Film animation has certainly had its ups and downs over the years. My all time favorite animated scene is when the clocks all strike the hour at once in Walt Disney's Pinocchio. Man, those little wooden people moving around on their little tracks on the clocks, it was some amazing, hand-drawn stuff.
At the other end of the scale is my subject of today's column: Scott McCloud, Space Angel.
Scott McCloud, and another popular kid's cartoon called Clutch Cargo, used a technology called Syncro-Vox. It allowed a still image to show moving, REAL human lips. It was kind of strange, but compelling. And it still is when you see it used today.
It also allowed for some mega-cheap animations. After all, if those perfect human lips were moving so naturally, you could REALLY cut back on the number of frames you needed to hand-draw.
I was a little surprised to learn of the low-quality animations, comprised largely of cameras panning over static images, that comprised Scott McCloud, Space Angel. The reason I say that is because it was my absolutely favorite cartoon when I was five or six years old.
We had a local afternoon cartoon show on KOAM TV, channel 7 out of Pittsburg, Kansas. I don't remember much about it except the fact that it only showed Scott McCloud and Clutch Cargo cartoons. Clutch was fun, but I was passionate about Scott McCloud.
You see, Scott traveled in the most perfect fictional space ship I ever saw. The Star Wars X-Wings? Pshaw! Scott could have easily kicked their butts with his ship, depicted above.
I must have drawn that ship at least 10,000 times doodling in class, right up to my senior year. In fact, if you were to ask me to quickly draw a ship right now, it would likely look pretty much like the Space Angel's perfect ride.
I guess the powers that be as far as animation is concerned learned long ago that quality, at least on TV, doesn't really matter. It was the storylines that Space Angel took that hooked young Ron Enderland. Hence, today we have smash hits like The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and others that use animation that pales when compared to that of Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and other Disney classics. But they still rake in huge bucks.
Of course, computer animation makes the whole point moot. We're now used to seeing immaculately produced Pixar flicks that look lifelike.
But Scott McCloud and Clutch Cargo showed that you could hook youngsters, for life, in my case, with crappy animation, good writing, and slightly strange moving lips.
Sadly, I could not locate any online footage of Scott. For the absolutely only online example of Clutch Cargo I could find on the web, check out this YouTube link.
Comments (2)
Not familiar with Space Angel! Now I do remember Clutch Cargo! It was played on Captain Tugg WTTG Washington DC in the mid sixties. I didn't see much of Clutch, but did see it once in awhile! I think they may have some info about clutch cargo on a website about Washington DC childrens show, but I don't have the web address in my head.
Posted by Rivers End | June 9, 2009 8:19 PM
Posted on June 9, 2009 20:19
Yeah, I remember Space Angel, as I knew it, ever so remotely. Don’t recall much about it. I wondered about that. I agree that the visual animation was far greater in the older cartoon stuff done by Disney as well as Warner Bros, etc. But as far as story lines or the like, it depends on who your target audience is. Bugs appealed to a little bit older crowd, and maybe even pop eye whereas Yoggie bear was more of a 6 year old thing. Simpsons is very much adult humor or perhaps baby boomer humor.
I might point out that Disney did real classic cartoons that did not do a great profit when thee were released, given the vast amount of labor involved. They would not ever be done today due to expense and loack of initial return. But . . . as time went on, they kept selling tickets and when video came into being, they really went through the roof in profit. Those cartoons turned much profit for many years after their debut.
There is a lesson here. Things of great quality, while expensive up front and having little profit in the short run, are very profitable in the long term. We don’t think in long term anymore. It has to turn an immediate profit or else. We are selling ourselves short in the process. Same with investment. Long term works and short term does not.
Posted by Scott Irv | June 10, 2009 6:39 PM
Posted on June 10, 2009 18:39