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

[Trilby]

I just found out the Will Rogers Institute has finally uploaded the entire version of this!

DARN YOU SHA-BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

Speaking of King of the Hill, perhaps you are wondering what Dale Gribble would be up to now if the series was still on today.

Look no further.

 

[Trilby]

There's an artist I follow who just uploaded this piece I enjoyed seeing!

 

[Trombonista]

Has anyone else seen the commercials for Lazer Wulf? I think it looks kinda cute.

 

[Trilby]

With the lastest mess I've seen in recent years, this WWII-era Disney short is STILL as relevant as ever....

People should never use Emotion to run their lives.

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

With the lastest mess I've seen in recent years, this WWII-era Disney short is STILL as relevant as ever....

People should never use Emotion to run their lives.

The Disney studio produced some great cartoons during the war, didn't they?

 

[Trilby]

The Disney studio produced some great cartoons during the war, didn't they?

Yes, they had. I think I learned quite a lot re-watching these as an adult than what I tried to figure out as a kid. This one on corn still impresses me!

 

[Clockwork_PurBle]

Just about everybody made good everything during the war, aside from like Germany and Japan of course (unless you count the scientific discoveries).

Obligatory war is bad but I think the 40s and 50s are my favorite time period.

Might not be the place for this but why are we supposed to hate Butch Hartman now?

 

[Trilby]

Just about everybody made good everything during the war, aside from like Germany and Japan of course (unless you count the scientific discoveries).

Obligatory war is bad but I think the 40s and 50s are my favorite time period.

I get that feeling watching the John Sutherland shorts like this beauty!

 

[Clockwork_PurBle]

An example of post-war animation that I like is Britain's 1954 animated Animal Farm, which was the country's first feature-length animated film (from my understanding there were a couple that were produced before AF, but weren't released until later). There's differences between the book and the film but I consider it pretty faithful.

And yes, the CIA provided funding for this and influenced how the story was presented for anti-communist purposes, but commies suck, so who cares?

 

[AnOminous]

And yes, the CIA provided funding for this and influenced how the story was presented for anti-communist purposes, but commies suck, so who cares?

You don't have to do anything in particular to make Animal Farm aggressively anti-Communist. Even though Orwell was himself a socialist, he was never in the dumb club of Stalin apologists.

 

[Trilby]

An example of post-war animation that I like is Britain's 1954 animated Animal Farm, which was the country's first feature-length animated film (from my understanding there were a couple that were produced before AF, but weren't released until later). There's differences between the book and the film but I consider it pretty faithful.

And yes, the CIA provided funding for this and influenced how the story was presented for anti-communist purposes, but commies suck, so who cares?

This is a necessary watch for anyone to see.

 

[Clockwork_PurBle]

You don't have to do anything in particular to make Animal Farm aggressively anti-Communist. Even though Orwell was himself a socialist, he was never in the dumb club of Stalin apologists.

From Wikipedia who can explain things better than I can most of the time.

Spoiler

The "financial backers" influenced the development of the film: the altered ending, and that the message should be that "Stalin's regime is not only as bad as Jones's, but worse and more cynical," and Napoleon "not only as bad as JONES but vastly worse". And the "investors" were greatly concerned that Snowball (the Trotsky figure) was presented too sympathetically in early script treatments, and that Batchelor's script implied Snowball was "intelligent, dynamic, courageous". This implication could not be permitted. A memo declared that Snowball must be presented as a "fanatic intellectual whose plans if carried through would have led to disaster no less complete than under Napoleon". De Rochemont accepted this suggestion.

TL;DR They wanted to double down on the message and they didn't want Snowball to be as sympathetic as he was in the novel. I remember still feeling bad for Snowball when I was a kid so I guess they failed in that department.

Also, I'd like to add, all the voices are done by one man.

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

Just about everybody made good everything during the war, aside from like Germany and Japan of course (unless you count the scientific discoveries).

Obligatory war is bad but I think the 40s and 50s are my favorite time period.

The Germans tried their hand at animation during the war, but most of what they produced was propaganda not worth remembering except for the whole Nazi thing - excepting the work of Hans Fischerkoesen, who did a number of delightful, non-political, even subversive cartoons during the war.

There is a lost Nazi cartoon produced in the Netherlands, an anti-Semitic take on the Reynard the Fox stories, that has stirred up some interest, though.

From Wikipedia who can explain things better than I can most of the time.

Spoiler

The "financial backers" influenced the development of the film: the altered ending, and that the message should be that "Stalin's regime is not only as bad as Jones's, but worse and more cynical," and Napoleon "not only as bad as JONES but vastly worse". And the "investors" were greatly concerned that Snowball (the Trotsky figure) was presented too sympathetically in early script treatments, and that Batchelor's script implied Snowball was "intelligent, dynamic, courageous". This implication could not be permitted. A memo declared that Snowball must be presented as a "fanatic intellectual whose plans if carried through would have led to disaster no less complete than under Napoleon". De Rochemont accepted this suggestion.

