The Renaissance Age of Animation: Difference between revisions
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The era of animation lasting from the late-1980's until around 2000, during which the medium saw a significant increase in technical quality and finally returned to a point of artistic respect. To understand why, it is necessary to look at what things looked like immediately prior.
At the beginning of the 80's, Western animation was still firmly planted in the Dark Age and strangled by the Ghetto, plagued by a lack of artistic vision and pathetic budgets. Limited Animation was still the rule on television; Merchandise-Driven shows like He-Man, Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, The Transformers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, Jem, and ThunderCats (1985) ruled '80s television animation and had parents' groups up in arms about children watching glorified toy commercials, which were extremely strictly split along gender lines at that. It must be noted, however, that these shows were obviously still entertaining to their target demographics, evidenced by the fact that several of them became pop-culture phenomenons that are fondly remembered to this day.
Less enduring but more common in 80's TV cartoons was the tendency to give live-action franchises Animated Adaptations. This included well-received hits like The Real Ghostbusters, but also forgotten and/or derided fare like The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang (IN SPACE!), Rambo: The Force of Freedom, Dragon's Lair, and Alf.
The Disney Animated Canon came close to ending for good when The Black Cauldron, intended to be the stunning debut of a new generation of animators, didn't impress just-arrived company executives Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, who recut it without the director's consent, and it proceeded to tank at the box office. Things at Disney were about to change big time, however…
Witnessing the success of first-run syndicated cartoons like He-Man and Care Bears, Disney tried its luck with two original series of its own in 1985: The Wuzzles, which was soon forgotten, and Adventures of the Gummi Bears, which became a major hit whose lavish production values put its contemporaries to shame. Vindicated in their investment, Disney began funding a slew of original series, starting with DuckTales and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (both spinoffs of their Golden Age shorts) but eventually becoming numerous enough that they got their own dedicated block of television: The Disney Afternoon, a tour-de-force of branding that lasted for over a decade.
In 1989, Disney brought out their first animated canon film based on a fairy tale in 30 years. ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'', a musical that [[George Lucas Throwback|refreshed the old formulas of yore]], was a surprise sensation at the box office—at last, they were well and truly back in the game. While the following year's ''[[The Rescuers Down Under]]'' was a financial disappointment, ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'' (the first animated film ever to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination), ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', and ''[[The Lion King]]'' were even bigger hits than ''Mermaid''. In fact, [[Your Mileage May Vary|some people]] argue that this era should have been called the ''Disney'' Renaissance, since they were the most successful animation studio during this era and had the most consistent track record in terms of hits.▼
Other broadcasting companies took notice, and developed their own original series. In 1987, Ralph Bakshi produced Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures with John Kricfalusi, a show that helped bring back old-school, insane "cartoony cartoons". Warner Bros. had its own revival after they hired a bunch of Hanna-Barbera expats to bring Looney Tunes-style comedy into the 1990s – the Steven Spielberg-produced Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs were the most successful. Much of the crew from these shows went on to launch the DC Animated Universe with Batman: The Animated Series in 1992. This time, Disney aped them with a cult dark action series of their own, Gargoyles, created by Greg Weisman, although they eventually mishandled it badly. Cable networks such as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network began their existence with reruns and repackagings of cartoons from earlier eras, as well as syndicated or foreign fare (as did the USA Network's Cartoon Express block- the whole network was like that back then; this was also the modus operandi of the emerging home video market) but moved on to create their own shows during the '90s. Nickelodeon launched the "Nicktoons" brand in 1991 with Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren & Stimpy Show. Cartoon Network absorbed the remnants of Hanna-Barbera and labelled their post-HB original series "Cartoon Cartoons" – Johnny Bravo, Dexter's Laboratory, and Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy were among the first to use the moniker; that name was eventually dropped, however, as 2002's Codename: Kids Next Door was the last show to be a "Cartoon Cartoon". Meanwhile, some of the smaller studios such as Universal and MGM attempted to get back into the animation game. Universal's was relatively successful, though many of their series tended to be short-lived (including Exosquad, and the Earthworm Jim cartoon), and eventually declined to churning out sequels to The Land Before Time before shutting down by the early 2010s. MGM's was even worse, and had shuttered completely by 2000.
