I love posters like these that summarize the product with such an eye-catching execution while getting in all the important characters.
Ah yes! Another major animation anniversary that I was waiting all 2017 for (second to Cartoon Network’s very underwhelming 25th birthday)! 80 years ago, 20 years away from an entire CENTURY, Walt Disney unleased his terrific way of saying, “Ha! I told you pretentious naysayers I could make an hour-and-a-half-long cartoon picture! It’s a ‘folly’ no more! I’M KING OF THE CARTOON BIZ!! Well, I technically already was king of animation thanks to the mouse, but NOW I’M SUPER KING!! CHOKE ON THAT, YA JERKS!! Now excuse me as I try to figure out how to make this bratty wooden puppet as likable as that bug who crawls around him.”
That’s right! The one that started it all (for the Disney Animated Canon at least), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs! A perfect way introducing of the stereotypical Disney movie formula. The climax of Walt and his brilliant crew making a name out of themselves in the 1930s animation industry. Whether you find it a purely fun experience (‘specially on an artistic standpoint), or a dull, obnoxious sack of sugar that’s nothing more than an extended Silly Symphony due to its lack of a complex story, this film was nonetheless highly important to keeping the Disney name alive. As someone who considers this my favorite of the “Golden Age” Disney animated movies (consisting of Walt’s first five features), I could see how folks of 1937 and 1938 were left amazed by these 83 minutes of hard work. The titular dwarfs were all adorable, the Queen/Witch was…well…WICKED, the Magic Mirror was quick to pointing out that the Queen was holding a pig’s heart instead of Snow White’s, the Huntsman was a charming sissy, and just all the lively animation, beautiful artwork, and striking emotions it displayed. Overall, you couldn’t ask for a better graduation from the experimental school of Silly Symphonies.
Speaking of graduation, for the rest of this paragraph, I’m going to metaphorically describe how Snow White turned out to be a landmark in Disney’s history, by taking inspiration from the speech Ginger gave at the end of the amazing As Told by Ginger TV movie “Butterflies Are Free”. Laugh-O-Grams and Alice Comedies were the little eggs that Walt laid using his pen. Eventually, these eggs were able to hatch out two caterpillars, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (before he fell under the torturous hands of some jerk named Charles Mintz) and that delightful rodent, Mickey Mouse. Then, Mickey split into a bunch of smaller caterpillars with big plans on their minds, otherwise known as Silly Symphonies. Out of these shorts came the cocoons, a.k.a. key elements such as individual characterization, three-strip Technicolor, and nailing the multiplane camera. Finally, a flock of big, beautiful butterflies burst out of those cocoons bringing smiles to millions of theatre goers with how grand it was! And that flock of butterflies spawned other flocks for the next 80 years!
And that’s what should be respected the most about Snow White. Not the absolutely obnoxious misconception about it being “the first feature-length animated film ever” (more on that later), but how it is a great story in animation history on how Walt’s ambitious goal of creating a moving piece of art that rivals any of Mickey’s best shorts came to fruition despite skeptics in and out of Disney Studios. More than five decades later, this type of story was repeated when John Lasseter, an animator fired from Disney after pitching an all-CGI film, wanted to make an all-CGI film about toys, eventually resulting into a movie that may be even more revolutionary than Snow White, the masterpiece known as Toy Story!
Alright, now as much as I enjoy Snow White, both as its own thing and as a cherished piece of film history, I would like to politely get this little problem regarding this film of my way…
WILL YOU PEOPLE STOP CLAIMING THAT SNOW WHITE IS THE WORLD’S FIRST FEATURE-LENGTH ANIMATED MOVIE EVER MADE?!?
Hon! Est! Ly!
Look, I know that 1917’s Argentine El Apostol has been lost for DECADES (possibly forever, I’m afraid), and that the oldest-surviving animated feature, Germany’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) is just plain obscure (even if it apparently made a huge impact on Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar), but you shouldn’t have to be a professional animation buff like Jerry Beck in order to believe that there were at least EIGHT animated features from various foreign countries made within TWO DECADES before Snow White. Ah-ah-ah! I see you reaching for the keyboard in order to type, “uh, but is it at least the first animated movie with sound and color?”! Wrong, and double wrong! 1931’s Peludopolis, another Argentine movie, had a synchronized soundtrack provided by Vitaphone, and Prince Achmed had its film soaked in blue dye.
“Okay, well isn’t at the VERY least the first animated feature from Disney specifically?” you might ask. Well, to be honest, that’s where things get tricky. From what I discovered this year (or maybe last year), there was a 41-minute…thing, titled Academy Award Review of Walt Disney Cartoons, a compilation of Oscar-winning Silly Symphonies (with no bridging segments as far as I can tell) produced to promote Snow White seven months before its premiere. But considering its short length, it isn’t considered a true feature film by institutes like AFI (yet the one-minute-longer Saludos Amigos is). Heck, not even the official Disney encyclopedia by Dave Smith included it as an entry! So…in other words, if you want to believe Snow White was Disney’s first movie, that’s perfectly fine. I’m certainly with you on that. But still, remember that other thing exists, too? (tilts head like Dr. Hutchinson from Rocko’s Modern Life) ‘Kay?
