Top 20 Worst Cartoon Theme Songs

So... I've been working on a... certain project. One that involves a lot of heavy and uncomfortable subject matter, and needs a lot of careful wording. It also is a lot of condensing really large stories into a couple of paragraphs, and one story is still kinda sorta ongoing. The bulk of that project is written, and as you can imagine it has taken a lot out of me... So let's do something fun.

Everybody loves theme songs, catchy ones like DuckTales or SpongeBob, Iconic ones like The Flintstones or The Simpsons, epic ones like Batman: The Animated Series or King Arthur and the Knights of Justice, Popular shows like Rugrats and ThunderCats, obscure shows like Cybersix or C.O.W.Boys of Moo Mesa, great shows like Gravity Falls and Amphibia, terrible shows like Sonic Underground. The theme song really is like an advertisement to your show, it has to sell the show to the viewer before they even see the first episode, many theme songs do a great job of selling the show to the viewer while being a pleasant musical experience. We will not be talking about any of those theme songs today.

Some theme songs do not succeed in selling a show, some theme songs are bland, annoying, cringe-inducing, badly-written, badly-sung, incoherent, just all around poorly made. So of course the question now becomes, which ones are the worst? A question that lots and lots of others have discussed, and now I am going to throw my opinion in the ring. These are the worst, the most annoying, the unbearable cartoon theme songs, in English speaking languages that is.

#20. Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century

I like this show, I genuinely do, but I can absolutely see why it has fallen into obscurity. The show is very much nothing special and does have a bit of wasted potential as I have said before. I can also imagine viewers were probably turned off from the theme song. A trend you will notice among theme songs is that a lot of them like to repeat their names over and over again, granted I don't think you really need much explanation for the concept of a show titled "Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century", but that does not change the fact that the theme song is still the show's name repeated ad nauseam  over a weird techno house club beat. There are a lot of theme songs that would have benefited from just being instrumental, but don't let that dissuade you from checking out the show, just be prepared to grab that remote when the "Skip Intro" button appears.

 

#19. Potato Head Kids

 

They gave a cartoon to everything in the 80s, didn't they? I really don't want to be too hard on this one, frankly I didn't even want to put it on the list. Nothing about these theme song is inherently terrible, the lyrics are bland and tell us nothing, and the music is kind of standard for the time, those don't help matters but they really are not "top 20" worthy. However, leniency only stretches so far, and having the main cast sing the song is what warrants the placement on this list. Whoever thought these voices were good enough to sing a theme song, they are wrong and if nobody had a better idea for a theme song than that is very sad.

 

#18. Hong Kong Phooey

You might wonder, how far back do "bad" theme songs go. Surely someone has been complaining about how bad music and lyrics were for television theme songs as far back as the 1960s, but for the purposes of this list, we're only going as far back as the 1970s, 1974 to be exact. It starts with a spoken dialogue bit that is meant to build interest but is just kind of slow, and when it does get to the theme song, it's just kind of bland until around the fifty second mark when they just make a bunch of noises that vaguely sound like kung fu noises... I guess? I dunno, something about this show just rubs me the wrong way.

 

#17. Shirt Tales

I think I've found the most boring theme song in the world, seriously. There are three main parts to this theme song, the introduction, the role-call and the title drop, they do this twice and the lyrics are about as generic as you possibly can get. It's all "Who do you call when you're in trouble" stuff, which only makes me want to listen to "Ghostbusters" which at least has that iconic keyboard riff. The role call isn't really good either, it's like they're trying to keep in beat but just can't quite keep up. Also, poor Bogey is always the last one to be named, justice for Bogey.

 

#16. Super Duper Sumos

Hey, another theme song that repeats it's name over and over again. Okay, that is a bit unfair, there are other lyrics just shouted at you. Otherwise it's just "Super Duper Sumos" and how they got guts and big butts... which is a pun and a butt joke. Having "Guts" means that they are brave, courageous, risk-taking, but they're also fat, so they have a massive gut. I am not worried about explaining the joke here, it wasn't funny to begin with.

 

#15. Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series

Believe it or not, "Ducks Rock" is not the reason this song is on the list. What puts this theme song on the list is that it is some of the worst sounding "Trying to be hip" music I've ever heard. The show premiered in late 1996, so what kind of music should we make our theme song to interest the youths of the time? I know, out of date Glam Rock, and let's get the guy who sang "We Built This City" to sing it. I can think of worse combinations, I guess. In 1996, Alt Rock was the popular form of rock music, Glam Rock was so passe, and stuff like this is the reason why. Cheap Mötley Crüe sound-alikes aren't going to bring the genre back, especially since they weren't even doing their brand of Glam Rock by this time either, Generation Swine was released in 1997. Also, the theme song's title... It actually is "Ducks Rock"... give me Disco Duck anyway of the week.

 

14. Pickle & Peanut

It's just a list of things. The bulk of this theme song is literally just a monotone voice listing off items over a (trap?) beat before "singing" the title of the show. Is it really that easy to write a theme song? let me try.

Pens, cap guns, grapes, erasers, lip balm, duct tape, hey!
Rope, candles, weights, newsprint, aloe, spice mix, yum!

There, that's the theme song to my brand new show, Joe and the Henway, coming to streaming in 8995 AD. Enjoy.

 

13. Pokémon: DP Battle Dimension

Okay, hot take, but Diamond and Pearl is not the worst theme song Pokémon ever had. It is a cringe-inducing attempt at rap, but you know what's worse? The Battle Dimension theme song. Believe it or not, I've always found this theme song worse than Diamond and Pearl's rap, but I couldn't quite figure out why. I assumed it's because of the pillowy-soft music, but on closer inspection I think I know the real reason; this song doesn't feel like a Pokémon theme song. The lyrics are all "brave and strong" and "We can be heroes and change the world" and I'm thinking, "What does this have to do with Pokémon?" When did Pokémon become a generic magical girl anime?

