(WARNING LONG POST)

We are in the latter portion of this decade, looking back over the years in the animation industry there has been plenty of changes that occur within each decade. What changes do you think will occur in the upcoming decade? Sure it might seem too soon since 2010 won't be til slightly over 2 years away. But if there is anything I have learned from this decade is that plans for big changes can go a bit slow kinda like how Disney is trying to recover the damage done by Eisner ever since he left not too long ago. What differences do you think will occur over the next few years or so? Granted these things MIGHT occur beforehand but still what do you think will happen?


Warner Brothers to relinquish a good amount of control on Cartoon Network, and quite possibly the true death of Kids WB- Remember back in the early 90's when WB was more into just making shows and how they will be in other blocks such as Batman TAS and Animaniacs on Fox Kids? The idea of them going into that again might not be impossible. Granted in the Mid 1990's Warner Brothers made Kids WB so they can be a powerhouse in broadcast animation and it went successful from then to the earlier portions of this decade. However in more recent years it began to substantially falter in which Kids WB is practically on Life Support nowadays. And Cartoon Network isn't much better. One of the biggest criticisms that the channel has faced nowadays is that WB is trying way too hard to have CN to directly compete with Nick and Disney. And many of WB's attempts often don't work out that well. They even recently tried to get a few shows on Toon Disney, sure Jackie Chan Adventures might be odd but Batman and Superman TAS on Toon Disney? One might think I am looking too much into this due to Animaniacs being on Nick a few years ago and not much has happened since that. But keep in mind that Nick doesn't have a good acquisition policy, while Disney kind of does.

But since WB just can't seem to compete by focusing on one Cable Channel and one Broadcast block. I wouldn't be surprised if they try to focus on making shows and have them available to whoever wants them. And also give Turner a lot more control over the channel, granted I don't think WB will COMPLETELY drop support on CN altogether. But I do have a feeling that they won't give CN so much focus in the future lets just say.

Disney to try to give Theatrical Animated 2D Musicals a comeback- In the 1990's Disney frequently went with 2-D animated musicals somewhat based on various legendary stories and they were often if not always successful at it. Ever since earlier this decade Disney stopped with the Musicals and went into more straight-forward features often Action based and they often didn't do well in the Box Office. Notice the difference? Granted they might do something a bit more indirect such as a film thats not quite a musical but the Soundtrack has a prominent part of the story such as Tarzan but still. Can going back to their roots in making 2-D animated musicals really help them out? Who knows but I wouldn't be surprised if Disney will give that a shot again.

Drastic changes to 4Kids Entertainment, they might even go back to being just Leisure Concepts Incorporated or something like that- Whether you love them or hate them its becoming all too apparent that the 4Kids TV block is well... just not working all that well. Its no secret that 4Kids once powerful Marketing skills have pretty much lost their luster. Granted it has been said that we will soon be getting to a good part of the TMNT series. But even so it would take much more than that to help fix 4Kids' troubles. They might have to just drop the 4Kids TV block and try to make themselves open to anyone who would want to show their material.

I'll come up with more later, but what theories do you have on what will happen in the Animation Industry?

I don't want to sound to dry and simple but WB and 4kids just need better cartoons, CN needs better cartoons and to stop live action.

As for you your last question "what theories do you have on what will happen in the Animation Industry?"

I have none, I'd love to predict something but things are so uncertain right now that, I wouldn't know where to start.

4Kids has had a poor amount of exposure due to their 4Kids TV Block. Granted YGO GX is doing only slightly okay and FUNimation is taking over One Piece but still. I'm well aware on how this would appear to be a good thing among many of you folks. But there are some shows that I wished had better exposure such as the many pre-Fast Forward episodes of the new TMNT series that I wish got shown on CN as well.

Someday we hope, there will be a revival. It seems like there was a slight 80s revival in some of the 2000s when 80s stuff turned retro. Hopefully the 2010s will mean a 90s revival in cartoons.

I think in the 2010's we will finally see animation with serious plots make it to theatres (beowulf). The limits of CGI will be pushed even further. The future of hand drawn animation depends on how Disney's next project does in theatres.

(I'm just reaching now)

Video games based on cartoons and anime will come with an episode or maybe even an entire season of the show that the game was based on. I wish I had enough money to pitch this idea.
Imagine buying a brand new Naruto game and finding out that it comes with two never before seen episodes.

It's too soon to predict. I wonder how come we didn't see a 1970s revival in animation in the 1990s?

we did to some extent

I wish that in the near future we see a Nick Rewind Station on TV or the Internet, a Vault Disney Channel on TV or the Internet as well, and a Cartoon Cartoon Channel on TV or the internet too.

Then that means we can watch our favorite shows again!

I was told that we need a new animation channel that is both a nice mix of anime and NA animated shows. I do understand the idea of other companies wanting to form their own channel to go on their own instead of relying on CN so much. There are plenty of companies whom seem to be getting the short end of the stick here when it comes to CN. And since Disney is only slightly "acquisition-friendly" and Nick is not really all that "acquisition-friendly" at all. It might be for the best for them to not rely on other channels and to do their own.

