10 Terrible Shows With Stunning Animation

By Jaclyn Appelgate

They say “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, but with animation, judgment can be quite the challenge, especially nowadays. More often than not, good animation is a sign that a cartoon series has been handled with care and will be an entertaining masterpiece. All the best animated TV series have fantastic animation, and yet the opposite can’t always be said about the terrible shows.

Looks can be frightfully deceiving with some of the worst series which were given the opportunity of great animation to easily bring in viewers. Unfortunately, the creators couldn’t pull their shows the rest of the way.

Supernoobs Tried To Create An Action-Packed Comedy But Failed In Multiple Ways

The people who hated Johnny Test braced for impact with Scott Fellows’ next animated series Supernoobs, and in spite of a large dislike of his work, there were still plenty of viewers willing to give the new show a chance. Aside from the rather ridiculous title, Supernoobs looked decent on the surface.

The animation is decent enough to give the show at least one quick watch. Consequently, that’s just about the only decent part of the show. The characters are unlikable, the voice acting is downright embarrassing, and the storylines are so ridiculous you will feel as though you’re losing brain cells watching a single episode.

Secret Mountain Fort Awesome Delightfully Disturbed Only A Handful Of Viewers

Toward the end of the early 2000s, animation entered a very strange phase where a handful of cartoons all looked uncomfortably gross, and Secret Mountain Fort Awesome is one of those shows. It follows the story of five alien monsters who ventured to Earth to befriend humans. While many viewers couldn’t handle the gross look of the show, that just means that the artists and animators did a good job.

Looking deeper at the animation, it’s pretty seamless with good frame rates and very bold designs. However, that wasn’t enough to compensate for the show’s lack of character development and poorly planned out story. Those who love raunchy entertainment will love the look of this show, but appearances alone can only take a series so far.

Da Boom Crew Had Such Potential But Was Cancelled For A Reason

After the brilliant success of The Proud Family, cartoon creator Bruce Smith set out to make another animated series that would thrill the younger generation of the early 2000s. That show was Da Boom Crew, which unfortunately failed to make it past 4 episodes.

Although the show was given the most brilliantly talented animation team, the content within the show was downright embarrassing. The story was captivating in essence, being about a trio of boys stuck in their own video game universe, but the series became tied up in ridiculous plot holes that even children couldn’t handle. On top of that, the dialogue was unrealistic with an emphasis on slang that no one uses and relied too heavily on offensive stereotypes.

King Star King’s Success Is Only In Its Shock Value

A series like King Star King could only air on Adult Swim, but even the network came to realize that the series was too much for most viewers and had to air it online instead of on television. While much of the animation is remarkable in how fluid and detailed it is, that’s about the only impressive part of this show.

Although a small group of viewers were fans of the series, the majority couldn’t overcome their general disgust and disappointment with this show. If the overuse of useless half-naked women weren’t enough, the plot goes nowhere and even the voice acting is a major flaw.

Drawn Together Was A Brilliant Concept In Animation But Fell Short On Content

Combining different animation styles is an impressive feat, which is a part of what brought viewers to the Comedy Central series Drawn Together. The concept is a fake animated reality TV series where various cartoon characters from different genres live together under one roof. The animation is well-done, especially in regards to diversifying the style and movements of each character to match their genre.

Looking past the animation, the crude humor coming from these characters draws the audience in, but not everyone is laughing. It’s not only that the offensive humor is too much for some, many complaints of the show are a lack of original jokes and overdoing jokes that weren’t all that funny to begin with.

Teen Titans Go! Was Given Animation That Angers The Die Hard DC Fans

After the cliff-hanger finale of the 2005 animated series Teen Titans, fans were disappointed that Cartoon Network decided to air the spin-off parody Teen Titans Go! As the spin-off earned its own audience, fans of the original series hoped for a cancelation to make way for the continuation of the 2005 cartoon, but alas, nearly a decade later and they’re still waiting.

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After years of making funny caricatures of the beloved Titans characters, which to many only serve to make a mockery of the original content, it seems like the show is set to stay for some time. With the success that Teen Titans Go! has found with younger viewers, it’s been given more attention and care than it probably deserves, and that includes its seamless and wonderfully stylistic animation.

Loonatics Unleashed – Would Have Been Gold If Not For Its Poor Execution

The legendary franchise Looney Tunes has always proven to bring in viewers, so Warner Bros saw an opportunity to resonate with a younger audience with the superhero series Loonatics Unleashed. The animation is on par with Teen Titans, and has a similar look and feel like many of the other superhero animated series that came out in the early 2000s.

Perhaps the thrill of seeing the Looney Tunes cast as superheroes was enough to keep the kids watching, but the critics took issue with the show’s lack of originality and characters. Although the powers that the heroes have are creative, the originality ends there and the audience is left with flat protagonists, boring villains, a story that doesn’t thrill as much as it should, and the most obnoxious attempts at witty banter.

Kamp Koral Has Adorable Animation, But Regardless, Never Had To Exist

Fans were split upon the announcement of the Spongebob Squarepants spin-off Kamp Koral, and not only because it went against the original creator’s wishes for the franchise. The past several seasons of the cartoon have been grossly disappointing, but regardless, there was an audience to give the new spin-off a chance.

Bringing the series into the age of 3-D animation, the look of the show is invitingly adorable, especially the way the characters look in their smooth 3-D designs. However, the humor, which makes up most of the show, falls dreadfully flat, and on top of that, there’s genuinely zero substance to the series.

ThunderCats Roar Was A Terrible Handling Of Its Original Content

To some cartoon lovers’ dismay, the adorable animation style from the show Ok KO! Let’s Be Heroes made its way to the ThunderCats franchise in Cartoon Network’s ThunderCats Roar. While the animation is seamless and fun to watch for most, the rest of this short-lived cartoon is awful with many frustrated with the creator’s poor handling of the original content.

The series opens with the destruction of the ThunderCats’ planet, but is played off like a joke, completely ignoring the emotional impacts that the original ’80s show had. While this childish humor may work out with other series, a franchise like ThunderCats, which has so many layers to the plot and characters, deserved better.

Queer Force Was A Great Disappointment For Everyone, Especially The LGBT+ Community

When the trailers for Netflix’s Queer Force were released, there was nothing but excitement to see more representation in what appeared to be an animated labor of love. While the first episode built up a solid plot with decent raunchy humor, the creators took the potential the show had and went completely south with it.

It’s definitely clear they were going for offensive humor, but after a while, it was overdone with little substance. The only impressive thing that the show really does, aside from moderately showcasing LGBT+ characters, is feature incredible animation.

Source: https://www.cbr.com/horrible-shows-great-animation/