Unconventional or unpopular opinions you have (re: animation)

[[classic swim]]

What’s he gonna do next? The Flapping Dickey?

 

[Mejo]

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but one of the things that ages The Simpsons the most is how the most prolific children’s entertainer in the show’s world is a clown. Nowadays it seems harder to find someone entertained by clowns rather than terrified of them. Krusty wouldn’t thrive in today’s market.

Eh, I personally think that Krusty’s own show aged worse. His show has a similar setup to a standard local Bozo the Clown show and other shows like it (Group of kids in the audience who interact with Bozo, him showing cartoons etc.). That setup, while not as common as before, wasn’t completely gone by 1990. Nowadays, you'd be hard-pressed to find a show like that on any local station in the US (not to say they’re completely extinct, but the stations that DO have it are probably in the tens compared to the rest).

As for the subject of Krusty’s character, while I DO agree some parts of him CAN get grating in large doses (most notably his ruff voice) I do still like him overall (I’m a sucker for characters meant to parody old TV hosts). Besides, I can never hate someone who graced us with this:

 

[Pooky]

Eh, I personally think that Krusty’s own show aged worse. His show has a similar setup to a standard local Bozo the Clown show and other shows like it (Group of kids in the audience who interact with Bozo, him showing cartoons etc.). That setup, while not as common as before, wasn’t completely gone by 1990.

I recently stumbled on this clip of a Bozo introducing an episode of Transformers (seemingly split up into parts)


It was a little surreal because (as a non-American) I perceive Bozo and Transformers as being from completely different eras.

 

[Fone Bone]

Bozo was a thing when I was a kid. Transformers came a couple of years later (and I think Bozo was off the air in Boston at that point) but it would not shock me if he were still a thing in other local affiliates.

Do you know what's weird? Because of Krusty the Clown, those clown led shows with a kid audience and cartoon packages are looked back upon poorly. I actually REALLY enjoyed the Boston version of Bozo as a kid. It was a charming show with games and fun facts and I really dug it. Even the losers of the games got a cartoonishly HUGE Tootsie roll as a consolation prize. I don't have the apathy for the clown era of kiddie television most people do because I grew up near the Boston area in the 1980's. Bozo was cool there.

 

[Dantheman]

I recently stumbled on this clip of a Bozo introducing an episode of Transformers (seemingly split up into parts)


It was a little surreal because (as a non-American) I perceive Bozo and Transformers as being from completely different eras.

That must be from the WGN Bozo the Clown show, the Chicago-area Bozo show that got semi-national viewership on cable and satellite, because it has that Bozo's sidekick Cookie. The WGN Bozo show also showed cartoons like the '60s Filmation Batman, because I remember seeing that once.

 

[90'sKid]

I actually greatly enjoyed Twelve Forever and have zero guilt over it. The creator was actually fired from the show early in production because she was a workplace bully and hardly worked on it in reality. Shadi Petosky was the showrunner for the majority of the production cycle and she was very proud of the show considering the circumstances.

Still, something about the show just made me feel... icky. I don't really know how to put it into words but the whole show just gave off this unsettling vibe, you know? I get the same feeling from Catscratch having the scottish cat thirst for the neighbor girl*. From what ive seen of TF, charavters could be a bit too touchy-feely around Reggie.

*What's worse, that he's a cat horny for a human child, or that being a cat, he's probably younger than the girl?

 

[Pooky]

I've never made the connection before, but I suspect the Bozo format was a big influence on a string of UK TV shows from the 80s-00s, mostly on Saturday mornings, that also alternated live action hosts and cartoons; Wacaday, Going Live, Live & Kicking, The (imaginatively named) Saturday Show, SM:TV, Diggit, Dick & Dom in Da Bungalow and many more. Having been spoiled with Satellite TV in the 90s, I had little patience for these, and aside from Wacaday I have no nostalgia for them, but I'm atypical for my generation and most Millennial (and younger Gen X/older Gen Z) Brits loved them and remember them very fondly.

I've personally never understood what's meant to be so horrifying about clowns, but that's a general life unpopular opinion, not an animation one.

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

The least I like Krusty is when he’s a one-note joke about how terrible he is at telling jokes.

I'll never forget his Mad About Shoe sketch in the episode "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious".

