'Tweening with Meaning

Over the Hedge has nifty voices

2006-05-26T02:35:00.000-07:00

I went to see "Over the Hedge" and, I have to say, it is surprisingly good. Not great by any stretch of the imagination, but a solid enough bit of entertainment delightfully free of the standard fart jokes and pop-culture references that pass for kids' fare these days. Oh, it has a couple of those things. But not enough to dominate the whole flick.

What really impressed me about this film, though, was the voices.

It was, as are all animated movies these days, chock full of celebrity voices. I'm not a huge fan of the idea that every bit part in a movie has to be played by some huge big time star, especially when there are plenty of lesser known but much better suited professional voice actors out there, but this time, it worked. At first, I was a bit iffy about hearing William Shatner as the voice of the melodramatic opossom Ozzie. There was nothing wrong with him, it just seemed that the IDEA of William Shatner playing a melodramatic opossum was funnier than actually seeing William Shatner play a melodramatic opossum. You know, funny in a referencial sort of way, a "Oh, I get it - Shatner is a drama whore in real life, so it's kinda funny that he plays one as a opossum" kind of way. To actually make the dramatic scenes funny, I thought, you'd need to get a wildly exaggerated, overly pompous voice - someone like the guy that plays Lokar on "Space Ghost." But then I saw Shatner and...it worked. His voice was just distinctive enough to make the character amusing and memorable, and just subtle enough to keep it from getting annoying.

Which brings us to another point: The voice actors were all understated and restrained enough that they didn't get annoying. Not even Wanda Sykes as Stella the skunk, whom I expected to be teeth-gratingly awful with her "OH NO YOU DI'INT I'M A SASSY BLACK WOMAN" schtick. Steve Carrell played a hyperactive squirrel, but his character was used sparingly enough that you don't get sick of him. Probably the only disappointment was Avril Lavene as Heather the opossum. She wasn't bad, but this was a part that could have been played by just about any random teenage girl pulled off the street so I have no clue why they picked her for this.

I only have one thing to say...

2004-12-09T19:48:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love the direction this country is going in?

Those damn cartoonists... next there'll be DANCING!

Will Vinton...

2004-12-02T19:58:00.000-07:00

This started out as a response comment to Mike's comment on the last post, but grew so long that I decided to just devote a post to it.

Will does a monthly animation screening (last one was just "will's pix," showing us various pieces of Academy Award-winning and -nominated animation, the next one is a look at Tex Avery and Chuck Jones), organizes/moderates panel discussions (last one was "Creative Mavericks," a talk with design heads, very cool) and also does neat things like comes into classes to talk about animation.

I've had the opportunity to go to his events four different times, speaking to him three times. He's a really nice guy who REALLY loves this stuff. It's a real shame what happened with Phil Knight essentially booting him out of his own company, but right now Will's new company (Freewill Productions) has a couple projects in development for two major networks (not sure if I'm allowed to mention them yet, though), so he's still doing quite well.

An interesting sidenote... according to some Oregon news page I have yet to recover, the "straw that broke the camel's back" and led to Will being fired from his own studio actually had to do with the CGI Popeye special. Will Vinton Studios was originally the company who was slated to create it, but there were disagreements between Vinton and the other bigwigs. Will wanted to create something that both children AND adults could enjoy (like any animation with any real staying power), while the corporate guys wanted something SPECIFICALLY aimed at children. His refusal to back down ultimately cost them the job, which has since been given to Mainframe, and we've all seen how that's going.

I have another instructor teaching a black-and-white design class who freelances for Vinton Studios. If you've ever watched The PJs or Gary & Mike, you've probably seen her work... she's one of the people who designs and creates the characters' clothing. :-)

2004-12-02T10:10:00.000-07:00

I was approached to possibly do some Beatles caricature illustrations (early 60s versions) by a possible client about a month ago, but unfortunately the further we got into the process, the more I realized they just wanted me to mimic another artist's style, one that was quite different from mine (plus, that just feels kinda sleazy anyway). Just found the caricature on my hard drive and decided to share it with you:

Had the opportunity to talk to Will Vinton again, here's a paraphrasing of his thoughts on The Polar Express and why it doesn't work:

When you get to a point where the animation is that realistic, psychologically people are going to be comparing it to live action, because it's closer to that than it is a cartoon. And animation just can't mimic all the subtle nuances that a live actor can. I mean, Tom Hanks is a great actor in real life, but this robs him of a large portion of that.

I agree! Right on, Will.

Look, I drew Popeye in my cartoon journal!

Okay, I'm done pimping my own artwork now. Go read Cartoon Brew if you were looking for insider commentary. ;-)

I may very well OD on animation...

2004-11-28T23:05:00.000-07:00

So today I have acquired SEVEN (count them) SEVEN animation DVDs. Six of these were found in one of those KB Toys cheapo DVD bins (James knows what I'm talking about). These are all, I'm assuming, public domain, and despite the "Digitally Remastered" banner displayed proudly on the front of each, I think the only "remastering" done to these was transferring them from bootleg VHS to DVD. But hey, they only cost $1.66 a piece (advertised at 3 for $5.00), and for an animation geek like me, that's good enough.

My absolute favorite of these so far has been the Felix the Cat DVD. It's one of the rare ones that actually contains a majority of the cartoons advertised (for example, the Betty Boop DVD is made up largely of Popeye, while the Popeye is made up largely of Superman), and the line-up has some great toons in it:

Arabiantics
April Maze
False Vases (my personal favorite)
Forty Winks
Oceantics
Neptune Nonsense (color)
Bold King Cole (color)
(a cartoon with the title card missing) (color)
Tom Thumb (Produced by Ub Iwerks, music by Carl Stalling, actually okay quality)
Ali Baba (same as previous)

I also received my Wacky Races DVD set from Jerry Beck's Cartoon Brew trivia contest (I won second place in one of them). I'm currently working up a thank-you for him, and can't wait to watch it. The box is gorgeous, actually... these guys must have a blast designing these.

