The World of Animation Gets No Respect

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It's true.

I first took notice when fans were complaining about how out of touch the Oscars were. They've been sucking Mickey Mouse's d**k for nearly every Best Animated Feature Award for years and then have the nerve to say that animation is kids thing, a Disney thing even though it's been proven since the '90s and maybe even further back that animation is for everyone. It has something for every audience and age group and yet they can't just get it out of their minds that it's only for kids. It's heads in the sand at the mere mention of South Park, Family Guy, The Simpsons, and Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.

One time pass later, I look in the news and find out that the HBO Max and Discovery merger is resulting in content being axed. It first started with cancelling the release of a couple of upcoming animated films that have already been completed in production. It then expanded to cancelling dozens and dozens of animated shows on HBO Max and now they're removing them entirely. Many animation staff and show creators have voiced their disappointment and frustration. I feel sorry for them because they poured blood, sweat, and tears into their projects only for them to end up on the ultimate chopping block. What's worse is some of those shows I've been looking forward to viewing once I got around to it. Now I'll never get around to it. Some of these shows are Originals, Exclusives, shows you can't watch anywhere else and now that they're gone, how is anyone supposed to watch them? That doesn't make any sense to just delete Original content and then scrub its existence from social media. Then a thought came to me and my heart sank: Tax write offs.

The moral of the story: When you have an idea for a cartoon, don't sell the rights to the network. Renegotiate a better contract if you can. If they have the rights and they cancel your show before you can write the ending or before anyone can view the finished product, there will be nothing you can do and they won't allow you to continue writing anymore stories involving your show in any form, not even comics or webtoons. Even worse, if the company writes it off on their taxes, it'll go to the government and then you'll really never get it back unless you pay tens of millions of dollars.

It's a tough industry either the Hollywood elite will never take seriously or the Network can just axe whatever content they think they don't need and screw over the people who worked hard on it.

The people who worked hard on it have been, at least I hope, paid. I only know the creator of one of the shows that is now disappearing, and I know that she got paid. But of course, she got robbed of the chance of her show turning into the next adventure time....

And you can still watch the stuff, just not legally. .... Back when netflix was the only streaming service, piracy was in declie, but since there's now so many streaming services it's impossible to have all of them, piracy is back, baby.

The World of Animation is a great book. It's funny, it's clever, and it's got a great message. But it's not respected. The moral of the story is "When you have an idea for a cartoon, don't sell the rights to the network." And that's because the networks don't respect the medium of animation. They think it's for kids, and they don't understand it. They'll cancel your show if it doesn't get good ratings, regardless of how good it is. And they'll change your characters and your story without consulting you. It's happened to me, and it's happened to other people in the business. The only way to really control your work is to create your own studio and produce your own shows. Otherwise, you're at the mercy of the networks, and they just don't get it.
References:
Animation Gets No Respect - Animation World Network
History of animation - Nerdyseal

Final Space

I loved that show. I watched it as it continued airing as I was eager to see what happens next. Cancelled after three seasons and now this passion project of Olan Rodgers has now been written off for tax purposes. Once Netflix loses the streaming rights, this show is gone for good.

Anger, disappointment, and resentment do not accurately describe how I feel about the treatment of this show and animation's potential.