10 Highly-Anticipated Cartoons That Ended Up Failing (2024)

For many, sitting in front of the TV and watching cartoons has been their favorite pastime growing up. There is something enigmatic about the colorful characters contorting their anatomical features to the fullest for slapstick humor that brings a bundle of laughter into the living room. These fond memories are always something worth looking back at.

Whether because of nostalgia or the hype around the source material, few cartoons have quite the fan following. Yet, not every animated TV show gets to be timelessas some fail miserably to impress their audience. The fallout can be harsh for those getting axed in their debut season, getting stuck in people's minds for all the wrong reasons.

Teen Titans Go! Was Not the Sequel Anyone Had in Mind

Teen Titans Go! is not a failure per se, given that it has seven seasons to its name, with the eighth slated to release in the Fall of 2024. Critics have generally given favorable reviews to the show, citing its humor as quirky and laced with social commentary. But Teen Titans Go! has garnered negative responses from fans mainly because it came hot on the heels of a vastly superior Teen Titans cartoon that ruled Cartoon Network in the mid-2000s.

The return of the original voice cast for the spinoff held out some hope. Older viewers thus hopped on the bandwagon but were disappointed with the kiddie animation and the lack of mature themes. Kids also have a hard time deciphering the parody and fourth-wall-breaking. Although Teen Titans Go! has had some fun crossovers, their ratings have been in free fall for some time now.

Teen Titans Go!

TV-PG

Superhero roommates Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, Raven and Beast Boy love saving the day, but what happens when they're done fighting crime?

Cast

Khary Payton , Scott Menville , Greg Cipes , Tara Strong , Hynden Walch

Creator

Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath

Rugrats (2021) Greatly Changed Its Animation Style

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Children have the wildest imaginations, and no show captured this as perfectly as the Rugrats cartoon. In 2021, the original creators and voice artists returned for a reboot of the show that had a completely new voice cast for the adult characters. Produced by Nickelodeon and streaming on Paramount+, the revamped Rugrats came with an updated CG animation, replacing the signature ugly-cute style of yore.

The glossy look of the animation did not sit well with fans who had a particular image in mind, with some even complaining about the adult voices. As a children's cartoon, 2021's Rugrats still has the old charm in its episodes. However, the audience largely left the show on snooze, and it is no longer available on Paramount's flagship streaming service.

Avengers Assemble Could Not Get Out of the Original’s Shadow

The early 2010s Marvel animated shows were so good that they could have given the DC Animated Universe a run for its money. However, things changed with the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Fan-favorite shows like The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes had to make way for newcomers like Avengers Assemble, which stood on the foundations of its predecessors while also being the poster child for MCU synergy.

The general consensus around Avengers Assemble has always been that it is not on the same level as the show it replaced. On its own, Avengers Assemble had good writing, great villains, and a comic book feel to the adventures. That opinion changed quickly after the first two seasons when the show started to stall in pace, and the cracks in its animation started to show, worsening the comparisons with Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

Avengers Assemble

TV-Y7

Animation

Action

Adventure

superheroes

Avengers Assemble is an animated television series that debuted in 2013, featuring the iconic Marvel superheroes Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye as they unite to protect the world from various threats.

Release Date

May 26, 2013

Creator(s)

Joe Kelly , Duncan Rouleau , Steven T. Seagle , Joe Casey

Cast

Roger Craig Smith , Troy Baker , Fred Tatasciore , travis willingham , Bumper Robinson , Laura Bailey , Adrian Pasdar , David Kaye

Main Genre

Animation

Seasons

5

Ben 10 (2016) Targeted a Different Demographic

The 2016 Ben 10 TV series had everything for a successful reboot. It was produced by Cartoon Network and written by Man of Action -- the Emmy award-winning team that gave audiences the original Ben 10 cartoon. Ben, Gwen, and Grandpa Max's adventure was still the show's focal point, with new character designs to go with the lighthearted feel of the story.

Yet, audiences wishing to relive a chunk of their childhood felt wholly disappointed. While some complained about how long Season 1 took to find its voice, others felt the show was a cash grab aimed at children but vastly inferior to the original. 2016's Ben 10 is the perfect example of cultural wars between the target audience and nostalgia. The series did moderately well in terms of viewers but not so much before critics.

Rambo: The Force of Freedom Was a Show Nobody Knew They Needed

If there were any movie or show that did not need a cartoon series, it would be Rambo. A Vietnam War vet reeling from PTSD is hardly the premise for a children's show, not to mention the body count the titular character leaves in his wake. But the success of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero made the Coleco toy company bankroll the show to have a piece of the action-figure-market pie.

Per FCC's decency standards, Rambo: The Force of Freedom had to tone down the violence and remove all mentions of Vietnam and other real-life conflicts. Instead, the cartoon followed a similar format as G.I. Joe, where Rambo ran a covert team that fought an evil terrorist organization named S.A.V.A.G.E. It did not take long for the glamor to wear off, although some still remember the toy line fondly.

