Nicktoons of the 2010s. · 2:23am Feb 20th, 2018
We now head into the present with Nickelodeon.
PLANET SHEEN
Debuted: October 2, 2010
Ended: February 15, 2013
The decade that saw Nickelodeon find itself returning to a leadership position animation-wise got off to this rocky start. A spin-off of THE ADVENTURES OF JIMMY NEUTRON: BOY GENIUS, this is mainly a vehicle for Sheen (Jeffery Garcia reprising his role), who sneaks into Jimmy's laboratory one night and finds his new rocket ship. He pressed a button that sent him into the deep realms of outer space, then crashes is plane on a weird planet called Zeenu, which is populated by Zeenunians. The series was poorly received in contrast to the original.
ON HOME VIDEO: The complete series was issued on DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment on September 25, 2014.
T.U.F.F. PUPPY
Debuted: October 2, 2010
Ended: April 4, 2015
Jerry Trainor, who had risen to stardom on iCARLY, starred in this animated series from Butch Hartman. Trainor stars as dim-witted yet determined dog Dudley Puppy, a spy for the Turbo Undercover Fighting Force, or T.U.F.F. Grey DeLisle is his partner, Kitty Katswell. The Chief and Keswick also assist. Over 3.6 million viewers tuned in when this premiered.
ON HOME VIDEO: The first two seasons were issued on DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment in 2015.
WINX CLUB [NICKELODEON U.S. ENGLISH DUB]
Debuted: November 14, 2011
Ended: April 10, 2016
Five teenage girls at a magic school are asked to defend the universe with their magical powers; that's the premise of this Italian cartoon, which was produced by one Rainbow S.r.L. While not the first network to import it for American broadcast, Nickelodeon picked the series up for English dubbing in the US after season 3 due to the bankruptcy of 4Kids Entertainment, who had done the English dubbing previously. Coincidentally, two of the VAs that Nick hired to dub for the version they aired, Ariana Grande and Jessica DiCicco, are of Italian ancestry. Prior to broadcasting their dub of the series, it aired specials summarizing events in the first two seasons.
ON HOME VIDEO: Paramount Home Entertainment has issued DVDs of the Nickelodeon dubs of the WINX CLUB films THE SECRET OF THE LOST KINGDOM (89154) and MAGICAL ADVENTURE (UPC: 097368124844). Both DVDs contain Nickelodeon's English dubs of the first seven episodes of the respective fourth and fifth seasons of the show.
KUNG FU PANDA: LEGENDS OF AWESOMENESS
Debuted: September 19, 2011 (preview); November 7, 2011 (official)
Ended: June 22, 2014 (Nickelodeon); June 29, 2016 (Nicktoons)
Another of DreamWorks' most successful animated films comes to the small screen, showing Po's training to become a quite successful dragon warrior. It takes place following the events of the first film; executive producer Peter Hastings noted that the second film was "not unlike a very long, super-deluxe 3D version of one of our episodes." The VAs for this include Mick Wingert, Fred Tatasciore, Kari Wahlgren, James Sie, and Max Koch. Wingert voices Po in place of Jack Black, while Lucy Liu and James Hong return to their roles in the film on this show. A Daytime Emmy Award winner for Outstanding Children's Animated Series, KUNG FU PANDA: LEGENDS OF AWESOMENESS ended right in the middle of season 3 in the US; Nicktoons in Germany and YTV in Canada had already aired all the episodes before they all got a chance to play on American TV. Nicktoons aired the remaining ten episodes that had yet to play on US TV in the spring and mid-summer of 2016.
ON HOME VIDEO: The episode compilations on this series were released on DVD by DreamWorks Animation SKG Home Entertainment and distributed through 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment ("Good Croc, Bad Croc" on D100085, "The Scorpion Sting" on D100132, and "The Midnight Stranger" on D100129).
THE LEGEND OF KORRA
Debuted: April 14, 2012
Emded: December 19, 2014
This follow-up to the phenomenal mega-hit AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER focuses on Aang's reincarnation, Korra, who lives in a rapidly modernizing world and faces many political and spiritual challenges along the way. A groundbreaking series, it has been noted for being GAME OF THRONES-esque and for its addressing several sociopolitical issues that would have been absent from children's television had it not been for this show, and also for addressing racial, gender, and sexually identitive issues that would also have been absent from children's shows if not for this.
ON HOME VIDEO: Book 1-Air (89149) and Book 2-Spirits (89923) were issued on DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment, along with the complete series (UPC: 032429253859).