And also, I had to show you a scanned version of a very quick flipbook animation I did for an introductory animation course:

Hey, does Mike still exist??

This is just stupid.

2004-11-23T05:15:00.000-07:00

I couldn't believe my eyes when I read THIS. How ridiculous! All this patent bullshit is getting way to out of control.

2004-11-22T16:26:00.000-07:00

Pixar fans will definitely want to read this article. And if you're a big Pixar fan, you'll then want to defiantly spit upon the boots of Michael Eisner.

Toy Story 3? Give me a break...

2004-11-21T22:54:00.000-07:00

Rolling Stone has posted another shining review of the Polar Express. (note the sarcasm in that last sentence)

Saw the Incredibles again today with some friends who couldn't help but go see it after my raving about it. Last night I saw the Spongebob movie. It watched a bit like Nick just went to the people who made the toon and said "make one of these, but three times longer." Which I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing yet.

But you DO get to see Spongebob drunk. That's something.

2004-11-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

I found this cartoon on Grickle.com. It's called "Refuge," and is essentially the story of my life up to the point I started art school.

The Incredibles review

2004-11-12T23:09:00.000-07:00

The Incredibles is, in a word... FANTASTIC. The movie isn't just a great Pixar film... it's a great film, period. It is unquestionably the most ambitious CGI project I've ever watched, and well worth the $9.00 ticket price (which I can't say for, say, Shark Tale, and I suspect not for The Polar Express, though I reluctantly reserve judgement for when I see the flick).

I don't want to spoil this for anybody because you truly WILL be surprised by this movie. It's got action that rivals, and in some cases TRUMPS those of "serious" superhero flicks. The comedy is executed with pinpoint accuracy. What I love about the humor in this film is that it's difficult humor. What I mean by that is this: the easiest type of humor you can create as a cartoonist is a fart joke. The hardest is something that utilizes virtually NO shock value, but actually makes you laugh. It's an incredibly hard thing to do, and this movie is one of the best executions of it I've seen.

The animation is something your jaw will DROP over. Forget the ultrarealistic-yet-animatronic-looking "realism" of Polar Express and Final Fantasy. The character designs are amazingly and beautifully stylized, yet you RELATE with them... they have so much life in them, as is expected from Pixar in this point. I was slightly skeptical because of previous attempts at CGI humans... but you aren't even thinking about the CGI here. It's just an example of Pixar's amazing design work, and I applaud it.

I challenge you to make a list of the hardest things to animate with CGI. Then, count how many times each of those things appear in this film. It's wonderful, practically miraculous.

I left the theater feeling absolutely high from this film. It's absolutely everything I've ever wanted from an animated film. I'd say so much more about it if it were as well-established and watched as, say, Toy Story 2, but in summary, I'll just give this:

"Bounding" - The preliminary short, VERY reminiscent of old school cartoons and a treat for any animation fan.

The Feature - One of the most draw-dropping examples of what animation is capable of I've ever witnessed.

Credits Sequence - A rare look at Pixar's 2D design sensibilities, and worthy of me sitting in my seat for the entire duration.

I completely understand your decision if you choose to rent The Polar Express, Shark Tale or Shrek 2 instead of watching it in the theaters... but I URGE you to see this flick on the big screen. You won't be disappointed.

2004-11-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to mention that I saw my first episode of "Drawn Together" last night on Comedy Central, and I pretty much agree with what Mike said. The only character that I found to be consistently funny was Spanky Ham, and most of that was attributed to the voice... does anyone know who does him? It sounds so frigging familiar...

I'm finding it interesting to watch the evolution of Flash-animated network television. Like, I kind of dig "Shorties Watchin' Shorties," but there's still SO much overruse of size and rotation tweening that it's blatantly obvious that it's animated in Flash. Even though I might not be waking up the neighbors to tell them how great it is, "Drawn Together" isn't the sort of cartoon where I'm thinking "this is Flash" the entire time I'm watching it.

Speaking of which, I've heard some good things about Craig McCracken's new Flash-animated Cartoon Network toon... the name's slipped my mind, though. Anyone seen it?

There was a great article on The Incredibles and the mindset of it's director, with short quotes from cartoon historian and all-around nice guy Jerry Beck in USA Today. I'll see if it's online anywhere, but kind of a nice "Reader's Digest" version of the passion behind these features.

I haven't seen the flick yet, but I want to so bad it hurts... deadlines are a pain. Speaking of which, if you dig my strip Shrink Bugs, tell your local alternative rag about it so I can get more papers carrying it.

Or don't... I don't want to turn my site into a frigging Sally Struthers commercial like some cartoonists are doing. It may be accurate, but it distracts from the work.

Final note: I'm aware that this site looks PAINFUL in Mozilla Firefox. I'm working on it, trying to squeeze a bit of time to debug the darned thing. If anyone else whose code-savvy wants to take a stab at making a Mozilla-friendly version, you can email it to me at tyler@NOSPAMtylersticka.com (if you can't figure out why that address isn't working, you really don't deserve the privelage of using a computer).

In an interstellar burst, I am back to save the universe...

2004-11-05T15:08:00.000-07:00

Pixar has a new trailor for their next animated Disney feature titled Cars.

2004-10-28T13:23:00.000-07:00

I caught the premiere of Comedy Central's new series "Drawn Together" last night: link

Wasn't expecting much, but, wow, they really impressed me with their ability to cram so much unfunny into a half hour. We already knew it was going to be a gimmicky show (It's a fake reality show about a bunch of cartoon characters from different genres living together), but I was hoping for some more humor about what it's like to live in a cartoon world (similar to Harvey Birdman. There was one bit where a character couldn't tell she was being flipped off because the flipper's hand suddenly "got all fuzzy." That was mildly amusing). Instead, lots of the same toilet jokes and lesbian hi-jinks that were shocking way back when South Park first premiered (if even then). Except without any of the interesting characters or marginal social relevance.

