In general, LAAFs have translated into box office failure. Speed Racer posted only $44 million in gross ticket sales. Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Case in point: When Billy West stepped in for http://mag.awn.com/index.php?article_no=3237 ">John Kricfalusi as the voice of Ren after Kricfalusi's split with Nickelodeon, West did an imitation of John K. It was impossible to conceive of Ren speaking any other way. As far as the caped crusaders of the comics go, it was years after they first appeared that anyone heard the voices of superheroes. Aside from the old Batman movie serials and the 1952 TV series in which George Reeves portrayed Superman, readers were left to imagine what comic book superheroes sounded like. When played by live actors, the variations can therefore be endless. In the case of LAAFs, the rules are vastly more stringent.

Live actors who play specific cartoon characters are bound to the task of dressing, looking, talking and acting exactly like those characters if the performance is to be credible. They must engage in appropriate dialogue, use the right catchphrases, and wear the right costumes with as little variation as possible. This is why having Leslie Nielsen portray Mister Magoo was a very bad idea, and so was casting Sarah Michelle Gellar as Scooby-Doo's Daphne. All audiences saw was that guy from Airplane and that pert young vampire slayer. Variations on animated characters tend to ring false, but what can a poor human actor do? I suppose that their features can be unnaturally distorted to humanoid appearance by CGI FX, but then, why not just make the picture in CGI and forgo live-action?

In terms of their very appearance, comic book characters are simply more plastic than animated characters; they can undergo dramatic changes and still be accepted by fans as the genuine article. This occurs because over time there is considerable turnover among artists, and many talents try their hand at a character. Steve Ditko, Herb Trimpe and Ed McGuiness all produced Hulks that were drawn differently. There were stylistic changes in Iron Man as he moved from Jack Kirby and Don Heck to Gene Colan and later, Bob Layton. Jack Kirby, John Buscema, John Romita, Sr. and John Byrne all handled the Fantastic Four during their history. Frank Miller's Batman was nothing like Bob Kane's. These visual variations do not even begin to take into account the many changes of costume that comic book heroes adapted over the years. Fans are quite used to seeing characters change in appearance often, and thus seeing live-action incarnations is not a jarring experience.

The situations generally found in animated series such as Scooby-Doo lend themselves poorly to live-action adaptation. Things that work fine in a short format are labored and drawn out at 90 minutes. © Warner Bros.

Also, comic book heroes have far more extensive and complex adventures than animated characters, at times engaging in storylines that continue for months. Comic books may be likened to a self-contained mythology, and it is no exaggeration to say that there is a Marvel or a DC "universe." Comic books can bring in characters who were assumed dead long ago or resurrect storylines that were seemingly resolved months or years ago, with frequent references to these events for longtime readers. The fact that most comic books are ongoing epic sagas makes them far more adaptable to movies, due to the amount of time that a full-length script needs.

Conversely, animated episodes within a given series tend to be stand-alone affairs. There were exceptions, such as The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, but even this property did not adapt well to the LAAF format. The situations generally found in many animated series such as Scooby-Doo, Josie and the Pussycats, Speed Racer, or in any Mister Magoo cartoon are rather formulaic, somewhat predictable, and lend themselves poorly to live-action adaptation. Many things that are funny and work fine in a seven-, 12-, or 23-minute format are labored and drawn-out in a 90-minute format.

That does not make a good script impossible, but it does make things much more difficult. A full-length SpongeBob SquarePants, Simpsons, or South Park animated movie works because the cartoon characters are congruent with the appearances and behaviors they present in the shorter TV episodes; asking live actors to consistently mimic them over the long haul of a motion picture is asking a lot, especially if the transition is not all that believable to begin with.

In short, LAAFs are at terrible disadvantages when competing against comic book adaptations. Worse, they are at a disadvantage with the conventions of their own source material. At the time of this writing, Alan Moore's Watchmen is generating buzz at an apocalyptic level. Thor, The Flash, Shazam, The Spirit, Captain America, and, of course, Iron Man 2 are preparing to descend on audiences across America. Time and audience reaction will tell whether these live-action comic book films will succeed at the level of The Dark Knight, but one thing is certain: Any and all of them will outperform any LAAF unfortunate enough to be in the pipeline or planning stages today.

This column marks the end of nine years as a monthly commentator at Animation World Network. Dr. Toon would like to humbly acknowledge all those who have been involved in posting my work over the years: Thanks to Heather Kenyon, Dan Sarto, Sarah Baisley, Darlene Chan, Jon Hofferman, Joan Kim, Rick DeMott, and Ron Diamond. Thanks most of all to my readership, who more than anyone else has kept the old doc rolling along on AWN.

Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman is a longtime student and fan of animation. He lives in Anderson, Indiana.