Plotagon is a Swedish website that allows people to make their own animated videos. Signing up is free on mobile devices (you have to pay on Windows or Mac), though you must pay if you want to have access to all of their backgrounds and characters, though you can make your own of the latter. You must be at least 13 years old to join, but like everything else limited by the American Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), many younger than 13 just disregard this requirement and put in another birth year.
You can also make more characters and post your videos on YouTube. Unlike GoAnimate, there is no watermark throughout the video on paid versions. Posting a video is free, unlike GoAnimate. Unlocking all the site's other features costs a mere $3.
Plotagon would just be another video-making website if the "X Gets Grounded" videos didn't migrate to the site after GoAnimate switched to HTML5. Primarily made by young kids, the "grounded" videos detail the misadventures of various kids as they cause or get themselves into trouble in all manner of ways, followed by them getting busted and grounded (grounded grounded grounded grounded grounded grounded grounded) by their parents for absurd lengths of time. These videos are especially known for the trouble-making kids usually being characters from TV shows aimed at young kids, such as Caillou and Dora the Explorer. However, GoAnimate is more well-known, popular, and grounded videos are associated more with GoAnimate as such.
It is even harder to pull off non-human characters when using Plotagon than it is when using GoAnimate, due to lack of stock image compatibility. This is essentially why characters like Barney, Thomas the Tank Engine, and the Teletubbies were dropped almost completely.
The Plotagon creators at first were not remotely amused by Grounded videos or their creators, actively deleting accounts when said creators start spamming the comments of their beloved "Featured Plotagonists". Grounded plots have been hard-coded from appearing in anyone's feed and are viewed as uncreative.
The app had its own social media where you could create an account and "plot" videos could be shared. They could be liked, commented on, and you could follow viewers. This part of the website shut down in 2018 and users were called to download their plots before they were deleted from the site. Now Plotagon videos have to be posted on other platforms such as YouTube.
However, they changed their stance on this later, even officially adding Caillou's shirt to their clothes catalog (under the name "Annoying Shirt")
You can find it here
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The videos made with Plotagon provide examples of:
- Adapted Out: A lot of characters in grounded videos had to have been dropped due to being impossible to make without props, which Plotagon lacks.
- Ascended Meme: Unlike GoAnimate, which does everything in their power to ignore grounded videos, Plotagon actually supports the traction they have given to their own site. They even added a Caillou shirt, called the "Annoying Shirt", that can be added to characters.
- Beat: Nearly every comedian on Plotagon uses this trope liberally.
- One is added whenever you start a new scene, though it can be skipped.
- Beach Episode: The beach scene. Usually accompanied by cheery Caribbean music.
- Computer Virus: A few Barney Error videos have been made, and they're... alright.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Grounded videos often show the troublemakers getting slapped, pushed, force choked, teased (poked in the chest) and shaken for whatever reason (even a minor one like doubting their parent).
- Enfant Terrible: Still as present as ever.
- Episode on a Plane: There's airport scenes, plane included.
- Family Drama: Subverted in the case of The Debbie and Carrie Show, which depicts the five Central Characters of it as extremely loyal and close to each other. The "drama" is always in the form of enemies threatening at least one of them for political, religious or personal reasons.
- Large Ham: Some of the character animations allow a character to be this, "beating chest" and "rage" in particular.
- Mental Time Travel: The Plotagon series Wasting Time revolves around two teenage girls who have the ability to mental time travel and are being sought by a scientist.
- Primal Chest-Pound: One of the available character animations is them doing this.
- Psychic Strangle: One character animation involves one character doing this to the other. True to form, this can sometimes be used as Disproportionate Retribution.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In "Macusoper Gets Kicked Out", after Macusoper gets grounded by Diesel for assaulting him and threatening to kill his sisters over them breaking his Grand Theft Auto V copy, the latter gives him one:Diesel: Macusoper, you don't appreciate nothing at all. All you care about is videogames, TV, computers, and other stupid shit. You don't appreciate me, your mother, your sisters, your teachers, classmates, and the world. Nigga, you spend most of your time playing video games and other shit that most people don't even like to do. What you need to do is get your lazy ass out of this house and get a job, for God's sakes, and stop sitting around in this hot-ass house. You need to do something in your life, and explore the whole wide world instead of doing junky shit you like to do. I should sell all your video games, TV, and computer to the charity, and you'll have nothing except your stupid-ass life, you fucking piece of shit. Macusoper, just grow your ass up already. You act like a fucking 9-year old.(Macusoper attempts to continue the argument, Diesel tries to stop him, Macusoper expresses his consideration to leave the house)Diesel: [Maybe you should, because] I never wanted you anyway, and I don't want to see you again, neither. Nobody likes your dumb ass anyway. You're a jerk, you have no life, and you smell like rotten eggs. Macusoper Benson Busters, I hope you have your good and bad times in this house because starting tomorrow, your ass is out of here for good and you are banned in this house forever. And when you die, I'll make sure nobody don't attends to your shitty ass funeral. I hope you go to Hell forever.
- Time Travel: There is a specific "time machine" scene.
- Running Gag: The changelogs constantly mention bunny slippers for some reason.
- Skewed Priorities: This video has Boris get injured in a car crash after Caillou startles him by saying "Do you kno da wae", but when told by the doctor that he'd be fine in a few months, he promptly gets mad about how he has to go to work, even though he, in his own words, "crashed and broke his bones".
- Synthetic Voice Actor: Well, duh. Though you can record your own voice.
- Throat-Slitting Gesture: One of the available character animations is them doing this.