Also, the choice of genres to throw together is...kinda odd. You get the feeling this wasn't a show put together by someone with any particular love for cartoons. An internet download? A spongebob parody? A pokeman? I suppose they looked at a TV Guide to see what's big with the kids and pitched the show based on that.

But it's just the first episode, so I suppose it might get better. You never know.

2004-10-19T17:04:00.000-07:00

Just posting to let people know that I think I'm pretty much finished with the site changes. When you click on "comment" you don't have to scroll down to them anymore, there are "Back To Main" buttons in the archives, and you don't have to look at the "starring" box on any page but this one. That should be it!

Thank god, because deadlines are a pain in the arse...

2004-10-19T09:04:00.000-07:00

Jim Hill Media wrote a real interesting aritical about Disney and wishy-washy voice acting choices from past films.

Boondocks cartoon?

2004-10-18T23:15:00.000-07:00

Apparently, Cartoon Network is developing a cartoon based on the comic strip "The Boondocks." While I rather like the strip, I don't know how well it'll translate to cartoon format - the strip's humor seems way too verbal to make for a good animated series. But, then again, this is Adult Swim we're talking about, and I don't think they've gone wrong yet. Except for Case Closed!

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/search/search_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000589052

Also funny is that the notoriously right wing Fox channel was originally eyeing this but decided to pass. Big surprise there.

Spongebob!

2004-10-18T23:00:00.000-07:00

The new Spongebob Squarepants movie trailer can now be seen with "Team America: World Police." It looks good, and it's about time that Nikoledeon wised up and stopped making craptacular movies about the Rugrats and the Wild Thorberries.

Because the Rugrats and Wild Thornberries TV shows are both lacking in any redeeming values, from their insipid plots and non-existant jokes to that horrible Clasky-Gapor animation style where everyone's head looks like some sort of rotten, deformed melon.

Just to give credit where credit's due, they were also responsible for Duckman, which was one of the funniest shows of whatever era it was on. Kinda early 90s, wasn't it? Anyway, that's still not enough to make up for the combined horrors of the Rugrats, Wild Thornberries, As Told By Ginger, and The Worst Cartoon in the History of Ever...I mean, Rocket Power.

Everytime I see Rocket Power, I can only assume that some network suit saw the Poochy episode of the Simpsons and didn't realize it was a joke.

2004-10-18T14:43:00.000-07:00

In the latest "Lying In The Gutters" column, it was revealed that someone working with Johnny Depp saw that he had a script called "Madman."

Madman Comics was one of my favorite books of all time, and while he wouldn't have been someone to immediately come to mind for the role, this would totally be outstanding if he did indeed get the part.

I'm done now.

Ren & Stimpy UNCUT?! Not quite...

2004-10-17T15:57:00.000-07:00

I wanted to mention something that's come up on the great http://www.cartoonbrew.com and also on a few message boards... the Ren & Stimpy DVD box set is NOT completely unedited.

Here's what I have figured out from the edits themselves and from this letter from John K....

Apparently, back when Nickelodeon was editing these episodes down, very late into their hacking spree they edited the episodes one last time... not for content, but for time. Apparently these cuts were there when the episodes were delivered to Spike/Paramount/whoever, and went through unnoticed.

I heard there's a list of the edits somewhere, but I've watched all but 4 of the episodes on the DVD and so far have only noticed the "bloody head fairy" gag from "Haunted House" missing, and the hugging gag from the "Big Baby Scam" episode.

What's kind of ironic is that I own most of the old VHS tapes Nickelodeon released, and was planning on selling them or something once I got this set... but the tapes have "Big Baby Scam" with that scene intact, but not with the bath-tub scene which made it onto the DVD. Puzzling, to say the least.

Does this mean you shouldn't purchase the collection? Heck no! The commentary is really great, the overall quality is nice, the presentation is wonderful, and the VAST majority of the shorts are completely intact. Plus, if you do the Best Buy deal I mentioned in my last post, you'll be getting 34 cartoons for only $27! Less than a buck a cartoon is a great deal, in my opinion.

Fed Harper loves coffee

2004-10-17T05:29:00.000-07:00

Holy crap! What about this cool new design folks? I'm totally digging it myself. I just wanted to thank Tyler Sticka for all his hard work and his awesome choice in an icon for yours truly.

THANKS A TON BUDDY! :)

Also, I found a really interesting Illustrator recently named Fred Harper. I'm sure you folks have heard of him or seen his work somewhere. If not GO TO HIS SITE NOW!!! He's friggin' fantastic. He's done alot of well known work for a ton of magizines and books. Definitly worth checking out.

2004-10-13T21:19:00.000-07:00

Hey... I am alive! Just wanted to drop a few notes on some things...

I have the Ren & Stimpy Show UNCUT First and Second Seasons DVD box set, and I have to say I'm really pleased. The menus animations and music are pulled right from the show, but unlike most things where they pulsate with lameness as a result, it's PERFECT for this particular set. There's a great interview with John K as well where he talks a bit about how he created the characters and how he ran the studio (nothing too long, just ten minutes or so) that's great fun to watch. I haven't watched the commentary yet, but the episodes are the best quality you're going to get them at, considering the animation quality wasn't spectacular in those early episodes.

The annoyances I have with the set are just sort of nitpicky things. One is that these episodes were all digitally remastered and prepared with Spike TV's "Ren & Stimpy Cartoon Classics" show in mind. Anyone who watched the show may have been annoyed (as I was) that they shoved an extra commercial break into the show. If you watched closely, you'll notice that they always have a less-than-a-second fade to black before a commercial, and then a fade back in. This fading thing (which literally is gone in like half a second) is still in this cartoon, though obviously there is no commercial left in. This is just a little annoying, but half the time I don't notice it.