So, Disney is a phenomenal provider of animation, there’s no doubt about that. But occasionally, I can’t help but interpret them as the one kid in class who gets all the credit for a big school project that others had worked on, too. Walt himself gets too much credit as well; technically speaking, he wasn’t even that much of a legit animator than he was a film producer. By the time he hired people like Ub Iwerks and Friz Freleng in the mid-20s, Walt gave up on hand-animating his own shorts. Also, he never directed any of his animated features, especially not after he failed to direct one Silly Symphony titled The Golden Touch, which apparently turned out to be a disaster. I’ve seen the short two years ago, but it wasn’t that bad.
In short, when it comes to making the products that he had the most success with during his lifetime, Walt barely did jack crap. Almost all of the credit belong to the many hard-working artists who worked at Disney during the Golden and Silver Ages, including Ub, the Nine Old Men, Joe Grant, Bill Tytla, Grim Gatwick, Art Babbitt, and my man, Floyd Norman.
Misconceptions aside, Snow White, and Disney feature animation in general, turning 80 truly is an important animation milestone to acknowledge this year. And what more can I say about Disney’s significance in keeping animation alive? They may not have always been first, but if there is one thing they DO deserve credit for, it’s perfection! Perfection of the slightly overlooked medium of animation! And that’s why, eight months before this anniversary, I put a lot of heart and soul into this massive beauty of a collage:
Can you name all of the characters I included!
Originally, I wanted screenshots of each film to make up the collage, before deciding that digitally-painting the characters on FireAlpaca in a style reminiscent of the Disney Golden Books was a much more special execution. Outside of the big #80, we got the birthday girl, Snow White herself, centered in between the ‘8’ and ‘0’. I would bad if Mickey was excluded, so there he is in his famous apprentice outfit on the bottom left corner. Besides, he does appear at the beginning of several VHS tapes of Disney movies, right? Tinker Bell was also a mandatory inclusion to the picture, since she’s the company’s second mascot after Mickey. Finally, I’ll address the inclusions of the Reluctant Dragon, a Mary Poppins penguin, Roger Rabbit, Jack and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the one and only Buzz Lightyear. They’re honorable mentions, essentially. Walt Disney Animation Studios did take part in development and/or production of those films, whether they’d be fully animating the characters of Roger and co., or collaborating a little bit with Pixar in conceiving Toy Story. And like I said earlier, the story of Toy Story is quite reminiscent of that of Snow White.
Oh, and I managed to blend the man himself into the starry sky, and have the iconic 1985-2006 castle on the bottom right! All of this make up a magic tribute!
Well, that does it for 2017, everyone! It’s been a crazy year for me, in terms of my art improving and becoming semi-popular on Twitter. Here’s an artistic lookback on my year:
It’s not even what Nick needed. I felt like it’s what kids needed.
– Vanessa Coffey
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Out of all the animation anniversaries I’ve been anticipated to celebrate in 2016, the 25th anniversary of Nickelodeon starting their brand of groundbreaking, one-of-a-kind animated originals (specifically with the charmingly bland Doug, the surprisingly adorable Rugrats, and the hilariously messed-up Ren & Stimpy Show) is the biggest one, aside from the 15th anniversary of The Fairly OddParents, on my agenda. And of course, Nick themselves have been hyping up this milestone of renaissance animation history all year long, spreading the #NickAnimation25 like wildfire on all their social media accounts. Also, they’ve done at least two major conventions: “Happy Happy Joy Joy: 25 Years of Creator-Driven Animation” at the Begovich Gallery in Fullerton, and the similarly-titled “Happy Happy! Joy Joy!: 25 Years of Nickelodeon Original Animation” at San Diego Comic Con. They both presented artwork from past, present, and upcoming productions (particularly Butch Hartman’s Bunsen is a Beast!, and the most anticipated thing in Nickelodeon Animation history, Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie), and had special guest appearances from creators such as Butch, Stephen Hillenburg, Craig Bartlett, Arlene Klasky, Jim Jinkins, and Jhonen Vasquez, as well as Nickelodeon Animation Studio founding mother, Vanessa Coffey. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go to neither of the events, but at least I’m able to view a hefty amount of photos and videos for my enjoyment (although I’m still not too sure if there’s art from underrated gems As Told by Ginger and T.U.F.F. Puppy, especiallythe former, of course)
Now enough about what Nick has been doing to celebrate. This special article is focusing on briefly telling the long journey of creator-driven animation making its comeback, a speech about why Nicktoons are so meaningful to me, my list of my 25 favorite Nicktoons, and finally, my tiny celebratory video. Let’s get slimed! On second thought, just looking at how people get slimed on the Kids’ Choice Awards, it would be a real pain to clean it all up.
The History of Nick Animation Finding its Voice
I’m gonna borrow Mr. Peabody’s time machine so we can go as far back as 1988, when America met with an animation renaissance, which meant interest in the masterful, innovative animation of the Golden Age (from the ’30s to the ’60s) was brought back in a huge way, mainly thanks to big-screen hits Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Little Mermaid. Also, on the small screen, that wacky, radioactively-colored family, The Simpsons, gave prime-time animation for adults a spot not seen since Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (yeah, I’m sure you didn’t remember Hanna-Barbera producing another sitcom after The Flintstones, didn’t you?). As for the kids’ stuff, there were still mostly shows adapted from toys, books, comics, celebrities, live-action productions, video games, long-existing characters, and even food (at least in the case of Disney’s Gummi Bears). However, America’s #1 channel for kids, Nickelodeon, would start an intense mission to end the mundanity of American TV cartoons, and restart the delightful trend of creating cartoons how the creators want, not the bigwigs in their spinning desk chairs.