 

12. Breadwinners and Angela Anaconda

I'm putting these two theme songs together because they both have one major problem, and they're both really short.

Breadwinners is the most recent show, so I'll start with that. The instrumentation of this show is obnoxious, it's like dubstep from people who don't know what dubstep sounds like. Not that the lyrics are much better, but it's basically lazy puns (get it, Quazy! Because they're ducks!) and juvenile humour. Really though, it's blessedly short, and that would grant it some leniency, but there was another theme song that was very similar.

Angela Anaconda's big problem is the singing, this girl can't sing. I wonder if this was intentional, like the director said to the voice actress, "alright, we want you to imagine the worst singing voice for your character". This song also has similar issues with lyrics, it's just kind of a nothing sandwich, it's "This is me, this is my show" and nothing else of substance. Between the two of them, I think Angela Anaconda's is worse, but I find them similar enough to warrant making this entry a tie, and it won't be our only one.

 

11. Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island

I think I actually wanted to leave this song off the list, not because I have any fondness for it, but because... it's biggest issue is that it's just kind of confused. What does this theme song want to be? A tropical thing? Something with sci-fi tones? A theme song that shouts it's name over and over again? An instrumental? Something with beat-boxing? This theme really is just the definition of "Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks". Also, never end a theme song to any show with the main character saying "Yay Me!".

 

10. Kung Fu Dino Posse

Another theme song that kind of has no clue what it wants to be, so it does all three weird genres. Generic superhero introduction, cringe rap theme and... epic Broadway choir? The rap part of the theme song is so horribly sung, like the singer is intentionally putting on as nasally a voice as they can, and it has some of the worst jokes you've ever heard, like hilariously mispronouncing the word "pterodactyl". Really, the only reason this show is not higher on the list is because... really who cares? Nobody cares about a show called Kung Fu Dino Posse... note to self, make a blog post about Kung Fu Dino Posse.

 

9. Rugrats 2021 and The Magic School Bus Rides Again

Yep, another shared entry, reboots with remade versions of the original theme songs that are infinitely worse.

Rugrats 2021 decided that it would be a good idea to add a buzzing synth to the start of the theme song, seriously, why did they pick the fuzziest, most unlistenable synth sound they could have picked for this theme song? At the very least, the song becomes tolerable after that, not necessarily good, but tolerable.

The same cannot be said for The Magic School Bus Rides Again, which decided that Little Richard needed to be replaced by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Look, I don't hate Lin-Manuel, he's done stuff I liked and has been in things I really liked, but he just missed the mark for this theme song. A lot of the punch and tight performance from Richard is replaced with trailing off on certain lines, so a line like "Raft a River of Lava" has the final syllable elongated for no reason. Honestly, I could have mistaken this for a Will.i.am cover at points.

Sometimes remaking the theme song for a show can lead to good results, there are lots of people who will argue the 2017 DuckTales theme song is better than the 1987 DuckTales theme song. Really though, that may be the exception rather than the example, because if these two theme songs prove anything, it's that the originals are often untouchable.

8. Hammerman

Hello easy target. Yeah, you all knew this was going to make the list, and you all know the reasons why it was going to make the list. If by some blessed miracle you don't know, seriously thank every god you do and do not believe in if you have not heard this theme song. It's almost so bad it's good, but the crushing length is what brings it down to just being "bad", and you wouldn't think that if you looked it up online, one minute and nineteen seconds, that's a bit on the lengthy side but it's still pretty standard for a cartoon theme song. It's not that the song itself is long, it's that it details every single part of the origin story, straight up to even explaining "Gramps opened up the bag and took out the magical shoes". It drones on giving you every detail of an origin that would have, and should have been shown in the first episode. But again, you knew all that.

 

7. Mew Mew Power and One Piece

 

This is the last shared entry here, and you probably knew these were coming too. Hello 4Kids, nice to see you here. 4Kids is notorious for terrible dub jobs that made anime "more appropriate for children" by which they mean they made everything Americanized and ruined a lot of anime. It didn't help that a lot of their dubs came with awful theme songs.

Mew Mew Power is probably the better of the two here, in that I can see people liking it, but that doesn't mean I get it. This is one of the most generic sounding theme songs in existence, literally any anime could have the lyrics "Team up 'cause it's not too late/We can save the day if we collaborate", I think those were from the scrapped lyrics bin for Sailor Moon... no that's too harsh, Sailor Moon's writers didn't even consider writing those lines. Funny enough, for the theme song to a show called "Mew Mew Power" they really don't have any cat related imagery in the lyrics, they mention birds though! Also, "It's hard to save the world when you're falling in love"? This is a Magical Girl Anime!

Of course, you're not here because of Mew Mew Power, you're here for the infamous, the notorious, the cringe inducing, One Piece rap. I mean, I guess the only thing I have to ask is... why? Why did they decide that an adventure anime about a rubber pirate needed a rap theme song? Really, this is just adding insult to injury, it's like "Ha ha, we're gonna censor the anime to the point that it has no bite to it, remove several episodes and change the story to this anime, and we're also going to give it the worst theme song we possibly could give it."

This is why 4Kids went defunct in... 2017? Really?

6. RoboCop: Alpha Commando

I think the real tragedy of this theme song is that it opens really good. It's got that vibe to it that would totally fit a cyberpunk setting, really if this track was an instrumental, it probably would have been a theme song that people remember fondly. Unfortunately, they had to include lyrics. This is another theme song that has to shout the name of the show for the duration of the theme song... except it doesn't even do that, it just shouts "RoboCop" a bunch of times and hopes that you're find it cool. RoboCop is one of my favourite movies, the satire is still wildly relevant and the action scenes are perfectly bloody, and I guarantee you, adding this theme song to any action scene in the movie, makes it ten times funnier. It's not a good thing, but if you want a good laugh...

