Rant #066 Friday, September 24, 2004

Never too old for animation

Most web comic artists are manga / animation fans, right? I've always assumed that. In addition to my modest collection of
anime DVD's, there's some other animation in my collection that might, at face value, be considered a bit childish.

"Still watching cartoons at your age?! You need to put childish things aside and act like an adult", is commonly said, along
with other ridicule. What non-animation enthusiasts have sometimes told me reflects the common mis-conception that
animation is only for small children. Meh.

I watch animation at several different levels. First, there's the artistic qualities, the character designs, smoothness of
animation, backgrounds, etc. In my opinion, the animation of the late 1980's and early 1990's was the pinnacle of the art.

Before that, artists were still working together to gather the pool of skills we see in that era's best animated works, and
after that, budgets were cut and cheaper, computer animation took over a little too much.

But, back to the topic, there's the technical side of it, and then there's appreciating the subtle humor and pop-culture
references thrown in for the adults to catch on to. Lastly, there's the main part of various gags, and the overall characters
and storyline. I enjoy all of it. Granted, there are some shows that are so geared towards younger children that it's
pretty unwatchable by most adults, including myself, but those are generally geared towards preschoolers.

I guess what's I'm getting at, is, there's no shame in enjoying animation, despite what some may say. The only channels I
bother watching on cable anymore are CNN, The Weather Channel, and Cartoon Network these days.

Having said that, now that page 93 is done, I'ma watch "The Chipmunk Adventure". Laugh if you must. :P I know I will.

Ross Bagdasarian and Janice Karman are geniouses, and Alvin is hilarious.