Best Animated Feature
This award goes out to the best feature of the year based off of reviews, popularity, and box office numbers. For most of the year, it was kind of bland thanks to sequal after sequal. However, one surprise last minute hit turned the tide
Yeah yeah I know, another Marvel movie which Disney has been milking too much of, but this animated feature stood out. It was based off of many comic books with many different versions of Spider Man including Spider HAM, and even an anime like character named Penni Parker (making it seem more mainstream than ever). Of course the immense popularity of Incredibles 2 and Wreck It Ralph 2 made them hits, but were either too corporate in my book or had some issues with strobe lighting (really, I thought that was all over).
Worst animated Feature
This year's dishonorable mention goes too......
Ugh.....why is Warner Bros. milking out of this cow? That's all that airs on Cartoon Network is Teen Titans Go (more on that later), and yet I don't know of one person......ONE PERSON.....that watches this show. Somehow they had the go ahead to make a movie and RIG Rotten Tomatoes by giving it a 100% rating. It had me thinking, am I getting old? Are kids really into this now and me not realizing? Should I admit defeat and claim it popular? NO! The box office said otherwise. Plus it had too many sleazy ways to get people to go, but none of it worked. They tagged Lauren Faust's upcoming DC Super Hero Girls as a short. They said, "You want the original Teen Titans to come back? Then go see this movie." The only great thing about this movie is the new WB Animation logo which gives us hope for Looney Tunes in 2019.
Best Animated TV series
This category is for the best animated series on television. Let's be honest, there isn't a whole lot good on TV anymore thanks to cable networks constantly rerunning the same shows over and over again. Nevertheless, this year's winner is......
Beating Ducktales by a hair, this Nicktoon is gaining some momentum (but not by much). I see it air on Nickelodeon all the time now and is usually seen in places where they can keep kids short attention spans busy and is also gaining a slight cult following. Heck, I even caught MY PARENTS having it on.....don't know where that came from. Along side that is growing popularity of Paw Patrol (a nightmare to parents), and Spongebob is still popular.
Worst Animated TV series
And the winner for the second year in a row is.....
What, you again? You just won worst animated feature, now you win TV series (which is what the feature is based off of)? Here's how: it eats up Cartoon Network's schedule, it's loud, annoying, gross, and stupid. The writers and staff just don't care. As for Cartoon Network, I remind you that Turner has enough content to air WAAAAAAAYY past 24hrs. Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, the Hanna-Barbera library, the Cartoon Network library, and yet...this is all they play. This is the best we can do folks. The good news, for me, we lost Cartoon Network this year on our cable, and I did not shed a tear. Thank you to their sister channel, Boomerang, for allowing those that can't get that channel to stream your content for a small fee. Shouldn't it be the opposite where we get Cartoon Network and not Boomerang? Oh well, your loss Cartoon Network. Not fighting to get you back again.
Best Animated Streaming Content
What a surprise....Here's another reason why I'm not shedding a tear for Cartoon Network. Cartoon streaming whether it's on Youtube, Netflix, Hulu, or Boomerang has increased big time. From reruns to brand new content, it's all here whenever you want. Boy what a great year for streaming. Anime content went up on Funnimation and Crunchyroll. Woody Woodpecker made a good comeback by year's end thanks to international popularity. And Miraculous Ladybug came back for another season. But if I had to pick one best one, just one, well......
Equestria Girls
Based off of a certain franchise, Hasbro decided to make new shorts made exclusively for Youtube with the same budget for the TV shows and specials. Most of these are just quickie shorts, some of them are pick your own endings for kids watching, but the 5 part serials are what made them the winners. Rollercoaster of Friendship and Forgotten Friendship were the story arcs, but the latter was the best one. I know I know it's targeted more towards girls, but quality control was there throughout the series just like TV's Friendship is Magic is. Oh yeah, there were some good songs this season like So Much More to Me. Doesn't get any cutter than that.