The thing is in order for WB to not do something so drastic there needs to be a new animation channel with a nice balance of anime and NA animation and such. In the past CN has had a very healthy "Acquisition-Friendly" policy but this was back when CN was very much Niche and was very much allowed to be so. Unfortunately due to Broadcast TV being phased out for the most part this has forced Cable Channels to make them more "mainstream" and has effected them for the worst especially due to channels such as CN. WB has often been showing signs of being desperate to try to get Mainstream ratings like Nick and Disney. The problem is CN wasn't originally built to be more like Nick and Disney to begin with. However if there is a new animation channel it might get Warner Brothers to change things. CN might go bye-bye but WB could try to rebuild the channel in its own pace and style than trying to force CN to be so mainstream so much.

And sadly nowadays the idea of a "Toonami Channel" is looking way too unlikely especially due to WB's desires to make CN a lot more Mainstream. Way too many of the potential choices for shows and movies on a TC might come off as "too Niche" for CN to make a Channel for. Okay I admit its not COMPLETELY impossible. But at this rate the only way CN will ever even consider the idea is to make it a Digital Cable/Satellite only channel like Boomerang.

Though like I said earlier there are several animation-related companies out there that don't get enough attention from CN and not really likely to get all that much better attention from Disney. Could they pool their finances and come up with their own channel? Its possible and they probably won't be scared off by WB anymore considering the state that CN is in. The problem is how would they branch it out? I mean its becoming all too clear that the idea of Cable Channels replacing Broadcast TV for Top Priority Mainstream Viewing has substantially damaged the Animation Industry. And not only would they need to give Broadcast TV some attention but there are several other aspects to cover as well. In the 1980's there were different companies whom were able to market and make successful shows without needing the likes of WB or Disney at all. That needs to make a comeback, can such a thing make a comeback? Who knows but it does...

Though there are companies who could be involved in a new channel that have made mainstream appealing franchises before... Whether they be Toy Companies like Hasbro, Game Companies like Nintendo and Capcom, or even those from Comic Books such as Marvel. (The Marvel animated movies may have had a pretty good showing on CN but its not so much on TV shows such as the FF4 series.) There is no absolute guarantee that the shows they make/be involved in will be Mainstream successes if this new channel arrives. But it is at least true that not all companies that can be involved in this are flat-out Niche only. And if a new Animation channel becomes born it will need all the help it can get.

We could only hope that animation becomes better during the 2010s, but I don't think that's very likely.

I'm also hoping that the Disney Channel would go back to where it was before by showing Disney Classics and have a Playhouse Disney Channel like what Nickelodeon did with Noggin (But I will get back to this....) When I got the Disney Channel in 1992, they played classic movies and TV Shows that were done by Disney. And at night, they showed movies and concerts from Rock bands. Since MTV and VH1 Classics aren't playing these concerts, the Dianey Channel should replay these concerts. Then Toon Disney would play the classic Disney Afternoon shows as well as the Classic animated shows 24/7 as well as some syndicated shows such as Charlie Brown and Garfield. ABC Family should be reserved for Tweens and Teens. There should also be shows that were on ABC such as Mr. Belvedere, Mr. Cooper, Growing Pains, Home Improvement, and shows that were on TGIF.

Nickelodeon should stop playing all Viacom-owned shows and knock-out the Nick Jr. lineup and play non-Viacom shows such as Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, and Looney Tunes. Noggin should have shows that were once on Nick Jr. since it started. The N should have shows aimed toward tweens and teens. And as for the Nickelodeon Channel, they should launch an adult Nickelodeon line-up between 10 p.m.-6 a.m. Then they would have shows such as Ren and Stimpy, Beavis and Butthead, and South Park to name a few. Then Nick-at-Night's TV Land should have all their shows be prior to 1989.

And as for Cartoon Network, there should be an Adult Swim Station that plays all the AS shows all day and they should get the rights for Mystery Science Theater 3000. Then Cartoon Network should bring back the Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, and a few of the Hanna-Barbera shows. Then Boomerang should have only shows prior to 1989 and shows that no one knew existed such as Deputy Dawg and Batfink. There should also be a Cartoon Cartoon channel where they would play shows that were on since 1996.

I hope that works out!

At LEAST make a Nick Junior channel!!
I agree with the AS thing, but we have Boomerang who plays the old shows. Then make a Anime Network for the shitty anime.
Disney needs a teen disney channel.
Nick needs a teennick channel too.

I don't have any ideas to be honest. I don't think things will get any better. I stoped watching cn a long time ago and just buy box sets of stuff I want to see. I love anime as it's like the stuff I used to watch in the 80's.

Every decade (even the Golden Age which was the 30s-50s) have their share of bad cartoons. It's just that all of the bad ones are forgotten. I predict there will be good stuff and some crap as with every decade.