Saturday, July 16, 2016

4 Cartoons from the 2000s that Paved the Way for Nerd Domination

We're over halfway through 2016 and it's shaping up to be a hit-or-miss year for superhero movies.  Deadpool and Captain America: Civil War were both rampaging successes while Batman v Superman and X-Men: Apocalypse both fell flat on their faces.  For years critics have been predicting the genre's descent and this could be the turning point.  It seems like a good time to look at how we got here, not by examining Sam Raimi's Spider-Man or Chris Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, but at the aughts' cartoons that introduced so many viewers to a treasure trove of comic book tropes.  The cartoons that better captured the spirit of comic books better than any live-action adaptation ever could.

Codename: Kids Next Door



Childrens' television, especially for the past fifteen years or so, presents a magical wonderland for kids where adults barely exist.  In 2002 Cartoon Network took it a step farther by turning the adult population of the world into supervillains.  The vicious adults are the HYDRA to the benevolent S.H.I.E.L.D.-like secret organization KND.  The focus of the show is on the local branch of multicultural, though vaguely racist, children in Sector V.  KND frequently battled such foes as malevolent dentists and stingy ice cream men.  The main villain was a pipe smoking square who was constantly hidden in shadow and/or covered in fire and known only as Father.  Kids Next Door started out intense and nerdy but by the end things got really nuts with stuff like mind wipes and moon bases and a Planet of the Rainbow Monkeys.

Kim Possible



Kim Possible is another spy show that premiered the same year as KND but aimed for a slightly older demographic and swam in the deeper end of the sci-fi pool.  Kim Possible was incredibly cool, with her tech-savvy-for-2002 theme song and her surprisingly stylish cargo pants, but the show was as nerdy as any in recent memory.  Early in the first season the titular Kim faced off against a Doctor Moreau-with-Beanie-Babies type (voiced by Melissa McCarthy) and got mind swapped with her lovably goofy sidekick Ron Stoppable.  Several episodes featured a superhero family called "Team Go" that was clearly inspired by "Power Pack," a comic book reference that cuts about as deep as "Guardians of the Galaxy" did five years ago.  "Call me, beep me" sounded hilariously outdated before the show even ended in 2007 but otherwise it still holds up.  The snappy dialogue and colorful action makes it worth watching if you can catch an episode on Freeform late at night.


Jackie Chan Adventures



Whenever I get in a conversation with someone about the the cartoons we used to watch I like to bring up the 2000 to 2005 Kids' WB's Jackie Chan Adventures just to make sure it wasn't a wicked cool fever dream I had.  So far I haven't gotten a lot of clear answers but it has Wikipedia and IMDB pages.  The character based on the martial arts superstar was a straight laced archaeologist who couldn't stop stumbling into mystical misadventures that required his famous slapstick combat skills.  He was joined by his brash preteen niece Jade and a wise, grumpy sorcerer uncle.  Jackie became a member of another S.H.I.E.L.D. stand-in led by a cross between white Nick Fury and Sam Jackson Nick Fury.  Jackie also had a flirtatious relationship with a cat burglar in the vein of Catwoman or Black Cat.  Most episodes ended with real-life Jackie Chan answering questions from young fans, often mid-workout, in the most surreal part of a very bizarre show.

Danny Phantom



Fairly OddParents has its share of memorable superhero moments thanks to Adam West's recurring role as himself and the in-universe fictional character Crimson Chin, but with Danny Phantom, starting in 2004, creator Butch Hartman really let his love for comic books run wild.  The main character, Danny Fenton, is a dorky teenager with well meaning mad scientist parents who specialize in ectoplasmic research and development.  They're basically Ghostbusters.  They created a machine that allows travel to the Ghost Zone (Nickelodeon speak for the afterlife).  The Ghost Portal malfunctioned and turned Danny into a half-ghost superhero.  He's basically Spider-Man if all his villains were the lost souls of the damned.  Danny Phantom is what would happen if Stan Lee created something too dark and weird for '60s Marvel and someone dug it up and turned it into a NickToon.

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