Western Animation - Discuss American, Canadian, and European cartoons here (or just bitch about wokeshit, I guess)

[Durag Oddish]

Off topic, but I prefer the live action era of Cartoon Network as opposed to today where they have nothing but SJW propaganda shows with the ugly CalArts style or reboots watched by neckbeards.

Hole in the wall was the funniest shit

 

[Private Pyle]

The real problem is all of the for-profit art schools who pull in students pretending that TV/movie animation is "art", when really you're just another gear in the machine putting together a consumer good.

I get what you’re trying to say but it’s still just a bit snotty to imply TV and movie animation has no artistic value and is nothing more than consumer goods. And yes I’m well aware that companies can be unkind to creatives. But good animators have proven to put good and entraining artistic endeavors while under a payroll. Call me wide eyed, I do realize how optimistic this all sounds.

As for using crowdfunding for large scale independent projects, web animators are already making it happen. There’s Vivziepop’s shows, pilots for Satina and Long Gone Gulch, and more in the pipeline. You can criticize the actual content but it’s at least admirable that others are taking initiative.

 

[KoldHardTruth]

Hole in the wall was the funniest shit

That show would've been meme material if it came out today.

Hole in the wall was the funniest shit

At least those live action shows they had in the early 2010s were watched by normal people instead of weirdos who draw Loud House incest art work.

I stopped watching cartoon network after 2015. That's about the time I stopped being it's target audience.

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

As for using crowdfunding for large scale independent projects, web animators are already making it happen. There’s Vivziepop’s shows, pilots for Satina and Long Gone Gulch, and more in the pipeline. You can criticize the actual content but it’s at least admirable that others are taking initiative.

There's only so far you can go with crowdfunding, though. I don't know where it can really go from where it is now. Maybe the next step is worker owned co-op studios?

 

[Trilby]

There's only so far you can go with crowdfunding, though. I don't know where it can really go from where it is now. Maybe the next step is worker owned co-op studios?

Might have to be the way. Croatia has had one for years with it's Zagreb Film studio.

 

[Private Pyle]

There's only so far you can go with crowdfunding, though. I don't know where it can really go from where it is now. Maybe the next step is worker owned co-op studios?

Might have to be the way. Croatia has had one for years with it's Zagreb Film studio.

I’m kind of oversimplifying it and didn’t mean to imply getting Patreon bucks was all it took. Several indie animators already have small studios that have other animators working under them (ie SpindleHorse, ScumHouse). In the case of something like Hazbin Hotel, the pilot was popular enough that a bigger indie studio picked it up for bigger distribution and platforms.

 

[KoldHardTruth]

Yo, what happened to dis nigga's teeth?

 

[Super-Chevy454]

Yo, what happened to dis nigga's teeth?

The same question could be asked to Nickelodeon as well.

 

[Stuck Pooh]

Hole in the wall was the funniest shit

Season 2 of Squid Games is already out?

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Happy Thanksgiving from the year 2008

 

[Secret Asshole]

Has anyone here been watching Arcane? It's a damn good show imo. It's based on League of Legends, but I don't know anything about the game and I was still able to get invested in it. Another plus is that it's absolutely gorgeous- every frame looks like a moving painting or piece of concept art.

The main characters are written to be both likable and flawed, and the female characters regularly get the shit kicked out of them just like the male characters. Nobody's overpowered and the main characters have to fight hard for every single win they get. They also manage to write a class conflict without it being a very black and white "rich people are irredeemably evil and don't care about anything other than money while the poor are sweet angels who do nothing wrong ever" narrative. There's decent topsiders who are trying to help everyone around them and there's poor assholes who are making everything worse for everyone around them and hiding behind "Getting back at The Man™" to continue fucking their fellow poors over. The writers explicitly stated that they wanted to write a conflict that had a ton of shades of gray in it, and I think they've accomplished that pretty well.

It's pretty refreshing to have a modern animated show for adults that manages to simultaneously look good, have good writing, and avoid social justice bullshit. I feel almost spoiled.

Its kind of amazing how good this is, and it had every indication of being absolute garbage.

>Based on MoBA Property (League of Legends)
>Western Animation
>Netflix Original

Like if you saw that shit you'd run. But it is honestly the best Western Animation I've seen in the modern day. The animation is beautiful and the art style is actually inspired. The script is pretty good as well, shockingly. I guess it makes sense as this took like 5-6 years to fucking make, but it was worth it. My only complaint is that it isn't a fully complete story and ends on a cliffhanger. It is in 3 acts with 3 episodes a piece, so you've got nine 40+ish minute episodes which is really good.

