The Progress of Nickelodeon Crediting Animators

The Progress of Nickelodeon Crediting Animators

Welcome to another journal that isn't based on a review. Here, I am going to talk about the progress of how Nickelodeon credited its animators and why they're doing much better than Cartoon Network Studios and Disney Television Animation. There will be a lot of images to post from, so let's get started with the worst way of crediting animators.

Credit the Animation Overseas Studio Only, But Not the Animators

Basically, only the studio's name that inspects the animation will get credited while the animators' names are NOWHERE to be found. It just looks empty when it's like this (below is a pic of all the Nicktoon only crediting the animation overseas studio):

It was VERY common back in the day to do this shady practice, but it's funny how DTVA used to have the guts to credit every animator before regressing to this practice since 2006. CNS almost never does this, but that's why we're heading to the next point. Fairly OddParents used to credit this way for the episodes produced by Yeson.

-The Fairly OddParents (traditional animation)

-ChalkZone

-Danny Phantom

-TUFF Puppy

-Sanjay and Craig

-Harvey Beaks (last original Nicktoon to date to do so)

-The Adventures of Kid Danger (Saerom Animation only, the other animation services Powerhouse Animation credits their staff)

-Rugrats reboot (only CGI Nicktoon to not credit animators)

Only Credit the Overseas Supervisor

Now this is slightly better than nothing, but still not doing much to credit anyone else. Only the overseas supervisor is credited and to make matters worse, they tend to be Americans rather than Koreans. So this practice just comes off as racist for the Koreans who want to have their name credited. Cartoon Network has always done this, no matter what (though it's just crediting the Korean animation director rather than the supervisor from America). SpongeBob used to credit this way until season 9A.

-Doug

-Rugrats

-Rocko's Modern Life

-Aaahh!! Real Monsters

-Hey Arnold!

-KaBlam! (assuming it counts)

-The Angry Beavers

-CatDog

-The Wild Thornberrys

-SpongeBob (seasons 1-9a, seasons 9b improved on this but not everyone is credited)

-Rocket Power

-As Told by Ginger

-Invader Zim (some Korean crew are credited, but it's not complete)

-All Grown Up

-My Life as a Teenage Robot

-Catscratch

-The X's

-The Mighty B!

-Fanboy & Chum Chum (only partial staff)

-TMNT (2012) (I rechecked the credits and they NEVER credit the entire staff- only partial, which is a letdown)

-Kamp Koral (not everyone is credited)

-The Patrick Star Show

Credit All of the Animation Services Staff

And here's how you do it - credit literally everyone working in an animation studio that you send to Canada or an overseas country. Some overseas countries do this, but this is way more common in Nicktoons overseen by Canadian animators for some reason. ALL CGI cartoons (with the exception of the TMNT '12 series Rugrats reboot) will always find a way to do this, even if it's not complete. While SpongeBob doesn't exactly credit everyone, the show qualifies for this since 2015 as they're more willing to include Koreans name instead of just the American overseas supervisor.

-Ren & Stimpy (first Nicktoon to properly credit the staff besides supervisor)

-The Fairly OddParents (yes, seriously, they actually did this during the Flash animated episodes, despite their negative reception)

-Jimmy Neutron (DNA Productions' name isn't listed here - it's only credited towards the end, but regardless, every animator involved gets credited)

-Avatar The Last Airbender

-El Tigre

-Tak and the Power of Juju

-Back at the Barnyard (this is from season 2 and they went too far by crediting everyone that it's hard to read the overseas staff's names)

-The Penguins of Madagascar (good thing I included the name of the show because this credits background is the exact same as El Tigre - black screen and same font and all)

-Planet Sheen

-Kung Fu Panda Legends of Awesomeness

-The Legend of Korra (most episodes)

-Robot and Monster (some episodes, otherwise it's #2)

-Monsters vs Aliens

-Breadwinners

-Pig Goat Banana Cricket (yes, even Yeson, despite the fact that Korean animation studios almost never get full credits)

-The Loud House

-Bunsen is a Beast

-Welcome to the Wayne

-Rise of the TMNT (produced overseas, but everyone is credited)

-Pinky Malinky

-The Casagrandes

-It's Pony

-Glitch Techs

-Middlemost Post

-Star Trek Prodigy (I think EVERYONE is properly credited here, unlike other Nicktoons animated by Technicolor)

-Big Nate

Thank you for reading this journal. I will update for every new Nicktoon and may they continue crediting every staff members of their animation services.