ROBOT & MONSTER
Debuted: August 4, 2012
Ended: February 14, 2015
Goings-on at the Blinking Light Factory, with contrasts in attitudes between the serious, conspiring Robot (Curtis Armstrong) and the cheerful goofball Monster (Harland Williams). They're best friends no matter what happens, and do everything together. Unfortunately, they couldn't hold it together much for Nickelodeon. After having minor success with this show, Nick decided to push it to rerun mode (following an episode with guest VA Jeffery Tambor). The remaining five episodes that were seen had been shown on Nicktoons. Two more episodes have never made it to air. This has nothing to do with Phil Tucker's legendary grade-Z film ROBOT MONSTER.
ON HOME VIDEO: The complete series was issued on DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment on November 11, 2014.
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES [2012 VERSION]
Debuted: September 29, 2012
Ended: November 12, 2017
Four ninja turtles, mutated by a mysterious alien substance, have to rise up out of the sewers, where they used to eat cold pizza for breakfast, and defend their city against evil forces from both the past and present. The third iteration of the successful property, it was widely well-received by critics, and won three Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, one of which was awarded in a tie! It is the first Nickelodeon cartoon in quite some time in which the episodes of a given season weren't spread out over the course of a few years. It's played spawn to many artifacts of merchandise over the course of its five-season run.
ON HOME MEDIA: A whopping EIGHTEEN DVDS have been issued of this show by Paramount Home Entertainment. Each season was released across three volumes, consisting of four DVDs in total with 6-7 sequential episodes on each disc.
MONSTERS VS. ALIENS
Debuted: March 23, 2013 (preview); April 6, 2013 (official)
Ended: February 8, 2014
The success of this film, which was a bit more gradual than some of the others from DreamWorks Animation, has led it to a television series, which debuted after the Kids Choice Awards in 2013. It focuses on brainless blob B.O.B., prehistoric fish-man Link, mad scientist Dr. Cockroach and incredible growing woman Susan as they learn to adapt to a new world, while working alongside a bizarre group of aliens at a secret underground base known as Area Fifty-Something. Nick cancelled the show after the first season due to low ratings and a desire to "get back to the more Nickish shows" according to executive producer Bob Schooley.
ON HOME VIDEO: Compilations of the show ("Cloning Around", D100137, "Supersonic Joyride", D100179, and the Redbox-exclusive "Creature Features") were released by DreamWorks Animation SKG Home Entertainment and distributed through 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
SANJAY AND CRAIG
Debuted: May 25, 2013
Ended: July 29, 2016
The misadventures of a 12-year-old boy named Sanjay Patel and his talking pet snake Craig (Chris Hardwick). Producers Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi created THE ADVENTURES OF PETE & PETE, one of Nick's earliest hit series. The series has had a lukewarm response from critics and the animation community at large.
ON HOME VIDEO: July 13, 2015 saw the release of the Complete First Season on MOD via Amazon.com.
RABBIDS INVASION
Debuted: August 3, 2013
Ended: June 23, 2017
An adaptation of Ubisoft's RAVING RABBIDS video game series, which at one point during the show's run sold over 14 million units worldwide, the French/American series started its life on Nick and then abruptly moved to Nicktoons in season two. The voices for all the rabbits in the show were supplied by Damien Laquet.
ON HOME VIDEO: RABBIDS INVASION was never released on the home entertainment market in Region 1.
BREADWINNERS
Debuted: February 17, 2014
Ended: September 12, 2016
The adventures of flightless ducks SwaySway (Robbie Daymond) and Buhdeuce (Eric Bauza), which often involve the use of a wide variety of media. Creators Gary "Doodles" DiRaffaele and Steve Borst met together in Burbank while working on another network's MAD in 2012. This was originally drafted as a one-off project, but Nick caught note of the premiere of the series at a short film festival held in a bar in New York, and asked that it be developed into a series. The series' style did not appeal to many.
ON HOME MEDIA: Season one of the show was issued on DVD August 6, 2015 on MOD via Amazon.com.