 

5. High Guardian Spice

Ladies, gentlemen and everyone outside the binary, I present to you, the literal most generic theme song you will ever hear. Fun fact, I initially put this theme song on my shortlist as a joke. Like I knew it wasn't going to be good, but like I thought it would be Honourable Mentions material at worst. I mean, how bad can it possibly be? Oh... oh dear god... it was bad. I had such a negative reaction hearing this theme song, it says nothing about the show, it says nothing about the characters, it has no identity outside of being tied to... High Guardian Spice... I should have guessed that one of the most generic animated shows of all time would get one of the most, actually no, the most generic theme song of all time. This theme song is so generic it actually makes me mad, like Pickle & Peanut was befuddling, Mew Mew Power was boring, this is actually aggravating. Remind me to watch this entire thing for another blog post in the future.

 

4. The Nutshack

It's the nutshack... it's the nutshack... it's the nutshack... it's the nutshack...

That is the first half of this theme song, just repeating those three words over and over again, until we get another bad rap theme song that is either so poorly sung, so poorly mixed, or both, that it is legit impossible to understand what is being said without using a lyrics sheet to follow along. This is another theme song that has achieved infamous status and memedom, this theme song is so bad, it actually falls into "So bad it's good" territory, because I don't think I have ever heard a theme song this incompetent before. Clearly this is the second worst example of a theme song that sings the title of the show on repeat until it ends... what is the worst?

 

3. Dragon Ball Z

Apparently, this is the Canadian version of the intro, because why did Canada need it's own intro to Dragon Ball Z? Did America just not want to share it's dub intro? Whatever the case, this is another theme song that so bad it's good, because legit, this is hilarious. It's the plainest sounding guys singing "Dragon Dragon Ball" followed by what I can only describe as an "epic toy commercial voice" sings "Dragon Ball Z" for the duration of the theme song, save for one bit in the middle where they sing "Rock the Dragon/Dragon Ball Z", I am genuinely surprised this hasn't fallen into Memedom like The Nutshack theme has. If you're wondering why this is higher on the list than The Nutshack, it's because The Nutshack theme song has actual lyrics. Cybersix this really is not.

2. The Brothers Flub

Finally, the last obvious entry on this list. Come on, as soon as you hear the words "Worst Theme Songs" the first three words you immediately think of are "The" and "Brothers" and "Flub" specifically in that order. This theme technically doesn't count as an instrumental theme, but that's only because the lyrics to this song are literally just "Flub flub flub flub flub!" sang over the most annoying "la-la-la" you will ever hear. I think the only reason this theme song has instrumentation is because some producer had enough common sense to realize that the A Capella la-la flubbing would probably make people go deaf by the desire to cut their ears off with rusty hedge trimmers. it may also explain why they try to drown out the theme song with constant obnoxious noises. I refuse to believe that nobody behind this theme song thought it was a bad idea, someone had to realize that this was awful, but either didn't care or didn't want to throw away all the hard work they put into making this. The only real question is, why the heck is this not number one?

 

1. The Adventures of Kid Danger

I think this is it, the worst cartoon theme song in the world, it is poorly sung, lazily written, has obnoxious dialogue in the middle for no reason... yep, calling it now, this is the worst. it ticks off all the boxes for a bad theme song. Bad lyrics? "This is the song for the Adventures of Kid Danger", I think that counts as a yes. Annoying? Absolutely. Cringe-inducing... You know what, yes, it is cringe inducing. It makes me cringe that anyone thought that this was okay. Like, on some level, Brothers Flub is at least memorable, you're never going to forget it no matter how many spork lobotomies you receive. You might think that would make it worse, but at the very least the "Flub" singing was listenable. This is unlistenable in every aspect. One may argue that it isn't the most bad, but I'd counter by arguing that it is the least good, I can literally make a defence for every other theme song on this list before this one, yes even One Piece, even Coconut Fred, even The Brothers Flub. This is the worst cartoon theme song, and it wasn't even close.

 

Honourable Mentions:

Mega Babies - I mean... barring the bodily noises I'd dare say this one almost sounds pleasant. It's like a tolerable version of The Brothers Flub.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - I was so tempted to throwing this one on the list, it's just another pillowy soft cloud of nothing, but I guess it kinda sorta fits with the show.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power - After High Guardian Spice I realize that I was way too harsh with my initial disdain for this theme song... that doesn't make it good though.

Pac-Man - It's an arcade having a seizure before someone growls "Pac-Man" twice. It's not on the list because I only barely consider it a theme song.

Shaggy and Scooby-Doo, Get a Clue! - Heh heh heh... what a bunch of nonsense. I don't think this is the worst, but uh... yeah it is worthy of disdain.

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure - I left this one off the list solely because it absolutely is the kind of music that Bill and Ted would be all over. It's like if Jay and Silent Bob had a cartoon and the theme song was just stoned mumbling over a Morris Day esque beat, how mad can you really be at that?

Fanboy and Chum Chum - This one was left off the list because it very clearly intended on being annoying... it just failed at being annoying properly.

The Wacky World of Tex Avery - Gross and Annoying... what a winning combo...

My Gym Partner's a Monkey - You know, this show would be a horrible title if it wasn't absolutely literal.

The BEST Animated Movies of 2024

So... I'm gonna be honest, 2024 sucked for animated movies. I have made my opinions clear on the matter, but let me state, now that the year is over, Two-Thousand-Twenty-Four Common Era absolutely SUCKED for animated movies, that isn't to say this was a totally bad year for animation entirely though, animation critics who, y'know actually do this for a living, or are just better than me, might be able to point you in directions I couldn't for things like TV animation, Anime, Indie Animation, Hell they might even be able to point you into directions to movies I haven't, couldn't, or wouldn't see. Basically what I'm saying is just because one area of the year wasn't great, doesn't mean the whole year was bad, and also please support other animation reviewers, we're a small community we need attention.

