The Best and Worst of 2025
Past Predictions
2025 would be the end of Disney Live Action remakes: WRONG! Moana is still set for next year, though future ones after look pretty grim since I'd a feeling Snow White would bomb.
The Nickelodeon Brand Will Be No More: To be fair, I extended it past 2025, so I figured nothing would happen, and it didn't. But I haven't heard much about Quiet on Set for a while, so who knows what Skydance has in plan for Nick
Cartoon Network will no longer be around: WRONG! Though I did say it would be a miracle, I still stand by that it is considering all the major cutbacks being done by Warner Bros Discovery
Weigel would continue to experiment with cartoons: RIGHT! And boy did they ever. We'll talk about it during the TV section
More Removals and one streaming service going away: Half Right! We'll talk about removals, but so far all streaming services are accounted for
Madoka continuing: WRONG! Not this year at least. They keep teasing, but nothing's coming
Animated Features
What a wild ride this was. Not only was Disney the biggest loser, but also at the last minute they became the biggest winner. The live action Snow White bombed, as it should. Lilo and Stitch only did fine because of nostalgia bait. Elio, though it made money, didn't make a profit. Zootopia 2 well exceeded expectations. Meanwhile Looney Tunes fans rejoiced seeing The Day the Earth Blew Up in movie theaters through Ketchup Entertainment. For Looney Tunes, it didn't do too well, but for Ketchup, because they bought it from Warner Bros, felt they had something going setting up for next year when we FINALLY get to see Coyote vs Acme. Spongebob ended the year with overly sexualized promotions such as "Big Guy" sung by someone best known for shaking her booty around (yeah....that'll help the Nickelodeon brand alright). My prediction is that movies with established IP will succeed more than original ideas (again) and Coyote vs Acme may be a surprise cult hit.
Animated TV Series
Very few animated TV series continued on. Obviously some of the known established characters and their shows continued on since they air constantly throughout the day. Surprisingly, The Loud House just got renewed. But new projects were around but completely forgotten. Wylde Pak made it to air on Nickelodeon, and it has its fans, but I'm sorry.....there's not enough of you to keep it going. It will be gone by next year's end. Call me whatever, but the truth of the matter is things aren't going very well in animation, and they continue to get worse. I still stand by that Cartoon Network is on borrowed time.
But once again, Weigel continues to care about classic animation bringing tons of stuff back on Me TV Toons (some literally from the DEAD). Starting with The House of Hanna Barbera followed quickly with new remasters of shows such as Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, and Magilla Gorilla. All throughout the year it was hinted two shows for sure: the first being the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which was well promoted, while the other was Linus the Lionhearted, and while new information about Linus's airtime has come out that some stations continued showing it in syndication for a little while longer, let's face it, the FCC ruling back then hindered very many rerun opportunities until now. Thanks to efforts made by MPI, Linus is back on TV. And as for the Turtles, it led down a road that Weigel refused to look back despite many others doing so........deep in the Paramount Vault. Broadcasting the Dr Seuss Specials, finding out Richard Williams' version of A Christmas Carol is in the hands of Paramount after years of figuring out the mystery (it aired on ABC as part of ABC Films becoming Worldvision, thus ending up at Paramount when Worldvision's library ended up with Aaron Spelling which ended up being part of Republic which merged with Paramount), more cartoons from the studio once Fleischer then Famous then just Paramount Cartoons, and more excitingly, Star Trek the Animated Ser-NO....TERRYTOONS!!!!!!! At long last, Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle have returned! We still may not be done with Paramount's library as a few other oddball stuff showed up including The Story of Santa Claus and The Little Rascal's Christmas, but in the meantime Thunderbean has also allowed their restorations of rare cartoons to be shown on Me TV Toons. It's obvious to predict more experimentation in 2026 with hints of other things to come.
Streaming
There's a reason why I call these threads the Best and Worst. Streaming had the pleasure of having both. The highs were very high, but the lows were very low. I always say that streaming is a Ponzi scheme, and I stand by that. Max is HBO Max ONCE AGAIN, but with the majority of animation being removed off of streaming. And while it's easy to blame everyone's favorite boggeyman, the reality is HBO Max is really not that profitable despite what they tell you. Paramount also continues to remove shows with no notice. The more successful new shows were all independents. So once again The Amazing Digital Circus is king, only to grow further and causing Glitch to invest in more indie animation. Fast Channels continue to be a thing as well; I would say even expanding. Still I predict one of the streaming networks will say bye bye. The odds being more in favor of HBO Max if the Netflix purchase of Warner Bros. goes through.
Speaking of Netflix, we couldn't leave this section without giving the elephant in the room its own paragraph. What may be the biggest animation hit in streaming is Sony's dumped off to Netflix feature K-Pop Demon Hunters. It goes just beyond being a hit on Netflix, its album and songs such as Golden ranked top of the charts, something that hasn't been done in a long time. I'm not talking Let It Go or Bruno levels, I'm talking Top 40 radio. It spanned a massive fandom. It had parents embracing it with their kids. Special screenings were a big hit as kids and fans sang along to their new favorite songs. Actual K-Pop groups covered their songs. It worked! Something that Disney needed and wanted for a long time, but never got. It was an original idea, and it was well done. Too bad Sony had zero faith, but their loss is Netflix's gain. K-Pop Demon Hunters has defined what animation could be in the next few years (provided things don't get worse before they get better, which looks to be that way).
Anime
I must admit these days I have been ignorant with what has been going on in anime. That may be because nothing really stood out this year that was brand new. Sure some new titles showed up that some may like, but it would, like many shows, stand out for what one is looking for. Yuri for example.....yes, there was one that showed up in my feed one day. Some minor controversies happened however such as the use of AI for dubs which turned out to be a dud (for now). We also said goodbye to My Hero Academia as well as using Crunchyroll for free. My prediction is that I've a feeling 2026 may be more interesting with reboots of older shows and other continuations. I'm still waiting for that new Madoka anime which has just been teased yet again today.
As for this blog, I hope to be more involved with it for 2026. Considering that we are on a new site means that we are opening up a new chapter. Once again, I must thank everyone who stops by to read what I have to say. More updates are coming.
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