Final Blog Specimens

I have decided to use Post #11 – Limited Animation and Post #13 – Beavis and Butthead for my final blog specimens. I corrected several grammatical errors and clarified some of the language in each of the posts, and I also added new sections to each of them. On my Limited Animation post, I added a section that discusses how using stock footage can reduce animation costs. On my Beavis and Butthead post, I added a section that discusses how the duo view the adults around them and how they view themselves.

Post #13 – Beavis and Butthead

How little does it take to make us laugh? Will we laugh at a fart joke just as hard as we would laugh at a something witty and intelligent? Beavis and Butthead, at least for some people, was a hilarious (and extremely juvenile) look at teenage culture in the 1990s. The show makes no reservations about being immature and crude – it doesn’t act like it’s anything more than it is. However, it’s easy to forget that at one point everyone was 15 years old and immature and had a taste for juvenile humor. If you didn’t than you really missed out. We also viewed the world differently when we were 15. Work was ‘lame’, education was just for ‘nerds’, and authority figures really had no authority over us. We cared more about what was on TV. In this sense, Beavis and Butthead is a reminder that everyone was immature at one point, and we viewed the world much differently. Beavis and Butthead also gives us a look into the ‘MTV Generation’ of the 1990s.

Let’s look at the episode titled “Politically Correct” to see what kind of aspirations and attitudes Beavis and Butthead have for themselves. At the :21 second mark, the pair are bored because nothing is on TV, and Beavis suggests that they should do homework. Butthead stares blankly at Beavis for a couple of seconds before he bursts out laughing, and then calls Beavis a ‘dumbass’. Later on, they get picked by the teacher to run for school office. At the 2:09 mark, their teacher informs the boys that they will need to become more politically correct in order to attract voters, and reads off the titles of several books that may help them learn how. Beavis and Butthead don’t take any of this seriously, they just make sexual puns about the book’s titles to themselves. The title of one such book is “Men Who Feel”, and Butthead adds “….themselves?” before erupting in his trademark “Huh huh” laugh. It’s obvious that neither Beavis nor Butthead have learned anything during their talk with the teacher.

There are other such examples of their lack of motivation and immaturity in this episode, especially during the 4:00 mark when they show up to the debate completely apathetic and unprepared, but it’s obvious that Beavis and Butthead don’t care about any of the things they are supposed to. The thought of doing something productive like studying is a rediculous idea to the two boys who would much rather be watching TV. They make no serious effort to try to present themselves as competent candidates, but instead they coast along nonchalantly and don’t appear to have any reservations about their attitudes. Many teenagers are unprepared to take responisibilty for themselves or apply themselves in school, and their antics clearly demonstrate an attitude that many of us may have had years ago, even if we don’t like to admit it.

We also viewed people in authority differently when we were 15 years old. Let’s look at this clip from “Teen Talk” to see how Beavis and Butthead portray the people who have authority over them. The clip begins with Beavis and Butthead ruining a live interview with the principal by changing a display from “Highland High” Cares’ to “Highland High Suks”. For punishment, they are required to go on a TV show called “Teen Talk”, where as the principal states, ‘parents can feel better about their own kids by watching losers like you’. Beavis and Butthead are actually excited to go on the show, because of the possibility they will ‘score’. However, they fail miserably at seducing two girls on the set, and Beavis starts to throw a tantrum because he thinks he will never “score”. One of the production managers orders Beavis to calm down, but Beavis calls him an ‘asswipe’ and continues screaming. The manager comes up and knocks Beavis off the stands, prompting Butthead to declare ‘this is cool’. Having completed their punishment unsatisfactorly, the principal forces them to clean an asbestos contaminated room.

What does this clip tell us about Beavis and Butthead, the school, and the other adults around them? Firstly, the principal is portrayed as an incompetent idiot who has no control over his school, and doesn’t understand his students. He is more concerned with humiliating Beavis and Butthead than teaching them a lesson. At the end, it’s clear nobody has learned anything from the whole fiasco. Also, he is willing to subject Beavis and Butthead to clean his poorly maintained asbestos contaminated school. He stutters, and appears to have little control over his emotions.

