Western Animation - Discuss American, Canadian, and European cartoons here (or just bitch about wokeshit, I guess)

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Steamboat_Bill said:
I'm torn on this. On the one hand, there were 52 episodes and it was perfectly fine that way. On the other - Joe Murray is back so it may actually be good.
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It's a double-edged sword either way, so all we can do is just take it in!

Speaking of brutal violence, I just found out the creator of the short-lived "Free For All" comic strip (and Showtime series) was beaten to death a month back.
http://homicide.latimes.com/post/john-doe-194/
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/merhar_brett.htm

Such a sad end I suppose, but I never read that strip at all (it lasted a year nationally) and that show was on a channel I didn't have to start with (and that lasted 7 episodes). Best I can find online is this German dub (Merriweather Williams was involved on this too for any MLP:FiM lovers). The whole thing was already a bad Bloom County wannabe with all the euphemisms thrown out.
 
Reminded myself the producer of the Dot and Blinky Bill cartoons, Yoram Gross, passed away last year. Here's a film he did on the Israeli conflict.
 
I was feeling slightly nostalgic today and so remembered this short - a Gene Deitch effort adapting a book by one of the greatest cranky old gay Jews to have ever worked in children's literature:


Aside from Sendak's lovely Little Nemo-type surrealism being well-translated to animation, I really love the 20s dance band soundtrack, which really gives it that old-timey feel. (Listen when the Oliver Hardy bakers start to bake the cake - you'll hear something meant to suggest the Laurel and Hardy theme...)
 
I'll watch that but I refuse to interpret anything relating to Maurice Sendak as being anything other than that he's God.
 
I just watched "how to train your dragon" for the first time. I loved it, it reminded me of the first Star Wars in some ways. I didn't get why they wanted to befriend the dragons but make no effort to find a peaceful solution to the giant beast though.
 
AnOminous said:
I'll watch that but I refuse to interpret anything relating to Maurice Sendak as being anything other than that he's God.
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He is arguably one of the Holy Trinity of children's book illustrators - the others being Dr. Seuss and... well, I don't know who the third guy would be.

Sendak indeed was God, though. And a damn funny guy in interviews. Not just the one he did with Colbert, though; I read another interview where he described how he wanted to blow up President Bush in a suicide bombing - and he was hilarious while talking about it.
 
Steamboat_Bill said:
I was feeling slightly nostalgic today and so remembered this short - a Gene Deitch effort adapting a book by one of the greatest cranky old gay Jews to have ever worked in children's literature:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Hlyw_8DNQfo
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The stories of librarians taking a Sharpie or Wite-Out to blindly conceal Mickey's birthday suit are aplenty.

Aside from Sendak's lovely Little Nemo-type surrealism being well-translated to animation, I really love the 20s dance band soundtrack, which really gives it that old-timey feel. (Listen when the Oliver Hardy bakers start to bake the cake - you'll hear something meant to suggest the Laurel and Hardy theme...)
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Good thing too (though it won't prevent too many noobs from thinking they're just fat Hitlers anyway).

AnOminous said:
I'll watch that but I refuse to interpret anything relating to Maurice Sendak as being anything other than that he's God.
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I don't buy his Holocaust reference in this story myself, though I can see why people would read that into it. It's a kid having a weird dream about making a cake with multiple Oliver Hardys in a world comprised of things found in a kitchen, and he happens to be naked too, deal with it!

Steamboat_Bill said:
He is arguably one of the Holy Trinity of children's book illustrators - the others being Dr. Seuss and... well, I don't know who the third guy would be.
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For me that would be anywhere from between Crockett Johnson, Ludwig Bemelmans, Jan & Stan Berenstain, P.D. Eastman (though he was Seuss' protege), Jean de Brunoff and perhaps Raymond Briggs.

Sendak indeed was God, though. And a damn funny guy in interviews. Not just the one he did with Colbert, though; I read another interview where he described how he wanted to blow up President Bush in a suicide bombing - and he was hilarious while talking about it.
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He certainly had it in him.

Reminded NPR got to interview him four times between 1986 to 2011, it's rather fascinating yet bittersweet to hear his words on these.
 
Trilby said:
For me that would be anywhere from between Crockett Johnson, Ludwig Bemelmans, Jan & Stan Berenstain, P.D. Eastman (though he was Seuss' protege), Jean de Brunoff and perhaps Raymond Briggs.
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I'd say we let them duke it out in a grudge match and see who wins.

There was also a TV special Sendak did. I can't remember the name but Carole King provided the music for songs based off of his Nutshell Library books. Those were great.
 
Steamboat_Bill said:
I'd say we let them duke it out in a grudge match and see who wins.

There was also a TV special Sendak did. I can't remember the name but Carole King provided the music for songs based off of his Nutshell Library books. Those were great.
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That was this...

Apparently it's also the only time Sendak actually directed anything animated (when it's not someone else adapting his work)!
 
Trilby said:
That was this...
https://youtube.com/watch?v=dMbrQ5wNDPo
Apparently it's also the only time Sendak actually directed anything animated (when it's not someone else adapting his work)!
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Pretty good work for a guy who never directed anything else in his life, really. And the Carole King tunes are still damn fine music.

On the same topic... Back when I was a kid I had several of the 70s Dr. Seuss specials, the DePatie-Freleng ones that had Dean Elliott doing the music. Tell me with a straight face that any of the songs in the big-budget movie can compare to this:

 
Steamboat_Bill said:
Pretty good work for a guy who never directed anything else in his life, really. And the Carole King tunes are still damn fine music.
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And now you wonder why this isn't out on BluRay yet. This deserves the best restoration ever.

On the same topic... Back when I was a kid I had several of the 70s Dr. Seuss specials, the DePatie-Freleng ones that had Dean Elliott doing the music. Tell me with a straight face that any of the songs in the big-budget movie can compare to this:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=V9Fx4Bxwmjo
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No, they can't! Dean Elliot is in his own league!

Reminded Hanna-Barbera got him to do the music for this obscure educational film about energy conservation featuring Fred and Wilma Flintstone...
 
Dean Elliott also gave the world a truly wonderful album, Zounds! What Sounds! Listen to it and see if it doesn't sound like his animation scoring work:

 
I recently discovered this short while searching Cartoon Brew. Reportedly Disney commissioned this from their TV cartoon department as part of a series, gave it a couple of animation festival showings and then kept it locked in their vault - until it ended up on YouTube...


Not exactly Jay Ward, but it's still in that venerable tradition.
 
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