Thursday 16 January 2020

Premise: Analysing Cartoons

After speaking to Alan last week, I went on to look at the cartoons that I enjoy watching before picking apart and examining common threads or patterns among them that I like. Hopefully, this will help me begin to understand where exactly I can start in terms of investigating what ideas I want to take forward and if I can draw inspiration from currently existing cartoons to make something of my own that would fit within the mould of shows typically found on channels such as Cartoon Network while still managing to offer something new. I will do this by looking at visual design choices such as character design, environment design, and colour palettes, as well as other aspects such as how the characters and situations that they’re put in are written, the stories and plots, and their themes.

Since I’m focusing on shows that I personally enjoy, I will be looking at older and newer shows from channels including Cartoon Network and Disney, as well as shows from other studios that don’t necessarily air on television (including web series). The shows I will be considering are;

  • Bee and Puppycat (2013-present) (Frederator Studios; web series)
  • BoJack Horseman (2014-2020) (Netflix Original)
  • Craig of the Creek (2018-present) (Cartoon Network)
  • Dexter’s Laboratory (1996-2003) (Cartoon Network)
  • DuckTales (2017) (Disney; reboot)
  • Ed, Edd, n Eddy (1999-2009) (Cartoon Network)
  • Gravity Falls (2012-2016) (Disney)
  • Infinity Train (2019-present) (Cartoon Network)
  • Over the Garden Wall (2014) (Cartoon Network)
  • Regular Show (2010-2017) (Cartoon Network)
  • She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018-present) (Netflix Original; reboot)
  • Star vs. the Forces of Evil (2015-2019) (Disney)
  • Steven Universe (2013-2019) and Steven Universe: Future (2019-present) (Cartoon Network)
  • The Amazing World of Gumball (2011-2019) (Cartoon Network)
  • The Owl House (2020-present) (Disney)
  • The Powerpuff Girls (1998-2005) (Cartoon Network)
There are some shows that I haven’t watched at all or haven’t watched enough of to talk about them at length, but I find their visual styles to be appealing and will draw inspiration from them if I think it’s relevant;
  • Big City Greens (2018-present) (Disney)
  • Bluey (2018-present) (ABC Kids/Disney)
  • Green Eggs and Ham (2019-present) (Netflix Original)
  • OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes (2017-2019) (Cartoon Network)
  • Tuca & Bertie (2019) (Netflix Original)
  • Wander Over Yonder (2013-2016) (Disney)
To begin, there is a main recurring pattern in most of these shows’ themes – they’re mostly all focused on relationships between characters and how these change over the course of the show. There’s a particularly prominent emphasis on familial and friendship bonds with a limited or non-existent focus on romantic relationships. These tend to play into any potential overarching stories or character development that any of these shows might have, or if the show is only episodic with vague or no plot or story elements, still play a large role anyway.

Most of the modern cartoons that I enjoy the most tend to have a story element in them, whether it’s large part of the show or not. Older series seem to have a lack of overarching plot as a common thread, as plot and story-driven animated television series geared towards younger demographics seems to be a newer phenomenon that began in the early to mid-2010s (with one or two exceptions – Avatar: The Last Airbender, for example, ran from 2005 to 2008 and was almost exclusively story-focused) and is continuing to carry over to a major proportion of newer original cartoons. Some reboot series are also beginning to take old properties and expand on them, giving them the same treatment as story-driven original series (such as Disney’s DuckTales reboot).

Fig. 1: The DuckTales 2017 reboot expands on the premise of the original 1987 property by introducing an overarching story and multiple subplots as well as increasing the size of its cast (2019).

Modern cartoons that came about in the earlier side of the 2010s began to introduce story and continuity somewhat later into their runs, though most of these don’t tend to affect the overall status quo of the show besides one or two episodes, or it proves to be relevant later on in the shows’ runs. Examples of shows like these are Regular Show and The Amazing World of Gumball – a much newer show that exhibits this kind of writing is Craig of the Creek.

All of these shows, though, have fantasy elements combined with the mundane. This can be done in a variety of ways – whether it’s the characters themselves, the situations they are put into, or world that they live in and/or its technology. Sometimes it can be a combination of all of these elements, and some of these shows exhibit more or less of a fantastical approach depending on which one is being looked at.

Different examples of these and how they work can be found across different shows. Craig of the Creek is about the titular character and his friends’ adventures in their neighbourhood and also has a focus on his family – the fantastical hook comes from the children’s imaginations, the games they play together, and how they experience the world. Gravity Falls is about twins Mabel and Dipper Pines dealing with the supernatural while staying with their great-uncle during a summer visit, and Steven Universe has the main character dealing with two entirely separate worlds – that of the typical mundane human life and that of an alien race. Shows like The Amazing World of Gumball and Regular Show have fantastical character designs in contrastingly normal-looking worlds that deal with both normal and abnormal situations, whereas ones like Bee and Puppycat take place in entirely fantasy worlds but deal with mundane situations as a focus as opposed to strictly fantasy ones.

 Fig. 2: Bee and Puppycat takes place in a fantasy world, and its main characters are a human-like cyborg and her dog-cat hybrid companion (2019). 

