heads up, for there is a LOT of cartoon nerdery ahead! come join me?
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recently, i've been doing a TON of reading about cartoons - the really fun, cartoony cartoons - and animation, specifically john k's blog (here! -->
[link] ) and i came across a particularly meaty argument (
[link] ) and i'm interested in what you guys think about it.
who should write for cartoons? writers or actual cartoonists?
you'd think it'd be a joint effort, right? well, from what i understand, today it isn't equal parts writer and artist. it's all guys who have little to no idea how cartoons and animation actually work.
in fact, in the beginning when animation was still in its infancy, it was the artists who wrote the stories for their cartoons, whether they were being produced by Walt Disney or Warner Bros. they started with a basic outline and drew their "script" in picture form, as storyboards. writing a script right off the bat didn't work as it would take pages to get one's point across when they could just scribble an idea on paper in seconds. and it would be a heck of a lot clearer, too.
this was during the Golden Age. when people wanted to make money, but had a lot more on the line than producers and companies do today when they just toss money around (cheaply, i might add) and hope their dollars hit gold or whatever new trend. artists were allowed to be artists, while following their director's vision and learning from it. ok, i'm starting to get all nostalgic and cheeky, so i'll stop there. xD times were FUN AND EXPERIMENTAL AND IT WORKED ok the end.
the old system weren't broke, but, like always, they had to mess with it and now we have cartoons that are nothing but talking heads or overly complicated gaudy stuff that isn't very funny or entertaining.
i think that cartoonists, or writers who have a thorough understanding of cartooning and animation and can at least draw stick figures, should write cartoons. and here's why! : D
there are people who think that ANYone can write for cartoons (and i'm talking about cartoony cartoons, not just sitcoms that happen to use limited animation as a medium) and that they can. if a writer doesn't understand what he's writing for, then why is he in that position in the first place? that's why a lot of the great writers in the past also happened to be cartoonists, and why directors often started out as lowly cell washers. they weren't always the best draftsmen, but they were able to communicate their ideas with pictures, even if they were just stick figures. they knew what was possible in animation, understood their budget, and what is a living nightmare for animators to animate.
who wants to animate numerous crowd scenes at 12+ drawings a second? nobody wants to animate your supah sci-fi princess donning a gaudy dress bejeweled with gemstones, rhinestones, mink and chinchilla fur, space tubing and whatever else you think looks good in your crazy head. and no, your little awkward 15 page gag is still awkward and unfunny after the animators spent the last 2 months of their lives animating it.
amidst all the bitterness, do you understand what i'm getting at? xD
it's so funny how people seem to think that making cartoons is simple. nobody questions a musician as to who should write their music, nobody questions a dancer as to who should choreograph their dance numbers. should i tell a surgeon how to do their job?
why the heck are people sticking their noses in places where they don't belong?
cartoonists and animators, specifically, have spent their lives studying life, studying people, drawing from life, admiring cartoons and learning from them, making their own cartoons, and yet when they hit the Real World, they're expected to put all that nonsense away, get shuffled into their separate departments and follow a 20-some page script for a ten minute short that they have to animate or die. sounds fun! 8)
i dunno about you, but i miss the old Warner Bros. cartoons. a LOT. the animation world in its current state makes me sad. but, there are a couple of gems that keep my hope afloat.
Spongebob Squarepants, the new cartoon Chowder, and Billy n' Mandy ALL start without a script! the storyboard artists are given a basic outline and are allowed to run with it. that must be why i love those cartoons so very much (Billy n' Mandy is kinda meh sometimes, but more power to them!). a couple of other cartoons on CN are run that way, too, i thinks.
so, what do you guys think? writers or cartoonists?
ALSO, i know this is long, but i just seem to go off at the mouth about stuff that i'm passionate about. i also hope that i haven't offended any writers out there. i'm not saying that RAAGHHH WRITERS ARE DUMB LEAVE OUR CARTOONS ARONE but that if you want to go into the animation business...
KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT CARTOONS. xD animation is NOT easier than live-action, so keep that in mind when writing for animation. be a cartoonist, too, if only at heart.
Love
