Monday, March 2, 2009
Today's Cartoons
Here's my beef this week. What is the deal with the cartoons they have on television today? The animation in the cartoons is terrible. They don't take time to draw in the background or the characters. The animation of the characters are becoming more abstract and the constant flashing of bright colors is enough to put someone into a seizure. The character's aren't as memorable and love able as they used to be and the cartoons seem to be more violent now. They aren't as clever and Witty as they used to be so that kid and adult would be entertained by watching the show. What happened to the good old days when the animation was well draw, the story line was captivating, and you didn't have to worry about going into a seizure from watching a cartoon? You would think cartoons would be better drawn today with the increase of technology. It's not. It's getting worse. I think the increase of technology has made the artist lazy. When I was growing up we had good cartoons. We had Duck Tales, Tale Spin, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, Animaniacs, and Looney Toons just to name a few. These cartoons had memorable characters, Witty dialogue and you actually learned something by watching it. Imagine that learning something from watching a cartoon! I was first introduced to classical music through Looney Toons, and I learned about intriguing parts in history by watching Duck Tales, which made me want to learn more about the actual events that took place. Something needs to be done with the cartoons today. We need to go back to the basics. I love cartoons and it's sad to see the cartoons get sloppy. I guess I'm a big kid at heart. That's my beef this week and I'm sticking to it.
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Interesting comparisons and reflections. It might be worthwhile to explore how the audience these entertainers are writing for may be influencing some of the issues that bother you.
ReplyDeleteHear, hear! I totally agree with you man. Ironically, I started rewatching Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers recently (a coworker let me borrow her DVDs). Each story has a lesson to be learned that a kid can take in and remember. I don't think that all new shows have bad drawing, most older cartoons had generic backgrounds as well because they were not the main point of the story, but the plots that new shows contain are absolutely atrocious. They offer no educational purpose or any meaning whatsoever for that matter. I am sad with what is being shown on kids programming shows these days..
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree on several points, both as a film student and as an enormous man-child with a love of cartoons and nostalgia. The 'Unmoving Plaid' effect in Chowder is a conscious artistic choice. The animators there certainly can't be accused of laziness - one episode is animated in sand.
ReplyDeleteGraphic violence has gone down, not up. Compare the modern show of your choice against Ren and Stimpy or even Looney Toons. The first had the titular characters faces ripped off by an angry baboon and impaled on thorns in one episode and in another explored a culture where a bloody coup was celebrated every year by holding another bloody coup. As for Looney Toons, I dare not estimate the number of times Elmer Fudd has been shot in the face or the number of ways in which Wile E. Coyote's ACME-fueled machinations to kill and eat the Roadrunner went horribly wrong.
Cartoons still have the same educational and moral purposes as before. Episode 42 of Samurai Jack had the most entertaining summary of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner I've ever heard. Some episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender are downright feminist relative to the Disney cartoons of yore.
The issue, really, is a combination of time and Sturgeons Law - "Ninety percent of everything is crap". Modern cartoons have their dregs, to be sure, but the cartoons of the 80s and 90s had just as many. Remember Dinosaucers? Camp Candy? The Adventures of T-Rex?
How many shows existed for the sole purpose of selling toys? Street Sharks and Creepy Crawlers come to mind. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Mighty Ducks weren't alone in being tailor made to cash in on the popularity of their namesake movies. Movies that were, in turn, attempts to cash in on previous movies.
Shows didn't get sloppy - they've always been sloppy. It may be easy to compare the worst 90% of today with the best 10% of yesterday, but it's terribly unfair.