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

In this day and age, Hollywood would be wasting money to get more CGI related material with real actors to do space movies. Most stuntmen and body doubles don’t even get half the credit these days for having to do their roles as well as they do to help provide for them on set.
Uhhhhh, not to disagree with your point or anything, but what in the farm-fresh fuck does that have to do with Planet Sheen? Maybe you were confused on Red Acres' direction. It was meant to be a completely CGI series, like Jimmy Neutron was, not a live-action/CGI hybrid.
 
  • Thunk-Provoking
Reactions: Jonah Hill poster
Uhhhhh, not to disagree with your point or anything, but what in the farm-fresh fuck does that have to do with Planet Sheen? Maybe you were confused on Red Acres' direction. It was meant to be a completely CGI series, like Jimmy Neutron was, not a live-action/CGI hybrid.
Didn’t read that exact part, my bad on that. My brain must have stopped working when I only saw “CGI series” and I immediately thought of a live action/CGI movie for some reason. :lit:
 
  • Feels
Reactions: Vyse Inglebard
>game is known for its fluid hand-drawn animation, which takes its inspiration from 30s Fleischer cartoons
>TV show is generically animated in Toon Boom

If there were ever a more perfect metaphor for the cheapness of "hand-drawn" animation these days, I just don't know what it could be.
Budget reasons. You can't animate a show like the game with a normal TV budget.
 
Budget reasons. You can't animate a show like the game with a normal TV budget.
Exactly my point. "Hand-drawn" animation is almost always exclusively done for TV these days (at least, here in the US), because it's cheaper. But by going this route, you risk sacrificing what made the game so special in the first place. I was just pointing out the sad irony in how such a fluidly-animated game has to be simplified to regular-ass Toon Boom animation to have a chance at television. Sucks, but that's the world we live in, I guess. *sigh*
 
>game is known for its fluid hand-drawn animation, which takes its inspiration from 30s Fleischer cartoons
>TV show is generically animated in Toon Boom

If there were ever a more perfect metaphor for the cheapness of "hand-drawn" animation these days, I just don't know what it could be.
I'm just as bothered by the way the characters talk and there mannerisms. They don't seem to act or talk at all like a cartoon character from the 30s and 40s would. They seem more like characters from a cartoon in the present day.
 
I'm just as bothered by the way the characters talk and there mannerisms. They don't seem to act or talk at all like a cartoon character from the 30s and 40s would. They seem more like characters from a cartoon in the present day.
I don't have the biggest nostalgia boner but yeah there's a certain weirdness seeing a modern cartoon trying to emulate the 30's.

But I think it's cuz they have a younger audience in mind (Remember all the fans making cup-so as??) Doesn't necessarily mean its gonna be bad, looks pretty standard and a lil fun.

If you do want a better blend though the new Mickey Mouse Shorts definitely do a good job.

 
  • Informative
Reactions: Vyse Inglebard
Watching Dota season 2 on Netflix. Every time I see the dragon hero, I think "I can't believe it's not that hero from Voltron."

Also, the world building is... nonexistent? I get that exposition dumps are bad writing, but it's difficult to understand what's going on when you have no idea how the world is supposed to work. Like, I think the dragons have a hivemind and they're the pillars of reality and Terrorblade needs them to destroy the world, but it's not explained well. Also apparently discount Voltron space princess is from the solar empire or whatever but the politics are never explained anywhere. What country are they in from episode-to-episode? Who are those people with red skin and pointed ears? Also, apparently some of the humans and elves are black with blonde hair? I think? Is there an Africa equivalent in this world or are some people in the apparently white majority nations just spontaneously born with dark skin? Nothing that isn't immediately relevant to the plot gets explained.
 
This feels more like a successor to the Mickey Mouse shorts rather than being a 'tribute' to the black and white days.
I really was amazed by how well they replicated a 30s cartoon for the video game. To get that level of detail in a TV cartoon is, well, incredibly expensive.
 
I really was amazed by how well they replicated a 30s cartoon for the video game. To get that level of detail in a TV cartoon is, well, incredibly expensive.
The video game went through a lot of time and effort to make it work, and that's why it succeeded. It went through great lengths to make it 'feel' like you're witnessing something that was from the past. They even went for full water colored backgrounds rather then going for digital backgrounds. The cartoon from Netflix might be fun in its own way.
 
Watching Dota season 2 on Netflix. Every time I see the dragon hero, I think "I can't believe it's not that hero from Voltron."

