History DevelopmentHeaven / WesternAnimation

* Musical numbers in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' contain elaborate instrumentation and rhymes, as well as a handful of {{Genius Bonus}}es that only make sense to one well-versed in musical terminology. For instance, how many eight-year-olds are going to recognize the {{Foreshadowing}} at the end of "BBBFF"?

* The same can be said for ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', though the detail isn't nearly the same. What also deserves mentioning is that while most shows have a significant staff of writers, ''every episode but one'' was written by creator Jackson Publick and/or Doc Hammer.
** Another example from ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers''; Publick and Hammer, during the long hiatus between seasons one and two had worked out exactly how to open the show, seeing as [[spoiler:Both Hank and Dean were dead]]. A montage, set to the song "Everybody's Free" by Aquagen and Rozalla. The problem was, to license it would cost a seventh of the budget--not for that episode, the ''entire second season.'' To which the creators said "WorthIt."

* The Franchise/{{DCAU}} team has always had high expectations of themselves, but they really outdid themselves in ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]''. They animated nearly every single hero and villain in the DC Universe, most of whom are not well known and very few of whom even have lines. But the lengths they did to are even better illustrated in the episode "The Savage Time", where for no reason whatsoever, they have very accurately drawn Tiger Tanks. How many people watching the show are even going to notice the tanks? How many can even tell that they actually did the research? ''They'' can, and apparently, that's all that mattered.

%This page has been alphabetised. Please keep examples in alphabetical order, thank you!

* Creator/HannaBarbera was still able to make beautifully drawn cartoons despite a low budget, thanks to Ed Benedict's brilliant character designs and colorful backgrounds.

* The same can be said for ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', though the detail isn't nearly the same. What also deserves mentioning is that while most shows have a significant staff of writers, ''every episode but one'' was written by creator Jackson Publick and/or Doc Hammer.
** Another example from ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers''; Publick and Hammer, during the long hiatus between seasons one and two had worked out exactly how to open the show, seeing as [[spoiler:Both Hank and Dean were dead]]. A montage, set to the song "Everybody's Free" by Aquagen and Rozalla. The problem was, to license it would cost a seventh of the budget--not for that episode, the ''entire second season.'' To which the creators said "WorthIt."

* While outside of the DCAU, ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' demonstrates the same attention to detail as the DCAU producers, writers, and animators. Every single episode is jam-packed with references big and small to the DCU's history either in the form of characters who vanished after [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks the Silver Age]] (or in at least one case, only appeared in a single issue!) or storylines or even panels. An episode featuring the first full appearance of Franchise/{{Superman}} is chock full of these, referencing everything from {{Superdickery}} to the Creator/ChristopherReeve films to ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' to ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns''. It's this clear love of the character and the DCU that has made a show that could have been a disaster into a show that is widely adored by comic fans.
* For ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', the creators flew all over the world to find inspiration and art references for architecture and landscaping, studied martial arts in order to create realistic combat sequences, and hired someone with a [=PhD=] so that all the Classical Chinese ideographs seen in the series would be accurate. They also hired consultants for these things.
** The background posters that Sokka walked past one episode were seen for less than ten seconds, yet they still included a realistic poster for a theatre company (foreshadowing for another episode) and a poster for a town meeting about air quality (referencing the industrialized Fire Nation) and all the gambling being done on the streets. All in archaic Chinese.
** Constellations that are seen in the sky of [[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheWaterbendingMaster "The Waterbending Master"]] are the same as those seen a season later on a star map in [[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheDesert "The Desert"]]. You'd need to be UsefulNotes/NeilDeGrasseTyson (or a very [[http://atla-annotated.tumblr.com/post/20827907799/the-night-sky-in-the-episode-the-waterbending detail-oriented fan]]) to notice.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''. The amount of work put into this series really shows how much the crew cared about it, even just observing from the surface. But when you start noticing and then paying attention to such trivial things like posters on the walls of clone barracks or clubs, the elaborate details on spaceships, bugs crawling around on branches, ''garbage'' thrown away on the lower streets of Coruscant, and dozens of other tiny-little background details the creators have sneaked in - despite the fact that most viewers probably wouldn't register any of it on the first time viewing - it becomes mind-blowing! Then consider that all of this is made in CGI, with a relatively low-budget when the series was only starting. And when their budget and technological assets increased as the series progressed, they did even more with it.
** Going even further, they had assets to use from Creator/{{Lucasfilm}}'s archives. For instance, during the production of Season 3 episode "Wookiee Hunt", the crew had a meeting with Creator/PeterMayhew to make sure they got Chewbacca's appearance (while working within the art style), characterization and body language accurately.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** For "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E21BlackWidower Black Widower]]", the staff wanted an episode involving a "mystery", so executive producer Sam Simon approached Thomas Chastain, head of the organization Mystery Writers of America, to help construct the mystery.
** The end credits of "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E8MotherSimpson Mother Simpson]]" consist of Homer wistfully looking at the night sky after saying goodbye to his mother again. The crew successfully fought the network to not have any commercials play over it.
** Creator/DavidSilverman personally animated the hallucination sequences for [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E9ElViajeMisteriosoDeNuestroJomer "El Viaje Misterioso De Nuestro Jomer"]] as he was worried the overseas animators would not provide the specific, highly surreal look that he wanted. It paid off as the results are considered the episode's SignatureScene.
* Musical numbers in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' contain elaborate instrumentation and rhymes, as well as a handful of {{Genius Bonus}}es that only make sense to one well-versed in musical terminology. For instance, how many eight-year-olds are going to recognize the {{Foreshadowing}} at the end of "BBBFF"?
* The creators of ''[[WesternAnimation/ReBoot ReBoot]]'' had a lot of risk involved with their project. They predated the ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory1'' Creator/{{Pixar}} CGI revolution by a full year. It was an untested medium and the equipment to do it was not cheap. On top of that all the voice-acting, writing, directing and music was done in the same studio, instead of being farmed out to different companies like most shows. The results were a really tight story with great voice acting and animation that was groundbreaking.

