D-Ray said:
Well, what made me really realise the change in cartoons was the shows "The Regular Show" and "Adventure Time" both of which are on Cartoon Network.
The regular show is pretty random and stupid...like most now. But, once it mentioned breast...and rigby even got trapped in between these large, disgusting breasts of some fat woman. I just think its wierd to see cartoons talking about breasts, kissing, and things like that....kids are too young for that.
Adventure Time and Regular Show clearly aren't intended for children. Their entire marketing scheme and approach is clearly directed at Teenagers and college students.
Also anyone who thinks animation in America is getting worse these past few years is really not paying attention. The 2000s were DEAD for animation. EVERYONE suffered who wasn't named Pixar, even Disney went through tough times. Below is something I had previously written on my blog about the horrible 00s.
Throughout the history of animation, the cost or production has taken a roller coaster ride. What was once given away at the begining of the movies became an financial nightmare to television. By the 90s we had mastered enough production techniques to reduce to cost of animation, until HD hit. In 1998 the FCC broadcast its first signal in HD. From there a gradual creep towards HD as a selling feature it was in the early 00s caused a major spike in cost for animation, especially hand drawn animation. While computer based 2d and 3D animation could easily be converted into larger sizes with enough work, hand drawn animation that made up a large amount of televised animation at the time could only be turned HD by completely redrawing the animation, and at a far greater size.
Not only were former shows no longer marketable under the title of ?HD,? but the cost of continuing these shows skyrocketed. As if this wasn?t enough of a problem for 2D animation, things were made worse by the sudden and unparalleled success of a new face that had all the investors attention.
When Pixar continued to out perform the current Disney films in the box office, the investors came to the obvious conclusion: people only wanted to see 3D films. No, there?s no way it had anything to do with Pixar making quality films, it had to be the 3D. That was transparent, that was something they could point to and understand and replicate.
Now not only did 2D animation for television cost more, but investors just weren?t willing to invest in what they saw as a part of the past. While 3D animation still proved too expensive for TV, they opted to not invest in nearly anything animated for television instead of attempting small and calculated risk. As investors continued to invest in poor Pixar knock offs that saw minimal returns, the animated film scene became just as grim as the television.
As if the situation wasn?t bad enough, the responses by the major animation companies didn?t help the situation either.
Disney: Disney?s response was akin to the general response overall. They had no special plan. In fact in house productions came to a hault all together, instead opting to serve as a publish of animation rather than a producer. Disney also invested heavily in 3D animation with mix success but poor financial success.
Nickelodeon: In a recent interview with Hey Arnold! creator Craig Bartlett, (link at the bottom) Craig revealed Nick?s plan to turn their already successful Nicktoons into an institution compared to what Disney had once had. Their charecters would become the new Daffy Duck and Mickey Mouse, staring in feature length films and crossovers and spin offs. They would make up for the increased cost with increased revenue. Sadly, spin off after spin off, and film after film, the plan flopped except for Spongebob and The Fairly Odd Parents.
However the problem with Nick?s approach wasn?t the concept, but the execution. Did you ever think that the Hey Arnold! movie was a step back from the series? Well that?s because it was just suppose to be a fun little made for TV movie. It was goofy because it was suppose to be just a silly little farce. Nick?s producers, itching to put their plan into action, rushed the movie into theaters with a subpar advertisement push for what was already the most niche show in all of Nick?s lineup. Saddened by the shows 130 million dollars in profits, the Jungle Film was ditched, leaving Arnold off on a giant cliff hanger.
Similar problems exist in all of their attempts, from the Thornberries to the Rugrats All Grown Up. What happened to Nicktoons was caused by poor execution from the business end, all with the best intentions.
Cartoon Network: Cartoon Network was obviously completely unprepared for the change and fumbled around for years until animation picked up these past few years. The closest thing to a plan that I can see from CN came in bringing in the big names of the previous generations. Fosters brought in Craig McCracken of Dexter?s Lab and Powerpuff Girl fame, while Camp Lazloo brought in the creator of Rocko?s Modern Life. They kept what shows they could, most notably Ed Edd n Eddy, but the situation got so dire they started to advertise Courage the Cowardly Dog as new to a new age of children.
Adult Swim however, thrived, with its low production cost, the shows thrived off of good writing and meeting an untapped market exposed by the many adult cartoons of the 90s. However there was even a time when they suffered, all because of Tim and Eric. Tim and Eric demanded that an animation show on CN never have a budget higher than them. Its no wonder that shortly after they left CN for Showtime CN got heavily invested into animation again.
Hey, at least their odd approach landed us Sheep In The Big City, a show that would have otherwise probably never have been made.
Japan: While Japan suffered, they did better than others since they had always been operating under a considerably smaller budget (except the 80s, but the world was crazy then). The biggest way Japan suffered was in the number of titles produced. Even Ghibli felt the pinch. One way to reduce cost and increased revenue was by something westerns call ?Moe,? which translates directly into ?cute.? In attempt to bring in more female watchers, slice of life shows staring girls with fat giant heads came out. This? . wasn?t all that successful, but the industry still did better than what happened in the American market.
So how did we get out of that horrible decade and into the wonderful rebirth of animation we?ve had in the past few years? Well that?s actually quite a few things, but I?ll hit up in response to the problems I brought up thus far.
Notice How I didn?t list Europe?
Well Europe?s animation was always a niche department. American animation consistently outsold homegrown products. Because of this, Europeans had to develop animation techniques that would allow their smaller markets to stayfloat while attempting to produce works of similar production qualities. There?s quite a lot of animation I could pick from, but I?ll chose one film from Europe that exemplifies a lot of production tricks now used in many American films.
Brenden and the Kells proved that not only can 2D animation be made in a cost effective manner, but that it could be made without sacrificing the quality of animation. If you enjoy the animation style of Flapjack, then look here and you?ll find many of the same techniques.
Investors Admitted They Were Wrong
Flop after flop, investors finally admitted it was the films themselves, NOT the 3D that drew the people in. They then turned their attention to producing quality animation titles, leading us into titles like Despicable Me, How to Train Your Dragon, and Disney getting back into the production process. Japan has had s similar realization, though do to their economic condition are still struggling quite heavily.
We aren?t out of the woods yet
This might just be a beautiful mistake. The money could go away again. Industry trends change overnight, you?re current favorite lineups and film makers are just as vulnerable now as they were during the start of the 00s. Yuasa?s works, Adventure Time, Pheonis and Ferb, whatever your favorite modern cartoon is, they are all in danger unless we constantly remind the industry that quality animated titles is what we want.
FOR A LINK TO THEY HEY ARNOLD CREATOR INTERVIEW MENTIONED ABOVE, LOOK BELOW!
http://www.mixcloud.com/ArunMehta/the-arun-mehta-show-craig-bartlett-interview/
