In Caillou's New Adventures, Caillou is flanderized back to throwing tantrums. What's worse is that he's more loud and obnoxious than before.
The CGI specials and reboot also have their problems, with many saying the animation and designs look more awkward.
The short-livedThunder Cats 2011 gets growls (pun intended) from the older fanbase due to the art style and storyline changes, as well as Flanderization. Snarf turned into a cliche cute pet sidekick who doesn't speak and is just there to be the team's mascot (never mind that the original Snarf wasn't very well-liked), Tygra turned into Lion-O's rival/borderline frienemy who just so happens to be interested in the same girl but will come through for him when it counts to show that he "cares", and Lion-O himself turned into the late teen/young brash man who has to learn to believe in himself and his power. Then there's the love triangle between Lion-O, Tygra, and Cheetra... and this was all before the show even aired. This series has since been Vindicated by History by a number of ThunderCats fans but it still remains divisive among diehard fans of the original.
Late 2000s Cartoon Network. So many people, especially teens and young adults who grew up with the channel, have different ideas of when and where the channel went wrong in this transitional period. Popular ideas include:
The end of rerunning classic cartoons from The Golden Age of Animation and The Dark Age of Animation. The CN City rebrand, while well regarded among fans who grew up with that era, attracted some criticism from old school fans who saw the exclusive focus on new cartoons as abandoning the network's original purpose of introducing a new generation to the classic Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. animation catalog, which had remained a consistent feature even as original cartoons began to be developed for the network. While the Boomerang block which served as the home for the classic catalogue would be spun off into a separate channel, even that would eventually phase out the classics.
Ending of the original Cartoon Cartoons. While the brand name was officially discontinued in 2004 with the CN City rebrand, the last of the Cartoon Cartoons to end was Ed, Edd n Eddy in 2009. In fact, the general 2007-2009 period saw the cancellation and/or lack of reruns for most of CN's original programming due to a change in network headsnote caused by the infamous 2007 Boston bomb scare, which was not only a huge embarrassment for the network, but resulted in them losing a ton of money to pay for a settlement between them and the city that subsequently led to the ousting of almost all of the cartoon creators who had been working in Cartoon Network's in-house studio since the network's inceptionnote The animators at CN Studios who weren’t ousted described it as being a virtual ghost town afterwards. The new original shows that came afterwards, as well as even some of the ones that debuted in the CN City era which themselves came to an end around the same time, were initially met with reluctance from the old-school fans who grew up with the Powerhouse era, but many are now beloved shows in their own right by these same people. While the old shows remained available through Boomerang, the channel's lack of availability would remain an issue until streaming services made the classic CN shows much more accessible.
Introduction of live action shows, most infamously the CN Real block, which was met with overwhelming negative reception (which is understandable given that it isCartoon Network). A few of these shows have been Vindicated by History, but they are overall seen as being the ultimate symptom of CN's Audience-Alienating Era by most. This did not stop Cartoon Network from revisiting the concept of live-action shows in the early 2020s however, though at least there is still heavy focus on cartoons, unlike what happened in the late 2000's.
Importing Canadian shows, most of which were hated by old-school CN fans who preferred the traditionally-animated American programming over these Flash/CGI-animated imports that the network seemed to promote more than their original shows at the timenote There's no official explanation as to why CN began favoring Canadian programming so much in this period, but theories include the aforementioned change in network heads, which led to the discontinuation of nearly all original programming at the time, leaving CN with almost nothing of their own to show. A good chunk of these shows did develop their own fanbases (especially those by Fresh TV, which were huge overseas successes and eventually became Vindicated by History as some of the better shows of the network's Audience-Alienating Era), but the hatedom surrounding the Canadian imports in the late 2000s and early 2010s (particularly of the American-Canadian production Johnny Test, which became Adored by the Network in this period) is believed by some to be responsible for the current poor reputation of Canadian-produced (or part-Canadian) animated series on the whole, and most people's knowledge of Canadian animation is predominantly based on the shows CN aired from in this period (despite the fact Canadian cartoons have always aired on American TV, with CN having also aired a few prior to their takeover in 2008, like Storm Hawks in 2007 and Atomic Betty in 2004)note It’s also worth noting that around the same time CN started importing more Canadian shows, the 2007-08 Writer's Strike led to Canadian programming becoming more prominent on many other networks, such as the importation of Flashpoint to CBS. Regardless, they were largely phased by 2016 following Supernoobs' Channel Hop to Hulu, with only the Total Drama franchise currently remaining in the form of its Spinoff Babiesseries.
Cancellation of Toonami in September 2008, thus giving little reason for anime fans to tune in to the network, while also limiting the reach of anime to general audiences. This was receded after a four year gap however, helping to Win Back the Crowd.
When it was announced that Total Drama's fourth season would replace the original cast with a completely new slate of contestants, a lot of fans were pretty mad. However, when they actually did debut, reception was generally warm, although this did not stop anothersimilar outcry from occurring when a third generation of contestants was revealed for the show's sixth season.
Any of the RoboCop cartoons will do. Hell, the second one gets more flak because Murphy simply has more gadgets, and he gets called "go go gadget cop". That nickname might have less to do with just the gadgets and more to do with one of the most commonly used gadgets was extendo-arms, and that the series liked to find excuses to turn him into an incompetent recipient of goofy slapstick.
