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Animation: Breaking demographic barriers
Fleck0
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
This thread is about animation and the leaps and bounds it's been taking in the last few years.
We've seen something of a revolution. Animation went from something that everyone enjoyed when they saw Steamboat Willy premiere at New York's 79th Street Theatre, to a worldwide phenomenon with the "Golden Age of Disney" with incredible works of art like Pinocchio, Snow white and Sleeping Beauty. To the "Second Golden Age of Disney" with The Little Mermaid, The Lion King and Aladdin (yeah stuff happened inbetween... but I can only do so much research :P)
In Between those we saw the late 80s and early 90s, the "Golden age of of product placement"... Transformers, Captain N, Ghostbusters, GI-Joe, Ninja Turtles and many more which I hope people will point out, cuase looking back those shows are all hi-larious.
In the last few years we've been seeing something of a revolution. They say everything happens in cycles and animation as an industry is no different. The influx of things like Pixar, Justice League, Marvel "Direct-to-DVD", Avatar, Spongebob, Adult Swim, and others I forgot, point to the next "Upswing" in American animation.
Personally I think animation is making great strides in appealling to children as well as adults, sometimes appealing to both (like Spongebob... Fuckin hilarious) or the recent release of Gotham Knights, an American OMV directed towards adult Batman fans done in a mostly Japanese style.
So what do ya'll think about this latest "revolution" in American animation?
-Feel free to mention European animation as well. I really should have added "triplets of belleville" up there somewhere, that movie is absolutely beautiful, and though I don't know a lot about last years Oscar animated shorts there was some amazing stuff there that I'd love to be elightened about
I'm gonna go ahead and post this clip from Triplets of Belleville cause I really think that movie epitomizes the Golden age of Animation we're currently experiencing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjjZsp2hDxk
(if someone can find the scene where the old woman repairs the bike, please post it, they show that all the time in animation classes at pretty much any college that offers it.... cause it's brilliant though that's more relevant to how brilliant and beatiful animation can be nowadays as opposed to how it's maturing, which I suppose it the real topic here)
I should have mentioned more about John Lasseter renewing 2D animation at Disney (we have yet to see what he'll do) but that will come later, the man is a pariah
edit: it's also timely, let's talk about how awesome Batman: TAS was, cause that show was at the cusp of this revolution IMO
We've seen something of a revolution. Animation went from something that everyone enjoyed when they saw Steamboat Willy premiere at New York's 79th Street Theatre, to a worldwide phenomenon with the "Golden Age of Disney" with incredible works of art like Pinocchio, Snow white and Sleeping Beauty. To the "Second Golden Age of Disney" with The Little Mermaid, The Lion King and Aladdin (yeah stuff happened inbetween... but I can only do so much research :P)
In Between those we saw the late 80s and early 90s, the "Golden age of of product placement"... Transformers, Captain N, Ghostbusters, GI-Joe, Ninja Turtles and many more which I hope people will point out, cuase looking back those shows are all hi-larious.
In the last few years we've been seeing something of a revolution. They say everything happens in cycles and animation as an industry is no different. The influx of things like Pixar, Justice League, Marvel "Direct-to-DVD", Avatar, Spongebob, Adult Swim, and others I forgot, point to the next "Upswing" in American animation.
Personally I think animation is making great strides in appealling to children as well as adults, sometimes appealing to both (like Spongebob... Fuckin hilarious) or the recent release of Gotham Knights, an American OMV directed towards adult Batman fans done in a mostly Japanese style.
So what do ya'll think about this latest "revolution" in American animation?
-Feel free to mention European animation as well. I really should have added "triplets of belleville" up there somewhere, that movie is absolutely beautiful, and though I don't know a lot about last years Oscar animated shorts there was some amazing stuff there that I'd love to be elightened about
I'm gonna go ahead and post this clip from Triplets of Belleville cause I really think that movie epitomizes the Golden age of Animation we're currently experiencing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjjZsp2hDxk
(if someone can find the scene where the old woman repairs the bike, please post it, they show that all the time in animation classes at pretty much any college that offers it.... cause it's brilliant though that's more relevant to how brilliant and beatiful animation can be nowadays as opposed to how it's maturing, which I suppose it the real topic here)
I should have mentioned more about John Lasseter renewing 2D animation at Disney (we have yet to see what he'll do) but that will come later, the man is a pariah
edit: it's also timely, let's talk about how awesome Batman: TAS was, cause that show was at the cusp of this revolution IMO
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EDIT: Triplets is incredible, but very different if you watch a lot of Western stuff. It really is a feat in animation, if only because it has practically nothing else to fall back on. I recall the total lines of dialogue being in the single digits.