Vanessa Coffey, a producer and vice president of Nickelodeon at the time (she also worked on future Nick franchise Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), thought the state of television animation for kids was garbage…or at least, it lacked the spark present in animation of earlier decades, especially during the prime of Warner Bros. Cartoons’ brilliant comedies of the 1940s and 1950s. As her quote at the top of this article implies, she knew that those type of cartoons derived from the animators’ artistic freedom permitted by their respective studios were the ones that kids deserved to be exposed to, not necessarily what Nick themselves need for self-gratification. It may be expensive, but it would turn out worth it in the end. Before Doug, Tommy, and Ren and Stimpy, Nickelodeon’s animation lineup was mainly acquired from foreign countries, whether it be from Britain (most notably Danger Mouse and Count Duckula, both produced by Cosgrove Hall Films) , or Canada (like Inspector Gadget). Any American cartoons they had were just reruns of stuff like classic Looney Tunes shorts (which are, as mentioned already, the inspiration for the Nicktoons to begin with).
Before the original three Nicktoons were pitched to the network, Vanessa commissioned a couple of holiday specials to test out her goal of reviving creator-driven animation. Christmas in Tattertown (1988) was done by…get ready for this…RALPH BAKSHI! Yes, the man who made X-rated classics like Fritz the Cat made an edgy, yet still family-friendly X-mas special. Then again, even though his adaptation of Mighty Mouse from 1987 was short-lived (thanks to the “sniffing” controversy), Bakshi already made a huge contribution to the animation renaissance. Not to mention, Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures helped boost the career of a certain persnickety Nickelodeon animator from Canada.
The other holiday special was called Nick’s Thanksgiving Fest (1989), which was more directly produced in-house by Nickelodeon themselves. It was an anthology with two creatively-titled segments: “Thanksgiving Nightmare” by Kevin Altieri, and “Thanksgiving Dreams” by Joe Pearson. In between, Joey Ahlbum (a guy remembered for his Sesame Street cartoons, and his dinosaur and fruit bumpers for Nickelodeon) gave us some simple skits that involved turkeys, rabbits, vegetarian hunters, astronauts, and elephants working for peanuts by cramming cranberries into tin cans. Even though the special wasn’t seen as a huge game-changer by audiences when it aired, it obviously didn’t cancel the mission.
Around 1989-1990, Vanessa ordered at least eight pilots/contestants to compete for the title of Nickelodeon’s first original Nicktoons:
Thunder Lizards (Joey Ahlbum again)
Channel Zero (George Evelyn; I’d also like to note that even though the pilot is currently unavailable, we can still see the characters here)
Weasel Patrol (based on a comic by Ken Macklin and Lela Dowling)
Doug Can’t Dance (Jim Jinkins)
The Crowville Chronicles (by Cosgrove Hall Films)
Tommy Pickles and the Great White Thing (Klasky Csupo)
Trash (also by Cosgrove Hall Films, though it’s stop-motion instead of 2D)
Blg House Blues (John Kricfalusi)
If you have any knowledge of Nicktoons, you should have been able to guess which three charming pilots were the winners, and which five were the losers who bored the test audiences so much that they’d rather stare at a wall! I’m not kidding around!
The executives at Nickelodeon knew that Jim Jinkins, Arlene Klasky, Gabor Csupo, Paul Germain, and John Kricfalusi all had potential when it came to unleashing creativity to help building their creator-driven animation empire. Each of the original three had their own unique backstory. Jim (who actually worked with Nick when the network was known as Pinwheel in the late ’70s) based Doug Funnie on his own awkward pre-adolescence in Virginia, and he wanted to publish a book with the character called Doug Got a New Pair of Shoes, but every single publisher in New York rejected! Jeez, it’s as if Oscar the Grouch hypnotized everyone in the Big Apple to be as grouchy as he is! Eventually, after Jim animated Doug and Porkchop prototypes in grapefruit juice ads and a bumper for USA Network, Vanessa Coffey excitedly caught interest in Jim’s idea, and gave him the opportunity to start up his own studio in New York, Jumbo Pictures (you know, the one with the giant egg logo), to make the pilot.
Based in Hollywood, Klasky Csupo was already a very successful studio, given that they had The Simpsons under their wonky, Eastern European-influenced belt for three years. One day, when Arlene and Gabor were coming up with cartoon ideas for Sesame Street, they randomly wondered, if babies could talk, what would they say? Combine the characteristics of Arlene and Gabor’s own infant son, and the name of Paul Germain’s baby, and you got yourself Tommy Pickles! Peter Chung was hired to direct the HIDEOUS pilot, and Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo (and Pee-wee’s Playhouse, which launched the career of the creator of a certain football head) was brought over to composed the recognizable synthesized music. Then-Nick president Gerry Laybourne loved the pilot, so Rugrats was all set…except they realized the show would be much better if they gave Tommy and the twins some foils. Therefore, worrywart Chuckie and spoiled “princess” Angelica (based on a girl who bullied Paul) were born.
