tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post8640465713653089904..comments2024-03-29T02:18:35.303-07:00Comments on TAG Blog: American Animation TrendsSteve Huletthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05537689111433326847noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-24341120853118998842010-03-29T14:35:45.586-07:002010-03-29T14:35:45.586-07:00Last I heard one of the tipping points for Film Ro...Last I heard one of the tipping points for Film Roman was not that benefits got cut <i>per say</i> as IDT had promised free phone service, etc then realized it had no jurisdiction west of the Mississippi. There were a million things leading up to that of course, but I heard that was the straw that broke the camel's back.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-30100996057548487952010-03-20T23:05:05.058-07:002010-03-20T23:05:05.058-07:00"blocked people from getting jobs at Family G...<b>"blocked people from getting jobs at Family Guy..."<br /><br />***Hey Steve...you know this is still happening, right? </b><br /><br />Not to my knowledge.<br /><br />I thought Richard Reynis had grown bored with shafting peopleSteve Huletthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05537689111433326847noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-31122379660821409992010-03-19T14:49:05.921-07:002010-03-19T14:49:05.921-07:00"blocked people from getting jobs at Family G..."blocked people from getting jobs at Family Guy..."<br /><br />prime time treats artists like cattle. worst pencil-pushing jobs in animation, working hit tv animation. they should all be ashamed of themselves, wga and sag included. sweatshops, even WITH union representation across the board. these shows are sad failures.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-41630630933801074052010-03-19T13:28:09.176-07:002010-03-19T13:28:09.176-07:00"blocked people from getting jobs at Family G..."blocked people from getting jobs at Family Guy..."<br /><br />***Hey Steve...you know this is still happening, right?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-47473654189599757802010-03-19T08:44:11.365-07:002010-03-19T08:44:11.365-07:00"Anastasia"....talk about rotoscoping, j..."Anastasia"....talk about rotoscoping, jeeez!Awww, my eyes!!noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-20581349008279464142010-03-18T16:07:57.931-07:002010-03-18T16:07:57.931-07:00as a little girl in the eighties and a 2d animator...<i>as a little girl in the eighties and a 2d animator now, i have to put in my 2 cents - i don't think i've ever connected with any film the way i did with secret of nimh as a kid.</i><br /><br />You had to be there in '82:<br />Old-Disney had delivered a cement balloon with Fox&Hound the year before, and the audience was giving the Miller animated studio up for dead.<br />Then along came Bluth's lush retro-tribute hyper-storytelling, and the audience (and Spielberg) all literally wished Bluth would march in, kick the bums out and take over the studio, tomorrow the industry.<br />Looking back in hindsight at Thumbelina and Titan AE, as well as what later became of Disney <i>after</i> the 80's...good thing he didn't. ;)<br /><br />(Although PATF could have taken a screening or two of "Anastasia" for historical notes on How To Do a Genuine Retro-90's Musical According to the Rules.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-54687538694589329072010-03-18T11:18:23.013-07:002010-03-18T11:18:23.013-07:00In the same position as the female Animator above:...In the same position as the female Animator above: Land Before Time isn't just the critic's darling, it spoke to a generation of kids.<br /><br />I mean, we're supposed to be talking about animation styles, here, but "emotionless"? The animation supplants the dialogue, and in Land Before Time, the dialogue dealt with a lot of heavy, heavy, heavy subject matter about not just losing loved ones but about dealing with the grief of losing loved ones, of friendship, of long journeys home.<br /><br />For the record, I think the animation was beautiful -- but I loved all of his works, being in a position when they were released to enjoy them and find them relevant and nostalgic still today.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-52883923180036336352010-03-18T10:41:53.499-07:002010-03-18T10:41:53.499-07:00as a little girl in the eighties and a 2d animator...as a little girl in the eighties and a 2d animator now, i have to put in my 2 cents - i don't think i've ever connected with any film the way i did with secret of nimh as a kid. those were some effing real compelling characters. as a female it felt way better to connect with mrs brisby or even fievel's sister than ariel or belle. i love john k and appreciate disney. don bluth may not be the aesthetic i'd prefer to animate nowadays, but you sure as hell can't say they were emotionless.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-9360422060711482332010-03-18T09:34:48.896-07:002010-03-18T09:34:48.896-07:00Yes, but you absolutely cannot deny that a very we...Yes, but you absolutely cannot deny that a very wealthy and influential member of your union at the table helps enormously. I acknowledge your tip of the hat to the ranks, but they did at the end of the day have a general at the top to follow. Let's not delude ourselves.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-639550716309693612010-03-18T09:23:51.595-07:002010-03-18T09:23:51.595-07:00It wasn't Film Roman blocking people from gong...It wasn't Film Roman blocking people from gong to Family Guy. That was a back room deal between Gracie and Twentieth Television.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-66064487114042096202010-03-18T08:47:48.995-07:002010-03-18T08:47:48.995-07:00The union didn't show up until way after the f...<b>The union didn't show up until way after the fact, for better or worse. The Simpson's just happened to have James Brooks in their court for their writers. We had no equivalent name on the art side at the table in television. </b><br /><br />TO enlighten you: I was standing outside of Klasky-Csupo in '91, waving my flyers and working to get the studio to go union.