Boomerang has changed

Cartoon Network's Boomerang channel has changed earlier this year.
They've removed a lot of their Hanna-Barbara cartoons from their schedule & replaced them with Amazing World of Gumball, Teen Titans, The Garfield Show, Chowder, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends & The Looney Tunes Show.
They also repeat their poorly edited promos in a continuous loop.
Fans aren't too happy with the change.
I remember their slogan "It's All Coming Back To You".
I want them to bring back Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, 2 Stupid Dogs.
At least they still air shows like Pokemon, Powerpuff Girls, Scooby Doo, The Flintstones, The Smurfs, Tom & Jerry & the classic Looney Tunes cartoons.
What do you all thing about the change?

they changed? that sucks ass man. a couple of years ago i'd go to bed with Scooby doo on or the smurfs. or any some other 60's cartoon on. now it sounds like they are utter shit. it's a shame i love those old cartoons. looney tunes and Garfield are the only ones on that list for the current channel i'd even watch at all

Even though I do actually like all of those new shows, I agree that Boomerang should be exclusively vintage and/or retro cartoons, rather than just the Cartoon Network equivalent of the Nicktoons channel. I guess it's more cost efficient to host reruns of fresher-but-cancelled series they still have the rights to, but to belie the entire premise of your channel is just questionable. I can accept that Nick At Nite unsteadily transitioned from goofy, kid-oriented '60s sitcoms to 'Friends' and 'George Lopez', but if they did that to TV Land, I'd be justifiably pissed.

wildhoney66 wrote:

looney tunes and Garfield are the only ones on that list for the current channel i'd even watch at all

Note that this is the dialogue-driven 'The Looney Tunes Show' (2011-present) and the CGI-animated 'The Garfield Show' (2008-present), not to be confused with the original Merrie Melodies cartoons or the 1988-1995 series 'Garfield & Friends'. I'm actually a huge defender of 'The Looney Tunes Show', which is far funnier than it actually had the right to be, but 'The Garfield Show' is pretty weak in both writing and animation (then again, I never considered Garfield "funny", though the '90s cartoon had its moments).

Hey just be glad they arent running johnny test, that show was terrible and it took forever for it to die.

Atsuuikakura wrote:

Hey just be glad they arent running johnny test, that show was terrible and it took forever for it to die.

'Johnny Test' is an abomination, and I can say that as someone who loves children's media (it's the area of my career goals in entertainment). Cheap and ugly Flash animation, derivative and repetitive storylines, non-existent characterization and one of the worst cases of ADHD editing I've seen in a cartoon. It's truly the nadir of children's television, one of those shows that treats its target audience like idiots by giving them a bigger and longer visual equivalent of dangling shiny keys in front of their faces.

But let me tell you how I really feel...

thanxs for the correction, oh i love the original Garfield. and i don't like the new looney tunes, the voices are terrible but the animation i think is good, and i don't think it's any good at all as a matter of fact. but to each their own. i was thinking about the looney tunes that used to be on Saturday Mornings growing up. i'm sure you watched that too. now they don't even have any cartoons on saturday and that's just a sin if ya ask me. even if the cartoons are shit these days it's still sad and they should still have the right to play ya know?

The voices are terrible? It's pretty much the same cast from 'Tiny Toons'...Jeff Bergman, Bob Bergen, Maurice LaMarche and Jim Cummings have been voicing Looney Tunes since the '80s. I could do without Fred Armisen as Speedy Gonzales and I don't care enough about Lola Bunny to have an opinion on Kristen Wiig voicing her, but it's not like its a total cast overhaul.

I greatly disagree about cartoons being shit these days; quite the contrary, I think we're actually entering another golden age of television animation. 'Gravity Falls', 'Steven Universe', 'Adventure Time', 'Clarence', 'Harvey Beaks' and 'Regular Show' are all outstanding, and even the goofiness of 'Uncle Grandpa' is endearing in 'Ren & Stimpy'-style stupidity. And in adult animation, there's 'Bob's Burgers', 'Rick and Morty', 'Archer'...cartoons are MUCH better now than they were even just about ten years ago.

