This post first appeared on my former blog Nov. 12, 2010.
As a kid, I loved cartoons. LOVED them. Saturday morning, no questions asked, the television room was mine. Bugs Bunny. Scooby Doo. Pink Panther.
I even went through a comic book phase—albeit, short-lived. Archie. Superheroes. Beetle Bailey. No, I can’t even recall where I was finding Beetle Bailey comic books. Newspaper comics were also important, especially on Sundays: Peanuts. Garfield. Bloom County.
BTW, did you know that Comics.com is the online home to your favorite comic strips and editorial cartoons? Check out their library. (The comic above is embedded from their site. Cool, huh?)
But I figured that was all kid’s stuff (well, Bloom County was pushing the envelope, and I admit that Doonsbury was over my head as a tween), so I was surprised in the 70’s when an animated television show came on the air: Wait Till Your Father Gets Home. Am I the only person who remembers it?
In the 80’s I loved The Tracey Ullman Show, which featured animated shorts about a wacky family called The Simpsons. The Simpsons sit-com hold a special place in my heart because they debuted the same year I got married. Yep, my husband and I have been watching them for over 20 years.
Now there’s a whole Cartoon Network (warning, the website is sensory overload), and anyone who has watchedSouth Park or Drawn Together (both on Comedy Central) will tell you that those shows are not for kids. On the other hand, SpongeBob SquarePants IS for kids, but I think he’s pretty dang funny. And when I found out my dad was a fan of Futurama, I threw up my hands and admitted the whole solar system was probably rearranging itself. Dad and I can’t agree on politics, but we both love Dr. Zoidberg.
Add into the mix stylized Japanese anime and manga. I remember Speed Racer (I had such a thing for Racer X) andKimba, the white lion prince (son of Caesar). Now I watch the movies of Hayao Miyakazi, which are, in a word, brilliant. And the animated stylings of Nick Park, creator of Wallace & Gromit. And, of course, Tim Burton’s amazing The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Of course, we can’t ignore the computer animated age. Films such as Toy Story and Wall-E, Ice Age, Shrek—these will be staples that our children (and we) love. And computer graphics are driving video games.
I’ve even begun to embrace editorial cartoons. And it’s no surprise that humorous sketches in The New Yorker Magazine can often make me howl.
But here’s the thing: cartoons enable the storyteller to hold the actors in a time-lock. The Simpsons continue their long run of success because Bart, Lisa and Maggie never age. Homer never learns from his foibles. Animation is the perfect medium for situation comedy. Those Disney animated fairy tales from my childhood? Still as classic today as they were then.
Does animation allow us distance so that we can laugh at things that are more uncomfortable than funny? When does it become the obvious choice to animate something instead of using live action or words alone to tell a story?
Please share your thoughts, your favorite cartoon characters, your favorite animation styles, or mention some famous animated creation I forgot. (Sheesh—-FELIX the CAT!) What do you LOVE about animation, even as an adult?