The Wonderful, Weird Domesticity of Cartoon Network Shows

For me, Cartoon Network shows have always had a certain charm to them. A sort of aesthetic and feeling that is easily recognizable but hard to define. These shows comprise some of my favorite cartoons ever, and even now, I love going through and watching them. 

As a child, I always preferred the lore and action-heavy episodes of Adventure Time, but after a recent rewatch, I found I enjoyed the slice-of-life elements far more. The goofy scenes of Jake and Finn making dinner, cracking jokes, and goofing off with BMO were way more enjoyable than the world-building and action, but I didn’t dwell much on the thought. A few weeks later, I was discussing Steven Universe with my father, which I summarized as a show “about an alien-human hybrid being raised by three other aliens, who become his makeshift family.” Beyond all of the long-buried secrets, compelling love triangles, fusion, intergalactic invasions, and themes of trauma, that really is the core of the show. 

The wonderful charm of Cartoon Network suddenly became easy to identify: the status quo of each series will be about a fantastical world, where all of the main characters live together more or less as a family. All of the important information about the world and the people that inhabit it is filtered through this lens. 

Allow me to state the obvious: not every Cartoon Network show has this comfortable yet fantastical domesticity, as many amazing shows like Samurai Jack or The Clone Wars totally lack it;, nor is the trope itself something special to Cartoon Network, as Disney or Nickelodeon features it in Star vs the Forces of Evil, Phineas and Ferb and Fairly Oddparents. 

I guess what I’m talking about is a very specific subtype of this trope that Teen Titans popularized, and that the 2010s has seen an explosion of on Cartoon Network’s programming specifically. In a nutshell, it’s that the main characters are an adopted family unit, and they inhabit a fantastical, strange world; however, our characters (and the show by extension) treat the fantastical elements as totally normal, because they are equally weird and eccentric. In fact, the weirdness of the setting is typically what brought them together in the first place. For this reason, there’s no real attempt to explain the nature of the setting’s fantastical elements; it just is. Any worldbuilding or lore generally comes second to making sure that, first and foremost, all of these characters love and care for each other.

Numerous CN series fit the bill, such as the aforementioned Teen Titans, but also Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Young Justice, We Bare Bears and The Amazing World of Gumball. 

Through this simple formula, filtering fantasy through family and treating it as commonplace, Cartoon Network shows become positive stories of acceptance, finding your place in the world, and the simple truth that family is more than blood. In this essay, I want to go through some of my favorite Cartoon Network shows and analyze how that formula works so well.

Characters:

First and foremost, the domestic nature of Cartoon Network shows make the characters feel more human. 

This is ironic because many of Cartoon Network’s icons from the last ten years aren’t human. The Watersons consist of two cats, two rabbits and a fish with legs. The brothers in We Bare Bears are literally talking, walking bears. Jake is a shapeshifting dog, Miss Martian and Starfire are aliens, Kaldur is an Atlantean, you get the picture. 

But that’s the point. By not drawing much attention to the otherworldly nature of these characters (or saving that for later seasons), it makes it more believable that our main cast would function as a makeshift family (and to reiterate, family is arguably the theme of modern Cartoon Network). 

These nonhuman characters are portrayed with the same capacity for intelligence and emotions as their human counterparts. Despite being a shapeshifting dog, Jake is a phenomenal older brother; despite being aliens from the other side of the galaxy, Pearl and Garnet act as Steven’s surrogate parents; and so on and so forth. 

Though, it’s not fair for these nonhuman characters to function exactly like humans, so the writers are quick to add in funny little quirks. The Gems are excellent parents/siblings, but they don’t need to sleep or eat. Miss Martian uses outdated catchphrases and has no personal space. Kaldur has trouble emoting. Darwin sleeps in a fish tank. Starfire doesn’t understand idioms or contractions. That sort of thing. 

While it might seem counterintuitive, these sorts of quirks actually make the characters seem different because they are otherwise so similar, which can be used for drama just as easily as comedy. I keep using her as an example, but take the brilliantly-written Miss Martian: she is an incredibly convincing human throughout the series due to a combination of shapeshifting and help from her team, and because that act is so convincing, it makes it all the more dramatic when she violates social norms and communicates telepathically without consent, or tries to wipe her boyfriend’s memories. 

