In the midst of a busy week of work and the first week of school, I decided quickly sketch out a comic. It’s crudely done (once again not the greatest artist in the world), but whatever. It deals with the question “How far have we progressed in 12 years?” I think the comic answers that:
Aww…progress…look how far we’ve come.
BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad/ dir. Osamu Kobayashi/ 2004-2005 (26 episodes)
I started the Art of the Cartoon blog this past January. When it first debuted, my marquee header was a little different, and my good friend and running partner, Angel, thought the anime character on my marquee was Koyuki, the main character from BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad (It was actually Naota from FLCL, but anyway).
After one of our runs, she played the opening song from the series on her car stereo and went off on what a good series BECK was. She mentioned it was about starting a rock band and how they got through struggles. This caught my attention and I was intrigued by what kind of series about a rock band would impress her.
A month later I saw BECK the complete series on sale at Fry’s Electronics. I was tempted, but I did not pick it up (money’s tight y’know). Over the next couple of weeks, I kept going back to Fry’s and staring at that set (there was only one left) wondering if I should pick it up before it was too late. It wasn’t until after my birthday, and a break from school that I finally decided to pick up BECK, and see what the fuss my homegirl was talking about.
So how was it?
Flawed. Actually, there were a LOT of flaws. HOWEVER, when a cartoon series is so powerful that it makes me do this:
You know that something went immensely right. In fact, watching BECK reinforced the reasons why I decided to get into the field of animation in the first place. Hit the jump for the rest of the review…
Continue reading
The past couple of posts about cheesy early 90’s cartoon series have been fun, but I really wanted to focus this time on the “animation as an art form” aspect of this blog.
I present to you The Lost Tribes of New York City by filmakers Andy and Carolyn London.
A very creative aproach at urban anthrolopology, I must say. Using New York’s own everyday inanimate street objects to convey the people that inhabit said city made me smile a bit. It was a shrewd way of showing the voices that we overlook when thinking of NYC.
Still, I do wish it had a little more subtance. Instead of just showing us the voices we miss, I wanted to know WHY these voices were overlooked and WHY we should care about the overlooked citizens of NYC. But that’s just me…
It’s still a really dope animation.
New Kids On the Block/ “The New Kid In Class”/ 1990
One year before Hammerman came on the scene, the New Kids on the Block (NKOTB) were the latest musical act to have the honor (read: exploited!) of getting their own animated series.
I do remember hearing back then that the New Kids on the Block were getting their own cartoon series. I don’t ever remember watching a single episode. The reason, I just wasn’t that interested. People may not believe me, but I was NOT a New Kids on the Block fan when they first came out. Over the years, the feeling has dulled and for a good nostalgia trip I now enjoy a classic NKOTB song every now and then, but back then, I only tolerated them because of my sister and some of my friends. Just to reiterate, NKOTB was just not for me.
So why after some 20 years, have I decided to go back and watch an episode of NKOTB?
Well besides NKOTB’s unexpected return to music last year, after one of my biggest posting blunders, I posted this lighthearted clip of the NKOTB intro. Based on that clip, the show seemed really bad. Even still, I figured I should at least watch an episode to see if, in reality, either:
a) it was a good/ decent show with a bad intro,
or
b) if it was as bad as I think it is.
The result: I really should trust my instincts… hit the jump for the rest of the review and video of the episode. Continue reading
Alright, I hope you all had your fun with the last post (Gee that really backfired! … Live & Learn).
Time to get serious:
(stares at screen in disbelief…)
I have nothing…
Well back to the sketchbook 😛 !
I’ll come back to this I promise…
Warning! This will be a very rare glimpse into the personal life of a certain Art of the Cartoon blogger:
Last night, while watching this new anime series I picked a few weeks back, there was this particular scene that came up that got me so filled with emotion, particularly romance and love, that a certain person from my past came rushing back into my head (This particular scene will most likely become a Set the VCR moment in the future). A certain person that I still haven’t really gotten over. Suffice to say, I kept thinking about HER the whole night, and I could barely sleep. It lingered a little more today, and I decided to do something about it. And the only way I know how to handle these things… head to the sketchbook.
*Sigh*/ pencil on paper/ March 2009
Yup, I went and drew HER! I know that seems odd, but trust me, it is very therapeutic. At least for me it is.
And the only reason I am posting this is because NOBODY WILL KNOW WHO THIS GIRL IS… unless:
1) You really know me
or
2) Looking at the picture, you can recognize who the girl is.
I can disregard #2, because throughout all my years of drawing, sketching, and being an artist, nobody can really tell who I am drawing unless I tell them. That’s when it becomes clear. Plus, I still don’t think my drawing skills are that great.
Hope you enjoyed this insight into my personal life!
Feel free to guess, just know that I’m fairly positive that nobody knows who that is
PS: If you do know who that is, keep your mouth shut =P
“Hindsight” Parts 1-3 (pilot episodes)/ Wolverine and the X-Men/ 2009
Wolverine and the X-Men is the new X-Men animated series that debuted this past January on the NickToons network (With teenage Iron Man heading to NickToons as well, it seems like NickToons is the place for your new Marvel Comics cartoons).
I’m going to come right out and state this, I am a BIG fan of the X-Men: Animated Series from the 90’s , my taste favors the more Jim Lee style X-Men designs, and I believe that the X-Men: Animated Series from the 90’s was the most faithful to the comic book.
The next X-Men Series, X-Men: Evolution, even though many people enjoyed it and thought it was a better series, was a disappointment for me. Yes, the character designs were more streamlined to help with the fluidity of animation (as opposed to the bulky un-evenly animated X-Men from the 90’s), but the big No-No was making most of the characters teenagers and in “regular” high school.
So how does the Wolverine and X-Men pilot episodes stack up?
Two words: Very Promising…
Hit the jump for the rest of the review… Continue reading
Since I live in the Beacon Hill area of Seattle, and also I have been ducking and dogdging the construction of this thing for the past 4+ years, I thought I would mention the progress of the Beacon Hill Sound Transit Tunnel.
Below ia an artist’s rendering (read: cartoon!) of what the Beacon Hill Transit Tunnel is going to look like.
The contruction for this thing has been going on for what seems like forever. Newsflash, The Beacon Hill Transit Tunnel will look nothing like the cartoons up above. Did the artist even visit Beacon Hill, or South Seattle when he did these concepts?
At least they look nice… ah to dream…
By request from Daps1…
From 1990 – 91, MC Hammer was arguably the biggest hip-hop star in the world. You can’t deny the fact that his break out hit “U Can’t Touch This” was catchy, and with it’s heavy (understated) sampling of Rick James’ “Superfreak”, it made heavy, HEAVY sampling of funk hits popular in future hip-hop songs. Hammer helped bring hip-hop to the mainstream audience with an entertainment style that no hip-hop artist had back then.
But how do you know you when someone hits it big? They get their own cartoon series…
Hit the Jump, to read more about hip-hop’s first animated series… Continue reading
Art of the Cartoon 