This is what the Boomerang promos look like now. The editing is really bad.

bob's burgers i watched when it 1st came out, i thought it was fucking terrible. the animation was good. and i love Tiny Toons and the folks you said i like. but the voices don't sound right. bugs bunny sounds awful. he sounded off on Tiny Toons but he did sound better on there than on the updated Looney Tunes. i like American Dad though i'll watch that once in a blue moon.Archer is ok i can watch it or not watch it, it just doesn't do it for me like it does for most people. though i do admit the animation is fantastic on that one. most of the cartoons that i see are utter shit the animation i mean. i don't know who Rick & Morty is, i've never heard of that one before to be honest. Adventure Time my niece watches that and she's 8. she loves it but i don't care for it, and that's fine it's her age and if was her age i'd love it too i'm guessing. most of the ones you mentioned i haven't seen nor heard of to be fair. Jimmy Neutron the movie and show i liked to be honest. though i do get tired of seeing CGI in everything.

i'm old fashion i want them drew well and voiced good. my niece was watching Tinker Bell that animated show of hers and it's fucking terrible. now don't get me wrong i'm passed the age where i can like it. but by terrible i don't mean the show itself i mean the animation. tinkerbell is not meant to be CGI. nor is Mickey and Donald etc..  they look terrible in CGI. her and my nephew watch a lot of disney so that's why i put those in.

there's one my niece loves called shit i forget the name of it. but it's talking pigs and it's a cute cartoon for kids, but the animation looks something like my 3 year old nephew would draw. and i don't even know if he's even drew anything at his age yet. it's not a crack at him or meant to be either.

i remember in the mid 90's we had a CGI craze going and those were terrible shows. than it leveled out and we got a lot of great cartoons when they stopped doing that and went back to drawing them. there's some good CGI movies don't get me wrong, Toy Story is great for example but i miss watching a cartoon that's drew well and voiced well and written well. a lot of these cartoons these days talks down to the kids and doesn't treat them as people. as for Looney Tunes i get that Mel Blanc died i remember him passing away in (1989) it broke my heart and still does when he died. i remember his son taking over for him and he wasn't his father  but he wasn't that bad at it either. there are some chracters where it doesn't matter who does the voice, like Mickey or Donald Duck, again disney they sound fine and they've had numerous people do their voices.

Garfiled should NOT be a show because Laurenzo Music. isn't doing the voice and he was Garfield. sorry i never can remember how to spell his name. but that's one guy's opinion. i don't know when the last time i watched the cartoon network was to be honest. but it's been a long time. i think i saw the current G.I.Joe show and that wasn't too bad. and i think i saw Transformers some of it but i can't remember what i thought of it to be fair. yeah i do agree those are badly edited. and man Garfield looks and sounds like shit. Mr. Bill was better made than Garfield looks and that had barely a budget way back when that was made i think?

After the golden era of the early-to-mid '90s, television cartoons went into a slump of cheap CGI animation and lackluster writing pandering to the low-brow. There were a few highlights ('Avatar: The Last Airbender', 'Samurai Jack', 'Invader Zim', 'Teen Titans'), but for the most part, I think Adult Swim had the most cutting-edge and original programming at the time, while Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network sort of became shells of their former selves.

Nowadays, the kids who grew up on classic '90s cartoons are working in the animation industry themselves and creating shows which are worthy successors. Not only has there been a return to traditional animation, it's going in many new directions and styles (e.g. the anime-inspired background art of 'Steven Universe' is gorgeous, the woodcut-inspired art and watercolors of 'The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack' are striking, and the combination of every conceivable style of animation in 'The Amazing World of Gumball' is awesome), because they don't condescend to kids, shows take risks in having more complex storylines (e.g. 'Gravity Falls' has a mythos and multi-season story arc which almost rivals 'The X-Files', and one of the more famous and straightforwardly dramatic episodes of 'Adventure Time' is a loose remake of Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road') as well as heavier and more progressive themes (e.g. 'Steven Universe' alone focuses strongly on social alienation, coping with loss and growing up in non-traditional families, in addition to blatant LGBT subtext (while 'Clarence' and 'The Legend of Korra' broke new ground in depicting same-sex couples)), the frantic ADHD pacing of older cartoons is pretty much gone (e.g. shows like 'Harvey Beaks' and 'Clarence' are super laid back, relying on the dialogue-driven charm of their characters to drive the show instead of a constant assault of gags and noise) and the songs and music are substantially better (e.g. the fun ukulele ditties in 'Adventure Time', the 'Final Fantasy'-esque piano/electronica score of 'Steven Universe', the full orchestra behind 'Harvey Beaks', etc.). Even 'Regular Show' and 'Uncle Grandpa', which are both stupid and goofy for the sake of being stupid and goofy, draw more influence from the witty, adult-laced humor of 'Rocko's Modern Life' instead of the "generic kids' humor" a lot of bad cartoons deal out, and stuff like 'Sanjay and Craig' and 'Star vs. the Forces of Evil', while not spectacular, recall the innocent humor of 'Rugrats' or 'Ed, Edd & Eddy' as opposed to bottom-of-the-barrel drivel like 'Johnny Test'.

