2010

Why Cleveland Brown Himself is the Only Great Thing About The Cleveland Show

Animation, FOX, The Cleveland Show, TV / 
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We all know that the Animation Domination block on FOX has been on somewhat of a slide in recent years. The glory days with the Holy Trinity of The Simpsons, Family Guy and Futurama have long since passed and sadly attempts to improve the variety of the block (such as with Sit Down, Shut Up) have not ended well. Nowadays, we have The Simpsons and an hour and a half of Seth McFarlane for company on Sunday nights.

Last season it was the turn of Cleveland Brown, a side character in Family Guy, to strut his stuff in his own spin-off show. There was rampant speculation at the time on whether or not he was worthy of such an accolade. Yes, it’s true that on Family Guy, he plays a deathly boring character whose only reason for existing was to be the butt of jokes (as if he needed any worse luck when it came to bathtubs). However, with his own show, Cleveland has been forced to add a bit of depth to his character, although he does so at the expense of everyone else in show.

The key to any good show is the interaction between the characters. In most shows, said characters normally have personalities distinct enough that they bounce back and forth off each other. A great example is The Inrcredibles, where the family members constantly clash with each other as their different powers take flight.

In The Cleveland Show, you have the typical “nuclear” family; husband, wife & kids. So far so much the same as Seth’s other two shows. You have Cleveland’s biological son, a simpleton who never has much to say, his adopoted daughter who seems to exhibit some of the worst traits of being a teenager and his adopted son, who acts like a much brasher version of Stewie from Family Guy. Donna would seem to be a good match for Cleveland in terms of character, but she has yet to have near as much airtime has him.

As for Cleveland’s buddies, let’s just say they all have one defining trait and we’ll leave it at that.

Which leaves us with Cleveland himself. What has changed about him in his transition from side-characters to main protagonist? Well for one, he has a lot more screen time, so he has a heck of a lot more talking to do. Besides that, he is still somewhat hard to pin down. He’s a devoted husband and father, but he is not averse to getting them into obscure situations that involve, say, a shootout.

He displays a higher level of intelligence than previously, although that may be the result of actually being more involved with the show. He is an optimist at heart, always looking for the good in folks, although that does not preclude him from having negative opinions which he does dispense when it suits him.

As the centre of the show, he naturally gets involved in a lot more activities than his family, and he has some genuine funny moments. The fact that he even displays a lighter side (perhaps even a colourful one) is a significant indicator that he is the most developed character on the show.

Cleveland Brown is, however, not a decent enough reason on his own to watch The Cleveland Show. The girlfriend and I gave up at the second ad break last Sunday, simply because the effort required to stay up didn’t justify the awesomeness that is sleep. If you, however,  enjoy a show with only one half-decent character, The Cleveland Show will do the job.

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Anomaly Approved: Amy Mebberson

2 Comments / Anomaly Approved /

It’s been a while since the last one, but things have been busy and this type of post takes a wee bit longer than normal to accomplish. Anyways, today’s recommendation is Amy Mebberson. Who is she? Well, she’s an animation artist who has a lot of passion for all things Disney (and Pixar) and who currently gets to draw Pixar comics, how cool is that?

Amy likes to draw (a lot) and a quick check of her Flickr stream reveals a wide variety of works. There are plenty of work creations, but she is not shy about putting up her personal art either, be it from her sketchbook or her submittals to the Girls Drawing Girls blog.

While some out there will only be familiar with her Disney pin-ups collection, Amy is capable of so much more. It is safe to say that she has an exquisite eye for both character composure and design. While some artists are content to use similar poses over and over again, in contrast, Amy uses the opportunity to explore new and exciting poses that bring out the best possible expression in the character.

The vast majority of Amy’s works are what I would term cute. The characters are almost always smiling and look like they are in a good mood. Which, unless you’re a troll living under a bridge, will undoubtedly brighten your day.

