by Elton John » December 28th, 2014, 4:30 pm
To add to that, the 90's seemed like a lightning in a bottle era for western animation.
a history lesson for the younger crowd.
Walt Disney had to push really hard for Snow White and the seven dwarves to get made. A feature length animated film was unheard of. When the movie came out it changed the way people thought of animation because it made people cry, instead of being slapstick comedy. Fleischer animation also helped out with their superman shorts which featured rotoscope animation, which helped create a realistic smooth effect for their shorts.
Animation wasn't always seen as a "just for kids" thing. Back in the 60's TV shows like the flinstones were on prime time TV, had cigarette advertisements, and was essentially a stoneage version of the honeymooners.
Then william hannah and joseph barbera started making cheap animated programming with little thought put into it which gave the stigma that cartoons are just a kids thing that unfortunately still lives on to this day.
I'm not going to sugarcoat this, most of the 80's cartoons I watched when I was young were nothing more than glorified toy commercials. Disney TV animation tried to change that with gummi bears, a show that had a bigger than average budget and storytelling that went beyond the norm at the time.
Don Bluth also helped usher in an era where western animation was taken more seriously TV and movie producers.
The 90's felt like a golden era for western animation for many reasons.
Animated superhero programming went beyond the superfriends and started having more emotionally complex stories. Batman the animated series was one of the big ones thanks to a brilliant man named bruce timm.
Disney TV shows were at their high point.
Cartoons like tiny toons, animaniacs and freakazoid had incredibly clever and mature humor. Rockos modern life also pushed the boundries for the kind of humor you could get away with.
The simpsons also helped change perceptions by being something adults would watch. It was clever, well written, well acted, and had a lot of heart.
Then after the little mermaid Disney tried new things to push the boundries of what you could get away with in a G rated movie with each new release while still including jaw dropping animation, sharp writing, and a lot of heart.
Then you also had genndy tartakovsky who worked on dexters laboratory, the powerpuff girls, and samurai jack. Cartoon network also had programming like courage the cowardly dog, which was honestly a very unsettling show but that's not a bad thing.
Then the early 2000's came. While you had your futuramas and justice leagues shows like family guy started getting popular because of how the shock value element and the creative team behind the simpsons started losing creative juice but the show went on because it was still popular.
Futurama was like the simpsons in that it had sharp writing, and moments that made people cry which is rare in any TV show. Most notable were the episodes jurassic bark and luck of the fryish
traditional hand drawn animation was slowly being phased out because of costs behind it. A lot of unsuccessful disney movies outside of lilo and stitch happened. Pixar had taken the magic Disney once had.
Then there was a show called drawn together which took the shock value of family guy and multiplied things by 10. It also managed to take what little heart and emotion family guy had and got rid of it.
Then there is a divise show called king of the hill, which lacked slapstick comedy and in your face shock value but had incredibly clever writing and nuanced characters to make up for it. It was probably the high point in smart animated programming.
South Park is half crass shock value and half clever, biting satire of current social events
It's why I respect my little pony friendship is magic. it took a show from the 80's that was little more than fluff for little girls and gave it characters and stories that went above and beyond what was made for a primarily young female audience.
Dreamworks started off making hand drawn movies such as the prince of egypt in the late 90's which were very good but weren't popular. Shrek came out which was a major success but until Kung fu Panda came out they were more of a me-too company where pixar lead the way and they followed with often inferior movies.
Maybe things will change, but as of now, animation is still *mostly* seen as childrens fluff when the medium could and should be a lot more respected.
Why do we fall? So that we can learn to pick ourselves back up again.