 

[The Overlord]

I think as I get older, I can better appreciate the Batman the animated series episodes that featured gangsters and normal criminals rather than supervillains. I still like the supervillain episodes, but while I didn't like the gangster episodes when I was a kid, I can appreciate them now, telling more downbeat stories than you wouldn't get with the supervillain episodes.

 

[Classic Speedy]

I think as I get older, I can better appreciate the Batman the animated series episodes that featured gangsters and normal criminals rather than supervillains. I still like the supervillain episodes, but while I didn't like the gangster episodes when I was a kid, I can appreciate them now, telling more downbeat stories than you would get with the supervillain episodes.

Agreed, when I first watched "It's Never Too Late" when I was younger, I couldn't get into it, but now it's one of my favorite episodes.

 

[Pooky]

This is certainly at least partly an age thing, but I think the Kung-Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon films are at least a little overrated. They were all decent to watch once, but that's about it (and come to think of it, I still haven't bothered with the third Dragon, and suspect I wont with KFP4). Obviously as someone with a Garfield-derived name and avatar I can't claim to be adverse to the odd joke about culinary indulgence or laziness, but when the Panda films use them so often in a fantastical Martial Arts setting, after a while it does feel like a bit of failure of imagination. I've spoken before about a plot twist in the second Dragon film I don't care for, but mostly I just find them kind of forgettable, especially the first. Also not mad on the aesthetics of either series.

I also think both series got kind of overexposed with all the spin-off shows and specials they had, it diluted how special the films were when they came out, as I think was somewhat borne out in their decent but constantly declining Box Office (yes, KFP4 opened huge, but it's probably going to end up with lowest gross overall). It's ironic to me that Katzenberg ended up making the same mistake Eisner made with the Disney DTV sequels. Say what you will about Illuminations' films and their excessive merchandising and advertising, but that's area where they have shown restraint, and it's paid off.

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

Say what you will about Illumination's films and their excessive merchandising and advertising, but that's the area where they have shown restraint, and it's paid off.

Which is odd because Despicable Me does have direct-to-video shorts like those from Dreamworks.

 

[Goldstar!]

My feeling is that hit movies should have film sequels or a TV series, but not both. DreamWorks insists on turning it's animated features into TV shows and then make film sequels, but by doing this you run the risk of overexposing the franchises to the point where people are tired of seeing them. I still haven't seen any of the Kung Fu Panda sequels after KFP2, nor do I have any interest in seeing them.

 

[Silverstar]

^^For me, the king of overplayed and overhyped Dreamworks franchises is Shrek, hands down. I find it ironic in the extreme how the Shrek franchise ended up becoming the very same sort of Disney-fied cash cow that the original Shrek film (under the supervision of Jeffrey Katzenberg in his "Eff-You Disney" phase) went out of its' way to make fun of.

The How to Train Your Dragon franchise just bores me, and this is coming from someone who loves dragons.

 

[Pooky]

I was going to say at least Shrek didn't get a TV show, but I remembered there was a Puss in Boots show, so it kind of did. (I never watched it, despite liking the character, as I got the distinct impression it was pretty cut-rate stuff)

 

[Shiloh Otter]

My feeling is that hit movies should have film sequels or a TV series, but not both. DreamWorks insists on turning it's animated features into TV shows and then make film sequels, but by doing this you run the risk of overexposing the franchises to the point where people are tired of seeing them. I still haven't seen any of the Kung Fu Panda sequels after KFP2, nor do I have any interest in seeing them.

I do agree for the most part, though the Dreamworks take on Trolls currently has 3 movies and two series, and I think they're all excellent, and I'm up for another series.

Then again, I might be a tad bit biased, because I  love the Trolls franchise.

 

[Sparklefan1234]

I enjoy the fifth generation of My Little Pony more consistently than the fourth Friendship is Magic generation.

 

[JMTV]

I understand that studios are not interested in greenlighting original ideas right now since they will likely fail just as much as they would succeed, and bringing back old IPs is a safe bet for them. However, I would argue that bringing back old IPs are also becoming a risk because all you are going to do is burned out more and more people.

 

[Classic Speedy]

I know he's popular among Clampett acolytes, but I am not a fan of the early Tweety design. He looks hideous. I much prefer the feathered, more compact design in Freleng's shorts, the one that everyone's familiar with.

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

However, I would argue that bringing back old IPs are also becoming a risk because all you are going to do is burned out more and more people.

Which is why we haven't seen an animated series reboot of Jem and the Holograms.