Fairly Odder is a Waste of Everyone's Time

 Fairly Odder is a Waste of Everyone's Time

          Ahh, the Fairly OddParents, one of the most infamous examples of a show being so popular that it's needlessly milked to death. The difference between its and SpongeBob's is night and day. SpongeBob's popularity is justified because it's Nickelodeon's money maker. FOP's popularity just doesn't make any sense because it peaked all the way back in the 2000's when it actually surpassed the sponge for a brief time (that's because the show was in hiatus for the first movie). And when SpongeBob regained the crowd for #1 show on Nick, FOP was cancelled in 2006. But then it came back a year later, with Cosmo and Wanda having a baby. Some people were disappointed, while others were okay with its return. It was harmless in my opinion, despite the occasional bad episodes. Then it got cancelled again in 2011, its 10th anniversary, which also had a live action movie. To be fair, Meet the OddParents did had that series finale feel to it, so was it truly over? NO! A year later, a new season was announced and this time, they added a dog, who is hated by pretty much everyone who grew up on the show. The show is now in widescreen, and as a result, the colors look more vibrant. Sparky was far from the worst new character they added to the show, because oh boy, because we got one more character let to go. The final tenth season decided to scarfise the dog in favor of a girl who Timmy must share his fairies with. Chloe is a worse addition to the show than Poof and Sparky because she's a Mary Stu and was even more obnoxious. The season was so bad that they burned it off to Nicktoons (then again, it shouldn't had happen if it stayed dead). The show ended with a whimper. Well, at least Nickelodeon will finally leave this franchise alone forever, huh? Wrong! You'll about to find out the next paragraph on their latest scheme with the zombie of a franchise.

          On February 2021 during the Paramount+ investigation day, it was announced that the Fairly OddParents would come back as a live-action sitcom. And yes, with the franchise back from the dead, that means they must drag Butch Hartman and Fred Seibert back to Nickelodeon to produce the show. As expected, the reaction was met with major scorn due to the fact that the original series suffered a major decline during its final years. And since Hartman’s reputation has been down the toilet for the past few years, bringing him back to Nick isn’t a good idea. Despite this, the showrunner and crew mostly consisted of the people who work on Danger Force. Several months later, the premise was revealed - the new FOP show will revolve on Timmy’s cousin Viv and her stepbrother Roy sharing Cosmo and Wanda once Timmy finally outgrew them. You know, if this was animated, it wouldn’t sound so bad, but nope, they just had to go the live-action route again. During the Paramount+ investigation day 2022, there were no words about this new FOP show. But a week later, a trailer was revealed and it turns out the subtitle is called Fairly Odder (very creative title there). In fact, the show was released on Paramount+ a day after its 21st anniversary. And all episodes of the first season were dumped on the same day, meaning that they probably don’t have faith in this trainwreck. A few weeks later, Nick decided to premiere Fairly Odder on cable April 21, 2022 after the big sitcom crossover event, When Worlds Collide. Doesn’t sounds too bad, right? Well, here’s a problem - some asshole in the scheduling department decided to preempt a new episode of Middlemost Post and replaced it with a rerun of Fairly Odder. And that’s where the MMP fandom’s bitterness towards the show comes from. I was upset at the decision, but nonetheless, I ended up sitting through the rerun and I regretted tuning in.

