Updated on December 10, 2021
Next on the “best and worst of 2012” rundown is animation.
Best
- Pixar’s “Brave” and Disney-proper’s “Wreck-It Ralph” were both enjoyable films. Oddly, “Brave” felt more like a Disney film, while “Ralph” felt like a Pixar one.
- Seth MacFarlane’s take on “The Flintstones” is apparently dead in the water. Thank goodness. The last thing I need is to see the “modern Stone Age family” have pointless flashbacks once every 3.7 seconds, among other “Family Guy”-isms.
- “Total Drama: Revenge of the Island” was amusing this season, albeit with a shorter run than normal. Favorite character: Sam, the video game geek. Don’t agree with the choice of the American-broadcast-version’s winner, Lightning, however.
- You can now Google “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” using (among others) cartoon characters!
- More DVD releases from the Warner Archive program, including the primetime “Flintstones” specials and (announced for 2013) the final volume of “Animaniacs.” Speaking of the latter show, it’s also now back on TV after being off the US airwaves for a decade, with The Hub (home of “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic”) picking up reruns of the series as of late December.
Worst
- “The Looney Tunes Show.” I’ve tried giving it a chance, but ultimately decided to bail. The Looney Tunes being shoved into boring sitcom plots more at home with “Seinfeld” (a show I never liked) and with zero slapstick, fourth-wall-breaking, unfunny jokes, etc. isn’t “Looney Tunes.”
For 2013, I look forward to the aforementioned “Animanaics” DVD set, plus the debut of the also-announced-this-year “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” cartoon on The Hub. I also plan to see “Monsters University,” the next Pixar movie (a prequel to “Monsters, Inc.”).
