Western Animation Discussion - Television Tropes & Idioms

Describe So Bad Its Horrible Western Animation Discussion here.

Please tell me that someone else remembers da boom crew. Expository rap theme tune, orphans in space finding evil trading cards, one episode only (at least to my knowledge). theme.

That Other 1 Dude: I remember the name. Anyway, Ralph Bakshi's Lord Of The Rings wasn't that bad. The Peter Jackson movie even had several homages with a few shots.

Freezer: Yes. Yes it was. And I know several dozen people who have seen it and would agree. (I saw the original airing. It. Sucked.) Putting it back.

That Other 1 Dude: It has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 50. Random internet review that you select are not "proof".

Freezer: "random internet review that you select"... isn't that what Rotton Tomatoes is?

That Other 1 Dude: It's eighteen review, and I sure as hell didn't pick them. Anyway Agony Booth is pretty much built on Accentuate The Negative.

Dr Dedman: I've seen it, I'd read the books (loved them), it put scars on my childhood. Put it back. If you doubt that it is bad, go read Stomp Tokyo. It's not Titanic bad, but it's bad enough for this trop (especially compared with the Hobbit or even Return of the King).

Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: I'm not touching it (since my taste in film is not impeccable), but I'm not sure the Bakshi Lord of the Rings belongs here. This film is like the film vs. of Starship Troopers. If you've read Tolkien's book, this cartoon is horrifying; if you haven't, there are redeeming features. "Frodo, Frodo of the nine fingers/ How did he get nine fingers?" (Yes, that's right, I actually saw the sequel once...)

Trogga: I understand why that was removed, but why Megababies, Butt Ugly Martians etc.?

Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: Megababies was admitted to be a standard Gross Out Show, and I'm not prepared to admit all animated shows of that genre into this category, much as I would like to; we want exceptionally bad Gross Out Shows. I didn't feel that being Exactly What It Says On The Tin was enough for Butt Ugly Martians; I need another reason, and one wasn't given. And that other one I cut was because the only reason cited was Adaptation Decay - albeit horrific adaptation decay. (I'll put that one back.)

Freezair For A Limited Time: Cut:

Oh god Mega Babies . Disgusting artstyle and disgusting humour and yet some people think kids should watch something like this abomination

It doesn't really explain much about said show, except that it's apparently a Grossout Show... And it needs some conventions work. I don't remember much about this show, so if it was that bad, anyone more, er, "educated" wanna tackle this'un?

Sons of Butcher, anyone? Just...horrid. Feeble animation, Refuge In Vulgarity (oh boy, did they revel in it), and an overall sickening feel. God Almighty that show was bad.

Danel: I deleted the Butt Ugly Martians example - I have a dim memory of it being at least popular enough to not qualify as this.

Trogga: Are you kidding me? Almost everyone on the Internet tore it apart.

triassicranger: Where on the internet might I ask? The people I knew in reality seemed to enjoy it, then again some say here that "kids will watch anything". Anyway, draw your own conclusions. Also, I'm not sure if this is the right place to say this but, I think there needs to be some sort of polling system to see whether a program is "horrible" or not, i.e. find people that agree with you or not.

Caswin: Agreed. I actually liked Father of the Pride. Obvious "furry" appeal aside, it had strong points in its own right. "ACTIVATE ROCKET-PANTS!"

Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: Father Of The Pride was not a kids' show: it was a prime-time NBC Sit Com, always meant for adults. It had very good production values, from what I can remember (all CGI animation); it just had a combo of Squick in the scripts, bad timing, and failure to attract an audience because of negative reviews. (It didn't last a full season.) I'll cut it.

Ethereal Mutation: Machete time.

Hammerman. 'Nuff said.
- Ironically, this troper actually liked the show back when he was a kid.
  - Small children will watch anything. ANYTHING.

Contested. Also, while people like to joke about kids having no standards, it actually isn't true. Lower standards and a willingness to put up with something for being the closest thing to a kids show available in the time slot, yes, but they are more than willing to stop watching an animated show if it's bad enough.

