Cartoons Then vs Now Art Style Meme

The meme is split into two horizontal comparison sections. The top section, titled 'Cartoons Then', features four uniquely designed classic 20th century Western cartoon characters, each with distinct facial features, hairstyles, outfits, and unique art styling that highlights the diversity of older animation character design. The bottom section, titled 'Cartoons Now', features four popular 2010s Western cartoon characters, each placed next to an identical simple line-drawn generic smiley face template that matches their wide, grinning facial structure. The joke satirically implies that modern animated shows use a homogeneous, overused facial design that makes many contemporary cartoon characters look interchangeable.

This is a widely circulated meme originally shared on Reddit, as noted in the provided source information, under the original title 'Pretty much'. It belongs to a popular category of media criticism memes that compare older and modern animation art styles, often posted on cartoon and meme-focused subreddits such as r/memes and r/cartoons to humorously debate changes in Western animation design trends.