11 posts tagged “animation”
It's been a long while since I talked about animation in depth. It's surprising, as it is one of my first loves, but developments over the years (and it frightening that I can use the word "years" in descriptions of my life on the internet and of my time writing here, even if in the latter it is more of a description of the length of time between posts) lead me to less actively seek out information, history and community from the resources that exist here on the internet. Part of the reason is that I can avoid controversies that almost inevitably spin out from something written by John Kricfalusi.
For those who haven't heard of him, John K. is a Canadian-born animator best (and for most people, only) known for creating Ren and Stimpy. He is also something of a bomb-throwing animation iconoclast, in much the same way that Christopher Hitchens is on every subject he writes about. He has opinions about what he feels is wrong with American animation, (summarized partly that it is all the fault of the cabal of writers and executives who conspire to keep the lowly animator subservient) and he will gladly tell you in ways deftly designed to inflame the passions of his acolytes and to drive those who disagree into apoplectic fits. Again, much like Hitchens.
A spot on parody of this, and other animation-web lunacy was written by Bob Mackey for Something Awful. Page two contains a barely indistinguishable from reality parody of John K.
That said, I was honestly surprised and delighted by a bit of animation he did for the first episode of Class of 3000, which I'm not much of a fan of. Of course, Class of 3000 is unabashedly a kids-only show, and it wasn't hoping to suck me in as a fan.
And since I first posted about Disney and The Princess and the Frog (formerly: The Frog Princess), they've already stumbled out of the gate. The film has been preemptively declared racist, which has sent Disney scrambling to make changes and clarify matters.
Mark Evanier laments the poor rhyming in the lastest animation from JibJab. Certainly, with the creators using the mock news-ticker in "What We Call The News" as a on-screen sing-along caption, it's far easier to notice such poor rhyming. But it is still an interesting cartoon with a criticism of the news media, which is why it premiered at the Radio & Television Correspondents' Dinner.
I'm glad you're trying again, and with hand-drawn animation. Ironically, the paucity of such releases will help you look fresh again. But you need to get this project right. Placing one of us, and New Orleans into such important leading roles has made it all the more imperative that you don't fail us here. And marking this as your return to classical animation means your reputation is on the line. Disney, unfortunately, I feel you lost your magic. Please prove me wrong.
Video: Show us a clip from your favorite cartoon.
I have too many to list. If I had to say, I grew up during the best times for television animation, the 1990s. Basically you had a resurgence in the form, brought about by the critical and commercial success of the film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". It basically brought back to life the Disney Feature Animation department. After Roger Rabbit, Steve Spielberg decided to produce animation for TV and teamed up with Warner Bros. That gave us Tiny Toons, followed by Animaniacs. Plus the launch of WB television animation department also gave us Bruce Timm's long running take on the DC Comic superhero universe through Batman, Superman, Justice League and various other spin offs and projects.
Anyway, some of my favorite cartoons have been Animaniacs, Tiny Toons, Gargoyles, Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop, Batman:TAS, Superman:TAS, Justice League, Teen Titans, Courage the Cowardly Dog (videos I posted to earlier), Ed Edd n Eddy, and many others I can't think of right now.
Below was a post I authored last summer over on Blogger about one of my favorite shows, Courage the Cowardly Dog. I wrote this back when LiveJournal lacked support for embedding video, and I didn't discover Vox until September. I'm posting it again simply because for the time being, all three cartoons mentioned are available on YouTube. This probably won't last, so watch while you can. Videos are posted at the end.
One of the great shows to be showcased on Cartoon Network's "Cartoon Cartoon" campaign was John Dilworth's Courage the Cowardly Dog. Courage began life as a one-shot short, The Chicken from Outer Space, where a meek little dog who is tormented and mistreated rises to protect his caretaker from a alien chicken. It was popular enough to spawn a 52 episode series, noteable for its almost gothic atmosphere, which contrasts diametrically with the sunny affections that caretaker Muriel shows for Courage. This is pretty much all that allows Courage to persevere against not only all the outside threats that attack him and his caretakers, but to persevere against his mistreatment by Eustice, (presumably) Muriel's husband.
The video clip above predates Courage" by 5 years. It was a segment on MTV's Liquid Television titled "Smart Talk with Raisin - Pulling a Malade out of a Hat". In it we have character which are precursors to those of Courage. Raisin, the little girl hosting the show has the same general sunny temperment that we would see in Muriel, while Malcolm is the misanthrope who would be reincarnated as Eustice. He insults the poor dog Hamilton much the same way Eustice does Courage.