Moving on to my favorite of the three, The Ren & Stimpy Show, I’m gonna leave it to John K. himself to explain his creation’s origin:
I used to draw this retarded cat. He was somewhat influenced by the Bob Clampett cartoon called “A Gruesome Twosome”, which was a Tweety Bird cartoon. And it had these really cool-looking cats with big, bulbous noses, and it was a cartoon done in the mid-40s, but it was a throwback to ’30s cartoons when everybody had big, bulbous noses with a shine on them. I thought that was a really cool style. Around that same time, I found this postcard of a Chihuahua in a sweater. It’s a very funny picture, because there’s this psychotic-looking monster…in a cute sweater. And that, just right away, was a concept in my head that I thought was hilarious. I thought, what a great character that would make. So, I used to draw caricatures of this insane Chihuahua, and then I would do this Peter Lorre voice, and I’d act him out. “I’m here to murder your baby!” Joel Fanner [I think I spelled it right], who I worked with, he suggested one day, “Why don’t you put that Chihuahua character with your cat?” And I thought, “Okay! That’s a good idea.”
And “a good idea” it certainly was. I mean, what could poor John K. do, after he left Ralph Bakshi, and suffered the consequences of trying to reboot Bob Clampett’s Beany and Cecil? He’s been trying to sell Ren & Stimpy for nine years; thus, as he said himself, he and the entire animation industry was lucky when Nickelodeon announced their search for fresh artistry. Originally, Ren and Stimpy would have been sidekicks in a series called Your Gang, because Vanessa initially didn’t like the idea of a dog slapping a cat around as the main feature of an independent series. Thank God she soon changed her mind.
Okay, enough with the backstories. Time to sorta recreate the historic day in animation renaissance history. Nostalgia glasses required.
This cool, green painter was created by Doug Compton.
And as a bonus:
You done reliving your childhood yet? If not, please finish, so that I can continue talking about Nicktoons. Thank you.
Back when they were fresh, the Nicktoons got their own set of collectible pins. Too bad none of them are in the Nick Box.
We can already figure out how Doug, Rugrats, and Ren & Stimpy, all successfully proved Nickelodeon’s worries concerning the expenses of producing original cartoons to be wrong. All three of them were very different from each other, and other cartoons produced at the time, and this is a case where it was a great thing. I can even go as far as to compare how these shows predicted a bright future for creator-driven animation to how Pixar’s shorts Luxo Jr. and Tin Toy opened the door to big possibilitiesfor CGI. If John Lasseter could successfully ignore the naysayers, so could the people at Nick. And they did. Obviously.
Now I’ll just briefly go into how each of the original three were individually important to animation. Before Doug, the closest thing to a slice-of-life cartoon that kids (and older people) could easily relate to was the Peanuts specials (remember the one about the girl with cancer). Funny enough, Jim Jinkins was influenced by Peanuts. Despite the characters (except for Doug Funnie himself) having unusual colors that wouldn’t be out of place on a Muppet production, not to mention the silly soundtrack provided by Fred Newman (who also voiced Doug’s “black” friend Skeeter), Doug was beloved for being so grounded in reality for a cartoon (at that time). It dealt with such relatable topics as bullying, infatuation, weight gain, self-esteem, creating a cartoon that unexpectedly causes controversy, and, most importantly according to Jim, honesty. In short, if it weren’t for Doug, we wouldn’t have such just-as-amazing slice-of-life cartoons as Nick’s own Hey Arnold!, and best of all, PBS’s Arthur! Both are gonna be 20 this fall!
A fact about Doug I find interesting is that, during its 65-episode run on Nickelodeon (before Disney took over Jumbo), it won the Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Cartoon, four years in a row! Now, I know Nick tends to let their own cartoons win every year (the last time a non-Nicktoon won was The Simpsons back in 2002, and that show isn’t even for kids at all!), but out of all the original three Nicktoons, why Doug? No offence to it, but kids are more likely to find the other two WAY more enjoyable than a rather mundane show about an average boy. Just a random thought.
Moving on to Rugrats, while it has always been pretty popular, it wasn’t until the time during production hiatus in 1994 (caused by Arlene Klasky was acting like a whiny grouch, and Paul Germain leaving over creative differences) when those “dumb babies” became one of the biggest phenomenons in the ’90s. And nobody would have thought such a simple, yet rather clever little show about babies would be possible to win the admiration of rival animation producer Steven Spielberg of all people! And speaking of Hollywood royalty, Tommy and the gang are currently the only Nicktoons to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, an achievement that not even SpongeBob has gotten yet! Not only that, but its movie in 1998 made over $100 million domestically, which is a first for an animated film not produced or distributed by Disney. However, critically-speaking, Rugrats in Paris did the best, while financially-speaking, Rugrats Go Wild did the worst. Either way, those babies have been Nick’s gold-laying geese throughout the mid-90s and the early 2000s. After having to let go of The Simpsons in 1992, the success of Rugrats made their parents (Klasky Csupo) more than happy. If it wasn’t for that show, Nick might not have given them more opportunities to make other great Nicktoons, such as Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, The Wild Thornberrys, and of course, As Told by Redhead! I mean Ginger. And don’t get me started on the spin-offs: All Grown Up! (based on a hugely successful 10th anniversary special from 2001), the four-episode miniseries Angelica and Susie’s Pre-School Daze (which nobody seems to remember/care about), and the direct-to-video Tales from the Crib (just fairy tales with Rugrats in ’em). In short, they’re all inferior to the classic. Rugrats lived a good life with 172 episodes, so there should be no need for a reboot.