TL;DR: in terms of both animation and writing, cartoons today (of the last five years) are a whole lot better than they were ten years ago. They're smarter, funnier, more diverse and much more visually appealing. There are still some mediocre, generic shows here and there (Nickelodeon has quite a few), but the good ones can be incredible, because they're being made by the generation that grew up watching the best cartoons.

As far as adult cartoons, I actually don't watch too many. Everybody seems to rave about Adult Swim's 'Rick and Morty', calling it one of the best and funniest cartoons in years, but it just didn't grab me at all. However, everyone whose opinions I trust likes it, so I'm going to say the problem is just with me instead of with the show. I do like 'Superjail!', but I think Adult Swim does better with live-action shows nowadays instead of cartoons.

Skibz wrote:

After the golden era of the early-to-mid '90s, television cartoons went into a slump of cheap CGI animation and lackluster writing pandering to the low-brow. There were a few highlights ('Avatar: The Last Airbender', 'Samurai Jack', 'Invader Zim', 'Teen Titans'), but for the most part, I think Adult Swim had the most cutting-edge and original programming at the time, while Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network sort of became shells of their former selves.

Nowadays, the kids who grew up on classic '90s cartoons are working in the animation industry themselves and creating shows which are worthy successors. Not only has there been a return to traditional animation, it's going in many new directions and styles (e.g. the anime-inspired background art of 'Steven Universe' is gorgeous, the woodcut-inspired art and watercolors of 'The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack' are striking, and the combination of every conceivable style of animation in 'The Amazing World of Gumball' is awesome), because they don't condescend to kids, shows take risks in having more complex storylines (e.g. 'Gravity Falls' has a mythos and multi-season story arc which almost rivals 'The X-Files', and one of the more famous and straightforwardly dramatic episodes of 'Adventure Time' is a loose remake of Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road') as well as heavier and more progressive themes (e.g. 'Steven Universe' alone focuses strongly on social alienation, coping with loss and growing up in non-traditional families, in addition to blatant LGBT subtext (while 'Clarence' and 'The Legend of Korra' broke new ground in depicting same-sex couples)), the frantic ADHD pacing of older cartoons is pretty much gone (e.g. shows like 'Harvey Beaks' and 'Clarence' are super laid back, relying on the dialogue-driven charm of their characters to drive the show instead of a constant assault of gags and noise) and the songs and music are substantially better (e.g. the fun ukulele ditties in 'Adventure Time', the 'Final Fantasy'-esque piano/electronica score of 'Steven Universe', the full orchestra behind 'Harvey Beaks', etc.). Even 'Regular Show' and 'Uncle Grandpa', which are both stupid and goofy for the sake of being stupid and goofy, draw more influence from the witty, adult-laced humor of 'Rocko's Modern Life' instead of the "generic kids' humor" a lot of bad cartoons deal out, and stuff like 'Sanjay and Craig' and 'Star vs. the Forces of Evil', while not spectacular, recall the innocent humor of 'Rugrats' or 'Ed, Edd & Eddy' as opposed to bottom-of-the-barrel drivel like 'Johnny Test'.

TL;DR: in terms of both animation and writing, cartoons today (of the last five years) are a whole lot better than they were ten years ago. They're smarter, funnier, more diverse and much more visually appealing. There are still some mediocre, generic shows here and there (Nickelodeon has quite a few), but the good ones can be incredible, because they're being made by the generation that grew up watching the best cartoons.