That all being said, this year wasn't a completely barren wasteland for movies either, it's just that... well, you're less likely to see them in theatres, I think. Most of the movies I heard of this year, were not theatrically released, The Tiger's Apprentice, the Megamind sequel, at least half of my worst list, all went directly to streaming in one form or another. This is a problem because it means accessibility to thee movies is very limited, so while really big movies might get a theatrical release, others that are still fairly notable might not. I'm not entirely convinced their isn't some other motive to putting movies directly on a streaming service, like other than a studio having full control over something, but it is kind of concerning.

Anyway, here are the movies that didn't completely suck.

5. Kung Fu Panda 4

I know not everybody has positive feelings for this movie, but I gotta be honest, I had a good time with it. I am always in awe about how well each Kung Fu Panda sequels feels like a natural step in the story being told, going from Po learning to become the Dragon Warrior and ending with Po having to pass on the title. Sure, it isn't as good as Kung Fu Panda 2 or 3, but those are immensely tough acts to follow, so the fact that it is good in general is good enough.

A lot of people also criticize the villain's backstory, saying that it makes no sense, I have wanted to talk about this for a while, but it does make a lot of sense that Po, a person who faced discrimination and prejudice in the Kung Fu circle due to his body, is facing a villain who also faced discrimination and prejudice in the Kung Fu circle against them due to their body, again, it's these links that make the Kung Fu Panda villains great.

No, the movie isn't perfect, I do miss the Furious Five as much as everyone else, the Mr. Beast cameo was kind of dumb, then again most YouTuber cameos in movies tend to age poorly, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about Awkwafina as an actress, but over all, I had more positives with the movie than not, and James Hong and Bryan Cranston were easily the highlights of this movie, so that has to be worth something.

4. Piece By Piece

It might seem crazy what I'm about to say, but I never really got into Pharrell's music. It isn't all bad, but when you tend to gravitate more towards Alt. Rock and Metal, you do tend to miss out on some good stuff. That all being said, the idea of doing this documentary in Lego style intrigued me, not that animated documentaries haven't been done before, but doing it in Lego, why not?

I was ultimately more interested in how the story was told instead of what story was being told, but that isn't to say I don't think Pharrell is an interesting person, I'm just stating my biases as someone who isn't really into this kind of music. Still, the way a lot of the things were visualized, like the different beats that were produced and how they're stored, a lot of it really is complimented by the Lego visuals, and I don't think you could really do scenes like that in a traditional style. I think this is one of movies that does still make me hold onto hope that there are still unique animated movies out there, and I won't say this is one of the most unique or risky movies, but this was an idea, and not a bad one at that. I can't really say more about it, this was just a good movie.

3. The Wild Robot

I can hear it now, "The Wild Robot at Number Three? It should be Number One!" and yeah, I see why, this was a really beautifully done movie, easily one of DreamWorks' best in recent years. It's these kinds of movies that really do show how different DreamWorks is from studios like Disney or Illumination, and why they are my favourite of the big three.

That all being said, I am a little disappointed in this movie. I never read the book this movie was based on, though I might give it a shot in the future, my disappointment comes from one thing; from the initial trailer, I thought this movie was gonna be a really powerful movie told with zero dialogue, imagine DreamWorks taking a risk like that, making a movie with zero spoken dialogue with such a grand scale that their best movies have, that would be so cool. I'm not going to say that this movie failed to live up to my expectations in terms of quality, if anything, when I learned it was going to have dialogue I grew a bit worried, so the movie exceeded my expectations. Still, I think it would have been cool if this movie had no spoken dialogue.

2. Flow

Flow is the movie I thought I was going to get out of The Wild Robot, a truly unique and risky animated feature. Flow was such an interesting movie, there is zero spoken dialogue, not even subtitles, and yet you can still infer what the characters are thinking, feeling, in some cases even saying. I love moments in movies and cartoons where the imagery tells the story more than the dialogue does, how the body language and facial expressions speak about the characters thoughts more so than can be put into words. Flow is entirely that, it's just reading the animals' body language.

On top of that, this movie got really tense at points, there were several moments I thought this poor cat was gonna drown or get eaten by something, and it always kept me on edge, it was fantastic. I also have to applaud the fact that the team used the open-source Blender to render this movie, which really does prove you can do fantastic things with available tools. Now we just have to wait for the animated movie where each and every frame was hand drawn in Microsoft Paint.

So, if this is my choice for the most unique animated movie of the year, why isn't it number one? Well... Maybe I didn't actually want The Wild Robot to have zero dialogue, because I think this movie is more fascinating than it is entertaining, and don't get me wrong, I think it's a great movie, but in the same way I think Fight Club or Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas are great movies, where there is just something fascinating about them, that keeps them in my mind, but very rarely do I ever think about actually watching them that often. I would love to re-watch Flow with friends, but it might not be one I watch that often. What movie would I watch more often?

1. Transformers One

If you were to tell me that a Transformers movie would top my list of best animated movies any year, I'd be open to the possibility. Even though I'm not huge into Transformers, I have a fondness for the franchise, the original Michael Bay movie completely blew my mind when I was a kid, and I'm not completely shocked that Transformers is still a popular franchise, but at the same time I was not a huge fan of the original 1980s Transformers movie, even putting it on the list of the worst animated movies I reviewed. So this is still a little bit of a shock.

It's also shocking because, is this movie unique? Not particularly. Is it groundbreaking? I don't think so. Is it a risky movie? Not in the slightest. You know what this movie is though? This movie is damn good, and in 2024, I needed a Damn Good movie, I love when a movie is unique and takes a risk, but I don't think 2024 needed that, I think 2024 needed movies that were good before they were risky or groundbreaking. 2024 needed a Transformers One, because everything else before it... No, not all of it was bad, but very few of it was better than "Okay", I know a lot of people like Ultraman Rising, and it wasn't bad, but it just felt pretty standard. Transformers One was the first movie of the year that I watched as thought, "Yeah, that was pretty good". What does that say about this year as a whole...