This is just one episode of many, but it clearly demonstrates the attitudes that many in the ‘MTV Generation’ shared. The adults are incompetent, hard to relate to, unsympathetic, and antagonize the students. On the other hand, the students are immature, obnoxious, and don’t seem to have any long term goals or ambitions. Beavis and Butthead‘s brand of immature humor may be off-putting to some, but I don’t think too many people can deny that it portrayed the lives and attitudes of many teenagers well.

This week I commented on Andrew and Chris‘s posts.

Post #12 – Duck and Cover

The United States was dominated by paranoia and fear during the Cold War. The public was deeply suspicious of communists, or those with left-leaning or socialist tendencies. Nuclear war was especially troubling to many Americans. One way the government aimed to combat the terror of nuclear war was make animated PSAs like “Duck and Cover” to try to educate the public on self-protection. Although “Duck and Covering” offered only marginal protection, the purpose was to make feel Americans feel like they could protect themselves from nuclear attacks.

During the Cold War, suspicions between the United States and Soviet Union ran extremely high. Nuclear strategy of the time revolved around the doctrine of mutually assured destruction, or MAD. The idea was that if both sides knew that if they initiated nuclear combat, they would be completely obliterated by the other side’s remaining stockpile. There were many different techniques and theories over how to gain the advantage in a war like this and preserve the country, but the principal effect of MAD was that it discouraged unnecessary usage of nuclear weapons. If a war was to occur, however, the enemy would be likely to try to destroy as many large cities as possible.

People living in the United States during this time were deeply threatened by the possibility of nuclear war. Since a Soviet attack would likely bring ruin to many large American cities, they lived day-to-day knowing that it was possible that they could be obliterated in a second. How can the government protect against these fears?

The answer was that, really, they couldn’t do much, at least nothing of a practical nature. Enter “Duck and Cover”. When you ducked down and covered your head, your were supposed to be protected from the dangers of an atomic blast. Of course, people living in the immediate vicinity of a nuclear explosion would be incinerated in the blast, whether they were standing, sleeping, running, or ducking and covering. To a certain extent it would protect people located further away from the blast from flying debris and collapse, but there wasn’t really any reliable way to physically protect oneself from a nuclear blast.

The government knew “Duck and Cover” wouldn’t actually prevent people from being injured in a nuclear attack. It was more of a psychological aide. The government couldn’t just outright tell people that there was nothing they could do – people would panic. How could people feel safe if they government said this? Telling the people to “duck and cover” would at least help some people feel a little safer and in control of what their lives. They actual results of the Cold War would be determined by politicians, but the people could feel like they were able to protect themselves from whatever happened.

The “Duck and Cover” animation itself (embedded above) is very telling of the way the government wanted the public feel. The visuals and music are extremely cheerful and serene, like watching Winnie the Pooh. There is no looming sense of danger, as one would expect during a nuclear crisis. The turtle ducking is completely self-assured and never doubts himself. There is no mention in this film that ducking won’t be effective in the immediate vicinity of an explosion. It’s portrayed as being 100% effective and simple.

In retrospect, the ideas behind “Duck and Cover” seem a bit silly. Many jokes have been cracked at the expense of the program. It’s a rediculous idea that someone can protect themselves from a ICBM by ducking and covering. Despite the implausible nature of “Duck and Cover”, the public was given at least some psychological control over the possibility of nuclear war.

i commented on Myca (current awaiting moderation as of the time of this posting) and Bonnie‘s posts this week.

Post #11 – Limited Animation

Good animation takes a lot of time. I learned for myself that animation is extremely time consuming and tedious when I did my animation project. It isn’t very feasible to expect every single piece of animation to look as gorgeous as Fantasia or Avatar. It takes a lot of money and effort, as well as a team of highly skilled animators to create something sophisticated enough to compete with one of these movies.

But how can an animation company create a decent cartoon if they don’t have a lot of money? They can help cut down on expenses by using what is called limited animation. The basic idea behind limited animation is that certain elements of frames of animation can be reused, and not completely redrawn, to save time. For example, a background could remain static and the characters could be modified frame-to-frame. The characters themselves can be drawn in a simpler manner, which may be sometimes referred to as the “modern” style. Other ways to limit frames would be to use characters with repeating movements, or to reverse a cell to represent an opposing angle. There are many ways to save time beyond these basic methods, of course.

