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

[Vyse Inglebard]

It feels like Disney - or America as a whole - just doesn't want to touch 2D animation anymore.

FTFY. More details below:

There are still plenty of 2D movies being made if you look abroad. Here are some of my faves from the recent decade, and all of them are a better watch than what the alphabet degenerates are shilling in the article:
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Very Ghibli-esque, this one. Made in 2012 as a French-Canadian co-production. About a boy who lives in the heart of the forest, raised by his father Courge, a tyrannical giant who reigns triumphant and prevents his son from exploring beyond the forest's limited boundaries. Ignorant about the ways of men, the boy grows up wild, with the placid ghosts who haunt the forest his only company. That is until the day that he is forced to go to the nearest village, where he mets young Manon... A bold movie for being absolutely willing to own up to the fact that there are some bad and nasty things that happen in life, and even when they're survivable, that doesn't make them less horrible. Highly recommended if you can find a torrent with English subs.
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Made in 2015 as a French production. Paris, 1941: a family of scientists is on the brink of discovering a powerful longevity serum when suddenly a mysterious force abducts them, leaving their young daughter, April, behind. Ten years later, April (voiced by Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard) lives alone with her talking cat, Darwin, and carries on her family’s research in secret. But she soon finds herself at the center of a shadowy and far-reaching conspiracy, and on the run from government agents, bicycle-powered dirigibles, and cyborg rat spies. Yes, you read all of that correctly. As batshit as it sounds, it's actually really engrossing. The mystery keeps you on your toes and the world design is real inventive.
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Another French movie, from 2012. About a mouse and a bear who strike up an unlikely friendship. A movie that makes you feel very warm and fuzzy inside. Highly recommended if you have a family and are looking for something to watch.
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A 2015 Spanish movie. Follows the titular character, a shy outcast in a post-apocalyptic society, and Dinky, a teenage mouse runaway fleeing her desolate island home. Very bleak, but that's what gives it its power. Also mature - not the puerile "mature" like shit like MGFS, I mean really mature, asking questions like "Is it even worth it to try to eke out a better existence after the end of civilization as we know it?"
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Another Spanish one, this time from 2018. Tito is a shy 10-year-old boy who lives with his mother. Suddenly, an unusual epidemic starts to spread, making people sick whenever they get scared. Tito quickly discovers that the cure is somehow related to his missing father’s research on bird song. He embarks on a journey to save the world from the epidemic with his friends. Tito’s search for the antidote becomes a quest for his missing father and for his own identity. Scarily relevant to our modern times, and beautifully stylish.

Of course, I'd be remiss to not mention the only 2D film made here in the past decade that's worth a damn......
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Despite (or perhaps because of) the simple style, this is one of the most deep, thought-provoking, emotionally rich, funny, and heart-rending animated movies ever made, if not movies in general. Made by Don Hertzfeldt, the very same genius behind "MY ANUS IS BLEEDING" and "MY SPOON IS TOO BIG" - or as the short film that contains those segments is named, Rejected. Highly recommended.

 

[Trombonista]

Okay, if you're all going to politisperg/complain about wokeshit, can you at least not doublepost?

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

"Fake 2D" can work if done right. They're fighting games, but Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball FighterZ did the whole "fake 2D" thing better. The animators treated each frame as if they were doing traditional frame-by-frame animation. This video explains the process pretty well.

That being said, I agree with you on the Chip n' Dale movie's animation feeling off. They could've easily funded actual 2D animation and put it over live action like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but they didn't. It feels like Disney - or the west as a whole - just doesn't want to touch 2D animation anymore.

But those examples are games... And games using cel-shading isn't new.
You have Sly as a pioneer example in using that technology and the result is visually good.
Chip 'n' Dale doesn't work because bringing cel-shading into animation is stupid. Same crap with RWBY. Shit seems hentai from earlier 2000's with a horrible framerate.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

This show brings me back. It was when Nickelodeon tried to pull a teenage version of [adult swim] and put it on Noggin’s The N Block.

It was also the only time you’ll ever see H. Jon Benjamin and Patrice O’Neal do voice work with one another.

 

[Diet Purple Pepsi]

But those examples are games... And games using cel-shading isn't new.
You have Sly as a pioneer example in using that technology and the result is visually good.
Chip 'n' Dale doesn't work because bringing cel-shading into animation is stupid. Same crap with RWBY. Shit seems hentai from earlier 2000's with a horrible framerate.

The only times I've ever enjoyed that kind of animation is Dorohedoro and Land of the Lustrous. LotL at least makes the uncanny weird look of the CG characters work, since the characters are essentially human-shaped gem creations fighting these creepy moon people.

 

[Lapis Lazuli]

But those examples are games... And games using cel-shading isn't new.
You have Sly as a pioneer example in using that technology and the result is visually good.
Chip 'n' Dale doesn't work because bringing cel-shading into animation is stupid. Same crap with RWBY. Shit seems hentai from earlier 2000's with a horrible framerate.

Where did I say they weren't games? All I said was that they used a completely different technique to animate cel-shaded 3D.

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

Where did I say they weren't games? All I said was that they used a completely different technique to animate cel-shaded 3D.

Yeah, but i tried to say with that comment is games functions differentely from animation.
Isn't the same animating frame to frame than a engine handling textures, framerate, scripts, etc. That was the point.

 

[Private Pyle]

"Fake 2D" can work if done right. They're fighting games, but Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball FighterZ did the whole "fake 2D" thing better. The animators treated each frame as if they were doing traditional frame-by-frame animation. This video explains the process pretty well.

