Cartoon Culture #1

A while back I read this article over on Seward Street about watching more animation –sort of immersing yourself in Cartoon Culture if you will. Now, the truth is, you don’t have to twist my arm to watch more cartoons but here lately I’ve been making a conscious effort. Some of the feature stuff I’ve been watching you can see reviewed below but I’ve also been watching as much stuff on Cartoon Network and Boomerang as I can make time for. On some level, I’ve enjoyed every frame of what I’ve seen recently. For instance, I watched an old Laserdisc of Tex Avery cartoons and thought some of them were brilliantly funny. The thing that’s made the biggest impression on me recently however was an old episode of “Toonheads” on Boomerang. The show was titled “The Dreams of Bob Clampett” and it was nothing but old Clampett Warner cartoons featuring dream sequences. This of course included gems like “The Big Snooze” and “The Great Piggybank Robbery”. Not only are these shorts very, very funny they also have a loose rubbery style that grabs the eye and holds it. I was just grinning from ear-to-ear during the whole show. What’s more I found myself wanting to sit down and try and animate something with that same sort of feel. The thing about these cartoons was that you didn’t look at them and say “My, what a fine example of the 12 Principles of Animation!”. In fact, they were a little on the sloppy side. Nevertheless, there was such a feeling of life and zany energy that you couldn’t look away. I took this as a sort of an object lesson. In the past, I think I’ve been too preoccupied with the technical aspects of an animation and have ended up producing work that was lacking in zing. Style and technique have to meet somewhere in the middle to create animation that really breathes.

Here’s a couple of good links for those interested in learning more about the awesome Robert Clampett (who was a huge influence on Ren and Stimpy’s John K. amongst others)…

Wikipedia Entry

Michael Barrier Interview

2 Responses to “Cartoon Culture #1”

1. Cartoon Central says:

   December 9, 2005 at 2:14 pm

   Cartoon Culture

   Lots of classic cartoons that I haven’t seen yet….
2. Paul says:

   December 9, 2005 at 2:57 pm

   Well, the cartoons of Robert Clampett aren’t a bad place to start. And Chuck Jones, and Friz Freleng. God, any Warner Brothers from, say, 1940 to 1960. They’re all so great.