Look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tell-Tale_Heart_%28movie%29
That's terrible -- definitely the low point of his career, to direct a film in the horrible limited-animation style instead of sticking with directing Disney's beautifully animated films.
UPA gave Babbitt the opportunity to direct, which Disney never did. Besides, Babbitt loathed Roy and Walt DIsney.
Babbitt was an animation pioneer.
I give him credit for co-creating an animation style that exists to this day, and has influenced most of television animation, whether you like that style or not.
I used to like it [the limited animation style of UPA], until I was convinced that I shouldn't. Anyway, couldn't you tell that I was being sarcastic in the first post?
No, we couldn't.
Why that anyone should be "convinced" not to like something is beyond me.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
It was Wade K who made me see "the light".
Anyway, should I auction all my Miyazaki DVDs on eBay or send them to close friends? Because, you know, despite all the respect that animators seemingly have for Miyazaki's work, in reality they think that his films are poorly animated crap, and they think that boring, childish, simplistic, preachy, and one-dimensional films such as Ferngully are better.
PS: I feel like tearing my hair out.
.... so really you still like the UPA-type stuff, and just have some kind of crazy axe to grind against people who prefer the other stuff, and you're infested with sarcasm to the point where you can't tell any longer if you're being sincere or not?
Ah, so its a "they like this, but you don't, you don't like it , but they do" kind of schism?
Is there a "welcome to the real world" hamper with Konan/s name on it, folks?
Y'know, the hardest thing in the biz is forming your own opinions about what's appealing and what's tasteful etc.
Everybody's "right" on this score--because everyone makes their best argument as to why they are right about "what's good". It comes from all sides and from some educated opinions--every once in a while.
The easiest route is to fall into line with the tune that makes the most sense to you--in spite of your own likes/dislikes. The other route means you have to hold your ground against all the other folks that supposedly "know better than you".
Having any kind of resentment towards this is about as sensible as listening to all of it in the first place.
Personally, I could give a rat's ass about Miyazaki's work--in the same breath as I could give two shits over anything Ferngully--and I WORKED on the sequel. Its all the same beast when it comes down to its essence.
Anime is junk.
There, I said it.
So is a LOT of North American animation.
They both have their bright spots, and they both have their dim bulbs.
I cannot see, in ANY OF IT, what is worth getting worked up over.
Notice how the world didn't change all that much after I wrote that?
I'll take the piss out of something I don't like--and there's a lot of it--and I'll praise something I think is good. But I could care less if someone parrots me on those opinions.
I'd rather see a body of talent holding on to each their own seperate opinions and be at odds, rather than fall into cliques about this or that. Quorums of siccophantic agreement are boring.
I've reached a point where I'd sooner tell someone to engage in singular copulation rather than openly accede that the drivel they've put under my nose is actually "good" or even PRETEND that its good.
There's nothing to convince anyone of ( or be convinced of) because what anyone else thinks is their business, not mine.
Now, if you want to adopt this mindset, feel free. There's no charge, no club membership status , no obligations to maintain the line of thinking at all.
And you get to keep all your hair too.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
Referring to all animation that comes out of a particular country as "junk" seems extreme, especially coming from an animator; but I suppose that, since you seem to be saying that animation from any country is junk, at least you're being consistent.
Harvey--don't make the mistake of thinking that when I say that "anime is junk" that I'm saying that "everyone should think that anime is junk".
Nothing could be further from the truth. I've had my fill of anime and a lot of animation from the rest of the world. I do not see a lot that interests me.
Nowhere in ANY of that is there the idea that it is ( or should be) uninteresting for anyone else.
A person's opinion is just that..........it shouldn't be a reason to be bothered because its different.
And THAT is point of what I was trying to say above.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
I know you're not trying to push your opinion on others. I just feel it's an interesting opinion to discuss: for someone who visits an animation forum to declare that almost all animation is junk.
I suppose I feel the same way to some degree, but I love it; maybe in the same way that I love junk food, or that I love horror movies which I acknowledge are trash. Maybe "pablum" is a better metaphor for me: delicious pablum.
Well, colour me as a cartoonist that doesn't like cartoons--or rather I don't watch them much any more. The more educated my eye gets, the more I appreciate certain works and the less I appreciate others. The stuff that inspired me as a kid seldom holds up--but my memories of it have painted it as better than it is. That's the junk and their is a lot of it.
Anime is..........well just another form of the junk.
Oh, the technical drawing and designs are often stellar, but the timing and actually animation is often an accquired taste. Likewise North American cartoons have their share of warts and morts too.
Taste tends to change as one gets older/more experienced...........and yet......sometimes that taster just decides........no more.
Alot of folks mantain this mantra of keeping an "open mind"--but really...........why? :confused:
For fairness?
Pfft, since when is individual taste governed by fairness?
Me, I'm defending fussiness. :)
At least for today. ;)
Yea, there's pablum out there, and like the real substance its nutritous for a while. I grew up on all manner of cartoons. From Disney, to UPA, H&B, Warners, to Walter Lantz, to Avery, to anime of all kinds, to Claymation....seen a huge amout of stuff.
But that was a time ago. As a pro, I like to distance myself a bit from the material, unless I need to consult it for professional reasons. Its not my preferred form of entertainment and that is because it reminds too much of the failings of the medium. I've worked on some of those failures, consumed a lot of it as a kid too, and ..........well, its all a reminder.
There's some hearbreak mixed in this too--perhaps even jaded cynicism. As a creator, seeing some of those creations of mine...........some of the work ended up in bad cartoons.............well the OTHER bad stuff tends to remind me of the closer-to-my-heart material that never got its due.
The eye-opener for me was just how much "junk" is out there.
I'm not complaining about it..........I'm just turning my back on it. I don't want it to get me down, at least not anymore.
I have to create "new" material, to pay those bills........and I have to bring something to the table to those creations........even if its the same staid old business that's been requested by and pleased a million-fold client many times before.
I cannot take anything away from Spirited Away, or SpongeBob, or Wallace and Gromit because those and their kin have their marks. I just don't flock to them like others do.
My zest and zeal is saved for my own creations--the stuff that doesn't have to be shared/sold or savaged.
I used to love junk food zealously before as well............alas, as I age, the junk food takes it toll on me and I stray further from it. I think the same thing can be said of a lot of cartoons.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
Yes. Let's just agree to disagree.
And Konan... If you have a bone to pick with Wade K, go pick it in private. Just please stop bringing up this Ferngully business.
Now. Back to UPA...
I happen to like UPA's "limited-animation style." In a time when most animation studios were attempting to copy Disney's smooth realistic animation, UPA developed their own style--edgy and innovative.
Not to say UPA was better than Disney; that would be like comparing apples to oranges.
But back to the topic. "The Tell Tale Heart" wasn't the only UPA project Art Babbit worked on... Check it out! Here are some of Art Babbit's original sketches which he did while working on UPA's "Ragtime Bear" cartoon:
http://xs50.xs.to/pics/05416/bearcompilation.gif
Pooryorik
PS. But no harm in being sarcastic :D