Transformers: The phrase "TRUKK NOT MUNKY" gets used every time a new series comes out. The Transformers fandom is the trope namer for Ruined FOREVER with good reason.
It has gotten this reaction since Beast Wars. The fandom itself has its own self-deprecating phrase for the trope: "TRUKK NOT MUNKY", regarding the complaints over Optimus Primal being a gorilla, which isn't actually a monkey at all. The more general term is "GEEWUN".
We'll never know how the fans' heads exploded when they first saw the character designs for Transformers: Animated, or when they found out it would have human villains, with the Decepticons being a recurring threat and not the only one, or the fact that Optimus Prime would be voiced by David Kaye (who before has primarily voiced Beast Wars' Megatron), or that Optimus was a firetruck (until they realized he was technically a semi-truck outfitted as a firetruck. Then some were upset that he didn't have smoke stacks...), and let's not forget about Optimus not being the leader of all the Autobots. People even went berserk over Soundwave not sounding exactly like the old one (Frank Welker is expensive nowadays, one presumes).
Transformers: Prime gets a lot of flak from fans who agonize over how the design aesthetic, particularly for the Decepticons, strays too far from the norm (read: G1), instead electing for more of a hybrid movie/Animated look. Starscream and Soundwave are the biggest examples, drawing a lot of complaints about how their ultra-lean, spiky bodies look "anorexic" or something to that effect, never mind that the designs actually complement their personalities quite nicely. Soundwave has it the worst between the two of them, with most folks being appalled at how he's not the bulky, square-ish bot he was in G1 and War for Cybertron.
History repeated itself with the first previews of Transformers: Robots in Disguise, where fans cried foul over the Art Shift from Prime's style to a brighter, more cartoony one, the intent of the creators to make the show more "fun" (even though Prime not being "fun enough" was one of their most commonly heard complaints), and the fact that Bumblebee is the leader of the main Autobot team, among other things. Furthermore, armchair critics came out of the woodwork to decry the new show for not adhering to the chronology of the Aligned continuity family (chiefly over the idea of Grimlock supposedly being a Decepticon)— many of whom were the same people saying that the Aligned continuity itself was a stupid idea during Prime's run.
The episode "That 90's Show" is hated by many fans entirely because it attempted to Retcon Homer and Marge's backstory in a ham-fisted attempt to stay relevant.
The seasons when Mike Scully was show-runner (9-12) are often denounced as an Audience-Alienating Era for being weirder than the seasons before and having several controversial plot points like Skinner being revealed as an imposter (however, this was a holdover from Season 8 produced by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein) and Maude Flanders' death.
In season 20, the intro was permanently changed for the first time since season 2 to go along with the show's widescreen HD makeover. Some fans hated the change because of the new animation style, which is often noted as being much stiffer and less Off-Model.
Ask in Latin America when the show turned bad. The answer will be when they changed the original voices in 2005, after season 15. This fact, almost unknown on the rest of the planet, is nearly a universal truth in the subcontinent. While few people know that the decline of quality began near or even before that point, due to new writers, directors or Executive Meddling, this is not associated with any other change than the voices that were replaced when, after Audiomaster 3000 (the series' original dubbing studio) closed, the new studio and the actors got into a conflict that ended in nearly all of the actors being fired. People can't take the current voice of Homer (Otto Balbuena), and recognize the real one to be in the voice of Humberto Vélez, a well-recognized Mexican voice actor. This is the same for the other actors who originally did the main characters' voices (Nancy Mckenzie as Marge, Patricia Acevedo as Lisa, Claudia Motta as Bart note Claudia started doing Bart's voice in the middle of season 9 after the original voice actress, Marina Huerta, left the cast due to a pay dispute, and incidentally, Marina returned to do Bart's voice after the conflict and Gabriel Chávez as Mr. Burns).
Toonami got a lot of this; fans themselves are a Broken Base as to whether it sucked when (in Toonami's last change in style) TOM received a childish look and a face instead of a helmet (being a robot, it was assumed to be his whole head), the AI character SARA disappeared with no explanation and was replaced with robots similar in design to the new TOM, and the setting was changed to a jungle planet outpost instead of the spaceship Absolution. Of course, there was a similar reaction way back when after TOM replaced Moltar... And the reboot of Toonami: while many people highly enjoy the new Toonami lineup many seem to think it sucks because it doesn't have nostalgia favorites such as Dragon Ball Z, YuYu Hakusho, Outlaw Star, and many others despite the fact that the rights to DBZ are owned by another network and the new Toonami has a limited budget that doesn't allow them to show every a bunch of stuff from the past along with new programming (though DBZ and Outlaw Star would eventually come back, albeit the former in the form of Dragon Ball Z Kai).
After almost half a decade without a new season, the series was brought back for a soft rebooted eighth season in 2019. Now aimed at a preschool audience, the characters were all redesigned to look younger. It's safe to say that this alarmed older fans, but according to Word of God, this was a necessary change since younger kids now make up a majority of the show's viewers. The show's creator, Iginio Straffi, explained here:
Straffi: “In the last ten years, the animation audience has skewed younger. Nowadays, it's very difficult to get a 10-year-old to watch cartoons... When your [new] target is 4-to-8, your story cannot have the same level of complexity as the beginning seasons of Winx, where we had a lot of layers of different stories... The fans of the previous Winx Club say on social media that the new seasons are childish, but they don't know that we had to do that.”