Yeah, adult swim doesn't really help the ascetic qualities of animation, but as far as bringing it to an adult audience they've made great strides. (by great I mean HUGE)
They've also made a pretty big impact in the writing department. The Boondocks anyone? Sony may have made it, but CN was the only network willing to air it. I'm also a huge Metalocalypse fan, between that and Home Movies, I think Brendan Small has done a lot for writing in animation.
edit: I agree on triplets, it's not so much an achievement in appealing to an adult audience as it as a beautiful work of art, I just could't help but post it. I'll try to find a great clip from maybe avatar, a marvel movie, one of the hellboy animated films or batman: TAS or something that better supports the OP.
i.e. I dunno, I want someone to do this part for me... post something great (and legal :P)
edit: to Rorus below: How the hell did I not mention Veture Bros!?! That's a great example. A pretty enough show, with very smart writing that appeals to the 18-30ish crowd
edit2: sorta said what I tried to convey in my whole OP in that one sentence
I think the mid-90s did a lot of great things. The "Spielberg" programs were all great comedies...Timm and company ushered in real action/drama that wasn't set out to be a toy ad. Right now the 80s generation rules the pop culture, but if we see the 90s get a similar treatment it'll be something actually worth bringing back for reasons beyond blind nostalgia.
Lots of people like anime for lots of (sometimes weird) reasons, but the greatest impact I think is that is that shown that animation and adult themes can co-exist. Obviously not all anime has adult themes, but many do and anime has been doing them for pretty much its entire existance. One of the shows you mentioned, Avatar, clearly shows its anime influence in its animation style.
I think there are some props in there than need to go to Miyazaki, and who ever decided to bring him over into western theaters. Also, shame on you for not mentioning the Iron Giant.
Let me rephrase that...my parents still call it "Japanimation" and won't watch the stuff and will give me a hard if they see me viewing it. But they won't question my seeing Wall-E. It's inspired the animators and writers to want to do more adult things, but anime hasn't really penetrated the adult perception quite yet.
I don't wanna shoot down anime, but in the West it's still got to drop the geek culture trappings.
Hey it's late here :P Miyazaki and Iron Giant are both brilliant in my mind, but I could only use so many examples.
I should be punished for forgetting Iron Giant though. That was right on the cusp as well, and covers mature subjects while being funny and entertaining at the same time.
kinda unrelated but the LA Times recently had an article about how shitty that new Eddie Murphy Movie was doing and they talked about how it wasn't marketed as a "Sci-Fi Comedy" because those never do well. The dickhead producer went as far as saying "name a successful sci-fi comedy... you can't" of course after the fact anyone would name Ghostbusters or Men in Black, but I think Iron Giant belongs there as well... I'm getting way off topic but Iron Giant came out in 1999. Under-appreciated but definitely ahead of it's time
I really wanted to talk about this but didn't want to get in trouble for derailing that thread...sooo basically.... Avatar is Epic and if you didn't see the finale you better get caught up, it's the perfect example of the maturation of American animation and it aired on Nickelodeon to boot. WATCH IT!
I'm not saying all anime is great art and hoorah japan! Just that certain films that finally made it over here were vastly different from what US audiences typically expected from an animated feature, and that may have caused some waves.
Also, I wager that Beauty and the Beast would not have been nominated if the Animation academy award existed at the time :P
Right, but the point still remains that animated shows for an older crowd is a relatively new thing in the United States, and Adult Swim has been a huge catalyst, if not the entire reason, for that.
Whether or not you like the shows, or think they're "stoner-esque," well we don't really give a shit and it's not really pertinent to this thread.
Older generation? As in the baby boomer generation? Who really gives a fuck?
Your bias shows through quite nicely here, as does the point when you should no longer be taken seriously in this thread.
They did do an episode with Jon H. Benjamin, who is hilarious no-matter what show he's in, which reminds me of when Comedy Central used to run cartoons at the wee-hours of the night... which included Ben Edlund's The Tick. Which was another show that ushered in the whole "Cartoons that kids AND adults like" era
I kind of wonder how popular our 80's kids cartoons would have been if it had to compete with what Japan was dishing up across the pond during that time. Shows like He-Man and Thundercats may not have stood a chance.
yes. well...Robotech was good.
If we don't care about the older generation's view, then there's no point to this thread. We'll get older and animation will eventually be more mainstream for all ages because we'll be more or less the gatekeepers of societal norms. The end. There's really nothing of interest to note there. Changing perspectives is what's interesting, and recently we've been seeing that.
Of course I have a fucking bias. You have a damn bias too. I own two seasons of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Adult Swim was where I saw my favorite anime, FLCL. So no, I don't hate Adult Swim because it's Adult Swim, but because they've gotten pretty lazy as of late. A lot of new shows aren't even fucking ANIMATED.
But hey, ATHF's cut-out animation is shit. The writing was good, but the animation was crap and it's a crutch Adult Swim has used on far too many of its shows. A certain "different" style works, but they've dragged it into the gutter and beat it to death. It wasn't even new when Adult Swim debuted. That isn't going to be taken seriously by the world, but hey, you don't give a shit. After all, you'd rather wait on the people who disagree with you to die of old age.
Something that sticks out mostly because I only noticed it recently, was Selina Kyle (possibly, I could just be reading too much into it) offering Bruce a handjob in an episode of Batman.
That and the man-whore joke in Rocko. Amazing what they could get away with.
Also, I applaud the recent return of wackiness and absurdity to cartoon shows, such as Chowder and The Misadventures of Flapjack, and the late Megas XLR. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it when you see more mature, thoughtful animation, but sometimes you just wanna watch cartoons.
On the subject of Adult Swim, I only really have two problems:
1. It's not it's own channel yet
2. Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job