Animation Evolution

So, imagine you're watching your favorite animated series, right? And then you watch the next season and realize that the animation has somehow gotten better than the last time you watched that show. Or maybe it has gotten worse?

This isn't an Art Evolution, as that mainly applies to the art style. And that still looks the same. This is an Animation Evolution. Where it only applies to how the animation has changed.

Animation Evolution is when an animated series permanently gets better (or worse) animation throughout the animated series rather than just having a better (or worse) art style. For example, rather than just being a singular Animation Bump that only lasts a few episodes or a season, it's a permanent thing throughout the series run.

Whether it has evolved (or devolved) by a change of methods, a change of software, switching animation studios, or even just a bigger/smaller budget, it has evolved/devolved from how it usually looks. Whether it was already smooth and fluid or started out pretty stiff and cheap-looking, it either gets better, or worse.

The polar opposite of Off-Model is quite similar to Art Evolution, but it only applies to the animation. It may be paired with either of the two.

---

Examples

Anime

• Cardfight!! Vanguard: The original series. It looked pretty enough and had some solid character and card designs, but its animation was very much static and lacked any true dynamic elements. As a result, the sequel movie Neo Messiah and later Cardfight!! Vanguard G gave far greater emphasis to fluid and dynamic animations, to the point that they stopped explaining the game. It was after a few episodes in G that they finally managed to find the balance between the action sequences and the Combat Commentator.
• Kingdom used to have terrible animation (especially in CGI) but with each season the animation quality slowly increased. The upgrade in quality resulted in more people watching the show and becoming fans in the process.
• KonoSuba: Season 2 incorporates more usage of Deranged Animation and Off-Model and uses it to its benefit; making the animation seem more fluid and bouncy in comparison to season 1 - which is a lot more composed and detailed.
• Pokémon: The Series has gotten better animation in the newer seasons. The highlights being Pokémon the Series: XY; having more dynamic animation and Medium Blending of CGI camera and backgrounds and traditional animation, and Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon; which, thanks to its more simplified style, made the animation more fluid and exaggerated. Pokémon Journeys: The Series combines both styles and has its moments where the animation has a combination of the best aspects of both XY and Sun & Moon.
• The Quintessential Quintuplets: Season 1 was animated by Tezuka Productions and had an amazing start animation-wise. However, starting around episode 5; the animation has been noticably stiffer; along with being more prone to Off-Model from time to time. Episode 11 is the only exception since it was outsourced to Studio Shaft and looks extremely smooth in comparison to the other episodes. Season 2 switches animation studios from Tezuka Productions to Bibury Animation Studios; which gave the series more consistently great animation in comparison to season 1.
• The Seven Deadly Sins: Seasons 1, 2, and The Movie were all animated by A-1 Pictures and were very high quality. However, by season 3, the anime transferred studios due to scheduling issues. It was briefly animated by Studio DEEN, but that studio was busy so it had to be transferred again to Marvy Jack. The animation ended up becoming very cheap and low quality, most notably in the Meliodas vs Escanor fight. However, the animation slightly improved for season 4 onwards after Studio DEEN returned to work on it again.

Asian Animation

• Scissor Seven: While the animation of the show is already phenomenal with how smooth and dynamic it is, season 2 and onward amps this up by making the animation more consistent (season 1 had them kind of move like scribbles when it wasn't in between fights) and having more choreography in fights. This is due to the bigger budget for the later seasons. The animation is now like if Kill la Kill met Mob Psycho 100 and did a Fusion Dance!
• Tea Tea Cherry: It was initially animated by Pixel Planet. The hair textures of the characters were clay-like and looked a little lifeless, along with a little stiff and robotic animation. Since transitioning to Studio W.Baba (starting from the 4-part special), the animation had some slight improvement and has become smoother, including the hair textures being more realistic.

