Should Disney Television Animation Make More Marvel Cartoons?

[SweetShop209]

When Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur came out in February 2023, much of the responses towards the series were something along the lines of "It's the first family friendly Marvel cartoon in years that's actually good!" I think part of this can be attributed to how the series is not produced by Marvel Animation, but instead by Disney Television Animation (and also Cinema Gypsy Productions, but we're focusing on DTVA here). Compared to how most of Marvel's animated series in the 2010s (which were made by Marvel Animation) were not seen in a very positive light, you have people raving about how great the show, and want it to really make a cultural impact. This makes me wonder if it would be a good idea if Disney Television Animation made more Marvel cartoons in the future? There's pros and cons for the idea, which I will illustrate below.

Let's start with the pros. Disney Television Animation has had a rather consistent track record of producing high quality cartoons for decades. Sure, not every cartoon is a major hit, and some are even outright panned, but you have people who generally trust the company to make quality shows. With any future Marvel cartoons made under DTVA, you would have people who would be rather excited to see what they could do with other Marvel characters. Another pro for having future Marvel cartoons done at Disney Television Animation is that it won't be confined to follow the style of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (or in the case of What If, actually being in the MCU). It can just exist in its own continuity. Another final pro would be that Marvel would have a more consistent flow of family friendly animation that isn't just Lego specials. The only currently running family friendly Marvel cartoon is the Disney Junior show Spidey And His Amazing Friends (which isn't made by Disney Television Animation, but is still a Disney Junior original). Besides that, any currently running and upcoming Marvel cartoons are made for older audiences (teenagers and adults) like Hit Monkey, What If, X-Men 97, and so forth.

Now let's talk about potential cons. The first is with how the larger Disney corporation treats Disney Television Animation. It's generally seen as more of a B studio, something that can make whatever they want, but generally isn't expected to make a big splash in the company and not really meant to be used in other media. You can see this in how something like Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command is treated. Because certain people at Pixar didn't like the show, it's never referenced in other media. Another cons is with how it's more commonplace for Marvel projects to have adult protagonists while most DTVA shows usually star kids or teenagers. The last DTVA cartoon to star an adult protagonist (that isn't Mickey Mouse) is the 2021 series Monsters At Work. I think that's mainly because it was a Disney Plus original in season 1. Not counting that, the last DTVA cartoons to have adult protagonists are in 2017 with Tangled The Series and the DuckTales reboot. While I think DTVA could make a great show starring characters like Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel or Spiderman (whether Peter Parker or Miles Morales), if they were to tackle the adult superheroes, they'd probably either de-age them or emphasize younger characters more, which wouldn't sit well with everyone. I know that a complaint towards DuckTales 2017 was how the younger characters got too much focus.


And that's all I have. What do you think? Should Disney Television Animation Make More Marvel Cartoons?

 

[Rick Jones]

It was something I wanted to see for a long time but right now, I'm of the mind that Disney should be seriously nurturing their original properties.

I'm hopeful for Marvel Animation on its own. Under Disney, we got the Mission Marvel special, Big Hero 6 the movie and series, Baymax, Spidey and His Amazing Friends and Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur and i think that's been pretty commendable all around. The only kid centric animation we've gotten from Marvel Studios has been I Am Groot but I think they're capable of doing more. Maybe they will just prefer to let Disney handle the General Audience media but there's part of me that just wants to see Disney TV Animation focused on strengthening their own brand identity right now and giving more support to their original series and respective staff members and creatives.

 

[bigdaddy313]

Marvel Studios can handle their own properties, they can make family friendly animated shows, they are already using Disney resources unlike Marvel Entertainment and part of their restructure is to make Marvel Studio’s TV devision more consistent with TV rules and structural mechanics because it’s a different beast than movies. Marvel Studios got this and Disney Animation Studio can focus on their classic to new shows based on original properties from Disney.