          Fairly Odder started off with a recap of Timmy Turner’s life from the original animated series. So far, it’s not a bad start, other than the fact that Timmy’s buck tooth was literally missing in the first frame. Then, we see Timmy (this time portrayed by Caleb Pierce, he was played Drake Bell on the live action trilogy) announcing that he’s getting ready for college and he tells Cosmo and Wanda about his cousin Viv. I’ll be honest with you, when I first saw this character, her actress, Audrey Grace Marshall, looked older because of how she wore for first half of the episode. But she’s actually the same age as her character. Then again, girls tend to look older than boys during their preteen years due to hitting puberty first. Anyways, her dad moved in to Dimsdale to marry his high school girlfriend. Viv has a stepbrother named Roy, and I’m not fond of this character. Every kid sitcom is going to have a character who is just there to be a brat and Roy is no different from Piper Hart (Schneider seasons of Henry Danger, to be specific). Based from what I heard, his catchphrase is “LET’S GO!” (and "OH YEAH!"). Well, the Republicans already ruined a phrase as of last year and it used to be known as one of Super Mario’s catchphrases. Anyways, back to describing the plot - as Timmy prepares to say goodbye to Cosmo and Wanda, Viv and Roy decided to waste their first wish on wishing the three amigos would stop crying. For the next few minutes, it’s basically a whole wishing montage such as wishing to have a fancy room, grow taller (with poor special effects), etc. The title for this episode pretty much sums up what they wished for, though it’s also a play on the theme song. Then, the rest of the episode is about a house dance party, in which Viv and Roy’s parents seem to be having a little too much fun. However, Roy injured his legs at the party, so in order to feel better for a basketball game, Viv wished for her new stepbrother to go back to normal. Thanks to the power of magic, Roy ended up doing better than he expected at basketball, and the episode just ends there. So, now that I recapped the episode, what are my thoughts? Well, when I watched the rerun, I pretty much had a bored and annoyed expression on my face throughout. When the show isn’t full of cringeworthy jokes, it’s boring. However, when the show is full of them, then I pretty much just rolled my eyes. Have I forgot to mention that this show actually uses a laugh track - the same sounds that you hear in the kidcoms? Since it’s a live action animation hybrid, it just comes off as distracting, even in fully animated sequences, which gives you Hanna Barbera flashbacks. Oh, did I also forget to bring up how awful the animation quality is as well? Cosmo and Wanda look okay, but other characters like Jorgon and Crocker look really cheap (especially with the latter always having a front facing angle). I really do not want to say the Flash episodes of season 10 looked better than this because it’s like saying something remotely good to a bully. Let’s just say they both equally suck. Another reason why this show won’t be looked back fondly is that they make pop culture references. People will look back at it and say the show has aged poorly. One of the episodes involved making a viral video for a crappy TikTok parody (good thing I’m only watching the first episode, cause I do not want to lose my sanity). But let’s talk about the biggest flaw I have with Fairly Odder. If you take away the Fairly OddParents name, you won’t even know it’s a based off the original series. Other than the fairies, Vicky, Crocker, and Jorgen, and Timmy, no other characters from the animated shows appeared in this. Even worse, Cosmo and Wanda feel like side characters. They’re just used for plot devices while the spotlight goes mostly to Viv and Roy. They were always on Timmy’s side in the original, but here, their appearances are underutilized due to the limited usage of animation. Like many people say, it just feels like a generic Nick sitcom. Say what you want about their modern sitcoms, but other than Young Dylan, they at least have some entertainment and redeeming qualities to them. Fairly Odder has none of that other than the rare moments that were actually bearable to watch. In conclusion, this live-action reboot of an animated show is a big insult to the original animated series and shouldn’t have been made. Unfortunately, as much as we want to get rid of shows like this, with people having access to streaming services, they’ll find themselves hate watching stuff just to see how bad it is and this show is no difference. So don’t be surprised if a second season were to be announced because the first season ended with a two parter and it looks like the writers just want to make this show deep. Sorry, but it’s not gonna work this time for me - it worked with Henry Danger because Schneider was actually holding it back and therefore when it started having lore, I started enjoying it a little more. But this show, right here, doesn’t need it because I can’t take it seriously. My advice for anyone who come across this show, once you hit play, you’ll regret your decision. Stick to the original cartoon instead, and don’t forget to tell your young ones to give new Nicktoons from fresher and younger artists a chance. Fairly OddParents is a show whose legacy will forever be tarnished for the wrong reasons. It’s not often you see it happen with the creator still being in charge and it’s such a sad sight. With that said, I hope I don’t have to do any more reviews for a little longer…

