Thank you for everything!

The Road Runner series is the first Hollywood cartoon that consciously applied ground rules… Among the rules that Jones adhered to are the following:

1. “The cartoons always take place in the same desert setting.
2. The road runner and Coyote never speak.
3. The road runner never leaves the road.
4. Coyote and the Road Runner are always introduced by bogus Latin names,”(Maltin, 1980).

If you grew up watching the cartoon, as I did; then you can understand accuracy of this statement. With these videos clips you can judge for yourself how constant this is for yourself.

After viewing these episodes I feel that there are deeper rules involved that concerns physics. I believe Jones neglected to focus on the cartoon law of physics.

The Cartoon Law of Physics is complied after viewing 15 episodes. I have determined the following list;

• Anybody suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of it’s situation.

• Everything falls faster than an anvil.

• All principles of Gravity are negated by fear.

• As speed increases, objects can be in several places at once.

Refrences:

Maltin, Leonard. Of Mice and Magic. Plume Books, 1980. Print.

Commented on Jeannie Hilleray and Sarah Askri Blogs.

UPA is a large section of history in which animation takes a turn for the better. The origins of UPA can be found in 1941 during the production of Snow White when animators began the strike at the Walt Disney Studio.  Among the artists who left Disney’s because of the labor dispute were three men who later founded UPA: Stephen Bosustow, David Hilberman, and Zachary Schwartz. According to Maltin 1980, UPA  was more than a cartoon studio,  it was an attitude, a point of view, a new way of thinking about what an animated film could — and should — be. Maltin points out that UPA is famous for “taking a concept of that the path of action should look continuous,” as well as innovating a method of “holding a character in place while the background dissolves behind him” (Maltin, 1980).

Look at the following film and see if you can see the subtle inspirations from UPA;

Throughout the film, Burton uses a technique called  “match cutting” to visualize Vincent’s identification with Vincent Price, which provides a series of trick transitions between Vincent-as-himself and Vincent-as-Vincent Price.  This style of cutting is familiar from UPA cartoons, which often matched character position while backgrounds dissolved from one location to the next. Moreover, Vincent’s flat, simplified backgrounds show the influence of the stylized spaces of such UPA films as Gerald McBoing Boing or Mr. Maggo.

It is also similar to UPS type of animation as a film “without walls. There are no lines defining the difference between a ceiling and a wall.  As Maltin stated, “a picture is on a space, and then there’s a rug. So ‘rug’ means that’s the floor and ‘picture’ means that’s the wall.” The props in a scene are placed relative to the action; “we thought of them as standing characters.” (Maltin 1980). Though Vincent is less sparse, a similar ambiguity is introduced when checkerboard linoleum appears as a stark wall instead of a floor, or skylights are simply placed in an upper area of the frame. Done in stop motion animation, Vincent nevertheless looks surprisingly similar to a UPA cartoon in the simplicity of its stylized design.

Refrences:

Maltin, Leonard. Of Mice and Magic. Plume Books, 1980. Print.

Commented on Bonnie Hansen and Sarah Askri Blogs.

I took in to consideration that the most remembered commercials are typically animation due to their far stretched plots in which they can bend all rules in order to sell a product. For most of the part due to their high animation levels it is successful. how many of you have seen the cartoon presented above and had an urge to buy the M&M’s due to the commercial having a deeper impact?  I know that I do.

Here are a few other commercials that stick inside your head and urge to buy their products.

As we have learned within the class and the text, earlier productions of animation had an easier way of distinguishing if the show was well like or not. Now with the prevision and movies you can only judge by the ratings but never get an feeling of how people truly felt about the movie. In order to have a hire ticket sell or rating you have to promote the shows, if you fail in promoting you fail in the the overall quality. This has now stretched into the world of advertisements knowing that they way you promote helps with profit. Most of the products we use in our home about 50% of them were influenced by some type of advertisement. According to Maltin 1980, ” It seems that all the care and creativity go into the making of television commercials not television shows. Innovations in design animation, and humor can more often be found in commercials than in the shows they interrupt.”

Majority of the commercials have a character in which you can relate to, such as the following clip;

This cute little bunny gives a unique charm that grabs your attention. The give you a character in which people can relate to which in returns sells more products. When you would like to see a well exquisite and appealing animation all you have to do is wait for the commercials.

Refrences:

Maltin, Leonard. Of Mice and Magic. Plume Books, 1980. Print.

Commented on Bonnie Hansen and Sarah Askri Blogs.

Apparently, a huge controversy involving Angry Beavers first started in 1998, when “Alley Oops!”, contained the following lines;

Dag: "You stink!"

Norb: "Oh, shut up, Dag!"

When this episode was first televised , the “shut” in “shut up” was bleeped out. This action  generated more interest in the show by parents, as some felt that it had vulgar language in the dialog. However, between airings, Nickelodeon changed Norb’s line to “Shush up, stupid!” It was the first time any Nicktoon had a line changed between airings, which caused controversy with the creator.

