I don't understand why these two shows are hailed as the most influential cartoons of the decade. They're both decent...

>influential because of the nepotism in the animation industry

What made them so successful to inspire so many clones to begin with? Johnny Test never got a Macy's Day Parade balloon despite being popular. Flapjack and Chowder didn't inspire clones despite coming before Adventure Time. I don't remember anyone trying to rip of Phineas and Ferb even though that was a hit.

Because they are factually the two most influential cartoons of the decade.
Because of this.

rick and morty exists

I think both start off great but have weak later seasons (or in GF's case, a weak 1/2 season in 2B). Also doesn't have to be high quality to be influential.

What cartoons have Rick and Morty influenced?

This. The fact that op even thought to list Star vs with Clarence and Gumball proves how brain damaged he is.

They're the most influential cartoons because they are the ones that influenced everything the most. It's the name.

It doesn't mean they were *great*. It means they were the most popular. Had the most exposure and the most positive reaction for said-popularity. That simple.

People got hooked onto AT early on because wacky zany Kid Friendly D&D randumb humor, and it turned into the ohsodeep muh drama shitshow. Gravity falls was intriguing and had mystery and comedy and cartoon antics. Things early kids clutch onto more than a babe on a tit.

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>HOW DARE PEOPLE LIKE THINGS I DON'T LIKE
>But rofl ur da brain damaged one :3

I think the lore element? It got adult and teen viewers to geek out over theories. The shows you mentioned liking were more just wacky comedies (Star vs didn't get into lore till later). And also the shipping element. And the odd darker or more adult joke.

Both shows broadened perceptions about what children's cartoons can be, and more importantly connected with a new demographic that cartoon studios previously did not have, tweens and younger adults. As these networks raced to exploit this new audience, they usually tried to do so by imitating these two shows.

Gravity Falls brought back a strong A-B plot structure that made good use of its 22-minute time slot and appealed to older viewers. Adventure Time had what could best be described as an indie film aesthetic that stood in sharp contrast to noisy, spastic boys-oriented toy commercials masquerading as cartoons. Both attracted viewers across gender lines.

You should be able to appreciate these achievements without necessarily liking these shows. Personally, I'm not a particular fan of Adventure Time. But it staked new ground. They're trendsetters.

Sounds more like you're giving way too much credit to these shows instead of them actually achieving something. It's like giving Loud House credit for being a "show with a lot of girl characters".

How is it too much credit when that’s exactly what they did. Even the shows you love are directly and indirectly influenced by these cartoons.

>Sounds more like you're giving way too much credit

I don't have to do that, it's self evident in their ratings and merchandising.

Is Blue's Clues some great achievement in art? No, but it's still influential. Reality does not care about what we think of these shows personally.

>When that's exactly what they did
Except for Ducktales, not many cartoons use the 22-minute time slot with an A-B plot structure. The majority of cartoons airing right now STILL use the 11-minute run time.

Adventure Time's aesthetic was the atypical bright colored cartoon where CHARACTERS MIGHT SOMETIMES SHOUT!

They are considered "influential" because other people tried to copy them, either in art style or tone.

Come on, OP clearly said Early Star vs.
It had potential once.
As did adventure time...

>Gravity Falls brought back a strong A-B plot structure that made good use of its 22-minute time slot and appealed to older viewers
reread that sentence. He said they repopularized the A-B plot structure AND made good use of the 22 minute time slot. Not that they also brought back the 22 minute episode.

I mean AT was hot off the heels of stupid CN shit like CN Real and other live action atrocities and the other networks weren't doing much in terms of animation either.

This bundled with the internet really kicking off in the early 2010s and social media having a rocket attached to its back really did work wonders for the show.

>Both shows broadened perceptions about what children's cartoons can be, and more importantly connected with a new demographic that cartoon studios previously did not have, tweens and younger adults.

Shit like Invader Zim, and ATLA already did that though.

Not to the general public, only to the children watching them.
I dont recall being able to find Zim or ATLA shirts at Walmart.

at least it had a decent ending AT will go down as a disappointment in my book

That's because most of the ZIM merch was over at Hot Topic.

ZIM is by far more influential than AT or GF. You can see the sharp Jhonen Vasquez art style coming back from artists who specifically state ZIM as one of their inspirations and the show continued to be so popular over time, they made the unreleased TV movie about 20 years later. Hell, even Steven Universe's Peridot was inspired by ZIM.

So? The older folks, we know none of this is new. But every generation has its own thing. It needs its own thing. Otherwise we'd still be listening to the Beatles.

How did you like early Star Vs and not Gravity Falls or Adventure Time?

Adventure time was at hot topic too. just one was popular enough to sell their products to larger distributors. Also both shows can be considered influential.
I really don’t understand what you are trying to get at. Those shows first of all aren’t from this decade and them being influential doesn’t negate GF or AT from being that as well.

>Clarence, early Gumball, and early Star Vs.
Those were better shows, but not as influential.

I'm not saying they weren't influential. The other user was implying that a kids show being massively popular with teens and young adults was something unheard of before they were released.