Films — Animation

• The Disney Animated Canon has had a long history of this:
  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, while revolutionary in itself, had an animation style reminiscent of the Silly Symphonies shorts. The following movies, especially Pinocchio, Bambi and Cinderella would see their style evolve into the typical Disney feature animation style that would be used for the rest of the century, with tighter and more realistic movement, stylized character designs and more realistic effects animation.
  • Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty were produced in CinemaScope, and had more vibrant animation and colors. However, Sleeping Beauty was a box-office failure and caused Disney to lose a lot of money, so for the next couple of decades, starting with 101 Dalmatians, Disney's animated features would be animated using xerography to make things easier.
  • Disney's xeroxed films had scratchy outlines, faded pencil lines, and multiple instances of recycled animation. Starting with The Rescuers, the outlines would become softer.
  • In the 80's, Disney would start inserting CGI in their films, particularly The Black Cauldron and The Great Mouse Detective. After experimenting with it for a while, it would be perfected to the point of inserting completely CGI backgrounds and even characters into their movies, with the ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast and the Cave of Wonders in Aladdin being standout examples that would define the medium from then on.
  • Their pre-Tangled CGI movies look rather stiff compared to what came after, with Tangled introducing the signature smooth, 2D-inspired 3D animation style that Disney has used in all of their CGI movies since.
• Illumination Entertainment's films have gotten more and more beautiful and smooth in recent years. Compare Despicable Me and The Lorax (2012) to their later films like The Grinch (2018), Minions: The Rise of Gru, Sing 2 and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
• Puss in Boots (2011) is animated similarly to Shrek due to the titular character being a character from said movies. Likewise, the animation is animated in a smooth, realistic style akin to the latter. However, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish takes a more dynamic, 2.5D style inspired by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and one of DreamWorks Animation's other films, The Bad Guys (2022). It's animated in more of a "storybook" kind of artstyle, however. While it's still as smooth as the original film, a lot of times (usually during fights) it's animated in twos; giving off a fast-paced and dynamic type of animation.