How exactly can limited animation be applied to the real world? Let’s examine the introduction to the Powerpuff Girls to see how the animators created a stylish and effective animation without spending a lot of time or money. Firstly, the girls themselves are not particularly complicated or difficult to draw. They are quite simple. Most people could probably draw a decent imitation of the Powerpuff Girls without any artistic experience in a short amount of time, and it certainly wouldn’t be challenging for a professional animator, yet they look very stylish and not like they were done hastily. It isn’t necessary to make the characters very intricate for them to be effective and work.

The animators also use simple backgrounds and limited camera movement and action to cut down on the amount of work they need to do. In the very beginning, the Professor is depicted as a simple black and white silhouette, and the background and objects around him are extremely simple. There isn’t too much variety in movement. Later on, we see the girls and villains standing, and then standing or flying in a simple animation that repeats, as the camera scrolls. This provides the illusion of a lot of action, even though this segment was probably accomplished in a surprisingly small small amount of frames.

It’s important to note that as we discover all the time-saving devices in the Powerpuff Girls, the animation remains interesting and stylish. It appears that there is much going on, even though there really isn’t. The point is that the animators were able to create an effective scene without spending a large amount of money and time to create something super complex and difficult.

Animators can also take advantage of reusable stock sequences, like the one above from Sailor Moon, to help use up time.  In this video, Sailor Moon transforms from a normal schoolgirl to her fully-powered form.  This sequence plays frequently throughout the series when ever she (or one of the other girls) is transforming. Instead of creating entirely new transformation sequences each time they want to show the characters transforming in a particular situation (inside a building, outside at night, etc) a sequence like this can be used for all situations.  This helps the animators cut down the total amount of frames they need to animate for each cartoon. Opening sequences (like the Powerpuff Girls example from earlier) may also demonstrate usage of stock sequences to reduce the amount of new frames to be created.

After researching this blog post, I discovered that I had inadvertently animated my project in the style of limited animation (as seen above, and in my previous posting). The background in my animation remains completely static, only the characters move. Therefore, I saved myself a lot of time because I only had to redraw the characters each frame, and not create a new frame from scratch each time. I spent about 3 hours modifying 6 seconds worth of frames, instead of spending an unmeasurable amount of time individually drawing 6 seconds worth of frames, and going insane.

Limited animation is extremely useful. Very few people have the large resources and skilled workers that a company like Disney has to create extremely intricate and complex cartoons. However, animation can be accessible to the ‘little guy’ if they use limited animation techniques to reduce the amount of time and effort they need to create the animations. Limited animation techniques do not necessarily denote lower quality or cheapness, as we saw above, but they can be quite stylish and practical even for professionals.

I commented on Brenda and Bonnie‘s posts this week.

Animation Project

For my animation project, I made a silly little cartoon on Paint (and then Movie Maker) of sheep jumping over a fence. After three normal sheep jump over, a massive sheep blasts off into space.

Post #10 – Sonic Sez PSAs

1

2

3

4

Most public service announcements are created to help educate the public on a variety of topics. Popular topics include health related issues such as smoking and drugs, and on moral topics such as tolerance of others (vi. Non-profit or governmental organizations usually pay for PSAs to assist in a larger public awareness campaign. PSAs come in a variety of forms, but one popular PSA form can be found in a children’s cartoon. Let’s look some PSAs from the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog to see how PSAs can be aimed at younger audiences.

Sonic‘s PSAs aired on a segment called “Sonic Sez”. During these short half-minute features, Sonic the Hedgehog would generally encounter Tails and one of the two robots (Scratch and Grounder) doing something wrong, and would step in to tell them what they were doing was wrong. Usually, the robots would be doing something either dangerous or immoral and trying to persuade Tails to join them, Sonic would come in, and the robots would immediately be brought down by what they did (in video 1, the robots get injured when they step out into the road). In many videos, however, Sonic would be alone or with Tails.

Sonic’s PSAs were quite prolific and covered a wide range of topics. Some topics were practical in nature (video 2, about false advertising), health-related (video 3, smoking), and even on heavier topics such as sexual harassment (video 4). Sonic Sez segments demonstrates how PSAs can be targeted to children. These PSAs involve simpler issues specific to children, that involve basic concepts of health and morality.

