ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 4.10 - JANUARY 2000

Year In, Year Out

by Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman

Cartoon Network.com's Pink Donkey and the Fly runs more kid-friendly then the average Web fare. © Cartoon Network, Inc.

During my past stint with Michelle Klein-Hass' late, great Web site Animation Nerd's Paradise (ANP), I wrestled with the same question at the end of each year; do I write a best of/worst of retrospective, a "year in review" piece, or test my clairvoyance by "looking ahead?" As it turned out, I did neither. ANP had a very talented columnist named Thomas Reed (now with Animation Blast) who did these things very capably; his sardonic and funny year-ender "Conditional Santa" said it all. I opted instead for an annual piece of playful fan fiction that was possibly enjoyed by the two or three people who actually read it. Let's face it; a column consisting of cogent hindsight and crisp post-evaluation (not to mention feckless forecasting) is the very best way to cap the old year and usher in the new, so herewith, for the first time, I present:

"Rocky and Bullwinkle Meet The South Park Gang in the Great Bedrock Treasure Hunt!""

Scared you, didn't I? All tomfoolery aside, here is my take on the past year and the year ahead...

The Goddamn George Liquor Show cuts the edgy side of the Net. © Spumco, Inc.

A Brave New World
The hottest trend we will see is the proliferation of the web-based cartoon show. We all know that John Kricfalusi and Spumco did much to pioneer this development but I believe that the possibilities were first revealed by early fans of South Park, who found that they could up-and-download entire episodes of the series on to the Web. The simple graphics of this cartoon made the task easy but Web technology has since advanced to the point where any animated cartoon -- or series -- can now be credibly presented. Spumco's
The Goddamn George Liquor Show has been joined by Cartoon Network's Web Premier Toons, and Nickelodeon is about to enter the fray as well.

The growing popularity of WebTV blurs the line further and signifies that in the future every cartoon we enjoy could be coming to us through cyberspace.

Spumco has already struck again, making a deal with Harvey Entertainment Co. to resurrect their stable of comic book and cartoon favorites (many of which were first animated at Paramount-Famous). These cartoons will premiere on Spumco's Web site but will soon be moved to Harvey's site as well. Recently, Flip Your Lid Studios created an exclusive web animation division and other sharp studios are following suit. The future of animation is coming through your modem.

New millenium versions of classic standards may be hot in the future. © Cartoon Network, Hanna-Barbera and Spumco, Inc.

Speaking of Harvey and Spumco, I predict that another hot trend will be the revival and resurrection of older cartoons, with radical revisions of others thrown in. In "Stepping Backwards to Move Ahead," an earlier column for Animation World Magazine, I noted that twisting the oldies might be the way to go, and the severely warped Ranger Smith cartoons done by John K. should be noted by every animator sitting at his/her Macromedia Flash or Dreamweaver right now. I wonder if the Harvey characters will be animated in the Spumco house style or if John K. will get a crack at them? The Harveytoons were among the blandest consortium of characters ever created, and I for one would love to see what John K. could do with Hot Stuff, Spooky, Baby Huey or (oh, Lord!) Little Audrey...

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