Blanimation
How I feel that the quality of cartoons have deteriorated over the years.
I am 21 soon to be 22, and to this day, I still watch cartoons, as I'm sure many of you all here on retrojunk do. I feel, that most cartoons these days don't hold a candle to the cartoons of the past. The reason being, in my opinion, is that I feel that many cartoons are not as creative as they were "back in the day." Now I could go on forever about how I feel that humor is lacking in many cartoons, its just my opinion based on my tastes of what I want out of a cartoon. But one thing I think is undeniable is the quality of animation. So here I go up on my soapbox.
To really understand why the art and animation of current cartoons are crap has to be compared from present to the past. My first example, the Fairly Odd Parents.
EVERY character in this show looks the same. If you were to interchange the hair and color schemes of the characters in this cartoon you would end up with the same characters. In fact, if you strip all of the features of the characters heads, they all make capital D's. If this is what it takes to be a animator in Nickelodeon Studios, perhaps I should brush up on my kindergarten alphabet drills.
Now you may be saying, "Who cares about how they are drawn? Its just a cartoon."
If you are thinking that to yourself consider a cartoon such as Ren & Stimpy.
John K. (Creator of Ren and Stimpy) said in his season 1 DVD that cartoons these days are extremely generic. That there is really only 1 generic expression per emotion, such as every sad face looks the same, and that in his studio he never wants to see the same face twice. If you actually watch cartoons today, and then watch Ren and Stimpy (when John K. was still doing the cartoon) you can see the huge gap in the QUALITY of animation that goes into that show in comparison of another generic Dexter's Lab rip-off. A cartoon is what it is because of its art. If you are not going to care about the quality of animation or appreciate it as an art form, then why not just use real live actors? The animation of cartoons is the core of its humor. If you are just going to do a half-assed job on animation, then you will get half-assed humor.
My next problem with animation these days is how things these days have to be made X-TREME!! or has to be some kind of cheap anime imitation.
My first example is Looney Toons. Looney Toons have been around forever, our parents and grandparents grew up with the Looney Toons just as we have. However, where are they these days? I cannot find them on a single channel these days.
Oh wait...here they are...
I just threw up in my mouth...
What the hell IS that?!? WHY do we have to change a cartoon as timeless as the Looney Toones?!?! The Looney Tunes were fine on its own thats why generation after generation can appreciate these cartoons. Even if they are 40+ years old! Whats next? Mickey Mouse with a missile launchers for ears?!
I really hope this craze doesn't last...
I wish I could...I wish I could...
To really understand why the art and animation of current cartoons are crap has to be compared from present to the past. My first example, the Fairly Odd Parents.
EVERY character in this show looks the same. If you were to interchange the hair and color schemes of the characters in this cartoon you would end up with the same characters. In fact, if you strip all of the features of the characters heads, they all make capital D's. If this is what it takes to be a animator in Nickelodeon Studios, perhaps I should brush up on my kindergarten alphabet drills.
Now you may be saying, "Who cares about how they are drawn? Its just a cartoon."
If you are thinking that to yourself consider a cartoon such as Ren & Stimpy.
John K. (Creator of Ren and Stimpy) said in his season 1 DVD that cartoons these days are extremely generic. That there is really only 1 generic expression per emotion, such as every sad face looks the same, and that in his studio he never wants to see the same face twice. If you actually watch cartoons today, and then watch Ren and Stimpy (when John K. was still doing the cartoon) you can see the huge gap in the QUALITY of animation that goes into that show in comparison of another generic Dexter's Lab rip-off. A cartoon is what it is because of its art. If you are not going to care about the quality of animation or appreciate it as an art form, then why not just use real live actors? The animation of cartoons is the core of its humor. If you are just going to do a half-assed job on animation, then you will get half-assed humor.
My next problem with animation these days is how things these days have to be made X-TREME!! or has to be some kind of cheap anime imitation.
My first example is Looney Toons. Looney Toons have been around forever, our parents and grandparents grew up with the Looney Toons just as we have. However, where are they these days? I cannot find them on a single channel these days.
