[quote name='Magikarp830']No. Just no. [/QUOTE]
From the entirety of your post, I can discern one thing. You have horrible taste in cartoons.
You actually think the Total Drama series is good? Are you Canadian? Do you also think Johnny Test is good? Both those shows have the cheapest looking animation ever (they're both done in flash) and they were both created for Canadian TV (not specifically for CN). Total Drama doesn't even have any real humor, it tries to emulate a reality show (of which there are enough on TV already) and it does nothing with the fact that it is a cartoon. Hell, the show has to constantly resort to fart jokes just to pander for laughs.
Adventure Time has fluid full frame (24 fps) animation. Just because it has a bright and simple color pallette doesn't mean it is cheap animation. Cheap animation is evident when you can tell "motion tweening" has been used. Something you can always see on Total Drama. If you aren't familiar with the concept, motion tweening is where you set one frame of animation and then set another one 30 frames down the line. The computer then fills in the frames in between with approximated motion. The result is usually very unnatural looking and results in a lot of linear, quick motions.
Regardless, you seem to be blinded by nostalgia. Of the shows you mentioned, the only one that really stands the test of time is Dexter's Lab. Then again, as I mentioned before, I never understood the appeal of Courage (even when I was a kid). The show has a pretty big fanbase to this day, so I guess I just missed something with that one.
I also think that in terms of sheer enjoyability, Flapjack and Adventure Time obliterate most of the classic Nick lineup. If you sit a kid down now and tell them to watch Doug or AHHHH! Real Monsters, they'll probably hate it. You can go ahead and say "Kids these days don't know good cartoons!" but the truth is, they really weren't that great. Of course we love them, we grew up with them. And I'll admit, many of the cartoons on TV today are terrible (like Total Drama and Johnny Test), but a few of them make up for that by being some of the most creative and inventive programs to ever grace TV.
One thing I can't really put into words but want to mention is that the people in charge of making Flapjack, Chowder, and Adventure Time are all in their 20s/early 30s. They grew up with the same shows as us and have the same love and reverence for these older shows as we do. The reason these new shows are so good is because these creators have taken all the best aspects from the cartoons of our childhood and built on them to make better shows. If you're going to write off Adventure Time because the animation looks cheap, have fun, you're missing out on one of the greatest shows ever made.
Also, as mentioned before the pilot episode I posted is not completely representational of the show that is on air. The pilot was made on a shoestring budget in 2005 as part of Nickelodeon's "Random! Cartoons". It wasn't until 2008/2009 that the actual series was greenlit by Cartoon Network. The show finally premiered in 2010 with a full budget. The animation in the actual show is vastly improved over the pilot, but the whimsical color palette was kept intact. Before you deprive yourself of this fantastic show, try watching the episode that was nominated for an Emmy. It is called "My Two Favorite People" and it should be available somewhere on the net.