TL;DR They wanted to double down on the message and they didn't want Snowball to be as sympathetic as he was in the novel. I remember still feeling bad for Snowball when I was a kid so I guess they failed in that department.

Also, I'd like to add, all the voices are done by one man.

The ending is all theirs too, of course, but I actually rather like the ending.

The CIA also funded a version of 1984 that was retooled so that Winston is not broken at the end, loving Big Brother, but goes out gunned down while resisting. Orwell's estate hates that film so you'll never see it again, but luckily the version with John Hurt and Richard Burton is much better. Watch that instead.

(There is also, I should mention, a live-action version of Animal Farm with Patrick Stewart. The new ending reveals that several years later the pigs' regime has collapsed, like the USSR did in real life... I should mention that the film is godawful. Avoid it at all costs.)

 

[Trilby]

TL;DR They wanted to double down on the message and they didn't want Snowball to be as sympathetic as he was in the novel. I remember still feeling bad for Snowball when I was a kid so I guess they failed in that department.

I felt that way too.

Also, I'd like to add, all the voices are done by one man.

Probably helped that only the pigs had any dialogue here. Everyone else pretty much had the usual animal noises heard.

The Germans tried their hand at animation during the war, but most of what they produced was propaganda not worth remembering except for the whole Nazi thing - excepting the work of Hans Fischerkoesen, who did a number of delightful, non-political, even subversive cartoons during the war.

This one is a good example to check out!

In later years Hans would go back to advertising work again, especially for the new medium of TV.

There is a lost Nazi cartoon produced in the Netherlands, an anti-Semitic take on the Reynard the Fox stories, that has stirred up some interest, though.

I've heard of that too.
https://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.7/articles/barten1.7.html

Here's some footage (might be the entire thing)!

The ending is all theirs too, of course, but I actually rather like the ending.

Director John Halas thought so as well (of course he fled Hungary before WWII broke out so he probably thought of his family he left behind there while making this).

(There is also, I should mention, a live-action version of Animal Farm with Patrick Stewart. The new ending reveals that several years later the pigs' regime has collapsed, like the USSR did in real life... I should mention that the film is godawful. Avoid it at all costs.)

I think Jim Henson's Creature Shop was involved on that one.

 

[Clockwork_PurBle]

What do the Kiwis think of Chowder?

 

[Shokew]

What do the Kiwis think of Chowder?

I liked Harvey Beaks more. However, Chowder had some great presentation and animation for itself. I just didn't like most of the characters, despite how laugh-out-loud funny the damn thing could actually be - they did go overboard in trying too hard to be funny by Season 2, though, which is why I prefer something calm and collected like Harvey Beaks so much fucking more, unfortunately.

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

What do the Kiwis think of Chowder?

It was one of the last shows I ever regularly watched, alongside Flapjack when they were both airing new episodes on Thursday nights... and that was like a decade ago, amazingly.

When it was good it was GOOD. Fine voice cast, fine animation...

 

[Pina Colada]

For the past year, I’ve been getting into OK K.O! Let’s be Heroes! It’s by no means perfect and I’m aware that not everyone likes the art style, but there’s something about the pencil/crayon-drawn outlines that make it look charming. I also think that different writer/boarder teams for each episode is an interesting setup (when done right)- after a while, you can tell them apart by their own visual means to let the characters emote. I do wish the show would give some secondary characters like Dendy more development rather than just use them as plot devices.

What do the Kiwis think of Chowder?

I watched it religiously as a kid. Gazpacho is such an underrated character.

 

[Shokew]

For the past year, I’ve been getting into OK K.O! Let’s be Heroes! It’s by no means perfect and I’m aware that not everyone likes the art style, but there’s something about the pencil/crayon-drawn outlines that make it look charming. I also think that different writer/boarder teams for each episode is an interesting setup (when done right)- after a while, you can tell them apart by their own visual means to let the characters emote. I do wish the show would give some secondary characters like Dendy more development rather than just use them as plot devices.

I like OK K.O. far more than anything SU, honestly. Treating it as is, it's just a fun little show to kill time with for me - the kind that CN could always use more of.

However, yeah - that art-style is not a standard to strive for, even if the animation sometimes for fight scenes is actually pretty good. I think the pilot (Lakewood Plaza Turbo)'s artstyle would have been a better choice, as while it was pretty simplistic itself, it still felt like something unique and original. A sense of soul that isn't all that detectable in the final product for me.

As a result of the pilot's style being tossed out for the final product, this is why I personally think CN should aim to do better by, in the future, taking on people with more original ideas - as in not trying to make so many damn love letter references to anime most of the time (especially something they do that - again, I find rather annoying in SU, for example...), while also at the same time, not relying on cheap art-style decisions, especially.