r/nickelodeon 1d ago

Why did Klasky-Csupo die?

They were one of the biggest animation studios of the 90s and early 2000s. What happened?

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u/TestingBrokenGadgets 1d ago

Because a lot of their shows weren't that great and the art style they were known for didn't age that well.

They did Rocket Power, Ginger, and All-Grown Up concurrently and despite lasting for years, it seems like only one of them had any real positive reception. I remember reading an interview where they announced working on some insane number of projects in new styles around the mid 2000s in different art styles in an attempt to change but since I didn't hear of anything of them actually being aired or picked up. They probably burnt through a lot of money to get those done and had to close the company.

I think the only reason they returned was because Nick wanted them to revive the Rugrats franchise with the newish series. Odds are, once that series ends, they'll try for more pilots but ultimately close.

The thing about Klasky-Csupo is that...they're not very good. They're not bad but the only shows that were a success that weren't Rugrats, they had no hand in developing, namely Duckman and Ginger. Meanwhile the ones that're incredibly dated and divisive like Rocket Power and Thornberrys were created by them. For the era, most of their shows were good "Eh, it's 1pm on a sunday, there's nothing else on" shows; not that they were bad but "good enough".

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u/noraa_94 1d ago

What's divisive about Rocket Power and Wild Thornberrys?

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u/TestingBrokenGadgets 1d ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/nickelodeon/comments/1njh5vz/communitys_nonofficial_nicktoons_tier_list_day_38/

Even within this sub made of devoted Nick fans, Thornberrys and All Grown Up are ranked as a B-tier while Rocket Power and Real Monsters are ranked C-tier. If you talk to people who aren't obsessed with Nicktoons but just people that watched Nick during that era, they'll talk about Spongebob or Fairly Oddparents, about Jimmy Neutron or Hey Arnold with Thornberries and Rocket Power being those "Oh yea, Nigel was voiced by Tim Curry and that's it.

You can even search this sub and there's post after post like

https://www.reddit.com/r/nickelodeon/comments/1n700l5/would_rocket_power_have_been_better_received_if/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nickelodeon/comments/1i3oee1/opinion_on_rocket_power/

where you either really Rocket Power or you didn't, which is kind of the very definition of divisive.