By the end of [[The Nineties]], rival studios had launched their own feature animation units, most notably [[DreamWorks]]. However, most of them found that the market was still largely trapped in the [[All Animation Is Disney]] in terms of traditional animation and most of the attempts failed miserably, or fell victim to Disney's aggressive marketing such as rereleasing ''[[The Lion King]]'' so it could crush the rival, ''[[The Swan Princess]]'', in 1994. Even [[Don Bluth]] was forced to ape Disney with films like ''[[Anastasia (Animation)|Anastasia]]'', though his attempt to break out with ''[[Titan A.E.]]'' failed and sunk his career. However, [[Dreamworks Animation]], after enduring the underperformance of their traditionally animated films like ''[[The Prince of Egypt]]'', noticed that their small computer animated film, ''[[Antz]]'' did fairly well and suggested that other animation techniques could be the answer. So, they made a deal with the hailed British [[Stop Motion]] company, [[Aardman Animations]], who helped show DA that the way forward is to find their own voice and style in the next age.▼
On the silver screen, the industry gradually rose to new heights during the course of the 1980's. After the box office failures of animated movies in the 1970s, Disney defector Don Bluth pushed for a return to the rich classical style of the Golden Age, beginning with 1982's The Secret Of NIMH – while it was not a blockbuster, it quickly became a Cult Classic. It attracted the attention of no less than Steven Spielberg, which led to Bluth's directing the successful An American Tail and The Land Before Time for Amblin Entertainment. Bluth would both rise to prominence and fall during this period, but his collaboration with Spielberg proved to be the first real challenge Disney had ever faced in the animated film department, at least since the Fleischers were in business. The failure of Disney's The Black Cauldron in 1985 seemed to spell the end of Disney's animation unit, but fortunately it persevered, mainly due to the modest success of The Great Mouse Detective. After the threat from Bluth and Amblin though, Disney frantically stepped up its game and rallied with Oliver & Company, which was another modest success. Their newly-established, adult-oriented Touchstone Pictures label co-produced – with Amblin Entertainment, as it happened – Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a live-action/animated fantasy that also served as a Massive Multiplayer Crossover of Golden Age characters and was the box office sensation of 1988.
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Adult aimed animation finally came back to television during the renaissance age. ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' became a full-fledged series in 1989 and went on to become probably the most critically acclaimed television cartoon series of all time, and [[MTV]] caused a stir with [[Mike Judge]]'s ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]''. MTV, of course, was cable—and from here came the last great progress that cemented the renaissance: the rise of cable television.▼
▲Adult
All in all, this era did a good job of at least brushing away the worst aspects of the Dark Age. Parental Bonus was back, quality had soared, and profits were high.
All in all, this era did a good job of at least brushing away the worst aspects of the Dark Age. [[Parental Bonus]] was back, quality had soared, and profits were high. [[Anime]] also found headway in the U.S. in this period with ''[[Robotech]]'' becoming a cult favorite with its audacious flouting of contemporary North American TV animation conventions to present a sweeping military SF saga that made homegrown fare like ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' look so timid and vapid. After that ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', ''[[Dragon Ball]]'', ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' began to make their presence on TV and home video. In theatres, anime made its own splash with the harrowing cyberpunk ultraviolence of ''[[Akira]]'' and while the Western world finally was presented with the genius of [[Hayao Miyazaki]] with his classic films like the intelligently charming ''[[Kiki's Delivery Service]]'' and the grand, profound fantasy drama ''[[Princess Mononoke]]''.▼
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This is also the era that began the rise of computers in animation, riding the wave of the digital revolution that brought affordable PCs to the masses in the 1980s. Disney employed CG for major parts of their films starting with ''[[The Rescuers Down Under]]'', and by ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'' had refined it considerably (the backdrop of the ballroom scene was very much [[Conspicuous CGI]], as are the stampede from ''[[The Lion King]]'' and the crowd scenes in ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]''). In 1994, the first completely 3-D CG TV series, ''[[ReBoot]]'', came out of Canadian studio Mainframe Entertainment and premiered on [[ABC]] in the USA. And 1995 brought the first all 3-D movie and the one that launched Pixar into the spotlight and a position to drive the future of the animation industry: ''[[Toy Story]]''.▼
Indeed, anime must briefly be mentioned as a growing influence on Western animators themselves – they were absolutely aware of what was happening in Japan well ahead of the general public. Once fare like Akira and Ghost in the Shell began showing up, animators and directors in America began straining at the bit to have their artistic restrictions loosened for fear of a consistent flood of high-quality anime pounding the western studios flat. It was a flood which never quite materialized as they feared, but it still lit fires under a lot of people and led directly to many of the products of The Millennium Age of Animation.
