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What's your new favorite show???

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What's your new favorite show???

Just wondering what are some your guy's favorite shows (animation wise) on TV right now? So join in, mine are...

Spectacular Spider-man: Love the look, Sean Galloway is my favorite character designer and the writing and overall product is really good for a kids show.

Transformers Animated: As you can see I'm a fan of stylized art and here is no exception. Loved the transformers but thought the show was kinda goofy till I actually gave it a chance, now I'm hooked.

Ben 10: Same as transformers, liked the look but thought the show was goofy. Then I sit my butt down and actually pay attention to the show and I love it. Can't wait till the new series.

The Venture Brothers. Cool design and animation. Dark, character-driven comedy. Just a hell of a lot more going on than your typical adult swim gag-fest (not that there's anything wrong with that.)

I'm enjoying the new Transformers series a lot. Not so much because of the at style, but for the writing. I'm not a huge fan of the way they designed them this time around, but it's nice to see they're not just doing 3d models of the toys again.

I'm glad Futurama's back and I'm really looking forward to the new season of Venture Brothers. It just makes me wish I had cable.

Unfortunately, for the past many, many years........nothing.
I cannot watch TV cartoons today without wincing at some point.

I caught the last part of a show I did recently and was astonished........heartbroken, as to how badly it was butchered.
That's happened too often, and I see too many of the same mistakes in other cartoons.
Good stories mean nothing to me if the visuals are sloppy, and they usually are, or if the thing is badly timed.
That prevents me from catching anything that's watchable--because there's so much garbage to sift through to get to the good stuff.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

Unfortunately, for the past many, many years........nothing.
I cannot watch TV cartoons today without wincing at some point.

I caught the last part of a show I did recently and was astonished........heartbroken, as to how badly it was butchered.
That's happened too often, and I see too many of the same mistakes in other cartoons.
Good stories mean nothing to me if the visuals are sloppy, and they usually are, or if the thing is badly timed.
That prevents me from catching anything that's watchable--because there's so much garbage to sift through to get to the good stuff.

I hate to be a stickler here, but could you give us some exapmles of stuff you saw that made you cringe? I'm just curious.

Nothing. I almost never watch television anymore, mainly because I'd rather spend that time working on one of my own movie projects :)

Whenever I do find idle time to watch the tube, it's usually to watch a DVD from Netflix or Seasons 1 - 7 of the Simpsons...

Hmmmm.....
I think there are some that are well executed....perhaps over-worked imo. But I love Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends. I don't get it on my TV but I did buy the DVD....and I don't buy everything that comes out.

I hate to be a stickler here, but could you give us some exapmles of stuff you saw that made you cringe? I'm just curious.

-Anytime a character is shown moving during a camera pan.
-Anytime a character is shown rotating their bodies on some kind of axis--say a spin-kick.
-Anytime a vehicle is shown turning or rotating on an axis.
-Anytime a character is moving 3/4's towards or away from camera.
-Line quality on 90%+ plus of the shows ( some thing that FLASH allows for at least). I lament the death of thick and thin lines--everything looks static with no-weight lines.
-Almost anything animated in FLASH ( looks like paper cut-outs). I think FLASH is one of the worst things to happen to the craft of Animation since the craft began.
-The timing of many shows-at least 50% of the shows have slugging that does not take advantage of natural pauses or plateaus in the pace of the story. More than a few rely on a breakneck pace that tries to cram in material, and almost nothing reads very well. Why is that some shows can tell an effectively moving/dramatic story in 22 minutes, and others telling the same kind of story in the same amount of time come off flat, overly-hectic and pointless?

The other stuff is that, of course, the material is aimed at kiddies which is an intrinsic part of what the stuff is anyway, and not a flaw per se.
Voice-work is often shrill these days, not really caricatured. It a lot of shrieking to my ears--or its horribly bland.

That's just off the top of my head...

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

-Almost anything animated in FLASH ( looks like paper cut-outs). I think FLASH is one of the worst things to happen to the craft of Animation since the craft began.

Hold on, I need some clarification here.

Do you mean Flash specifically, or the technique of limited animation?

Are you including the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons that used the technique in the 60's and 70's? I can't wrap my head around that... one of the worst things to happen...?

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Hold on, I need some clarification here.

Do you mean Flash specifically, or the technique of limited animation?

