What an unusual year 2023 is ranging from the fear of AI to the writers and actors strikes causing a major dent in the entertainment industry. While it wasn't a rotten year (though I can't promise that for next year), it hasn't been a peaceful one either. Shake ups, break ups, and hardly any make ups. We now look back at the year 2023 as we do traditionally on this site.
Animated Features
As it takes on average about 4 years to make an animated feature, the strikes did not affect the animated film industry much except for when the actors struck causing promotion to slow down by celebrities. But regardless if Chris Pratt and Jack Black could promote their films or not, it's the characters that sell the show. And boy did we get a big surprise out of Universal and Illumination with The Super Mario Bros. Movie. If there is any proof that Mario may be more popular than Mickey Mouse, this is it. The film made money despite critics trying to destroy it due to no messaging, fans showed up in the movie theater to watch it and love it. It was a love letter to Nintendo fans everywhere. Yes, I said movie theaters; this movie could ONLY be seen in theaters. And it made bank. Covid is no longer an excuse for when a movie does bad. Universal had the worst movie with Ruby Gillman, but it was Disney that struggled this year, Elemental and Wish did.......meh. Not terrible, but bad news for a Disney film. Disney's glory days since the 2010's with Frozen and Zootopia may be over. Paramount released a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie. Though it didn't do great at the box office, merchandise sales increased and interests of past incarnations of the turtles increased making this, possibly, Turtlemania 2.0 as Turtles were seen promoting both Paramount and Nickelodeon and Turtles were more present than Spongebob in the Nickmas game this year with Raphael helping call play by play. As I understand the Turtle franchise more, I can't say I'll become a major fan, but rather just something to watch like a Saturday Morning Cartoon for fun.
Animated TV Series
As we've said time and time again, TV Cable ratings are dying, and they'd had to adapt to new changes. Like last year, many of the same shows would also be released on Max and Paramount +. There hasn't been a lot of new shows this year with some shows returning such as Spongebob, Loud House, and The Ghost and Molly McGee with new shows mostly being at Disney Channel such as Hailey's On It and Moon Girl. As fear of cartoons "indoctrinating kids" these days rose, so too did ratings for older reruns. This is where Cartoon Network took the cake with adult swim's Checkerboard Past block rerunning old Cartoon Network shows such as Dexter, Ed Edd N Eddy, and Courage. Me TV continues to air classic cartoons with the return of Woody Woodpecker and Friends. Discovery Family, meanwhile, begins their reruns of cartoons such as Looney Tunes, Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, Baby Looney Tunes, Paddington Bear, and The Smurfs now that WB has a hand in it. However, they only own 60% of the channel with 40% still by Hasbro, so My Little Pony reruns continue to dominate the spotlight there. The Nicktoons Network has brought the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles back on TV, and it seems the Turtles may be the new face of Paramount, a title once held by Popeye in the 30's-50's.
Streaming
Hoooooooooooo Doggies this alone could be a separate blog post. That's because everything has been going on with Streaming.........EVERYTHING. As I said, some shows were made for both TV and streaming, and Tiny Toons Looniversity is no exception. But the hatred of Zazlav continues, and I will admit, I was wrong. This guy knows nothing about the Entertainment Industry. It's not so much he hates cartoons, but rather he's just a bean counter, and as animation fans and historians would tell you, this is where issues arise. Coyote vs Acme did very well in test screens, but Zazlav snapped his fingers and now it is on life support for seeing the light of day. We hope that happens soon. Meanwhile, Max was able to release the worst cartoon EVER according to IMDB, and the less we talk about it.....the better (Velma). Disney + meanwhile treated us with some new restorations of old shorts and films, but The Proud Family hit major controversy with its episode where the kids are singing a song about how slaves built this country and using political opinions during a powerful kids segment. This can be extremely dangerous and kids CAN pick up on stuff like that. The response to this type of content opened up a new streaming service for kids called Bentkey. Controversy arises as this is run by the Daily Wire which leans right and the big cartoon is simply a rip off of Bluey. Granted, the goal with the service is to make it a safe space for kids with no politics whatsoever, but the Bluey fans were still ticked off. The rise of FAST Streaming linear channels is apparent with many shows being successful on Pluto TV. Granted, it's all reruns, but enough for Paramount to continue investing with the service. Paramount also put the Classic Ninja Turtles for streaming and will continue to do so in the new year. Tubi has also grown a lot with officially licensed titles from Warner Bros. mostly Hanna Barbera bringing all hope that was lost with Velma. We may be seeing more from Tubi in the near future.
We couldn't leave the streaming section without talking about The Amazing Digital Circus. This was well anticipated for a while and produced independently only releasing on the Glitch Youtube channel. The pilot video had surpass around 10 million views and the fandom exploded doing what fandoms like that does best.....fan art and shipping. Everybody was picking their favorite character, some picked ships, but most enjoyed the psychological comedic horror it has to offer, and overall, it was trying something new. New art style, new style of animation, and creative driven. More is expected to come from this and if you think the major studios aren't keeping an eye on this, you are sadly mistaken. They'll find a way, whether it's copying the idea or flat out buying it, to make it their own. For now, independent media was able to dominate the streaming landscape.
Anime
A while back anime was all I kept my eye on. Nowadays I seem to be out of it. Anime still tends to be popular though, with hit franchises still being hits. We now have a new main character in Pokemon, but I haven't caught up with Pokemon in a while. Many journalists are listing Scott Pilgrim as a hit anime, but is it really an anime. The only new one I saw this year is a movie called Suzume from the same people that brought you Your Name and Weathering With You. One Piece's fandom is growing as Luffy is now a balloon at the Macy's Parade, and we hope to see more of our old favorites by next year.
