Castlevania was a landmark cartoon for reviving the adult action genre of animation, a genre that had previously been dead ever since Spider-Man: The New Animated Series on MTV got cancelled back in 2003. Since then, Netflix has relied a great deal on turning video games into cartoons, both kids cartoons and adult cartoons. The thing is that it appears that Netflix video game cartoons are having diminishing returns, with Arcane being the other megahit.
It’s not too surprising since the genre of the video game cartoon has long had a bad reputation, with Captain N: The Game Master, The Legend of Zelda cartoon, the Donkey Kong Country cartoon and more being known as campy guilty pleasures at best. One would think that with the advent of Castlevania, these titles would have more sophisticated and mature writing, but now we are seeing a new problem with these video game cartoons.
It seems like this series has fallen into oblivion, but Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix is, in my opinion, an encapsulation of everything wrong with these edgy video game cartoons. Captain Laserhawk was a massive crossover between Ubisoft characters and original characters created for the show. The plot and characters were paper thin and it was mostly blood and guts squirting everywhere. Probably the most famous scene in the show was wholesome video game hero Rayman snorting cocaine. No, I did not make that up. Well, with that 90% Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score, it clearly appealed to its target audience even if it didn’t appeal to me. The thing is, Captain Laserhawk, had the problem of thinking “maturity” was about blood, cussing, sex, and drugs, rather than telling a deep and compelling story. While other Netflix video game cartoons didn’t engage in shock value excesses to nearly the degree as Captain Laserhawk, there are still examples gratuitous swearing or gore put in just to be “edgy” that come across as cringeworthy in many of their video game cartoons, even the beloved Castlevania.
Netflix is currently on something of a lukewarm streak with Devil May Cry, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, and Splinter Cell: Deathwatch all having split Rotten Tomatoes Audience Scores. Netflix cartoons tend to take significant liberties with the games and that often leads to the split. Even the beloved Castlevania cartoon took flack from purists for its liberties taken with the source material. The kid friendly video game cartoons like The Cuphead Show, Skylanders Academy and Sonic Prime, have generally gotten better reception, but there are still complaints.
Yes, Netflix can produce phenomenal cartoons, but it feels like they are putting all their action cartoon eggs in the video game basket and getting stagnant with anything else. For a while, it seemed like Netflix was interested in reviving 1980s cartoon franchises like Voltron and He-Man, but it seems like these adaptations have fizzled out. Jurassic World: Chaos Theory is set to end in November, but it does seem like Netflix is still fine with milking the Jurassic Park/World franchise. We still have non adaptation action cartoons like Blue Eye Samurai, but with that show’s one season every three years model, the show has already faded from memory.
The main issue with video game cartoons is that it seems like television animation has had much more success with superheroes and toys as action cartoon source material, with video games still having a lower batting average in terms of quality cartoons. It does seem like Castlevania and Arcane are anomalies as most Netflix video game cartoons fail to reach those heights. Making video game cartoons in small doses is okay, but Netflix has gone overboard with spamming them when only a small number of them turn into home runs. Can we get more Gentry Chau type shows and maybe less Devil May Cry type cartoons. I think a lot of animation fans are feeling the video game cartoon fatigue from Netflix overusing them. There have been three misses for every hit and it seems like Netflix keeps releasing these mediocre video game cartoons no matter how much fan backlash there is.