How Henry Danger Improved Without It’s Creator

 How Henry Danger improved without its creator

            It all sort of happened…Nickelodeon’s longtime producer wanted to make a new sitcom that involves superheroes and thus Henry Danger was born. However, I always forget that the show had a second creator named Dana Olsen. He only worked on the first season, which may have something to do with the quality because the show was really bad early on. Which sucks since the show has some potential for being superhero themed (I hadn’t seen The Thundermans outside of a few clips, but surely it looks better than whatever mess HD was early on). When the show is good, it felt like an actual superhero show. When the show is bad, it felt like a parody of past superhero shows. After suffering a Dork Age, Dan Schneider’s final years at Nick were actually better than the Seddie arc of iCarly and the final season of Victorious as well as the entirely of Sam & Cat (a show that doesn’t deserved any positive opinions at all). Both Henry Danger and Game Shakers were becoming more tolerable to watch and then…on March 2018, it was announced that Schneider was fired by Nick due to being verbally abusive and had anger issues. This led to Game Shakers getting cancelled abruptly with no proper ending (Victorious fans say hi and they’re still begging for one to this day even though they need to move on). However, for Henry Danger, as it was their money maker in the live action department, instead of cancelling it, they decide to give it a fifth and final season, without Schneider. This journal will recap the differences between the episodes run by Dan and then final season which was run by someone else.

            So the final season of Henry Danger was something special. It was run by someone named Christopher J Nowak, who previously worked with Schneider on Victorious and Sam & Cat (and was a writer/producer for According to Jim in the 2000’s). It was twice as long as other seasons, with a total of 40 episodes (and a clip show). Michael D. Cohen, who plays Schowz, was finally a series regular since he was already appearing in almost every episode since the second season (though, it’s hard to believe that he was barely in the first season). The composer for Dan’s shows stayed for another year but was let go towards the end of the run and was replaced by Niki and Zach Hexum who would later become composers for the sequel series, Danger Force and fellow Nick sitcom Side Hustle. The writers from the previous seasons were still there but only this time, they get to write the episodes by themselves. As you can see, from late 2011-2018, Dan would always co-write an episode no matter what and that’s what led to his downfall. But you’ll be amazed to see how much Henry Danger have evolved without him (even though season 4 was pretty damn good). It was once a really annoying show with characters I couldn’t root for (especially Piper), unfunny jokes galore, and plots that went nowhere. The action sequences were still fun to watch and they became even better as the show went on. But eventually, as they started introducing villains like the Time Traveler and Drex, I was starting to become invested with the story and how it was going to end. On August 2019, it was confirmed that the show would come to an end. Shortly before the finale, Nick announced Danger Force, but I’ll get to that show later. What I’m gonna say for this season speaks for itself - this is what Henry Danger should’ve been the whole time. But it was clear that Dan’s stale writing was holding it back since it didn’t captured the same charm as his previous shows since he went for a different approach. While it’s still a 7/10 for me, the episodes are bearable to watch for the most part, even if some of them are just filler. There’s more episodes where I was really glued in to the plot than the past few seasons and it would’ve been ruined has Dan still remained at Nick. (Examples: A New Hero saga, Knight and Danger, Henry Danger the Musical, Sister Twister, Holiday Punch, Theranos Boot, and the last 4 episodes) I’m not going to spoil much of the season, but Henry temporarily lost his powers after an outrage and it made for an interesting three parter. The Knight Squad crossover was a surprise since the show wasn’t as popular as HD. However, Danger and Thunder was the better crossover and that was all the way back in season 2. The musical special was a delight to watch. It showcased everyone’s singing talents. Sister Twister was another two parter that felt special to me because after 5 years of being worthless, Piper finally became…gasp, a likable character?! She’s still the weakest of the main cast, but I wonder what took them this long to be aware of Henry’s Kid Danger identity (her crushing on his superhero self didn’t helped matters at all). So for the rest of the show, just like with Charlotte and Jasper, Piper started working for the Man Cave in order to avoid getting her memories wiped. Holiday Punch is Christmas Danger done right. It didn’t thrived on mean spirited moments for the plot to work, they made it into an action packed episode that will definitely make you feel the holiday spirit. Theranos Boot was exciting to watch as the show start to become very much like a Marvel movie with the Avengers reference and all (except that it’s a boot rather than a gauntlet). Before I discuss the final episodes, let me go over the flaws season 5 still had. Dan Schneider might be gone but it doesn’t mean the pointless arguments between the characters didn’t stopped. It plagued the show for a while and unfortunately a few episodes ruined the good streak of good episodes it has going for (examples: Dangerous and Broken Arms, The Whole Bilsky Family, Escape Room, and Cave the Date). Yes the 100th episode of the series was just 22 minutes of endless fighting over a secret room and it didn’t set well for me if it was considered a milestone episode. Even with the character development and actually finding her likable, Piper still contributed nothing important. Sadly, Charlotte is still not taken seriously even with the new showrunner. There’s a couple of stinkers that doesn’t involved fighting but that’s because it contained really annoying one side characters who blurt out random bullshit (the moles in Holy Moley), a really forgettable plot that belonged in the earlier seasons (Massage Chair), and the usage of Mpreg especially on a live action show like this (Captain Mom, although it redeemed itself towards the end, but it’s still the worst season 5 episode). With that out of the way, let’s discuss how the show ends: so Drex came back from the past to get revenge on Captain Man. While this is happening, a lot of changes is going on around Henry’s circle group, and it turns out he missed out on school for a whole year that he’s not graduating with Charlotte, Jasper, and Piper (yes, you heard me right, even Piper). Because of how stressful his life has become, Henry decides to quit being Kid Danger, although it happened at the wrong time as what I mentioned earlier. So he and Ray stopped talking to each other for a little bit and it led to the most serious the DangerVerse will ever be. It’s also the franchise at its peak for that reason alone. The show was such a gagfest at first that you can’t believe it was the same show when Dan was the showrunner. I was uncertain about the show continuing after his termination, but the final season reached my exception higher than the rest of the show.

