The history of children’s TV is pretty much littered with poor quality cartoons. Bland, badly animated, derivative pap churned out in factory like conditions by an industry that doesn’t respect it’s consumers.
I’m sure some will denounce me for a heretic, but Hanna Barbara was the worst for this. Oh yes, we all get a nostalgic twinge whenever we see Scooby-Doo or Stop the Pigeon. But if you take off those rose tinted glasses and hold them up to the harsh light of adult perspective then you’ll most likely see them for the crud that they unfortunately are.
Hannah Barbara redeemed themselves somewhat in the 90′s, with clever, stylish, and witty shows like Dexter’s Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, and The Powerpuff Girls. But other companies took over the mantle of injecting cheap mass produced shit directly into our kid’s brains.
I’ve been noticing a very alarming trend recently. Shows aimed at pre-schoolers that I have previously respected such as Fireman Sam and Thomas the Tank Engine are slowly taking a nose dive into mediocracy.
The problem isn’t in the writing. Fireman Sam’s is still pretty good – a hefty dollop of fire safety combined with a couple of stock comedy characters. Thomas the Tank Engine is rather more dubious, but then again it always has been (see this post by Dad Who Writes for an intelligent take on problems with Thomas)
What has changed with these two programs is that they have switched from being lovingly crafted using beautifully made models and painstaking stop motion animation to being churned out in box standard, mundane, noticeably cheap CGI.
Bah.
My siblings and I were once given a personal tour of Cosgrove Hall Studios by a friend of my father’s who worked there. To be honest it was one of the most memorable days of my childhood. We talked to a chap who was in the middle of drawing a Count Duckula episode, got to handle the models from Cholton an the Wheelies, and saw a lot of original cells from Jamie and the Magic Torch.
But the thing that looms largest in my memory was seeing the sets and the models for Wind in the Willows. I remember being struck almost dumb but how intricate and beautiful they were. The model makers and animators involved with those shows were true artists, in the purest sense of the term.
Now compare and contrast with Chuggington. Or Underground Ernie. Or the very worst culprit, Noddy. You see the difference?
As I say – bland badly animated derivative pap churned out in factory like conditions by an industry that doesn’t respect it’s consumers.
I’m not saying computer animation can’t be art. Just look at Pixar. We recently got UP and Toy Story 1&2 to review on Blu-Ray, and all three are wonderful. Up in particular was stunning, and arguably the best film of 2009, animation or not. I’m going to review them properly at a later date – but all three movies show that CGI animation can be high quality and full of artistic merit.
But that’s not the case with Fireman Sam and Thomas. They are complete pants. Which makes me sad, because they used to be full to the brim with quality animation.
