Right now my ever-ditzy 12-yr-old nephew is watching Nicktoons, a cable/satellite channel that is owned by (obviously, duh!) the notoriously-corny-as-hell Nickelodeon (a Viacom network). It is basically what I call a “programming overflow” channel, where all of the old shows that have debuted on the primary network, but have either been pulled off the air for quite some time or is bound for eventual pulling-of-the-plug on the primary network, are rebroadcast on a regular basis. Often, this applies most to cult-classic series, especially within the areas of comedy, drama, and animation series and films.

In fact, such had been a serious suggestion that had been presented to Cartoon Network’s owners (Turner Broadcasting) concerning its Toonami block, as many cult-classic anime that has debut stateside on Toonami (and its former Midnight Run block, which was replaced a few years ago by Adult Swim) have been pulled off the air, never to be seen again except through the availability of p2p filesharing. However, many roadblocks appeared to make sure that a Toonami channel never would get off the ground. Instead, they launched Boomerang, a network that catered to old-as-dirt non-Disney-made animation (stretching from the 30’s-to-80’s).

I think that Cartoon Network missed out on a good chance to expand their horizons. In fact, alot of its own original programming doesn’t appear anymore, such as Road Rovers and other series, so an overflow channel for its own original programming would be necessary if they’re going to move any further upward.

I mean, heck, Nicktoons even makes room for independently-made animation shorts, such as those featured on tonight’s “Nicktoons Film Festival”, something that Cartoon Network used to do a few years ago, but then dropped. Instead, while Nicktoons and Toon Disney (another overflow channel, this time for Disney animation) have stuck to predominately Western or American-made animation, Cartoon Network has tended to lean increasingly upon imported Japanese anime for life support (and on that note, I believe that this past Friday was the first time that an American network has given a Japanese pop music group its own original series. Even though I was amused by the utter lack of seriousness that is a trademark of the more people-geared anime series, like Super Milk Chan and Fooly Cooly, I kinda find Cartoon Network’s increasing lack of intelligent programming ingenuity to be quite disturbing).

However, I understand that American (and to a lesser extent, Western) animation is looked down upon nowadays, as its seen to be something that is geared exclusively toward young children, and not toward all ages in general (on that note, let me express my utter abhorrence at Code Name: Kids Next Door. This cartoon is something that glorifies the stupidities, not the innocence, of childhood, and I usually tell my nephew to change the frickin channel, or else just plug my ears.)

I think that, if you want to find realism in animation, you’d want to go to the animators from Europe, who have probably made animation into a serious work of art, utilizing it in all possible genres, even DRAMA and politically-motivated activist art. That, I believe, is something you would rarely see here in the states or even in Japan itself.

So if you want dialogue in your animation, go to America. If you want graphics, go to Japan and Korea. And if you want realism, go to Europe.

However, I have yet to see the televised and regular presentation of a strong variety in animation here in America. If American animation programming continues to stick to this “live-from-series-to-series” basis, then American animation will never be naturally allowed to mature beyond its present level of degredation and stagnation.