the Poke-juggernaut finally coming to a close
- "What's New, Scooby Doo"

Worst:
- Fox Box. (*Fighting food*?!? (shakes head))
- a continued lack of humor-based KWB shows
- the cancellation of "The Weekenders", in favor of "Digimon" (*digital* monsters...woohoo...)
- the (lack of) marketing for the PPG movie
- "Cheapquals" to classic Disney movies
- the "Scooby Doo" movie actually doing well
- Adam Sandler's animated film. (SID THE SQUID: I hate Adam.)
- Baby Looney Tunes

-B.

[Conan-san]

Here's the UK selection

Good
*The Pegisis saga came to a close in Yu-gi-oh and The Battle City saga should be ariving soon
*Evangelion and Nadesico on Uk TV thanks to sci-fi
*Eva: Death and Rebirth
*CNX, CB bing on at 9:00pm

Bad
*Sky/Nick being stingy in there showing of the DDD saga of Yu-gi-oh.
*CNX still to show YU YU, Inuasha
*Zoids/Zero (Does not compare to CC)

[Mynd Hed]

- Adam Sandler's animated film. (SID THE SQUID: I hate Adam.)

Dude, don't knock the thing before you've even seen it. AFTER it's out and AFTER you've seen it (if you do at all), THEN you have the right to knock it all you want. Otherwise, you don't know how good or bad it is so you have no right to talk.

[randomguy]

However, there is definitely one high point of 2002, in fact in my opinion it is THE high point in animation for the entire year, and quite possibly the decade thus far: Waking Life.

I couldn't agree more. Waking Life is a massively understated acheivement in domestic animation. That being said, it was released in 2001.

[Mynd Hed]

I couldn't agree more. Waking Life is a massively understated acheivement in domestic animation. That being said, it was released in 2001.

Really? My DVD has the copyright date listed as 2002 so I just assumed that was when it was released. Maybe it was released at Sundance and other film festivals in 2001, but not in most theatres until 2002? As I recall I started hearing hype about it around late December 2001 but it didn't come to a theatre in my area until January 2002.

[Feslmogh]

Here's some of mine...

Best...
Futurama on ASc
B&W Mickey Uncensered on DVD
Yu Yu and Inuyasha On ASA AND DVD
Cowboy Bebop
Popeye original openings



Worst...
Pokemon and Carpcaptues at 9pm
Disney cheapquals
Nicktoons (Except SpongeBob)
The Speedy Fiasco (Ay Carumba!)
Baby Looney Tunes (Puke-Cute)