Oh that makes sense. My bad

And once upon a time Looney Tunes was made for adults. Trends come in waves.

Gravity Falls and Adventure Time were successful for capturing *this* particular generation of teens and young adult viewers. There's no need for you to split hairs like this.

I definitely agree with you, it’s more of a resurgence is what they did. As another user said Cartoon Network had a pretty bad drought for cartoons before AT came along. GF revived good cartoons all together for Disney.

I always thought they got a big following because the amount of mediática attention they got because YT and Tumblr.

Jarob, I guess. Episode 6 feels kinda influenced by R&M cause he killed an entre race because nothing.

>it’s more of a resurgence is what they did

Sure, and I think this is something all the copycat shows and studios overlook. These shows are what they are because they are trendsetters. Whether it's quality or luck or some combination, they rode the top of a wave. A copycat show will never have that same impact. The smart creators would be waiting for the next wave.

Pretty sure Dexter's lab and Samurai Jack were aiming to those demographies too.

They might have aimed for it, but they sure did not connect as well.

>Dexter's lab
No.

influential ≠ good

The answer is very simple. Adventure Time was created in the darkest hour of cartoons, basically it revived the interest of the public in the media.

GF belongs to Disney and that means a bonus of popularity, it was good but it can't have that title.

AT was a cultural phenomenon for the cartoon industry. Any given day during its peak, dozens of normies on the street would have at least one article of merchandise on them like tshirts or patches and shit. It was baffling.

Star vs never had potential, It was a mess since ep 1.

If Dipper and Mabel had their own separate spinoff shows, what would be different from the regular Gravity Falls?

DEEPEST

GF's very premise is special. Unlike AT, SU or Star, it takes place in a pseudo-real world. It has a lot of supernatural elements, but the setting is still more realistic. I think this is what has helped make it seem more grounded as a whole and attract a lot of adult fans. Plus it has a lot of typical ARG elements, and ARGs are grounded by nature. In terms of premise, GF seems like it could be as well be a live action series on Netflix or something.

>GF seems like it could be as well be a live action series on Netflix or something

It already was. It's called Eerie Indiana.

>I don't understand why these two shows are hailed as the most influential cartoons of the decade
Easy, most stuff before this was shit, so mediocrity shines through.

final space

Can someone list what GF and AT has influenced? Specific names or products? Because so far, it's only caused Disney to "Look for the next Gravity Falls" and CartoonNetwork to "Look for the next Adventure Time" which doesn't seem like influence to me. It just looks like studios realizing their cash cow dried up and are panicking.

Gravity Falls has a lot of work put into it. However, I hated that they set up plot point in episode one, spend most of the 1st season not making it go forward but dumped better & plot-relevant episodes in 2nd season.

Honestly this. I remember absolutely enjoying the hell out of AT when it was still whimsical, funny and light-hearted, and the fantasy elements were still fantasy.
Ended up dropping the cartoon when it became SRS BSNSS and had that shitty tryhard philosophical bomb every now and then.

The list being nearly every "lore-driven" cartoon made in the last decade. Before Adventure Time and the horse show, networks were very, very close to just writing animation off as a medium that isn't profitable anymore and abandoning it outside of major franchises like Spongebob and Ben10. The massive, massive popularity of Adventure Time and Ponyland made networks realize that there was still an audience for cartoons and they just needed to adapt to what modern audiences wanted to see. That's why there are so damn many girl-targeted shows this decade compared to the last few.

nah, Star is terrible.

>Lore-driven show

Ah, so we can thank those shows for killing good writing in lieu of just empty-handed world building.

Dunno if directly related to your question or not, but one of the reasons these shows had impact is they genuinely tried to make continuity matter, and to have things change over time. AT did have false steps in that regard, but for some reason it felt like it was a changing setting over time. This led to more adult viewers I think because as someone else mentioned, it gave them something to theory craft on. Something to debate about even if it was light.

I call it the from soft effect, cause I think that's why the soulsbourne games are thought of at a higher quality than other games like them.

>networks were very, very close to just writing animation off as a medium that isn't profitable anymore and abandoning it outside of major franchises like Spongebob and Ben10.

[citation needed]

Adventure Time was not "lore-driven". There was a time when it seemed like it might go in that direction, but it never really did. Whether this was a good or bad thing fans will continue to argue.

Gravity Falls, on the other hand, was inherently lore-driven because of its premise. It promised a great mystery from the beginning and had to deliver something.

But this is a little beside the point. As suggests, these shows were popular because they had good writing, and became unpopular insofar as the writing turned bad. "Lore" is merely one tool of writing that can be used or misused.

>had that shitty tryhard philosophical bomb every now and then.

Post some examples.

Hall of Egress, Sad Face, Chips and Ice Cream, PB actually being a 800 year old two faced monarch, The Mountain, Floaties, The Comet, Most of Fern's shit, etc.

Dipper's show would be more serious and mystery-oriented, and Mabel's show would be more comedy-oriented.