If I had to give a theme to the movies on this list, I would probably say... Ambitious? Each movie is taking a fairly risky step in one way or another, DreamWorks' best movies are often pretty risky in one way or another, Flow and Piece by Piece are certainly unique movies that are begging to attain a cult following, honestly, even Transformers One, the notion of making an animated Transformers movie after the Michael Bay movies, with Michael Bay as a producer, frankly I respect the gall. Was this year completely bad? I don't think so, but I also thought negative about 2022 and now I'm willingly looking back on that with rose-tinted glasses, maybe 2025 will be a different year, one with better and more interesting movies to talk about. Well, let us leave 2024 behind us, and look forward to something better... 2030! Yes, I'm talking about more than animated movies here, let's just move on to the Honourable Mentions.

1. Ultrama: Rising - I mean, it was okay, kind of predictable, but kinda cool seeing Ultraman get a fairly big push in the west.
2. Rotten: Behind the Foodfight - This doesn't count, it's a live-action documentary about an animated movie, but it is worth the mention.
3. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - This also doesn't fully count, but if it did, it would easily be number one.

The WORST Animated Movies of 2024

How would I describe 2024 for animation? Well, that is kind of a meaningless question. As a whole, animation has had its ups and downs this year, and there was plenty of good stuff, like The Amazing Digital Circus, that was absolutely peak. LS Mark released the pilot to his new animated series this year, and that was pretty good. There was A New Wish, which I hear most people quite liked. Batman: Caped Crusader, which was... I mean it was alright. X-Men '97 has gotten some good attention, and there is probably quite a bit I am not mentioning, mostly because I just don't really have any time for animated shows, I barely have time for new movies, but I did watch quite a few, but I do want it known that I couldn't watch everything, so if you want a more thorough look at the Animated Cinema of 2024, I'm sure Animated Antic can give you that.

There really is no other way to say this, but for animated movies, 2024 sucked, and this will not be the last time I say that in 2024, I'm repeating myself a lot but I really don't know how else to word it. It's not that this line-up was completely bad, there were some good and unique pieces of animation this year. However, it's very clear that we are officially finished that wave of "Pandemic Ideas", ideas that were bred out of artists of many varieties finally being able to take a breather and let their creativity flow and allow them to work on and polish up something truly unique. It would almost be amusing that we have learned nothing from the pandemic if the world wasn't completely on fire, both metaphorically and practically literally.

Really, all this list really goes to prove is that I'm a miserable curmudgeon who wants to go back to the days of watching Disney VHS tapes and racing around to get my pajamas on and my teeth brushed before the previews were over, and that was awful. Still, 2024 is not over until the worst of the worst have been named and shamed, so let's get to it. Here are the worst animated movies of 2024. 

6. Despicable Me 4

Oh... we're starting this list off strong when Despicable Me 4 is only the bottom of the list. Really, this movie should be higher considering it's from my least liked studio, Illumination. Still, I can't be surprised this movie wasn't good, I mean, did we really expect them to start making masterpieces after The Super Mario Bros. Movie? It's not like they were suddenly gonna start making things that would actually rival Disney or DreamWorks, though movies like this don't help with the feeling that The Super Mario Bros. Movie was not a total fluke.

The big problem was that, they had a lot of ideas and just didn't flesh any of them out. The movie is mainly a combination of three major ideas, Gru goes into witness protection, Gru assists a young villain-to-be in pulling off a heist, and the Minions become superpowered, and then a bunch of smaller ideas that spring off of those three plots. Really, I think if they just picked one plot here, the movie would have been a Hell of a lot better, and picking one or another would give them the chance to flesh out some of these ideas. I like the idea of one of the characters having to lie about their identity while not wanting to lie, that is a good dilemma, but that goes nowhere. I also like the idea of Gru having to decide about whether he wants to have his family and his good guy image or if he does miss the thrill of villainy, but that ultimately does not happen. I'll say it again, if the movie was just Gru and Poppy or Gru and Maxime, it would have been much better, but they had to go with Gru and Poppy and Gru and Maxime and also Super Powered Minions because... we need a new way to get merch sales out of these giant sentient tic-tac mutants.

It's only number six on this list because... let's be real, it's an Illumination movie, and Illumination is pretty much incapable to making anything that's really worth getting angry at.

5. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

Easily the most disappointing movie on this list, if the only thing I took into consideration for this list was wasted potential, this would be number one, because there is almost a good movie creeping through here. Hell, I'd even go so far as to say there is a great movie hidden within, something to prove that the Lord of the Rings extended universe can be just as good as the Peter Jackson Trilogy. Instead, we got definitive proof that maybe the Tolkien estate should have kept the film rights under lock and key.

It's not even that there is one glaring issue that makes this whole movie suck, it's a bunch of small things that chip away at my enjoyment of the movie bit by but until the massive marble block is little more than a pile of rubble with a Squidward nose stuck to it. My biggest issue was the camera, they tried so many 360 shots and pans and all kinds of camera movement that half the time I swear I was watching The Gondor Witch Project instead, and it doesn't help that the animation just doesn't look right. I am going to say it, I think this movie has worse visuals that Ralph Bakshi's movie, because I'm not convinced that A.I. wasn't involved in this movie whatsoever. Characters look separate from the backgrounds as though they're greenscreen, which should not be a problem because this is 2D Anime inspired animation, but even then the characters are often too anime, Héra often looking more like a character out of Final Fantasy than Middle Earth. On top of that, she just isn't a good character, she's hyped up to be this badass character, but her God damn horse gets a more badass moment than she does, she really does fit the whole "Strong Female Lead TM" nonsense.