Video Games

• Cuphead's hand-drawn animation was praised from the moment the game was first revealed, but the quality of the animation has only improved over time as the game has been updated. For example, in the original release of the game, some cutscenes were basically just slideshows, but they were later revised to be fully animated. The Delicious Last Course expansion features bosses that are animated even more fluidly than those in the base game. Notably, there are many large Background Bosses in the DLC, all of which have smooth, detailed movements that give them unique personalities. While most of the game is animated in the Inkblot Cartoon Style, the Final Boss of the DLC is animated in the more realistic "West Coast" style of animation.
• Darkstalkers' animation was getting better and better between games. Darkstalkers's Revenge was when the animation has gotten a little more creative and psychedelic, but nothing too different from it's predecessor franchise. It wasn't until Vampire Savior (Also known as Darkstalkers 3) that the animation has gotten really good. They elevated the Deranged Animation really high, the animation has gotten much, much smoother than it has ever been - almost comparable to Street Fighter III, and the backgrounds are a lot more animated than ever before. This is combined with Art Evolution due to the designs of the new characters (sans Lilith and B.B. Hood....somewhat), backgrounds, and art direction going a completely different route from the two games before it.
• Kirby: Kirby's 3D games have gotten cleaner and smoother in terms of animation due to the upgrades provided by the software used for the games. It's gotten so much better that nowadays the game itself looks as good as the pre-rendered cutscenes. Compare Kirby's Return to Dream Land and the 3DS games to Kirby Star Allies and Kirby and the Forgotten Land.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • For the Classic era games, Sonic the Hedgehog was visually impressive for its time, but Sonic 2 managed to get smoother animation, more animated and vibrant backgrounds, and using 3D effects with 2D animation (which again, for its time, was remarkable). Likewise, Sonic CD, which was made around the same time Sonic 2 was in development, has some vibrant and uniquely colored backgrounds and smoother animation as well. Most notable is the special stages, which also takes the "3D effect with 2D sprites" method of Sonic 2 and makes it look astonishing. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is well-known and remembered as the most beautiful Genesis Sonic game of the quadrilogy. With a much smoother Art Evolution to a new style for the returning characters and enemies, buttery smooth animation, and extremely detailed boss designs and backgrounds unlike anything from the prior games before it.
    • Although it's a newer Sonic game, Sonic Mania manages to even outclass Sonic 3 (& Knuckles) in terms of animation. With full, smooth, 60 frames-per-second traditional animation, very animated backgrounds, and a mix of 3D animation on things such as the special stages and backgrounds, needless to say, Sonic Mania looks extremely good.
    • The Remaster for all 4 of the Genesis-era games; Sonic Origins takes those games and gives them the aforementioned HD, 60 FPS animation of Mania. Along with some well-needed graphical upgrades, and it looks absolutely fantastic.
  • Taking place after Mania and before Adventure (despite coming a couple decades after it), Sonic Superstars is an amazing Retraux to the Genesis era of Sonic. With smooth-as-butter 3D animation imitating the stylized 2D animation of the Genesis games, unique and vivid coloring and shading, and some well-made Art Evolution for the returning characters; making them look similar to their original appearances. Likewise, it uses a lot of effects that looks stylistic, and 2D methods such as smear frames and squash and stretch.
  • For the Modern era of Sonic, the later games look more and more gorgeous as they went on. Comparing Sonic Adventure to Sonic Frontiers is like night and day. This is due to the evolution of consoles and 3D animation methods. The Adventure era had some rather jerky and odd-looking animation and graphics, especially for today's era. However, it's still remembered for its Narm Charm and well-made story, and it's the first few times the blue blur transitioned to 3D. Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), while it is an improvement, still looked pretty outdated. And the realistic Art Evolution didn't age that well. The games started to find its footing both artstyle-wise and animation-wise by Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors; which both have vivid and fluid animation that aged a lot better. Since then, the Modern games' animation has been up and down lately (for example, Sonic Forces has improved graphics, but much more Limited Animation, while Sonic Frontiers looks a lot more dynamic and smooth compared to Forces).
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 4 between both episodes. Episode I has bright cel-shading, somewhat stiff animation, and extremely bright coloration, however, Episode II evolves this style by giving the characters smoother animation, removing the cel-shading, and having more realistic coloring; making a lot of the stages (White Park Zone Act 2 and Sky Fortress Zone Act 3, for example) look downright gorgeous.
• Super Mario has had better animation and better graphics in its 3D games throughout the years. Just look at how they evolved from Super Mario 64 to Super Mario Odyssey; the latter of which looks drop-dead gorgeous. Likewise, the later Mario games that are 3D are known to also look beautiful.
  • From the New franchise, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a lot more stylized and fluid than the previous games from the same franchise. It imitates 2D animation with smear frames, squash and stretch, and more expressive animation. Paired with Art Evolution due to the new style looking more in line with the 2D cover art from Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World.
• Splatoon:
  • The first game was a relatively small project that ended up a Sleeper Hit. Splatoon 2, released a mere two years later, has a bigger budget and it shows. It's especially noticeable when you compare the Squid Sisters' dancing to Off the Hook's dancing, with the latter showcasing much more fluid movement. This carries over to their stock animations as news hosts as well, with Pearl and Marina not only being better animated, but having a wider array of poses than Callie and Marie did as well.
  • In the first real-life Off the Hook concert in Japan, Marina's tentacles were very hyper. Her tentacle movements were downplayed in the European concert to celebrate the Championship. Everyone's models also received a slight upgrade.
• Street Fighter has been getting better and better graphics and animation with each release. Street Fighter was somewhat limited in animation and a little jerky in comparison to its slightly smoother and more well-known sequel: Street Fighter II. However, the animation has gotten a massive improvement starting with Street Fighter III with buttery smooth animation, an art style that's easier on the eyes, and more animated backgrounds. Come Street Fighter IV, which marks the franchise's first transition from 2D animation to 3D animation - along with the use of cel-shading to keep the 2D effect. The animation of IV is a lot more stylized and dynamic. Street Fighter V ditches the cel-shading and dynamic animation in favor of more realistic and vivid animation; however, the animation goes back to being dynamic once the Champion's Edition is made for the newer characters - along with the return of the option to use cel-shading (along with a pixel style, used to imitate its pre-3D days). Street Fighter 6 combines V's realistic and smooth animation with IV's dynamic and stylistic animation - along with the cel-shading of the latter.
• Super Robot Wars
  • The series began with extremely low-budget visuals, with weapon effects pasted on top of completely static mecha sprites all the way until the first two entries in the Super Robot Wars Alpha series. Alpha, released late in the original Playstation's lifespan, introduces moving limbs, while Alpha Gaiden introduces even more complex animations. By the time the series makes the jump to the Playstation 2 with Super Robot Wars Impact, it has become an showcase of high-quality 2D animation. The animation only gets more complex from there, culminating in the HD entries being able to occasionally incorporate actual footage from the numerous source anime into attacks without missing a beat.
  • The Game Boy Advance entries started off with completely static sprites, jumped to Alpha and Alpha Gaiden quality with the Super Robot Wars: Original Generation duology (with the less-animated Super Robot Wars Destiny separating the two OG games), and made a large leap to near-parity with the PS2 games with the final SRW game for the handheld, Super Robot Wars Judgment.

