Over the weekend I watched a few new ‘toons, including Cartoon Network’s new Teen Titans show. Teen Titans is one of those comic adaptations where I have no real attachment to any of the characters (except for Robin, and he’s not in the comics, IIRC) so I’m not bothered by any radical changes made to them. And as a result, I enjoyed TT, even if it was a little wacky at times.


And wacky it most certainly was. While most new cartoons are influenced in some way by Japanese anime, Teen Titans is the first show I’ve seen that is a clear attempt to create an American anime show. This is clear from the outset, as things start off with a J-pop theme song, and then the show itself which sports characters with the traditionally huge eyes and teeny mouths that get huge when opened. But that’s not the only influence by any means. Japanese symbolism like the vein on a forehead or single drop of sweat to indicate frustration are here, and there’s even a quick flashback sequence that’s done in a “super deformed” style. Yikes! If you can get past the hyperactive pace and insane Japanese style, it’s actually kind of fun.


Which is more than I can say for the new Ren & Stimpy show, which proves what I’ve thought for some time now…if left unchecked, John K. just isn’t funny. Anyone remember his Jimmy the Idiot Boy Flash cartoons? What was really sad about those, is that finally the world got to see what Spumco could do without censorship…and it wasn’t funny. At all. Really. After all those stories about how he tried to get a Jimmy show made, I finally understood why. It just wasn’t funny! And sadly, neither was the single episode of the new Ren & Stimpy I watched, which was totally uncensored (the constant eluding to their joint sex life just creeped me out). I’ve been told that another episode I have on my TiVo is much better, and I certainly hope so, because this one was just not funny in the slightest.


The last new ‘toon I watched over the weekend was MTV’s new CGI Spider-Man show, which I liked quite a bit. The visual style resembles Eidos’ Fear Effect games, which on paper sounds horrible, but I thought actually kind of worked. In all, this show has the same feel as the Ultimate Spider-Man books (it was developed by Ultimate Spider-Man writer Brian Michael Bendis, so this makes sense), and although I don’t read those, I think it works well for a series on MTV.