It's worth noting that a lot of the behind-the-scenes staff who worked on the earlier seasons of Winx Club did not return for the eighth season. This (understandably) includes the art director Simone Borselli, who designed the characters for all previous seasons, but wasn't asked to come back for the reboot. Even Iginio Straffi himself stopped focusing on Winx, as he was busy working on Nickelodeon's live-action show Club 57.
There exists certain parts of the fandom that are absolutely furious that in Batman: The Brave and the Bold Batman's parents died when he was mad at them over a Christmas present. There is also the humor devolving Adam West-era puns, Batman practically having super strength, Batarangs being made of cellophane peeled from his chest logo (???), or Batman himself being voiced by Hoss Delgado making him even harder to take seriously. (Of course, this is more about this entire thing being based on the Silver Age.)
Fans believe that about seasons 4-7, the introduction of Poof, Timmy's Jerkassness and other characters' Flanderizations where this happened.
A specific example; Catman being voiced by Jeff Bennett instead of Adam West. While this was justified due to the latter's death in 2017, some believed this change killed the purpose of the joke.
Another example is when they decided to change the intro for the first time in 10 seasons just to include Chloe. It doesn't help that it feels more like a fan-made parody of the original, and also consists mainly of clips instead of original animation. Just take a look at any video that's just the opening and take a look at the dislike bar for proof.
The sudden shift from hand-drawn animation to Flash animation in season 10 as a result of budget cuts. What makes this especially notorious is that unlike most shows that make this switch, this one happened in the middle of the season.
Family Guy: The most thunderous complaint about the show since its return to TV was its complete change in tenure and character. The program dropped its sit-com base and instead went for violence, grotesque imagery, overly long gags, Comedic Sociopathy, and in-your-face political and religious commentary.
The star catching in Season 3, as well as replacing the picture pop-up sequence with Map in Season 4, have received negative backlash from some viewers; both were retired as of Season 5.
Many reacted this way when Mattel announced a tween Dora line to appeal to older girls. People were rather expecting a Bratz-esque Dora.
A teaser image of the upcoming CGI reboot on Paramount+ depicted Swiper with a differently-designed mask that exposed the top of his head and made him nearly unrecognizable as a result. Probably because of this, he was redesigned with his original mask in subsequent promotional images.
Fans of the Nickelodeon version were and probably still are known to trash the Disney version, because the biggest change made to it was Disney making it now!
The creators made explanations for the changes a part of the script. The show is set one year after the first series, so the characters are a year older, dress differently, have different hairstyles, different voice actors, etc., and the first new episode focused on Doug learning to overcome and deal with his fears of the changes in his life.
Gargoyles fans hate, hate, hate the show's third season (called Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles). New showrunners were hired, most of the writing staff from the original series had left, the animation studio was different, and the series concept was changed. Season 3 was never released on DVD, and original series creator and co-showrunner Greg Weisman's revivals of Gargoyles as comic books completely disregard this season as canon.
Though The Spectacular Spider-Man was very well received by comic book fans and others (for being truly faithful to the source material while using different sources from the different spider-man lore), there are some of the more "militant" fans of the previous series who do not like the show for things such as the style, Shocker not being Herman Schultz, but Montana of the Enforcers, and probably some of other reasons as well.
Received similar treatment from fans of Spectacular, who speculated that the show's very existence was the reason why Spectacular was axed in the first place. Once more became known about the series, other fans began complaining about the series not adhering to the comic book of the same name, as well as allegedly being very "toyetic".
Also, Spidey's Deadpool-esque personality and humour....though that criticism may be coming from forgetful and/or younger fans who don't remember that Spider-Man is the original and preeminent Deadpan Snarker of the Marvel Universe, and that Deadpool stole most of that schtick (other than Breaking the Fourth Wall) from Spidey!
Complaints were leveled at Green Lantern: The Animated Series for incorporating a lot of the more controversial elements from the Geoff Johns run (such as the Red and Blue Lanterns and the Star Sapphire Corps) despite starring the original Silver Age GL, Hal Jordan, and not any of the later Lanterns like John Stewart, Guy Gardner or Kyle Rayner. Early fan outcry was also leveled at the series for using CGI animation rather than the traditional hand-drawn style used in most other DC cartoons. And even the fans who liked the elements from Geoff Johns' books criticized the series for things such as the Red Lanterns not being mindless raging beasts like in the comic.
The Legend of Korra gets this from some fans of the original series who are upset that it has an entirely new cast and takes place several decades after the original ended, instead of directly continuing Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Beware the Batman was already getting this when there was nothing more than two teaser posters being released, with Alfred using firearms proving to be a particularly controversial element. Additionally, some fans seem to take issue with Katana being used as Batman's core sidekick when Cassandra Cain, the Asian Batgirl, fills a similar function and has yet to be used in any DC television show beyond a non-speaking cameo in Justice League. And of course there are also animation purists who detest the use of CGI.