Web Animation

• DEATH BATTLE! started out using a rather Limited Animation pixel style for their fights; However, once it became a part of Rooster Teeth, the animation has gotten more dynamic, there's now a variety of styles being used (such as 3D and traditional animation), and even Wizard and Boomstick are animated now.
• Minilife TV starts off as a standard LEGO stop-motion animation series, but production values start to increase with Season 4 by adding lip movement and more detailed backgrounds to the series.
• Mundo Canibal started during the late 90's, with the first flash animations having very choppy, basic and repetitive animation, though it wasn't really due to lack of ability (Rodrigo and Ricardo Piologo, the producers of the site, had made very fluid animations before that), but instead, both because of short production deadlines and to result on smaller file sizes, so that people's internet back then would load and reproduce the files more easily. Over the years, as they switched from SWF to video format and internet quality considerably improved, the animations evolved to become considerably more fluid and have more effects and elements, resulting in a more professional look.

Western Animation

• Throughout the Ben 10 franchise the animation has been up and down. The original series had the perfect balance of detail and fluidity; with the style matching that of a comic book, but Alien Force increases the detail while still keeping the fluidity intact. However, Ultimate Alien has stiffer, much slower animation due to Seasonal Rot. Ben 10: Omniverse; due to its Art Evolution to a more Animesque style, has more exaggerated expressions and smooth animation - to the point where they actually show Ben transform into an alien smoothly rather than just have him flash green or glow green like the past series have done.
• Big City Greens: The first half of the first season was simple, and had normal-looking backdrops and stiffer character moments. Starting with "Big Deal", the show has taken a jump in the animation, giving some drop shadows and gradients to the backgrounds and improving the animations on the characters. In particular, the pupils of Cricket, Tilly, and Gramma have gotten smaller, Cricket's head and mouth have decreased in size, and Tilly's mouth moves more fluidly. Season 2 introduced a wider range of facial expressions, thinner lines, and more detailed backgrounds, particularly in the title cards. Come the third season, animation has gotten so much better that the backgrounds look more realistic and the characters emote even more than before.
• Blaze and the Monster Machines underwent this mid-season 3, beginning with the Wild Wheels episodes. The CGI animation has drastically changed from the first two seasons, giving the trucks more traditional CGI appearances with ray-tracing, in addition to having visible wear-and-tear on their tires. A lot of the animal trucks have changed their appearances to have more realistic looks, resembling their real life counterparts. The characters' animation has become much more cartoony and bouncy as well, in addition to a wider array of camera angles.
• Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, for the first five seasons, had animation that made it resemble a pop-up book and, for lack of a better term, "smush-bounce" movements. Season 6, starting with the "Daniel Visits a New Neighborhood" special, reduces the frame rate, resulting in slower, stiffer animation. However, Season 6 also uses a larger variety of camera angles than before.
• Fish Hooks: While the animation was already pretty phenomenal for the era of Disney cartoons it was in, the animation has gotten smoother and more fluid in the later seasons. This is because of the updates of Toon Boom Harmony.
• Johnny Test: Inverted for the original series. Season 1 used traditional animation and looked expressive and fluid. Season 2 and 3 switches from traditional animation to Adobe Flash (however, the pilot also used Flash before season 1 existed. So it technically went from Flash, to traditional, then back to Flash); however, it still kept its expressiveness intact - albeit with more Limited Animation. Season 4 and onward makes the animation even more limited and removes the expressiveness; allowing for a larger quantity of episodes, but not a lot of quality behind them. This also led to the infamous overuse of the "whipcrack" sound effect in an attempt to make the animation seem more dynamic than it actually is. This is later Invoked with the Soft Reboot on Netflix, which goes back to the more expressive and smooth animation of the first 3 seasons, along with an Art Evolution to a simpler style.
• Kid Cosmic always had some really good animation, but season 2 really amps up the dynamic camera shots, broad coloring choices, and smooth animation. Season 3 only amps this up even more.
• Looney Tunes Cartoons: Prior to the Christmas Special of the series, the animation of the show gets more fluid. Akin to the older shorts. This is especially noticeable in the shorts animated by Snipple Animation and Yearim Productions. This is most likely because of an increase in budget.
  • The shorts animated by Yowza! Animation also fit this trope. Since season 2, they've acquired more detailed shots and smoother Toon Boom animation along with more use of traditional animation methods.
