The animator of the first episodes....

[wiley207]

Uh.... not to be an animation snob as well, but that pretty much goes for any commercially made animation for tv since the 50's. Not just Japanese. it's pretty much like compairing Beetoven to Liberace...

The one thing I really have for the style is the attention to detail, but there's less motion. With Japanese animation, much like animation all over the globe the theatrical stuff is much much better than the television stuff.

That said, i loved the Japanese animation for American television programs they had back in the 80's, it was a perfect marrage of Western and Eastern styles. Funny thing, they animate BEFORE voice recording, while we animate after the voice recording. Which lead to confusion on some parts. I remember a story of someone at the US recording studio kicking over a waste basket, and the Japanese animators were confused if it was intentional or not. I recall this was about Kid Video.

That said, I think TMS did the most beautiful limited TV animation in the 80's... Insperctor gadget, Heathcliff, and they did a simply fantastic job with Disney, Ducktales and Rescue Rangers. Compair that with the simply ukky looking stuff coming out of Korea today. it's just disgusting looking. Though I gotta admit, the Animation on the new Cureous George cartoons are surprisingly good.

But then again, animation is one thing. It really boils down to story lines. Now, Pochahauntus was a beautifully animated movie and all, but watching it was like having surgery without anesthetic. Now look at the Bullwinkle show. Some of the Worst Mexican animation of all time (though their Hollywood studio did pretty great stuff), but I can't get enough of it.

Saying that, the animation towards the end of the series from Taiwan.... yuck city. They really did a number on Kermit's eyes....

I thought the 1987-1991 episodes were animated in Korea by Akom Productions, not in Taiwan! If it was outsourced to Taiwan, I bet Wang Film Productions and Cuckoo's Nest Studios would've done the animation.

As far as Toei's work on Muppet Babies goes, in the first season it didn't look as good. The movements got a little choppy (ala the first-season TMNT episodes), colors would change occasionally (I remember Animal having an orange face a couple of times), some voices got swapped, and Baby Animal had these thick eyelashes all around his eyes, even when he closed them! Starting in the third season, Toei's animation became much more refined. The characters were always on-model, the colors were correct, and Baby Animal's eyelashes were in their proper place and not all around his eyes (this was around the time when Dave Coulier took over as Baby Animal). In the fourth season when Akom took over (starting with my favorite episode, "This Little Piggy Went to Hollywood") some of the characters started going off-model again, and mistakes began to pop up. But by the end of the season the animation looked much better, with on-model characters, etc. The seventh season had the animation going downhill all over again.

Also, you think TMS's animation work on "Inspector Gadget" was limited? Why I recall a few episodes they animated, the animation was far from limited. Look at "The Curse of the Pharaoh," "The Coo-Coo Clock Caper" and "Did You Myth Me?" to see some of the best animation on the show. And there were a handful of episodes in the first season where they outsourced the animation to Wang Film Productions/Cuckoo's Nest Studios, including "Down on the Farm," "Amusement Park" and "Art Heist," among a few others. That set of episodes had lower-quality animation than the TMS episodes. Asides from Gadget and Heathcliff, TMS also animated "The Littles, "The Real Ghostbusters" and quite a few other DiC shows from the 1980s. TMS also did the best animation for "Tiny Toon Adventures" and "Animaniacs," while Wang, Akom, StarToons, Freelance and a few others contributed their share, though Kennedy Cartoons was another story.

Good think the people at Marvel didn't hire Kennedy Cartoons to do the animation for the final season of Muppet Babies. It probably would've been ten times worse!

 

[Drtooth]

Also, you think TMS's animation work on "Inspector Gadget" was limited? Why I recall a few episodes they animated, the animation was far from limited. Look at "The Curse of the Pharaoh," "The Coo-Coo Clock Caper" and "Did You Myth Me?" to see some of the best animation on the show. And there were a handful of episodes in the first season where they outsourced the animation to Wang Film Productions/Cuckoo's Nest Studios, including "Down on the Farm," "Amusement Park" and "Art Heist," among a few others. That set of episodes had lower-quality animation than the TMS episodes. Asides from Gadget and Heathcliff, TMS also animated "The Littles, "The Real Ghostbusters" and quite a few other DiC shows from the 1980s. TMS also did the best animation for "Tiny Toon Adventures" and "Animaniacs," while Wang, Akom, StarToons, Freelance and a few others contributed their share, though Kennedy Cartoons was another story.

Limited TV animation, as opposed to full length theatrical animation.

