CartoonMania was an online animated series by Matthew Littlemore. It was first published in 2017 and lasted three years until ending in 2019.
Matthew Littlemore plays a caricaturized version of himself, portrayed as an animator living in a 100-story house with 320 of his cartoon characters. He has a bad temper and his cartoon characters often make him angry.
The original series ended on September 20, 2019 with a movie called CartoonMania: The Movie. After Timmy and Tanya help Matthew get an animation job, Matthew has to get better at controlling his anger. At the same time, Matthew and his characters have to fight a mysterious figure who's a danger to the house.
A reboot of the show was announced following the movie. The reboot was to be a full retooling of the show that would have take place after the movie and have different character designs. It also would have referenced the original show and movie.
However, these plans were not to be. In June 2020, several cast and crew members of the reboot left the production and parted ways with working with Littlemore due to repetitive instances of him creating lewd artworks of JoJo Violet, Penny Bleat, Tanya and Victor Virus on social media, trying to implant inappropriate context on both the series' scripts and in personal engagements between him and his crew, emotionally abusing fellow colleagues and friends based on accusations of his behavior and forcing his fetishes on other crew members without giving them permission to do so. After a confrontation between former friends and casts, it was confirmed that production for the reboot officially ceased. As a result, Littlemore deactivated the majority of his social media accounts, hidden all comments on his videos and stated from that point forward, he would never return to social media.
On September 15, 2023, all comments for Littlemore's videos were turned back on and he announced he is returning to post on Youtube frequently as well as explaining how he has been impersonated and doxxed multiple times and he will continue making cartoons. The status of the any potential revival of the reboot remains yet to be revealed.
Influences for the series include Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Animaniacs, and Mickey Mouse cartoons.
Find the show here
on YouTube.
CartoonMania provides examples of:
- Art Evolution: Though still somewhat stiff, animation tests that were intended for the now scrapped reboot showed that the animation became a lot more smoother and less rugged.
- Art Initiates Life: "Whatever Happened to Victor Virus?" shows that Matthew designs cartoon characters on paper before using the Animated Life Form Printer 3000 to bring them to life.
- Author Avatar: Matthew is very obviously based and named after the series' creator, Matthew Littlemore.
- Barrier-Busting Blow: Stanley manages to break through the Wall while saving Jojo in the Movie.Matthew: I thought you said you had a key!
Stanley: That was my key. - Butt-Monkey: Matthew has it as bad as Jon Arbuckle, being the source of a lot of the show's slapstick and is pestered nigh-perpetually by the other characters.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Don't call his first name, Xavier, as he prefers the name Mr. Scarlet Bird.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In the earliest episodes, Matthew lived with 200 characters. This was later changed to 320 characters.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Matthew has a pretty short fuse, though when you live with over 300 cartoon characters who rarely show you any respect, it's not hard to see why he's so bitter. The Movie shows him trying to get it under control.
- Hypocritical Humor: In "Diamond", Matthew tells Roy and Otis that anger does not solve anything. He ends up getting angry after the two call him out on his hypocrisy.Matthew: Guys, come on! Anger doesn't solve anything!
Roy and Otis looks at him
Matthew: What?
Otis: You, of all people, are saying that, man?
Roy: Are you serious, foo?
Matthew: HEY! THIS ISN'T ABOUT ME, THIS IS ABOUT YOU!! - Instrumental Theme Tune: The opening theme is an instrumental because Matthew Littlemore had trouble writing lyrics for it.
- A potential musical sequence for the movie was scrapped for the same reason.
- It Amused Me: In "Slapstick", Zack's only reason for hitting Matthew with a sledgehammer is "to make the situation more comical".
- Limited Animation: Everything is animated in OpenOffice. While impressive in itself, it results in the animation being stilted and many of the gags not working well. The overall art direction is also incredibly flat and simplistic too. However, animation works of the reboot shown that the technique has been improved to some degree, showing a much more smooth rigged animation quality.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Many of Matthew's characters taken inspiration of popular figures and characters in terms of voice and by name:
- Some of the characters even have direct influence/names from known celebrities such as Iggy Popart, Ernest Cyborg-9, Donald Trumpet, Abe Vicuña, Doug Kirklas, Will Paulfield, Ronald Hazardfield, Saxwell Atoms, Issac Flueton, Mel Blancenstein, Clamuel Shell Jackson, Gnat Damon, Goose Willis, Sharkus Camby, Basketball McCartney, Tyrannosaurus Rex Harrison, Mr. Yippee Goldbird, Robin D. Narrow, Dr. Zeus, Glitch Schauer, Diedrich Badger, Whale Wheaton and Archie Trunker.
- Wacky Quacky and Mr. Yellvoice's voices are based on Gilbert Gottfried.
- Johnny Otis Emu is based off of Elvis Presley.
- Xavier Scarletbird and Leonard Spotnick are based off of Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory, to the point where they dressed as the Green Lantern and The Flash in the short "Handle with Scare", a direct reference to the episode "The Justice League Recombination".
- The Stick Figure Brothers were based off of the titular characters in the film, GoodFellas, to the point where they dressed as them in the film "Handle with Scare", the joke-telling scene from the film was re-enacted in the short "They Don't Call Him Wacky Quacky For Nothing" and the shinebox-bit in the film was re-enacted in the obliviously titled short "Get Your Shinebox".
- Lucifer Killingsworth was inspired by Scar from The Lion King (1994), Jafar from Aladdin, Professor Ratigan from The Great Mouse Detective and Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons.
- Roy's voice is based off of Black Yoshi from the YouTube series, SuperMarioLogan, even copying his trademark phrase "FOO".
- Roland's voice is based off of Meatwad from Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
- Smithy Frog's voice is based off of Filburt from Rocko's Modern Life.
- Professor Qwertyson is based off of Jerry Lewis' The Nutty Professor (1963) character, or more specifically the Lewis-influenced Professor Frink from The Simpsons.
- Slapstick: Much of the humor in the shorts come from the characters (predominantly Matthew) getting hurt in some way.
- World of Jerkass: Nearly everyone in the show is an annoying, argumentative, destructive jerk, even Matthew Littlemore, the protagonist, is a total asshole to be around most of the time. The ones that are consistently nice can be counted on one hand.