The French studio that did the animation really outdid themselves. I mean, I never thought I'd see Western Animation again that is beautiful to look at. That being said, it feels like it is just a 'Part 1' of at least a 2 part or even 3 part series. We're already getting a second season, but the thing is this took 5 or so years, and with its popularity, people are going to want it sooner rather than later. So I just hope they don't rush into things and take their time.

The irony is that Riot games helmed this themselves, which is hysterical honestly. I still can't believe this was good. In 2021, I guess shit can still surprise me. (Though people are bitching about the Vi/Cait pairing, because it doesn't go hard enough into the gayness, which is hysterical for me. Because its obvious that their relationship is a slow build and they both have a lot of baggage to get over. Can't please some fucking people. Though it is screenrant, so they're already a bunch of tasteless faggots. I mean the cinematography of when they're lying on the bed reverse to each other in the fetal position to show that they're from opposite worlds. Like holy shit. There's also a spectacular shot of Vi in the last episode, where half of her face is split between a bridge and another between the bars, indicating she's trapped between two worlds). People have become really film illiterate and incredibly stupid. Leave it to the French to restore my faith.

It is just how good this show telegraphs meaning with its cinematography. Like holy shit, how is a video game Western animation this decent? It kind of boggles my mind really. And there's not a lot of

It has nice reference and Easter eggs, but it is not actually crammed with shit that it gets obnoxious but it also doesn't cram it with a massive amount of the roster. There's like, what...Jayce, Vi, Caitlan, Ekko, Viktor, Heimerdinger and Singed. So 8 out of 140 with cameos by 2 or 3 more. And they're all pretty well developed and it doesn't get bogged down with throwing constant references. Its quite faithful to the story it wants to tell (A class struggle between two different worlds, primarily. This is represented between Vi and Jinx, with the colors red and blue respectively). It keeps the hero roster small and doesn't let it get in the way of the story, with the heroes being smaller than some of the larger and more important characters not in the games. (The Sherriff Marcus or Silico and Vander). They're all used as needed and not pointlessly thrown in. Each of them has a role and a purpose to play.

Honestly, it does exactly what it should: Plays fast and loose with the small amount of lore and tells a compelling story built around it with fun little references that is nothing like modern day storytelling where seemingly every scene must be crammed with constant references to the property. It treats its audience with intelligence and has as much visual story-telling as textual. It doesn't feel the need to go out of its way and say shit and is very good at 'show, don't tell'. Its better than even modern movies at doing this shit, which is frankly, telling of the state of the modern film industry. God, Hollywood is such fucking garbage these days.

 

[KoldHardTruth]

Happy Thanksgiving from the year 2008

Ahhhhh this was back when Cartoon Network was mostly watched by kids and their families, and not some 28 year old neckbeard who still lives with his mom, is probably an incel, has a bad speech impediment, unlicensed, and draws loud house incest porn.

 

[Trilby]

Ahhhhh this was back when Cartoon Network was mostly watched by kids and their families, and not some 28 year old neckbeard who still lives with his mom, is probably an incel, has a bad speech impediment, unlicensed, and draws loud house incest porn.

Sad way to put today's world in perspective.

 

[KoldHardTruth]

Sad way to put today's world in perspective.

Once Steven universe came out, cartoons have been primarily been watched by neckbeards.

 

[KID NAMED SCHWARMAPUNK]

Has anyone here been watching Arcane? It's a damn good show imo. It's based on League of Legends, but I don't know anything about the game and I was still able to get invested in it. Another plus is that it's absolutely gorgeous- every frame looks like a moving painting or piece of concept art.

The main characters are written to be both likable and flawed, and the female characters regularly get the shit kicked out of them just like the male characters. Nobody's overpowered and the main characters have to fight hard for every single win they get. They also manage to write a class conflict without it being a very black and white "rich people are irredeemably evil and don't care about anything other than money while the poor are sweet angels who do nothing wrong ever" narrative. There's decent topsiders who are trying to help everyone around them and there's poor assholes who are making everything worse for everyone around them and hiding behind "Getting back at The Man™" to continue fucking their fellow poors over. The writers explicitly stated that they wanted to write a conflict that had a ton of shades of gray in it, and I think they've accomplished that pretty well.

