So animation is a huge passion of mine. It’s a medium of art that produces crazy awesome content. I have even recently gotten into children’s cartoons because I’ve gotten some perspective of the industry side of the process and boy are there really talented people making shows. I have utmost respect for anyone who can animate because it takes an enormous amount of creativity and patience hand drawn or computer generated, and its a future I’m really considering pursuing.
Animation covers a wide spectrum of media: Movies, television, games, cartoons, internet videos (rapidly growing), advertisement and it has been around for over a century.
So discuss animation and animators.
I’ll start off with Lakewood Turbo Plaza. Its a show that takes inspiration from Street Fighter and Dragon Ball. Right now it only has a pilot episode which can be viewed (via a quick Google search) and is in the limbo space before being made into a show… maybe. Its worth a watch and definitely worth support.
Ok, here are some of my observations of the trifecta of animation industries:
Cartoon Network:
Cartoon Network is the idealistic network of this generation. What makes them superior to other competitors is their willingness to experiment with entertainment, but even more advantageous than that is the creative freedom they give to their content creators. After the drought of decent shows and many forgettable or just plain bad ones from the turn of the century (which arguably had some good ones far and in between) CN became a pace setter. The popularity of “Adventure Time” and “Regular Show” are marked by many as the starting point for the current generation of animation. The success of these shows opened up a pathway for more quality cartoons such as “Steven Universe”, “Clarence”, “The Amazing World of Gumball”, “Over the Garden Wall” and others.
Disney Channel:
As a company, Disney has been around since the golden age of animation. It sits in the middle ground. Over the years the Disney Channel has shifted its focus from actual animation to cheesy “whacky fun” sitcoms. But they apparently seem to be taking a lesson from CN and making some admirable shows such as the cult classic “Gravity Falls.” Other praise worthy Disney shows include “Wonder over Yonder” and the upcoming “Star vs the Forces of Evil.”
Disney XD:
Also piggy backing onto the Disney channel is Disney XD. This network was conceived to be the edgy “for guys” incarnation of the Disney Channel. It doesn’t recieve as much priority or attention as its big sister, but does get its fair share of good content (Motor City, Tron Uprising, Kick Buttowski)
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon is pretty deplorable. The poster-boy of Pinnacle “90’s cartoons” now lives in its own shadow. Like Disney channel they capitalize themselves on bad sitcoms, but when it comes to animation they play the “”"“safe”""" route, and boy does it destroy them. It seems like Nickelodeon’s plan of attack is to milk out SpongeBob and Fairly OddParents till the cows come home. Everything else is just half heartedly pulled out of their rear end. It appears that the mentality of the corporation is that kids want over the top cheap gross out humor. That was true at one point… but only for a different time period. A few Show creators have confessed that they refused to work with Nickelodeon because the lack of creative freedom given. That’s rrreeeaaaalllyyy bad for your company. Some respectable animations that they have made recently though include the Avatar Series and the most recent incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Am I the only one who hates pretty much everything tjose channels put out these days? Especially shows like Regular show, Gumball, etc. I just don’t find that style of humor funny.
Animations to admire:
Studio Mir stuff, anything from Studio Ghibli, guys who animated Sym Bionic Titan and Samurai Jack, Adventure Time, Over the Garden Wall and Steven Universe animators. Hanna Barbara stuff,Gravity Falls animators…
I love animation as a medium. Good animation takes visual art to the next level and makes pictures come to life. Throw in great voice acting, a solid soundtrack, sprinkle sound effects accordingly and you have something beautiful. I also love animation because over-the-top moments/expressions/etc. can be more easily incorporated into the universe than in live action. (I’m not a fan of overacting e.g. acting in opera) Not that bombastic events can’t be portrayed in other mediums, just take a look at Bondarchuk’s War and Peace. I just feel like exaggerated scenes and supernatural events break the suspension of disbelief less often in animation, and might even feel natural depending on the setting.
Let’s just say Batman: The Animated Series is one of the best TV series ever. You can’t get a better comic book adaptation, even if you have Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze. Other animated series I adore are Adventure Time, Monogatari series, Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Jack. I’d also like to mention Evangelion and the one true Moomin animation from Japan just because I love the series, but the animation was not noteworthy. Except for their films: they’re some of my favourite films.