The other annoyance is that they have a really stupid "WARNING: This DVD contains mature content" notice that you have to wait through every time you stick the disc in. Now, okay... in the John K featurette, he says "damn" and "old wrinkly cock" when describing a character... and I haven't watched the commentary yet, but the episodes themselves are really quite tame. I've watched most of disc one with my younger brother. I don't know if it's just a marketing ploy to make this more acceptable to the South Park-saturated adult audience or what, but it's obvious that these shows were created for and aired on Nickelodeon. The Invader Zim DVDs just have you put in your parental code when you turn the commentary on, it seems like they could just implement something similar for this...

Maybe Viacom is still just too scared by the show from the old Nick days and is just trying to cover their tails. I'm not sure... like I said before, in an animation world with South Park, do you really need to justify THESE cartoons?

Oh, and one thing that's potentially important is where you buy the thing. I would normally recommend Amazon.com, which is around $27.00. HOWEVER, if you go to Best Buy, it's still on the "New Releases" shelf and, despite it's sticker price of $32, it rings up as only $27.98. I don't know if this is at all retail outlets, but I've heard rumblings that it may be a Best Buy exclusive that the set comes with a fourth bonus disc. The disc has two episodes from season three on it; Ren's Retirement and Lair of the Lummox. A price roughly $12 under list and a fourth disc would be reason enough for me to go out of my way to purchase it from there.

Anyway, I'm having some rumblings in my brain about giving this page a redesign, taking advantage of Blogger's new on-site commenting feature, etc. More on that later.

Sharks tale Sneek Peek

2004-09-25T03:11:00.000-07:00

Yahoo movies recently posted a few sneek peek clips from Dreamworks upcoming film Shark Tale, Due out on October 1st.

New Incredibles Trailer

2004-09-20T03:11:00.000-07:00

Yahoo Has a new trailer for Pixar's /Disney's up comming CGI movie the Incredibles.

Academy-nominated Cartoons

2004-09-18T16:12:00.000-07:00

A few years ago the Academy awards started a feature animation category, which I've always thought was a dumb idea because: 1) This means that no animated film will ever be in the running for best film again, and 2) What kind of category is it if you only have two nominees every year?

Anyway, a little out of date, but here's a short article I wrote on the topic a while back: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/29/PKG3S57FRP1.DTL

Also included: Lots of whining about last year's crop of animated flicks. A lot of people took issue with my comments on "Finding Nemo."

Still, gotta blow my own horn a little.

Is Fathers Pride Scarred?

2004-09-03T03:46:00.000-07:00

My initial feelings on show Father of the Pride where not very good ones. However, I do realize that the characters and settings still have to set in with the audience so we’ll see. Hell, I wasn’t even really paying much attention to it and I knew exactly what happened plot wise. Even worse, 3 minutes into the show I already knew what was going to happen. I hope the writing gets better for the shows sake. NBC also coined the phrase “Adult Cartoon” several times in their ad campaigns for the show. The closest adult content I saw in the show where some conservative sexual innuendos and a few pieces of schoolyard potty mouth talk (IE: Crap head, Virginity, Intercourse, Damn it and so on). Clearly something a 12 year old with Internet access could very well read everyday in an AOL ‘Christian singles’ chat room. Ironically enough I found the TV commercials for Viagra and KY brand joy jelly to be more adult oriented. Artistically the show seems about average. The network is really milking the whole “First CG animated program to ever air primetime” trump card even though technically ABC aired a sneak preview of their Saturday morning cartoon Reboot in a primetime slot and UPN also aired their short lived CG primetime show GAME OVER . The over all detail in the animation isn’t as good as DreamWorks Theatrical features, which goes without saying. Another thing DreamWorks seems to love is casting celebrities for voice acting. This has always rubbed me the wrong way.
On the brighter side of things I did find a few 1-second blurbs, gags and side characters funny and the show got a few nice laughs out of me over all. What does this mean for the over all future of Father of the Pride? It’s entirely to early to tell. But the ratings seem to be Good

Overall: Give it a few weeks to iron out the characters and story.

What inspires John K?

2004-09-03T01:56:00.000-07:00

Animation World network (awn.com) and cartoonist John Kricfalusi sat down for a real insightful INTERVIEW about his screening series at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, California and the cartoons/animators who inspires him.

2004-08-30T08:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a rather interesting ARTICAL about Wal-Mart and how it aparently effects Disneys DVD sales enough to make the the Mouse House rethink releasing less popular animated features on the big screen.

Also, Check out Jim Hills wonderful site.

Jib Jab lawsuit update

2004-08-30T07:46:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago I posted a blurb about Jib Jabs Web-cartoon 'This land' and the lawsuit that Ludlow Music pressed agenst the cartoonists for using the likeness of the song 'This land is your land' by Woody Guthrie. Evedently the issue has been resolved and the song is actually a public domain. That's right kids! ANYONE can use it.

On more of a personal note: I had a feeling that would have been the outcome. It always seems that someone or some company needs to toss around a lawsuit when something is created for entertainment or romotly slanted in a parody sents.

2004-08-16T15:30:00.000-07:00

Good lord, it's been a while, hasn't it? Too many projects... working on a few strips for a couple different publications, and also two web design commissions. A good friend of mine is starting a small zine called "Ataxia" which I've also been doing some design work for.

I've also taken my first dip into ~~hell~~ retail, as a bookseller at Barnes & Noble. The job's not awful, I just have the sort of brain that's thinking of all the other stuff I could be getting accomplished during the time I'm there. But it's work, you gotta do it.

While working there, something that was clear to me before has become even more so... how totally and utterly Japanese comics and animation are overwhelming all American offerings. For every one "Ultimate Spider-Man" trade paperback I see sold, five pieces of manga are sold.

