Random Cartoon Reboots That Didn't Live Up To Originals (15 items)

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  (#6) Voltron: The Third Dimension

  • Tim Curry, Brad Garrett, Clancy Brown, Billy West, Kevin Michael Richardson, Tress MacNeille, Michael Bell, B. J. Ward, Neil Ross

  Years before DreamWorks Animation successfully rebooted Voltron for Netflix, Netter Digital and Splash Entertainment tried their hand at revitalizing the 1984 series. The new CGI series was set five years after the original Voltron series and followed the story of the Voltron Force reassembling to take on Prince Lotor, who escaped his imprisonment in deep space.

  Despite some high-profile action being involved in the series, such as Tim Curry voicing Prince Lotor, Voltron: The Third Dimension was commonly criticized for its bad CG animation. Only 26 episodes were made. While the series was previously available to purchase digitally, Voltron: The Third Dimension has been removed from iTunes and Google Play.
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  (#12) Sonic Underground

  • Maurice LaMarche, Garry Chalk, Gail Webster

  During the '90s, DIC Entertainment produced three animated series based on the popular Sonic the Hedgehog video games. The first two series, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic SatAM), are the ones best remembered by fans from that era. The last one, Sonic Underground, is the black sheep of the Sonic cartoon trio.

  Much like the previous Sonic cartoons, the world of Sonic Underground was completely separate from anything that came before. In this series, Sonic had two siblings, Manic and Sonia, and were searching for their royal mother, who was on the run from the evil Dr. Robotnik.

  Sonic Underground is commonly criticized for its poor stories and atrocious animation. In fact, the only thing that has withstood the test of time from Sonic Underground is its meme-level bad animation.
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  (#10) Loonatics Unleashed

  • Charlie Schlatter, Jason Marsden, Jessica DiCicco

  Loonatics Unleashed was a controversial reboot of the beloved Looney Tunes characters of the 1930s. While Warner Bros. had successfully rebooted Looney Tunes in the past, such as Tiny Toon Adventures, Loonatics Unleashed was scrutinized for its darker, action-oriented approach to the comedic series.

  The series took place in a post-apocalyptic world where a meteor strike has given six teenaged descendants of the Looney Tunes superhuman powers, for which they use to fight for good. All the characters were coated in black and given cool-sounding names, like the Bugs Bunny surrogate character being named Ace Bunny.

  Loonatics Unleashed was panned by critics and TV audiences alike for using the Looney Tunes characters to create a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rip-off. Warner Bros. considers Loonatics Unleashed to be an embarrassment and, just like Space Jam, is often mocked by other WB cartoons.
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  (#13) Beast Wars: Transformers

  • Scott McNeil, Garry Chalk, Ian James Corlett

  Beast Machines: Transformers was a CG-animated TV series by Mainframe Entertainment that ran on Fox Kids from 1999 to 2000. Even though the show was sold as a sequel to the 1996 CG-animated series, Beast Wars: Transformers, Beast Machines was considered to be its own standalone series.

  Every episode had Optimus Primal and the other Maximals working together to take down Megatron, who had mysteriously taken over Cybertron, their home planet. Separating this series from its predecessor, Beast Machines gave its heroes new techno-organic bodies. One reason why Beast Machines failed to take off with the Transformers fandom was that Hasbro and former Mainframe boss, Dan DiDio, told the writers not to familiarize themselves with old episodes, as they didn’t want Beast Machines to be continuity heavy like Beast Wars. Ironically, Beast Machines ended up being more continuity-driven with its own world.
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  (#11) George of the Jungle

  George of the Jungle is the 2007 reboot of the 1967 classic. Staying true to the original, the 2007 reboot revolves around the silly adventures of its dimwitted Tarzan-ish hero, George, and his fellow animal and human companions. In addition to new characters, such as the native jungle girl Magnolia, the George of the Jungle reboot was flash animated by Canadian animation studio Studio B Productions. Even though the original production only lasted for one season, the George of the Jungle reboot was generally considered to be innocuous, but fun.

  However, the reboot surprisingly came back to life with a second season in 2016, eight years after its original run on Teletoon and Cartoon Network. Even stranger, the second season made some significant changes to the characters and style of humor. Ursula Scott, who was originally portrayed as a tomboyish jungle researcher and a woman of color, had her name changed to Magnolia, while the original Magnolia had her name changed to Ursula. Ursula also had her personality changed from a valley girl living in the jungle to a destructive cave woman. What sticks out the most in the second season of George of the Jungle is the increased focus on gross-out and lower quality of animation done by an entirely new studio. Also, there’s a talking tooth.

  As of now, there’s no plans for a Season 3.
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  (#15) ThunderCats

  • Emmanuelle Chriqui, Clancy Brown, Michael McKean, Kevin Michael Richardson, Pamela Adlon, Dee Bradley Baker, Will Friedle, Robin Atkin Downes, Corey Burton, Satomi Kōrogi, Matthew Mercer, Eamon Pirruccello, Madeleine Hall

  Hoping to capture the success Nickelodeon had with its Ghibli-esque action show, Avatar: The Last Airbender, WB Animation and Cartoon Network rebooted the 1985 ThunderCats into an epic anime-inspired series. Animated by Japanese animation studio Studio 4°C, the 2011 reboot of ThunderCats followed a teenaged Lion-O and his fellow Thunderians as they search for the Book of Omens to defeat the evil Mumm-Ra, who conquered the kingdom of Thundera.

  When the series premiered in late July of 2011, the ThunderCats reboot opened to great reviews and great ratings to go with it. However, ratings began to slide as the series progressed. Loss of interest and poor toy sales ultimately led to the cancelation of ThunderCats. Following the cancelation, the staff behind the 2011 reboot of ThunderCats went on to share details about future storylines they had planned for the series.

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