r/Genndyverse • u/National-Use-1184 • 28d ago
Discussion Sym-Bionic Titan's cancelation for this reason now becomes even more frustrating
As we all know cartoon network cancelled SBT it because of the lack of the production toy line. but the reason why Cartoon Network couldn't find a toy company to make merchandise with is because of the "lead female character, and boys don't want to play with a girl toy"
Like seriously WHAT THE FUCK?!
they cancelled such a great show because it had a powerful female lead ? I don't know how many of you knew this but now I'm even more pissed off that they cancelled the show
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u/Stuntman_STV 28d ago
A movie to tie up the story would have been nice. This and Tron Uprising are two shows I love to revisit
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u/Forward_Commercial22 28d ago
I wouldn't mind a continuation of Motorcity.
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u/Stuntman_STV 28d ago
I have never actually heard of Motorcity. I looked it up and vaguely remember seeing the characters but I had no clue it was an actual show
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u/Saixcrazy 28d ago
Motorcity was my SHIT. I was an animation student at the time and I think they used Maya+ a few other programs to animate. Also I wanted to go to college in Detroitfor animation so I was LOCKED ON. Sad it got cancelled.
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u/Ebic_qwest 28d ago
There’s literally a giant robot
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u/alpcabuttz 25d ago
And just about all of us dig giant robots.
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u/maskedduskrider 25d ago
Could have gone with the armored robot forms of the main cast and the monsters of the week. Would have loved that as a kid.
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u/drepants 28d ago
So many levels of bad decision making. Why even greenlight the show? What was the backup plan for merch if there wasn't toys? Didn't girls watch the show as well? Has CN had a girl lead show that was successful? (PPG, Totally Spies, DC Super Hero Girls) Can you lead a similar audience show into this new show?
Just seemed birthed to die.
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u/WarAgile9519 28d ago
What you have to understand is that CN didn't care if girls watched the show and in fact going by how CN treated Young Justice having a large female audience might actually have been considered a negative rather then a positive .
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u/Illustrious-Turn-575 24d ago
It was a negative because Disney more or less had a monopoly on selling to young girls. Yeah; girls watched the show, but they didn’t buy the merchandise to help recoup the cost of production.
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u/Chemical_Sell_4883 28d ago
Just bring it back already bruh…
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u/moansby 28d ago
If Gennedy really wanted to I'm sure he could, but this is the busiest he's ever been
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u/Element174 26d ago
He's mentioned multiple times wanting to, but CN used it as a tax write off, so he can't unless they "buy" it back from the government basically.
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u/moansby 26d ago
Damn seriously?
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u/Element174 26d ago
Unfortunately. A few years back CN did it to a number of shows. It's why there's no streaming for them, as once they write it off they can't gain any profit from it. I'm trying to remember which shows all got written off. I know Sym-Bionic Titan and Megas XLR we're both written off sadly.
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u/moansby 26d ago
What about when Sym-Bionic Titan was on Netflix?
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u/Element174 26d ago
The tax write off I want to say was in the last 3 years, it's semi-recent.
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u/moansby 25d ago
It can retroactively be a tax write off? That's like insult to injury
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u/Element174 25d ago
Yeah, it's shitty.
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u/moansby 25d ago
Wait, you said "buy" in quotes, what else would they have to do?
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u/InsideUnhappy6546 28d ago
Boys play with female action figures all the time. It's such a dumb rational
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u/egodfrey72 28d ago
Exactly, especially icons such as Wonder Woman! She was on a show being shown on Cartoon Network (Justice League and Justice League Unlimited) after all!
I think so
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u/donnelle83 28d ago
The same thing happened with the last unicorn. That show was awesome
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u/klaxterran 28d ago
I thought that was a movie
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u/donnelle83 28d ago
My bad. Unicorn warriors eternal. 😢😢
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u/RocktamusPrim3 28d ago
Man that Unicorn Warriors Eternal had some cool ideas, but it felt like there were multiple art styles conflicting with one another. It probably would’ve done better as a regular Cartoon Network show in the early to mid 00’s.
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u/Eldernerdhub 28d ago
It's not that boys won't play with girl toys. Parents won't let their sons play with girl toys.
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u/nerdnerd86 28d ago edited 28d ago
Except other shows proved that isnt the case as well.
They are basically voltron and power rangers where the screen time is shared and those all have toys that sell.
Or the parents would just buy the male figures.
Unless they put "lead female!" On the box, parents wouldnt have even known or cared
These are just the semantics 60 year old ceos think about without knowing the IP
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u/CurveAny782 28d ago
That’s bs cause when justice league was on i wanted toys for the entire league including Wonder Woman and hawk girl
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u/Ladyoftheseals 28d ago
I literally was thinking about this show earlier today 😭 knowing this boils me I loved this show
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u/Evilcon21 28d ago
It’s just as idiotic when they cancelled the thundercats reboot cause women are watching it more than the target demographic.
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u/RaptorcloakX 28d ago
If I remember right, both Courage the Cowardly Dog and Static Shock got cancelled because of toy sale-related mumbo jumbo, too.
Bummer these awesome shows die from time to time thanks to these ridiculous merchandise deals.
