Arthur - Where is the Show Going?

[Drtooth]

What episode was that? I don't remember seeing that.

The one where he draws up a treasure map and D.W. and Arthur find it before he can actually bury the thing. And Arthur's ticked because he keeps having to play checkers with him (gasp... a strategy based board game. Mental exercises! It's coming together) and he's always sleeping on the couch and Arthur misses Bionic Bunny every day as a result.

I don't no much about animation but can does Flash limit the shots you can replicate? For most parts it just seems like a lot of midshots and closeup were used with no angles.

It shouldn't... that's just corner cutting used in Flash.

Meanwhile, Bob's Burgers looks more and more fluid every season.

 

[D'Snowth]

I posted my theories over at Hubert's place, but I think I'll share them here as well, because I have come up with a few theories as to why, I think, the older episodes and seasons are rarely shown, compared to more recent ones:

1. They're too "dated". I think Season One would be the biggest offender of this, there are hardly any computers, hardly any cell phones (though in "Arthur, World's Greatest Gleeper", Muffy accuses Arthur of gleeping her "cellULAR phone", which is pretty bulky), TVs are still relatively small and boxy, among other things. Pop-culture references would be outdated too, therefore, little kids probably wouldn't understand them.
2. Voice inconsistencies. Since like 2005 or so, the kids have had almost steady and consist-sounding voice changes (despite both Arthur and D.W. being too high for their characters), they probably think little kids are going to be confused as to why Arthur and D.W., and certain other characters sound one way one day, and another way the next. Binky, especially, had a much deeper and kind of deadpan-sounding voice in Season One.
3. Character continunity. Again, I think Binky is the biggest example of this one - throughout the entire first season, and occasionally up until "Arthur's Big Hit", he was THE school bully, all the kids avoided him and ran away from him, he came across as mean and pushy... it would probably be odd for kids to see him as a bully that every one runs away from in one episode, then see him as nice and one of the gang in another. Brain, too, is more nerdy (big comic book collector), and much more sloppy and unorganized (hates cleaning his room), which seems odd for his character today. Both Fern and George are background characters who rarely ever spoke (Fern moreso since she's far more outgoing than she used to be, while George is still shy and withdrawn), among others.
4. It may even be a case like with the Old School DVD volumes of Sesame Street, where they probably feel the older episodes are "for nostalgia", and "may not meet the educational needs of today's preschool children". Just a thought.

 

[Drtooth]

1. They're too "dated". I think Season One would be the biggest offender of this, there are hardly any computers, hardly any cell phones (though in "Arthur, World's Greatest Gleeper", Muffy accuses Arthur of gleeping her "cellULAR phone", which is pretty bulky), TVs are still relatively small and boxy, among other things. Pop-culture references would be outdated too, therefore, little kids probably wouldn't understand them.

Uh... do you edit the TVTropes page for Arthur, or are you completely agreeing with that it said? Because I swear I just read that exact bit about her cell on that page. Especially how dated it is because she was rich enough to have one, when bargain basement phone deals are what give kids their emergency phones and now everyone has one.

 

[D'Snowth]

Uh... do you edit the TVTropes page for Arthur, or are you completely agreeing with that it said?

I don't believe I've ever touched Arthur's TV Tropes page (yet), but it IS some thing that has come to my mind, it's more than likely a coincidence.

 

[MrBloogarFoobly]

Unrelated to the subject at hand, but why has D.W. always been voiced by a boy? It doesn't bother me, it just seems like a weird choice.

 

[D'Snowth]

It's to make her sound all the more obnoxious, as opposed to having a genuine sweet little girl voice.

 

[D'Snowth]

Hey Hubert, have you forgotten about your own Arthur forum? I haven't seen you there in a long time, and there appears to be a slight spike in activity lately (supposedly, someone who used to work on the show is posting right now under the handle Dark Bunny).

 

[Drtooth]

The new season's animation is starting to grow on me now. Sometimes it looks pretty good, anyway.

But have you ever noticed when they call back and episode, they always manage to get something wrong? They'll have a costume someone wore in a previous episode, but it would always be with the wrong person. In the Flippity Francine episode, they completely botched up the reference to the Cat Saver episode. Buster recalled that he hated being famous because his friends thought he was stuck up. Ehhh... no... he loved every minute of it until he was confronted about it. At least they got the piano thing sort of correct.

Unrelated to the subject at hand, but why has D.W. always been voiced by a boy? It doesn't bother me, it just seems like a weird choice.

Here's something. I bet you didn't realize that until someone pointed it out to you. Took me forever to notice that too. D.W. sounds exactly like a bratty little girl when she never has been played by one. A little girl wouldn't sound as bratty, and have a slightly quieter voice, and an older woman would make D.W. sound caricatured. And no matter how girly girl D.W.'s tastes are, she is a little bit butch.

 

[D'Snowth]

But have you ever noticed when they call back and episode, they always manage to get something wrong?

When a show has been on as long as this one has, and has gone through as many writers as well, they're BOUND to get SOME little details off... another specific one I've noticed is when it comes to the events of "D.W. Thinks Big" (I THINK that's the title): Lucy goes back and forth between being "Cousin Lucy" and "Aunt Lucy". Heck, there's a continuity error within the same episode: at the end of "Arthur's Baby", everyone is happy that Arthur managed to get Kate to stop crying by unwittingly burping her... even D.W. is happy, and the episode ends. During "D.W.'s Baby", however, after we see the whole situation play out again, this time, we see D.W. is actually angry because Arthur was able to figure out why Kate was crying and got her to stop, instead of her.

"The Blackout" had some nice shoutouts to "The Blizzard", especially with the whole thing about Dr. Jake's predictions always being wrong, but I can't help but wonder why they changed his voice... I'm pretty sure he was voiced by the same actor who does Ratburn, so I can't imagine he wouldn't have been available to do Dr. Jake again.

 

[MrBloogarFoobly]

Here's something. I bet you didn't realize that until someone pointed it out to you. Took me forever to notice that too. D.W. sounds exactly like a bratty little girl when she never has been played by one. A little girl wouldn't sound as bratty, and have a slightly quieter voice, and an older woman would make D.W. sound caricatured. And no matter how girly girl D.W.'s tastes are, she is a little bit butch.

I looked it up, and went "whaaat?!"