Are you including the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons that used the technique in the 60's and 70's? I can't wrap my head around that... one of the worst things to happen...?

I think he's referring to the program Flash and I'd agree to an extent. I don't see a problem with a cartoon that has always used Flash, but when a cartoon switches to Flash when they hadn't before (Dexter's Lab, Powerpuff Girls), it can be a real disappointment.

Hold on, I need some clarification here.

Do you mean Flash specifically, or the technique of limited animation?

Are you including the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons that used the technique in the 60's and 70's? I can't wrap my head around that... one of the worst things to happen...?

I mean FLASH specifically.
Limited animation has produced some cartoons of merit, imo. The reason's for my feelings about FLASH come from it not being used properly. Flash animation should, by rights, be indistinguishable from those limted animation H&B cartoons...........but its not.
Its far, far from it.
The various Flash shows that I have seen do not "animate", they swing. The various build elements of a character swing around on hinge-points trying ( and failing) to convey a natural sense of movement.
The characters in these shows look like puppets on strings.........because that is what they are in a virtual sense.
Take a look at any Flintstone or Huckleberry Hound cartoon from the era you mentioned, the characters operate with similar limitations but the results are very different. IMO, FLASH has brought about a culture of lazy animation, from studios and productions more concerned with putting something on screen rather that actually doing something that moves naturally.

Oh, I know, FLASH has put a shitload of actual animators back to actually producing animation on domestic productions, and has been a bit of boon to the industry because of that, but I think the final product looks awful.

Think about it? If FLASH becomes the medium the craft ( for tv animation) shifts to, why bother teaching animators to mind volumes, for example? They don't need to
once the character is built. Just teach them how to slow in & out and swing tha' sucka away....
The H&B limited animation, for all its economy, still demanded artists to mind basic animation and drawing principles.

I'd take those old H&B shows over 90% of the stuff that is broadcast today.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

That's what I thought you meant.

Just wanted to make sure. :cool:

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I used to watch King of the Hill, and the Simpson's faithfully but been busy lately.

Saturday fare, well I watched for the stories and I hate to admit it but I liked Kenny the Shark, and King Tutenstein. Don't ask me why. I just did but find myself busy on Saturday mornings as well. I don't even know if either one is still on anymore.

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

Well, with me, its really all about the story. If an animated series has an engaging story that hooks you from week to week or day to day and you get REALLY mad if you miss the next installment of the story... that's good to me.

With Spider-Man and Transformers, these are old stories. I'm a child of the 80's. I grew up with those stories. It's good for the new generation, but I already know about the power struggle between Starscream and Megatron and the teen angst that Peter Parker deals with.

With Ben 10... I really don't find myself caring about those characters or their stories. The setup reminds me of Darkwing Duck... the hero with the big guy and little girl sidekicks and the ridiculous, bargain basement "super hero comic book" brand bad guys. But hey, the show must get some serious ratings, because they made a movie and a spin-off, i think.

There isn't an episodic story out there that I like right now. I like Family Guy. American Dad. Thank God for new Futurama episodes on the way.

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I'm struggling to think of any "new" shows, partly as I either miss a lot of the output as don't tend to get to watch all that much on the childrens channels where all of animation is shunted into or the newer popular cartoons are on cable or satellite channels i can't access!

I'm enjoying Family Guy, though that's more to do with the writing & humour than how it looks. The animation is pretty reasonable in it at a functional level, though an example of great character animation it isn't!

There's a cg show on ITV1 in the uk called "Headcases" which is meant to be satirical, but while the character models of celebrities in the main are good (certainly the heads) it's a woefully unfunny show as the writing is lame & unfortunately the animation is rather basic in the main too, though this could be a deliberate thing as the schedule could be mega-tight as they try to keep it topical. It's a shame as I'd imagine the animators would like to do more with pretty cool charicatured characters- the poor humour makes it look a bit of a missed opportunity too.

Strangely one cartoon I found myself liking a lot even though I was annoyed by it when I first heard it was being made is the current version of the Mr Men- i found it really entertaining & funny for what's basically a pre-school show, & thought they'd handled the re-styling of the characters pretty well. Another cool pre-school animation is Pocoyo- it's simple, but entertaining with great stylized animation & nicely designed characters.

That's my two-penneth anyway!

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