Category Archives: modern animation

by | July 20, 2010 · 9:55 pm

Enough

I’ve refrained from seriously commenting on the many things wrong with the frenzy-provoking promo material for Cartoon Network’s The Looney Tunes Show, but with the premiere of actual footage, and being a certified Looney Tunes whore, I can’t help myself.

1. The character designs are awful. Not to hurt feelings, but they are. Far worse officially sanctioned renderings of the characters exist (just look at just about any drawing in the 1970s or 1980s or anything Chuck Jones drew past 1980), but saying that they aren’t the worst ever isn’t a compliment. The classics were designed by seasoned professionals who had a grasp on what the animators could handle and use to the funniest effect. (Not to mention knowledge of perspective and anatomy, something lacking completely in these new designs.) I didn’t like The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries or Duck Dodgers (or know of anyone who actually did) but they at least looked like professionals attempting to get the classic look (but still failing – sincere charm is an underrated element in Warner animation that nobody seems capable of capturing). This kind of stuff should be kept at Deviantart – end of story.

2. The CGI animation in the preview is also awful. Nobody is expecting The Incredibles, but at least make it look good if you actually want these things on the air forever.

3. Korean animation. I have serious problems with the whole overseas game, the major one being the sheer artlessness of it. These are the greatest cartoon characters of all time, and sending them to be animated 6,000 miles away by people who work on a piecemeal basis and don’t even speak English (psst… that’s why there’s no such thing as lip-sync anymore) is only a guarantee of failure.

4. Daffy’s voice. It doesn’t sound anything like him, and it’s definitely not Joe Alaskey or Jeff Bergman, who usually voice the character in new animations. I guess that brings me to my #1 reason why new Looney Tunes cartoons should not be made is the fact that Mel Blanc is dead and he’s not coming back. Blanc was inarguably attached to these characters and responsible for their popularity more than any other artist, and when he died, the characters died with him. It simply wasn’t the same with characters at other studios, except for Daws Butler. Therefore, doing a new Bugs Bunny cartoon makes about as much since as doing a new Chaplin or Laurel & Hardy picture. A voice actor who has done recreations of the voices (but not on this show) told me personally that “those characters should have been buried in the 50s.” So when it’s coming from somebody who gets income out of these rehashes, you know it’s true.

5. It’s not funny. And it won’t be funny. If this is what they’re picking to entice potential viewers, then it’s going to be very bad, face it. The Coyote clip is predictable, and the bit with Bugs and Daffy is just lame. Why would Daffy need to ask Bugs if “What’s Up Doc?” is his “thing” with their extensive history together? Is that their attempt at humor? Why would Daffy Duck be worried about “stepping on any toes” if he doesn’t have a gun to his head at the very least? If you’re going to work with the greatest cartoon characters of all time, be sure you know how to write. Then again, we already knew from the get-go you didn’t have to know how to draw, so I guess anything’s game.

My unseasoned, unprofessional advice: just put the old ones on and give artists money to do new things. To prove a point, here’s a recreated version of The Looney Tunes Show with two completely random classic clips chosen. Not even the best gags or lines. Place yourself as a four year old for just one second – which ad makes you want to actually watch these characters?

I’ll concede that I’m not the best example as I was not a normal child, but I bought all the Warner Consumer Products as a kid because I liked watching the originals on Nickelodeon, ABC, and TNT. If they want to make money off people buying crap based on classic characters again, they should start by showcasing the things that made them classic characters in the first place – not crap.

36 Comments

Filed under crap, modern animation

by | May 18, 2010 · 2:52 pm

Why?

Haven’t had time to screw around with a website for some time now and still really don’t. I promise to post something cool soon. I just wanted to pop out of the woodwork to say how I find it surprising that none of the animation websites I regularly read covered the announcement that Brad Bird is directing Mission: Impossible IV for Paramount. You’d think that the fact that America’s leading animated feature director is moving to live-action franchises, and that it’s confirmed, without a doubt, that Pixar will never make a movie worth watching again, would be headline news and serve as fodder for the discussion of whether or not it’s impossible for a director with real ambition to be a success in mainstream animation. Oh well.

15 Comments

Filed under modern animation, people

by | April 1, 2010 · 2:55 pm

The Tiny Toon That Got Rejected and Became a Ren & Stimpy

There are reams of documentation covering abandoned shorts from Disney, MGM, Fleischer, and other Golden Age studios, but coverage of TV cartoons that met the same or a similar fate is sparser. An example of one with an interesting history: a rejected Tiny Toon Adventures story became one for Ren & Stimpy. No April foolin’!

