User blog comment:Truteal/A big discussion on Total Drama/@comment-24971793-20141004135336

I don't mind having cartoon elements in ... well ... a cartoon. Animation is time consuming and expensive so it's a shame to use it to make something that could have been made in life-action for the same quality in less time with a lot less money (we could have had like > 10 seasons by now). I think ROTI went a little too far in cartoonyness with it's mutant theme at times. But WT, AS and Pahkitew where fine, IMO, on that aspect. TD has never really tackled serious issues, the first season where mainly bland characters in ordinary situations. I don't mind a more colourful approach if they're not gonna tackle serious stuff.

You say most people didn't like TDA because of the storylines around Gwen, Owen and Courtney. And although I agree that those storylines were poor choices and quite unpopular with the fandom. When I ask people why they dislike TDA the answer I hear most is because they found it overall boring. It had a great movie theme but didn't use it enough. That's why I think they added more cartoon elements and gimmicks to the following seasons.

After reading Don's description I think you could be right. His description sounded pretty serious and his design looked bland so they might take the show in a more serious direction. Take a risk. On the other hand it's called ridonculous race, so maybe this show will be even more gimmicky and TD will go back to being more serious. I don't know how I would feel about a more serious approach. I think it's important to emphasize that more serious =/= better quality. For example All Stars was a bad season cause it made some poor choices in storylines, had severe character derailment, was offensive with Mike, ... failed to fullfil people's high expectations. There's plenty of reasons why that season was bad but I rarely hear someone say "cartoony". I hope that if they take the show in a more serious direction they will also add more controversial issues. Otherwise there's a big risk of it becoming incredibly boring.