So it's double list time; over the years cartoons have evolved to a level that far exceeds it's most basic plot so lets have a look at those going extinct and others in the second list that are still alive and well. No real order to this and it can apply to cartoons, anime and in some cases video games so lets start with the extinct list. No real order to this.
1. Damsel in Distress
Concept: Typical Fantasy plot focussing on the dashing hero saving the trapped Princess.
Status: Only Mario really still uses it and in very small doses, has become a subject of ridicule in recent years and condemned by feminists the world over.
2. Hunter vs the Hunted
Concept: A hunter going after the hunted only for the hunted to take revenge in hilarious slapstick ways.
Status: After a small revival in the 90s it's not really recaptured it's form and poor writing has left lead cartoons Tom & Jerry and Looney Tunes struggling to reclaim past glory.
3. Perverted Love Struck Wolves/Male Harem Leads in Anime terms
Concept: In Cartoons it's portrayed as a wolf but in anime it's often a male with access to tons of overly sexy women.
Status: The cartoon version is very much exclusive to Tex Avery and Animaniacs, it really hasn't come back, as for the harem it's being criticized heavily for poor story and being sexist so writers have been more clever with the fanservice, see Keijo!!!! review for an example.
4. Million Dollars with a Catch
Concept: Your a millionaire providing you don't harm innocent creatures.
Status: Classic cartoon plot but because it can come across as mean spirited and often runs hand in hand with money makes you a dick it's sort of faded out.
5. The Boy Genius
Concept: As it says the Boy Genius
Status: Became a popular thing during the 90s but died out in the 00s somewhere round the advent of the Big Bang Theory as well as other shows kind of making the character type more jerkish in nature compared to someone like Dexter or in some cases Jimmy Neutron.
6. The Money Making Scheme
Concept: Whether it's a con or not, the idea is simply to make money but often losing it by the end.
Status: Kind of been killed off by Spongebob's Mr Krabs, sort of shows itself to be ugly in nature.
7. Good Ol Fashioned Slapstick
Concept: Anything the old cartoons used to do for entertainment, better known as cartoon violence.
Status: Often labelled too violent and over sophistication or domestication has killed off the effectiveness of this type of humor.
8. Classic Romance
Concept: Good old fashioned romantic fairy tale style love story, made famous by Disney.
Status: Disney have stopped doing it in favour of high octane adventure, even "girl" cartoons and films won't do it.
9. History Lessons
Concept: Cartoons that teaches you history, mostly American History.
Status: Horrible Histories made it redundant here in the UK, as for America I barely see it anymore.
10. Crime Doesn't Pay
Concept: A Good Natured character learning the lesson of Crime doesn't pay when he/she does something wrong.
Status: Overly complex writing in characters makes this redundent, even if the character does learn a lesson in one episode it's immediately lost in the next episode.
Everyone likes animal characters in cartoons and video games but some of the things they do aren't really accurate to real life so here are 10 myths.
Myth 1: Rabbits Love Eating Carrots
Culprit: Bugs Bunny
Truth: Carrots and other root vegetables are higher in sugar than other foods in a rabbits diet, too much is actually bad for them so it's surprising that Bugs Bunny doesn't have diabetes.
Myth 2: Hedgehogs Can't Swim
Culprit: Sonic the Hedgehog
Truth: Hedgehogs can swim just no one told Sega.
Myth 3: Road Runners are Really Fast
Culprit: Road Runner Cartoons
Truth: Road Runners are not only slow, Coyotes are actually faster than them.
Myth 4: Lemmings have Suicidal Tendencies
Culprit: Lemmings game
Truth: Lemmings Migrate in large numbers and creates the image that they are leading themselves to mass suicide but being a main source of prey for predators and the nature of their habitat it's not uncommon for many Lemmings to die in migration not helped by Disney's misconception thanks to a documentary they did.
Myth 5: Bulls are Enraged by the Color Red
Culprit: Common Cartoon Joke
Truth: Bulls are Color Blind, they get pissed off because you're flapping cloth in their face.
