I saw the clip. It was awesome.
I hope Deadpool joins Spidey in breaking the 4th wall, they would be stupid not to do it.

Where's She-Hulk?
Those 3 together would annihilate the 4th wall.

Oh man, I can't believe I haven't noticed this thread. I'm gonna jump in here. I've been working in the animation industry for quite a while now. Been at Dreamworks for over 7 years, and decided I really wanted in on the "action/adventure" side of things. Flash forward a few years, and I ended up working on a bunch of stuff from Ben 10 and other cartoon network projects. I worked on a bunch of the DC animated stuff and was a director on Young Justice. I'm currently directing on the last two seasons of Legend of Korra.

I just wanted to point out that there is a lot of false information going on here, but some correct ones too.:) If you guys have any questions regarding animation, feel free to hit me up.

As for Korra looking top "anime"..its because our main character designers is actually an anime animator. What a lot of peeps don't realize is that "MAJORITY" of Japanese animation is actually animated in Korea. P.S. a chunk of Book 2's animation is done by Japan's Pierrot (Naruto and etc). So if gets to look even more "anime" you know the reason. :D

Outsourcing animation to Korea is done by the US as well as it's cheaper to do...and you can really tell the outsourced bits because they look awful.

Wrong. Yes, we outsource to the Korea. But its not cheaper and its not worse. In fact some Korean studios are superior to the Japanese ones. When I was at WB, I co-directed on Justice League: Doom. It was done by one of the oldest Japanese animation studios (TMS). It is inferior (animation wise) to the other DVDs done by Korean studios. 4C also did Thundercats for us..and its not any better than the Korean outsourced bits. It was mediocre. HOWEVER, they out did themselves on the latest Justice League DVDs coming out.

The reason we went with the Japanese studios at that time, was because they were desperate for work. They're animation industry was at an all time low.

Also, the latest stuff we're getting back from Korra, Studio MIR (Korean) blows the stuff from Pierrot out of the water.

But just like Japanese studios, not all Korean studios are equal. MIR is at the top (infact a few top Jap. studios (inlusing Prod. IG, 4C and Trigger) tried hard to recruit their animators).

MOI is one of the largest animation studios there...problem is they've gotten too big. Their talent spread out over too many projects. I'm hoping they'd go back to their old ways and shrink down a bit and concentrate their most talented artists on the main projects, instead of stuff like Kaijudo, Spiderman and etc.

They used to be our go-to studio.

All i have to say is: Thank you and keep up the good work.

Thanks for the insight, that's really interesting stuff!

Since this thread is about Western animation, what do y'all think of Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa?

Are you privy to any insider information...i.e. maybe a release date or a trailer? SDCC is just a couple of days away a couple of tidbits of info wouldn't hurt...right...? RIGHT!? Sorry..You Avatar people are VERY tight with info.

Thanks for the info about Animation studios by the way. I gathered as much listening to Creator commentaries on some other series like Batman Beyond and JLU. Also most anime tend to have a large list of Korean names in the end credits. Their presence in modern animation is nothing to laugh at.

A little off topic but since Korea is getting there in terms of animation do they release any series based off any of their own fiction? Manhwa or original animation aimed mainly at the older viewer? It feels a bit off why a country with quite a lot of notable animation studios hasn't released anything homegrown of note. Granted I haven't been looking hard.

Sez you.

Batman's a marketable character that has been going strong for more than half a century. The character runs out of steam every so often but he comes back stronger than ever when the right creative talent knows just what to do with him.

While I'd love to see other DC characters get more of a spotlight (Flash is getting some love in the Flashpoint Paradox) and Aquaman, you can't deny Batman's appeal and influence is strong. He's a pop culture icon. It's just how it is.

I think Aquaman is an especially good hero to have cartoons on/of because he is all about swashbuckling adventures and I just think it'd be a lot of fun.

If they based it on Brave and the Bold, sure. That Aquaman was awesome. And if anything, if DC could make a reasonably good Aquaman series aimed at the younger viewers, they just might be able to wipe away the stigma of Super Friends Aquaman who was for all intents and purposes, the only Aquaman most people from my and older generations remember.

The "talks to fish" angle will of course inevitably come up.

I dunno if that is really true, if kids still read comics then they'll know Aquaman is awesome. New 52 has made Aquaman cool again and although I think that perhaps he is a little too 'edgy' to translate into a kids cartoon in his current comics form, a softer, more adventure focused variation of the character could work well for a cartoon I think.

Since what kids don't love a good bit of adventure, pirates, sword fighting and giant monsters?

