A Proposal For An Essay That Never Saw The Light Of Day...

Dissertation Proposal:

Do Cartoonists Make Cartoons Anymore?

By

Mathew Richens

     The animation industry has seen many twists and turns and dead ends over the years, often falling in popularity, changing it’s purpose, only to rise up again dressed up as the next big thing.

     Before the 1920’s, animation as a medium did not exist. Thanks to the efforts of individuals like Emil Cohl and Winsor McCay, who not only explored the marvels, and answered many of the questions surrounding moving image but also helped to make it popular, eventually turning it into an ever growing industry. Cohl’s series of political caricatures and McCay’s many newspaper strips and cartoons along with their passion for drawing that meant they themselves were actual cartoonists. They worked a labour of love in order to entertain people with their amusing pictures, which to me is exactly what a cartoonist is. These days the term ‘cartoon’ is stereotypically considered a form of ‘children’s entertainment’ but back then it was something that actually had meaning, but then it also changing the people looked at certain medias.

     After researching a company like Spumco, whose founders believe there are no creator-driven cartoons anymore, it would be easy for me to just agree, but I was curious to see if that really was the case. It would be fair to say that cartoons aren’t what they used to be, but it also easy to tell why.

     In the beginning, cartoons were made by people who not only had a sense of humour, but could also draw what they considered to be funny so that other people could see where they were coming from. Cartoon classics like Felix The Cat, Tom & Jerry and Mickey Mouse all have a particular style that make them stand out as brilliant. When you look at the backgrounds behind them though, you find that Pat Sullivan used to draw Felix cartoons as a living before embracing the moving picture industry, the same is also true for Otto Messmer who later continued the franchise. These men had true passion for the character they had brought to life, maybe this was the key to their success? Most of the original staff working on Tom & Jerry (people like Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett and Fred Quincy) were also people who loved to create sight gags for TV, in fact Chuck Jones went on to make some of Warner Bros.’ most famous shorts, cartoons that are still loved by many today. And Walt Disney, a man who wanted to create cartoons so much that his first and most popular creation Mickey Mouse was actually conceived in his Uncle’s garage during a period of no work! A few years later, a lot of artists were opening their own studios, people like Disney, Maz Fleischer, Pat Sullivan, Warner Brothers, Charles Mintz and Paul Terry. These studios all produced many great shows and films, and the more advanced technology became (with the addition of sound and colour), the more popular cartoons became. Artists like Chuck Jones and Tex Avery became very high demand because of their comical styles and techniques, and over the years they brought a lot to the industry.

     By the time the second world war was over, cartoons were more popular than ever, studios like MGM, Ralph Bakshi and Hannah-Barbera appeared and Warner Bros. were at an all-time high, especially with their lead animators using the war as it’s main material. All of the popular cartoonists and their staff were back at their desks in their offices once again thinking up new ways to make people laugh. Disney had even started producing some of the first award nominated feature length animations (like Bambi and Dumbo) and by the late 1950’s animation was more popular than ever and even gave birth to the concept of international animation festivals allowing small-time cartoonists to showcase their work (starting with the Annecy festival). All throughout the 60’s and the 70’s creator driven shows came from all around the globe and were now being loved for their creativeness as well as visual style. Each creator brought something new to the medium and helped prevent every show from cloning the one that preceded it. The heart and soul of the animation industry faded away mostly during the 80’s, consumerism was becoming a huge part of the media, and most of the shows being produced were based on older creations (trying to reinvent them and make them popular once again for the sake of money) and other properties (such as toys and films). Though a few of these shows did stand out for their fantastic animation styles (of that time anyways) they did not have the same impact as those cartoons that were loved in previous years.

     By the early 80’s, Walt Disney was also gone, his company remained, but lost most of it’s credibility over the years, focusing on making money and trying their best to please everyone with the few features they released. It was the era of the studio executives and the cartoonists became nothing more than slaves to the idea men who knew nothing about drawing. It hasn’t been all bad, but in some cases it shows how limited the creativeness can be. It was also around this time that new jobs were added to the pre-production of animation by networks and companies, things like script writing (when previously all planning like this was done in story-board form) and editing (basically, this was the company’s way of interfering and cutting out what they didn’t think would sell from the product). With this went the traditional methods for creating cartoons and the total loss of control by the artists involved. It seemed that this turn of events is what got people like Spumco’s John Kricfalusi and Lynne Naylor fired up, and ready to change things… But by the time they were able to make any difference, the changes had already come. Networks all over America were starting to realise that mimicry was failing, and that maybe they should see what the artists of the world were producing instead of the generic cartoons being spewed out non-stop and making people lose more and more interest every day. They were also finding that their fads were short-lived, and yet everyone everywhere knew who characters like Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny were, decades after they were introduced to the world. But still they refused to go back to the proven techniques used to create the classics, the script-writer was here to stay and with him came communication problems and longer working hours. On the bright side there were the occasional success stories, but it still meant very little control for the cartoonist/s involved. The problems also came with the writers being unimpressed by the artwork being produced, and the networks naturally agreed, wanting everything to be perfect. A few more people were added to the production family, people who not only couldn’t draw, but couldn’t write either, so they would give ideas to the writers that would then get passed on to the animators… Simple enough, but all these people involved on the same projects, had hardly any communication with each other. In many places today, that is still the case. Spumco found it with Nickeloeon, and from their experience you would maybe think that it is always the case. I know I did, until carrying on my research. I think that even though Nickelodeon said they were looking for totally creator-driven projects they couldn’t accept that they would be powerless and at time Spumco may have pushed their luck with some of the material they submitted. They might have met more success had Nickelodeon not been a children’s network, and I say that because the other shows that were picked up by the network, such as Rugrats, Doug and Craig Barlett’s Hey Arnold which were also creator driven, continued to be produced and aired continuously.

     As well as Nickelodeon taking this creator driven idea, other networks jumped on board as well, including the Cartoon Network. The idea remained that fresh and original new concepts would be the perfect way to make a bigger profit, whilst keeping the creators in control providing that the material was suitable for it’s target audience (something that seemed lost in the Nick/Spumco debate). It almost seems that out of hundreds of success stories, Spumco stands out as an exception. Donovan Cook had a fantastic run with his series 2 Stupid Dogs, Van Partible’s Johnny Bravo went on to become a mascot for the Cartoon Network and even more recently, Craig McCracken and Genndy Tartakovsky have enjoyed success on their own projects for the Cartoon Network (Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack) which brings me to believe that though in some cases the cartoonist has no control over the cartoon, others are beginning to realise that it’s the most creative way to produce and bring life to cartoons.