The title of this post comes from the first of the two shorts that aired as the last episode of Courage. "Remembrance of Courage Past" was paired up with an episode titled "Perfect", where a strict schoolteacher continually punishes Courage for not being perfect. That character makes her appearence in this short, thus seemingly deliberately bookending the saga of Courage.
Unlike recent series, this shows appears to have ended at the time by creator Dilworth's wish. The show was not placed on a long hiatus, with the last episodes snuck in under cover of night; nor was it stealthly cancelled as several recent Cartoon Network productions were. This a shame to think what the checkboard network has become.
I mentioned Courage the Cowardly Dog several posts/months back. In particular, the episode, Remembrance of Courage Past which was -- if I'm not mistaken -- the last episode of the show (paired with Perfect) , both shown and planned as such. In Remembrance, we learn through flashback the tragic story of how Courage came to be an orphaned dog, to be found and saved by Muriel. I mention it now, as for the time being, Cartoon Network has provided a direct link to the video.
For a network that has actually began to show contempt for the medium that it was created to celebrate, Cartoon Network has actually paid some small tributes to Joseph Barbera on his passing. and two commercials remarking on his passing (an Adult Swim version and a Cartoon Network/Boomerang version of the tribute). That said, with some occasional exceptions, the Boomerang network can be seen as the broadcast museum to the works of Hanna-Barbera.
Largely, I grew up after the H-B heyday, but of the so-called animation renaissance spurred on by the critical and commercial success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which helped revive the Disney Feature Animation unit, and encouraged Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros. into producing animation for television. (Remember when Tiny Toon Adventures got a primetime special on CBS for its premiere?) Disney got in to the act by expanding their daytime offerings into a two-hour block, calling it The Disney Afternoon. With Fox entering the scene, you had a small but active environment for animation, which of course helped spur the creation of Cartoon Network.(Ironically, a 24-hour animation network would eventually kill off afternoon cartoons on network TV, and drain the remaining audience for SatAm cartoons.)
Now, it may be giving too much credit to Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna to
say he kept animation alive from the 60s-80s through their Saturday
morning works (and the Flintstones in primetime), but if nothing else,
they kept a lot of their colleagues in work, and inspired lots of kids
at home, through those cartoons, as well as through those Tom and Jerry
shorts from the 1940s onward. J.B. also was one of the helpful bridges
to the history of the medium. He will be greatly missed in the
animation community. I'm glad to see he will be missed by Cartoon
Network, too.
Note to myself: Justice League Unlimited season 2 (actually season 3) -- the final season -- is scheduled to be released on March 20th. (Now with DVD box artwork from Amazon.com)
Where do you do your online shopping?
Funny enough, I just cancelled my free trial of Amazon Prime. Unlike Joe, even with the extra shopping spurred by free two-day shipping, I didn't spend nearly enough to justify the $80 yearly fee that would have been levied. In addition, the free "Super Saver Shipping" option frequently got my stuff delivered two days after order, even though Amazon would over estimate shipping time by a week. Right now, since I have a order I placed two days after my trial expired, I have Amazon estimating it won't arrive until between the 22nd and the 29th, however UPS is estimating the delivery to happen on the 21st. UPS is always right in these cases.
I joined Amazon Prime because it was offered as a free trial when I ordered Justice League Unlimited season 1 (and technically 2, too) when it came out in October, along with Teen Titans season 1.
Following that, I've been using Amazon.com to build up my trade paperback collection of Wonder Woman starting from the 80s relaunch. (I actually had picked up the first book in 2005 so I could have something for George Perez to sign at Baltimore Comic Con in 2005. He couldn't make it in 2005, but he was there in 2006, so he I got him to sign it then. And he and Marv Wolfman were nice enough to pose for a picture as well, which I wasn't expecting. Eventually, I should get it off of my digital camera and onto some more permanent medium.) Anyway, since I have the first paperbacks, I thought I may as well get the rest as they come out so I can follow the story to its apparent conclusion at spring 2006, after which it was relaunched again. I don't follow comics enough to know why, though.So, while I had Prime, I've ordered Beauty and the Beasts, Destiny Calling, Spirit of Truth, and JLA: League of One. Not counting Spirit as it is out of print and I bought it from a collector who had it signed by Paul Dini and Alex Ross (and thus sold it for $30 through Amazon), the other books from Amazon came to cost about $30, thus not justifying any membership for Prime.