That would require guys at DC Animation to be invested in the idea of making serious story-driven series. They tried with Young Justice but for whatever reason (now that Potato is onboard maybe he can help shed some light on what really happened to that show behind the scenes) that died in the water.

As far as I can guess they want to focus on kid-friendly stuff for TV while giving older fans edgier stories on DVD/Blu-Ray features. Which is sort of a good thing seeing as how they can get away with a lot censorship wise.

Me, I envisioned a series about a young Arthur Curry, Lighthouse boy setting out to find his missing heritage while on the run from Atlanteans who want him dead for Byzantine politics while on the run from...I dunno...Lexcorp who want to cut him open on a table to see what makes him tick. They could do what Busiek did and try to inject some Arthurian legend into it...

I just don't see how they could pitch it up to the powers that be. These days I wonder how DCAU got away with all the innuendo they left in Justice League.

I dunno, if Aquaman goes on a separate adventure each week it could basically have no wider narrative and be completely episodic, even though I don't like shows like that. Your idea sounds awesome though!

Yeah I'm really surprised at the level of violence and adult themes found in stuff like BTAS, JLU, Beyond etc. You just don't get that kind of stuff any more.

Have you seen the 90s Spider-Man series? That show was pretty good and managed to work around some major censors. Guns for example couldn't be depicted in animation (I believe it was by FOX Animation. Could be wrong) so even Police characters were stuck using guns that looked like Sci-Fi blasters. The worst was when the Punisher shows up and he gets stuck with non-Lethal ordinance that would make Batman snicker. That said, the show did have some real epic bits and they tried to make it the series that tied the 90s Marvel animation together( X-Men, Fantastic Four and the Hulk I think).

These days...I dunno. Now don't get me wrong, I like light-hearted shows like Teen Titans Go but I think something a little more epic would show kids more about the difference between right and wrong and consequences.

I miss the 90s....Animation wise anyway.

The one where censorship wouldn't allow him to throw punches so all he did through the whole show was swing on a web and kick people? Punisher and his fucking 'mercy bullets' hahahaha! Yeah I remember it, loved it as a kid but the animation has not aged well at all, so much QUALITY.

I think the bigger problem now is that censorship is so tight, even shows that do try and do something more '90s' like say Young Justice or Ben 10 Alien Force or Generator Rex all end up falling flat most of the time because they are so limited in anything they do.

I agree kids shouldn't be exposed to like extreme violence, or sex, or swearing, or drug use or whatever but it's worrying when there is more violence and gore in the playground than there is in the cartoons and really the best kids shows are the ones with adult themes, educationally, as the kids can actually learn and think about things rather than just learning how to do a new fart joke.

;) Although a new series will most likely never happen..let's just say they started storyboarding on a 52 Justice League DVD that's...uhhh...how do I say it..."Aquacentric" ;)

Oh my God really?! Yes! Good to see one of my DC favourites getting a look in.

[QUOTE=badlander86;185429]That would require guys at DC Animation to be invested in the idea of making serious story-driven series. They tried with Young Justice but for whatever reason (now that Potato is onboard maybe he can help shed some light on what really happened to that show behind the scenes) that died in the water.

When we went into season 2, we already knew the series was gonna get canceled. Cartoon Network already informed us that this is the last season (hence the time jump to wrap things up). The cancelletaion was entirely CN's decision and not WBs. The problem is that WB no longer has its own networks and has to rely on stations like CN (which is part of Turner, which is the parent company of CN and WB) to fund its programs.

Here's the crazy part. CN flat out told us.."WB content is pure filler for CN". CN doesn't care that the ratings for Brave/Bold, GL or YJ were good. Its not a CN product, hence there will be no support/advertising for them. Hence the cancelation.
Also the toys didn't sell...which is totally understandable because A) The toys sucked...and B) they were WAAAY too expensive for what you got. $10 for a shitty little PVC figure with 70's articulation?!!?! I showed them what $10 got you in Japan (Mini S.I.C. figures with crazy good paintjobs and articulation). No Bueno.

You pretty much nailed it. We are sick of working on Batman stuff, BUT the products sell. But here's the kicker...we all know that the series are made to sell toys (that goes for just about Toku series as well). I don't think Beware Batman will last more than a season. Reason: There is no toyline for it. The only toy available is the 6" figure as part of the Batman Unlimited line.

Why is there no toyline for it? It goes back to Green Lantern. When the GL series started, its aim was to sell a bunch of toys. The problem is that the GL movie toys were still clogging up shelves..so retailers like Target, Wal-mart and TRU didn't want anymore "GL" toys. Its a shame..the prototypes where cool. They had the ships and everything.

Fast forward to today...if you go into stores, what pegwarmers do you see? Batman.