Its final episode, “Bye Bye Beavers”, Norbert is informed that he’s part of a TV series that’s been canceled, and has to convince Daggett that they’re just characters on a TV show. Here is the auditory clip from that episode;

Micah Wright was a member of the production team on Angry Beavers, said that Nickelodeon was not pleased with the message because it made fun

By allowing this final episode to run it would have hurt Nickelodeon by deliberately attacking the network by poking fun of Nickelodeon’s choosing not to make new episodes and instead making money on the constant barrage of repeats. The creator concluded this due to the strict guidelines that a creator must follow including,  if your show was canceled, don’t mention in the last episode and restricted from making finales.

I am appalled by the way a large cartoon network such as Nickelodeon took advantage of the creator and causing controversy in fear of not being able take advantage of their hard work in using re-runs. I am sure if I looked into other shows from this network I would have a hard time finding a finale during this time.

References:

The Angry beavers. (2001, November 10). Retrieved from http://www.search.com/reference/The_Angry_Beavers

I commented on Myca Taylor and Gerald Thomas.

Take a look at the video below;

This short is successful in capturing our eyes with the beauty of the back ground while still focusing on the main character. This is capable by the use of Computer Generated Imagery (CGI). This allowed for the less time in production of sets and certain elements such as the plants taking over the world. Take a look at the following video to understand the effect that CGI brings to stop animation and creates an easier production of such a tedious process.

After viewing the easiness of the stop motion aspect of this short I am disappointed at the creator in taking the shortcut in having the plants (which is the main feature of this film) being digitalized by CGI. He took the time in making the breaking of the blocks in Stop Motion, why not make the plants. This would have changed this movie in a triumphing way in the stop motion aspect of the film.

In the day and age of animators cutting down on production time by whipping up stop motion with CGI, it’s really a shame of taking away the beauty of stop motion process. There are still a few films that I respect in their decision to continue the legacy of stop motion. It is a testament to see people work in a medium that requires hours of tedious work on films that can take an extremely long time to produce. That is why the I get excited about full stop motion pictures such as Coraline or Mary & Max . Can view the trailer for Mary & Max below;

Despite the convenience of  animation with computers, CGI, and Pixar, stop-motion animation seems to be alive and well. It’s at art form that can truly be described as a labor of love, due to the sheer amount of detail, hard work, and dedication that goes into it, and hopefully it will continue for a long time to come.

Commented on Jeannie Hilleary and James Scutari.

Did you catch the racism displayed in this video? If not re-watch the youtube clip from 5:05.

The storyline would have been effective without the stereotypes and racist characters but yet Mintz felt it was necessary to incorporate in the animation. Similar to other films during this time period, in order to demonstrate the African American they changed the color to a midnight black and demonstrated typical stereotypes of large lips and white in the palms, lips, and underneath the feet.  This cartoon also included another minority that was highly stereotyped during this time period which was the Native Americans that appeared white in skin color but is in a headdress and carries a cigar.

This cartoon displays them different behaviors of the races by separating the music and dancing. The clip I had you focus on, shows the European Americans dancing to an upbeat song in which the children enjoy dancing along with. Then it transitions to the blacks doing a mellow and deeper song and a sluggish type of dancing. Finally the last scene is of the Native American outside a cigar shop where the music shifts to a solo drum and the character does a type of call by bouncing his hand on his mouth. The strangest thing of the scene is that the characters are not doing the different types together but in separation. Also, you can notice the children don’t feel the urge to sing a long and dance with the characters.

I feel that Scrappy’s Ghost Story shed light on the abundance of racism in the 1935′s. By the time Scappy’s Ghost Story was produced, racism mocking African Americans and minorities of all kinds was a well established form of entertainment in the United States.  This type of style was designed to entertain Americans by portraying minorities in a comical way. But I feel that this is neglecting viewer’s individual choice and personal responsibility.

References:

Maltin, Leonard. Of Mice and Magic. Plume Books, 1980. Print.

Commented on Sarah Askri and Emily Witt.

Here is a clip demonstarting Shrek verision of the princess: 

  This different way of looking at classic fairytales opened up many doors for animation within the next few years the following parodies were released; Shrek 2 in 2004, Hoodwinked in 2005, Happily N’Ever After in 2007.  Shrek the third 2007, Enchanted in 2007 and Happily N’Ever After 2 2009. 

 Take a minute to think about this, these movies are thought to be marketing to children for the cute animation and cartoon like behavior or is this simply a cover up for adults to have an excuse for watching cartoons? I am aware that the movie is made for the whole family but majority of the parodies and humor go right over the children heads. The idea of a parody is making fun of things we already know and understand. But, only adults have this wide understanding of Disney’s classics to be able to understand the humor in these parodies. 

 If the reason most parents encourage watching the parodies with their children because it will be stimulating for the adults then are those parodies exposing our children before, or instead of, the originals? When it comes to these parodies the children have not heard of many of the fables mention and therefore classic such as Puss in Boots or also known as Master Cat; which was a French literary fairy tale will only be known as by younger generations as a Latin speaking sidekick of Shrek. Where did the French roots go and will children ever know of its roots? 

Also, take a look how Happily N’Ever After 2 look at the parody of Snow White; 

In conclusion, I love the parodies as an adult but I am worried the messages that are being portrayed to children that have not been around the orginal fairytales. Is this going to replace all the classics for the younger generation? I know this won’t be the first time this has happened but it is a shame. 

commented on  Rebecca M Townsend and  Emily L Witt.