Like most creative folks, Amy does plenty of doodling. Even though these are drawn quickly, with scant regard for perfectness, they still exhibit a great attention to detail and a dedication to excellent design. Since these are done in a relatively short space of time, there are plenty to be found over on Amy’s art blog, My Blue Sky. Even more of her stuff can be found in her deviantArt gallery.

Now I’m no great critic, but I know what I like when it comes to art. It is clear that Amy displays a true passion for her profession that shines through in the quality, calibre and variety of her creations. So what are you waiting, go check out her stuff!

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Adventure Time Season 2 Starts This Monday?

3 Comments / Animation, Cartoon Network, Frederator, TV /

Apparently so, according to Eric Homan over on the Adventure Time Blog. It seems like we were discussing the premiere of season 1 just yesterday, although April does seem so far away when you think about it.

The show has proven to be immensely popular and successful. For starters, just look at the viewing figures, every single demographic is up for the Cartoon Network. Of course, they were so low to begin with, there wasn’t many other ways it could go, but that is not the point. The point is that Adventure Time is proof that content is king when it comes to consumers.

Besides the outstanding quality, there has been the enormous number of fans that have flocked to the show. Besides commenting on the show’s main blog, there has been what seems to be thousands of submittals to the Adventure Time Tumblelog as well.

How do we know that these aren’t just random pieces of fan-art? Take a look at some of the album covers fans recreated using characters from the show. Some are absolutely fantastic and are a sign of true dedication from fans.

Which leads us to this coming Monday, when season two will premiere. Why it is happening so soon I don’t know (heck, if Eric doesn’t know, there’s no way I can either). I doubt it is a case of striking while the iron is hot. Adventure Time seems to be holding up quite well in re-runs. I’d say the reason is that with the recent premiere of J. G. Quintel’s Regular Show, the network simply wants to keep the momentum up.

Nonetheless, I think we can safely look forward to even more wacky adventures with Finn and Jake. 🙂

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Idiots and Angels Starts This Wednesday!

Animation, Film, Independents /

As mentioned previously, Bill Plympton’s first ever feature-length film, Idiots and Angels will begin its theatrical run this Wednesday at the IFC Center. What is unique about this event is that Bill himself has done all the back-breaking hard work on getting his films shown. he is relying on the animation community to spread word of mouth.

The films begins this Wednesday at the IFC Center in Manhattan and Bill will be in attendance for the evening presentations and having met the guy, I can safely say that his company is a pleasure to enjoy.

Seeing as I have not seen the film (yet), here are a selection of links to various interviews and discussions that Bill has done in the run-up to the premiere:

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Looking For A Book on Animation? Try the Library!

3 Comments / Animation, Book /

Seriously, go to the library! I found that in recent months, I was becoming a bit consternated with the number of books I wanted to read. The reason this is so is because I was concerned about the rather daunting amount of money it would cost to read them all. You figure $10-20 for a book isn’t too bad until you add it all up and realise that for your $100 you got only 5 or so books.

Yes, it is possible to go used, but you are still spending hard earned cash. The main sticking point for me was not so much the price, it was that I just wanted to read the book, not necessarily won it.

So last Saturday, when I had a bit of free time in the afternoon, I decided to wander on down to the local library. Now I hadn’t been in a library outside of school in about 10 years or so; the result of outgrowing the children’s section, lack of time and a general lack of interest.

I used to love going to the library every Friday evening after school with my sister. I never stopped loving books, it just seemed that the library, as a source of books, slipped further and further down my list. Well, now it is right back up at the top!

Why you ask? Well for one, why pay $20 for a book when you can borrow it for free?

The nature of libraries today is such that it is possible to obtain practically any book you could imagine. The existence of inter-library loans means that you can request any book, and if your local library doesn’t have it, there’s a good chance at least one other one in the country will. The cost of this wonderful service is only $1.

Having said that, you’d be surprised what animation books turn up on the shelf. A quick scour of the shelves in my local branch revealed a copy of Animation Development: From Pitch to Production by David B. Levy which suffice to say, everyone interested in animation should read.