HARVEY BEAKS
Debuted: March 28, 2015
Ended: December 29, 2017
C.H. Greenblatt, previously the guy behind CHOWDER on another network, created a young, friendly bird who hangs out with rambunctious twins. They seek adventure and mischief in the town of Littlebark Grove, a magical forest they call home. Greenblatt was looking to create a series with a different vibe from the largely absurdist and comical CHOWDER. He wanted to tell stories that had more heart and emotional connection with the audience. Greenblatt pitched the idea to Nickelodeon under the title BAD SEEDS and an 11-minute pilot was commissioned. When Nick picked the results up for a full series, it had to change its way halfway through production due to trademark issues. He went on Tumblr while building the crew for HARVEY BEAKS, and hired artists who had little-to-no prior experience working in animation but who came on board because of the high quality of the work they had personally done.
On November 6, 2016, C. H. Greenblatt announced that the series had been cancelled. Additionally, Greenblatt confirmed that the remaining episodes will air on Nicktoons, which he had not been made aware of until seeing a Twitter post from Nickelodeon. HARVEY BEAKS was originally set to premiere new episodes on Nicktoons on November 20; the episodes were delayed indefinitely because of a series of angry rants Greenblatt made regarding the decision. The episodes eventually premiered on March 1, 2017.
ON HOME VIDEO: HARVEY BEAKS was never issued on the home entertainment market.
PIG GOAT BANANA CRICKET
Debuted: July 16, 2015
Ended: November 13, 2016 (Nickelodeon)
The titular quartet's (Matt L. Jones, Candi Milo, Thomas F. WIlson and Paul Rugg) interwoven adventures. The series is set in Boopelite City, a gigantic and whirring metropolis where many of the buildings look like archaic clockworks. The streets are constantly teeming with characters of intensely varied description, and the sidewalks are crammed with animals, robots, walking fruit, sea creatures, and more. The four roommates live in a treehouse, which sits in the middle of the city, surrounded by the forest, the seas and anywhere else the friends could possibly go. Despite favorable early ratings, they began to slip halfway through the season and "It's Time to Slumber Party", the last episode of the series to air on Nickelodeon, only had an audience of 0.95 million viewers.
ON HOME VIDEO: PIG BOAT BANANA CRICKET was never issued on the home entertainment market.
THE LOUD HOUSE
Debuted: May 2, 2016
This is the series that finally challenged the prominence of SPONGEBOB at Nickelodeon. The series centers on 11-year-old Lincoln Loud (who has gone through three actors, at present Collin Dean is voicing the youngster) the only boy in a house full of 10 sisters. All of them have unique personalities: Lori Loud (Catherine Taber) is the eldest, with a boyfriend (Carlos PenaVega, previously of BIG TIME RUSH) and runs her family sometimes like an Army General, Leni Loud (Liliana Mumy) is your typical "dumb blonde" who is obsessed with all things fashion, Luna Loud (Nika Futterman) is the resident rock star, Luan Loud (Christina Pucelli) is a comedian who has her own Charlie McCarthy of sorts in Mr. Coconuts, Lynn Loud is the super-star athlete, Lucy Loud (both Jessica DiCicco) is the gloomy gothic type, Lola, the bossy twin sister of the tomboyish Lana (Grey Griffin), Lisa Loud (Lara Jill Miller) is the Nobel Prize-winning intellectual of the house with a PhD to boot, and Lily Loud (also Griffin) is the cute newborn baby. Creator Chris Savino based the series on his own childhood growing up in a large family in Royal Oak, Michigan (named Royal Woods for series purposes) and its animation (by Canadian studio Jam Filled Entertainment) takes inspiration from newspaper comic strips. Early in development, the Loud family was going to be composed of rabbits, but this was terminated when an executive asked Savino to make them human; this idea was explored again on the episode "White Hare". This writer could not recall having previously heard of a Nicktoon that did an episode that portrayed a proposed concept of itself.
Since its debut, it has garnered consistently high ratings. Within its first month on the air, it was the top-rated children's cartoon on American television. The popularity of the series has transcended to YouTube as well, with many of the characters seeming to bravely embrace the digital age in a way that Nickelodeon never had any Nicktoon do before. A movie is in the works, to be released by Paramount Pictures in 2020. The series won a 2017 ASCAP Screen Television Award for Top Television Series and Lincoln's first regular voice, Grant Palmer, won the 2017 Young Artist Award. The series is groundbreaking for other reasons as well. It is the first Nicktoon to feature a same-sex couple, a decision that got it nominated for a GLAAD award and was talked about in publications such as Vanity Fair, Teen Vogue and Time magazine; it has also subjected it to attempted censorship from One Million Moms, which is an off-shoot of the American Family Association. The episode "L is for Love" proved to be additionally groundbreaking, as it revealed that Luna is bi-sexual, becoming alongside the Fathers McBride the second LGBT representative of the Nicktoons clan. Counted separately, she's the third such member.
