Animating the Boob-Tube Blog 9

Animating the Boob-Tube Blog 9

This week’s reading deals with how animation grew. I especially liked the article on Ren & Stimpy. I remember watching it when I was a kid although I didn’t it like too much since I thought it was kind of gross. Although now I love it since it really stands out from the norm. The article talked about the show being geared to children and adults which I already knew. This goes with a lot of shows such as Rugrats. I also knew that some of Ren & Stimpy had been edited. I am kind of surprised Nickelodeon agreed to show it in the first place due to a lot of the humor. I can really see why it was so popular among young adults and did so well on MTV. The article also talked about fan culture or animatophilia. It kind of reminded me of the whole anime fan base.

I don’t agree with the only main animation American audiences know is humor. There is a lot of drama in series such X-men, Teen Titans, Gargoyles, and Aeon Flux. Anime is a very good example of in depth story lines and characters. I wish American cartoons would take more elements from anime.

The other article talked mostly about Gumby. It was interesting to learn about Gumby’s creator since I never thought about him before. The characters always did seem simplistic to me in looks and personality. I understand now why the creator wanted it this way. I also liked reading of how children’s television spread and how The Mickey Mouse Club led to this. There are a lot of kids so it’s a large market and it’s hard to imagine when kids didn’t have toys of their favorite cartoon characters. Furniss’s chapter seven goes more into what the articles covered. Since it’s mainly about the appeal of animation and its history on TV.

For last week’s lecture I liked the experimental section a lot better than I thought I would. The music video for Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds felt very surreal and was very well done. I never knew about Oskar Fischinger but he did some things that were very revolutionary. I liked his Fantasia piece but he had other work just as inspiring. A lot of the experimentals felt psychedelic and I could see a connection with forms and shapes in experimental over the years. I especially liked the last segment we watched in class with the digital media. It was so colorful and had kind of a magical feeling.

Magen Thornhill