• The Loud House: In Season 4-5, the show's animation software progressively transitioned from Toon Boom Animation to Adobe Animate, which led to minor technical changes in the style such as thinner outlines, more colorful palettes and the characters being animated in different ways.
• Mighty Magiswords: When the show slowed down a bit in the second half of season 1, the animation has gotten more smooth and the expressions have gotten more detailed. Further invoked in season 2 when they made a special sequence for the "Super Teamwork Combos" that sometimes makes you forget that this was made with Adobe Animate. Along with smoother animation.
• Mixels: While the animation was always good, "Quest For The Lost Mixamajig" was when the series changed from Toon Boom Harmony (And the studio Atomic Cartoons) to traditional animation. Provided by Digital eMation. Prior to that, they switched to Adobe Animate for the special "Every Knight Has It's Day" (Big Star), and back to traditional for "Nixel Nixel Go Away" (Saerom). The animation actually gets much cleaner and smoother by "Mixel Moon Madness", which was the final Mixels episode that Atomic Cartoons worked on.
• Monkie Kid: The animation is so much more fluid and clean by season 3. And has gotten more Animesque even for the first 2 seasons' standards. Just looking at the different intros can tell you how far they've evolved!
• The first season of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic started off somewhat simply. Magic was a uniform color (pink), there was very little dynamic flow to things like hair, and the emphasis was placed more on the stories than the visuals (which isn't to say that the visuals were bad). With each successive season, certain things were improved. In season 2, magic became more vibrant and differently colored, in season 3 more dynamic camera movements were used and flow was given to things such as Twilight's mane on a windy day, in season 4 there were more exaggerated facial expressions and mouth movements and a full-blown no-holds-barred fight between Tirek and Twilight, Season 5 overhauled the backgrounds, and so on. By the time of Season 9, the Flash animation engine was being pushed to its limits, and the desire to move to a newer and more powerful engine was a driving factor in the show being ended so that a new generation could begin.
• The first three seasons of Nature Cat had lively, expressive animation courtesy of 9 Story Media Group. In Season 4, the animation services were changed from 9 Story to Yowza!, which resulted in significantly stiffer animation.
• New Looney Tunes: Once Wabbit was retooled to New Looney Tunes, the animation started to get fluid. Almost matching the old shorts. With the inclusion of Snipple Animation, this change was made more noticeable.
• OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes: The series is known for its Animesque style and uses Limited Animation to its advantage to resemble the Hanna-Barbera era of cartoons. Season 2 ups the animation to a very smooth level and makes the designs a lot more consistent, and season 3 uses darker and more broad colors to resemble cel-animated cartoons along with more exaggerated expressions and animation. Season 3 also has a mild dust particle effect over it to push that feeling even more.
• The Owl House: Season 1's animation was already amazingly smooth due to the fact that a lot of the animation was done in-house. But season 2 amplifies this with even smoother animation, more detailed shading, and darker and broader colors being used. Season 3's specials push all of this even further to the point where they look like films.
• The Patrick Star Show:
  • With "The Patterfly Effect" in season 1, the show got a noticeable boost in animation. Characters' expressions are pushed farther with plenty of off-model poses, and it generally looks a lot less stiff.
  • Another boost happened in Season 2, which has plenty of scenes with detailed shading, better-looking visual effects, fast-paced action sequences, and beautiful lighting and backgrounds.
• Puppy Dog Pals: Over the course of its five-season run, the show's CG animation became more detailed and fluid.
• Ready Jet Go! has pretty inconsistent animation due to being bounced around several different studios around the world. The first 15 episodes were animated by Hot and Sour, and their episodes have overly shiny, somewhat unfinished textures. From that point on, Digitales took over (after animating a few random episodes during the Hot and Sour era), resulting in more polished textures, vibrant colors, and bouncy movements. After that, Enchanting Studios Limited took over and had THE best animation in the show, with crisp character models and attention to detail.
• Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The animation of this series is already amazing as is, but season 2 has better choreography in the fights and overall more Animesque animation than even the first season. This evolution is definitely prominent in scenes like the final fight against this series' Shredder.
  • Justified, as it is a Big Damn Movie. But the movie can be seen as this as well. With fluid animation and more complex and experimental fights, the movie really shows how far they've come. Highlights like the Turtles vs Krang 1 are amazing examples of this.
• Sonic Boom: On season 1, the animation was rather jerky at times and stiff, and the shading was off. By season 2, the animation is a lot more expressive and smooth, and the shading is very cinematic at times - nearly matching the quality of the pilot episode of season 1.
