LISTS
Last week while attending a party for the Academy Awards I was seated in front of a few young men who thought everyone had come to hear them debate a list they were making of their all-time great films. I was surprised that they were so disinterested in the real awards that they thought it more fun to first create and then loudly debate their own selections, somewhat to the dismay of the rest of the guests who were trying to hear the television.
This fixation we have with lists got me thinking, and having a little time on my hands and wondering what I was going to write about on my next post, I thought why not make some lists of my own. What could be better? And since this is a site about animation I thought I should make the lists about animation. Thinking I might just be on to something, I called Dan at AWN and asked what he thought and he agreed that lists were good. My original thought was to make a list of my favorite fifty 2-D animated series made domestically over the last 60 years. I thought it would be fun to do a countdown to Number 1, posting 10 each week while inviting readers to offer comments or their own lists. After some further discussion with Dan I decided to create five categories of 10 favorites: Boys Action, Girls, Prime Time, Kids and Pre-School. After posting each of these five lists I will then post an amalgamated list of my All Time Top Ten.
RULES:
As you can’t have a list without some rules, here are mine: Hand drawn 2-D animation only please. The selections must have been originally made for broadcast on U.S. television and there must have been at least 13 half hours produced, although each half hour may be comprised of shorter segments as long as he broadcast ran for at least 22 minutes. No re-purposed animation from theatrical, theatrical shorts or foreign productions please. Remember, hand drawn 2-D, no sock puppets, stop motion or CGI but perhaps those can be addressed in other lists in the future.
And that’s it. The categories are not perfect as there are some shows that don’t fit perfectly in any of the slots and others that could fit in more than one… such is life so don’t take it too seriously if I’ve left off one of your favorites… I’m fairly mainstream so don’t expect a lot of esoteric selections but I will be glad to look at your selections if you want to post them or any notes on mine.
Last thing; please consider this as meant to be fun. Don’t write to me to tell me I'm an idiot. I have been married for over forty years; I have a wife for that. There is no right or wrong – all lists are subjective and it’s more fun that way. If you make a list of the top ten grossing films of 2010 you are merely stating a fact and you can’t argue about a fact, unless of course you hold public office.
I will post a new category each week beginning next Wednesday. I’ll start with my top Boy’s Action Series next Wednesday March 24 and then work through the other catagories each week and them finally offer a best ten from all 5 catagories.