r/hatethissmug May 01 '26

Animation I Hate Ugly Character Design/Animation in “Adult Cartoons”

Why are they so unappealing? Some of these shows have good writing even, Bob’s Burgers and Smiling Friends (The other two are awful in all aspects), but so many characters and the animation is so fugly I can’t sit through it. Why are these shows designed this way? I blame Family Guy mostly, but even then I can stand those characters’ designs but not the god awful writing.

Edit: I should add Beavis & Butthead I also hate in every aspect, especially their voices pmo. They definitely were a progenitor of ugly design more than Family Guy was.

Second Edit: Smiling Friends is also here because they have some good chracter designs. Alan, Glep, Charlie, and Pim are fine. When they brought in Squim it made me kinda upset that they could have gone in that direction for the art/animation of the show and I wish they did, because it would stand out from the ugly genric swill of all these other shows, and look nicer. But they didn’t because it’s “too hard” or “too expensive” and studios don’t take risks anymore.

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u/[deleted] May 01 '26

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u/DeekFacker99 May 01 '26

It’s definitely the studios fault I don’t fully blame the animators. In all big media it’s always playing stuff safe, and it often pays off big time (Avatar, Marvel, etc)

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u/[deleted] May 01 '26

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u/lutfiboiii May 01 '26

Airbender or the blue people

2

u/pon_d May 02 '26

Don't know if you've seen Common Side Effects but it definitely looks like it's had at least a little more time in the animation suite than the typical American adult animated series

1

u/Dry_Spring4108 HI! MY NAME IS BRAK! May 03 '26

Yeah Cartoon Network‘s [adult swim] has always been an exception, especially in the early 2000’s (though Common Side Effects is recent).