Jim Smith and Bob Camp mostly storyboarded Hi, Spirits, a planned segment for one of the Acme Acres Zone half-hours, when he was in the newly formed Warner Bros. Animation unit in 1989. [UPDATE: See Kent Butterworth’s comment for the correct date and place, as well as some more info.] He and Bob Camp lasted a whopping six months on the show before becoming fed up with the industry altogether and joined partners John Kricfalusi and Lynne Naylor in forming Spumco, the haven for animation’s malcontents.

What follows is the entire storyboard Smith and Camp did. (They’re littered with great unrelated duck sketches of theirs too.) There are discrepancies in the page numbers, but the board is complete. It’s criminal the final shows never retained the sort of liveliness found in this board.

Fast-forward two years later when The Ren & Stimpy Show began its second season of production. The show had risen the bar for what TV animation was capable of far more than any of its contemporaries in the fabled ‘animation renaissance.’ Hi, Spirits was flip-flopped into a story premise with Ren and Stimpy in the roles of Hampton and Gogo. (The Paul Tsongas ghost and yak remained. A fat naked black man was added.) It was one of the “C” cartoons that John K. handed over to layout supervisor/timing director Ron Hughart to see through production as director in mid-1992.

For your enjoyment, here is the uncut version of the episode, unavailable on the “UNCUT” box set. See what remained the same from the Tiny Toons board – and what got changed!

Contrary to ‘facts’ circulating the Internet, the scene with the bloody-head fairy (here Doug Funnie instead of Elmer Fudd) was not added by Games Animation. The finished animation from Taiwan’s Color Key Studio arrived a week before the transition from Spumco to Games commenced.

14 Comments

Filed under modern animation, Ren & Stimpy

by | June 19, 2009 · 6:05 pm

Sita and Grass Roots

jumpingcatI’ve refrained from saying that I’ve really liked Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues for awhile, but since it’s available on a real DVD I might as well praise it now. (Since I actually liked something, I had to wait awhile for it to stew and see if I still did later.)

As Mike Barrier plainly puts it in his brief post, I didn’t know Flash could look this good either. I was worried when I attended one of Cornell’s screenings of it in 35mm that my positive opinion of it (having already watched it on the Internet) may waver seeing it so huge. (Actual film projection and Flash don’t exactly fit together in my mind). Thankfully it didn’t.

What can I say that hasn’t been said ad nauseum; the film is awfully funny in both the writing and animation (I had to settle for a blurry capture of one of my favorite pieces in it since the DVD hasn’t arrived yet), moves at a brisk pace, and is personal without being quirky. Its meta-style is hilarious without being smug or obnoxious, and we’re not reminded that we should cry here or there every ten minutes. Coming out of Cornell Cinema, it was the first time in awhile I can think of (at a non-revival screening anyway) where I thought that I should have paid more for admission. (Then again, it was only four bucks.)

Eddie Fitzgerald mentioned to me awhile ago that what he likes best about cartooning is its “grass roots” feel (a term that we should use more since it hasn’t been abused like others); that anyone can pick up a pencil and try. Animation was basically an extension of the print cartoon, so it (for awhile) retained the same flavor. Yet very little animation these days (and arguably, cartooning) abides by this law. Even a lot of the best animated product these days feels like it was made by a machine, regardless of the talent poured into it. I’ve had the feeling for awhile that the really good stuff is going to come exclusively from the non-studios, and Paley’s film only further cements that idea.

As if it wasn’t obvious, I don’t anticipate to enjoy new movies much these days. All I can do is pray to the skies there’s more I like about something than dislike. A friend advised me that he refrains from commenting on certain things, like CGI, because “that’s not made for me.” What he and I get upset about though is: where is the stuff made for me? Sita is the kind of film made for me. I can’t think of an animated feature I’ve liked on the whole like this since Bakshi’s Heavy Traffic. My sole issue with it is that Paley should have had more money at her disposal, but then again, the film probably wouldn’t have been the same with it. I can’t say that her plans to get the movie out there were sound (and you can read all about them by going to her blog) but it was a huge gamble that paid off faster than it could have.

If Sita is playing at a theater near you, go see it, because if it fully convinced me that Flash can be used to create art rather than sausage, so imagine what it will do for you. If it isn’t playing, buy the DVD, and kick in a few bucks more so Paley can start her next movie. We need it.

(The audience reaction at Cornell was great, I might add. The only complaint I overheard was that it was too short, but I guess their brains must be fried from Speilberg, Lucas, Jackson, etc. and forgot that most movies used to wrap up within 100 minutes.)

8 Comments

Filed under modern animation