Spider-Man (2017) Is the Black Sheep of the Character’s Cartoon History

2017's Spider-Man was another replacement show in the Jeph Loeb era of MCU synergy, which took the place of Disney XD's Ultimate Spider-Man series. The web-slinger is one of the few bankable characters with a colorful cartoon history. Unfortunately, the 2017 cartoon woefully missed the mark before ending with a six-episode third season where each episode had double the usual runtime.

Spider-Man tried its hand at something different. The show changed the origins and monikers of some of the supervillains and concentrated most of them around Peter Parker's school when the actual focus should have been on the script and the characterization. Devoid of expressions and shading, even the animation felt lifeless. 2017's Spider-Man failed to impress audiences and ultimately became a mediocre affair.

Spider-Man

TV-Y7

Animation

superheroes

Action

Adventure

Peter Parker, a new student at the famous Horizon High, fights evil super-villains as the costumed superhero, Spider-Man.

Release Date

July 29, 2017

Cast

Robbie Daymond , Nadji Jeter , Fred Tatasciore , Laura Bailey , Scott Menville , Melanie Minichino , Max Mittelman

Main Genre

Animation

Seasons

3

The Legend of Zelda Failed When It Did Not Follow Canon

The success of the Legend of Zelda game series is as much an achievement of Nintendo as it is a reward for its loyal fans. Banking on the early success of the first two games, DIC Entertainment went into a year-long negotiations with Nintendo to license their characters. The result was an animated TV series that shared its name with the 1986 game but failed in everything else.

It surprised no one when the 1989 show ended prematurely after airing only 13 episodes. The Legend of Zelda was cheaply produced, poorly written, and showed a severe disregard for canon. Although it did do some things well, like explaining how Link's pockets work or showing Zelda in a heroic light, the rest of the characters were not so lucky, with Link being ironically the weakest link.

Velma’s Negative Reception Is Warranted

It is not an exaggeration to say that the original Scooby-Doo cartoon has left a lasting impact on an entire generation who have grown up watching the Mystery Machine crew solve mysteries with their lovable goofball of a dog. It is one of Hanna-Barbera's most popular franchises, loved by kids and adults alike. However, Velma is none of those, unfortunately.

Widely panned, Velma fails to nail down the type of audience it wants to cater to. The show focuses on the fictional character Velma Dinkley, an intelligent detective in her own right. But the revamped cartoon is a marked departure from the usual tone of the Scooby-Doo cartoons. Critics have commented on the cynicism of the protagonist and the lack of character growth. At the same time, the audiences complained about the show's perpetuation of negative stereotypes against South Asian women.

Velma

Animation

Adventure

Comedy

A darkly comedic and mature take on the Scooby-Doo franchise, Velma sees the titular character, played by Mindy Kaling, taking the spotlight in a retelling of her origins, leading to her joining Mystery Inc. A significant departure from the family-friendly rendition released decades ago, Velma will modernize the characters and has cast Sam Richardson as Shaggy, Constance Wu as Daphne, and Glenn Howerton as Fred. Scooby-Doo will not be featured in the show, as it features the earlier days of the crew as they solve murderous mysteries and find themselves getting in over their heads more often than not.

Release Date

January 12, 2023

Cast

Mindy Kaling , Sam Richardson , Constance Wu , Ming-Na Wen , Gary Cole , Debby Ryan , Melissa Fumero , Glenn Howerton

ThunderCats Roar Was a Major Disappointment

Despite running for only four years in the mid-'80s, fans remember the original Thundercats TV show very fondly, thanks to its unforgettable characters. Although the show was voiced and produced in the United States, it was animated in Japan by Topcraft and later the Pacific Animation Corporation. In 2020, Warner Bros. Animation wanted to bring some lighthearted fun to the mythos, and the result was ThunderCats Roar.

The show's animation and wacky tone were always going to be a point of contention for fans of the original cartoon. ThunderCats Roar tried to do something new to appeal to younger audiences. Between the watered-down story and the jokes that failed to land, the show did not do enough to get a renewal, ending things after only one season.

Ren & Stimpy “Adult Party Cartoon” Was Less Adult More Edgy

Created by John Kricfalusi and developed by Nickelodeon, the original Ren & Stimpy Show followed the misadventures of a troubled Chihuahua named Ren Höek and a simple-natured manx cat named Stimpy. The slapstick humor regularly went into dark territory, stirring controversy with violent and often gruesome scenes. Eventually, Nickelodeon had to let Kricfalusi go despite the cartoon's popularity.

Paramount brought back the show's creator a decade later for an "extreme" revamp catering to a more adolescent male audience. It is safe to say Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" had a disastrous launch. The show did not have the charm of the old cartoon. Instead, it featured crass humor and edgy stories, forgoing every nuance of the original. "Adult Party Cartoon" was equally hated by fans and critics alike, which is rare for a highly-anticipated show.