In October 2017, just as the #MeToo movement was taking off, Chris Savino was fired from THE LOUD HOUSE amidst sexual harrassment allegations; Savino said he was "deeply sorry" for his behavior. Though Nick intends to continue the series without him, the firing did much to polarize the fanbase of the program. Some felt that Nick had made a fatal mistake in letting Savino go. Others felt as though Nick had made the right decision. So far, however, it hasn't put a dent in the popularity of the series. Through reruns and a third season now airing, but taking a pause for now, it continues to enjoy being what it is: the RUGRATS to SPONGEBOB's REN & STIMPY.
ON HOME VIDEO: The first half of Season 1 was issued on DVD by Paramount Home Media Distribution in 2017 (UPC: 032429270375)
BUNSEN IS A BEAST
Debuted: January 16, 2017
Ended: February 10, 2018
Jeremy Rowley provides the voice for Bunsen, a student at a middle school that used to admit humans only. Despite the prejudice against beasts, he makes friends with a human boy and his homeschooled companion (Ben Giroux, Cristina Milizia). They attempt to cruise through life at school while outsmarting an anti-beast student named Amanda (Kari Wahlgren). This series was based on creator Butch Hartman's 2009 drawing of a monster and a boy. He meant to use it in a picture book, then decided not do do so, then a Nick executive saw his drawing and encouraged him to make a series out of the drawing. This series includes lessons about how positive social integration can be and encourages celebrating different cultures. The series ran on Nick until October 2017, when it was kicked off to Nicktoons; the first new episode for that network aired on December 18, 2017. The series, it was announced on YouTube, would end after only one season on air. It was Hartman's final original creation for Nickelodeon.
ON HOME VIDEO: BUNSEN IS A BEAST has yet to be issued on the home entertainment market.
WELCOME TO THE WAYNE
Debuted: July 24, 2017
This series revolves around a New York apartment that welcomes a new member (Alanna Ubach) who befriends two youngsters (Dana Steingold and series creator Billy Lopez) who embark on a mission to discover the remains of The Wayne. Everything, they realize, won't be as it seems, and they have to battle the strange creatures who swarm about The Wayne, and secret agents who are also part of the building. The series is notable for having a story arc that is spread toward all the episodes of the show, which originally a web series which ran in the fall of 2014.
ON HOME VIDEO: WELCOME TO THE WAYNE has yet to be issued on the home entertainment market.
THE ADVENTURES OF KID DANGER
Debuted: January 15, 2018
An animated spin-off of the live-action HENRY DANGER, this by count is Dan Schneider's eleventh and latest series from Nickelodeon, and also marks the first Nicktoon in his DanWarp. The series provides details on the animated adventures of Kid Danger and Captain Man (Jace Norman and Cooper Barnes) as they fight various villains and threats to the small town of Swellview. Previously seen as a Nickelodeon short-form digital series, also from Schneider, the series had a sneak peek of its first two segments as part of Nickelodeon's "Toon in for Danger" on January 15, 2018. Officially, it premiered on Nickelodeon that Friday.
According to an animator for this series, he had seen that the animation was way off since the schedule for the animation studio (Powerhouse Animation, out of presumably South Korea) was way off. He had spent 3 to 4 weeks trying to fix the animation errors. This was also Nick's first series in ToonBoom Harmony, which the animator has dubbed "a weird adjustment." By the time Nick rolled out an ad campaign for the series, the animators were stressed out by the poor scheduling which left them no room to bring the show to perfectionist standards.
ON HOME VIDEO: It's a bit early for THE ADVENTURES OF KID DANGER to be issued on the home entertainment market, don't ya think?
Next chapter of this will be "Nicktoons That Were Rejected."
Okay, out of these, the only amazing ones from it were The Legend of Korra, Harvey Beaks, Winx Club, TMNT (2012) and The Loud House. The rest are garbage and yes that includes (and I can't believe I'm saying this) "modern" Spongebob.
Edit: I forgot, T.U.F.F. Puppy was actually really good too.
4801000 The Kung Fu Panda series and Harvey Beaks are both pretty good too in my opinion. :)
4801342
Agree to disagree on Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomness (I honestly prefer the films to that show). Agreed on Harvey Beaks.
4801637 I like the Kung Fu Panda movies as well. XD
4802517
Excellent.
4802575 Yay!