We have things from Dark Knight Rises, lingering Brave and Bold figures, Batman Unlimited and Mattel's own evergreen line Power Attack Batman. That's 4 Batman lines thats currently in stores. All the big box stores didn't want another Batman line to further crowd the scene.

[QUOTE=Potato;185481]So they killed the series the same way CN did Thundercats?

If merchandise is the main focus of these networks how doe shows like Avatar get by? There are no toylines, no high-end collectibles and thingamabobs. We get a couple of short comics, an artbook or two and usually that's that. What's Nick's "business model" like?

Their was an Avatar toyline but it just didn't get as much focus as others.

[QUOTE=badlander86;185693]Nick actually cares about it's action show.

But they toyline was not the selling point of the show so whether or not it did well was not going to determine the fate of the show. Young Justice on the other hand never struck me as a show created to sell toys but it apparently fell victim to the same merch stigma that Thundercats had.

Best news I've seen all week.

Better than CN's.

I don't get how they can use that as an excuse for Green Lantern. Yeah, it's kind of hard to sell toys that DON'T EXIST!

For that matter, what illegal substances are Cartoon Network smoking by allowing shows like Almost-Naked Animals to even make it beyond the fevered cheese-dream phase and continue airing to this day, despite the fact that there is no merchandise available for it and shows of similar design and make?

CN Executive: da, lets see da soopah heroz make big $$$ and gots da toyz so da action show get da toyz and no toy sales mean it sux so dat meenz we can make funny toons 4 da kiddyz!

GoseiWonder: That makes no sense. Why would you want viewers to watch your channel on the premise of "that's all you offer, might as well suck it up" instead of "these shows are really good and engross me as a viewer?" And this isn't the 90's. why should toys matter in an animated series' success?

CN Executive: YOLO SWAG! WE GOTZ DA KOOL TOONZ!

GoseiWonder: What's that? "Goseiger is awful and Moune is ugly?" I sure hope Sentai doesn't hear that! ;) :lol

*cue Sentai's merciless rage*

Also, Almost-Naked Animals sounds like a satire of a satire that not even CollegeHumor would try to do.

[QUOTE=badlander86;185693]Korra is one of those strange cats. It goes against ALL animation principles...female lead...minority...no merchandise. Usually, any ONE of these spells instant doom or heck even a "no go" or no greenlight for animation production. Korra is mainly used as a "flagship" model or "halo" product for Nickelodeon. They lose money on Korra, but in a way its their "show-off" piece. It's there to show that Nickolodeon can do more than just Spongebob. Think of it as Acura's NSX or Dodge's Viper. Every one of those cars they sell, they lose money...but what they do gain is image.

[QUOTE=Potato;185797]It's a ballsy play I'd hope big money networks like CN and Disney would try. I mean the comparisons to Avatar The Last Airbender aside, Korra has a very much dedicated following.

What is Disney's fetish with Doctor Doom?

What makes you ask that?
Disney owns Marvel, but they don't command Marvel around.

I'm only asking this as Doom seems to be the source of humor in recent Marvel cartoons.

Doctor Doom is popular and he's a universal villain, not just a Fantastic 4 one, so he can be placed in an Avengers, or Spider-Man, or Hulk, or etc cartoon with no problem or spending any time on back story or history on him.

So I caught the new Avengers Assemble episode and the Deadpool episode of Ultimate Spiderman.

I thought episode 3 was a huge marked improvement over the opening two parter, but it's still kind of a dumb show.

Speaking of dumb shows…I rather enjoyed Deadpool in Ultimate Spiderman, as originally thought the show was a perfect fit him. Surprised he didn't do any of the more of the fourth wall breaking himself though.

You mean they didn't take advantage of a perfect joke?

Deadpool is self aware.
He doesn't turn to the audience and start cracking wise.

It was a colossal wasted opportunity IMO. He takes over the narration once but that's it.

Out of boredom I decided to check out Teen Titans Go, and I'm ready to eat some crow with the series.

I take back some of my harshness towards it. It can be entertaining, and I like this show's Raven. But that said, I still think it's insulting to fans who were expecting something like the original and people that liked Young Justice.

That said I have a few issues with it, first being the cheap flash style animation, not a huge fan of it. The second is; this show's style is more akin to looney toons or a sit com rather then a show about super hero. The third is just how they keep undermining Robin. I can think of two instances: Gorilla and Super Robin.

Honestly feels as though the person producing this show missed the boat entirely on what people liked about the original Teen Titans(Something I honestly can't tell you what it is since I have no nostalgia for the show). I feel as though if the show didn't have the original cast reprising the roles, no one would give a rat's ass about this show.