            And so, Henry Danger came to an end on a fitting day - Jace Norman’s 20th birthday. It lasted 130 episodes, the most out of any Nick sitcoms, surpassing ICarly (lucky for them, both franchises are still alive in some form). So with HD ending, was it time for Jace to finally move on from Nickelodeon? Nope! With Danger Force announced, he’s staying as a producer for now (to be fair, he was already a producer for the final several episodes of HD, since he’s now an adult) with his character Henry occasionally appearing for the important episodes. And now he’s extending his contract with them so he can do that long awaited Henry Danger movie that has been in the works since it was still made when Schneider was still on the show. He’s also doing other projects that doesn’t pertain to his iconic role, so there’s something. But I fear, they’re going to burn him out quicker than JoJo Siwa who is already dissatisfied with the company now. That’s exactly why I think Danger Force comes off as unnecessary - it’s just an excuse to not give Jace the freedom he deserves (I mean freedom from Nickelodeon), especially when they occasionally call him to return as Henry. I don’t hate the show, but I feel like the superhero sitcom genre has been milked to death for Nick and they tend to be admired more than the others. But Henry Danger will be remembered as one of those show whose identity had a drastic change from beginning to end.

Why the Kids Choice Awards isn’t Worth Taken Seriously

Why the Kids Choice Awards isn’t Worth Taken Seriously?

       Finally, after two journals of reviewing Nick shows year to year, I’m back to writing normal journals. This is written in preparing for this year’s KCA’s. We know what the Kids Choice Awards are about - it’s an awards show dedicated for kids, usually held in March. Winners receive a kaleidoscopic orange blimp. The stuff Nickelodeon nominates are usually kid friendly, but occasionally nominates adult content, which isn’t noticed by the moral guardians that much, other than people who mock at the idea of giving rappers, TV-14 shows, PG-13 movies a blimp. It wasn’t always called Kids Choice Awards, though. In 1987, it was previously known as The Big Ballot and it wasn’t recorded live. Every year, one of the celebrities get slimed and there’s a theme such as 1999 having a mini-golf gimmick.

