Superman Through the Ages! Forum

Superman on the Screen! => Animated Adventures => Topic started by: TELLE on July 30, 2007, 03:10:42 AM



Title: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: TELLE on July 30, 2007, 03:10:42 AM
via Evanier:

http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2007_07_29.html#013774


Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: MatterEaterLad on July 30, 2007, 11:52:19 PM
I dig it, and even though Don Adams doesn't seem to voice the commercial.

I loved "Tennessee Tuxedo"...


Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: TELLE on July 31, 2007, 12:41:38 AM
I did too.  It was on every day beginning when I was in grade Grade 1 --I found it horrifying, baffling, frustrating, and only occasionally funny: my definition of entertainment!

Did anyone ever really laugh at cartoons as a kid?  Certainly I can't remember belly laughs.  I laugh more NOW when I watch something like the Flintstones than I ever did as a kid.  I think I spent more time processing cartoons as I watched them, learning about the world from them.  When everything is new, how do you know what is new enough to be funny?  I was the oldest in my family so had no guide.

Maybe I just didn't have a sense of humour....


Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: Super Monkey on July 31, 2007, 07:04:54 AM
I never laughed at the animation that was created while I was a kid. I did laugh quite a bit at old cartoons (or real cartoons as I called them back then) that were created in the 1930's to 1950's. Things started to crap out during the 1950's and animation turn to a massive pile of boredom during the 1960's to the present, with a few precious exemptions here and there.


Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: Klar Ken T5477 on July 31, 2007, 09:32:34 AM
Classic Warner bros cartoons= LOL funny esp those by Bob Clampett and Frank Tashlin

Post UPA- Hanna Barbera style Tv toons rarely so....few exceptions being the Jay Ward canon- Rocky & Bullwinkle, Super Chicken etc/


Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: nightwing on July 31, 2007, 11:44:32 AM
Well of course when I was growing up in the early 70s, Saturday mornings were pretty much owned by Hanna-Barbera, ie: the opposite of funny.  It didn't help that they added a laugh-track to their junk in that era.  :o  The alternatives were the Syd and Marty Krofft shows, which far from being funny were just creepy and bizarre (and probably drug-induced), though I was mesmerized by them nonetheless.

Pretty much the only funny stuff was classic Warner Brothers (though it was often eviscerated by parent-fearing network nincompoops) and Jay Ward material like Dudley Do-Right and George of the Jungle, which was "dumb" funny; pure slapstick, lowbrow stuff.  I liked Underdog, the Go-Go Gophers, Tennessee Tuxedo and Commander McBragg but it wasn't like they had me howling.  Quite the opposite: Underdog's epic battle with Overcat had me biting my nails!

I tended to respond better to "adventure" cartoons like Jonny Quest or "Young Samson," or toons that walked the line between "funny animal" and superhero, like Mighty Mouse, Atom Ant, Super-Chicken and Quickdraw McGraw.  By and large cartoons were curiosities to me, visually fascinating but not really a source of laughs.  The shows that made me laugh were Laurel and Hardy, The Three Stooges and the Little Rascals.

 


Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: MatterEaterLad on July 31, 2007, 12:49:14 PM
I actually think that younger kids have less of an overall sense of humor and that when they grow older and become adults, they see the humor much better. For me, classic Popeye, Hoppity Hooper, or the WB cartoons told good stories and I didn't see the humor until much later.


Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: nightwing on July 31, 2007, 01:18:37 PM
MatterEaterLad writes:

Quote
I actually think that younger kids have less of an overall sense of humor and that when they grow older and become adults, they see the humor much better. For me, classic Popeye, Hoppity Hooper, or the WB cartoons told good stories and I didn't see the humor until much later.

I'd agree with that.  I remember watching "Wacky Races," for example, and being mostly interested in who won the race (I probably did the whole "Boo!" "Hiss" routine) as opposed to finding it funny.  Similarly, I know lots of kids who are on the edge of their seats watching "Scooby Doo" and no amount of pratfalls or double-takes from Scoob and Shaggy makes the ghosts and monsters less scary for them.

That said, I'd like to think even small kids deserve better than the burp and fart jokes they're usually handed in modern "G" fare.  I'd rather see animators try to draw the kids in with emotionally engaging tales -- even scary ones -- than roll out the usual hour and a half of dogs and cats passing gas.




Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: Super Monkey on July 31, 2007, 01:40:32 PM
As a kid I really hated scooby doo and flintstones, I never understood why they were so popular. Still don't.

Quote
Classic Warner bros cartoons= LOL funny esp those by Bob Clampett and Frank Tashlin

I never knew who Bob Clampett was until I was an adult and it turns out that he was the one who made most of the really great classic toons! Now I look for his work. Other favorites were Tex Avery and the Fleischer bros.



Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: TELLE on August 01, 2007, 05:57:53 AM
I never even laughed at Warner Bros --I went from watching them to studying them as a teen (especially when I discovered lost syndicated toons broadcast in other cities or when I bought tapes of them or saw some at comic cons) to laughing at them as an adult.

I did laugh at Roger Ramjet, George of the Jungle, Superchicken.  Sometimes at Bullwinkle.  But for the most part I was like Nightwing, preferring plot/adventure, even in Wacky Races/Laffalympics/Yogi's Space Race.


Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: nightwing on August 01, 2007, 08:03:41 AM
Quote
I did laugh at Roger Ramjet, George of the Jungle, Superchicken.  Sometimes at Bullwinkle.  But for the most part I was like Nightwing, preferring plot/adventure, even in Wacky Races/Laffalympics/Yogi's Space Race.

Wow, Yogi's Space Race.  Definitely a contender for worst cartoon of all time.  "Limited" animation and the art was just plain rotten.  Plus every episode ended with the gang (Yogi, Huck, whoever) all stopping at the Space Disco for a dance sequence.  Utter dreck.

You know what I never found funny? MGM cartoons.  Disney was bad enough, aimed as it was at 18-month-olds (and slow ones at that), but the MGM stuff was the worst.  There was a cruelty to those shorts, a crassness that just gets uglier with the passage of time.  

The violence in Tom and Jerry is an obvious issue (and ably lampooned by the Simpson's "Itchy and Scratchy"), but there was also a sort of "adult" sensibility, and not in a good way.  There was the "sexy" stuff like Little Hot Riding Hood and the girl who does the balloon dance while the lecherous wolf drools, and of course there were all the times when explosions or falls down coal chutes left characters with black faces, whereupon of course they launched into minstrel acts ( :o :o :o).  Plus I'm convinced Tom and Jerry ruined cartoons for all of us as far as mobilizing the anti-violence groups.  I mean, who could seriously be threatened by the Road Runner cartoons?  Are we supposed to believe toddlers would start rolling boulders on each other or playing with unattended sticks of dynamite based on Wile E Coyote's antics?  But Tom and Jerry had their adventures in the house, using weapons any kid could get hold of to terrorize his sister or the family pet: irons, razors, electrical outlets, fireplace pokers, butcher knives.  Compare these shorts to the far superior Sylvester and Tweety stuff -- just as "rough" but nowhere near as mean-spirited -- and you have to wonder what kind of sadistic misanthropes were running the MGM shop.


Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: Super Monkey on August 01, 2007, 09:20:20 AM
Road Runner cartoons are horrible, it's the same cartoon over and over and over again.

The MGM shop was a product of their time. Those toons would never get made today, if they were to be made today, they would be clearly marked not for children, LOL.




Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: MatterEaterLad on August 01, 2007, 10:15:00 AM
Is there any proof that animated cartoons appeal to children more?

I've always had the feeling that adults decided that and told their children it was true. And therefore people made cartoons that appealed to them as adults.

I never laughed at the "Flintstones" jokes or understood the parody of "Fractured Fairy Tales", I just followed the stories like any stories. If I watched "Steamboat Willie", as a kid I was more weirded out by Mickey playing farm animals as musical instruments than by any references that went over my head in a 1940s movie.


Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: TELLE on August 02, 2007, 02:54:50 AM
I enjoy quite a few WB and MGM cartoons as an adult --they were shown in front of adult movies, once upon a time, and think the violence is hilarious.  Even Road Runner who I used to hate (how did they create comics of them? --a question for Mark Evanier) is funny now, in parts.  Or maybe comforting, since I know most of the gags by now.  Saw a few WWII Tom and Jerry toons recently on TCM and laughed at a few parts in a kind of "heh, isn't it funny what they thought would be funny in 1944?" and "heh, there's a reference to an old movie star and there's an old household appliance that we don't use anymore but which I find interesting because I collect old pop culture and antiques and the gag they built around it is original" -kind of way.



Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: jamespup on August 02, 2007, 09:39:13 PM
Even Andy Warhol's Campbell Soup Cans encourage feelings of nostalgia since Campbells Soup doesn't look that way anymore


Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: MatterEaterLad on August 02, 2007, 10:13:52 PM
Except for Tomato and Chicken Noodle, which have kept the "old" look.


Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: jamespup on August 02, 2007, 10:47:41 PM
At least for the Tomato, the Warhol had all caps for TOMATO while the current has Tomato

Slight difference in the gold medal I think too

but yes, basically the same


Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: Johnny Nevada on August 05, 2007, 07:42:13 PM
Hmm...guess I'm less picky on older cartoons than the others on here!

I grew up in the 80's, but have always enjoyed the Warner Bros. animated fare---Looney Tunes always made me laugh, as does their latter-day TV counterparts (Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, etc.).

I watched Tom and Jerry as a kid, but they always kind of got on my nerves a bit (least for the Spike-beating-up-Tom-for-just-doing-his-job stuff ;-) ).

I liked the Jay Ward cannon as well, as well as Hanna-Barbera's 50s/60s output (I still find the FLintstones funny) ...

Agree that too many modern cartoons seem pretty limited in what they depict compared to the old stuff---seems like it's mostly either shows about human kids going to a school, bathroom gags, superheroes, or some weird anime thing. Imagine one reason for SpongeBob SquarePants' success is that it's a throwback to the days of Bugs, Yogi, etc.----a funny-animal character (a rarity with most cartoons seeming to be humans or humanoids nowadays) who's an adult engaging in wacky-toned humor (and isn't on a quest for some artifact/engaged in some melodramatic storyline/drawn anime-style/etc.). ;-)


Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: Ruby Spears Superman on August 05, 2007, 10:28:57 PM
 I'm also a child of the eighties so most of the cartoons I grew up with were basically 22 minute toy commercials (with real toy commercials in between). I just want to say, I don't think they would be able to get away with a naked kid in a bathtub today, no matter how cartoony it was, unless it was Simpsons or Family Guy or one of the "adult" cartoons. As for Tom and Jerry, I think the "mammy" character would be enough to keep them out of reruns today.

Anywho, as a result of my upbrining I'm more interested in action cartoons with engaging plots then funny cartoons. I recently got a copy of those Fliescher Superman cartoons for like a buck at the dollar store and practically drooled the entire time I was watching. I had only seen one or two growing up and now I feel like we have truly stepped backward as far as animation goes. It just seems like studios stopped trying. Even the Batman cartoon from the early nineties pales in comparison, which everybody has been trying to make cheap knock offs for 15 years now...including WB! No wonder anime is so popular, at least it looks like they try.   


Title: Re: Supes vs T. Tuxedo
Post by: Johnny Nevada on August 05, 2007, 11:56:08 PM
I'm also a child of the eighties so most of the cartoons I grew up with were basically 22 minute toy commercials (with real toy commercials in between). I just want to say, I don't think they would be able to get away with a naked kid in a bathtub today, no matter how cartoony it was, unless it was Simpsons or Family Guy or one of the "adult" cartoons. As for Tom and Jerry, I think the "mammy" character would be enough to keep them out of reruns today.

Anywho, as a result of my upbrining I'm more interested in action cartoons with engaging plots then funny cartoons. I recently got a copy of those Fliescher Superman cartoons for like a buck at the dollar store and practically drooled the entire time I was watching. I had only seen one or two growing up and now I feel like we have truly stepped backward as far as animation goes. It just seems like studios stopped trying. Even the Batman cartoon from the early nineties pales in comparison, which everybody has been trying to make cheap knock offs for 15 years now...including WB! No wonder anime is so popular, at least it looks like they try.   

They still rerun Tom and Jerry on Cartoon Network (and sometimes Boomerang)...