It's pretty refreshing to have a modern animated show for adults that manages to simultaneously look good, have good writing, and avoid social justice bullshit. I feel almost spoiled.

Bruh, what the fuck?! I love Netflix?

 

[Gar For Archer]

Not a fan of Vi/Caitlyn (but to be fair, it was always a popular ship. Just ignore the fandom).
But yeah, story and lore aren't really that interesting, but the overall style, the soundtrack, the beautifully choreographed fight scenes...I dare say, it's probably the best thing I watched this decade, and I mean watched, not just listened to dialogues (facial animation is a bit inconsistent but I LOVE what they did with Jinx. Watching her subtle expression changes was such a joy!)
It's a huge win for animation, I'm tired of calarts shit.

Edit: Okay, I'm repeating myself, but I just love, love what they did with Jinx here. I was expecting another Harley Quinn self-empowerment bullshit, especially with how they keep marketing as cutesy psycho misunderstood woobie, but thankfully her craziness is portrayed as genuinely unsettling. She's no Harley, this bitch is a fucking Joker!

I didn’t know anything about League or its characters going in, so I was pleasantly surprised at the end of Ep 3 when Jinx straight up just fucks everything up beyond all repair. The way it’s set up in the beginning makes you think that she’s gonna save the day, but nah, it goes off in the completely opposite direction.

Of course someone who was familiar with the source material would know that she ends up evil, but I think it works even better when you go in blind, because they totally set her up in the beginning as a beleaguered underdog.

 

[Life is Hell...]

If anyone's looking for a cartoon that's actually entertaining and doesn't pander to dumb shippers, watch The Ghost and Molly McGee, which recently did a Hanukkah special that was genuinely beautiful

Spoiler

Who knew they actually had the balls to depict the Kristallnacht on a children's show

 

[Secret Asshole]

I didn’t know anything about League or its characters going in, so I was pleasantly surprised at the end of Ep 3 when Jinx straight up just fucks everything up beyond all repair. The way it’s set up in the beginning makes you think that she’s gonna save the day, but nah, it goes off in the completely opposite direction.

Of course someone who was familiar with the source material would know that she ends up evil, but I think it works even better when you go in blind, because they totally set her up in the beginning as a beleaguered underdog.

I used to play LoL, then switched to DotA 2 then nothing as I just lost all concept of time. You really don't need to know anything about the games, but the problem is that MoBAs can't really have cohesive narratives. Which is honestly why this works really well. You have basically one paragraph blurbs about characters which allows you to fill in the blanks, play fast and loose with the lore and everything. Which is why I think Arcane works so wonderfully well. There's not a lot there, so Riot basically filled in the gaps with a really cohesive narrative to link these thin threads together. They were extremely smart to center it around Jinx/Vi.

I'm honestly amazed at how complex all of the characters are and you see the conversion from Powder to Jinx, where she basically loses her mind. Even the main antagonist is somewhat sympathetic and he's not a caricature. Nobody is. Everyone has their flaws and there are consequences for each action. Nobody is an unkillable badass. You do get the sense that everyone, including the champions featured, are extremely vulnerable. Jinx's psychosis is not played as a 'cool' Joker character, but a sad portrait of someone who basically lost everything important to her and takes it out on the world with violence. Vi fucks up plenty, so does Jayce, so do all the characters, really. They could have went with 'quirky cool' with Jinx like Harley Quinn or Joker, but they made a more serious portrayal of her, including using her original concept art which is much darker than what is actually in the game. They converted a 'LOL SO CRAZY' character into a tragic one, and that's pretty fucking difficult in today's pretty cynical world of sequels, re-boots, cash grabs and imitations.

This is what happens when you get a studio that loves its own property, the characters in it and the fans of it. You get something like this. Something that is, ironically not soulless. I can't stress this enough really because it is probably the most amazing thing to me. This should basically be a cynical advertisement for LoL, but it isn't. You don't ever need to play LoL after this, you don't even need to be a fan of it. Its just a fucking good story all around with cinematography and choreography better than most modern fucking movies. It actually uses animation to visually story-tell instead of text-dumping exposition. And there is a LOT of visual story-telling. They use hand-drawn animation for their explosions in a 3-D environment, and it adds weight to it. I've already mentioned some of the shots, but there are other ones. Like the focusing in on Silico's ashtray, which he uses throughout the series, is decorated by Jinx, showing that they are truly close and it isn't a relationship where he's just using her. He genuinely cares about and loves her.

