The Internet.

Why would a kid watch something safe and sterile approved by Execs and S&P types when they go onto YouTube and watch something uncensored and as close to the creator’s vision as they could possibly get?

>>155009477
We went from a period where shows had to sell themselves to networks and fight for visibility to a period where dedicated cable channels and platforms push what the execs think Your New Favorite Show is while riskier/more expensive ideas get quickly stamped out.
While the problem with looking to the internet for something new leaves audiences at the mercy of unambitious "done when it's done" production, alienating would-be casual viewers and leaving behind the fanatics that will watch this year's episode 62 times and overanalyze every frame.
Businessmen can't make a good cartoon happen through force alone, and creators can't be counted on to produce with any regularity if someone above them isn't cracking down. It's the worst of both worlds.

mainstream feature/TV forgot about humor and general silliness while catastrophically fumbling on story and character. no one wants to watch most new animation because its painfully unfunny and boring, the complete opposite of entertainment. it's either trying too hard to do modern internet humor that doesn't translate well in cartoons, or trying too hard to make an epic saga with ultra sophisticated characters and story arcs that just suck. I blame the new wave of trust fund kids who went to super expensive art schools and how executives and animation veterans alike gave them jobs and their own shows on that pedigree alone without actually critically evaluating their work. and now those same trust fund kids are whining on instagram that theres no jobs anymore and deathly afraid they'll have to work a generic labor job to make ends meet, with zero self awareness their shit awful taste and unwarranted self importance killed any kind of confidence in hiring new voices and talent. it's good if you ask me, the animation industry as it exists now needs to die a painful death so something else greater can rise from the ashes. they like to blame major media companies merging, corporate cutting budgets, and kids being on their devices too much, but it's their own damn fault their products didn't sell and couldn't help but make self-important indulgent shit that the kids of today just don't like at all