With the ever-growing prevalence of the internet, it is easy to say that books are becoming increasingly marginalised in favour of online content and e-books. The fact of the matter is, if copyright continues to grow every more severe and restricting, traditional dead tree books may well be the only way to freely read content without having to pay for it. It’s sad to say, but as far as I know, you can’t borrow an e-book near as easily as a real one.

So what are you waiting for? Hit up your local library’s website and see what they’ve got. Or even head down to the local branch yourself. I know

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The Flintstones: From the Stone Age of Television To Today

1 Comment / Animation, TV /

Via: The Cartoon Pictures.com

What can I say that hasn’t already been said over and over again and again? The Flintstones is a giant among giants. The mere fact that we are celebrating its 50th anniversary today is proof that the Flintstones has been enormously successful. The closest parallel in terms of popularity has been The Simpsons, a part-parody of today’s topic (remember this?) and who undoubtedly succeeded because of it.

We all know what made the show successful: strong, easily identifiable characters, its primetime slot on ABC, a few celebrity voices (that were perfect for the roles), the experience and expertise of William Hanna and Joe Barbera, it’s similarities to successful, live-action sitcoms (The Flinstones were directly based on The Honeymooners) and last but not least, the sheer novelty of being an animated show at a time when cartoons were already being driven into the kiddie domain.

Without going into my likes and dislikes of the show, it’s safe to say that The Flintstones are of the highest quality. It is a wonder how much better things would be if they had stretched the animation budget just a tiny little bit further, but, having said that, the limited animation look of the show plays second fiddle to the stone age design and the hilarious consequences of such.

It continues to defy its age. Think about any live-action show from the era, it’s clear that they belong to that particular time. The Flintstones could have been made 10 years ago (and in the case of The Jetsons, the late 80s) and it would still be considered innnovative.

The Flintstones is unlikely to be unseated from its perch anytime soon. The Simpsons still has another 30 years or so to play catch-up, but that show’s unprecedented 22 year run ensure it’s place in the history books as well. With the coming storm in the media market, we will never again see such TV shows, Indeed shows like The Flintstones and The Simpsons are already an extinct species.

The influence of Fred, Barney, Wilma Betty, Pebbles and Bam-Bam is still being felt in TV today. References abound, imitations exist, merchandise continues to sell, and people continue to watch a show that by all rights should be well past its sell by date.

The Flintstones is not a lesson in how to make a great TV show, rather, it is proof that animation can be superior to live-action in many respects and can be popular with kids and grown-ups alike. It is a historical anomaly that was an extremely lucky break for Hanna-Barbera who finally managed to gain a foothold in the maintream media and the public’s consciousness as a result.

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Patiently Waiting for The Vault of Walt

Animation, Book, Disney /

Via Mark Mayerson’s Blog

There are a lot of stories and legends surrounding Walt Disney. Some are genuine, others are not, but all are entertaining or informative in some shape or form. He is, without a doubt, a giant in the animation world, not just because of his early developments, but because he proved that animation could provide a strong base on which to build a media empire.

Written By Jim Kokis, a noted Disney historian, the list of stories detailed in the press release and over on Mark Mayerson’s blog have certainly whetted my appetite for this book. Over the last year or so (especially after I read Serious Business), I have become more interested in learning about the early history of animation in Hollywood and Walt Disney plays a fairly large part in that.

The book will be out in October and by the looks of things it will be a very good read indeed.

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The Obstacles Facing Roger Rabbit 2

3 Comments / Animation, Film, Opinion /

At this point, it’s been over 20 years since the original Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a film that perhaps single-handedly resurrected interest in the classic cartoon shorts of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Despite being wildly successful (thankfully, as it was the most expensive movie ever made at that point in time), a sequel was never made.

There are a couple of reasons why a sequel was never made. Number one, Hollywood wasn’t near as sequel crazy as it is today and number 2, the complexities of the original film made it somewhat more difficult to produce another one. No, I’m not talking about the animation, or anything technical, it is he sheer number of characters required lengthy and exhaustive negotiations between all the rights holders. You may have noticed that the original film had neither Felix the Cat or Tom & Jerry as the rights to neither were secured prior to production.

