>>108144515I agree with basically all his main points, and I have even more. There's a large handful of modern cartoons that look similar because they're all being created by young artists with modern design sensibilities: these are people who have grown up with an entire century of animation to digest, Betty Boop and Merry Melodies and Flintstones and Scooby Doo and Simpsons and Dexter's Lab and Ed Edd n Eddy, on top of anime! Although anime influence for these artists is probably limited mostly to stuff produced between the 80s to now. But you can see this in their works, which are filled with little bits and pieces of every cartoon ever. These artists draw and share their work online for all other artists to see and criticize and analyze and learn from, and pro artists aren't static either. There's a lot of "cross contamination" where everyone works with everyone, and as shows end and artists find new work, they take all the accumulated styles with them. The people who worked Ben 10 or Superjail or Flapjack brought them to Adventure Time, and then they might also go to work on Steven Universe, and then maybe OK KO, or Bravest Warriors or Bee and Puppycat.
Adventure Time really pioneered a simplified face style with it's characters, many of the main characters are essentially smiley faces with high energy, quirky bodies. This worked well, characters are easy to draw between many different boarders and didn't cause nearly the same stink as more detailed shows like Steven Universe, where minor height inconsistencies between characters became a meme. It also can't be overstated how much of a huge, runaway hit AT became. The people who pay for the animation know just how much money AT made for CN, and likely strongly encourage showrunners to follow as closely to AT as possible to repeat that success, but the most talented created shows have shared some modern design sensibilities but are still totally unique to their own work.
Pic related is the real ripoffs
