>
>> William Hanna and Joseph Barbera- Â limited tv animation pioneers.
>> Repeating backgrounds, only the lips, arms, and legs of the characters
>> move. Â Produced nothing but copies of "Scooby Doo" in the 1970s.
>
> Among Cartoon Network Gen-X zombies, yes.
> Among actual animation enthusiasts, no:
>
> The historians credit Bill & Joe with, quote, "saving" animation by
> bringing exclusive toons to that new TV medium, after most studios
> closed down their animation divisions in the 50's--
> And giving a lot of the classic guys a reason to keep on working,
> including WB's Warren Foster and Michael Maltese (and their taste for
> old-radio Jack Benny humor), and Dan Gordon of wartime-Popeye fame.
> (Hey, they couldn't *all* go over and work for Walter Lantz, like Tex did.)
>
> Oh, and ftr, CN-Boy, Bill&Joe produced Scooby-Doo (hoping to keep the
> "adventure" idea going with their success on Jonny Quest), but most of
> the 70's clones were under Charles Nichols and Iwao Takamoto's watch,
> after studio regimes changed--
> Read some history before you dig out the Jabberjaw jokes, it'll do you good.
>
>> Lou Scheimer- Filmation Studios- Â Adapted good established ideas with
>> constantlly re-used animation movements and character designs.
>> Stories taught (shudder) lessons.
>
> Okay, we'll give you that one: Â Pure, PURE evil.
>
> (And to think that Thundercats thought it was "ripping off" He-Man, when
> it was in fact blowing Filmation off the map, by using the new 80's idea
> of outsourcing Japanese studios for animation, while He-Man still used
> the same domestic Archies/Star Trek head-turns...)
I grew up with Hanna-Barbera and Filmation cartoons myself. I own
most of the DVD collections for each studio's shows.
The limited animation may be cheap and repetitive, but the sound
effects, scripts, and presentations were polished and the characters
were fun to watch. Even more watchable than a good number of the
stuff on Cartoon Network for me.
I even tolerated Filmation's repetitive movements if the story was
interesting.
Given the volume to produce several series of 13 half hour episodes
with self-contained stories on time and on budget in time for
broadcast for each tv season, Hanna-Barbera and Filmation knew the
business end of things to keep the studios running and making the tv
executives happy.
My list, however, probably does echo those *critics* of tv
animation...even if there isn't much time to get the full body
movements and shadows in a certain scene right in a tv episode.