I've boiled down the reasons for this:

Anime and manga are closely tied in with video games, which is currently a larger industry than movies in America.
Manga does not continue for 40 or 50 years (usually). Once the story is complete, it's DONE. Continuity is scary to new readers.
There are many, many, MANY different genres for readers to choose from. This is true of American comics as well, but only in hidden venues... there's a manga for everyone out there, and on most bookstore shelves there will only be superheroes from US creators.
At an average 9 or 10 bucks for some 200 pages of story (or 400 for $5 if you like Shonen Jump), kids are just able to afford the stuff better.

I could go into the minute storytelling techniques I admire the Japanese for, but I honestly don't believe the average manga reader is even conscious of these... if you're curious, pick up "Manga Manga! The World of Japanese Comics" by Frederik Schodt.

When manga and anime first became popular in the US, I was really looking forward to it. The Japanese were far better at producing intelligent dramatic material for an older audience. But it seems like the only stuff that becomes completely out-of-control popular is the shit. It's either Pokemon (awful), Yu-Gi-Oh! (putrid), or Dragonball Z, which I hate for completely bastardizing Akira Toriyama's original manga (which, for those who don't know, is MUCH better paced).

Cowboy Bebop is the only show I've been completely impressed with in comparison to US material, and at only 26 episodes, it just doesn't make up for the rest of it.

Now, television American cartoons have been stinking to high heaven on the whole for quite a while, so the Japanese cartoons would be forgivable if they weren't making our cartoons stink worse. I'm sorry, fangirls... but X-Men: Evolution and Teen Titans suck really, really badly. They are absolutely awful cartoons. I'd rather watch one of the old 70's Spider toons than either of those series... which is sad, since the old Spidey toons suck as well. X-Men: Evolution takes the brilliant concept of this isolated group that helps people who would just as soon have them all killed, essentially acting as a huge metaphor for racism... and made all the mutants into the popular crowd you hated in high school. NEWS FLASH: Nightcrawler isn't a heartthrob. He's a traumatized Christian sideshow freak. All I can say about Teen Titans is that it feels like it should have been released as a special VHS to aid homes for retarded people.

Am I being naive thinking that general audiences cartoons can still be good? They don't have to be kid's cartoons, just... general. Does that make any sense? Any animation that I've been impressed with lately seem to have crossed some "line" and been chased out existence. Ren & Stimpy can't exist in today's animation world unless it's got the TVMA rating and is on at 10:00 at night. What happened?

Blah. I have no way to wrap this post up, so I'm done...

JibJab in trouble?

2004-08-02T05:31:00.000-07:00

Someone always has to rain on a parade. Web-toonists Evan and Gregg Spiridellis of jibjab.com have been making Flash animated political cartoons for some time now but their recent political cartoon titled ‘This land’, a slanted political parody of the song "This Land is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie, has gotten a lot positive attention. Unfortunately when something becomes wildly popular one of two things happens. Ether The creator’s bullet up right into fame or someone sues the pants off them for some retard-o reason. I’m not sure in this case (although I have nothing but high hopes for Evan and Gregg) but we’ll see.

Check out the full Artical HERE.

Good luck guys, you have my support! :-)

Voice acting

2004-08-02T05:13:00.000-07:00

Voice acting has always held a high level of interest with me. I would simply love to get into some kind of voice acting. That's why when I found a few articles on Animation World Magazine I felt the need to post them here for anyone else who might be interested in the same.

Article one

Article two

Article three

More Ren and Stimpy news.

2004-08-02T04:48:00.000-07:00

I’ve always been a huge John K fan and it’s great how much publicity Ren and Stimpy has been getting lately. A new line of figures and micro busts, brand new episodes due out This month, a full uncut DVD box set of the Spumco episodes, simply a must have for any Ren and Stimpy fan. (In store on Oct. 12, ‘04) and a Hollywood Screening to tribute John Ks work. It’s hard to believe that most people would consider this show as ‘retro’. I’m not very old at all and I remember when they originally aired, along with other John K shows. Then again ‘retro’ has been abused and over used in the entertainment industry ever since I could remember.

Check out the sneak peeks of a few new episodes HERE.

American Dad

2004-08-02T04:14:00.000-07:00

Creator of the smash hit cartoon Family Guy, Seth McFarlane is at it again in a new series airing on Fox called American Dad set to air after the Super Bowl. Check out a sneak preview of the pilot here.

2004-07-30T02:26:00.000-07:00

Check this out! Finally a good Ren and Stimpy box set. Completely uncensored and uncut. If you’re at all a Ren and Stimpy fan then this is a MUST have. Even the extras alone are worth having.

· Audio commentary from the original creators
· A featurette entitled “Ren and Stimpy: in the beginning”
· Image gallery
· World peace

Ok, I made the last one up. But this is the seriously the second best thing! ….I hope I’m not over selling it…

2004-05-30T14:49:00.000-07:00

Just had to give a quick mention about this Wired article on Pixar Animation. The link was found on Mark Evanier's highly entertaining and always enjoyable blog, which I suggest everyone add to their daily reading list (I have for the better part of a year now).

Disney and the Orlando layoffs

2004-05-25T03:32:00.000-07:00

Ever since the big Disney/Orlando layoffs people have been second-guessing animation and the field in general as a career. This article however, shows that there is light in that tunnel and that there really needs to be some changes made.

2004-05-23T16:05:00.000-07:00

So I watched Shrek 2 earlier today. I have to say, it was funny, I laughed. Not as good as the first, and at times I get the feeling things are a little TOO detailed in the animation, but the timing is quite good and overall it's an entertaining piece of work.

What was very interesting were the trailers that preceded it... one showing Pixar's latest offering, The Incredibles (which looks to be hilarious, as their past work generally is) and Dreamworks' Shark Tale.

Shark Tale was interesting, because it's essentially Dreamworks' answer to Pixar's Finding Nemo. I love it when companies do this, because it's an excellent way to analyze how the two companies go about creating an animated feature, since it offers an interesting side-by-side comparison.


