Animation Studios for Batman Episodes

[javlenka]

since we have chosen to disect the animation, so be it:
The smoke here was done in a light grey/green through which you can see everything. The fire was also unlike TMS style. TMS is famous for its beautiful explosions and fireballs a la ROTJ or any of the TNBA/STAS episodes. The episodes, apart from both being well animated, do not share many similarities. Also, look at Dong Yang's work with Judgement Day juxtaposed against Sins of the Father. Animation varies from episode to episode, possibly retaining general techniques and even those are different in You Scratch My Back from TMS's normal conventions.

 

[James Harvey]

I'll get Animation Studio listings for Superman and Batman Beyond later this week, hopefully.

 

[javlenka]

lol, oh well. it was fun while it lasted.

 

[Wolf Boy2]

Any idea why Sunrise could never get the models right? I always assumed that Sunrise was just a crappy studio, until recentely when I was watching Cowboy Bebop (which is done by Sunrise). Cowboy Bebop has some of the best japanese animation I've ever seen. So what gives? Does anyone know why such an awsome studio did such awful Batman work?

Maybe they had trouble working with American models instead of anime models?

Come to think of it, TMS was pretty lousy with the Spider-Man show. What gives??

 

[Caswin]

If you watch these episodes enough it's very easy to catch similair animation styles, designs, techniques, etc.

The weird thing is, I could've sworn Heart of Ice, Prophecy of Doom, and Dreams in Darkness were done by the same team based on the fight scene style - and here I am finding they were done by Spectrum, Akom, and Studio Juno respectively.

I don't think I like Studio Juno. << And now I'm wondering what the Captain Clown fight would have been like at the hands of Blue Pencil or TMS.

 

[Revelator]

I hear that Akom has gone out of business. Proof that God exists?

 

[MilkManX]

This handy list simply shows how some studios are much, much worse than others.

From what i can ascertain: Akom , Blue Pencil , and the widely lauded Jade are the worst. From these arise the notorious bulky, out of proportion characters and the wobbly crooked lines that make up the background. Studio Junio was not bad (esp. "A Bullet For Bullock") but didn't do too great a job on "Avatar" and "Blind as a Bat", among others. Sunrise was decent: I thought "Heart of Steel" was very well done, but "I Am the Night" was disappointing. Spectrum was a real gamble. It could come up with things like "Robins Reckoning pt 1" that arguably represent the finest animation of the series. Contrastly, it came out with "Beware the Gray Ghost" whose animation nearly put a black streak on a fantastic story. Dong Yang was the work horse, and its productions are usually fine. And then, of course, we come to TMS which consistantly puts out the most beautiful, fluid, and colorful work of any studio for Batman and Superman alike. I suppose "The Demon's Quest" was not out of the ordinary, but that would be the only one. It's a shame that TMS only animated such a small number. Though animation is not of paramount importance, it can very well push a good episode to greatness (or visa-versa).

I loved Spectrum's Animation. I thought the Grey Ghost episode was gorgeous. TMS is also up there. Overall AKOM was the worst and at times Dong Yang had their B team animation. Sunrise was good but they liked to "tweak" the models to their liking.

 

[Caswin]

Any word on who did 'The Lost Episode'?

 

[Wolf Boy2]

Any word on who did 'The Lost Episode'?

Yep, TMS.

 

[Darknight66]

I personaly think Spectrum was the best. Even better that TMS, don't get me wrong TMS did great episodes, but Spectrum's ones were beautiful "Robin's Reconing", "Heart Of Ice", "Vendetta"

 

[veemonjosh]

I'll get Animation Studio listings for Superman and Batman Beyond later this week, hopefully.

It's been over a month. Did you get them?

 

[John Cage]

Where were you when I went through the DVDs, episode by episode, for this information?

i guess the reason why TMS doesn't work on JL is because CN doesn't want to pay them. BUDGET.

This isn't a problem for me. D.R Movie Co's work is on part with TMS -- every bit as beautiful and fluid, in my opinion. Dong Woo is a close second.

Have a good day.
John Cage

 

[RAINMAN]

Well that expalin why sunrise is so in love whit batman.

 

[Sketch]

Sunrise worked on Batman: TAS?

Well The Big O makes a lot more sense now. At least... visually.