I’d also like to note that Rugrats was the first animated series to have not one, but two holiday specials focusing on Judaism, “Passover” and “Chanukah”. Everybody loved them… except for Jewish groups who complained about Grandpa Boris’ design looking like an offensive, Jewish stereotype or something.
However, out of the three Nicktoons at the time, before Rugrats gained more popularity in the mid-90s, it was the outrageous Ren & Stimpy Show that sparked the most attention, and made just as big an impact on animation as any other Nicktoon…or any other ’90s cartoon, period. For this article, let’s not bother go into the drama between John K. and Nickelodeon, because this is already getting too damn long. With its gross-out gags, brutal slapstick, disturbing imagery, witty wordplay, questionable visual gags, adult references, and animation so deranged that it makes Tex Avery look sane, Ren and Stimpy were up there with Bart Simpson as one of the biggest delinquents in animation. They may not be considered good role models for kids, but they certainly are to a slew of other studios in the industry, such as Hanna-Barbera (2 Stupid Dogs and Cow and Chicken), Savage Studios (Eek! The Cat), hell even Disney (Shnookums & Meat)! Also, let’s not forget about Nickelodeon themselves! If it weren’t for that crazy Chihuahua and dumb cat, we might not have other outrageous shows like Rocko’s Modern Life, The Angry Beavers, CatDog, and of course, SpongeBob SquarePants! But you know what? Ren & Stimpy itself was influenced by the Warner Bros. cartoons of the 1940s, so really, if it weren’t for Porky, Daffy, Tweety, Sylvester, and Bugs, Ren & Stimpy might not exist. And Nicktoons in general wouldn’t exist either.
Well, that’s enough history. My God, it seems that I can’t keep it brief when it coming to talking about this type of stuff. Anyway…
What Do Nicktoons Means to Me?
You see this massive collage, which took me around four months to finish? The key ingredient to it is love 😍. Click for more info.
While they might not have been as big a part of my childhood as Big Bird and the gang, Bugs and the gang, or Arthur and the gang, Nickelodeon’s groundbreaking lineup of amazing animated series has always been there to make me feel good. Although, since I’m a Canadian, I can only experience the Nickelodeon magic through channels like YTV, Treehouse TV, and later on, Nick Canada. Plus, Nick’s website used to be available to me…before it started to redirect me to YTV’s website. Man, I miss playing all those CatDog games.
Now, I have to admit that, when I was very young, my experience with Nickelodeon Animation was mostly limited to the Nick Jr. shows. I loved me some Blue’s Clues, Dora the Explorer, Go, Diego, Go!, and The Backyardigans! There’s also Little Bear, but that was mainly a Nelvana production. As for the actual Nicktoons, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents, Rugrats (even though I watched the movies just as much as the show), and CatDog have always been the most interesting to me, but SpongeBob and FOP, the two most popular of the 2000s, have always been the ones I watched the most. They were just so funny, exciting, and creative that it’s delightfully reasonable to see them as “top 10 great” when it comes to cartoons. It’s that simple.
Later, I started to developed interest in other great Nicktoons, even if I didn’t watched them as often as my top two. After watching the otherwise panned movie on VHS in 2007, I was craving Hey Arnold!. Then, in 2009, by the time Nickelodeon Canada launched in November, I got an opportunity to experience the hilarious ingeniousness of Rocko’s Modern Life and The Angry Beavers. Since KaBlam! is extinct from airing on TV, I had to go on RetroJunk and YouTube to get into it. As for Ren & Stimpy, I had vague memories of watching it on Teletoon, and I used to think Ren was a rabbit. It wasn’t until I started binge-watching it on Netflix in 2011 when I’ve since became absolutely obsessed with this laugh-out-loud-hilarious show. Also in 2011, I gave the Canadian Nicktoon Wayside a chance, and instantly became obsessed with that offbeat show as well. Then, a few months later, I started getting attached to Butch Hartman’s third Nicktoon, T.U.F.F. Puppy, which I still find to be better than the overrated Danny Phantom. Also, there are a few cases, such as Sanjay and Craig and The Loud House, where I felt anticipated for the show before it officially comes out.
Then came the years 2014 and 2015, when my love for Nickelodeon Animation suddenly escalated to very obsessive levels, to the point where I had an epiphany that said, “These guys are the studio I must work for in Hollywood!”. October 2014 was when I made one of the best decisions of my life as a cartoon lover: become a fan of the underappreciated Klasky Csupo gem, As Told by Ginger! More on that on my Ginger blog. Soon after, I pursued my goal of giving chances to Avatar: The Last Airbender, Invader Zim, Doug, Pelswick, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, My Life as a Teenage Robot, The Wild Thornberrys, Oh Yeah! Cartoons (besides the FOP shorts), Danny Phantom, Jimmy Neutron (other than the movie), Catscratch, and surprisingly enough, All Grown Up!. The first two mentioned are the ones I had the most luck with. Wow! That’s a total 12 Nicktoons I started to like in one year. And I still got a couple more to go, like El Tigre.