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Let’s circle back. The domestic nature of Cartoon Network shows establish connections between characters. It’s hard to get invested in the dynamic of an ensemble cast if we don’t know what the individual interactions are like, so modern CN tends to cut right to the chase and show these characters at their most vulnerable and most comfortable: at home. 

This gives emotional context to all other scenes; in Teen Titans, for example, the quiet scenes at Titans Tower serve as a breather between action scenes while providing valuable insight into the bond shared between our five main characters. When Robin and Cyborg argue out in the field, it hits especially hard because we know the brotherly type of bond they have at home. 

Young Justice’s first season built upon the foundation of Teen Titans and excelled at that even more, by having several non-human characters (like Superboy, Aqualad and Miss Martian) whose lives are almost entirely heroism. This leads to a total lack of separation between home life and work life, causing them to collide in really interesting ways, like how Connor became extra protective of M’gann out in the field after they started dating. 

Plus, that domesticity is valuable because it establishes a deep connection not just between characters, but between us and the characters. In all six of the shows I mentioned earlier---Teen Titans, Young Justice, Gumball, Steven Universe, Adventure Time and We Bare Bears---we love and crave the shenanigans of the main cast precisely because we get to see them as a family in their most mundane state. 

Cartoon Network takes the advice “show don’t tell” and makes entire TV shows out of it. Even though Jake is a shapeshifting dog, nobody needs to tell us that he’s Jake’s brother because it’s so obvious from their banter at home (which I’ll admit isn’t too dissimilar from the dialogues I’ve had with my own brother). And that means when Jake gives Finn some dating advice, it becomes all the more heartwarming and hilarious, because not only do the characters have a deep relationship that was casually developed on-screen, but we understand them on a fundamental level. 

That “show don’t tell” concept is especially evident when we consider how CN shows set up their stories when compared to other cartoons. This sort of character-driven domestic narrative isn’t uncommon in animation, but in other networks we often have a pilot episode that establishes how we got to that status quo, like what Star vs The Forces of Evil did in its first episode. 

And with a few exceptions, Cartoon Network just...doesn’t do this. These shows don’t waste time on exposition or explanations, they just plunge us right into the family shenanigans because they know that’s what we love. 

Settings:

Paradoxical as it may seem, the small-scale domesticity of Cartoon Network shows work to build up the larger backstory and the setting. 

• In Steven Universe, much of our knowledge about Gem abilities, Gem society, the war with the Diamond Authority and shattering comes from Steven’s interactions with Amethyst, Pearl and Garnet---his adoptive family---at the Temple in the early seasons. Bit by bit, piece by piece, we and Steven are assembling the backstory of this once-great intergalactic civilization, all through conversations he has with his adoptive family. 

• Adventure Time works in a similar way. It’s through characters that Finn sees casually on a regular basis, like PB, Marceline and the Ice King; that we, as the audience, slowly figure out the details of the Mushroom War. 

• Young Justice often finds clever ways to connect the lore-heavy A-plot with the more domestic B-plot. For example, Lex Luthor brokering a treaty between North and South Rhelasia is the central focus of Episode 10, but the B-plot has Connor and M’gann learning about it in school. A recurring plotpoint in Season 2 is that the Reach has created a new Reach soda to brainwash humanity, and several B-plots show side characters drinking it at home. 

As a bit of a side-note, Over the Garden Wall---one of the best programs Cartoon Network has ever put out, and easily one of the best animated programs I’ve ever seen---does a really interesting version of this. The Unknown itself is entirely mysterious, but it seems to be some sort of “secondary world” (that is to say, it’s a totally fictional world with no connection to our own). And like I just explained, the pilot episode does nothing to explain how Greg and Wirt got into this situation they’ve found themselves in. 

However, towards the end of the show, the flashbacks depict Greg and Wirt as normal schoolchildren on a mundane Halloween Night; this informs us that the Unknown is actually connected to Earth, and that they have been trying to get back to their suburban neighborhood all along. This kind of reveal wouldn’t have been as impactful if the show structured itself in any other way. But because the show intentionally put a microscope on Greg and Wirt’s relationship, it distracted us from the larger setting and convinced us that any questions we had weren’t relevant, even though they hugely were. 