For the character design in particular, most of the characters from these shows aren’t actually human, but anthropomorphic to some degree. It appears that there is a potential pattern between having a human or very human-like protagonist and non-human sidekicks, villains, or guardians/mentors of some sort. In some cases, this is switched around (for example, BoJack Horseman and Regular Show have a distinctly anthropomorphic main character/cast and most of their minor characters being human) – it tends to depend heavily on the rules or look of the world. Sometimes, these characters are anthropomorphic versions of food, animals, or even objects; they might even be alien races or characters that appear human but have inhuman traits such as extra limbs, odd skin and/or hair colours, or magical powers.

Fig. 3: Regular Show’s significant characters tend to be anthropomorphic of some variety, whereas minor and background characters are usually human (2015).

Behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with show creators and staff working on some of these shows discuss where character designs and personalities are derived from. A lot of them cite their family and friends as inspiration for how certain characters look and behave – traits and quirks are often taken and exaggerated or mixed with others to create an entirely new character that can range from loosely based on a person or people to being so alike to a single person that they may as well be a cartoon version of them. Situations that characters might come across or be involved in might also be inspired by personal experiences.

Sometimes, traits might manifest as a show progresses and is influenced by those who work on a show including storyboard artists and voice actors that might bring something new to the way a character acts and there is a consensus that it works, or it sticks over time. Examples of shows that have specifically drawn from personal experience are Steven Universe, Regular Show, and The Amazing World of Gumball.  Steven Universe showrunner Rebecca Sugar has stated that the titular character’s design, name, and pieces of his personality are inspired by her brother – as time progressed, the character Steven and many of the show’s other characters have been influenced by their voice actors. Regular Show creator J.G. Quintel noted that the show’s tone was taken from his own personal experiences during university, and that main character Mordecai was based on himself during these years. Thirdly, The Amazing World of Gumball creator Ben Bocquelet made mention that the main character and his family are based on his own (even down to some of their names) but with exaggerated personality traits – he was also influenced by friends he knew when he was younger and personal experiences. 

Fig. 4: The main cast of The Amazing World of Gumball are based on the creator’s family (2014).

Because of the fact that a lot of inspiration for cartoon worlds is based on personal experiences and the past, there is usually an unavoidable presence of nostalgia or a referential nature that is becoming more prominent in newer cartoons than it was in older ones. This typically involves inclusion of references to new and old technology, music, and fashion amongst other things. The premise of shows focused on younger characters or childhood as a whole also sees a lot more of personal experience and nostalgia involved to appeal to a wider demographic of entire families and adults as well as the intended demographic for the network, which is teenagers and children. Sometimes, some of the shows on the network maintain a similar target audience but conversely have main characters that aren’t children, such as Regular Show.

‘Breaking the fourth wall’, meta topics as a form of comedy, and self-awareness are also growing in modern cartoons. Sometimes, this can range from simple jokes to a single character being self-aware of their fictional status or the fourth wall (for example, the character Sunstone in Steven Universe Future) to the entire show deconstructing itself and/or using this as a significant plot or story element (as displayed in The Amazing World of Gumball).

After looking at these shows in more depth, I can ascertain what sort of routes I’d like to take for each particular thing I’ve looked at.

By way of visual style, I find that I tend to enjoy softer colours more as well as slightly more detailed background and environment art. Particular examples of environment design would be Craig of the Creek, Steven Universe, and Bee and Puppycat; examples of colour palettes that I like are Steven Universe, Bee and Puppycat, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Wander Over Yonder, and Tuca and Bertie. Shows that I find I enjoy the character design of most are The Amazing World of Gumball, Infinity Train, Craig of the Creek, BoJack Horseman, The Owl House, and Big City Greens. I also like the medium and style-blending that is characteristic of shows like The Amazing World of Gumball, DuckTales, and BoJack Horseman. The latter two don’t tend to blend mediums so much as art styles, with specific sequences requiring the use of CGI (DuckTales uses it primarily for vehicles) or different art styles of the same medium (BoJack Horseman uses this technique to highlight specific sequences or emotions felt by the characters). I also considered the Animal Crossing and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games as influences for visual style.

Fig. 5: BoJack Horseman sometimes shifts from its typically Flash-animated style into more dynamic ones such as this sequence (2017).

The colour palettes that I like specifically have a softer touch to them and tend to ‘harmonize’ better with each other as opposed to clashing – they maintain enough brightness so that the characters don’t blend in with each other or their environments and instead continue to stick out, but they maintain a specific style to them that prevents them from being too bright. These palettes are also used to enhance the ‘other-worldliness’ of the environment that they portray, especially ones that focus on a fantasy aspect.

Character design will, of course, be cartoon-y looking, but I will also explore the avenue of potentially anthropomorphised or at the very least, exaggerated human designs. I’ll derive ideas from family and friends as inspiration for characters that I’ll eventually have to make by considering personality dynamics, how certain traits could be exaggerated in both looks and personality, and if they can be blended to create entirely new characters that are a mixture of people I know or have met. This will probably involve experimentation with basing concepts directly on myself, family members, and friends, and then mixing and matching aspects of people I know or simply just drawing vague inspiration from them.

I will also consider whether there would be a fantasy element to what I want to make, the scale of this (whether it’s something smaller on the same level as shows like Craig of the Creek or something much larger like Steven Universe), and how to seamlessly include it. I will also draw inspiration from personal experiences if need be. 

I intend on taking this forward by making quick influence maps to visually demonstrate the style choices that I enjoy the most, and by making mind maps that condense this information into something that is easier to read.

Illustration list

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