 

[rukasu]

TMS did "Bionic Six" years ago, for those who remember that show. I got into an e-mail exchange with the Producer back in the days of AOL, and he mentioned that there are multiple teams at the studio, which you would be able to tell by the different levels of quality that the studio would put out over different episodes. (They did the entire series)

Now if I'm recalling correctly, I read somewhere that TMS was GOING to do more episodes for Batman: TAS, but Spielberg at the time was launching Animaniacs. TMS opted to work with Spielberg, and thus worked on far less episodes of Batman: TAS than they would have.

Whether or not TMS's business decision of animating the Animaniacs over Batman: TAS was a good one (for them) is debatable, but would probably be off-topic. I'm just providing the information as I recall it.

And for the record, I would have liked to see more from their studio, as their animation cycles are incredibly fluid.

 

[EricMontreal22]

Sunrise are known for many fave anime shows here--besides Bebop there's Escaflowne of course. but TMS are probably consistantlythe best tv studio in Japan.

on one of the season 1 features for Batman TAS in the commentary for... Mr Freeze? I think they talk about Sunrise and how it was founded by a group fo animators who left TMS and so they were VERY eager to prove themselves andworked insanely hard. Apparantly very quickly it proved too much for them and the studio was forced to close.

 

[JSmith]

I think you were referring to Spectrum being mentioned on the Heart of Ice commentary, Mr. Montreal, not Sunrise. Spectrum is my favorite animation studio and I think their work outshined even TMS'. Many of the fan favorites, Heart of Ice, On Leather Wings, Robin's Reckoning Part 1, Almost Got 'Im, and Laughing Fish to name a few, had Spectrum involvement. Such a great company and I'm sorry to hear that they went bankrupt and no longer exist.

 

[Jon T]

I think they talk about Sunrise and how it was founded by a group fo animators who left TMS and so they were VERY eager to prove themselves andworked insanely hard.

Yeah that was Spectrum. Sunrise (formerly Nippon Sunrise) were founded by a group of animators who left Toei Doga, who were really the only major Japanese animation company who didn't do any DCAU episodes - although they did animate the 1988 Ruby-Spears Superman series.

 

[Nightwing]

If you watch these episodes enough it's very easy to catch similair animation styles, designs, techniques, etc. However, If you watch alot of the credits for BTAS/TNBA (including reruns) episodes during the Kids'WB! days, you'll see that alot of mistakes are made in the credits, including animation studio - even voice actor and character credits!

Ya know it's funny you mentioned that. I've noticed that too, among other mistakes, in fact. One funny one was when they were airing a rerun of TNBA's "Chemistry." The audio skipped or something, so Ronnie's fiance said,

"It's clistry, Bruce."

Instead of:

"It's chemistry, Bruce."

I thought that was funny.

 

[EricMontreal22]

Ah yah, I should never post at 4 am...

Sunrise did do Escaflowne etc but Spectrum is what I meant in my second paragraph. And they were my favorite as well, though TMS has done some gorgeous stuff (particularly on Superman it seems). (I recently got the first vol of BTAS and was especially impressed with the visuals of an underated episode I didn't remember, Fear of Victory. Absolutely gorgeous)

I guess not every Japanese studio will farm out things--many of the biggest anime studios for tv work like Studio Pierrot I never see listed on N American shows. (I also have to wonder, on a tangent, what happened to Disney Japan, their best TV studio, when they recently closed all the tv studios).

I didn't know Toei worked on much American shows though I know of all their TV work (and their domination in Disney style theatrical anime from the 50s thru the 70s).

I belong to the Ghibli/Miyzaki mailing list hosted by www.nausicaa.net and a while back I swear there was some discussion of Ghibli being farmed out some scenes for various Superman shows just to get some extra cash. Anyone remember the details? I swear I didn't dream this (and am not mixing it up with Miyazaki's earlier work often havign hommages to the Fleischer Superman). If no one knows anything I'll check the ML archives.

Anyway great thread--I find geeky info about stuff like this exactly what I enjoy the net for. Even as a kid when BTAS first aired (and Gargoyles the next year) i'd pay attention to the studios, which I liked best, etc and you quickly get into the rhythm of it.

However I think it speaks volumes of Timm and crews quality control at how good even the Akom eps looked compared to much tv animation of the time. One reason (and this isn't meant to start a debate, just be a comment) I never have gotten as into the Marvel superhero shows of the same era as the Timms' DCAU is the visuals just never seemed to have the same overall standard. I think part of this is due to the thought that's gone behind the character designs (and when they've been streamlined through the years I think it's largely done to make the animation more consistant and easier to keep up to quality and not make rubbery like some early Batmans etc)