In much the same way you would describe a “character-driven story” as one where the narrative advances forward based on the character’s actions and internal conflicts; Cartoon Network shows employ “character-focused worldbuilding,” where all knowledge of the larger setting is filtered through our nonchalant, uncaring or unknowing protagonists. 

It’s that character-focused worldbuilding that made Adventure Time and Steven Universe the two biggest cartoons of the last decade. We know that there’s a larger backstory to Ooo and the Gem War, but because it’s not immediately relevant to Finn and Steven, characters don’t reveal it until years down the road. That can be frustrating, but it’s also highly addictive, and it keeps us coming back week after week, waiting for more drip-fed pieces of relevant information. 

Character-focused worldbuilding also lets us learn about the superpowers and supernatural elements of a setting, whether it be Finn trying to use an artificial arm to cook dinner at home; M’gann using telekinesis to bake; Cyborg accidentally knocking a door too hard and destroying it; or Steven and Connie using a pink, portal-opening Lion to go run errands. 

It’s not uncommon for these moments to occur most often very early in the show, so as to clearly establish the abilities early on. One of my favorite Teen Titans moments occurs barely a minute into the pilot, when Starfire uses her powers to blow up some moldy food in the fridge. It immediately informs us that 

1. Her powers are highly destructive 

2. Her powers are tied to her emotions

3. Her control over her emotions isn’t the best--and, by extension, her control over her powers isn’t refined. 

All three of those things are relevant towards Starfire’s character arc throughout the show, and a lot of that information about her is established in these smaller, more comedic moments. 

Though, that does bring me to another thing…

Comedy:

Comedy is a huge part of Cartoon Network. With the exception of programs like Samurai Jack and The Clone Wars, it’s one of the main focuses (if not the main focus) of their shows. As is the case with all cartoons. 

So it’s no surprise that the domesticity of Cartoon Network is meant to heighten comedy. Domesticity and family-based comedy is already the backbone of the sitcom genre, but with the power of animation, Cartoon Network takes it to the next level by, again, having our characters treat their over-the-top fantastical nature as something completely normal. Sometimes a show’s action scenes will be overshadowed by that domesticity, as is the case with Steven Universe and Adventure Time. Other times, shows like We Bare Bears, exclusively feature these domestic shenanigans, with no real action to speak of. 

I think The Amazing World of Gumball is BY FAR and away the best example of supernatural domesticity used to heighten comedy. Everything in the later seasons of Gumball is absolutely hilarious because the characters talk and sound like middle schoolers, except they’re anthropomorphic animals, dinosaurs, household items and food. These characters unironically say phrases like “lit,” “woke” and “bruh” while arguing about millennials, checking Snapchat and participating in the bottle flip challenge. There's an entire episode called “The One” dedicated to self-deprecation jokes, and a trilogy of episodes (“The Awkwardness,” “The Hug” and “The Cringe”) dedicated to cringe comedy with a single random side character, and those are some of the funniest episodes of the whole fucking show. 

And the good thing is that Cartoon Network knows this. They know that the domestic, slice-of-lice aspect of their shows is oftentimes the best part, so they do a really, really good job of grounding everything in that domesticity while still making things engaging. There are several newer shows 

Juxtaposition:

Cartoon Network’s programs are based around the principle of juxtaposition: 

• Contrasting heroes against villains

• The disparity between the old and ancient with the new and modern

• And most of all, contrasting the relatable, mundane and boring with the exotic, fantastical and exciting 

We aren’t aliens, witches, superheroes, talking animals or vampires, so we can’t necessarily relate to that; but we can relate to getting in fights with family members, playing video games, hanging out with friends and dealing with relationship problems. So Cartoon Network creates fantastical characters in those situations, allowing us to relate to their problems and emotions without necessarily relating to the more wild, weird parts of them. 

That really is the central idea behind lots of successful fiction. It’s why we love Harry Potter, because even though we’re all Muggles, we’ve also all had shitty classmates and shittier teachers, so we connect with Harry and the gang regardless. It’s why we love Marvel Comics, because even though none of us have superpowers, we’ve all had to deal with feeling overwhelmed by personal responsibility. 

It’s through filtering all of their creative, genius weirdness through that relatable lens that Cartoon Network really excels. And it is through this method that they produce some of the best animation---nay, the best television---I’ve ever seen.