Antz	A Bug's Life

Shark Tale	Finding Nemo

The visual differences are uncanny. I've heard Pixar employees praise classic Warner Bros. animation and the like, mentioning it's humanity. I feel that Pixar is doing a better job capturing that humanity... their stuff feels more like an animated feature, rather than a CGI feature, if that makes any sense... in my opinion, when the realism becomes almost overpowering, it feels gimmicky.

I also find that Pixar does a better job of cartoon characters, while Dreamworks does superior anthropomorphics... meaning that Dreamworks creates incredibly realistic humanoid fish, whereas Pixar creates a round, bright-eyed cartoony fish. I also prefer Pixar's ability of matching a voice to a character, rather than vice-versa... am I the only one that's really annoyed when Angelina Jolie's fish has big lips like Jolie actually has in real life? What's the point? Do these characters suffer because we try so hard to fit them to their real-life counterpart? Would the character even exist if Angelina Jolie didn't?

Dreamworks' gags tend to be more story-driven as well. For example, Antz really centered on one type of insect... ants. So any jokes that happened had to take place within the ants, and as such were story-driven in nature... in A Bug's Life however, the possibility of many different insects created an opportunity for one-off "gags." Gag-driven humor is really what fuels the Pixar films, though they don't lack in great characterization.

There are anamolies in this, though... for example, Shrek has a pretty broad "universe" of characters, so there are plenty of gags littered throughout, whereas Monsters, Inc. was more story-driven.

And at this point I'm ranting.

Which method is better? That's up for debate, and, like anything, is pretty much a general matter of opinion. I prefer Pixar's stuff, which pretty much follows the type of humor I dig: I always liked Warner Bros. shorts over Disney films, I'd rather watch a Zucker Bros. comedy than something more story-driven, etc.

I think I will definitely have to reread this later and fix it, I'm not at my most literate at the moment.

2004-05-17T05:13:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love animation and everything it has given me. From the bad to the good I enjoyed watching them all. Sometimes just thinking about animation jerks an emotional tear from my eyes. It's honistly the one thing I personally felt in sync with (bad pun)while I was growing up.

This article not only hits how I feel about animation in general but hits how I feel about the current situations happening with animation and it's changes.

Invader Zim DVD Review

2004-05-15T10:01:00.000-07:00

I pre-ordered the Invader Zim DVD off Amazon.com, and just received it last night. It was my opinion that Invader Zim is second only to Ren & Stimpy as the greatest network TV show aimed at kid's television since The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse, so I was more than excited to get the DVD. Sure, I already had all the episodes downloaded burnt on CD-ROM, but that was only because I didn't think there was an ice cube's chance this thing would ever make it to DVD...

First of all, as is expected, the quality of the episodes is great. No flaws whatsoever, no odd sound or something like that. All perfect. It features the first 9 episodes, and because most of the episodes were actually two 15-minute shorts, that's 17 episodes total, PLUS the original pilot episode. So you're getting quite a bit of Zim for your buck.

The presentation is lacking, in my opinion. The intro screens for Media Blasters and Anime Works are horrendously annoying... the DVD presentation art is okay, but with no moving pictures, and the looping music during the scene selection that restarts each time you press "Next" gets REALLY old REALLY fast. Also, in order to go straight to your favorite episode, you're required to go through Scene Selection, rather than just a menu that lets you select a toon. It's an odd set-up, I was expecting something more in the vein of the Simpsons DVDs or the Looney Tunes Gold Collection. But once you figure it out, it's sufficient.

The animatics are your usual animatics... probably not interesting unless you're (a) an animation geek or (b) a cartoonist. I'm both, so I enjoy it, but even I get a little bored after a while. That's not really the fault of the feature itself, just the nature of that sort of extra, and it's nice that they threw it in there.

The original pilot episode is all right, simply interesting for what they did and didn't change, but it is unpolished. Online, people keep saying it looks a lot more like "Ren & Stimpy," much squishier... admittedly, you only notice this in one or two scenes. What I do notice is much more comic-book-influenced stuff, like jagged-line boxes behind characters and things like that. Also, Billy West is not a great Zim... no offense to him, but there's a definite reason they changed the voice actor.

The commentary is quite good, I really enjoy it. They have a healthy bunch of people, including series creator Jhonen Vasquez, and a slew of other voice actors and such. Some commentaries are plagued with nothing for the people to talk about, but this is actually pretty interesting... obviously, there's the average amount of the cast goofing around, but for the most part I'm pleased with it.

The DVD is worth the price if you dig Invader Zim, which is really what it's all about. It isn't perfect, but then again, this thing really doesn't have the stature, influence and importance of something like Looney Tunes, so maybe it doesn't have to.

Of course, if you're like me, the chance to hear Jhonen Vasquez insult fans who create their own Invaders when they don't exist in the show on the commentary is worth the 20+ bucks alone.

A quick comment in the same vein as James' last post...

2004-05-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

So I subjected myself to watching the "FRIENDS" finale a week ago. Why? I guess I'm a bit of a completist, and even if I just sporadically watched a show (usually when nothing else was on and I wanted some background sound), I hate not knowing how the whole thing ended.

But I needn't have watched. No surprises here. Rachel and Ross got together... oh my God! No way! She got off the plane! Yay! ::puke::

There's 2 hours out of my life, gone...

How can cartoon sitcoms (a la The Simpsons and Family Guy) be so much better than live-action ones, yet not have more of a stranglehold on the market? Well, if there even IS a market anymore... I guess television is surrendering more and more of itself to reality TV.

Ooh, there's an idea! An animated reality TV show! It's not like it won't be any more animated and pre-planned than the average reality show is!

2004-05-10T02:36:00.000-07:00

I can't even watch TV anymore. It absolutely amazes me! I was fixing myself some dinner and happily sat down to watch some Television. I was about 1/4th past my second burger when a Fear Factor commercial came on and shown a husband forcing what looked like a live African beetle into his wife’s mouth as she was gagging and choking, literally shaking from disgust. Needless to say I couldn't finish my bite let alone the rest of my food.