Oh wait...here they are...
I just threw up in my mouth...
What the hell IS that?!? WHY do we have to change a cartoon as timeless as the Looney Toones?!?! The Looney Tunes were fine on its own thats why generation after generation can appreciate these cartoons. Even if they are 40+ years old! Whats next? Mickey Mouse with a missile launchers for ears?!
I really hope this craze doesn't last...
I wish I could...I wish I could...
My second point are these pseudo-anime spin offs due to the popularity of anime here in the states. Take Xiaolin Showdown.
can we get more cliche than this? I think not.
This show bores me to tears and tries to capture the anime craze that has hit the states recently. But honestly, its like trying to listen to a shitty cover band who is covering another shitty cover band. Lets leave anime to the Japanese. Please. We have yet to do it right here. And the animes that do come over seas here are horribly censored and are practically a different cartoon. Have you ever watched Dragonball in Japanese? Its hilarious. No poorly placed drawn in trees in select areas.
puff puff (I realize this is not from the cartoon but I couldn't find anything)
Now I'm not saying that all cartoons are complete crap these days. Spongebob for example is great. It is one of the ONLY things that Nickelodeon has going for it these days. Hence the reason why its on all the damn time.
No rest for the weary
Avatar is also great.
(and this is animated in Korea. So no, that is not a good "American Anime")
practically everything else on Nickelodeon are just what I like to call shows that are "MTV in training" for kids.
...
I guess, all in all, I would kill to see some more creative cartoons. If you go around this site and look at all the old Nickelodeon commercials or bumpers, (which is what inspired me to write this article) it shows the creativity that USED TO exist largely within the animation world. There are a few good ones out there, but they are few and far between. These days its mainly crappy spin offs of other peoples creative ideas or some stupid unnecessary revamping of classics. Although I basically covered animation, I feel that lackluster animation only ushers in lackluster humor, and what is a cartoons without great humor and animation? I would have written a lot more, but I wanted to keep this article as simple as possible without going off on a million tangents. Perhaps in the future I will elaborate a bit more.
thats what it is.
Here's to hoping that the new TMNT movie is going to be good.
you've got some big shells to fill (get it?!?)
I hope you all enjoyed my first article, perhaps next time I will write a bit more of a positive one haha.
can we get more cliche than this? I think not.
This show bores me to tears and tries to capture the anime craze that has hit the states recently. But honestly, its like trying to listen to a shitty cover band who is covering another shitty cover band. Lets leave anime to the Japanese. Please. We have yet to do it right here. And the animes that do come over seas here are horribly censored and are practically a different cartoon. Have you ever watched Dragonball in Japanese? Its hilarious. No poorly placed drawn in trees in select areas.
puff puff (I realize this is not from the cartoon but I couldn't find anything)
Now I'm not saying that all cartoons are complete crap these days. Spongebob for example is great. It is one of the ONLY things that Nickelodeon has going for it these days. Hence the reason why its on all the damn time.
No rest for the weary
Avatar is also great.
(and this is animated in Korea. So no, that is not a good "American Anime")
practically everything else on Nickelodeon are just what I like to call shows that are "MTV in training" for kids.
...
I guess, all in all, I would kill to see some more creative cartoons. If you go around this site and look at all the old Nickelodeon commercials or bumpers, (which is what inspired me to write this article) it shows the creativity that USED TO exist largely within the animation world. There are a few good ones out there, but they are few and far between. These days its mainly crappy spin offs of other peoples creative ideas or some stupid unnecessary revamping of classics. Although I basically covered animation, I feel that lackluster animation only ushers in lackluster humor, and what is a cartoons without great humor and animation? I would have written a lot more, but I wanted to keep this article as simple as possible without going off on a million tangents. Perhaps in the future I will elaborate a bit more.
thats what it is.
Here's to hoping that the new TMNT movie is going to be good.
you've got some big shells to fill (get it?!?)
I hope you all enjoyed my first article, perhaps next time I will write a bit more of a positive one haha.
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