Gephyrophillia | Watch This Space #99

Originally Posted on 01/24/2004 by Jeff Harris

toon - (derived from "cartoon," first used by Gary Wolf in his book "Who Censored Roger Rabbit" and "tune," as in the first series of Warner Bros. animated shorts, Looney Tunes)n. 1. a generic marketable term for animation aimed at younger audiences. 2. a character in an animated series or short. 3. any cartoon. adj. of or pertaining to cartoons, i.e. oriented towards cartoons and animation fans, usually deemed derogatory in small animation circles

Okay, now that we know what "toon" is, here's what "toon" isn't. A "toon" isn't live-action programs. Usually with if the word "toon" or "cartoon" is seen in a network's name, you're likely not to find a series with 100% live-action on the channel. With that said, here's my beef.

Jetix, ABC Family and Toon Disney's worldwide action franchise, begins on Saturday, February 14. It was also believed that the latest Power Rangers franchise, DinoThunder, was also going to begin on that date as well. What we didn't know is that ABC Cable Networks has virtually ruined Toon Disney by introducing a 100% live-action series, in this case DinoThunder.

In short, the all-toon channel that is Toon Disney is all-toon no more, and I do have a problem with that.

It's not like Toon Disney was a runaway success out of the gate. It's not in that many homes and it's nowhere near Cartoon Network's level of clout. They don't make original programming (yet) and, like Cartoon Network, have completely neglected their older library. In fact, the oldest show on the lineup right now is DuckTales. Jetix was supposed to be this brand-new action franchise that would bridge Toon Disney with ABC Family, unifying them with a single brand. However, the first big announcement and "acquisition" from Jetix involves the broadcast of Power Rangers on both channels. Granted, I understand why they would put Power Rangers on ABC Family. After all, it gets treated better on that channel than it does on ABC. But the broadcast of Power Rangers on an all-animation network like Toon Disney is the equivalent of spitting in the faces of all animation fans. Of course, as of late, the Disney company has been doing that a lot these days to both fans and animators at the studiio, so I shouldn't have been surprised by this announcement.

From the initial announcement of the creation of the block, Jetix seemed like they were doing the right things. They're using the brand name globally and they're making a unified brand with the blocks and international channels. Instead of being a unique version of the same block, the Toon Disney Jetix block will almost be a complete copy of the ABC Family Jetix. Shameful. Still, there is a bit of a chance that they'll knock a home-run out of the park, but if they keep on swinging like this, they might be on the bench after one inning.

Enough baseball metaphors. Gotta go!

*end transmission*

Jeff Harris,
The X Bridge Creator/Webmaster
January 24, 2004