Worst Animated Streaming Content
Popeye's comeback is a disaster. What do you get when you mix a cheap animation company like Wildbrain, a PC company like King Features Syndicate, and the idea to target it towards younger kids? This....this is what you get. A Popeye that doesn't smoke a pipe and doesn't beat the crap out of Bluto nor any love triangle issues whatsoever. And yes, King Features has become PC. This might be why no such Popeye movie was made by Sony due to creative and corporate differences. Creative says this stuff makes Popeye not Popeye. Well, they were right. On the other hand, this makes the Hanna Barbera Popeyes ten times better. They may not be great, but Popeye as a character was left alone.
Best anime series
Anime continues to grow mainstream, and this year no doubt showed such growth. This year, the best series, which is categorized based on shows made in and primarily for Japan is...
Heading into it's third season with a fourth on its way, this heroic journey of a boy's dream to become a superhero is becoming more and more popular due to the superhero craze. And for good reasons, it's fun, action packed, and inspirational. Although, I would question anyone who says Tsu's the best girl.....yuck.
Best anime Film
Perhaps the most anticipated movie of the year would be
Dragon Ball Super: Broly
You know it's a big deal when it causes Goku to be in the Macy's Parade. We may be getting it in 2019, but it already came out in Japan by this year's end, and with high box office numbers. Dragon Ball is still a legendary anime, regardless of time and other series that come and gone, and I can't wait to see this film.
Best anime Dub
OK, now for the best English adaptation of anime. This year it goes to....
Sailor Moon S the Movie
Adapted by Erica Mendez (Sailor Uranus) for Viz Media, this brand new English dub of a movie made 20 years ago was released in select theaters as was an encore of R and Super S. The movie is good already, and Pioneer/Cloverway made the first dub for Cartoon Network. This new dub is more faithful to the original. And that's not all, the adaptation helped gained new respect of the film by me. So much so, it made me cry, wait no...no....bawl my eyes out. I'm glad I was able to enjoy the movies on the big screen again.
Worst DVD release
We now move to home video to talk about the worst DVD release. This and best one comes down to how well organized, produced, and curated as well as quality control. These categories also include Blu-ray. The worst one goes to
With the nostalgia craze over 1996's Space Jam and the possibility of a Space Jam 2 with Lebron James, WB felt that they needed to reissue a VHS line of Looney Tunes cartoons to promote the movie. I think you know where this is going from here folks. While some cartoons were new to DVD (though still accessible in reruns and streaming), quality control lacks. No new restorations, some cartoons are not the restored versions, and in some cases, they are time compressed pitched up versions from I guess the 80's or so. Unacceptable presentations. And the best part, these were 5 bucks each made perhaps for the 5 dollar bin at places like Wal-Mart......I never saw these at Wal-Mart.....AT ALL....like, I saw repackaged Spotlight Collections and Super Stars collections instead, giving you more cartoons and better cartoons than those on here. Pass.
Best DVD/Blu-ray release
Overall despite such flawed sets DVD/Blu-ray releases were really really good this year. But the very best one for this year came as a surprise for many this holiday season, and that is......
What? Why not Batman the Animated Series on Blu-ray? Well, yes it was a great release, yes the restorations were beautiful, yes it was so great that fans complained how Amazon handled their shipping of these packages, and yes overall, some of the greatest cartoons ever made, and the best for Batman. HOWEVER, we've seen these on home video before. This Popeye set is all of that (minus Amazon since it's Warner Archive), plus these cartoons have NEVER been on any form of home video before. Also, because of that, we had to see these color cartoons in faded red aap 16mm TV prints, dirt and scratches, sometimes gags cut out for whatever reasons. Well, no more. These 13 cartoons are beautifully remastered from the original master negatives making the colors pop even more and have their original Paramount logos restored. As a matter of fact, WB is now doing a new 4k Restoration program scanning some of their library for high definition. This explains some of their best releases this year including Batman and The Grinch, which includes all the other Grinch specials restored for the first time ever in HD and the original masters. We hope to see more of that in 2019. Some other releases include Gravity Falls from Shout Factory, Celebrating Mickey for Mickey's 90th, and Sailor Moon Super S, which are brand new restorations.
my mom and sister likes this show... cancer, i know.
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