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Aesthetic animation tends to sentimentalize its subject. This is why I detest anime. Nina Paley is the rare animator who walks the line between the beautiful and the bizarre.
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Apocalypse Animated
@ApocalypseAnim
10:1 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:... apocalypseanimated.com/revelation-10
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When TAL Public Policy Analyst Deirdre Cooper learned her 8th child might have Trisomy 18, a severe chromosomal abnormality, a high-risk physician suggested they take time to "think about what to do." She shares more of her story in our latest Post-Roe Texas Video Series episode.
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Kids in the US were collecting garbage pail kids and Gak when these shows came out
Nothing wrong with western animation carving its' own niche. How boring would it be if every country produced anime?
When TAL Public Policy Analyst Deirdre Cooper learned her 8th child might have Trisomy 18, a severe chromosomal abnormality, a high-risk physician suggested they take time to "think about what to do." She shares more of her story in our latest Post-Roe Texas Video Series episode.
That's primarily Nickelodeon. Propelled by things like Rugrats, they kind of popularized the dirty-color-scheme-with-bodily-fluids-everywhere style. Even Avatar, a Nickelodeon show with an explicitly anime-esque artstyle, has a weird account of bodily fluid jokes because of that.
Avatar the legend of Aang was amazing. Older US cartoons are animated well.
I think the kids would like beautiful more but for entertainment they only had access to ugly/hideous/disgusting
Less "we can't draw" more "the budget doesn't have room for the guys who can draw".
Very true. But I absolutely love the unapologetic over-the-top-shittiness of South Park. They made a point fully embracing it.
Imagine speaking out for your kids’ safety & being smeared as a “racist,” falsely charged, & denied justice. This is Kristen Fry’s reality after questioning her school board. She’s a mom, not a politician. Help her fight back—sign the petition & protect free speech.
The psychology of America is that you “ grow out of things” which is why almost everything animated is made in a way that you “grow out of”. I say this as an American.
As a parent of kids under the age of 10 this is such a weird thing to read. There’s a century(!!!!) of incredible, visually stunning American animation from Disney and other studios
Because the animators all went to CalArts and that’s the house style there. But that doesn’t mean you can’t create great art from it - Over the Garden Wall was a product of CalArts grads and it’s fantastic
The quoted take is not accurate. The animation examples are all from silly comedy. You might as well ask why Wile E. Coyote is drawn the way he is. The animation in Disney fairy tales is not ugly; the princes are handsome and the princesses are beautiful. It depends on the genre.
American animation was always more surreal than realistic. Anime, in comparison, wss grounded more in stylized reality with strong concepts.
Interesting question about why the tastes differ.
It's because of the subject of western animation. Animation isn't respected in the west, so it's mainly used for comedy, which encourages grotesque charicature.
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Bury Pink
@BurntByJoy
Western animation is primarily comedy, so it's primarily cheaply made slop in the form of exaggeration and charicature. Non-comedic western animation can be pretty! Animation is just seen as a Less Serious form of film, in the west. x.com/tracewoodgrain…
SpongeBob and Simpsons are fine and not ugly. Futurama and family guy are in the same vein and not ugly. They are cartoons. They are cute and round and rubbery and cartoony.
Rugrats, Rick and Morty, Beavis and Butthead ren and stomp do all appear to be drawn intentionally gross
I suppose the thing here is that the artistic design here is secondary to the story they wanted to tell, and it's not obvious to me that beautiful design would have actually helped them tell the stories that they wanted to tell? (sometimes it would, not always)
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Castlevania is pretty gorgeous (very minor spoilers)
Its basically the opposite of anime “We can’t tell stories well, so lets lean into how well we can draw”
Not we can't draw, see Disney *doh*
More punk-like rebellion against trad
That eventually turned into the safe trad version of American animation, ofc 
Isn't Steven Universe considered one of the more beautiful artistic children's shows?
I think it´s more of western cartoons being particularly ugly in the 90s. New ones seem fine.
Like South Park, the prime seasons of the Simpsons were so well written that the animation style didn't matter. Nobody was watching for quality animation, they were watching for the humor.
If only other animated shows could reach that level...
Pls don’t revive this silly discourse. Art direction has a goal. These are all irreverent comedies from a certain tradition with an unserious tone. It wouldn’t make sense for South Park to look like Arcane.
Imagine speaking out for your kids’ safety & being smeared as a “racist,” falsely charged, & denied justice. This is Kristen Fry’s reality after questioning her school board. She’s a mom, not a politician. Help her fight back—sign the petition & protect free speech.
There's a century of children's books with interesting styles all over the map that animation has been drawing from, and it's sad to see so much of it dismissed as bad drawing. There's much more to animated art than than whether we can replicate disney/ghibli, you're missing out
There was a real trend in the 80s and 90s for grotesquerie, first in comics and illustration, then animated shorts. That trend moved into episodic TV like The Simpsons, Beavis & Butthead, Ren & Stimpy, Rugrats. Then those shows influenced other shows.
Not all the kids. I stopped watching most of Cartoon Network at like age 10 (~2003) because most of the shows were just distractingly ugly. I still don't understand the choice to make them that way.
Not really.
American art style for comedies and kids show tends to be zany, a parody of the real world. It makes sense in that context and each show has animation that stands out.
What IS odd is how similar most Asian animation is. Like they all follow the same core design.
America is all about raw authenticity. Our styles can be crude, but its not meaningless. Our characters are more individualistic/diverse and have silhouettes to match that.
Only recently have we seen the rise of pointlessly bland designs. Modern Pixar is a big offender imo.
When TAL Public Policy Analyst Deirdre Cooper learned her 8th child might have Trisomy 18, a severe chromosomal abnormality, a high-risk physician suggested they take time to "think about what to do." She shares more of her story in our latest Post-Roe Texas Video Series episode.
Eh
The OG Nicktoons did a great job of showcasing diverse, and somehow light hearted kitschy style for kids.
Ren and Stimpy being a very very very odd outlier
1. Because it is easier to draw and so, to deliver episodes regularly.
2. Focused on light comedy and fleeting entertainment.
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DARK GIRARD (ϟ-℞)
@logosofapollo
Replying to @shinboson
American reactionary art that you can trace through anti-aestheticism (expressionism, surrealism) Weimar reactionism (realism, romanticism, neoclassicism) Post Modernism (pop art, abstract expressionism, minimalism) - post ww2 ‘degenerates’ Ed Roth, Kricfalusi, Mad Magazine
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Stop-motion animation is ugly and sometimes disturbing and I will die on this hill.
Imagine speaking out for your kids’ safety & being smeared as a “racist,” falsely charged, & denied justice. This is Kristen Fry’s reality after questioning her school board. She’s a mom, not a politician. Help her fight back—sign the petition & protect free speech.
The first season or two of The Simpsons was pretty ugly, tbf. That pic is from at least a couple years in.
