Arthur - Where is the Show Going?

[Drtooth]

There are so many Arthur books that have never been adapted into episodes, why they haven't touched any of them is beyond me. I guess it's far too late in the game for that, though.

 

[mr3urious]

There are so many Arthur books that have never been adapted into episodes, why they haven't touched any of them is beyond me. I guess it's far too late in the game for that, though.

I especially liked the book where Arthur spent all his hard-earned money on a "Treat Timer" he wanted so badly that just ended up scaring the crap out of Pal. It was a great little lesson on not to trust everything you see in commercials, and was a totally wasted opportunity to not make it into an episode.

 

[Drtooth]

They had that concept on the show multiple times.

I really am disappointed they never did a TV show adaption of Arthur's Thanksgiving. I liked the Christmas special better than the book one, and the new(er) Berenstain Bears and Fat Albert (probably where they both stole it from) basically had the same plot as the Arthur Halloween Book. But I thought the Thanksgiving one was pretty underrated. The closest thing they had is the 100th episode anniversary one.

 

[Drtooth]

Watching the season 16 episodes again, I can't so much say the animation is terrible (at least on the level of Gofrette.... look that up on Youtube... it's terrible. You can almost hear creaky hinge sounds when the characters move their arms... and they only have a 3/4th view of their heads), so much as it's middle quality.

But there are things that really bug me:

• Muffy's nose in side view. How... how come her nostrils are in the middle of her face in front and 3/4th view, but they're all the way near the bottom of her top lip in profile? OH! They got their reference from an animation error in another episode.
• The eyes on a good number of characters are too big and the pupils are huge.
• Arthur's Mouth opening so wide that it almost goes off his head at the bottom some times.
• A good number of the characters look off. Francine doesn't seem right, if it's her hair or eyes or something. And her head is too small. Smaller than Buster's without his ears. it looks wrong. Mr. Haney looks completely weird and colored wrong, and the Crosswires's mouths have migrated upwards, making their chins look much much bigger. Actually, I kinda like the bigger chin on the father. On the mother? She looks like a freak. Which leads me to...
• Character libraries. They never have to draw the characters ever again. And that's a BAD thing. The expressions are limited, making it much worse.

• The outlines are thick. Especially in close ups, it looks like a UPA cartoon.
• That animation of Grandma Thora playing Angry Bees... Everytime I see it, all I can think of is "Dear Grandma Thora, How do you type with Boxing Gloves on?" There's a little too much movement and bounce half the time.

But it still looks like a Pixar film compared to freaking Gofrette.

 

[mr3urious]

But it still looks like a Pixar film compared to freaking Gofrette.

More animation studios need to take a cue from something like Gumball, Foster's Home, MLP, or Randy Cunningham to see how to animate in Flash.

 

[D'Snowth]

Here are just a few specific observations I can point out:

- At times, Arthur's glasses seem to shift position, particular when he's facing the camera directly, they almost look too high on his face. I've also noticed his faces seems to be a little longer as well (similar to Marc Brown's earlier illustrations).
- D.W.'s eyes seem to change size, depending on how she appears in a scene, if it's a full-body shot or at a distance, her eyes appear about normal, but in close ups and tighter shots, her eyes seem a lot bigger on her face.
- Mrs. Read's ears are HUGE
- As far as Francine and Muffy are concerned, I think the problem with them as at a 3/4 angle, their eyes appear way too close together, making the rest of their heads and faces look mishapen.

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah. That's it. Francine's eyes are too big and too close together. And the worst part is, since these are library forms of the characters, they can't correct it with a redesign. Baby Kate looks completely off due to the thick outlines. They toned those outlines down the second half of the 16th season.

Aaand, they're back to kiddy single disks with 2 generous episodes of the TV show..

http://arthur.wikia.com/wiki/Arthur_Stands_Up_to_Bullying

Wow. Why is the DVD market drying up with 2 full episodes for 15 bucks?

 

[D'Snowth]

GAH!!!

This has been the WORST year for ARTHUR EVER... seriously, looking back on what's been aired so far this year, and looking at the schedule ahead into next month, we're going on a FIVE MONTH STREAK where they haven't played a single good episode, this is the longest deprivation we've gone through yet. Usually we have to wait every 6-8 weeks to get maybe a week or two worth of goode episodes, but FIVE MONTHS...

 

[Drtooth]

Well, my local PBS station dropped a showing of Arthur during the weekdays. Not a good sign considering my local PBS station is the Production Company behind the show.

Clearly to get in the new series, Peg and Cat. And when PBS gets a new series, they put so many showings on a day, it's ridiculous. Forgivable, but why they couldn't make Super Why or something else get the brunt of it is beyond me.

Did I mention that they're Arthur's production company?

 

[D'Snowth]

Ironic, considering I was actually just checking the national schedule earlier today, the first half of Season 17 premieres next month.

THANKFULLY, we're FINALLY getting a bunch of GOOD episodes next month as well, mostly from Season 7.