This post was, in fact, written on Thursday the result of a full day of travelling today. The week link list is no shorter however as this week has already produced a decent variety of interesting articles on the topic of animation. Enjoy!
The Threadless Simpsons T-Shirt Winner
Out of over 800 submissions, this was the overall winner. Not my personal favourite, but great nonetheless. Check out the rest of the winners that are now available to buy and check out my post on why such competitions are great for fans.
What if Woody Wore Pink?
Rebecca Hains ponders what things would be like if Woody from Toy Story wore pink; a colour that was not an uncommon sight on cowboys in the 1950s. Given the preposterous notion of genderised colour, it would be interesting to know what effect it would have had on merchandise sales.
The Problem With Princesses
Joanna Weiss has an article where she discusses her problem with the Disney princesses. While not to rehash her argument here, she does get to the bottom of the problem:
They’re also desperately dull. I think it’s because of the eyes.
The rest of the article backs this claim up fully.
Actual Animators Talk “Frozen” Design Controversy
In a separate, but related article, three animators discuss the problems with the females in Frozen from an originality perspective and how the hand of Glen Keane, while not present in this film, is entirely present thanks to characters that look exactly like his own:
Despite a lack of involvement, his influence can be seen clearly in the new movie’s designs. Maher suspects this is mostly, if not entirely, marketing driven. “Even if Glen Keane had little to nothing to do with Frozen,” she says, “having not just one but two new female characters look like something he could have drawn is the safe route to take for a company that claims to be going through hard times in their film making department. Unfortunately for Disney and nearly the entire animation industry, it all comes down to the money right now.”
Or to put it another way:
“The skinny waist, large eyes, round cheeks, and tiny nose and mouth are an appealing design,” Stockham added, “but they aren’t the ONLY appealing design.”
Sailor Moon Lingerie
To be entirely honest: I consider myself a fan of Sailor Moon and tend to move in the fandom circles of it more frequently than other shows, but you have to admire the Japanese for their ability to merchandise and license just about anything and everything that most western animation networks and studios would never, ever touch in an official capacity. Sure we see knickers and pyjamas with cartoon stars on them all the time here in the west, but, uh, ‘intimate’ lingerie of a kids show?
Nope, that’s just a tad bit weird.
Tweets of the Week
https://twitter.com/le_bibo/status/410720137139191808
What a sparse year it's been for great animated features. still to see Frozen and Ghibli's latest but overall dissapointing
— Eddie White (@EddieWhiteJr) December 12, 2013
https://twitter.com/faitherinhicks/status/411170841452216320
look all i'm saying is that there need to be more disney princesses who sing about how gassy they are
— David Gravedancer Willis (@damnyouwillis) December 12, 2013
Anime question: if I hated Evangelion for its abandoning of a cool sci-fi idea in favor of teens whining, will I like Rebuild of Evangelion?
— Dresden Codak (@dresdencodak) December 12, 2013