Myth 6: Cats Love Fish
Culprit: Happy from Fairy Tail
Truth: Raw Fish is poison for cats but cooked fish is fine, Natsu's doing you a favor by cooking fish Happy.
Myth 7: Fish have a Three Second Memory
Culprit: Finding Nemo
Truth: Fish have the memory capacity to remember predators, are capable of Teamwork and are cunning enough to avoid getting eaten.
Myth 8: Platypus Don't Do Much
Culprit: Phineas & Ferb
Truth: They are carnivores, the males are venomous and can find prey through feeling electric fields along side the fact that they are egg laying mammals I think they do quite a lot.
Myth 9: Simba and Nala are Married
Culprit: Lion King
Truth: Zazu implies that Simba and Nala will get married and they do in the end, but seeing as most lions are led by one alpha male, Simba and Nala are half brother and sister, also seeing as Simba is alpha male he probably mates with all females not just Nala.
Myth 10: Penguins Dance as a Form of Communication and to Attract Mates
Culprit: Happy Feet
Truth: They do dance but it's more to keep warm in cold climates, males attract mates by building a nest and doing a series of calls and head movements in a manner similar to how a peacock shows off it's feathers.
Disclaimer: This reviewer would like to apologize if any of these facts have affected your inner child
Looney Tunes has been a staple of the cartoon world for over 85 years but there are few things you may not have realized about your favorite characters, here are 10 things you may not have noticed about the Looney Tunes.
1. Reusing Scenes
It's not uncommon for the Looney Tunes shorts to reuse scenes, there are several shorts that are similar to one another and certain gags are reused constantly, Road Runner being a notorious case but Bugs Bunny wasn't exactly immune to it and Looney Tunes isn't beyond using clip shows either.
2. Lost Cartoons
There are a number cartoons made by Warner Bros which were shown exclusively to the US armed forces, which includes the character Private Snafu, designed to improve troop morale and instruct on what not to do in certain scenarios. The name Snafu is an acronym meaning Situation Normal: All F***** Up, which is normal army slang used at the time. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh that's why My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU is named like that.
3. Dr. Seuss
Continuing from number 2, Dr. Seuss famous for children's books such as the Cat in the Hat made Private Snafu for Warner Bros among other World War II shorts.
4. Go Go Dodo
Ever wondered who the Tiny Toons Character Go Go Dodo was based on? Well the Dodo first appeared in the Porky Pig short in 1938 "Porky in Wackyland" which redefines the term acid trip if you ever watch it.
5. Gophers Mac & Tosh
The Gophers Mac & Tosh, often referred to as the Goofy Gophers would easily be mistaken as homosexual stereotypes when in fact they were based on the mannerisms of early 20th century comic strip Alphonse and Gaston, however if you consider the Looney Tunes Show as canon they are confirmed as a gay couple.
6. Speedy Gonzales
It's been heavily implied in many of the shorts that Speedy Gonzales is a pimp, usually from rumors spread by the other mice of Mexico.
7. Cecil Turtle
Cecil Turtle is the only character who has never lost to Bugs Bunny.
8. Greatest Cartoon
What's Opera Doc? is considered the greatest cartoon short of all time from the opinion of over a 1,000 professional animators, numerous other Looney Tunes shorts also appear on the Top 50 Short List.
9. Live Action Bugs Bunny
Way before Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Bugs Bunny had cameos in two classic Hollywood Films, "Two Guys From Texas" and "My Dream is Yours" although Jerry Mouse has Bugs Bunny beaten on the cartoon in live action movie in "Anchors Aweigh" which predates the earliest Bugs Bunny cameo by about three years.
10. All Looney Tunes Shorts are actually Hollywood Shorts
Breaking the forth wall is nothing unusual in Looney Tunes cartoons but numerous times particularly in the Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny shorts show that the characters are aware that they are all actors working for Warner Bros as they reference contracts, poor working conditions and the fact that some cartoons even cut the reel strip or even out right mention that "this is an animated cartoon" as spoken by Daffy Duck in "Duck Amuck"
Now we look at another reboot, this time it's Bugs Bunny.
