I think that it's possible to have an animated romance that's subtle enough that the younger kids watching just won't be able to pick up on it, while the older viewers, who might be more appreciative, will. As a species, I think humans are "hard-wired" for romance, and have a tendency to project their own feelings onto characters that they identify with, whether those characters are animated or not. That's why we have "'shippers", those people who believe that a particular couple on a show should "hook up", to quote Duchess, even if there's no overt evidence on the show of that happening.
A good example of the subtle approach to romance that I've made an analogy of would not be from an animated series, but from a live-action one, "CSI", which is really just one of two regular network series I watch. For years, the show's producers have insisted that there would be NO romantic involvement between any of the regular characters, because they felt that it would take away from characters' dedication to their jobs, and take away from the whole feel of the show and its concentration on the criminal cases. Nonetheless, it wasn't long after the show debuted that the 'shippers on the 'net began insisting that certain people were at least interested in others on the show. Eventually, there began to be a bit more indication that this was true of two characters, "Gil Grissom" and "Sarah Sidell", though there was nothing obvious or in-your-face about it, just things like a little glance here, or spending a bit more time with each other, or vague references to things that might or might not have been taking place between the two outside the work environment. It was still subtle enough that the fans who really did not support the pairing couldn't "see" it, and argued against its existance, while those who wanted the couple to be together more or less "got it" through those little tid-bits. It was only at the beginning of the past season that we finally had confirmation that they were indeed a couple, though they managed very well to keep that relationship a secret from their co-workers, until the end of the past season. Still, the show's writers managed to incorporate that relationship into the plot without interrupting the flow of the action or taking away from the importance of all the other main characters. It was only at the very end of the past season that the relationship between Grissom and Sidell actually became a PART of a crime that it even became known to their co-workers. Even still, up to this point we've never even seen them kiss onscreen, so everything is more or less implied. Like I said, some fans just won't even "get" the implication, and in this case, we're talking mostly adults. It would be even easier, I would think, to work in that sort of relationship between two animated characters on "kids' cartoons"(I really HATE that term, but y'all know what I mean).
pitbulllady
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