Film Roman vs. Klasky-Csupo
Matthew Kurth
>Dairenn Lombard (pi...@hondo.cyberverse.com) wrote:
>: I'm just here to kinda chat about Film Roman.
>: Some of their best work is Fox's (soon-to-be foolishly canceled),
>: "The Critic," "The Simpsons," and "Garfield & Friends." (All,
>: mysteriously, inheriting that circular-eye look.
> "Simpson's" is supposedly contracted for two more seasons, though
>it's sagging in the ratings evidently.
Well, that has alot to do with "The Simpsons" timeslot, though most people
tend to agree that >quality< wise the show is slipping, though alot of people
would argue that the >comedy< has not. (That's based on what I've read other
people saying, so let's not re-hash _that_ flamewar!) And if you really think
the current regime at Fox will renew it after Season Eight, well, you're alot
more optimistic than I am.
>I like F-R's "Simpsons" better than the Klasky-Csupo ones, but then again I
>don't like too much of K-C's programs anyway.
I really have to disagree with you here. Sure, Season One of the show was
kind of iffy quality-wise, but from what I've read, the animators at K-C and
at Akom Production Company (who did overseas production for _all_ of the first
season!) had alot of trouble getting the Groening/Silverman style at the time.
The producers wanted to play the episodes straight, and the animators weren't
trusting the dialogue and were doing all sorts of wacky facial expressions
because they didn't know any other way to do it, and so there were alot of
corrections and crazyness, drawings being rejected, etc... Most famous are
the incidents where Smithers was colored "black" instead of yellow, and the
animator that had the bear in the "Happy Little Elves" cartoon in 7G01 rip off
the head of one of the elves. So you have to chalk it up to a learning
experience.
But K-C's work for Season Two and what little they did for Season Three was
absolutely fantastic. I mean, watch episodes like "Bart Gets An F" or "Lisa's
Substitute" - the animation is lively, with just enough squash-n-stretch to
make it visually exciting, but yet level-headed enough not to make them look
too cartoony. When the characters would walk around, their hair would move,
making it look like actual hair rather than some kind of brush or bony
protrusion.
On the other hand, FR's work from the last two seasons is just...flat. Their
early work isn't so bad, it's still pretty bouncy, and I have difficulty
picking out FR episodes from K-C episodes in Season Three. But since then,
the characters look increasingly like robots on the screen. Not a hair out of
place, not a spring in their step. Real people squash-n-stretch more than the
characters on the show do of late. Visually, it's just plain boring and very
static.
What I miss most about K-C are those great sweeping perspective deep-focus
pans, trucks, and zooms. Like in "Two Cars In Every Garage, Three Eyes On
Every Fish" where the camera trucks right as Burns is giving one of his
speeches, or in "Lisa's Substitute" when Lisa finds Mr. Bergstrom is gone, and
there's this slightly tilting zoom-in on her shocked face. Another good one
is in "Bart Gets Hit By A Car" when the lawyers call Marge to the stand and
they zoom in on Marge and as they zoom, Lionel Hutz and Homer (on either side
of her) pull off to the side.
All those little camera tricks made the show incredibly interesting to watch,
and _always_ enhanced the action. It's the reason I rate Season Two as the
best ever made, and Season One aside, I'd like to know why people rate Season
Two K-C over, say, Season Five FR.
--
Matthew W. Kurth | "Prayer - The last refuge of a scoundrel." - Lisa Simpson
-aka The Captain | "That makes me feel all warm and squishy." - Dot Warner
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mku...@ais.net | "There's a girl sitting on my bed. Yes!" - Casper