As far as adult cartoons, I actually don't watch too many. Everybody seems to rave about Adult Swim's 'Rick and Morty', calling it one of the best and funniest cartoons in years, but it just didn't grab me at all. However, everyone whose opinions I trust likes it, so I'm going to say the problem is just with me instead of with the show. I do like 'Superjail!', but I think Adult Swim does better with live-action shows nowadays instead of cartoons.

Yeah I agree, cartoon networks programming is actually better today then it has been in a very long time.In regards to their original shows imo the worst ones are teen titans go and uncle grandpa, but really those aren't bad, they arent that good either, but they aren't bad. When has the worst orginal show on cartoon network ever been "just ok" I don't think it's been like that since the days of dexters lab. I see people complaining about the quality of toons on cartoon network sometimes, but really these people need to go back in time a bit, because up until recently its been unprecidented that there wasn't at least one legitimately terrible original show on cartoon network, the last one being johnny test. I havent really been following adult swim though so I can't really comment on that one way or another.

I know 'Teen Titans GO!' has a following, but as a huge fan of the original series I can't help but be disappointed by it. The original was such a strongly-written show with great characters and genuine moments of drama, but 'GO!' throws all of that away in favor of the goofy slapstick and random humor, which only worked in very small increments in the original.

I'm an ardent defender of 'Uncle Grandpa', which I feel gets a bad rap only because it's in such stark contrast to the darker, wittier and more intelligent shows that adult fans fawn over - like, when 'UG' crossed over with 'Steven Universe', the 'SU' fanbase flew into a *rage* (until it actually aired and everyone was surprised they liked it). There's merit to stupid humor, and I think 'UG' pulls it off pretty well in the same way that early 'Spongebob' or 'Ren & Stimpy' did (a show which would probably be equally hated if it aired today), plus it has a decent role model and some positive messages ranging from having positive body image to not being afraid to be "weird". Regardless of what bitter twentysomethings say, children really like 'Uncle Grandpa', and that's what matters in my eyes.

Skibz wrote:

I know 'Teen Titans GO!' has a following, but as a huge fan of the original series I can't help but be disappointed by it. The original was such a strongly-written show with great characters and genuine moments of drama, but 'GO!' throws all of that away in favor of the goofy slapstick and random humor, which only worked in very small increments in the original.

I'm an ardent defender of 'Uncle Grandpa', which I feel gets a bad rap only because it's in such stark contrast to the darker, wittier and more intelligent shows that adult fans fawn over - like, when 'UG' crossed over with 'Steven Universe', the 'SU' fanbase flew into a *rage* (until it actually aired and everyone was surprised they liked it). There's merit to stupid humor, and I think 'UG' pulls it off pretty well in the same way that early 'Spongebob' or 'Ren & Stimpy' did (a show which would probably be equally hated if it aired today), plus it has a decent role model and some positive messages ranging from having positive body image to not being afraid to be "weird". Regardless of what bitter twentysomethings say, children really like 'Uncle Grandpa', and that's what matters in my eyes.

Yeah it's not bad, it has made me laugh a few times and the crossover episode was pretty funny too especially when Amythyst ate pizza steve. I mean don't get me wrong, when I say that and go are the worst original cartoon network shows on right now, thats actually more of a compliment to the current programming standards. Adventure time, regular show , steven universe and to a slightly lesser degree gumball are all pretty much cartoon gold imo, clarence is stuck somewhere between those four and the two "worst toons" imo, So of course something that's just ok is going to be the worst on the list for me.

I remember the days when my gym partners a monkey, kids next door, camp lazlo and a whole bunch of other shows that came and went aired, those were all varying degrees of bad, granted I think Johnny Test may have been the worst of them all given that I can't think of that show even trying to have an original idea, at least those other shows I mentioned kind of tried, they didn't do a good job at it but they tried, but it's just unprecedented something terrible and overrated isn't mixed in with the good stuff. Though they are coming out with a new show that looks like it's going to be about bear bro's or something, here's hoping that'll be good and doesn't spoil CN's good track record they have going for their current toon line up.