But TMS always did a great job. In fact, their DIC partnership started with something called Ulysses, and it carried on to the unfinished Lupin the 8th television special. They were the first (or one of the first) studios Dic really dealt with. Funny thing is, if you watch Lupin III and Inspector Gadget episodes animated by TMS you'll notice similar lanky leg movements.

 

[wiley207]

Yep. TMS's "Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland" also has really good Disney-like animation to it. I didn't even realize it was an anime movie until a few years ago! It reminds me of the animation in the first season of "The New Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh" (also animated by TMS, until Wang Film Productions and Disney Animation Australia took over).

I also wonder what it'd be like if TMS ever animated the Muppet Babies? I bet it'd look really good, and less G.I. Joe-like.

 

[Drtooth]

Well, I'd say it looks a tad more Dr. Slump like, if you look in the right places. Makes me wonder if Toei had 2 animation teams in the 80's. Gegege No Kitaro looks a lot different from Dragon Ball, and they were relatively made at the same time.

Anyway, I'm guessing Marvel went with Toei because that had a pretty good relationship. After all, Toei did animate a terrible version of the Marvel comics Dracula and filmed that weird live action sentai show version with Spider-Man. They were also set to do other Marvel projects at the time, but nothing was set in stone...

Though I wounder if the 1980's Unsold X-men pilot was going to be animated by them...

Unless something did come out of it and the pilot was produced.

 

[muppet baby]

Yep. TMS's "Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland" also has really good Disney-like animation to it. I didn't even realize it was an anime movie until a few years ago! It reminds me of the animation in the first season of "The New Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh" (also animated by TMS, until Wang Film Productions and Disney Animation Australia took over).

I also wonder what it'd be like if TMS ever animated the Muppet Babies? I bet it'd look really good, and less G.I. Joe-like.

i know that would be so cool i mean if the TMS had animatied the muppet babies that would have been great , i guess in a way they still could do it now if they would just bring them back it would be very easy i mean in one way i think they did not give the other series long enough .

I guess there is always hope that they could bring it back .

i hope disney might be smart enoggh to do that i hope .

 

[Drtooth]

i know that would be so cool i mean if the TMS had animatied the muppet babies that would have been great , i guess in a way they still could do it now if they would just bring them back it would be very easy i mean in one way i think they did not give the other series long enough .

I would say that a TMS animated Muppet Babies would resemble "Anpanman" to some extent, but Anpanman came out 4 years after Muppet Babies premiered.....


I'd say it would tend to look almost like Wuzzles or Gummi Bears, though those are still a little older than MB.

 

[wiley207]

I think this one wa Toei...

If so, this is my favorite Japanese animated sequence aside from the first theme opening

http://youtube.com/watch?v=24dPutxD8r0

That is pretty neat. However, I recently found out the 1986 (or was it 1987?) opening sequence was also animated by Toei as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwaddpsKdKg

Even though by this time the Japanese animators got more comfortable with the characters and made their movements more fluid and less anime-like, I recognize their on-model character designs from the third season and excellent animation.

Suffice to say, I think my favorite MB character model designs might be the 1986 Toei designs like in this intro here.

 

[Drtooth]

Even though by this time the Japanese animators got more comfortable with the characters and made their movements more fluid and less anime-like, I recognize their on-model character designs from the third season and excellent animation.

Undoubtedly... though, honestly, they moved forward with the Ninja Turtles much faster. With Ninja Turtles, mind you, they had about 5 episodes... and the Turtles look like they stylistically evolved in those very 5 episodes. And they did borrow a lot of stylization from their shows with TMNT... I saw vague elements of Kinnikuman and Dragon Ball in those episodes... especially the turtles' teeth.

MB, looking closely, you can see a lot of Dr. Slump like elements... mainly due to the squat stature of the MB.

 

[erniebert1234ss]

BTW, did anyone else notice in that film clip that Muppet Dude linked to in his post; that this film is ALSO celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2009, and the studio actually has the SENSE to celebrate the anniversary? Hint: Who you gonna call?

Oh, okay, I'll give it away: GHOSTBUSTERS!

Disney should take the example of Sony and actually do SOMETHING for the 25th anniversary of Muppet Babies! Maybe even the first season of MB on DVD at long freaking last?

BJ

 

[Drtooth]

Disney should take the example of Sony and actually do SOMETHING for the 25th anniversary of Muppet Babies! Maybe even the first season of MB on DVD at long freaking last?

Heh, I wish... even a best of collection of episodes they don't have to pay royalties for. Even a line of Muppet Babies Baby merchandise/goods.