1/17/2024 0 Comments Angela anaconda controversy![]() They find themselves in extreme situations that get them flattened, blown up, and decapitated. They gargle, drool, fart, spit, puke, binge, burp, shake, seizure, gape, gawk, and literally bounce off the walls. These characters not only buck the beauty standard, they give etiquette the middle finger. They have awkward, angular hair (Ed and Eddy of Ed, Edd n Eddy, Mandy of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy) and always look a bit … unkempt. Their limbs are spindly and cumbersome (Finn the Human of Adventure Time) or short (Lazlo from Camp Lazlo, Courage from Courage the Cowardly Dog) and squat (Cow of Cow and Chicken, Vendetta and Charlotte of Making Fiends), under- or oversized like the rest of their frame. And their eyes and lips, no matter their normal size, are likely to stretch far past the spatial limits of the face when they express delight, fear, or anger. Nothing fits their face, whether it’s a nose (Brendon Small of Home Movies, Daggett and Norbert of Angry Beavers), or especially a mouth (Ickis, Oblina, Krumm of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters). Their eyes bulge, too large or small and oddly shaped to pass for cute (Rocko of Rocko’s Modern Life, Zim and Gir of Invader Zim, Weasel of I Am Weasel). Weird cartoons aren’t afraid to make bodies ugly, even, or perhaps especially, in the case of main characters. ![]() They also take more risks visually, bypassing the cute or attractive for something closer to the realm of gross and uncomfortable. Full of adult situations and inside jokes, Rocko’s Modern Life is as funny to me now as in its heyday (I eagerly await the 2018 release of Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling), and Adventure Time and Steven Universe have an abundance of teen and adult fans. These cartoons often employ more mature, or simply darker, humor that multiple age groups can latch onto. Newly acquired shows like Welcome to the Wayne and Pinky Malinky joined their programming block this fall to compete with CN fan favorites Adventure Time, The Amazing World of Gumball, Uncle Grandpa, and Steven Universe. Today, Cartoon Network embraces the weirdos as part of its brand, and there’s a certain seamlessness between its regular daytime programming and the after-dark switch to Adult Swim, allowing kids and adolescents to age gracefully from oddballs like Mordecai and Rigby to the even more bizarre Morty and Rick. Then there’re those other cartoons from that same decade: Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Rocko’s Modern Life Ed, Edd n Eddy Cow and Chicken, Angela Anaconda, Invader Zim, and even SpongeBob Squarepants were, well, weird. Shows from the ’90s, like Rugrats, Hey Arnold, Arthur, Doug, Kim Possible, and As Told by Ginger, were filled with practical life lessons from human and anthropomorphic characters modeled after real life and its physics. ![]() ![]() And yet, certain cartoons do seem to broadcast themselves as odder than others. All cartoons are inherently weird and unnatural, especially ones that need to catch and retain the attention of a PG-aged audience. Drawing a line between weird and not-weird cartoons might seem like a fuzzy endeavor, as far as animation is concerned. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |