Friday, September 13, 2013

Hand-Drawn Renewal!

Nick has renewed its freshman hit.

... The cable network has renewed the animated series Sanjay and Craig featuring voice stars Maulik Pancholy (30 Rock, Weeds) and Chris Hardwick (Talking Bad, The Talking Dead) for a 20-episode second season. The sophomore run is expected to kick off in 2014.

The announcement comes days before the half-hour series, which debuted with back-to-back episodes May 25 to 3.6 million viewers, returns for the final eight installments of its freshman run Sept. 14 after a two-month break.

Funny thing about animation on television. The kids watching it don't care if it's computer generated or not. They watch CG shows that grab them. They watch the old-fashioned variety when those tickle their fancies.

This presents a conundrum for television animation studios, because doing CG for television is more expensive than the Hanna-Barbera style. And why spend more money if it ain't going to make you more money?

This question has been vexing tv animation producers since Sony Adelaide produced Starship Troopers in glorious CGI a dozen years ago. The cost of making the show was not cheap, and it flopped anyway. It's why today you still see a multitude of hand-drawn shows being produced; it's why DreamWorks Animation is doing the television version of Turbo in two dimensions even though the theatrical version was presented in three.

So if you're wondering why you still get lots of traditional-looking cartoons pouring into your home screen, it comes down to two words.

MON. EEE.

2 comments:

David said...


Funny thing about animation on television. The kids watching it don't care if it's computer generated or not.


Just the "kids" ? There is a rather large older teen and adult base watching hand drawn shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy (and spin-offs) . Most of Adult Swim is hand drawn or stop motion.

From what I've read on the fan forums there are a lot of young adults watching Gravity Falls.

Steve Hulett said...

You're no doubt correct. The audience in television, you and older, watch whether thd show is CG or not. Content is the central issue.

As a result, there is a way wider mix of animation styles on television than movie theaters.

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