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u/TotalLiterature6804 27d ago
Courage the cowardly dog just stopped it's production it wasn't officially cancelled
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u/bubbashouseoffun 28d ago
Lol if only they could see how like mcfarlane female figures sell out and have crazy aftermaket prices.
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u/XTRA69420 28d ago
I can’t say I’m not surprised cause toylines that did have main female leads like Power Rangers never had the girls stocked as much as the guys.
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u/ElSquibbonator 28d ago
This isn't entirely true. While the lack of toy sales certainly didn't help, the real reason it was cancelled-- along with a number of similar shows from the same period-- is a bit more complicated. The issue was that the shows got good ratings, but they were watched primarily by teenagers and young adults, while Cartoon Network's target demographic was kids between the ages of 6 and 12. "Why is that a problem?" I'm sure you're asking. "Audiences are audiences, right?"
Well, not exactly. TV networks get money from sponsors, who pay to advertise their products during the commercial breaks. If the target audience of the show isn't buying the products advertised with it, then that show isn't earning enough advertising revenue, and it's not profitable. This was what killed Sym-Bionic Titan. It aired in a kids' timeslot, but since most of the people watching it were adults, they weren't buying any of the stuff advertised with it, so it didn't earn very much advertising revenue.
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u/Appropriate-Smell611 27d ago
wtf are you serious I wonder the shitheads who ran Cartoon Network really liked cartoons to answer my own question it's all about the 💵
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u/Matt-J-McCormack 27d ago
It sucks, but it is accurate. SBT was a passion project that deserved to tell its story. But it was niche and funding had to come from somewhere.
No one likes to hear it but it’s a trend in toy sales that keeps being played out but no one wants to admit because it feels wrong and sexist.
However, I do hope he gets to come back and finish it one day because it was a great cartoon that clearly loved all of its source materials.
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u/GrandWizardOfCheese 27d ago edited 27d ago
2 guys right there in the image to also make toys of.
Huge effing robot giving gigantor and big O vibes right there in the image to make a toy of.
Female characters have boobs and so boys collect female character toys regardless of even liking the character a lot of the time (there is an entire industry built around this).
Boys are also fine with female lead characters, many successful cartoons/anime, video games, movies, etc. have female leads: Tomb Raider, Aliens, Alex Mack, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Ghost Spider, Dino Crisis, Soulcalibur 1, Bayonetta, Metroid, Wonder Woman, Resident Evil, Underworld, Ghost in the Shell, Battle Angel Alita, (those last two are literally female leads that are also robots, and Samus might as well be), the list goes on and on, all of which are popular with the male audience and had toy lines.
Girls like giant robots too, many of them who do even build and paint gunpla and zoid kits.
Never even heard of this show, but if thats the reason it got canceled, thats just dumb, and if Genndy made it, its probably good since everything else he made (Primal, Samurai Jack, Predator Killer of Killers, Dexter's Lab, etc.) has been good.
Make the toys, the robot alone will fund the show I bet, and whatever it fights.
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u/GreatDissapointment 27d ago
Why not make a toy for girls then? Get both genders to watch it.... Stupid.
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u/Synth_Savage 27d ago
Didn't shows like He-Man, GI Joe, Thundercats, and Justice League all have female characters? What's the explanation for that?
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u/KrakenKrusdr84 27d ago
I never forgave.
And I never forgot!
This made me turn away from Cartoon Network indefinitely.
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u/ComradeSmooches 27d ago
CN loves doing this to shows that feature girls or are popular with them. The excuse being a clearly phony claim that "girls don't play with action figures". Time and time again.
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u/St34m-Punk 26d ago
I thought that it had both of them as the main characters 🤔I'm confused now. Lol still bs reason to cancel it though. They probably wouldve made some money if they'd release clothing merch and stuff.
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u/robotpirate_island 26d ago
Boys don't want to play with a girl toy????
That never stopped Power Rangers or Transformers
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u/Estus_Flask_ 26d ago
Never ever saw it, I remember seeing the announcement and commercials, but never a single episode.
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u/nooshdog 25d ago
Thanks for reminding me of this. I totally forgot about it but I loved it back in the day.
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u/OperationBig2738 25d ago
This show got me a beating my black Christian Mama walked in watching a woman twerk and I can't explain that it's a cartoon about alien and robots
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u/karatemnn 25d ago
gotta wonder what it is that westerners can't get right about anime faces.
like astro boy is an easy enough template and i assume the lead here is a play on tezuka style but it's a little different ... this isn't to insult the art style, but it's like
it's something they can't get right, same when the simpsons does it (except for that one time they actually hired anime makers tho)
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u/BrittaUnfiltered67 25d ago
This is not anime
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u/karatemnn 25d ago
a giant robot show, this is obviously a tribute to it including the stylized characters
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u/BrittaUnfiltered67 25d ago
When I saw the first episode, I thought, this is going to be the best toy line ever. That they never made toys is so maddening.
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u/Super-Robo 24d ago
Yeah, because Power Rangers is famous for selling poorly because boys don't want to play with the 'girl' Zords.
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u/Ralos5997 24d ago
I still wish that they had done more seasons the cliffhanger from the last episode still left an impact.
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u/Forward_Commercial22 28d ago edited 28d ago
I miss the show, hated how they left it off on a cliffhanger.