With that said, I like to take this time out to thank NBC for the wonderful family programming that they are playing for viewers like me.

Home Movies ends

2004-05-05T05:08:00.000-07:00

The officially end of Home Movies on Adult Swim has been around for some time now but I still strongly feel that the show had alot of life in it still. If you feel the same way as I do sign this petition and sleep a little better at night.

Also Brendon Small the creator of Home Movies, writer, voice talent and all around talented guy was interviewed recently on the radio show The Weekly Geek. Check it out: (Right click and 'save as')

Part one

Part two

Part three

A double thanks goes out to The Geek and Frodo over at The Weekly Geek for letting me upload and post the interview. Thanks guys :)

2004-04-28T22:24:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know I've updated Tyler Sticka Dot Com with five new art gallery images and two (count em') TWO new comics. I would recommend taking a look, but then again... perhaps I'm a bit biased.

2004-04-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

There's an interesting new trend in animation these days: bad animation. That's right, if you haven't noticed it yet, pay attention, because bad animation and odd non sequitur are on the rise.

The anarchy of the internet brings about with it a blessing and a curse (I'd like to think more of the latter), and that is that anyone can create something and put it up for all the world to see. With programs like Flash making it insanely easy to put together SOME sort of animation (or at the very least, easier than it used to be), it seems anyone who really wants to make a cartoon can.

I think it started somewhere around the point that South Park became popularized. Though their songs and things of that nature are quite clever, the cartoon is built on the foundation of little construction-paper children cursing at each other, which, however you argue it, doesn't really ring of animation craftsmanship. Although I think most people liked it for the humor rather than the style, this was definitely one of the first stirrings of this new trend.

The human brain has a certain area that analyzes whether or not any information or a situation is "absurd." If so, it triggers a response: laughter. It's natural then that some semblance of humor could be achieved from simple randomness, non sequitur, odd little outbursts. This started to become popular in America with the wave of Japanese animation that came our way. A great example is the character "Ed" from the series, Cowboy Bebop. She (yes, she) doesn't do anything particularly funny-- it's just the randomness associated with the character. This sort of thing was executed most brilliantly in Jhonen Vascquez's Invader Zim, in which the character Gir randomly exclaims "I made potatoes!" Yes, Gir had made potatoes. And muffins.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Zim and a mild fan of Cowboy Bebop. I'm just explaining what paved the way for the material I'm about to discuss to become acceptable to American tastes.

So the stage is set. We now have a medium where people can publish anything, and a form of humor and storytelling that requires neither artistic talent nor the ability to write jokes.

It was then that I started hearing more and more of my friends get addicted to several web cartoons. Now, these are ordinary people, and for all our ranting and raving about "good animation" versus "bad animation," these are people who aren't turning on the DVD player or TV, and are instead looking to these web cartoons.

The most popular among this particular circle was, undoubtedly, was Mr. Beebo (site appears to be down). In it, a small cat with a moustache is caught smoking cigarettes and has the crap beat out of him. Beebo and his owner (apparently australian or something) go on several misadventures. There is no point whatsoever. The acting and animation are absolutely horrid.

And they crack up laughing over it.

Maybe half of the laughter is over the simple fact that someone spent their time and made this. Maybe in a culture so riddled with cliches, an escape from ANY sort of structure is more surprising and humorous than jokes written with some sense of craft.

In any event, this style of animation proliferated, and was largely just an endearing facet of the world wide web. The something happened. Something unexpected.

One of these bums got hired.

You've all seen it. That "Quizno's" commercial. The one with the two "spongmonkeys" (yes, that's their name) playing an acoustic guitars and singing about why they love Quizno's subs. Some loved it. Some hated it. It definitely caught the viewers' attention, and really that's what it attempted to do.

That commercial is the work of Joel Veitch, and it wasn't a fluke. He also does advertising for Switch/Maestro and Crusha in the UK, and VH1 in the US. He's also had television specials on BBC in the UK. You can view his animations at RatherGood.com.

How will this affect the animation industry? I'm not exactly sure, but my gut reaction is "not that much." Cinematic animation will remain virtually untouched, since movies are generally heading the way of "Nemo" rather than "Quizno." Although this type of animation has tested the waters of television, I doubt it will ever dive fully into it, simply because this type of humor is far too unpredictable for current network executive tastes.

Ultimately I think this is simply a fad. But it's an interesting fad, and one that may have had some indirect impact on audience's ability to stomach the growing number of Flash-animated cartoons on television (Gary the Rat, Mucha Lucha).

2004-04-08T16:34:00.000-07:00

John Kricfalusi, creator of Ren and stimpy, was recently on a local radio station in Chicago. Check it out:
(right click and save as)
Part 1
Part 2

Also, Jerry Beck from Cartoon Research and Cartoon Brew was on a really interesting National Public Radio show recently about animation history.
(right click and save as)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Enjoy

2004-04-05T21:10:00.000-07:00

I'd like to talk about contemporary Warner Bros. animation: namely, how outrageously horrible it all is.

You heard me.

Picture this: it's the 1930s and 40s. You're an animator working in a small, stuffy, practically condemned studio called "Termite Terrace" (affectionately called so by you and your cohorts working inside). You produce a string of incredible, entertaining animation that would hail in a GOLDEN AGE of your craft. You win Oscars fairly regularly, and create a style and visual language that would become the language of cartoons.

Then Warner Bros. shuts you down.

Unfortunately, it looks like WB will NEVER fully recover from that awful mistake. Dictionary.com defines an idea as "Something, such as a thought or conception, that potentially or actually exists in the mind as a product of mental activity." Great ideas are born from anarchy, where your "mental activity" doesn't have any constraints. The forgotten little studio-that-could was a perfect example of this, where cartoonists were free to try out new ideas (as long as they were within budget) with hardly any interferance from the big wigs upstairs (true, there were producers they answered to, but these people were not particular high up on the corporate ladder, and often were fairly leniant).