The Batman, another series that referred to him as "the Batman". A combination of having to live up to the Timmverse, character changes, weird designs, and the little matter of the Bat-Embargo turned many viewers against it.
The New Batman Adventures a.k.a. "season four" of Batman: The Animated Series had backlash due to the re-design of the characters and animation style. Albeit the change in style was made more for budget reasons (as using the Art Deco retro original style was too expensive to animate) many fans still considered that some of the designs, most notably Catwoman and The Joker, were unjustifiable and too cartoonish.
Futurama had a rumored new voice cast that thankfully didn't go through, possibly due to fan reaction. Or maybe because replacing the entire cast would be really messed up.
The dispute was mostly due to the voice actors' salary demands, with numerous fans afraid and angry at the possibility of change demanding that Fox throw as much money at the actors as was necessary. Because who doesn't want to invest large amounts of cash in a series that had to be Un-Cancelled?
When the show was uncanceled for the first time, it immediately started getting wild accusations (even after the first two episodes of the season!) that the show was officially ruined just because the jokes were slightly edgier (the third episode in particular got a lot of this because of all of its topical humor).
Another problem that could be called They changed it, now it sucks or It's the same, now it sucks: In the last episode before cancellation, Fry & Leela had been made an official couple. After cancellation the show went back to the usual "Will they, won't they?" thing without explanation but it sometimes randomly had them being a couple for an episode without explantion.
Many people didn't like the idea of Batman Beyond where Bruce Wayne wasn't the actual Batman. As far as Spin-Offspring shows go, this series is easily one of the best examples of it being done right.
It initially drew the ire of certain fans of the 90's comic book of the same name. Despite the fact that the creators said from the beginning that it would only loosely adapt elements from the book and that it would mostly do its own thing, fans still raised a massive stink. It got to the point where Peter David, who wrote the original comics, had to step in and tell people to calm down and accept that it was going to be good despite not matching his work.
There was also backlash over the Time Skip at the start of season 2, with a number of fans voicing outrage over the mostly-new cast and the apparent jettisoning of many of the originals (such as Aqualad becoming a villain and Artemis retiring).
The changes made for season 4 were mostly par for the course for a show with so much character development (every season has kicked off with some sort of major change) but Brock Samson's departure from the regular cast led to a vocal faction of fans declaring that the show is terrible without him.
To a lesser extent, Hank and Dean's revamped designs got that sort of reaction as well.
Strawberry Shortcake is prone to this due to the uncertainty of the direction each of the master licensees want to take the franchise which angered fans due to its frequent changes.
When the 2003 version started, some of the older fans felt that the franchise was doomed, though this has died down overtime.
When the 2003 version was aged-up in 2007, there was trepidation from some, particularly fans of Honey Pie Pony, who weren't pleased that she had retired to Ice Cream Island permanently, and even then the send-off was only mentioned in a chapter book and not on the TV series officially, and after that the existing fillies, Honey Pie and Ice Cream Island was never mentioned ever again, while others who disliked the Pie-Man voiced their dislikes in the franchise bringing him back.
Then there's the 2009 series, which were widely decried by the Slice of Life fans who're drawn to the series by the 2003 series being educationally wholesome as lacking in terms of educational content and emphasis on beauty over moral values, the transition to CGI, as well as being nothing more than a 30-minute toy commercial, and Sour Grapes will be reinstated as the series' Antagonist.
The 2021 series also got a lot of flak when it was first announced back in 2019, what with the uncanny looking CGI in its promotional art and the characters getting new designs that deviate from the original (i.e. Lemon Meringue being a tomboy). When the series was released, most of the fandom warmed up to it due to the show being animated in 2D instead of 3D and characters' being altered from their initial redesigns, though some still disliked the changes made to the series (most notable Raspberry Torte/Tort being turned into aSitcom Arch-Nemesis).
What's New, Scooby-Doo?, got this as well, mostly from fans who preferred the older 1970s series, due to changing the character designs and animation, music and sound effects, trying too hard to make it more "hip" and "current," along with making the show more "realistic" and "down-to-earth," and continuously making fun of the old Scooby-Doo formula to death (including every episode parodying the line "And it would've worked if it weren't for you meddling kids!")
This has been going on with Scooby-Doo ever since Scrappy was added to the cast, and Velma, Daphne, and Fred were axed in 1980. A Pup Named Scooby-Doo also got a lot of flack back in the day, but is generally more accepted today.
Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! got hit with this almost as soon as it was announced, thanks to it having a far more comedic tone than its predecessor and giving the characters a redesign that people quickly compared to Seth MacFarlane's signature artstyle. Much like Mystery Incorporated before it, some were eventually able to embrace these changes once the show premiered while others were not.
Velma is by far the worst offender of this, even more so than the franchise's previous installments, as it got a scathing reception from many fans for horribly butchering the Mystery Inc. gang beyond recognition (the titular character herself taking it the worst) and omitting the lovable Great Dane.
Iron Man: Armored Adventures got some pretty heavy flack before the show even officially aired. The most common criticisms were that Tony Stark couldn't be Iron Man while he was still a teenager, and that the CGI animation sucks. Suffice it to say, most of the hate comes from fans who prefer the 90s series.