I commented on John and Emily‘s blog posts this week.

Post 9 – Surf’s Up

I heard that Surf’s Up was a mockumentary in the form of an animation, very unusual. A mockumentary is a portmanteau of the word “mock” and “documentary”. The film follows a young penguin who dreams of becoming a successful surfer to be like his idol “Big Z”.  He leaves his home of Antarctica to go to a large competition, and the movie is shot like it is a documentary of his trip. Before actually watching the film, I assumed that the mockumentary-style of this film would not work, but after seeing the film, I completely changed my mind.

At first, I assumed that it would be poorly implemented and cumbersome, but very quickly as I started watching, I found myself changing my tune. The documentary aspect of the film is extremely well-suited. It really works well in Surf’s Up. It works so well for an animation, because it helps drive along the story and the jokes in a convenient setting. For example, the camera cuts away to other characters, who speak of something going on in the story or to make a joke, but it is never awkward or unnecessary. The camera also succeeds in nailing down the ‘shaky-camera’ look. Sometimes, the “crew” is actually involved in the jokes, several times in this movie the crew gets injured somehow and the ubiquitous ”camera falling down” effect occurs.

What’s best about this documentary is that it involves many different characters. In a conventional format, it might not be feasible to see what certain characters are saying, but this film allows for all characters to be implemented seamlessly. I first thought that having a animation mockumentary was unnecessary and awkward, but I found myself loving it.

This week I commented on Elliot and Sarah’s blogs.

Post #8 – Ren and Stimpy

Ren and Stimpy was a cartoon aired back in the early to mid 90s.  This cartoon – marketed to the kids on Nickelodeon, constantly pushed the envelope.  Watching these episodes back then, I always knew they were a little grosser than most of the other shows I watched, but with age and maturity I can really appreciate how controversial they were.  Much of the humor in Ren and Stimpy revolved around either extremely disgusting visuals or extreme psychotic violence, and sometimes some sexual innuendo.  I can’t believe this show didn’t incite some kind of major campaign against it.

For one example, let’s look at this clip from “Stimpy’s Fan Club”.  In this clip, Ren is jealous that Stimpy has more fan mail than he, and watches Stimpy in his sleep.  Ren goes on a fanatical rant about his jealousy, touching on homicidal themes.  The rant is a giant roller-coaster of emotions for Ren, who goes from jealous to philosophical to just downright crazy.  He discusses the fact that Stimpy is as mortal as anyone else, and contemplates commiting homicide, to increasingly dramatic orchestral music.  At one point, he stares at his hands, and states that his hands have the power to kill Stimpy and “alter the lives of millions”.  He considers decapitation.  As he is about to carry out the murder, he suddenly experiences some horrible pulsating headache, and collapses while screaming wildly.  At this point, the background and music could not be any more intense.

Scenes like these worried some parents.  Many of them were troubled by Ren’s rambling, psychotic, homicidal urges towards Stimpy, especially since they were targeted to children.  Ren and Stimpy was always infamous for pushing the envelope.  However, this show wasn’t just extremely violent; it could also be extremely disgusting, and also slightly sexual.

Let’s analyze one random Ren and Stimpy episode, “Insomniac Ren”, to see what kinds of objectionable things we might find.  In this episode, Ren is trying to fall asleep to wake up at the crack of dawn to play golf, but he instead finds himself constantly disturbed by Stimpy.  At first, Ren hears water running (after Stimpy uses the restroom), and tells Stimpy that he “forgot to jiggle the handle”, leading us to believe that Stimpy forgot to do something other than disabling the faucet, if you know what I mean.  Still unable to sleep, Ren wanders into Stimpy’s dream.  Stimpy is being suckled for milk by a bunch of babies that look like him.  Generally, males don’t allow children to breastfeed them, so this might seem a little ‘weird’ to some people.

Anyway, a little later Stimpy tries to soothe Ren by feeding him “warm milk”, which we find out is actually camel spit.  The camera zooms in for a disgusting close up.  The milk appears to have a hallucinogenic effect on Ren, we see Ren acting like he’s on drugs.  Stimpy reads Ren some Edgar Allen Poe, and conjurs up all kinds of sinister and disturbing imagery.  Finally, in the morning, Ren is so tired he asks to be knocked out by his golf friends, who whack him brutally him with golf clubs. ”Shhh,” Stimpy says, “Ren’s taking a coma.”

