Hey friends. It's me, Max Gilardi. If you don't mind I'm gunna say some words now.
A recent trend among animation aficionados is to criticize the lack of aesthetic appeal that modern cartoons have. Whereas once animation was painstakingly sketched and inked by skilled artisans, it is now a mishmash of clunky, unattractive lumps that looks like it was drawn by a five year old having an epileptic fit. And so, droves of cartoon-lovers take to the Internet to reminisce about how good animation USED to be.
To me this is very ironic because animation is better now then it's ever been.
I think there's been a change in prime directive when it comes to cartoons. They're drawn differently nowadays, and that seems to be the thing everyone focuses on. Nobody talks about how they're WRITTEN differently. This may sound pretentious, and maybe it is, but I'm not impressed by good animation. I'm just not. Any time of the day I can just flick on my TV and see good animation in a goddamn cereal commercial. Granted, the colors are a little obnoxious, but the characters move with amazing fluidity. How bittersweet it is that all of today's visually-impressive animation is monopolized by the Trix rabbit and the Lucky Charms leprechaun. So it's almost like animation has been commoditized these days. It's being churned out ad nauseum in Japan. So in a world where good animation is being mass-produced to sell us Cookie Crisp and Fruity Loopies, why do people still consider it valuable? I know I don't. What DO I consider valuable?...
Good animation is easy. Good writing is rare.
Now, I'm not saying that good writing and good animation can't coexist. The problem is I feel like more often than not I'm forced to choose between the two. When this happens, good animation never stands a chance. Nothing's worse then a cartoon with a great visual style accompanied by an infantile, boring, idiotic, uninteresting story. Because of this, I often find myself not liking the stuff those animation aficionados go on and on about. The so-called "infallible" stuff is incredibly blasé to me. Subsequently, I've become the guy who loves the stuff the haters love to hate and the guy who hates the stuff the lovers love to love. Simple, no? Sometimes I feel like I'm alone in this boat, but I try not to think about it too much.
When I think back to all my favorite cartoons, all of them have been "ugly". Every single goddamn one. I think ugly cartoons have sort of an indescribable charm that makes them so lovable. I couldn't, for the life of me, begin to express what I mean here. The ability to draw amazingly well is something that very few people possess, so it's almost like drawing a cartoon poorly makes it more relatable to the rest of us. Does that make sense? It makes it Quaint, it makes it Humble. 20 years ago, The Simpsons was responsible for a paradigm shift in the way animation is written. Whereas once-upon-a-time animation was written by cartoonist and animators, it is now written by writers and comedians. Some people will look you straight in the eye and tell you this is the worst thing to ever happen to animation, but for me, it was the best thing. Who could write better than a writer? Let the writers write and let the animators animate.
A lot of people have been asking me what cartoons inspired me to get into animating, so I thought I'd share with you my biggest influences. But instead of showing you loopy toons and marty mouse from "the golden years", I'm gunna show you this...
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Home Movies is perhaps the most underrated show in history. I used to have laughing fits watching it late late at night when I was a kid. My parents would get pissed. You can watch whole episodes on youtube now....
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Space Ghost and Perfect Hair Forever have some of the most delightfully avant-garde writing I've seen. I feel like this stuff might be really polarizing because it can be too unusual and too out-of-the-box for some people, but I still love it. Perfect Hair is actually one of my favorite things ever shown on television. Once again, whole episodes are on youtube.
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There's this new show on HBO called "The Life and Times of Tim". It's only been on for about 3 weeks and it's already one of my favorite shows. HBO is a channel with shitloads of cash, and they could afford to make beautiful animation if they wanted to. So why don't they? Hmmm...
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...If you haven't deduced this by now, I'm only using a pejorative term like "ugly" to articulate the argument I'm trying to make here. I don't think any of these cartoons are ugly, just different. Additionally, there's something to be said about good animation; it can actually be a distraction. I was watching a movie last night wherein the characters moved with fluidity, and the animation was very impressive. I couldn't pay attention to the story. I was hypnotized by the fact that all the characters were physically over-acting and enunciated every verbal cue with a goofy, unnecessary gesture. It was a sensory overload.
Do you guys know what Wabi-Sabi is? It's a Japanese term. Bobby Hill described it best on an episode of King of the Hill, it's "Finding beauty in what's flawed, like the crack in the Liberty Bell or the mole on Cindy Crawford's cheek."
If something that's flawed is beautiful BECAUSE it's flawed, then wouldn't that make a show like South Park the most attractive show on television?
Think about it.