Also, the world building is... nonexistent? I get that exposition dumps are bad writing, but it's difficult to understand what's going on when you have no idea how the world is supposed to work. Like, I think the dragons have a hivemind and they're the pillars of reality and Terrorblade needs them to destroy the world, but it's not explained well. Also apparently discount Voltron space princess is from the solar empire or whatever but the politics are never explained anywhere. What country are they in from episode-to-episode? Who are those people with red skin and pointed ears? Also, apparently some of the humans and elves are black with blonde hair? I think? Is there an Africa equivalent in this world or are some people in the apparently white majority nations just spontaneously born with dark skin? Nothing that isn't immediately relevant to the plot gets explained.

It sounds like that Valve even cheapened out on the plot and world development too, in regards to the show.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: Vyse Inglebard
>game is known for its fluid hand-drawn animation, which takes its inspiration from 30s Fleischer cartoons
>TV show is generically animated in Toon Boom

If there were ever a more perfect metaphor for the cheapness of "hand-drawn" animation these days, I just don't know what it could be.
Speaking of which, seems this guy who worked on the show isn't taking criticism so lightly
Screenshot 2022-01-19 at 23-53-34 🖊Jpaikmedia 🖊 on Twitter Animation fans crying about the Cup...png

Screenshot 2022-01-19 at 23-55-21 🖊Jpaikmedia 🖊 on Twitter wow what a cool unprovoked thing to...png

Screenshot 2022-01-19 at 23-56-29 🖊Jpaikmedia 🖊 on Twitter Not enough to besmirch my work they...png

Screenshot 2022-01-19 at 23-57-12 🖊Jpaikmedia 🖊 on Twitter timethehobo I didn’t work on the sh...png
 
"WHAT YOU MEAN THIS ANIMATION LOOKS GREAT OH I'M SORRY THEY CAN'T ANIMATE IN PENCIL AND INK WHILE BEING OVERWORKED, DRUNK, AND FALLING OUT OF A BUILDING! FROM ALL THE PAINT THEY HUFFED"

Said an actual Twitter user looking at stills.
 
Now, I'm certain we can fix this by simply having the next season produced just the way it was done back then.

Yes, the animators will have to work in a building without air conditioning, they might get TB, and it'll probably be ready in a few decades, but if you don't get it right, what's the point?
 
Speaking of which, seems this guy who worked on the show isn't taking criticism so lightly
View attachment 2902929
View attachment 2902935
View attachment 2902936
View attachment 2902940
There could totally have been some kind of compromise here to make it look like the old style while not being strictly made in the exact way they used to make them. Would it require effort? Sure. Would it require nearly the same effort it took in the old days? Absolutely not, it’s been 100 years. You could probably make a pretty good digital approximation at this point, which this… isn’t.

They took these classic-inspired designs and stuck them into Toonboom, making a “modern” cartoon with the old character designs. About the only time it gets sort of close is in the clips that are very clearly taken from the intro.
 
Last edited:
There could totally have been some kind of compromise here to make it look like the old style while not being strictly made in the exact way they used to make them. Would it require effort? Sure. Would it require nearly the same effort it took in the old days? Absolutely not, it’s been 100 years. You could probably make a pretty good digital approximation at this point, which this… isn’t.

They took these classic-inspired designs and stuck them into Toonboom, making a “modern” cartoon with the old character designs. About the only time it gets sort of close is in the clips that are very clearly taken from the intro.
The big problem seems to be the in-betweens. The stills look pretty good, the backgrounds are amazing, the character designs are okay enough for what's needed. In-motion though, because tweening is being handled by an algorithm in software, it gives off that "Toonboom" feel. The hope, if I had to take a guess, is since Mercury Filmworks is doing the animation that this is a case of them getting used to the new rigs and that by the 2nd season (if there IS a second season), they can get a much better budget and allow either Mercury or another animation studio to make it much more in-line with the games.

The "Looney Tunes Cartoons" shorts had a similar problem, where how well a short was animated was down to which studio was placed on a project, resulting in some of them looking like computerized garbage and others looking like something straight out of the 40's. And honestly, if they have to outsource to a smaller studio to keep on budget, I'd rather it be Mercury Filmworks. At least they have experience working in a variety of different styles and a way better understanding of squash-and-stretch than, say, Rough Draft Korea. I shudder to imagine on-model stiff-as-fuck Zombie-Simpsons-esque Cuphead.
 
Last edited:
Back