Cartoon/Western Animation General

@Scrabbleman  
I’m… not sure what they’re trying to say here. They’re both heavily stylised and cartoony, and they’re both fine.

@Philweasel  
The fact that you find Thundercats Roar as acceptable quality is disconcerting. We must have standards in everything we do, and that abomination did not reach it.

@Scrabbleman  

 
Is it nice, out there in the future? How did Brexit go?
 
…because last I heard, Thundercats Roar hadn’t aired yet. And you know what was also awful? There’s a new My Little Pony cartoon coming up, where they don’t look anything like their original 1984 designs, and don’t even look like real horses. It’s clearly going to be garbage.
 
…no wait, I accidently travelled back to the past. This time travelling thing is sure confusing.
 
Now before we finish, what exactly is wrong with her design? That her waist isn’t smaller than her head? That her waist isn’t smaller than her bloody EYES? That they have more than one character model? That they don’t look kinda like Bratz Dolls?
 
Honestly the art style looks pretty cute to me.  

@Philweasel  
Because the character design is lazy. The character design in unflattering and lacks any constant model. It’s something a child can draw with crayons dipped in mouldy soup. It’s just disgusting to look that it can make God weep in tears.
 
Well, it doesn’t matter. You can continue to have your unpopular opinion if you want because now you’ve proven the bleak reality that is the future of animation. Maybe in a few years, you can get yourself a soapbox and stand in the middle of the park, claiming that you ruined cartoons for everyone as if it’s an achievement to be proud of.
 
Good job, you’re the exact person I dislike. One who lacks standard.

@Scrabbleman  

 
Oh my god, don’t ever speak to John Kricfalusi. He would literally turn you inside out.

@Scrabbleman  
I seem to be noticing a trend in cartoons recently where females are being made to look less feminine, less shapely, less sterotypically “pretty,” and more androgynous looking. Even “She-Ra” despite being a decent show is kinda guilty of that sometimes. (Like with the faces.)
 
Not saying every female has to be all skinny, and “sexy,” or look like a Barbie doll, but it seems like animation is trying to be too politically-correct in that regard recently.
 
@Philweasel  
Didn’t he get busted for being a perv’?
 
…Actually makes me more disapointed in John K. as I actually love the original “Ren & Stimpy.” It’s kinda shame the animation industry/fanbase has now blacklisted that show, because of him, (or at least it seems that way, because my local stores stopped selling R&S DVDs) especially sense he was only involved in the first season mostly.

@Beau Skunky  
I don’t think it’s because they are trying to be “PC”.  
Maybe the just think they look better that way :/

@Scrabbleman
 
Why does Cheetarah look like a dude? Or is that her brother Cheetaro?

@icey wicey 1517  
Yeah, but not every female has to look androgynous either. There’s nothing wrong with even just a li’l tiny bit of femininity in a female character’s design.
 
It’s kinda becoming a stigma, I remember some people got on “O.K. K.O.”’s case for giving females more thicker hips/thighs, (which was meant to make ‘em look strong, like some of the more buff males in the series) even though frankly the characters don’t look sexualized, realistic, or anything.

@Beau Skunky  
It is a little weird. Honestly what I despise most is every show looking the goddamn same, so these weird trends annoy me. Like when every new show seemed to want to look like Avatar (funnily enough, including Thundercats), or yes, when everything started to look like Ren and Stimpy.
 
Thundercats get a pass from me, because it’s art style is very unique, and I like the whole ‘looks like a twelve year old boy’s doodles’ look. It gives it visual identity.
 
For all I love the show, She-Ra on the other hand looks like Avatar had a (low budget) baby with Steven Universe, and the show just fails to stand out visually. And I’m sorry Faust, but DC Universe girls looks like every young girls show in years, reminding me way too much of both Equestria Girls and Ever After High.
 
Hilda was another show I saw recently that I thought really stood out for it’s unique style, one that fitted the genre and tone. Props to them.

@Philweasel  
I don’t mind seeing shows with similar styles sometimes, but yeah it does get old sometimes. It’s apparently an animation trend sense the 1960s when TV cartoons started with low-budget Hanna Barbara cartoon shorts. (But even those have a retro simplistic off-model charm about them. Stuff like Yogi Bear, and Space Ghost still looked different from each other though.)
 
Thundercats Roar frankly doesn’t look that unique to me, it kinda looks a li’l like “O.K. K.O.” perhaps mixed with a few other shows, but a li’l different too. I think the hate for it is mostly because of how it’s trying to be another comical superhero show like “Teen Titans Go,” which started a new trend of that.
 
I kinda wish they’d air that new comical Justice League show more, as it’s actually a “comical superhero” show done nicely, and with respect to the source material. (And it brings back voices, and stuff from the classic Bruce Timm era.)

@Beau Skunky  

 
I’d not watched that one, and I’ve just looked it up. And damn, I love the art. Again, unique and characterful, and not looking like it desperately wants to be the new [insert show here].
 
Does the rest of the show live up to it? Because it certainly looks worth a watch.

@Beau Skunky  

 
Heh, I can see that now. And I’ve just read that the show has also been critisised for ‘Off Model’ and ‘Lazy’ animation.
 
Honestly, Kricfalusi an asshole (and a pervert? Didn’t actually know that…) but I kinda agree with him here. You shouldn’t go too far, but model sheets can be the bane of creativity sometimes.