That being said, I agree with you on the Chip n' Dale movie's animation feeling off. They could've easily funded actual 2D animation and put it over live action like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but they didn't. It feels like Disney - or the west as a whole - just doesn't want to touch 2D animation anymore.

The really weird part is the very first part of the movie had the characters decently replicated in the original 2D style. So they have the skill and resources to do something like Roger Rabbit but choose not to because…muh style?

FTFY. More details below:

If there’s one silver lining, according to an animator named Eric Goldberg, there are reportedly plans for WDAS to bring back 2D animation on a theatrical scale. I won’t hold my breath until I see this bare fruit but it’s something to think about at least.

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

The really weird part is the very first part of the movie had the characters decently replicated in the original 2D style. So they have the skill and resources to do something like Roger Rabbit but choose not to because…muh style?

If there’s one silver lining, according to an animator named Eric Goldberg, there are reportedly plans for WDAS to bring back 2D animation on a theatrical scale. I won’t hold my breath until I see this bare fruit but it’s something to think about at least.

If the guy who animated the Genie says so, there may be something to it... but we'll see.

 

[Shidoen]

Fan animator doing parody of Western Animation, enjoy,

 

[Shidoen]

Have we all forgotten the mastery and pure autism that was Space Chimps?

 

[Yamma Damma]

FTFY. More details below:

Both France and Japan are kicking our asses in animation as well as comics. And now Latin America and China are passing us up too! We got good at 3D at the cost of 2D. There shouldn't have been a tradeoff, they should've been combined.

But those examples are games... And games using cel-shading isn't new.
You have Sly as a pioneer example in using that technology and the result is visually good.
Chip 'n' Dale doesn't work because bringing cel-shading into animation is stupid. Same crap with RWBY. Shit seems hentai from earlier 2000's with a horrible framerate.

Sly as in Sly Cooper? Whatever happened to him? Those games were majorly popular and there was a movie planned. Now there's no games and no word of a movie. I hope they go through with it, that Mario movie could use the competition.

 

[Basic Blonde Boy]

Sly as in Sly Cooper? Whatever happened to him? Those games were majorly popular and there was a movie planned. Now there's no games and no word of a movie. I hope they go through with it, that Mario movie could use the competition.

Sly’s studio went on to make Infamous in the PS3 era, then seemingly died for a bit during the PS4, only to reappear for Ghost of Tsushima. They still love the character, which is better than say Naughty Dog with Jak, and I believe they are interested in bringing him back.

Outside of them, Sanzaru made Sly 4, which was a critical and financial blunder due to its late PS3 release, so Sony wouldn’t fund another.

Now the movie has seemingly been canceled. It was a product of Sony’s first attempt to expand the brand past gaming, but the first film Ratchet & Clank was a financial and critical blunder, so future projects got tossed.

 

[Yamma Damma]

Sly’s studio went on to make Infamous in the PS3 era, then seemingly died for a bit during the PS4, only to reappear for Ghost of Tsushima. They still love the character, which is better than say Naughty Dog with Jak, and I believe they are interested in bringing him back.

Outside of them, Sanzaru made Sly 4, which was a critical and financial blunder due to its late PS3 release, so Sony wouldn’t fund another.

Now the movie has seemingly been canceled. It was a product of Sony’s first attempt to expand the brand past gaming, but the first film Ratchet & Clank was a financial and critical blunder, so future projects got tossed.

Damn. That's a shame. Well not completely, Ghost of Tsushima was a mega hit and deserved all those honors. If they ever revive Sly Cooper's movie I hope they succeed where R&C failed.

Have we all forgotten the mastery and pure autism that was Space Chimps?

Yes. Because the pure autism we really forgot came out a year later called "Planet 51".

 

[Shidoen]

Damn. That's a shame. Well not completely, Ghost of Tsushima was a mega hit and deserved all those honors. If they ever revive Sly Cooper's movie I hope they succeed where R&C failed.


Yes. Because the pure autism we really forgot came out a year later called "Planet 51".

To be fair I enjoyed both as a kid, the same with whatever that movie with the blue aliens on earth was.

 

[Kurtis Trent]

is the owl house finally over?

 

[Shidoen]

is the owl house finally over?

Even if it’s over, there will be gay metiszos with no father figure.

 

[Belvedere]

Now the movie has seemingly been canceled. It was a product of Sony’s first attempt to expand the brand past gaming, but the first film Ratchet & Clank was a financial and critical blunder, so future projects got tossed.

If current Hollywood standards are anything to go by, I would much rather for the Sly Cooper franchise to remain a pleasant memory from the past than to see it rebooted into cynical woke garbage.

I know that if any new movie or game project happens is going to be injected with all sort of political messaging and snides against the original fan base. I'll rather the franchise stay dead and buried than to see its corpse unearthed and paraded before my eyes.

 

[Trilby]

If current Hollywood standards are anything to go by, I would much rather for the Sly Cooper franchise to remain a pleasant memory from the past than to see it rebooted into cynical woke garbage.

I know that if any new movie or game project happens is going to be injected with all sort of political messaging and snides against the original fan base. I'll rather the franchise stay dead and buried than to see its corpse unearthed and paraded before my eyes.

Sadly true. Too many memories get screwed around easily that way.

 

[Life is Hell...]

is the owl house finally over?

Nope, we still have 3 more 44 minute specials coming our way