The Renaissance Age of Animation: Difference between revisions
m
clean up, replaced: [[DuckTales → [[DuckTales (1987) (3)
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (added template) |
m (clean up, replaced: [[DuckTales → [[DuckTales (1987) (3)) |
||
Line 40:
After 30 years of resisting offers to produce television animation, Disney finally relented once Michael Eisner, who had a background in TV, took over. The first TV cartoons to carry the Disney name, CBS's ''[[The Wuzzles]]'' and NBC's ''[[Adventures of the Gummi Bears|Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears]]'', both premiered in the fall of 1985. Breaking from standard practice in the medium, the productions enjoyed substantially larger production budgets than average, allowing for higher-quality writing and animation, in anticipation of recouping profitably in rerun syndication. While ''The Wuzzles'' only lasted a season, ''The Gummi Bears'' was a sustained success with a six-season run.
In 1987, the TV animation division adapted [[Carl Barks]]' [[Scrooge McDuck]] comic books for the small screen with the syndicated hit ''[[DuckTales (1987)]]''. Its success spawned a 1990 theatrical film entitled ''[[DuckTales (1987) the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp]]'' and an increased investment in syndicated cartoons. The result of this investment was ''[[The Disney Afternoon]]'' in 1990, a two-hour syndicated television programming block of such animated shows as ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]'' (1989–91), ''[[TaleSpin]]'' (1990–91), ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'' (1991–93, also airing on ABC), ''[[Goof Troop]]'' (1992–94, also airing on ABC), ''[[Bonkers (TV series)|Bonkers]]'' (1993–94), and ''[[Gargoyles]]'' (1994-96). TV animation also brought some animated feature film characters to Saturday morning, including ''The Little Mermaid'' and ''Aladdin'' both on CBS.
====Direct to video sequels====
Line 92:
The older Bugs Bunny and Popeye cartoons made way for first-run syndicated cartoons such as ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]'', ''Rambo: The Force of Freedom'', ''[[Thundercats|ThunderCats]]'', ''[[Dennis the Menace (animation)|Dennis the Menace]]'', ''[[My Little Pony]]'', ''[[The Transformers (animation)|The Transformers]]'', ''[[G.I. Joe]]'', ''[[Voltron]]'', and reruns of ''[[Scooby-Doo]]'', ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'' and ''[[The Pink Panther]]'', among many others.
After its success with Gummy Bears in 1985, The Walt Disney Company continued with syndication. ''[[DuckTales (1987)]]'' went on the air in September 1987 and lasted 100 episodes. The success of ''DuckTales'' paved the way for a second series two years later, ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]''. The following year, the two shows aired together under the umbrella title ''[[The Disney Afternoon]]''. In 1991, Disney added another hour; the block aired in syndication until 1999.
These cartoons initially competed with the nationally broadcast ones. In the 1980s, national TV only aired Saturday mornings, not competing with the weekday and Sunday blocks of syndication aired by local independent stations but; however, by the 1990s, Fox and then WB started airing weekday afternoon blocks. By the end of the 1990s, both syndicated and national TV ended up losing most of its children's market to the rise of cable TV channels like [[Nickelodeon]], [[Disney Channel]] and [[Cartoon Network]] which provided appealing children's entertainment throughout the week at nearly all hours.
| |||