• SpongeBob SquarePants throughout its run. Season 1 through 4 was fluid and rubbery with quite the library of exaggerated expressions. Post-1st movie to season 9A however, the animation is much more composed and has little to no exaggerated expressions; with them being replaced with more Gross-Up Close-Up moments. Starting from season 9B and post-Sponge Out Of Water, the show goes back to having a more rubbery and exaggerated animation style; with even more exaggerated expressions and smooth animation than before. This is because, after the first movie, Stephen Hillenburg and the rest of the crew took a break from the series, but came back after making the Sponge Out Of Water movie. Season 13 has toned down the exaggerated expressions by a margin.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil: The animation of the series was originally animated by the studio Mercury Filmworks (starting from the episode "Mewberty", it was animated by Toon City). Which made the animation super fast-paced, exaggerated, and smooth. Starting from season 2, however (due to Mercury Filmworks having to work on The Lion Guard), the studios have been switched to Rough Draft Studios and Sugarcube. The animation started out almost no different from the first season with season 2, but then as the series progressed to seasons 3 and 4, the animation has gotten stiffer, but more detailed. That's when the animation started looking more akin to Gravity Falls (ironically, the former studio has worked on that series as well), but it took away any exaggerated and fast-paced animation that this series has had before. However, the animation of the fights has gotten better and a lot of the scenes are much smoother than the quick-paced fluid animation of the first season.
• The quality of the animation in Star Wars: The Clone Wars steadily improved as the series went on. The pilot movie is known for being unfinished, and its animation quality shows that, with stiff movements, No Flow in CGI strictly enforced and lightsaber duels largely being static affairs with simple fight coordination. Over the course of its seven seasons, hair and cloth was allowed to move, characters' movements became more expressive and the fight choreography became far more impressive, with a duel between Ahsoka and Maul in season seven utilizing motion capture from Ray Park to make the fight more intense.
• Steven Universe: Zigzagged. While the series does not always have bad animation, a lot of the series suffers a serious case of Off-Model (Especially in the Rough Draft Studios episodes). The early episodes of season 1 used it to its advantage and had some pretty smooth animation for its time, but starting from season 2 - where the animation is supposed to be much smoother and less exaggerated - the animation has been kind of wishy-washy. However, the Sunmin Animation episodes are known to be much cleaner and on-model than the ones by Rough Draft Studios. But sometimes, even their episodes have some inconsistency and stiff animation.
• The Simpsons: More than once. At first, when it was a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, the character designs were really rough, but by the time it became a half-hour show in its own right, they'd been standardized to those we know today. The animation was still less fluid and gradually stabilized over the first few seasons. It then got a further Animation Bump in season 20 when they went HD.
• Inverted for Tom and Jerry Tales. The intro and early episodes fit the original MGM shorts very well, with fluid animation and exaggerated expressions akin to that era. However, later episodes start to get more Limited Animation. Not to a detrimental amount, but still enough to remove a lot of the fast-paced fluidity.
• The Tom and Jerry Show (2014): The first season has a bad case of Limited Animation and length problems (being nearly the same as the infamous Gene Deitch shorts), looking incredibly stiff and limited in comparison to the original shorts and Tom and Jerry Tales, season 2 and onward retooled the series and uses more techniques to make the animation less stiff and more akin to the original shorts. In addition, the length has been shortened, making the animation seem less prolonged.
• Later seasons of Total Drama have more dynamic shading and focusing, more complex scenery, a greater variety of camera angles, and more cartoony expressions. The 2023 reboot especially shows this off with more elaborate shots of the island, most noticeable during the Once an Episode dramatic sequence where the losing team walks to the campfire ceremony (the original show usually just stuck to a brief establishing shot before cutting to the ceremony).
• Uncle Grandpa: While the show's animation is known to already be more fluid than a lot of cartoons in its era, the later seasons' episodes have a lot smoother and more experimental animation. Some good examples are "Ballroom", "Dinosaur Day", and "Uncle Baseball". The better animation helps the uniquely-boarded episodes by Nick Edwards, Andres Salaff, and Jason Reichter look very clean.
• Wander over Yonder: Season 1 was animated by Mercury Filmworks and was known to be very smooth for its time. However, the change from the studio Mercury Filmworks to Boulder Media benefited the series a lot. The animation was made more fast-paced and fluid, but less clippy. They also use more exaggerated expressions and backgrounds and the lip-syncing improved a lot. The end credits storyboards are also a lot more animated in comparison to season 1.

---