South Park: There are fans that have long cried foul over the show's change in direction from its more surreal era to the political and current events-charged seasons, the changes in animation from more cartoony and crude violence to outright Gorn, and endless debates on whether or not these directions have worked. And then there are those that feel the show sucks due to the changes in female voice talent (which became a necessity due to Mary Kay Bergman's suicide): When Eliza Schneider left over a contractual dispute and her successor April Stewart took the job, one particular faction was not very amused.
The "real" death of Kenny at the end of season 5 and his replacement by Butters in season 6 ignited flamewars on the official site's forums and elsewhere. Following Butters' replacement with Tweek, it led to another debate over whether the show "sucked" now for changing the dynamic. All seemed well when Kenny returned, until he got put Out of Focus in favor of Butters.
If it's not exactly like the '80s cartoon a large portion of the fandom instantly grab their torches and pitchforks and complain about how it isn't like the "original source material" despite the fact that the show was massively different from the Mirage comics (which, for the record,arethe original source material!). The worst part is that when some adaptations try to be more like the comics (the first live-action film, the 2003 series, TMNT) they still get flak from fans saying it strayed too far from "the original" (that is, the 1987 series).
There are also a lot of fans who are fully aware that the Mirage Comics are the original TMNT version, but they still wish newer incarnations to be similar to the 1987 series because the 1987 series is the version that introduced most people to the franchise, being much more popular in the mainstream than the original comics ever were.
One thing the 2003 series did that got this reaction from both comic and 1987 fans was making The Shredder an Utrom.
Several fans of the 2003 series were displeased with its “Fast Forward” Retool which shifted the show’s premise and setting by transporting the turtles to the future, made the tone Lighter and Softer, had more episodic storytelling, and changed the animation style and character designs. Even more disliked the “Back to the Sewers” season, because while it returned the turtles to the present, the tone got even lighter and the animation style and character designs were altered further, one notable design change that upset the fans was removing the turtles’ Irisless Eye Mask Of Mystery.
Numerous fans of the 2003 and 2012 series were beyond upset about “Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”. There were many drastic changes to the newest reboot of the TMNT franchise, such as the overly-cartoony animation and comedy that fans compared to Teen Titans Go!, personality and design changes such as Raphael being a Gentle Giant and Leonardo being cocky and chill, and the addition of mystic powers.
Loonatics Unleashed was and still is a major victim of this. You have to see it to believe it.
A day after its premiere on HBO Max, Looney Tunes Cartoons had a New York Times article with series creator Pete Browngardt revealed that the team "weren't doing guns, but [they] can do cartoony violence — TNT, the Acme stuff." A week later, a bunch of news outlets cited the story with the connection that Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam would have their guns removed. There was quite an uproar in some areas, with some saying that it doesn't make sense for Elmer to use a scythe to hunt rabbits, and comparing it to the Moral Guardian accusations of video games causing violence. Thankfully, guns were later reinstated in the series starting with the second season.
When it was announced that Babs and Buster Bunny would be twin siblings in Tiny Toons Looniversity, the reboot of Tiny Toon Adventures, longtime fans of the original series did not take this change well, as one of the original series' running gags was Babs and Buster saying "No Relation" whenever they would introduce themselves, and the two have often been depicted as a couple. Even Tom Ruegger, one of the writers and producers of the original series disliked this change, as his response to it was "Ummm...ew?"
Jeph Loeb announced that the second season would contain 12 self-contained episodes. This stands in contrast to the fact the first season followed a serial format. Fans decided to hate these episodes before they even got to read synopses.
The addition of recaps to Disney XD airings necessitated a trimming of the minute-long intro. This trimming resulted in the replacement of "Fight as One" with a speech by Nick Fury, as well as animation unique to the intro giving way to random episode clips. Fans wished for the reinstating of the longer opening, especially since Fury's speech sounds more like a promo for the movie The Avengers than a proper introduction to the cartoon, but the only consolation they received came when the last episodes of the first season came to DVD and Netflix with the theme song attached. Even then, Marvel probably attached it for consistency's sake, instead of fan appeasement.
Executive Meddling resulted in Spider-Man getting redubbed. The lines that JoshKeaton recorded for Spidey got replaced by readings courtesy of DrakeBell. Never mind the possibility that Bell's performance sounds fine on its own standards; a number of fans consider at least Spidey's episodes tainted.
There was internet outrage over Earth's Mightiest Heroes ending and being replaced by a new show, Avengers Assemble. Even before footage and plot details were released, some fans just seemed to hate it for not being season 3 of Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
My Little Pony (G3): Fans did not treat the "Core 7" revision of the series nicely, especially when it came to Rainbow Dash; her accent changed, she became more generic instead of being a Cool Big Sis to everyone, and her catchphrase changed. In general Pony fans don't like changes to the series. G2 is often passed up in people's minds, and G3.5 is widely hated.
In general, the show has a slow but noticeable shift from a prevalence of Slice of Life stories in the early seasons to a greater focus on adventure stories in the later ones. At various points in the show, fans have been unhappy with this trend, citing the focus on everyday adventures as what drove them to the show in the first place and finding a poor replacement in the newer stories.