Rubik The Amazing Cube. Starred an Alien Scrappy who was also a Rubik's cube and who did magic things whenever he was "solved." Merchandise Driven animation at its most painful.
Any other tropers remember Super Duper Sumos? Too many jokes about buttocks made this one.
- This troper does. He worked on the DVD releases. His brain still burns.

Needs more explanation.

In the same way Transformers fans set aside their differences to bury "The Beast Within", they come together to disparage Generation 1's worst episode. Loads upon loads of animation errors (the five Combaticons side-to-side have plenty of room on a two-lane road that they're all driving on, including the ones that are a helicopter and a spaceship) terrible writing (Swindle goes to buy parts from a foreign dictator to repair the Combaticons... less than two minutes later, Swindle's selling the valuable parts left of the other to him and throwing the rest in the trash heap?), a plot you could use for a strainer... And this was the second-season finale - if the movie had flopped, it could have ended Transformers. Teletraan-1 puts it best in a disambiguation box at the top of the episode's article:
This article is about the worst episode of Transformers ever. For the title character of the worst episode of Transformers ever, see B.O.T. (robot).

While it does sound completely awful, it should be in Wall Banger.

About the same time, and in much the same spirit, as the Wild CATS cartoon, you had dueling Fighting Game adaptations of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. And like the Wild CATS cartoon, quality animation was not a priority. The Street Fighter show basically took the movie's Guile-led Special Forces team and turned them in to GI Joe with fists instead of guns. Mortal Kombat smelled of Power Rangers, with the Kombatants foiling Shao Khan and Shang Tsung's Scheme Of The Week. Neither lasted more than two seasons, nor are they fondly remembered.

Doesn't really describe why they're bad. This would better fit in Adaptation Decay.

triassicranger: Removed this from the page

Skunk Fu-the show has all the graphics and animation of kindergarden drawings.

The reasons I removed it were because, firstly, if YouTube is to be believed, the show has a fanbase and from waht I know, if the show was a fanbase, it doesn't make it "Horrible". Secondly, if bad animation were the deciding factor in "Horrible" it would send shows like "Crayon Shin-Chan" and "Chibi Maruko Chan" here off the bat, when they're not. If anyone wants to restore it, I think we need more reasons.

Freezer: Clipped the following -

Home on the Range was so bad, Disney shut down their traditional animation department as a result. Althought they are bringing it back for The Princess and the Frog.
Titan AE was so bad, it forced Fox to switch to CGI, destroyed Don Bluth Animation Studios and killed Don Bluth's career.
The King And I was so bad, Warner Bros also switched to CGI as a result.
Ditto with Dreamworks and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.
Executive Meddling turned Cool World into the piece of crap we know and hate.
The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat: worse case of Sequelitis ever.
The Ralph Bakshi/Rankin-Bass Lord of the Rings movies served as a guide to Peter Jackson for what NOT to do.
The Black Cauldron is largely seen as a failure by Disney, to the point that they pretend it doesn't exist.

The case can be made for the Bakashi LOTR and Fritz, but more than, "it just is" is needed to justify them. The rest don't even come close to SBIH range. Box office failure is not an indicator of quality.

triassicranger: Someone just added animated Titanic to the page. I have no objection to it (I wholeheartedly agree in fact), but didn't we have it on the page before?

Freezair For A Limited Time: I think it might have been ousted before on the grounds of being So Bad Its Good. Can't recall, however.

Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: Why was Sonic Underground cut?

Antwan: Seems to me that somebody either forgot to list their reasons or has a Guilty Pleasure of the show. I'll go put it back up.

Cid Pollendina: I removed the Sonic Underground part because the show had a decent-sized fan base, and the person who added the entry was bitching and moaning endlessly about how it was a spinoff.

Antwan: Well, there you go. That's all you had to say. Please list some good reasons before removing/adding entries, it's all we ask.