I honestly first cringed at the thought of this, because League itself is a cringy, cartoony shit fest. But I was honestly pleasantly surprised. And that is so very rare nowadays.

 

[Thiletonomics]

I used to play LoL, then switched to DotA 2 then nothing as I just lost all concept of time. You really don't need to know anything about the games, but the problem is that MoBAs can't really have cohesive narratives. Which is honestly why this works really well. You have basically one paragraph blurbs about characters which allows you to fill in the blanks, play fast and loose with the lore and everything. Which is why I think Arcane works so wonderfully well. There's not a lot there, so Riot basically filled in the gaps with a really cohesive narrative to link these thin threads together. They were extremely smart to center it around Jinx/Vi.

I'm honestly amazed at how complex all of the characters are and you see the conversion from Powder to Jinx, where she basically loses her mind. Even the main antagonist is somewhat sympathetic and he's not a caricature. Nobody is. Everyone has their flaws and there are consequences for each action. Nobody is an unkillable badass. You do get the sense that everyone, including the champions featured, are extremely vulnerable. Jinx's psychosis is not played as a 'cool' Joker character, but a sad portrait of someone who basically lost everything important to her and takes it out on the world with violence. Vi fucks up plenty, so does Jayce, so do all the characters, really. They could have went with 'quirky cool' with Jinx like Harley Quinn or Joker, but they made a more serious portrayal of her, including using her original concept art which is much darker than what is actually in the game. They converted a 'LOL SO CRAZY' character into a tragic one, and that's pretty fucking difficult in today's pretty cynical world of sequels, re-boots, cash grabs and imitations.

This is what happens when you get a studio that loves its own property, the characters in it and the fans of it. You get something like this. Something that is, ironically not soulless. I can't stress this enough really because it is probably the most amazing thing to me. This should basically be a cynical advertisement for LoL, but it isn't. You don't ever need to play LoL after this, you don't even need to be a fan of it. Its just a fucking good story all around with cinematography and choreography better than most modern fucking movies. It actually uses animation to visually story-tell instead of text-dumping exposition. And there is a LOT of visual story-telling. They use hand-drawn animation for their explosions in a 3-D environment, and it adds weight to it. I've already mentioned some of the shots, but there are other ones. Like the focusing in on Silico's ashtray, which he uses throughout the series, is decorated by Jinx, showing that they are truly close and it isn't a relationship where he's just using her. He genuinely cares about and loves her.

I honestly first cringed at the thought of this, because League itself is a cringy, cartoony shit fest. But I was honestly pleasantly surprised. And that is so very rare nowadays.

Arcane was also a success to the point that even DOTA players, aside from the really diehard ones that still hold a grudge against Pendragon, enjoyed the show. And Arcane's success massively overshadowed the DOTA 2 show, Dragon Blood. Granted, Arcane had a much larger budget, although it does go to show how Valve likes to spend the bare minimum in regards to their games.

And when Arcane received massive praise, I thought it was a "The Last of Us Part II" praise moment again, in that Riot either bribed reviewers to give it massive praise, or blackmailed them if they dared to rate the show poorly.

 

[Secret Asshole]

Arcane was also a success to the point that even DOTA players, aside from the really diehard ones that still hold a grudge against Pendragon, enjoyed the show. And Arcane's success massively overshadowed the DOTA 2 show, Dragon Blood. Granted, Arcane had a much larger budget, although it does go to show how Valve likes to spend the bare minimum in regards to their games.

And when Arcane received massive praise, I thought it was a "The Last of Us Part II" praise moment again, in that Riot either bribed reviewers to give it massive praise, or blackmailed them if they dared to rate the show poorly.

Oh yeah. It doesn't really compare to anything that Valve did for DotA 2. It just blows it away. Arcane was basically fully controlled by Riot itself. They guided the production and they honestly found a really really good studio in France to do it. I've never heard of these guys before, but man, I was impressed by their sense of visual storytelling. It felt like a movie, not a series. Oh it easily blows the fuck out of Dragon Blood. I didn't even watch the whole thing, I just stopped bothering.

I just figured it was mildly competent because everyone expected an ad, but nope. It deserves it. And I find it kind of funny what should have been a crappy cash grab advertisement is probably the best Western animation in years and sets the bar for it.