Comedy and Tragedy

Well reader we have once again been reunited. As per halfway tradition, I will (sorta) begin the year with a random post as opposed to the usual topic. Are you not bursting with excitement? ...No? ...Well fine then reader. Be that way. I am just going to go hang out with the other readers who are actually fun.

Anyway, I would like to pose a question to all of you out there who still watch cartoons. What is your opinion on the current programs? There are a lot of factors that go into how these shows are designed, and, seeing as the producer will follow the market, I am wondering exactly why certain things have taken precedence.

For instance, compare some of the more serious animation styles like you would have seen in the older Batman cartoons, to the ones from more current shows like Adventure Time. I can see how the latter might be kind of fun, or interesting in certain ways, but it really depressed me to see that animation would fall so much. One of the things I really enjoyed about animated shows was that they could be creative and interesting, but they still held a firm grip on reality in their own way. It was still a world that looked and acted like ours did. I could see myself in that world. I could understand how it worked and how it was structured. It was not just some silly show to entertain me for thirty minutes, it was something that had a lot of effort and time that was clearly visible and meaningful. When you make animation more basic and random it loses that. It becomes this weird experience that no longer has any connection to reality. It is much harder to understand its rules and structures. It is much harder to see yourself in this world. Even when they do have a lot of effort and time put into them, it can be a lot harder to see. Yet, more and more shows are moving back towards that more unbound style. They make characters with impossible anatomy or minimal design. And often times the worlds these characters inhabit follow suit. The less serious the animation, the less realistic the world. You do not see something with anatomically correct characters regularly conversing with random objects, or riding a bus down a completely vertical cliff. So my question here would be, why would something without logic and structure be so preferable? Clearly you can have the strange, fun and unusual without abandoning all sense of reality, so why would you prefer something that makes you end with “...What did I just watch?”

The other point that confuses me is the very evident shift in plot lines. Many stories in the past could be very serious, complex, dark, interesting, creative, and most of all original. But today, we seem to simply have a series of animated sitcoms. Most of the problems revolve around ordinary situations. A test coming up, squabbles between friends or family, improving yourself in some contest, etc. Basically, all the generic problems we see in every sitcom known to man. There are no real consequences. No real development or progress. They simply do not deal with sensitive or darker issues anymore. There are few big climatic events with any real lasting meaning. And I do not simply mean within the context of the show, I mean things that leave a lasting impact on the reader. For instance, you will seldom see the death of a main character anymore. Characters are also less developed. Few shows have any characters with real pain, problems, or history that continuously develops and effects the story. They tend to be one time things, that are rarely (if ever) mentioned again. There is very little depth or power in them, and the characters can really tend to be flat as a result. Now, obviously you want some happy and comedic moments or story lines, but is it really preferable for the story to only consist of that? I understand that it is not the nicest experience to see something sad, or serious, or not lighthearted, but that by no means makes that experience a bad thing. Often times these kind of plot lines leave lasting impressions that stay with you, that spark your own thoughts and ideas and concepts. So, why is it so preferable to have the happy empty stories instead of the emotionally varying complex ones?

The world, she doth confuse me.

-BlackFox

(755)