It’s not very surprising to see that this material might be considered inappropriate to some parents.  I think it’s amazing that I used to watch this when I was a kid all the time, and it didn’t spark more controversy than it did.  Ren and Stimpy is a fascinating example of a show marketed to kids that clearly pushed the envelope much more than you’d expect a kids cartoon to go.

This week I commented on Brenda and Chris‘s blogs.

Midterm Blog Specimens

I have decided to use Post #2: Schoolhouse Rock! and Post #4: Captain Planet and Adolf Hitler for my midterm blog specimens.  I clarified some of the language and corrected grammar mistakes on both of the posts, but most significantly I changed the video on my Schoolhouse Rock! post, and added a brief analysis of it.  Also, I had previously omitted the links to my comments on other blogs, but they are now all up.

Post #7 – The Itchy and Scratchy Show

I’ve always wanted to write about The Simpsons in an academic setting, and fortunately for me our History of Animation class is a perfect outlet to satisfy my desire.  While watching the show one day, I noticed that The Itchy and Scratchy Show within The Simpsons is directly relevant to our class.  Itchy and Scratchy are a super-violent parody of Tom and Jerry, and a commentary on cartoon violence and censorship.

Itchy and Scratchy are a cat and mouse pair within The Simpsons that have a animation spot on The Krusty the Klown Show.  Itchy and Scratchy is a Simpsonian parody of Tom and Jerry, except their mischief has actual consequences.  When Tom and Jerry beat each other over the heads with mallets, blew each other up, or injured each other in a different way, they always escaped unfazed and unharmed.  Itchy and Scratchy, on the other hand, suffer lifelike consequences to the dangers they face.  Usually, the show airs as part of a cutaway gag, but it is has also been the subject of entire Simpsons episodes.

It’s hard to choose one particular episode to demonstrate, but I decided to choose the most legal example I could find from hulu.  In this lovely and tasteful Itchy and Scratchy clip (titled Scar Trek: the Last Laceration), Scratchy is flying a rocket ship.  Suddenly, Itchy bursts out of his stomach Alien style, and forces Scratchy out of the ship through the airlock chamber.  Itchy operates a robot that picks up Scratchy’s body as it drifts through space, and slices him in half using the ring of Saturn.  Scratchy attempts to grab his severed legs, but they fall into Saturn’s airspace and disintegrate.  Finally, Itchy squeezes Scratchy’s upper body until his helmet pops off and his face expands due to depressurization, and then pops his head with a pin, resulting in a massive explosion of blood.  The blood settles on the screen and reads “THE END”.  A message appears that warns that “The following program contained scenes of extreme violence and should not have been viewed by young children.”

Itchy and Scratchy is an obvious commentary on cartoon violence.  A recurring theme is to see the Simpson children laughing at the violent episodes while the adults appear to be shell-shocked.  Most prominently, in “Itchy & Scratchy & Marge”, Itchy and Scratchy leave an impression on baby Maggie, who injures Homer, just like she saw in the episode.  Marge is shocked that a violent show like Itchy and Scratchy is marketed to children, and leads a successful campaign against the animators.  Itchy and Scratchy satirize the violence in many cartoons that may influence or desensitize impressionable children.

On the flip side of this point is the commentary in “Itchy & Scratchy & Marge” is the virtue of censorship.  Michelangelo’s David is brought to Springfield, outraging many of the townspeople, who find its nudity offensive.  A mob of townspeople knock on Marge’s door to get her support to help petition the statue out of Springfield, but Marge doesn’t find anything wrong with it, and actually recommends that everyone see the statue.  This experience leads her to question how she could be against one form of censorship, but be for another one.

Itchy and Scratchy episodes are one of the most entertaining parts of The Simpsons. At the cheapest level, they are outrageous cartoons that lampoon the old-style cartoon violence of Tom and Jerry to excess.  It’s always a laugh to see how far the show will take it.  Beyond this cheap laugh, however, it’s an interesting commentary on American censorship and on the influence cartoons have on children.

I commented on John and Katherine‘s post this week.