Ben 10 And The Evolution Of Action Cartoons
The action cartoon genre has had a long and difficult journey over the past couple of decades. From the halcyon days of the 80s toy commercial series to the early 2000s anime boom, to the late 2010s death and return of the genre, there's one show that can teach a lot about the genre's journey.
Ben 10 has been a staple of Cartoon Network's venerable stable of animated series for almost twenty years in some form or another. After five separate series, four films, countless video games, and multiple attempts at live-action adaptation, the iconic franchise informs a ton of fans' memories of action cartoons.
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Action cartoons had their own little death and return arc recently, after a distressingly long period of bloodletting and frustrating reworks of established brands. Most people who pay attention to cartoons remember the period often best exemplified by Teen Titans Go or Thundercats Roar. A period that was marked by beloved action cartoons being canceled, then often completely broken down into a goofy comedy.
Some brands could survive. Something as big as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Spider-Man could still get a straightforward action series onto TV, but the smaller brands were forced to either end or become something else. The reasons for this change were multifaceted, from network reticence to embrace anything serialized to the ease of access to anime making the competition too strong. The modern era isn't as friendly to the genre as the 80s or even the 90s, but it does have its standouts. Ben 10 and the journey the franchise underwent between 2005 and the modern-day maps cleanly onto the change by the genre as a whole.
In 2005, the DC Animated Universe was
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