What on earth is going on with the writers of all these cartoons? Why is absurdist nonsense the soup of the day right now? Did they all grow up on Spongebob and think “Hold my acid tabs”? What a bunch of odd, weirdly all over the place, rapidly paced, fast cut, gibberish. One or two shows of this nature makes sense, you know, corner that market, but now it seems like everything is talking cupcakes, wishing upon farts, dopey unicorns, leprechauns, and manic squirrels, or inanimate objects come to life, like a stick with a leaf for a pal, and a talking strawberry. There’s far more weirdness out there than I could recount, but so much of it is “just” weirdness. Don’t get me wrong, I was a huge fan of Ren & Stimpy, and Spongebob too, but this just seems like excess. As though they put words into a salad bowl, pulled out several and then thought this is good enough.
Not a fan of the current animation style either. But that’s more of an aesthetic taste, than anything to do about quality. I’m sure they are all ridiculously time consuming to produce, and reuse portions to cut down on costs. Run cycles, and character transformation breaks (think Sailor Moon transformation sequence) draw it once and reuse it in every subsequent episode. Looks like a lot of the shows use a similar animation program from 2d drawings. They have a sameness to them, in line work, line weights, colour palettes, and fluidity of motion. I think the days of flipping through frames over a light board are long gone. Do they still do inbetweens and key frames with the current software? Or is it filled in by the software? No idea. I’ll have to ask the animators I know from Sheridan College. I’m sure they’ll love that line of questioning.
Not that any of this matters mind you, just an observation. Perhaps it all stems from the television channels that we frequently watch. If we were more adventurous maybe we’d find new, more linear shows with alternative animation styles. I think that because I grew up in the 80’s with G I Joe, He-Man, Transformers, Thundercats and then TMNT, and other classics along those lines, that that is the animation style that I respond positively to. Or, those early 2000’s CGI movies that went hard in the paint for texture and movement. Not that feature film animation bugs me, we’re talking some of the made for tv stuff. Then I think back to the 90’s with X-Men and get all nostalgic again. But that could be due to how they drew Rogue, and how often Jean Grey moaned on that show. Ha.
Happy Sunday to all of you out there. Ciao Bella!
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