Depending on who you ask, the deterioration of this era began somewhere towards the end of the 1990s and the early 2000s. The seeds may have been sown in 1995, when Disney distributed [[Pixar]]'s ''[[Toy Story]]''. It was a huge hit both critically and commercially...but Disney's traditionally animated entry for the year, ''[[Pocahontas]]'', did well enough financially but also disappointed many viewers. Disney's increasingly formulaic approach to feature storytelling -- [["I Want" Song|"I want" songs]], wacky sidekicks, [[Anachronism Stew|pop culture jokes]], etc. -- in the wake of its early-'90s hits, resulted in films that strived to include more adult themes/stories yet couldn't lift themselves out of the worst aspects of the [[Animation Age Ghetto]] when it came to content. [[Disneyfication]] became a dirty word as critics accused them of whitewashing/dumbing down history and classic literature/mythology. (The increasing amounts of merchandise tied into these films didn't help matters.) That said, while these films were considered inferior to their predecessors, only one, the aforementioned ''Pocahontas'', was a critical failure - at a mediocre 56% on [[Rotten Tomatoes]], it's the only real critical failure of the Disney Renaissance. Meanwhile, the entries that were relative box office failures - ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' and ''[[Hercules (Disney film)|Hercules]]'' - were modestly well-received by said critics (at a decent 73% and a good 83% on [[Rotten Tomatoes]], respectively), who considered them improvements over the preachy and pretentious ''Pocahontas'' - ''Hunchback'' has even been [[Vindicated by History]] recently to the point that it's a Dark Horse candidate for the [[Magnum Opus]] of the Disney Renaissance. ''[[Mulan]]'' and ''[[Tarzan (Disney film)|Tarzan]]'' were even viewed as coming close to the earlier works (at 86% and 88%, respectively). Rival studios' Disney-esque efforts were usually pale imitations at best—consider Don Bluth's work post-''[[All Dogs Go to Heaven]]'', ''[[The Swan Princess]]'', etc. -- and often even worse when it came to [[Disneyfication]], culminating in ''two'' Italian animated features that turned the ''Titanic disaster'' into [[Happily Ever After]] musicals. The absolute nadir of the trend, at least as far as wide release animated films go, was Warner Bros. ''[[Quest for Camelot]]'' - sadly, this film outdid far superior works by Warner Bros. such as the [[Animation Age Ghetto|Ghetto-busting]] ''[[The Iron Giant]]'' and ''[[Cats Don't Dance]]'' financially, even as critics savaged it. One could even pin ''Quest For Camelot'' as being one of the films that led to the eventual downfall of the Renaissance Age.▼
▲This
Perhaps worst of all, Disney [[Sequelitis|started producing direct-to-video sequels, prequels, and/or interquels to most of their Modern Age films via their television animation units]], which sold well but didn't touch the quality of the real things. The sales were so good that even Golden Age and Dark Age efforts were given this treatment, to the increasing horror of adult Disney fans. It can be argued that the "cheapquels" led to a fatal dilution of the Disney brand name, causing audiences to take less interest in their newer animated canon efforts. And when rival studios (particularly MGM and Universal Studios) started doing the same thing with films ''they'' owned the rights to, video stores were glutted with unwanted, unworthy sequels to everything from ''[[The Secret of NIMH]]'' to ''[[The Swan Princess]]''. Before this era sequels were rare if not non-existent. It's one reason the Renaissance, like every other period in animation history, is a bit of a mixed bag.▼
This was also the era in which outsourcing truly took off. Doing the entire traditional animation process in America had long since become cost-prohibitive, especially for television, so most Renaissance-Era cartoons outsourced production to overseas studios – first Japan (Toei Animation), then South Korea (AKOM) after Japan became too expensive (and having their industry being resurrected by Neon Genesis Evangelion after years of almost nothing but Merchandise-Driven shows (either in the traditional sense or to sell manga) and western outsourcing; Ghibli being the only studio in Japan to avoid this when TMS took advantage of the later, giving them co-producer control most Japanese studios beg for in their local works). The switch to computers allowed cartoons keep more of their production domestic, but hand-drawn series in particular continued to outsource most of the actual animation to South Korea… and still do to this day
There is no consensus on when this era ended, only that it did. Television cartoons in particular often bridged eras, with Renaissance-era shows airing alongside post-Renaissance ones for many years.
▲Depending on who you ask, the deterioration of this era began somewhere
Rival studios' Disney-esque efforts were usually pale imitations at best – consider Don Bluth's work post-All Dogs Go to Heaven, The Swan Princess, etc. – and often even worse when it came to Disneyfication, culminating in two Italian animated features that turned the Titanic disaster into Happily Ever After musicals. The absolute nadir of the trend, at least as far as wide release animated films go, was Warner Bros.'s Quest for Camelot, which was plagued by Executive Meddling that turned a planned older-oriented film into a G-rated mess – sadly, this film outdid far superior works from WB like the Ghetto-busting The Iron Giant and Cats Don't Dance financially, even as critics savaged it. One could even pin Quest For Camelot as being one of the films that led to the eventual downfall of the Renaissance Age.
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Also, in an ironic twist, the success of animation and children's programming on cable helped to mortally wound animation on broadcast TV, killing the weekday animation block outright (except on Public Television) and beginning the slow death of the Saturday Morning Cartoon. The addition of three new cable channels (plus two new broadcast networks) for animated programming† , and the increased competition inherent in such a thing, naturally led to audience fragmentation, which led to declining ratings, which led to declining ad revenue, which led to decreased profits. Animation is an expensive medium – always was and always will be, at least to do it right – so cartoons were either axed by the broadcast networks or jumped to cable (where budgets were already much smaller). The other thing that killed animation on broadcast television was Government – the Moral Guardians who had slammed late-Dark-Age cartoons for being glorified toy commercials never went away. Indeed, they successfully convinced the FCC to impose even more restrictions on advertising content in children's programming, and to strictly enforce the "educational content" requirement on the networks (exemplified by the e/i logo). This basically resulted in The Ghetto becoming legally enforced on cartoons airing on the traditional networks, and the networks backing off as a result.
The Renaissance era can be reasonably be said to have lasted until around 1999, 2000, perhaps even 2001, or all the way up to 2004.
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