This is a bit off topic but I've read some of the older posts here discussing pop-culture of the Rumsfeldia world in regards to filmography and it got me thinking. What would Western children's animation be like in the post Rumsfeld/CV Eras? Especially animation in (whatever's left of) the US, the Pacific Free Republic, the Libertarian Communes, and other independent states (assuming they all remain so).
I don't know what would be left of the American animation industries after a nuclear civil war but I remember California/the PFR being largely unscathed in the "Rummyhorror" Map. Perhaps a few Pacific Coast animation studios are still intact and could see the PFR as a major producer of Western Animation.
Of course, their was still the issue that most of the networks were nothing more than propaganda tools for Rumsfeld (in fact I can't help but picture Viacom rooting for Rummy's crazed An-Cap policies, at least at first) and I don't know how that would affect the situation. Would we even see Nicktoons like Rugrats or Spongebob Squarepants?
In relation to American animation, I wonder how Canadian animation would fair in the new world. Considering how many American refugees ended up in Canada and other Commonwealth nations, I could easily see several prominent would-be American animators working for Canadian animation networks. I foresee a lot of Canadian cartoons taking on "darker and edgier" themes as well. And I betcha Jim Kricfalusi (The Ren and Stimpy Show) and the Trembley Brothers (SWAT Kats and Mega Babies) would have quite the field day in this alternate world of cartoon making.
On a similar note, I wonder what animation would be like in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe by this point to?
I bet a lot of animators are thriving up in Canada, Great Britain, and Japan. I have a head canon about Matt Groening living in the UK and producing an animated sitcom on the "modern British family".
American animation will probably be dead for at least a decade. Many artists have been exiled, imprisoned, or murdered. Millions of children have been killed, or have been orphaned by the monstrosity of Rumsfeldia-CV. Even areas not directly controlled by the CV are going to be affected by conflict, and the ecological effects of WMDs. As the 1990s will be spent rebuilding and uniting the shattered parts of America, and the various breakaway regions trying to consolidate their power, most Americans aren't going to care to draw cartoons, with most original content being made overseas.
But once America (well North America ITTL) begins its recovery, possibly around the early 2000s, I bet there is going to be a golden age of animation for several reasons.
1) As many of us have predicted, there is likely going to be huge (possibly permanent) backlash against all forms of conservatism thanks to the Rumsfeldians and CV. Their censorship of media, often done under the guise of "morality and protecting children", is going to be replaced by a political environment very conducive to freedom of speech. The Libertarian-run Bozemania will likely be INCREDIBLY supportive of artistic freedom.
The people who complain about how "cartoon violence is destroying our children," will be seen as people who want to bring back the CV, and such moral panics will be heavily ignored by those who remember the CV as the real threat to children.
2) The artists who make cartoons will often be people who have lived through the horrors of Rumsfeldia CV. Their willingness to draw violent images is not just because of lax censorship, but writing from their own horrific experiences.
3) The opposition to excessive corporate control means copyright enforcement will also be very lax, leading to a glut of creative energies.
Mostly likely, you won't see Nicktoons like shows, but cartoons that incorporate things that the Rumsfeldian-CV opposed, like sex, violence, and bad language.
