>>117099599Yes and no, That started as a novelty in the 30’s (I think) and then moved on to being theatrical shorts to fill in time before movies, soon it went to TV and copied popular sitcoms of the time (honey mooners), then the TV formula got refined down between 50’s - 70’s and started to be aimed more at kids. On the 80’s the became glorified you commercials, in the 90’s there was a push back against that more corporate approach and tv animation specifically got more experimental as new blood that wasn’t named Hanna or Barabara, broke into the industry with their own shows. Merchandising was still big but it’s was more about having a toy of your fav character vs your fav toy being a cartoon. That tend progressed into the 00’s and with the transition to digital things became more streamlined and some homogenyn started to pop up among shows because of it. With 2010 cartoons we’re loosing rating and becoming too expenses v the sales they were bringing in, so easier to produce shows were brought in and they all had a simple and easy to produce art direction, this trend caught on and it’s was you see now on tv coined “bean mouth”. But that’s not what you’re talking about, the BIG thing that changed and what everyone is bitching about is that in the 80’s there was much bigger focus on the young male/boys demographic since they were buying all the toys, and this trend continued, but with the rise of video games and them being a combo of toy and cartoon you can play with for literal hours, tv and specifically cartoons couldn’t compete. So what’s happening now, or rather the last 5 years or so, is the suits up stairs started to market towards women since they’re a big buying market now and watch tv/passive entertainment more. So they hired female creator, more female writers, etc and here we are. yes cartoons are just different because their target demo has shifted but their also bad because they lean TOO much into the target demo.
