Hotel E
Hotel E is a cartoon by Priit Parn, an Estonian director of animation. Estonia is not widely celebrated for their animated cartoons, and that’s a shame because among Cartoon Milk readers Estonia is known for great cartoonists, such as Priit Parn, who has directed many wonderful cartoons, such as this one.
In the America room things are colorful, but in the Soviet room things are dark and bad so one of the guys in the Soviet room goes into the America room, where he really stands out and is a bit of an outcast. This cartoon features stunning pop art combined with a funny portrait of the relationship between east and west. A fascinating satire, and one of the greatest animated films ever made.
However I was shocked to see that this cartoon not only does not feature the 12 principles of animation as laid out by Walt Disney’s nine old men, the laws that all good animation must follow, but makes a mockery of them through a stereotypical American cartoon rabbit who commits crude and senseless violence on the screen. I was simply horrified at how little Priit Parn takes animation seriously. This is an insult to the art-form known as animation. 0/10
Mouse Trouble
Art Davis is a bit of an underdog when it comes to direction in Warner Bros cartoons. He was only a director for a little bit. It would seem he didn’t quite fit into the Warner Bros leadership hierarchy, not having been at the studio as long as the other directors by the time he became a director. Perhaps this can be seen in his films?
Porky Pig, not being a natural funny maker, is also a bit of an outcast when it comes to the films of the Warner studios. However this film, Mouse Trouble, is quite good. Porky Pig has mouse trouble, and troubles himself a fair bit to capture a troubling mouse. Eventually, he builds a robot cat. This is a rather funny set-up, and the layouts and animation of the robot cat moving about are quite effective. I adore the layouts of this film, and it has some of my favorite gags of any Warner cartoon.
Sadly, despite being a product of the golden ages, the Warner Brothers cartoon doesn’t quite follow the principles that the Nine Old Men were trailblazing at the Walter Disney studios at that time. There is very little squash and squish, however some ideals of cartoon law are found in this cartoon, so I can give it a 3/10.
Uchuu no Stellvia
In Uchuu to Stellvia you watch Shipon, who is a girl and a computer programmer. It is the year something-something, and she has to go to space school on board the Stellvia, a big spaceship which this anime takes its name from. There, a thrilling storyline about the survival of humanity unfolds. A recurring theme of this cartoon is that the characters often are anxious and unsure about their abilities, comparing themselves to others whom they feel are doing much better than them. Pretty much every character has impostor syndrome, and the anxiety is why the characters in this feel quite relatable and easy to connect to. The main story is very forgettable though, and I’ve already forgotten how it ends. Or how it starts for that matter.
On more technical details, the backgrounds often have nice purples in them, and a couple episodes have real neat layouts. As I’ve said before, the characterization is the most appealing part of this cartoon. A thrilling space opera like you’ve seen before. This cartoon’s biggest flaw however is that it does not follow the principles of animation as established by Disney’s Nine Old Men. Very few if any of these rules are followed, thus this cartoon is more or less worthless as an animated series. 0/10.
Encanto
In this cartoon, Mirabel is a part of a family of people with magnificent powers. However Mirabel has no powers and thus doesn’t fit in with the family. She feels left out. You really feel for her and it connects you to the cartoon. However she does do things in the film that helps out the family and at the end everybody has a good time. This film is also a musical, so sometimes the characters will sing songs, just like in Ratboy Genius. In fact, the way the songs were directly incorporated into the story reminded me a lot of Ratboy Genius. Sadly this film is not as good as Ratboy Genius. Nowhere close really, so you really should just ignore this film and watch Ratboy Genius instead.
Also, this cartoon was made by Disney, and thus follows all of the animation principles as established by the Nine Old Men. This means the animation medium is pushed to the max in this cartoon and thus its only right to grant it a 10/10
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
In My Little Pony you watch Twilight Sparkle, who at the start of the show is a bit of an outcast with no friends, and friends (which she gets after the first episode) do some things and learn valuable lessons, etc. All good and well, but we are here to have far more important discourse.
While the Neo-UPA stylings of thick lines and stylized backgrounds might fool you into believing that this is but a mare latter-day entry in the UPA revival genre, most commonly seen in the late 1990s, this cartoon pays a lot of homage to earlier Columbia cartoons too. When this cartoon came out in 2010, many people were surprised that it was kinda decent, which was new to this franchise of previously hideously airbrushed mammals haunting the girl sections of toy stores. This reminds me of the famous phrase from the 1947 Columbia cartoon “Up N Atom” in which the cat asks if “this is another one of those cat chasing mouse pictures”, which is the sort of picture the audience would expect from a cartoon like this. However, it is then revealed that the mouse is just on its morning jog, and it’s a dog chasing cat picture. This brilliant subversion of expectations is not the only place where MLP:FIM is similar to Sid Marcus’s 1947 magnum opus.
There are many kinds of comedy, however the most highly celebrated comical academics agree that door jokes are the funniest of all humors. This is why Up N Atom is often cited as the best cartoon of the American golden age, as it has many really funny door jokes, as you can see in this picture. Just by looking at it you will laugh because the door jokes are really funny.
However, despite the humourous door jokes, which are really funny, My Little Pony Friendship is Magic is a flash animated cartoon, and we all know flash is incompatible with the laws of animation as written by the Nine Old Men of the Walt Disney Studios. There is no squash and squish, there is no appeal and there most certainly is no timing and spacing. I would not recommend watching this cartoon for those reasons. 0/10
And that’s it for this week’s Cartoonmilk Hall of Fame, where we celebrate the greatest cartoons of all time. Did any of your favorites appear on the list? If so, remember to leave a comment. Goodbye.