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Drawing Lots and Lots of Little Pictures- A Cartoon Thread

Futurama is at its best when it’s not trying to be topical, because… it’s weird that it would be. But while trying to cash in on things that were popular within the past five years doesn’t inspire confidence the jokes they cram in around those things are still *pretty funny*
 
Yeah, while I don’t watch regularly I happened to catch one of these, and while NFTs may be a flash-in-the-pan target (we can only hope), having it turn out that ancient quipu beads can solve impossible cryptography problems is still a fun gag.
 
Well the third episode of the new season is honestly one of the better Futurama episodes in a long while. It's not doing any topical references at all, and doesn't even rehash old jokes (except one I suppose).

It's not peak by any means, but it's better than it's been. Honestly if this were the season premiere instead of the NFT episode it might've done wonders to boost my confidence the season would turn out pretty good. But it took two mediocre episodes to get this good one so, eh, we'll see?
 
Honestly the Squid Game episode was joke dense and topical reference light enough that it was one of the better eps since the original revival.
 
Mystery Cuddlers, a new Adult Swim series, is really impressing me, with its neo-UPA animation style and its breezy plotting.

 
Watched a couple of things recently.

Invincible Fight Girl was a lot of fun and truly understood that Wrestling is basically Anime. What if a world was as obsessed with wrestling in much the same way the worlds of Pokemon and YuGiOh are obsessed with their titular activities? You get the world here, and it is bonkers and I love it. Good vocal performances overall, with only one caveat: Nearly every time a character has an internal monologue, which is super common in anime, it felt just a little stilted and awkward. Hopefully they work on that for Season 2, if there's going to be one. As of yet there's no word on a renewal or a cancellation. Fingers crossed, because you can't just tease Keith David as the series Big Bad and leave us hanging.

Jentry Chau vs The Underworld was a delight and a visual treat. I can't speak to the authenticity of any of the mythology throughout the series, but speaking as the most vanilla white dude I still enjoyed all of it. The characters were all fun, the monster designs were rad, and the show still managed to tug on the ol heartstrings once or twice. Unlike Invincible Fight Girl which left off with plenty of story to tell which may or may not ever happen, Jentry Chau seemed to go out of its way to wrap up everything as if it feared it wouldn't get more. There's 13 episodes, and the 10th episode felt like a season finale, and the remaining 3 honestly felt like all the plot beats they could have done in a second season condensed into those episodes. It does make the pacing of the final three episodes a little wonky and breakneck, but if it doesn't get any more then at least we won't be left hanging.
 
The first two episodes of Adult Swim’s Common Side Effects aired last night. Guy finds a mushroom in Peru that rapidly increases cell growth and can heal most injuries and ailments, so The Rich try to kill him and eliminate the magic mushroom. It’s quite a bit more nuanced than that hackneyed premise would lead you to think, though. It’s also got Mike Judge in it. Seems good so far.
 
Big Top Burger is a web series by my favorite currently active independent animator, Ian "Worthikids" Worthington. It's about a clown-themed food truck. He also does shorts that aren't part of any series.

My favorite Worthikids is the longest one, Captain Yajima. A group of Japanese fans made a fan dub of Big Top Burger, and he got in touch with them, and collaborated with them on producing a Japanese-language cartoon.


What's amazing about it is that it looks so much like actual TV-budget stop-motion animation despite being entirely CGI, and by a single animator, no less. That skill with stylistic imitation is also on display in his most recent short, which riffs on 1970s Hanna-Barbera shows:

 
Last night I happened to remember this wonderful classic animation, with no words. "Ruka" or "The Hand" (1965), directed by Jiří Trnka and the most acclaimed of all his many films. Banned in 1969, after his death and after the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, which was itself preceded by the Prague Spring, it is generally thought to be an allegorical expression of his frustration as an artist at the twilight of his twenty-year career.

 
Bongo said:
My favorite Worthikids is the longest one, Captain Yajima. A group of Japanese fans made a fan dub of Big Top Burger, and he got in touch with them, and collaborated with them on producing a Japanese-language cartoon.

What's amazing about it is that it looks so much like actual TV-budget stop-motion animation despite being entirely CGI, and by a single animator, no less. That skill with stylistic imitation is also on display in his most recent short, which riffs on 1970s Hanna-Barbera shows:
Click to expand...

A few years back I made a thread specifically for Captain Yajima and other stop motion et adjacent projects. I was floored when I saw it for the first time and you can tell right away it is something very special. They're crazy talented, as animator and actor.

I've been keeping an eye on them ever since. I really like the one about wall gnomes.
 
I subscribed to Apple TV to watch Pluribus, but once I finished that show I tried to find something on the service to see before canceling it. I landed on some of the newer Peanuts specials. Namely, the ones about Franklin and Marcie. I like these a lot. They have a nice, timeless quality in both the storytelling and the art.
 
I’m having trouble finding a working link, but Nathan Fillion posted that he’s trying to get a Firefly animated series off the ground. He got the rights / permission from Joss Whedon and Disney, the original cast is on board to do voices, the animation studio that did robot chicken and clone high and a bunch of other stuff is interested, so hes pitching for someone to order some episodes and put up the cash.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I like Firefly. I would have liked more Firefly back in the 2000s. However, with the movie Firefly works as a nice little self contained thing. I’m not sure about coming back to it after all this time. Plus Adam Baldwin being a huge piece of crap and being involved sours me on the project.
 
I saw the same announcement, and I keep thinking back to those 00's shirts in Star Wars font that read "Joss Whedon is my master now". Back in the early 2000s, it felt like all sci-fi was... stuffy? Like we had a run of Star Trek series where it was generally more about moral quandaries than anything else, and the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy which was fun, but also put an emphasis on world/plot building and a reverence to the original trilogy that felt too predictable. Firefly was a breath of fresh air with its "space cowboys" who had "real world problems" like trying to make (space) rent or mocking each other's pants. It was impossible to imagine Captain Janeway or Qui-Gon Jinn acting like any of the characters on Firefly.

And now, like, everything is Firefly. Kids making quips at each other on Star Trek: The College Years is available on Paramount right the heck now. Star Wars' most prominent media in the last decade is literally about a space cowboy (well, bounty hunter) with a heart of gold (Firefly S01E13). Animated and irreverent and dudes with real problems is Star Trek Lower Decks to a T. I really don't need more Firefly, particularly if it enriches Adam Baldwin. What was unique about that whole show seems trite now.
 
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