@Philweasel  
I kinda got turned off “O.K. K.O.” after watching a rather annoyingly “preachy” controversial episode of it, (which even fans of the show, and whom even agree with it’s message disliked) which unfortunately is the only episode of it I’ve seen, so I haven’t seen much of it frankly.  
Some like it, some find it mediocre.
 
You seem to gravitate to more simple art styles, which is perfectly fine. I like it sometimes too, but I can understand why some dislike some shows like that.
 
@Philweasel  
Yeah, off-model can be more appealing sometimes, as opposed to more static copy-and-paste looking characters in modern shows.
 
Just look at Cuphead.

@Beau Skunky  

 
I think TV animation just works better with simple art styles. A lot of shows I seen forget that, and ended up gorgeous in still shot, and seriously dull and ugly in motion. And I’m SUPER bored of the Avatar/Voltron/Thundercats/Dragon Prince style, which now comes across as derivative to the extreme.
 
Actually the most lovely looking show I’ve seen in ages (and is my favorite show of the moment) is Tanya the Evil, which is really complex looking but looks great by virtue of fitting the tone, being visual distinctive and having some of the smoothest motion I’ve seen in ages. Love Death and Robots also has some of the best animation I’ve seen in years, no matter if it looks like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs or something animated by Robert Zemeckis.

@Philweasel  
I don’t mind realistic styles depending on how they’re done, and I wouldn’t mind something like say having a more retro “Real Ghostbusters” style to it, but that’d be hard to pull off nowadays, without overseas animation, and HD digital tablet art being the norm’ now.

@Beau Skunky  
You still see it occasionally, though mostly in anime (where that style is more fondly remembered). Space Battleship Yamato 2199 is the most recent one I’ve seen, which I think is actually animated by some of the same people who did Real Ghostbusters.

@Beau Skunky
 
I’m not fond of most realistic styles. Even if we put the Uncanny valley out and manage to avoid it, I still prefer stylized drawings. One reason is that the characters can look very comical or intimidating with great effect and also I think it helps to impulse creative designs.

The TV series “charmed” is playing on cn for some reason.

@Philweasel  
That gif is awesome.

I’m all for leaving realistic styles to Japan, seeing how they’re the only ones who can pull it off and make it feel dynamic; Madhouse in particular are masters at it. However, I don’t see any need to outsource to them, since American directors would just instruct them to water down the look to fulfill how American audiences expect their cartoons to look and move (like Hulk Vs. or something).
 
And before they’re brought up, no I wouldn’t care very much to do business with TMS either. Yes, they’re very skilled animators and good at solid, fluid motion, but that’s really all the Western studios they worked with cared about; the character-acting isn’t there (especially since hardly any was taken into consideration in the first place), and things just moved for the sake of moving. At least with TMS’s own domestic series, animation only took place when it needed to, so the energy was put where it was necessary.
 
But yeah, as far as America is concerned, I definitely think we should keep ugly stuff like Real Ghostbusters in the dark age where they belong.

@Beau Skunky  
Oh you mean the skeleton remote one

@Beau Skunky  
that was just a one-off bad episode the show is much better then that.

feel like there’s not enough art of scorpia carrying a trapinch in a baby carrier.  
get on it artis!

@CatsTuxedo  
I don’t know, I don’t think all Japan-American-mixed cartoons are that bad, or ugly. Just look at “Animaniacs” was very fluid, despite being more American styled, and TMS did great work with it.  
(For that matter, I liked Real Ghostbusters’ style, and it had pretty creative, and creepy ghost monster designs. I take it, you’re not a big fan of retro ‘80s cartoons, or ‘80s anime, and such. I just kinda miss the more smooth style as opposed to the more rigid straight shaped polygon lines with circles line style more “realistic” American cartoons have nowadays.)  
Animation enthusiasts tend to give those old cartoons flack for their mistakes, off-model moments, and such, but I kinda miss those imperfections, as they kinda had a certain appeal to them as opposed to “perfect” animation nowadays that looks so “copy-and-paste,” or machine made to me. (Not saying all modern animation is like that, but even MLP feels that way sometimes, but at least it isn’t afraid to exaggerate, or go off-model with facial expressions, and visual gags sometimes.)
 
I really liked the way “Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland” looked, (for that matter, the Capcom game was good too) it was kinda like Miyazaki meets Disney kinda, so I think mixing Japanese & American styles can still be possibly fruitful depending on how they’re done, but I admit it doesn’t always work.  
While shows like MLP:FiM, have no outsourcing to Japan, or input, they still have some inspiration from them, as well. So actually, there is some Japanese influence in modern cartoons regardless, so actually maybe all the overseas Japanimation from the ‘80s helped have an influence on modern cartoons in some ways.
 
Of course, the anime-boom in the late ‘90s lead to too many 2000s American cartoons trying to copy anime, and such, to the point some got sick of those kinda shows, but that died down, and ironically, some miss those more action & continuity oriented cartoons.
 
@Twi Clown  
Well, more realistic styles, can still have some stylization too, so they don’t look too dull or realistic, but fantasy, and rigid styles seem to be all we ever see now ever sense eve 2D animation went digital, so I wouldn’t mind more experimenting with both realistic or unrealistic styles, just so everything doesn’t look like the usual Nick/CN cartoon.