But, alas, when something great becomes recognized, it's called to the attention of the higher-ups, who look at the brilliance and craft of these animated shorts and see only the following plastered across the screen:

$ $ $ $ $

So later, realizing that the Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies characters are the only lucrative franchise possiblities they have, Warner Bros. attempts to resurrect what they had previously obliterated, but this time it was by their rules. Sure, they made a few good steps, such as hiring Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng on as consultants... but ultimately, Warner Bros. failed.

The Elements of Contemporary Warner Bros. Suckage

Writing: Originally, cartoonists made the cartoons. Hence their name; cartoonists. Sure they would have "gag men" and writers, but generally these people actually knew how to draw as well, and would work with the cartoonists to create a storyboard that would act as a guideline for the final project. Warner Bros. decided this worked far too smoothly. They needed organization. So now, Warner Bros. cartoons are written by frustrated sitcom writers who can't get a job writing sitcoms. Let me put that into perspective: when was the last time you saw a really good sitcom? They're not good enough to write for those.

Recycled Gags: In the original Looney Tunes shorts, Wile E. Coyote would run off the cliff, hang in midair for a moment till he realized he was falling, then give an exasperated look at the camera and fall. This was the gag, and it was humorous because it was absurd. In contemporary WB shorts, the character will run off the cliff, hang in mid-air, and fall... and then another character will come on, and give a brief lecture on cartoon physics and why this is possible. They seem to realize what was funny about the gag: the gag itself. In an attempt to somehow put a new twist on previous gags, the writers have resorted to a technique that really kills the joke altogether. Chuck Jones' cartoons were brilliant because of the WEALTH of gags that emerged from that simple scenario, whereas the contemporary ones simply recycle what he had already done, which makes for very stale humor.

Bad Concepts: "Tiny Tunes"... the same characters as before, only shorter and less endearing! "Animaniacs"... three dog-weasel-things trapped in a watchtower who introduce bad musical-themed short after bad musical-themed short! "Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries"... the same characters you loved, but without all those pesky jokes!

The Television Audience: Unfortunately, theatrical shorts seem to be quite dead. As such, Warner Bros. has catered to the television audience and, now that the studio is run by the corporation and bad sitcom-writing drones, the shorts have been watered down to a lowest-common-denominator audience, mutilating their ancestry beyond recognition.

What makes all this even sadder to me is the fact that right now there is a real wealth of great voice actors out there, with nobody (in my opinion) taking real advantage of them. These guys should be on GREAT cartoons, not "okay" cartoons.

Oh, and before I sign off, I do have to mention the one piece of original Warner Bros. output I've enjoyed:

Pinky & the Brain.

I'm done.

2004-03-31T17:41:00.000-07:00

Howdy. :-) My name is Tyler Sticka, and by invitation of James I should be going off on rants and/or tangents on this blog as well. Just posting to announce the new redesign, and with it comes a new commenting system... so comment already!! Jeez, do I have to spell it out for you??

2004-02-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

It's great to see Animation in the press recently. Infortunetly it's been for all the wrong reasons. The same topics keeps comming up over and over again. Is 2D animation dead? Will 3D animation be the new medium for film on the big screen? What will the future hold for animators? Some people say that 2D animation is going to fade away and later come back as a "retro" look. Others beleave that 3D animation will just over take traditional 2D. That is all false:

Thinking that one form of media is going to kill another form is not to far fetched. It happens all the time in the music industry. But to think that one Style of music is going to kill another is not going to happen. Same situation with Animation. Peoples tastes are different. For example:

Finding Nemo: Go ahead and roll your eyes. Nemo this and Nemo that blah blah blah. the fact remains that This film is a masterpeice no matter who says other wise. a fair story, catchy character development and amazibg visuals. you can tell that they took there damn time with this movie. I've been impressed with Pixars work Since I've seen there Short films. It's obvious that people like this film aswell bevcause It sold a ton of copies when the DVD was released. This is a perfect example of a well made 3D Animated movie. But now people are questioning the integrity and future of hand drawn movies and 2D art in general. Finding Nemo has a totally different feeling then any 2D film I've ever seen.

Final Fantasty the spirit within: Now this is a perfect example of a movie that used 3D animation for ground breaking causes only. I'm not saying this a bad movie. I personally loved this film just as much as Finding Nemo. But look at it through the eyes of an average movie patron. It had a weak story and the character development seemed a little two dry. It did awful at the boxoffice. Infact Squaresoft had to sell it's animation studio inorder to make up for loss of profit from the film. During the early stages of the movie there were several atriticals about how Squaresoft wanted to make the movie look more realistic and how they scraped, rebuilt they're animation software to get that "real actor" feel.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that no matter what the media or style the animation may be it's not going to be any good of a film if it isn't developed correctly. Also as I was saying with Finding Nemo, 3D animation and 2D animation are 2 completely different styles. I couldn't imagen How different Toy Story would have been if they used stylized 2D animation. Hell, Even most of the camera work would have been difficult to do with 2D animation. Lets not forget about the 2D classics like The Lion King and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Those animated films wouldn't have nearly had the same effect if done in 3D. I would like to see more integration of both 2D and 3D. It was tested on Titan AE (poorly I might add). Lion King used it for there famous Wildebeest chase scene. I've recently had the pleasure of watching The Tripplettes of Bellville and I was amazed at the nearly perfect intergration of 2 and 3D animation. It was blended in so well that my friend, whom I saw the movie with, couldn't tell the difference. Invader Zim and Futuramma are also both excellent examples of how you can animate both 2D and 3D togeather.

2D animation to me is the purist and most untapped form of animation. It comes straight from the hands of the creators and takes many people there whole lives to perfect. I find it hard to beleave that 2D animation is leaving the big screan anytime soon.