On top of that, it was just so anti-climactic, the antagonist gets killed by being choked with a shield, like come on, like their could have been something more to it, which would have made it more tragic too. Just a disappointing movie, and the archived recordings of the late Sir Christopher Lee do not help, yeah, you totally just added them for marketing hype, you printed that archived recordings were used and gave him a total of eleven lines. I really hope that we don't get anything more like this in the future.

4. The Garfield Movie

I think the main reason I can't say that this is the most disappointing movie of the year is that, I did kind of anticipate a middling, mediocre at best, but still watchable movie. Maybe it was just because Chris Pratt was involved, I dunno.

Really, the strengths of this movie is that, on some level, the crew behind it really did have some understanding of  Garfield, like this wasn't just a quick cash-in like some other Garfield movies were, but at the same time, it doesn't get as heavy or rough as some of the earlier Garfield specials did, or even as some of the comics did. Garfield saying goodbye to his mother is ten times the heart-breaking moment that anything in this movie, and they really do try, but it just didn't come together. Maybe with a better script something may have been decent, but it is kind of difficult to really do a decent Garfield anything when Garfield hasn't been good for a long time. The dry wit and sarcasm of the original strips long since been replaced and so are nowhere to be found in this movie, which sucks because there are moments that do almost, if not entirely, feel like Garfield.

It really is clear to me that Mark Dindal's strengths as a director do not like in movies like this, they lie in the zanier movies like Cats Don't Dance or The Emperor's New Groove, but even then, maybe not. Maybe those movies were just flukes, and The Garfield Movie might just prove it.

3. The Casagrandes Movie

On some level, writing these year end lists is easier for me than other reviews because I can just paraphrase or truncate any First Impressions that I have done, or expand upon any Social Media post I made. That being said, when a movie as completely boring and uninspired as this one comes out, really what else can I do?

I don't want to lift my original First Impressions word for word, but there are only so many ways I can say something is boring and doesn't put any new spin on old, tired jokes and clichés. I was finished with this movie when the ancient God was speaking in modern teenage slang, but I kept soldering on, because maybe this movie would have been somewhat watchable. Instead, it was the most boring animated movie of the year, and at one point I might have put it at the top of this list.

2. Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie

Frankly, I still think y'all are too harsh on this movie. No, it is not good on any level, but it is still better than Sponge on the Run, I mean do you guys remember Sponge on the Run? No, of course you don't, you remember zombie pirates with Snoop Dogg and Dany Trejo, Keanu Reeves in a Tumbleweed, Plankton Booty and Mr. Enter doing another Angry SpongeBob Review. Let me tell you, Sponge on the Run is the worst, because it does not feel like a SpongeBob movie, with the soundtrack full of modern popular acts (seriously the days of Ween and Motorhead cameoing in SpongeBob are over), attempts to satirize common animated movie tropes and moral about inner beauty or whatever... you know what all that reminds me of? Shrek, Sponge on the Run is a Shrek movie with SpongeBob's skin, and worse, it's not even a good Shrek movie in SpongeBob's skin.

With all that in mind, comparing it to a movie that didn't even feel like SpongeBob, what does this movie have? A line about SpongeBob not being able to watch his streaming shows? Uncanny live-action mixing? A weird moment where Sandy Cheeks gets DeviantArt Inflation put upon her? Yeah, really the worst thing about this movie is that even with all of that, this still isn't as bad as Sponge on the Run, there were moments here that did feel like SpongeBob, which I guess is more the shame all things considered. Really, it just falls under the category of "That Kind of Animated Movie", but even then only barely, and really it's only at number 2 because frankly, it's a much more interesting entry than The Casagrandes Movie. Still, I do think there is something that you can get somewhat upset with here, like SpongeBob means a lot to a lot of people and seeing stuff like this doesn't help. In any other year, I probably would have conceded to popular opinion and put this at number one, just because it would have given me the most to talk about, you know without the stigma of a good movie trying to break out of it like with The Lord of the Rings movie.

But this shockingly, was not just any other year, this was 2024 and 2024 gave us one massive surprise that we frankly should have seen coming, yet none of us did.

1. Where the Robots Grow

What, you didn't see this movie? Of course you haven't, at most, you watched Saberspark's video about it and promptly forgot it existed, lucky you.

Really, on principle this has to make number one, because the use of A.I. in creative spaces has truly been the death of creativity. A.I. is little more than legalized plagiarism stuck inside the uncanny valley, and the fact that any movie can be made with A.I., that just has to make it the worst animated movie of the year by default, doesn't it? I don't blame people for not watching it, why would anyone bother to watch a movie that nobody could be bothered to make? At least with the Lord of the Rings movie, I can convince myself that it was all done by human animators, I can believe it was all humans who made it. Really though, this is just giving the creator, or should I say the prompter, what they want, attention. They probably did hope that this was the movie that would make everyone change their mind about A.I. in creative spaces, or maybe they just wanted to show it can be done and get all the attention off of it, well guess what; No.

Come to think of it, I haven't actually watched this movie myself, really. Can I qualify it for this list if I didn't watch it? No joke, I seriously did not watch this movie before writing all of this about it, it is literally number one because it was made using A.I. and really that isn't entirely fair, is it? Can I put this movie on here by principle? Yes, the answer is yes. Yeah it isn't fair, but it also isn't fair that A.I. is being used to replace genuine creative talent while also stealing from said creative talent so I think it's fair game for everyone to call this the worst animated movie of 2024, even if they haven't actually watched it. I don't swear on this blogs, but ---- this movie, just for existing.

Well... that was fun, 2024 was not a great year for animated movies, but I am hoping that 2025 will be better. Like I said, I couldn't watch every animated movie this year, so while Megamind 2 and Mufasa: The Lion King would have been total shoe-ins for this list, sometimes I am just going to have to miss a few things. That being said, the big trend I notice in this batch of garbage is that, at the core of every movie here, there isn't a bad movie, except maybe for the A.I. movie, but honestly most of the movies here weren't even that infuriating, like I genuinely can't think of any real reason why to be mad at the existence of most of these movies, which is entirely why Where the Robots Grow was an easy number one entry. Really, 2024 was the year of the disappointment, where some movies just were not as good as they could have been.

