note from auteur: I wrote this article last year, and I thought it was bad then. It’s been posted now mostly as-is because I’ve forgotten that it was I who wrote this.
The Elstree Erbs
This is a cartoon from 1930 made by Joe Noble. It’s a British cartoon about cartoon characters who do things. They have a silly train. It has, in what might be an animation first, a minute and 30 second long intro featuring titles, with the characters riding their SILLY train and then informing the audience that this is episode one. Unlike “Tom and Jerry,” this cartoon series has episodes.
Thus we are introduced to a barren landscape in which these characters made of ink live together with an equally barren score. A bear cartoon character tries to impale a worm with a hook so he can fish. However, the fish have other ideas. What silly nonsense will happen? You would have to watch the cartoon to find out. The backgrounds have great inking. It’s a fun cartoon which has that bizarre feel to it that Van Beuren cartoons have, but isn’t as hack. There’s some fun mixed media techniques here too.
The crazy humor and unpredictable nature of this cartoon would later be found in “The Ren & Stimpy Show.”
One Froggy Evening
Chuck Jones is famous. Many directors of cartoons are not famous, but Chuck Jones is. In 1955 he directed One Froggy Evening, which is one of the greatest cartoons of all time. It’s easy to see that Chuck Jones was a huge influence on The Ren and Stimpy show.
This cartoon is about some one who finds a frog who can sing in a box he dug up, which seems very novel, however the frog doesn’t sing when others are there. This is a problem because the person who found the frog desires to make a significant profit. This is a classic fable, in which greed does not pay. Despite it being a common theme in many cartoons, real life shows us that excessive greed and narcissism not only always pays off, but people admire and appreciate greed, seeing it as an essential pillar to human beings’ way of life. Despite this I rate this cartoon five stars.
Vividred Operation
Chill piano music and a fancy font showing that this is a product of TEAM VIVID signals to the viewer that they are in for a special cartoon dreamt up by great auteurs; a cartoon feat which will never again be repeated. Then we see the back of a Girl, drawn in great detail, as the sun rises between her legs. She tells the audience that “she had to do it.”
The series, animated at A-1 Pictures, a division of Sony Corporations mighty Aniplex animation production capital venture firm, this cartoon is directed by Takamura Kazuhiro, who has contributed on several famous Gainax shows such as “His and Her Circumstances” and “Mahoromatic,” and also directs the “Strike Witches” series of popular anime cartoons, stars Akane Isshiki, a girl with a big heart who lives on a nice island with clean energy, because her grandfather built a cool tower. In this peaceful world, a girl can deliver newspapers on her hoverbike and develop disgusting eating habits involving extreme amounts of mayonnaise. She receives a message on her brick phone from her Girlfriend, who is coming back to town. She in very cool fashion throws an empty can into the trash bin, teaching the audience to recycle.
However, disaster strikes as big mecha monsters named “Alone” attack the nice island, and Akane’s grandfather turns into a rodent. However this does mean she is destined to become a magical girl, which she does. As the series goes on, she gains friends who also become magical girls and then they make big explosions. There are also many unsolved mysteries such as who is the girl in the intro? Why does she live in a small room containing only a table, a chair and a parrot? These questions are answered.
The programme is reminiscent of a remembrance of the output of the Gainax animation studio, and seems like a lot of staff are related to Gainax and Gainax People, lots of crossover with mid-2000s Gainax Shows, Studio Trigger (and Imaishi) and the 2011 Idolm@ster series. There is lots of fast paced action, references to gainax shows and hornyness. I’m sure Vividred Operation would have been a hit with the anime audiences of 1999, however in 2013 what would have been sick sakuga is rendered with bland CGI models, and the anime seemingly uses the same bland background designs as most other late night anime uses. These shades of colors, the shape of the grass, it’s very familiar.
The animation camera also has a thing for zooming onto characters’ butts. This happens constantly in all 12 episodes of the cartoon. This kind of humor is very similar to “The Ren and Stimpy Show.”
Review of a Drive in Theater Intermission Clock
Hare-um Scare-um – Dir. Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton
When speaking in Classical Animation Circles, no name piques peoples’ inspiration as much Ben “Bugs, yeah man I invented Bugs Bunny” Hardaway. The legendary Warner Bros. director—known for his sensitive touch, inspired direction and magnificent laughs—presents to us, together with Cal “Arts” Dalton, another striking cartoon masterpiece; in fact it is his most famous cartoon.
It’s easy to appreciate the saturated background work in these late 30s Looney Tunes cartoons. In a nod to the decade’s earlier masterpiece “The Elstree Erbs,” this one is also notably barren in details.
The film introduces many of Bugs Bunny’s most famous character traits, such as skipping on the water while screaming “woo hoo.” A hunter is out hunting for meat because meat costs money and hunting doesn’t, and thus he meets a tricky rabbit who does crazy things. It’s as if Tex Avery was good! Wow! Yipee! Cartoon!! This cartoon is also very meta, as Bugs Bunny sings about how wacky he is, which is sure to be hip with modern audiences. This subversion of audience expectation will be loved by all cartoon fans. The cartoon also features detailed painted close-ups, just like “The Ren & Stimpy Show.”
Thank you for reading this article I wrote a year ago. Happy a good lucky fellow cartoon fans.