Oh, and on a sudden note, even though I don’t normally label it a Nicktoon, I loved to watch the puppet show Mr. Meaty on Saturday mornings on CBC. Now? I’m more indifferent towards that creepy thing than that other CBC/Nickelodeon co-production, Pelswick.
So you see, the Nicktoons mean a lot to me, on the same levels as Looney Tunes. Like every other cartoon I love, SpongeBob and the others make me feel like I’m wisely spending my time with these adorable examples of escapism. Whether I’m grinning at SpongeBob, Patrick, and Stimpy being idiots, feeling sincere sympathy for Ginger, getting playfully annoyed by the Rugrats’ naivety, getting angry at Timmy’s parents being neglectful nitwits, left stunned by Aang’s action scenes, or confused about CatDog’s anatomy, Nick always know how to get a reaction from me. Now, in case you don’t know, the biggest reason why I respect Nickelodeon Animation on the same veins as Disney and Warner Bros., and why I would love to work for them, is because their motto is “Kid-inspired, creator-driven.” The epiphany I mentioned earlier told me that Nick is always hungry for fresh talent, stuff they’ve never seen before. While it’s kinda mandatory for the network to request some little alterations to your concept, they still encourage you to do the show your way. Essentially speaking. That’s what I like, man! I already have a collection of original cartoon characters that I label “BerryToons”. Nickelodeon Animation would be a perfect environment for them. If I can’t make a show for all of my ideas, then I’ll just produce an anthology, a la Oh Yeah! Cartoons or KaBlam!. Oh my God! So much possibilities boiling in my head!
In conclusion, I am more than blessed about the existence of Nickelodeon and their Nicktoons. Thank you to all the talented creators, producers, writers, artists, executives, voice actors, and security guards for all the hard work they’ve done to successfully make the Nickelodeon network a bigger household name than ever before. And it all started with an insecure 11-year-old, a group of curious babies, and a pair of insane, polar opposites.
A sketch I’ve made of some of my favorite Nicktoon creators.
My Top 25 Favorite Nicktoons
Now for the 25 Nickelodeon cartoons that I enjoy and take influence from the most, represented by custom fan art done by yours truly. Please note that this list might be updated someday. Hopefully not too soon. Since my fingers and brain are getting tired, I’ll wait ’til another day to write out my brief opinion on all of them. Here they are anyway:
#25: Harvey Beaks (2015-)
#24: The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius (2002-2006)
#23: Pelswick (2000-2002)
#22: Doug (1991-1994)
#21: My Life as a Teenage Robot (2003-2005)
#20: Danny Phantom (2004-2007)
#19: Aaahh!!! Real Monsters (1994-1997)
#18: Oh Yeah! Cartoons (1998-2001)
#17: The Wild Thornberrys (1998-2004)
#16: Invader Zim (2001-2006)
#15: Sanjay and Craig (2013-)
#14: KaBlam!/Action League Now! (1996-2000)
Don’t worry, folks. The Flesh is only an anatomically-inaccurate doll. And he likes to be naked all the time.
#13: The Angry Beavers (1997-2001)
#12: The Loud House (2016-)
#11: Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008)
#10: Rocko’s Modern Life (1993-1996)
#9: Hey Arnold! (1996-2004)
#8: Rugrats (1991-2004)
#7: Wayside (2007-2008)
#6: T.U.F.F. Puppy (2010-2015)
And now for my absolute favorites…
#5: CatDog (1998-2005)
#4: As Told by Ginger (2000-2004)
#3: The Ren & Stimpy Show (1991-1995)
#2: The Fairly OddParents (2001-)
#1: SpongeBob SquarePants (1999-)
Now, to end this long article off, here’s my short and sweet video tribute:
That’s all folks! And if any of you reading this article watched the first three Nicktoons when they debuted on that historic Sunday morning, may God bless you!
Another underrated Disney movie is celebrating its anniversary this month. Today, it’s the 35th anniversary of one of my long-time favorites from my childhood (for 10 years to be exact), The Fox and the Hound. Tod and Copper went from being the best of friends, to the worst of enemies in a several-year-span. On one hand, it’s sad; but on the other hand, it’s just the animals’ instincts naturally growing along with them. Overall, The Fox and the Hound is a cute but rather depressing movie with the only amount of light being provided by those two birds, Dinky and Boomer, trying to catch that caterpillar. Plus, there’s an awesome black bear fight, courtesy of Glen Keane! A scene that was undeniably ripped off by Balto, 14 years later.
Well, I’m sure it would all look like My Little Pony compared to The Plague Dogs. I haven’t seen it yet, but I read about how it is one of the most depressing things in the history of Western animation.
Of course, since Disney doesn’t want their audience to be totally upset, they didn’t let Chief get killed off, like in the original novel by Daniel P. Mannix. So, this adaptation garnered mixed reactions from people who read and love the novel.
Now for some behind-the-scenes facts! This is the last Disney production Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, John Pomeroy (who eventually returned to work on Pocahontas), and nine other animators worked on, before leaving to start up Don Bluth’s studio to beat Disney to a pulp! Traitors! Fortunately, after three years of losing to Bluth at the box office, Disney gave him a taste of his own medicine in 1989, when a certain undersea film came out, and knocked out Charlie the dog!