As for Go, I do have plenty of criticisms, mostly in that it kind of tries to be a child freindly superhero version of family guy in that it tends to use alotof the same sort of humor which is making fun of other stuff in pop culture which I feel has gotten kind of old. One thing I think they kind of did right, and I say kind of because while it was a good idea it was badly executed was making Robin crazy. To me so far that seems like its kind of wasted opportunity, it's an idea that would have been much better in the hands of better writers. For example in the original show Robin was obsessed with Slade, think of all the places that could go in a comedic setting? But Slade hasnt even made an appearance on the show yet.but  at the same time its not something thats painful to watch for me either like some shows in the past were and once in awhile it does have a funny moment, not all that often, but once in awhile.

So for me its just ok, I dont mind having it on for background noise while i work on my comicbook.

'Steven Universe' astounds me in how emotionally complex the writers try to make the characters. For what's intended to be an action-fantasy show (for kids), focusing so frequently on the characters' flaws and feelings is really quite unprecedented, and even more so that they do it successfully. In ten years' time, I guarantee none of us will be seeing lists of the greatest animated series of all time without 'SU' somewhere in the top 20, and I wouldn't be surprised if I could say the same about 'Gravity Falls' in the near future.

Cartoon Network did have an unfortunate streak of mediocrity after the "Cartoon Cartoons" era (1995-2003); nearly all of the worthwhile shows from 2001-2010 were holdovers from the '90s ('Ed, Edd & Eddy', 'The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy', 'Courage the Cowardly Dog'), but the original shows were mostly disastrous, the worst of which being Canadian imports like 'Johnny Test' and CN's forays into live-action programming. A lot of it was really generic and uninspired; it wasn't until CN started trying to imitate Adult Swim's style in more eclectic animation and absurdist humor that fun shows like 'Chowder' and 'Flapjack' came along and paved the way for stuff like 'Adventure Time' and 'Regular Show' (it also paved the way for flops like 'The Problem Solverz' and 'Secret Mountain Fort Awesome', but you win some, you lose some).

I haven't watched very much of 'Go!' outside of a few episodes, but I already voiced my problems with the series. I've also heard from a couple of different people that there's some really creepy, borderline sexist jokes between Robin and Starfire, but I can't say that I've seen it myself. I hope its not true, as that would be the greatest disservice to the humble characterizations of the original series.

Oh dang I almost forgot about problem solvers and fort awesome, yeah those were pretty bad. There was also Mad, I hated that almost as much as johnny test. I remember cartoon network actually had some commercials that sort of admitted that johnny test and mad were garbage but then they were all like "but hey you should watch them anyway" or something like that.

I also remember when cartoon network aired reality tv shows, that was a really weird time in cartoon network because reality programming is kind of the exact opposite of cartoons, that would be like showing cartoons on the reality tv channel which would make no sense. It was around that time I started to call them "the network" instead of cartoon network.

Anyway getting back to GO, I agree Robins and everyone elses comedy for that matter could be handled much better. I will say Go really seems to be trying at least, its just that whoever writes the show doesn't know how to be funny. It's like they are trying to be regular show and adventure time but just arent very good at it. That's kind of the same issue I have with uncle grandpa as the people writing it seem to be going for the same sort of weird goofy humor as adventure time andregular show but just aren't as good at it. But once again even though it's not very funny it's just meh, not really cringe worthy either. The closest go ever comes for me to crossing the line into legit bad terretory is whenever they try to be a kid freindly version of family guy because that really doesn't work. But even then it's just not funny, it's not terrible either but its not funny. They'ed probably do better if they brought in some actually good writers from some of the other shows, I know the people who write regular show could find a way to make people repeating the word waffles over and over again funny, but I think doing that is beyond Go's current writers abilties..

I haven't watched any of Doug Walker's videos for some time, but he just did an editorial vlog on this generation's cartoons and makes a lot of the same points made in this thread:

Nostalgia Critic: Are Kids Shows Better NOW Than Ever?

The only thing I have to say about Uncle Grandpaw is that the art direction reminds me of Al Jaffee, but the humor doesn't match. The cross over with Steven Universe though was pretty good.

Inquisitor wrote:

The only thing I have to say about Uncle Grandpaw is that the art direction reminds me of Al Jaffee, but the humor doesn't match.  The cross over with Steven Universe though was pretty good.

Similarly, the actual character of Uncle Grandpa seems to be deliberately influenced by Don Martin. Me being a total nutcase for the golden era of MAD Magazine, I have nothing but praise for those stylistic choices.