       But, that’s not what I’m here to describe the Kids Choice Awards. The reason why I’m writing this journal is to notice the amount of salt adults have towards the awards, despite having the word kids in its title. There may be kids voting for the ballot, but most of the people discussing it are young adults (who were previously in the target demographic many years ago). What adults don't get is that this is what kids voted for, so whoever wins a category is not the adults' choice. In shorter words, they take a freaking awards show for kids so seriously. Let's get this out of this way - the favorite cartoon is one of the most notorious category in all of award shows. Why is that, you ask? Because in the 25 years it’s been around, ONLY 5 shows have won that category. To make matters worse, all of them are Nicktoons, except for the Simpsons, which won a blimp in 2002. So, in a way, it has always been biased towards Nicktoons, even before the sponge’s reign of terror. Every year since 2003, the category has exclusively went to SpongeBob (other than 2008, when Avatar The Last Airbender miraculously won). And thus, it has gained a lot of fandom rivalry all because of one orange blimp. Especially if your name is Phineas and Ferb, Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, or The Loud House. This gets to the point that the cartoon community will always discuss the KCA’s for that category alone and nothing else. So they don’t bother watching it for the host or the slime or their favorite celebrities. They only came to discuss just to throw a fit over one worthless category. You know, it’s already bad enough that Nickelodeon gets the worse reception out of the main big 3 kids channels, but having to hear the same gripes over and over again get old really fast. The Favorite Video Game category is also rigged as fuck, but no one bat an eye about it because most of the voters are fans of pop musicians and that’s what Just Dance (longtime winner of that category) thrive on. Though, nowadays, Minecraft winning that category also felt rigged because there’s bunch of Minecraft YouTubers with a lot of stans who always trend on Twitter for the littlest thing. Kids deserved better tastes - they need to pick Nintendo since they’re more kiddy than Minecraft. Other categories can pick the same person (like Ariana Grande - and I’m pretty sure her victories are solely due to the fact that she’s a former Nick star. Same thing goes to JoJo Siwa, for 4 years.) to be the winner and it can lead to endless argument on whether it’s rigged and their faves deserved to win.

       My next point is Nick nominating certain things out of sympathy due to their snubbed status on other award shows. This year’s ceremony was a perfect example of this - especially the movie categories. Sponge on the Run and Paw Patrol Movie were nominated simply because they’re produced by Nick and the Oscars didn’t noticed them due to their bias on Disney films. That’s not all - the voice acting category was dominated by SOTR. You were expecting Nick cheating their way to win another blimp for the sponge? Luckily, Encanto and Scarlett Johansson (for her role on Sing 2) won. The latest Spider-Man movie No Way Home also got nominated for a few KCA’s. Spoiler alert - they all won. Maybe this was Nick’s way of taking pity on movies getting snubbed at the Oscars? And I heard people say that the KCA’s respect animation better, but that’s a big fat lie considering Nick’s respect for animation is just as bad as the Academy Awards. The TV category is more fair since it’s a balance of Nick shows and other networks shows. As for music, BTS seems to be a favorite considering how much they get snubbed at the Grammys. This of course delight the K-Pop stans who think the Grammys are rigged. I don’t know if there’s an award show for social media stars, but Nick including categories for them is just a way of kissing ass on Internet stars. I understand YouTubers since they started this trend, but TikTok stars? They’re unworthy of awards, period. They’re just wasting their time on filming short videos of themselves. Whoever wins a blimp for the sports category is fair game, but it still comes out as rigged if athletes like Tom Brady win because of their popularity. Nick did used to have a sports version of the KCA’s but it got discontinued because no one was going to waste their time watching an award show that belongs on ESPN.

       In conclusion, it doesn’t matter who own the Kids Choice Awards, but if Disney Channel or Cartoon Network were to host it, they would rig their own shows, stars, and especially movies in Disney or WarnerBros’ case in their favor. While Nick does rig their own shows and stars to win a blimp, they’re always generous enough to give blimps to their rivals, especially if it’s from Disney. Just like any other award shows, it’s not worth your time getting pissed that your favorite show/movie/actor/athlete didn’t won. Just be glad that they got honored at all. This is just a friendly reminder to everyone, especially the cartoon fans.