Back to The Fox and the Hound, not only it was a moderate success with critics and the box office (during the dark age of Disney, which began after Walt’s death), but it’s also notable for boosting the careers of a whole lot of people who became major contributors to the Renaissance era and beyond. These include:
John Lasseter (one of Pixar’s founding fathers, and creator of Toy Story)
John Musker and Ron Clements (directors of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and The Great Mouse Detective)
Andreas Deja (supervising animator of Jafar, Scar, Gaston, and Hercules)
Tim Burton (some guy into horror, surrealism, and Danny Elfman’s music)
Glen Keane (supervising animator of Ariel, Aladdin, the Beast, Pocahontas, Tarzan, and Rapunzel)
Brad Bird (creator of Family Dog, director of Warner Bros.’ Iron Giant, and Pixar’s The Incredibles and Ratatouille, and a fan of the code A113)
Randy Cartwright (animator of Aladdin’s Carpet)
Chris Buck (co-director of Frozen and Tarzan)
Henry Selick (director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, and Coraline)
Mark Dindal (director of The Emperor’s New Groove, Cats Don’t Dance, and the god-awfulChicken Little)
Mark Henn (supervising animator for Belle, Jasmine, Mulan, Tiana, and Basil of Baker Street)
And, to me, the strangest one of them all is Guy Vasilovich, creator of Moville Mysteries, a Nelvana show so hideous that it makes Duckman look like Sleeping Beauty (and you know how Duckman loves to sleep with beauties 😉)!
If you’re a huge animation buff like myself, that list should be like an A-list to you! Not to mention, The Fox and the Hound is the last production where Disney’s Nine Old Men, such as Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, had major involvement in.
So in the end, The Fox and the Hound may be more popular than Basil of Baker Street, but people still overlook it. I understand, since, like I said, it’s not a very cheery film compared to, say, The Jungle Book. Well, here’s some oddball advice for you: if you see a DVD of The Fox and the Hound 2, SMASH IT WITH A RAW WHOLE CHICKEN!!! And wash your hands afterwards.
Best of friends or not, Tod and Copper are still MUCH better than a certain pair of ugly girls on Nickelodeon. And no, I’m not talking about Sam and Cat.
Oh, I almost forgot. The co-director of this movie, Richard Rich, went on to make garbage, a.k.a. The Swan Princess and Alpha and Omega.
While nowhere near as a favorite of a Disney icon for me as Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh is a character who I can’t imagine anyone hating. Well, if it’s the 2007 Playhouse Disney show My Friends Tigger & Pooh you’re talking about, that’s understandable. Owl should have never been given the boot. But even then, nobody got on my nerves.
But for now, let’s focus on the Disney animated debut of A.A. Milne’s bear literature star, in the 1966 featurette, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, one of the last ever productions with Walt’s involvement. In this funny little story, honey-addicted Pooh, who’s in serious need of rehab or something, forces his poor, chubby, stuffed bear body into all sorts of hell, just to get some honey in his…wait. If Pooh is supposed to be a stuffed toy, then how can he eat and digest anything? Why am I asking this, when I am fully aware that this is a fantastical work of fiction? Pooh, with the help of his loyal pal, Christopher Robin, floats up with a balloon to the bees’ honey tree (why not a hive, I don’t know), but the plan backfires as the bees become belligerent. Next, Pooh goes over to Rabbit’s house to hoard off his entire honey stock, until Pooh gets so bloated that he can’t push himself out of Rabbit’s hole. And he remained stuck for months, until one morning he loses a tiny amount of weight, and everyone in the Hundred-Acre Wood (except Tigger and Piglet) gave him the “heave-ho”. It’s a really cute short, with my favorite part being where Rabbit puts out a sign in front of Gopher reading “DON’T FEED THE BEAR!”. Just the way he dramatically said it had each word punctuated for emphasis, to the beat of his pounding on the sign, and Buddy Baker’s terrifically timed music. Speaking of Gopher, I like how he is aware that he isn’t an original character from the books. Unfortunately, Disney took note of that snarky, fourth-wall-breaking remark, by having Gopher stop appearing in their Pooh franchise for almost 20 years. I really miss Gopher.
The Honey Tree was a hit, and its sequel from 1968, The Blustery Day, was even better, thanks to Tigger and Piglet’s introductions, and especially the “Hefflalumps and Woozles” sequence, which I say is more colorful than Dumbo‘s “Pink Elephants”. It’s no wonder why it earned Walt a posthumous Oscar for Best Animated Short. Then in 1974, my least favorite Pooh featurette (I haven’t seen A Day for Eeyore from 1983 yet), Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, was released. The highlight of that entire thing for me was the part where Rabbit was alone in the dark forest, and he shows off his many frightened facial expressions as the strange sounds get louder and louder, until Tigger bounces into him. Oh, and speaking of Tigger’s bouncing, Rabbit was a real jerk when he yelled at Tigger to quit his bouncing, forgetting that bouncing is what Tiggers do best. Silly rabbit.
All three were then merged into Walt’s original vision of Pooh’s first foray into animation, a full-length feature, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977), which in my opinion is Disney’s Pooh at its best. The New Adventures of Winnie of Pooh and The Book of Pooh were also frequent exposures of Winnie the Pooh for me as a kid, but now, I’m really attached to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. As for the 2011 sequel (?), ingeniously titled Winnie the Pooh (where Tom Kenny of all people voices Rabbit), I have not seen it in its entirety to have a real opinion on it beyond “it’s not as good as the first one”.