Anyway, to round out the list, here are a few dishonorable mentions:

1. Orion and the Dark - I just did not enjoy this messy film, but I can see why some might like it.
2. Thelma the Unicorn - A very predictable and very mediocre movie, but harmless enough.
3. The Imaginary - This movie just... rubbed me the wrong way, would have been on the list if I actually got around to finishing it. Maybe I'll give it a review in 2026 or something, but no promises.

Top 10 Single Role Wonder Voice Actors

So, I'm away from my computer for the time being, I can't really watch anything or write anything, so I've decided to touch up and old post I never published. I came up with this idea in late 2022, I didn't publish it for a couple reasons, but because I can't really write anything new, I decided to finally push this one out. I should be able to write new stuff next week.

In music, the term One Hit Wonder refers to, multiple things under the same umbrella, but mostly a band or artist who is only known for one song. That song could have been a major hit, it could have been a minor hit, it could have been one of many hits, but it is all completely overshadowed compared to one song. Think of songs like "Take on Me" or Alien Ant Farm's cover of "Smooth Criminal". The term has become a catch-all for most things in the entertainment world, directors, video game developers, and actors. I kinda wanted to do something similar, especially because voice actors can be linked to one role forever.

It tends not to be something you really think about, but then you remember, if someone brought up Clancy Brown, your immediate thought would most likely be Mr. Krabs on SpongeBob, unless your a fan of The Shawshank Redemption. There are many voice actors like Frank Welker, Tara Strong and Tim Curry who can really deliver unique voices and can disappear into their roles, and there are some voice actors like Patrick Warburton and Tom Kenny who are often recognizable, but have enough roles under their belt that you can recognize them beyond Family Guy or SpongeBob SquarePants. Some voice actors, aren't always that lucky.

I think my major rule for this list is that, while these actors can have other roles, they are mostly known for one role. Like, if I were to say "Tom Kenny", you could easily name SpongeBob, Spyro, Ice King and a bunch of other roles. If I were to say any of these voice actors, you would only really recognize them for their best known role. We are going to play a little fast and loose with the definition here, but in general all the rules will be adhered to. So, here are ten Single Role Wonders in Voice Acting.

#10. Jim Hanks as Sheriff Woody

A big part of being a one-hit wonder, or a single role wonder in this case, is having one major thing and not having anything else that massive, in music this often leads to chasing the success of the big hit, but you can't really do that in acting... unless you're major gig is literally providing the voice for your brother. When you're the brother of one of the most beloved and successful actors with a very recognizable voice, it must feel weird to be called in as his sound alike, right? Major props to Jim Hanks for stepping in, and whenever someone needs a Tom Hanks voice, he is always up there, though he is usually stepping in to do the voice for Sheriff Woody. Though he has stepped in for Tom on other occasions, like when The Polar Express got a video game, and he has quite a few live action credits to his name, in voice acting it's Woody, Woody, Woody, and apparently an episode of Milo Murphy's Law. Credit due, he never seems upset about it, like he can do a good impression of his brother and has made a good career out of it, but this is definitely one of those cases where I can sum up most of his career with one role.

#9. Alan Young as Scrooge McDuck

Something you should really consider when you talk about Single Role Wonders in acting, is their performances in other mediums. Some people might consider Mark Hamill a Single Role Wonder since his biggest role is Luke Skywalker, but when you consider his voice acting career, voicing the likes of The Joker, Fire lord Ozai, Skips on Regular Show and quite a few voices on Metalocalypse, you can't really consider him as such since none of those are minor roles. So, one could almost not consider Alan Young for this list either, since some people might now him as Farmer Wilbur on Mister Ed, but for most of you, you'll probably only know him as the voice of Scrooge McDuck. It really does do a massive disservice to the man's nearly eight decade long career, but that is another thing about one hit wonders, the big thing everyone knows you for can change, and though there are plenty of roles under Alan Young's belt, the one everyone will know him for is the money loving miser, old Uncle Scrooge.

#8. David Eccles as Krumm

Here is an odd one, David Eccles is a fairly obscure name in media, though according to his IMDb, he did a lot of sound editing for cartoons, and Metal Gear Solid, and did some composing work. As a voice actor, he has not done a lot, and even then he only appears in a couple episodes of what he is actually in, save for one show. You may not be able to tell what episodes of The Wild Thornberrys or Rugrats he's in, but when I tell you he is the voice of Krumm on Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, that's when you recognize his voice. I don't know why he didn't go into more voice acting, maybe he didn't like it as much as sound editing, maybe he didn't want to be type casted, then again he has largely disappeared from film entirely, according to his IMDb, his last job was in 2008 for a short film called "Kidnapping Terry". Whatever he's up to, I hope he's enjoying it.

#7. Thom Huge as Jon Arbuckle

There has got to be something said for voice actors who pretty much voice an entire cast of characters on one show. Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer have multiple well-loved voices on The Simpsons, but you can find them in other places. Thom Huge has never left Garfield, and despite voicing everyone from Binky the Clown to Roy Rooster on U.S. Acres, the one character who he is completely tied to will forever be the dorky loser owner of Garfield, Jon Arbuckle. It's always sad when a really good voice actor doesn't get to stretch out into other roles, but in this case it may be sadder. Thom left voice acting after Lorenzo Music died in 2001, and frankly, Lorenzo and Thom were like Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, you can't top them and they're an iconic pair. Whatever Thom is doing now, I'm sure he has no regrets about being part of one of the biggest pop culture franchises in the world.

