The Best and Worst of 2024

 

Another year has come and gone, and for this blog it seems like not a lot of new material.  New articles were abandoned somewhat, but maintaining older ones continued with more and more updates, especially with the arrival of....hold on I'm getting ahead of myself.  It was indeed a rough year, but we got through it.  Here is the lookback of 2024 and new this year will be my predictions for 2025

Animated Features

As always, we start off with what's going on with animated features.  Actually, a lot has been going on with Disney probably getting back on track with Inside Out.  We also got The Garfield Movie which helped put Garfield back on the map for at least a little while.  Transformers became a dud, but Sonic 3 became a hit.  The Wild Robot surprised everyone with its heartwarming tale.  Though not every movie was a hit, there is some hope for better things to come.  My 2025 predictions are hard to make since I'm not entirely sure what will happen next, but I think 2025 will be the end of Disney's Live Action remakes as people are dunking on the new Snow White movie.

Animated TV Series

While mot animated, Quiet on
Set may have done enough damage
to Nickelodeon

Animation on television, however, took a big hit.  Ratings have gone down big time.  While Spongebob celebrated his 25th birthday, the rest of Nickelodeon took a major blow.  Though it had new hits like the recent Fairly Oddparents reboot, a lot of doors have been opened about Nickelodeon as a whole.  Quiet on Set debuted this year exposing the likes of Dan Schneider and Brian Peck and the horrible things that happened to kids on set and in some cases off set.  This gave Nickelodeon major brand damage and Paramount has officially stated that Nickelodeon is no longer a priority for them.  Though Nicktoons remained unaffected by the damage of Quiet on Set, the damage has been done.  While everyone was happy with their coverage of the Super Bowl, it was prior to the Quiet on Set documentary.  Nickelodeon moved the Kids Choice Awards to July stating that it was to help celebrate Spongebob's birthday, but many including yours' truly believe they were hiding out hoping the damage of Quiet on Set would go away.  It kind of did, but the Kid's Choice Awards were still not talked about.  With the Skydance merger, my prediction which may not be in 2025, but in the future Nickelodeon the brand will be no more.

Cartoon Network deserves its own paragraph.  So many signs that Cartoon Network is dying have been shown.  We all denied it prior, but it's time to face reality, Cartoon Network is suffering.  Cut back hours, the entire website shut down, and tons of shows canceled/written off.  The only big new series for them.....Barney the Dinosaur, and how is that reboot doing.....can't say.  It doesn't look good though.  Toonami tried to do a classic anime block with the return of Sailor Moon to television, but it didn't last.  If Cartoon Network is still around by the end of 2025, it will be a miracle.  And Fetish Fest....I mean Totally Spies won't help much either.

We could not pass by the TV section by talking about Me TV Toons which surprised us all this year.  Many people were happy to finally see their old favorites on TV again.  It was because of them that Bugs Bunny graced the TV Guide cover once more, and many of the greatest cartoons would always find a home at Me TV Toons.  My prediction is that Weigel will continue to experiment with the cartoons seeing what sticks and what doesn't

Streaming

Now let's talk about the biggest Ponzi scheme known as streaming where it was promised to be the future and everything will be streamed.  Well, we've come to learn that's not the case.  Max and Paramount have continued to remove shows from their platform.  This is because of the ad tier parts of streaming where it's not about subscribers anymore, but rather about ratings and views, and if they don't get enough views it's sayonara.  Velma is dead, thank goodness, but so has Boomerang's streaming app.  We have seen The Amazing Digital Circus continue to be popular, and Fast Channels continue to be a thing.  My predictions are more removals and another streaming service will shut down entirely.  Wanna bet it's either Max or Paramount????  Both are continuing to remove shows off their platforms

Anime

When it comes to new shows, I have been out of the loop once again, but I did keep my eye out for some things here and there.  We got 2 new Sailor Moon Movies to finish out the reboot.  We also got a new Dragonball anime.  My Dear Friend Nokotan amused the curious fan and also cursed them with the opening theme song lyrics.  No really, it's cursed.....you won't get it out of your head.  Where things got more interesting however was within the industry.  At the very start of this year came a major debate over translations and whether or not it should be dubbed here or AI translated overseas since the discussion over mistranslation for political gain heated up once again.  Funnimation became no more, and all rolled into Crunchyroll EXCEPT Crunchyroll did not want Speed Racer.  Instead, Shout picked up the license, put it up on streaming (for free), and was able to sell it quickly to Me TV Toons giving this vintage anime a better chance at life (even if only in reruns).  Toonami tried bringing back older anime in reruns including Sailor Moon, but it sadly didn't last.  Finally, we said our good-byes to Rachael Lillis after a long fight with cancer as well as and more shockingly the legendary Toriyama.  Though we lose some in 2024, we will gain some in 2025.  I can't predict the next anime, but hopefully we will finally see more of Madoka.

As 2024 comes to a close, a final message from me: though I haven't been here often, I do still enjoy doing these blogs telling stories about the pass and continue to reveal any discoveries that may be found.  Here's to a hopefully better new year.