Season 2 was disliked by a pool of Slice of Life fans who were attracted to the show by the post-two-parter Season 1 episodes, as it was believed to feature a recurring villain (a belief that turned out to be mistaken, unless the school bully Diamond Tiara returning from season 1 counts), and the two-parter season premier has a noticeably dark story (and the villain was not permanently destroyed and did not undergo a Heel–Face Turn until Season 3).
Some fans became very cynical after Lauren Faust left the show, with even the admins of one forum admitting they stopped watching it early in Season 2. This attitude mostly seems to appear amongst the earliest G4 fans, however, and became steadily less prominent as increasing portions of the fandom became composed of people who started watching the show after this happened.
"A Canterlot Wedding", the Season 2 finale, further alienated the slice-of-life crowd due to utilizing a high-stakes story focused on an invasion of Equestria, a similarly dark villain, and the use of physical violence.
Season 3 had the number of episodes cut in half, but still managed to become the most controversial season of the show (Season 2, now being considered by most S3 haters as part of the "Good Old Days" along with S1). It introduced a number of noticeable and permanent changes to the show's status quo, including the introduction of a new type of pony, the redemption of a major villain, and Twilight's transformation into an alicorn, that several fans were intensely unhappy with.
Derpy Hooves in "The Last Roundup" entered this after Hasbro modified her voice, changed her expression to be less cross-eyed and removed Rainbow Dash's reference to her as "Derpy" after a Vocal Minority complained about how her portrayal could be seen as offensive to persons with special needs. A good part of the issue was that while many fans liked Derpy, there weren't a uniting idea of her personality. Was she "ditzy with googly eyes, but otherwise fine", a female equivalent of Ed, Billy or Patrick, or an actual pony with special needs? As is the major problem with canonizing fandom created/inspired characters, not everyone could be satisfied and the fandom started to eat each other.
Twilight's transformation into an alicorn was highly controversial. People left the fanbase over it, others threatened to do so, Lauren Faust (who, again, had nothing to do with this) got her Twitter flooded with people raging, and in general, the fandom was thrown into an uproar. The primary complaints came from those who feared this would turn Twilight into a Mary Sue-type character... despite Meghan McCarthy, the show's head writer saying that wouldn't happen, and that many of the alicorns seen on the show aren't quite as powerful as fans make them out to be, and have been shown weakened or defeated before. The fourth season has Twilight being nearly exactly the same as she was before. Ironically, this caused a few complaints in the other direction, as so little changed that some fans asked what the point of the change was in the first place. Lampshaded in "Twilight's Kingdom — Part 1" when Twilight herself admits that her new role as Princess hasn't really amounted to much.
The redesign of the changelings at the end of season 6 was another event that caused a lot of this. Some preferred the original edgy black design and there was also a Broken Aesop feeling with a message of goodness being tied to appearance.
My Little Pony (Generation 5): Many people also did not like G5 for several reasons, some of them relating to the fact the series has gone to a more hi-tech and contemporary theme just like majority of girls' toylines of today. The ponies in this generation have smartphones, modern-style vehicles, and social media of their own, the musical numbers are reminiscent of modern-day pop music.
VeggieTales: Many fans reacted this way to the redone intro theme, which cuts off a verse.
Some fans reacted like this when VeggieTales in the House came out. The most common group to bash on this version of the show? Parents with autistic children.
Long before "In the House", many people were upset (including the creators), when they tried to make the show more secular/non-religious to air on mainstream network TV.
Fans complain that Bear wearing an unexplained flamboyant blue vest makes him look “gay”. Another complaint is that he doesn't need it since no one else wears clothing.
Many Recess fans reacted this way to Myles Jeffrey replacing Andrew Lawrence for the DTV movies (this was due to the latter's voice changing, though the former didn't even sound like him).
Fans yelled this trope out loud when Oliver Grainger replaced the voice actor for D.W.
The worst offender is Justin Bradley, chosen to voice Arthur in season 6, whose voice was deemed too "whiny" whenever Arthur got upset, stressed or mad. He was later replaced by Mark Randall for home video releases and airings in America.
All of Arthur's voice actors after Mark Randall left have been criticized for sounding too female and more like D.W. than Arthur.
Alex Hood's performance of Alan "The Brain" Powers was also criticized for being higher pitched and whinier than the past Brain's.
The episodes produced by 9 Story Entertainment weren't taken to very well. The animation is very cheap-looking and stiff compared to the previous seasons, and fans really hate Ladonna. Fans also didn't like that the animation was switched to Adobe Flash after a total of fifteen years of traditional.
The series got this from both people who loved the original series that pan its Flash animation and people who aren't. Most of the comments range from "Mister Rogers is rolling in his grave" to "It's too cartoonish and hyper".
Parents and fans of the show disliked the sudden animation change in Daniel Visits a New Neighborhood, feeling that it was rather limited and stiff compared to the more lively previous seasons. The slowed-down dialogue and slightly adjusted character designs to accommodate this change have also been subject to criticism.
The second season received quite a bit of this opinion from fans who weren't amused with the change in studios (Augenblick to Titmouse), nor the new animation or the change in writing format. Criticism ranged from the animation being too fluid and cartoony, the Warden becoming less sinister and more overtly childish, the writing being too wordy, and some feeling that the characters didn't need their backstories revealed.