Why do I think a sequel won’t work? Well, why do you think a sequel wouldn’t work? Perhaps because sequels invariably share the same set of problems. TV Tropes has a good rundown of the symptons associated with what they call, sequelitis. The plot isn’t a continuation, bit characters that became popular are given way more screen time than they should be allocated, new characters appear that add nothing of value, etc. etc.

The original film was notable for many reasons, not least because it used a huge cast of already popular animated characters and introducing a few that appeared well known despite being brand new. That’s why Baby Herman, Jessica Rabbit and even Roger are still known, they have created a link in the audience’s mind between themselves and the classic characters of yore. A sequel will most likely copy some elements of the character but discard the deeper stuff that matters.

Another aspect is time. It’s been over two decades since the original and the times have changed. Roger Rabbit succeeded because it was different. Animation didn’t get a lot of respect from people in the 80s. Roger Rabbit (along with The Little Mermaid) helped change that and establish animation as an artform that could deliver the goods at the box office. There was little to no competition unlike today, where a new animated film is released, on average, every couple of weeks. The quality of said films is also astounding, thanks to the folks at Pixar who raised the bar so high.

Finally, as everyone knows, sequels inevitably have a lower budget than the original. In animation (moreso CGI than traditional) this is partly because computer models and sets have already been constructed, however, corner are still cut in areas such as story development, size of the crew, etc. The difference is always noticeable and in the case of Roger Rabbit, it would definitely be noticeable. If you make the most expensive movie ever and spend less for the sequel, it will look different.

Of course, there is the test film for a CGI version of Roger from 1998. It’s embedded below along with the test from the original film. The two cannot be compared in overall quality, but notice the difference in the animation. The newer one says a lot about the attitudes of executives towards sequels of classic films.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw77Vt6sgdc]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0hNbcJO6EM&feature=player_embedded]

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How the Internet has Improved Access to Animation

Animation /

Animation is not the only artform to benefit from the best invention ever, in fact, all forms of audio-visual entertainment have benefited from it. What has brought this to my attention was the Chapter 11 filing of Blockbuster Video (click through to see the headline of the Chicago Sun Times that I can only hope was known to be satirical before it was published).

The store near us closed a couple of months ago, and I dutifully paid them a visit to see what I could salvage. I found an Irish film, the Teen Titans movie, Spirited Away and Beavis & Butthead Do America (ah , my teenage years). There was also some even more random items that I passed up on, namely some older children’s stuff and a couple of volumes of Sailor Moon.

The main reason I passed them up (besides not being interested) was that I couldn’t justify the cost nor the loss of space on my shelf. I suppose I subconsciously realized that if I really wanted, I could find them again through other means.

The growth of Netflix and Hulu has meant that for animation fans, finding older or more alternative TV shows and films is not near as difficult as it used to be. In times gone past you had to visit the Goodwill stores and car boot sales (also known as flea markets) to find them. For the slightly sketchy stuff, you might need to visit a speciality shop, or know a place with some items under the counter.

The greatest asset to all of this has, of course, been YouTube. Just on a casual search from memory, I found Astronomeus (a Felix the Cat short) from 1929, Saturday morning cartoon from the 80s Galaxy High (with character designs by John K.) and an obscure English film animated in Poland during the Cold War.

The downside to all of this is that the vast majority of stuff posted on YouTube is illegal against copyright, so there is a good chance that if you’re reading this post in a couple of months those links will be broken. Happily, folks are always re-posting things so it should just be matter of searching a bit harder or by trying another video site.

What’s the upside, well for one if people are looking for this stuff it indicates that a demand does exist. What’s even better is that said demand can be satisfied relatively easily and cheaply by using the Internet in the same way that the pirates loyal fans have done. Older, more obscure content should not be left to rot away in the archives. It would be much better to digitize them and allow anyone to view them. Despite what the detractors say, it is always possible to use free content to turn a profit.

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