Oh, Winnie the Pooh! How I hope that you do something with that sticky sweet tooth of yours, before fatal consequences occur. Well, at least you’re more under control than Cookie Monster…but then again, Cookie eats healthy snacks of all food groups. You, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to pig out on anything but honey! Why hasn’t Christopher Robin put you on a diet yet? Anyway, at least you’re less gluttonous than Garfield.
Welcome to the first post of my new Ze Blog spin-off, NoParking Berry’s Cartoony and Muppet-y Library! Above is the evolution of my 30th anniversary Pixar art.
My second real anniversary celebration (after 15-year-old Disney cartoon House of Mouse‘s anniversary, which was mentioned last month on Google+) is today! One of the founding studios of traditional animation’s #1 rival, computer animation, residing at Emeryville, California, is 30 years old today. Pixar Animation Studios may be mostly known for their streak of theatrical animated hits, from Toy Story to Finding Nemo and so on, but their origins were quite on the humble side of fame rising. Preceding Pixar was the Lucasfilm Graphics Group, where then-fired Disney Animation employee John Lasseter animated a two-minute-long encounter between a guy in a fez and a bumblebee, titled The Adventures of André and Wally B. But because the short was produced two years before the Graphics Group was relaunched as Pixar, it’s debatable on whether or not André and his bee buddy (or enemy?) should be technically considered an official Pixar short film. Well, the studio themselves does, so if they say so, it shouldn’t be much of a debate.
Either way, John Lasseter was ambitious to start up a CGI bandwagon, ever since he saw the ingeniousness in 1982’s Tron. But one day, when Johnny Boy pitched an idea for an all-CGI movie to Walt Disney Productions, the studio was probably like, “Are you crazy? Have you been dreaming up pink elephants or something? Can’t you think about how expensive that idea is?” And then he was fired. However, John was still eager. He joined forces with Edwin Catmull, and Apple’s own Steve Jobs, in a venture to fulfil John’s dream. On February 3, 1986, Pixar was born as a computer software company. Six months later, they experimented with a short film introducing their future mascot, Luxo Jr., which was also the first CGI thing to be nominated for an Oscar. Then, the shorts Red’s Dream (1987), Tin Toy (1988), and Knick Knack (1989), followed. Out of the three, Tin Toy is the most historically important. It’s famous for being the first CGI-animated short to win an Oscar, but infamous for the HIDEOUS baby! My God, if you thought the first Toy Story was outdated, this baby will traumatize you!
Speaking of Toy Story, please thank Tin Toy for being the main inspiration for the world’s first ever all-CGI film. Although I sometimes wonder if it’s even true about Toy Story being first. People constantly mistake Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as the first ever feature-length animated film, even though there were earlier, more obscure attempts around the world, like Prince Achmed (1926) in Germany!
You might be able to figure out the rest of Pixar’s history. John creates Toy Story, it becomes an understandable phenomenon, and by the time they released their fifth film, Finding Nemo (2003), Pixar became the household name that it is today! Not to mention, traditional animation fans received a new scapegoat for why their medium has declined in the early 2000s!
Of the two major CGI animation movie studios in California, these guys and DreamWorks Animation, Pixar is my choice, since I love Disney in general. Toy Story is my #1 favorite animated movie franchise, with the first adventure being my favorite of the trio (which, unfortunately, is becoming a quartet soon, because of greed). While I can’t agree that all of their productions are 100% original ideas, it’s how they let out their imagination that warrants my love for them. However, what I’m not fond of Pixar now is their upcoming sequel streak, starting with Finding Dory this year. Then, we got Toy Story 4, which I know I’ll dislike, because there was nothing wrong with the franchise being a trilogy. But in between, the originality vacation won’t be long, with Coco coming out in 2017 (I hope, unless it goes through Good Dinosaur-esque production troubles). Well, at least we’re finally getting the long-awaited Incredibles sequel at the end of this decade.
Benthelooney’s infamous rant on Pixar had him ranting about the “superabundance” of Pixar sequels, thus making the studio “money whores”. Keep in mind, this rant was made in April 2013; Pixar only had three sequels out at that time (it was two months before Monsters University)! How is that a sequel obsession? At the time, DreamWorks had twice as many sequels, plus spin-off TV series! Ben was being hyperbolic as usual. Also, I disagree with him on his opinion on the Toy Story sequels being “pointless”. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought they do have a purpose, which is to actually develop the toys’ character and storyline even further. Of course, I do agree with him on Cars 2 having no purpose other than to sell toys.
Moving on, here’s my listing of every Pixar film by what I love the most to the least:
Toy Story
Toy Story 3
Toy Story 2
Inside Out
Monsters, Inc.
Monsters University
Finding Nemo
A Bug’s Life
WALL-E
The Incredibles
Up
Ratatouille
Brave
The Good Dinosaur
Cars
Cars 2
Opinions can change at any time, so this list isn’t final. To date, not every Pixar film I remember, nor did I sat down to pay attention to the whole thing. However, Toy Story‘s spot on my list will remain unchanged.
So, let Pixar’s legacy go beyond infinity for more years to come!
D.J. Berry 