* Although it is easy (and not unusual) to simply dismiss any ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' product as MerchandiseDriven, some works, such as ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' or ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', are well-liked for their appreciation of the mythos and written with the PeripheryDemographic in mind.
** ''Transformers'' has so many incentives to suck--it's MerchandiseDriven, [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids for small children]], and about robots that transform into cars. But sometimes, just sometimes, it's funny and engaging and a bit meaningful, and there's no other reason than that the creators, against all odds, care about what they do. Sometimes.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS6E10ThePrisonerOfBenda The Prisoner of Benda]]", one of the writers actually made use of their math degree to [[http://www.geekosystem.com/futurama-prisoner-of-benda-theory/ create and prove a brand new mathematical theorem]] just for sake of the episode's body-swapping plot.
* ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest''. One of the animators working on "Shadow of the Condor" was a UsefulNotes/WorldWarI airplane buff, and the Fokker Dr.1 and Spad are gorgeously drawn.
* During TheEighties, most cartoons were 30-minute toy ads, and it was virtually unthinkable to go about it otherwise. Robert Mandell deliberately misfiled the memo and blew out as many stops as he could afford. Broadway actors as his voice talent, a truckload of Del Ray sci-fi authors as writers, Toyko Movie Shinsa doing the animation, arena rock bands for the soundtrack, some of the ''earliest'' attempts to weld CGI and cel animation...and throwing the lot into a SpaceWestern that looks like the bastard offspring of a time-traveling ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' and the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse. The end result is a one-season wonder called ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers''.

* ''WesternAnimation/XavierRiddleAndTheSecretMuseum'' reportedly has a budget of a measly $3,000, but to say the artists and animators went the extra mile is an understatement. Thanks to Chris Eliopoulos' brilliant character designs and the stunning, detailed backgrounds, it manages to be a very artsy series. Special mention goes to the Creator/FredRogers episode, in which the ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood'' TV set is accurate ''down to the most minor detail''.

* For ''WesternAnimation/AlmasWay'', the animators from Creator/PipelineStudios actually visited the Bronx to get a feel for the setting they would recreate in cartoon form. The end result is a very detailed, accurate setting with icons like the Number 6 train. In regards to Eddie, who has cerebral palsy, the series' medical advisers actually wrote up a two-page medical chart for him.

* For ''WesternAnimation/AlmasWay'', the animators from Creator/PipelineStudios actually visited the Bronx to get a feel for the setting they would recreate in cartoon form. The end result is a very detailed, accurate setting with icons like the Number 6 train.