The confirmation of Alice being transgender (via her backstory) particularly pissed off a faction of fans that had hoped she wasn't, who even began citing it in reviews as the reason why the show was ruined.
The third season seemed to go over a little better with the fanbase, due to the staff's attempts at re-instating the wild angles and scene transitions within episodes. Although, there are those who continue to wish Augenblick would return to animating instead of Titmouse.
There are the fans that see Warden as having fallen in characterization even as early as after the pilot, which they felt portrayed him in the darkest manner.
The Twins becoming more visibly vulnerable, weaker, and not as involved in trouble as much as they used to be is another change that's gone debated, some deeming the characters to have been ruined ever since they were confirmed to be aliens.
While not a huge issue as far as criticisms were concerned, there was some annoyance about Kamala Sankaram and Melissa Brown not reprising their roles of Charise and Bruce for "Stingstress".
The Xiaolin Showdown revival, Xiaolin Chronicles, got this before it premiered. Most of the complaints stem from the fact that show was revived in Canada, meaning that nearly the entire cast with the exception of Omi and Katnappe had to get new voice actors. Another cause for complaint is the new names for the Shen Gong Wu, though the name change is justified due to the fact that the new producers of the show don't own the rights to the original Shen Gong Wu names. However, what is probably causing the most gripe with fans is the use of CGI in the showdowns, rather than the traditional 2D animation.
The Powerpuff Girls (2016): The announcement that the reboot would not bring back the original voice actresses for Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup got this from fans of the original show. Though they have voiced their support for the new talent, they have complained because Cartoon Network supposedly never called them.
After its cancellation in 2007, was Screwed by the Network in Britain by using The Pingu Show (originally aired on the Canadian channel APTN), which used HOT Animation's work as the outer bits and the original Swiss episodes without opening and closing titles, and redubbing the original Canadian narration with Marc Silk. This annoyed many fans, especially those who used to Gag Sub the episodes. They will very quickly rage hearing Marc saying "Hello, Pingu!" or something.
Some fans liked it better before HiT Entertainment bought the rights to said cartoon, since that company distributes redubbed versions of the first two seasons.
Some fans of Steven Universe weren't happy when the show finally premiered and it carried a bit of a simpler art style than shown in the pilot and pre-release promo art.
With the fourth season of The Boondocks fans are starting to say this, because the season doesn't included the writing or direction of creator Aaron McGruder. Many claim his absence so far is very obvious as the clever social commentary and satire of the first three seasons are missing.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008 series), while overall well-received by Star Wars fans (including Original Trilogy fans who disliked the Prequels) sometimes gets this reaction from fans of the 2003 micro-series just for being CGI or not made by Genndy Tartakovsky. It also gets this reaction from die-hard Expanded Universe whenever the series contradicts anything established in previous EU material (Ryloth's climate, Asajj Ventress's origins, the changes to Mandalorian culture in that time period, etc.) and that this series is actually part of official canon (as well as the de-canonization of the rest of the old EU) is pouring salt on the wounds for those fans.
Similarly Star Wars Rebels is receiving this reaction from fans of The Clone Wars for allegedly being the reason that series was cancelled and fearing that it won't live up to the standards of or be as dark as its predecessor (despite having some of the same production staff, as well as Greg Weisman as one of the directors) or suffer from Executive Meddling on Disney's part when the show wasn't even out yet. Even after previews were released, some criticize it for having a different art style from its predecessor. There are also those that just hate it for being part of Disney's new Star Wars canon, even when they hadn't produced any Star Wars works created under their name yet.
American Dragon: Jake Long got this reaction after the producers of the series revamped the series' animation with the debut of season 2, which also saw the radical redesign of several characters' appearances, namely Jake's dragon form, and for a style that was not as smooth nor as polished as that of the first season, which made the transition from one season to the next very divisive and at least for a time, resulted in a Broken Base for its fans. As well as being Screwed by the Network, this is often seen as one of the contributors to the show's downfall.
The month-long hiatus that Star vs. the Forces of Evil took during May 2015 resulted in the animation house for the series getting changed from Mercury Filmworks to Toon City. This did not go well with some fans, as the change in style is obvious to even the most cursory of eyes.
The 2006 revival of Biker Mice from Mars had quite a lot of detractors, mainly because of the character redesigns and the original villains Lawrence Limburger, Dr. Karbunkle, and Greasepit being Demoted to Extra in favor of the new antagonists the Catatonians and Ronaldo Rump.
Bubble Guppies went from its traditional sketch comedy to a completely lengthy storybook adventure show after it was Un-Canceled in 2019 for a fifth season. While some fans liked this, many others despised it, deeming it as the new Backyardigans.
Fireman Sam fans were not happy when the show switched from stop-motion puppet animation to CGI.
When secondary characters Pretty, Eugly and Olaf were added to the cast in season 2, some fans disliked the idea. Some believe that Kaeloo, Stumpy, Quack Quack and Mr. Cat were good enough, while others believe that these three make good additions to the cast. Both sides get what they want since only some episodes feature the new characters while others continue to feature the main four.
In season 5, former Alpha Bitch Pretty undergoes an offscreen Heel–Face Turn and becomes friends with the main four. This was received poorly by nearly the entire fandom, who criticized Pretty's new personality for being unfunny and too perfect. Many were also disappointed by her befriending the main four, as her rivalry with them made for amusing plot points.