I've already mentioned last year how great a character Bugs Bunny is, so I don't need to repeat myself in that regard, however like every character of a certain age and genre, his original content was the stuff of cartoon legends but now finds himself a victim of changing fortunes and Wabbit is just another chapter in this character's story.
Don't get me wrong, this is Bugs Bunny in his own territory, not sharing with other Looney Tunes in a big city but doing what he does best in giving a little payback to the people that annoy him.
It would be a very unfair comparison to say that this is bad because it's not the original, the original was of it's own era and had it's own charm and cannot really do well in a modern era even if much of it's content is timeless,it wasn't perfect, towards the end of it's run, Bugs Bunny ran out of content and had a hard time continuing beyond 1964 when censorship was a major thing for cartoons mainly due to the advent of Children's TV. I can honestly say Wabbit is actually fairly good, while not all the jokes hit the mark and the animation style is questionable, but for what they managed to work with, they did a pretty good job.
Warner Bros under Sam Register has this strange form of luck, it's not just Bugs Bunny, it's Scooby Doo, Tom & Jerry, the DC Universe and Teen Titans. They seem to create this notorious popularity for taking away the charm of these franchises but amongst the chaos there exists some of the best cartoon writing in the modern era so it comes down to personal taste and not letting your nostalgic views cloud your judgement when looking at these reboots.
Wabbit for me started shaky and there are plenty of characters it can do without along with some jokes that need some work done, however it's still very much a work in progress that's getting better as it goes along and season 1 is no where near finished yet, but again it still comes down to taste as to whether or not you consider Wabbit a good cartoon.
Remember "One person's vision is someone else's nightmare" but also remember that it's actually impossible to recreate an old show from it's original state with the most obvious reasons ranging from the original production crew, writers and actors being dead or very much retired, one of the last things that Mel Blanc left to the world was a number of successors to continue his characters voices and Bugs Bunny still sounds just as good now as before, so all this hate that these shows get is unjustified because on their own merits they can still entertain the world and as I grow up I may one day show my kids and grandkids about Bugs Bunny as my father showed me and I'll look on the TV and he'll still be there 50 years from now and that to me is worth more than how good or how bad his shows are.
Now for my next review who this week is celebrating his 75th Birthday, he's cartoon royalty it's Bugs Bunny!
Bugs Bunny as a concept started in 1938 where a rabbit outwits Porky Pig in the cartoon short Porky's Hare Hunt. The concept was played around a bit until they came to the short Elmer's Candid Camera in 1940, which starred Elmer Fudd who was previously known as Egghead before hand and still going through several designs. From that short they settled on Bugs Bunny as a character with Tex Avery changing many characteristics to the ones we know today, with a voice a mix of a Brooklyn and Bronx accent along with trademark white gloves and personality of a Karmic Trickster. The cartoon was so successful that Bugs would not only become Warner Bros most successful show but also become the company mascot, in 1943 Bob Clampert would alter the design to the most recognized version that would last a whopping 67 years before a modern simpler design was used but the official Warner Bros mascot is still the iconic version. So how has he managed to remain such a great character?
Well Bugs Bunny says it best himself with this quote from Bob Clampert written in first person.
"Some people call me cocky and brash, but actually I am just self-assured. I'm nonchalant, imperturbable, contemplative. I play it cool, but I can get hot under the collar. And above all I'm a very 'aware' character. I'm well aware that I am appearing in an animated cartoon....And sometimes I chomp on my carrot for the same reason that a stand-up comic chomps on his cigar. It saves me from rushing from the last joke to the next one too fast. And I sometimes don't act, I react. And I always treat the contest with my pursuers as 'fun and games.' When momentarily I appear to be cornered or in dire danger and I scream, don't be consoined – it's actually a big put-on. Let's face it, Doc. I've read the script and I already know how it turns out."
That pretty much sums up Bugs Bunny, when minding his own business he's harmless, when he's dragged into a situation he fights back using the funniest way possible making a fool out of the ones who pursue him for food or simply get rid of him. Even now you can play a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon and you wouldn't believe it was from the 1940s. That's how you do timeless.