#6. Colin O'Meara as Tintin

Lots of recognizable names on this list, so lets go with one more who is less recognizable, at least this name may not be so recognizable if you aren't a reader of my blog, because this is a name I've brought up before. For many of us in the English speaking world, Colin O'Meara was our Tintin, and his decidedly not at all Belgian voice was the voice of Tintin for many I would imagine. It's amusing because the show had quite a Canadian cast, but some of the actors on this show would be recognizable to most, like Wayne Robson who played Mike Hamar on The Red Green Show, or Maureen Forrester who was an Opera Singer. Colin O'Meara would probably not be too recognized beyond his role as Tintin, unless you're a massive fan of Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. His Wikipedia page, which is literally half a paragraph long, also claims he was in Sailor Moon, but citation is needed on that one.

#5. Dan Povenmire as Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz

You can't really consider voice actors for this list who debuted in shows from the 2000s, mostly because they still have plenty of time to really find more roles and get some more notoriety. It does however, kind of stop mattering when your big role is one of the most beloved villains in cartoon history, and when you revel in that iconic role you are kind of admitting that you're okay with being known for one single role. However, to be absolutely fair to Dan Povenmire, voice acting really isn't his major gig, as he was an animation director on both Family Guy and SpongeBob SquarePants, and he wrote The Campfire Song Song. When you look at Dan Povenmire's credits, it's very clear that voicing Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz is just kind of a bonus to his already outstanding career as an animator, director, writer and producer. Keep on keeping on, good sir.

#4. Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn

...Well this just got sad... I came up with this idea early in November of 2022, and I sat on it for a while after it was written because... well you'll see why, but in that time Arleen Sorkin also passed away. I want to make it clear, calling these actors "Single Role wonders" is not meant to be an insult, if anything it's kind of a celebration of how iconic their most well-known roles really are.

I can't really imagine having one major role would be that upsetting to voice actors. I don't think Tom Kenny is losing sleep over voicing Nickelodeon's most iconic character. I can imagine voicing the same character could get repetitive, but when you are also the inspiration to one of the most beloved Batman characters since the comics, I can't really imagine you'd be that mad. Arleen Sorkin was a big inspiration behind Batman villain Dr. Harleen Quinzel, otherwise known as Harley Quinn, and to suggest that the character isn't a pop culture icon would be untrue. People have argued about her portrayals as if she has always been a part of Batman, and for a lot of people, she was. Voicing the character as recently as 2011, it can only be fair to say that Arleen Sorkin gave the character a lot of the personality and mannerisms we associate with our favourite clown woman. Voicing a character that becomes bigger than anyone could really imagine is not something one should sneer at.

#3. Casey Kasem as Shaggy Rogers

Casey Kasem is easily one of the most recognizable names in radio, but when it comes to animation, some radio personalities have managed to be recognized as voice actors, such as June Foray who has many voice acting credits under her belt. However, there is one major role that Casey Kasem has under his belt, a role that everyone adores to this day, one Norville Rogers, otherwise known as Shaggy. Voicing the character since 1969 and up to 2010, Casey Kasem has been the voice of Shaggy Rogers for so long, even singing for a BBC Children in Need Medley by Peter Kay. It's hard to imagine anyone else taking over the role, though Scott Innes and Matthew Lillard have also become quite synonymous with the character. Casey Kasem also did Cliffjumper on the original Transformers series, but left during the third season, so he's got other roles, but to many he is, and always will be, Shaggy Rogers.

#2. Peter Sallis as Wallace

British television has an odd place in American Pop Culture. Considering that very little dubbing needs to take place to import these shows, it could be argued that England has had a big impact on American television. Lots of Americans will know names like Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie, David Tennant, and oddly enough Peter Sallis. It really shouldn't be so surprising to think that the voice of our favourite cheese loving hair-brained inventor Wallace is one of the most iconic voices in animation, after all he's voiced the character in four shorts, a full short series, a theatrical movie, and a couple of video games. Any other role he's done, again, gets a little overshadowed by the fact that you can sum up his career as "he was the original voice of Wallace from Wallace & Gromit". It also doesn't hurt that Gromit himself has no voice, which gives Peter Sallis a large part of the spotlight in the shorts. Quite the cracking role, eh lads?

#1. Kevin Conroy as Batman

Oh... I'm going to get in some hot water for this one. Remember how I said I originally came up with this concept in early November of 2022, well one of the reasons I shelved it was because Kevin Conroy had passed away, and I didn't want to imply that his entire career revolved around a singular character. However, we need to be real here, he was the voice of The Batman in animation for so long because he was one of the best Batman actors. For many of us, the answer of who is the best live action Batman is tricky to answer since there have been some great ones, but there is only one answer for who the best animated Batman is, and that is Kevin Conroy. His effortless switching between the caped crusader and Bruce Wayne made him blend into the role so perfectly, that there really is no argument, for many animation fans, Kevin Conroy is Batman, and that is the role he will forever be remembered for.

Well that was... sad. Honourable Mentions!

1. Mel Blanc - I wanted to include him because he is mostly known for his role in the Looney Tunes cartoons, but he was also the voice of Barney Rubble on The Flintstones.

2. Carlo Bonomi - A voice actor you probably don't recognize, mostly because the character he voiced didn't really speak, more or less. However, the mumblings and Noots of Pingu will always be in our hearts.

3. Yeardley Smith - You don't really get to be a main cast member on The Simpsons and not have that role dominate your career, especially if that role is Lisa Simpson.

4. Alex Borstein - You may recognize her as the voice of Lois Griffin on Family Guy, but people seem to like her in The Bad Guys too, maybe it's a bit early to call this one.

5. Bill Farmer - Voicing a Disney character as iconic as Goofy might over-shadow other roles, but in this house, we respect Hop Pop.

6. Peter Cullen - He was on this list until the last minute, while Optimus Prime will forever be his most well-known role, he has some other roles that some may know him for, like Eeyore or Monterey Jack.

7. Dan Castellaneta - If Peter Cullen can qualify for this list, Homer Simpson can too, though some respect for Grandpa Phil too.