<br /><br />Didn't have enough takers, though I was down in front of the studio for over a month. (We ultimately threatened a lawsuit for unpaid o.t. and got settlements for half a dozen artists who stood up.)<br /><br />We tried again to organize "The SImpsons" several more times through the nineties. No luck. It wasn't until Film Roman management cut benefits and blocked people from getting jobs at "Family Guy" (after "The SImpsons" had laid them off due to a wild-cat voice actors' strike) that artists voted overwhelmingly -- finally -- to go union.<br /><br />As for James Brooks, "The Simpsons" writers worked without a WGA contract until 1997. Brooks wasn't instrumental in the Yellow Family writers going WGA; the writers were.Steve Huletthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05537689111433326847noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-35717737038826680412010-03-18T07:37:04.969-07:002010-03-18T07:37:04.969-07:00Forget what the cartoons look like, audiences resp...Forget what the cartoons look like, audiences responded to John because of what they felt like - they felt like real cartoons. Meaning they were completely unlike the Emmy-winning crap coming out of Disney and WB at the same time. They felt that way b/c they were run by creators and staffs in charge of the destiny of their work. The executives were pushed and often bullied to the sidelines, and guess what - the people actually liked the work for a change. Imagine that! Cartoons created the way they were supposed to be created.<br /><br />Their 'cartoon' counterparts at Disney and WB were bloated, executive-heavy bores. <br /><br />John was far from flat. <br /><br />The union didn't show up until way after the fact, for better or worse. The Simpson's just happened to have James Brooks in their court for their writers. We had no equivalent name on the art side at the table in television. And that, as they say, was that. Forever.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-28009905878451960612010-03-18T04:44:55.820-07:002010-03-18T04:44:55.820-07:00I'm not a huge fan of Ren & Stimpy (mostly...I'm not a huge fan of Ren & Stimpy (mostly, it's John K.'s storytelling that doesn't impress me), but it seems to me that the visual style of that show is substantially different from all of the other Nicktoons: solidly constructed characters, painted backgrounds, dozens of unique poses per episode... Rugrats and Doug never had anything like that.<br /><br />When people talk about Ren & Stimpy changing everything, they're usually talking about its gross-out humor, randomness, odd timing, and the deep involvement of its creator. I really don't see much visual influence on today's cartoons, with the exception of a few facial expressions that caught on with in shows like Spongebob.Wonkey the Monkeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14552774585545269246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-15786988437517728332010-03-18T01:17:36.187-07:002010-03-18T01:17:36.187-07:00They're still dumping it on his website, which...They're still dumping it on his website, which he recently had to velvet-rope against outsiders:<br />Apparently, John K. doesn't like being sent down in history as "The Man Who Killed Cartoons".<br />(Y'see, it's not really <i>his</i> fault, he tells us, it's all those IMITATORS!)<br /><br /><b>bluth did nothing new, other than his phony "neo-classical" animation, focused on bells and whistles. Audiences didn't care and stayed away because bluth couldn't tell a story or create compelling characters real people could connect with. </b><br /><br />Well, to be fair, his first two big 80's "neo-classical" looked a little more focused back when the Ron Miller Disneys were stuck in their 70's rut--And then the Mermaid Renaissance happened at the end of the 80's, Bluth's films looked as old as lace doilies, and we all started concentrating on how creepy his "helpless" fetish was starting to look.<br />Land Before Time was the critics'-darling in its day, now it's hard to watch more than five minutes at a stretch.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-82084493534292406142010-03-17T23:25:09.766-07:002010-03-17T23:25:09.766-07:00John K is a one trick pony.
All the praise and ad...John K is a one trick pony.<br /><br />All the praise and adoration dumped on him by his handful of superfans was old 10 years ago.<br /><br />Sure he's talented, but cmon.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-80903357145888263642010-03-17T19:37:15.735-07:002010-03-17T19:37:15.735-07:00"I think John K. would probably rupture somet..."I think John K. would probably rupture something if he heard you describe Ren & Stimpy as having a "flatter, simpler, more angular style"."<br /><br />Why? It's true. It's an oversimplification, but in the case of Ren and Stimpy, it's a VIRTUE. And it certainly isn't simpler to do.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-64000086715394892802010-03-17T19:34:03.812-07:002010-03-17T19:34:03.812-07:00I really REALLY miss Ren and Stimpy.I really REALLY miss Ren and Stimpy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-60135925878233125112010-03-17T19:01:57.874-07:002010-03-17T19:01:57.874-07:00Doesn't John K. rupture on a regular basis any...Doesn't John K. rupture on a regular basis anyway?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-85890970064917166462010-03-17T18:36:34.725-07:002010-03-17T18:36:34.725-07:00I think John K. would probably rupture something i...I think John K. would probably rupture something if he heard you describe <i>Ren & Stimpy</i> as having a "flatter, simpler, more angular style".Wonkey the Monkeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14552774585545269246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-13761977983411315172010-03-17T17:26:04.484-07:002010-03-17T17:26:04.484-07:00bluth did nothing new, other than his phony "...bluth did nothing new, other than his phony "neo-classical" animation, focused on bells and whistles. Audiences didn't care and stayed away because bluth couldn't tell a story or create compelling characters real people could connect with. And they were emotionless. And ugly.<br /><br />I'll give him this, though. He made a LOT of bad films.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com