Got this reaction with the 4K remaster made for Boomerang's streaming service for multiple reasons:
Because the masters for the opening theme were lost, the entire opening sequence for the first two seasons was reanimated (with Flash animation no less), and a new version of the "We're Ready To Party!" opening was made using Season 7 clips and the reanimated clip of Garfield dancing on a fence.
For the same reason as the opening being redone, the entire seventh episode (as well as one skit each in episodes 40 and 106, according to 9 Story themselves) had a poorly done◊ restoration◊ where it was presented in "Retro-Vision".
This tends to happen every time a show imported from another country (usually Britain) gets an Importation Expansion for the North American market. The most common victim of this trope tends to be Salty's Lighthouse, to the point where people will often deny that it exists.
Some fans were unhappy with Chris Knowings replacing Kenan Thompson as the voice of Ronald beginning with season 2. After a while, though, the sentiment began to fade as everyone got used to it.
After the shift from 9 Story Media Group to Yowza! Animation in season 4, fans have criticized it for being much more stiff compared to the more smooth animation of the first three seasons that have been renowned by fans.
Everything about the 2015/16 reboot of Blinky Bill seemed to alienate fans who had grown up with the "classic" series from the 1990s/early 2000s, and Flying Bark eventually realized this, given their willingness to essentially Un-Reboot the series after the attempt failed.
Thomas & Friends: Almost every change made to the series has alienated fans one way or another. Fans tend to have different ideas of where and when the show jumped the shark. Notable theories include:
Ringo Starr being replaced with Michael Angelis for Series 3.
The HiT Entertainment takeover with Series 8 and the resulting switch of composers.
The switch from models to CGI.
Sharon Miller's run as head writer.
The Big World! Big Adventures! movie and associated seasons.
Blue's Clues: Joe's introduction, the talking clues, and Blue's Room (where Blue suddenly has the ability to speak) didn't go over with many fans.
While the decision to use Cassandra Cain and Duke Thomas for Batwheels was praised in-and-of itself, how they were adapted has been met with criticism: namely being made into Composite Characters with their ethnicities seemingly being the only things they have in common with the original characters as Duke was made as a kid akin to Dick Grayson or Tim Drake as when they were starting out and wearing a version of Damian Wayne's original Robin suit, and Cassandra was made into a tech genius like Barbara Gordon and even wearing a version of Barb's "Batgirl of Burnside" costume.
Face's Music Party: There is a vocal minority who utterly despises Face's overly cutesy design, with many in this group saying that Face's redesign lost its charm. That said, most people who grew up with Face in the 90s either like or are indifferent to the new look.
In-Universe
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" introduces Quibble Pants, who had enjoyed the first three Daring Do books for their logic and puzzle-solving but disliked the later books where the focus shifted to pure action and adventure.
In the episode "Wacky Delly", the titular cartoon is beloved despite its creator intentionally sabotaging it, and is only cancelled once Rocko convinces him/her to actually try to make it artistic.
Rocko in the 2019 Netflix special has this reaction at the end when Ralph (or, as of now, Rachel) Bighead finally brings back his favorite cartoon Meet the Fatheads once he discovers that the cartoon features the titular married pair's newborn baby, which Rocko instantly disapproves of, saying that it's much too different from the good-old classic cartoon he once viewed it as. Fortunately, he accepts this change after Ed Bighead convinces him to embrace it.
The Simpsons: The episode "Beyond Blunderdome" spoofs the concept, with Mel Gibson filming a remake of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington that's loved by everyone...except Homer, who was expecting a violent action-comedy along the lines of Lethal Weapon. Gibson, who also felt that something was off about the film, enlists Homer's aid in reshooting it; their version ends with Mr. Smith gunning down the entire U.S. Senate, impaling Senator Paine with a flagpole, and finally decapitating the President himself by throwing the Seal of the Senate like a Frisbee. Understandably, nobody likes the new version except for Homer and Gibson, with the studio telling the latter that he's effectively destroyed his own career by desecrating one of the greatest films of all time.
Steven Universe: Future: In "In Dreams", Steven and Peridot sit down to watch the premiere episode of a reboot of Camp Pining Hearts, an old Canadian teen drama that Steven got Peridot into way back in "Log Date 7 15 2". The two are quick to take dislike towards the new show, complaining that the characters are unlikable, the main romantic couple have no chemistry, and the plot is needlessly Darker and Edgier (one plot-line in the show apparently involves the characters having to hide a body). After a failed attempt to use Steven's dream-powers to write a Fix Fic, Steven and Peridot settle for watching the show just to make fun of it.
One episode of The Amazing World of Gumball that focuses on the Wattersons trying to be among the first to see the latest installment in a Star Wars-esque franchise had recurring character Julius proclaim that he hopes the movie features major changes, but only changes he accepts. Sure enough, when Gumball (disguised as a stereotypical online reviewer) announces an unexpected, bold departure from the norm in the film, Julius freaks out and declares the franchise Ruined FOREVER.
", regarding the complaints over Optimus Primal being a gorilla, which isn't actually a monkey at all. The more general term is "GEEWUN