Great Pikmin Fan: Um... The SU example is back, and by looking in page history, it says that whoever removed it should give a reason why... and here one is.

Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: Someone removed Xavier: Renegade Angel from the listings because "it wasn't supposed to make sense." Does that reason make sense? <sigh>

Kalle: removed Twelve Ounce Mouse, because as weird as it is, it does have its fans (myself included.)

Great Pikmin Fan: can we put shows that start out good but then turned into crap? Yes, I am aware that family guy has a fanbase, but was the number of people who enjoyed 420 or not all dogs go to heaven in the single digits? how bout' The Simpsons, who thinks the way the show is going now is funny?

triassicranger: No. We're only supposed to put shows that were never good. Not shows that start good then turn into mulch or the other way round.

Hopla is bad for a toddler show.

Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: Cut this and put it here. From the sounds of it, it isn't bad enough. If there's something truly awesome there...

From another animation studio tied to Phoenix Games, there's this. A "little boy" named Sonny is a black big-lipped minstrel in this adaptation of Snow White. Maybe it's a reference to this WWII cartoon. That, or they truly think that black people look and dress like that. Terrible.
- No, "Snow White" is an exception despite the blatant racism. It has an awesome example of a Big Lipped Alligator Moment, the narrator seems to be taking the piss, and the animation is competent compared to most Phoenix tripe.

Heyyy I liked Stripperella.. Stan Lee as a senile scientist that "invented" the portable phone that only weighs 80 pounds? Downright self-aware villains with ludicrous batman-esque themed villainy? Sure it had its problems...

Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: Okay. Unfortunately, just as we cannot add something based solely on one person's opinion, we're not supposed to subtract something solely on one person's opinion. Even Horrible works were liked by someone, or they would never have aired in the first place. (Well, maybe no one likes the direct-to-DVD entries, but this was a TV series with Stan Lee — it must be Marvel-approved.) I'm not adding it back — you may be right about the bright spots — but unless there's evidence that you are not alone, I won't object to someone else adding it back.

Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: Okay, someone has added a justification to The Secret Of NIMH 2 entry, and I am unsure what to do about it. I know the justification can't stay, but can the entry?...

Yon Troper: No, it can't. If it attracts Natter saying it isn't So Bad Its Horrible, it can't stay on here. Delete.

Cut and pasted here.

Titanic: The Legend Goes On is a 2001 animated musical made by an Italian company and dubbed horribly into English. It is about the sinking of the Titanic, and it steals characters and plotlines from James Cameron's Titanic, Disney (most notably Cinderella), and Don Bluth (most notably An American Tail). It doesn't steal enough plotline from history, though. The main song makes "My Heart Will Go On" look like a masterpiece, the other songs are also awful, and the animation is appalling. The characters have about three millimeters of depth between them, and several of them are blatant racial stereotypes. THERE IS A RAPPING DOG.
- And who can forget the most shining part of the movie? PARTY TIME!!!
- And this story about the Titanic ended with a Happily Ever After...
- This Troper thinks it becomes So Bad Its Good when watched with other people. It's better to use it as a party movie rather then watch it yourself. It's just a fun movie to riff on.
  - A work can be tolerable when MSTed but Horrible in itself. (See the film and Horrible/Fanfic sections for details.)
- One reviewer on That Guy With The Glasses's message board pointed out that the movie has Schmuck Bait. That is, they made the leading lady stacked.
- Surprisingly, there is another animated Titanic movie that's even worse that was released at the same time in Italy, The Legend of Titanic. It had a giant octopus save the ship from sinking, and it had even more talking mice.
  - Actually, the ship still sinks. Nobody died however. More surprising was that a sequel got made. Which apparently has rapping in it and mermaids. The first one had the decency to not do either the first time.

Dude, if it's so bad, it actually makes you laugh, then it's So Bad Its Good.

Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: A film can be Horrible in itself but have a good MST — see the Film section. (Or the Fan Fic section.) Figment Jedi was effectively saying that the film is good for MS Ting; this says nothing about the sort of badness the film is in itself.

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