I love the 90's

I've doing a lot of thinking lately, about a number of things, but on the way, I found myself reminiscing about a lot of my favourite films, cartoons, video games, which all happen to have been produced in the 1990's. I was born in 1989, so perhaps growing up with these select titles might have coloured my judgement a bit, but non the less, you have to admit there was a lot of great, uniquely flavoured work produced during that decade.

First up - Cartoons.

I was practically glued to cartoon Network and Nickelodeon whilst growing up, Cartoons were nearly all I watched, repeats and all, and looking back now, a lot of the cartoons aired were very multi layered indeed, some running with content that i'm sure would never pass through censorship today...

First up - Ren and Stimpy, now i've posted about John K and his work at Spumco a couple of times here, but what can I say, I really like his work, and how fluid it is. Whilst working on Ren and Stimpy, he instructed his animators to never draw the same expression twice, to create something new every time. Just look at some typical fames from one of the character Rens' psychotic freakouts...

It is not uncommon for animators to go, 'off model' so to speak when pushing for a particular emotion or expression to really make sure a scene 'pops' for the audience, but over at Spumco, it seems more common to go 'off model', than to stay on.

I know i've already posted this vid, but it's still a great watch, and you here John K's words about pushing expressions, straight from the man himself.

Sadly, Ren and Stimpy was cancelled in 1993, mainly due to John K refusing to stick to Nickelodeons ideals of educational programming, and continuing to produce violent cartoons. He blames on particular episode, titled 'Man's Best Friend', for leading to his dismissal. You can watch it here, but I apologise in advance for the poor quality, it's the only online version I could find. you might not want to watch it around any children either...

Still, Spumco continued to produce Ren and Stimpy Cartoons, in the form of 'The Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon', produced for online audiences produced from 2003 to2004, but wasn't any where near as well recieved, as the studio decided to take advantage of their new found freedom from childrens TV censorship, and in some cases went too far for a lot of fans. This short online series consists of nudity, implied homosexual relationships between the title characters, and even the consumption of less than savoury bodily fluids. not exactly easy viewing...

Still, Ren and Stimpy certainly got John K and Spumco noticed, and landed contracts for music videos, such as the comedy rock band Tenatious D's videos for 'F*** her gently' and 'Classico', and even an intro for the long running series 'The Simpsons'.

WARNING - NSFW

Great article on the making of the John K Simpsons intro over at Cartoon Brew.

Over on the other side - Cartoon Network - equally good things were happening, although not quite as edgy. Although one show really stands out in my memory, 'What a Cartoon'

'What a Cartoon' was an animation showcase programme, developed to give creative power back to artists and animators, after years of childrens animation being mainly franchise based, and mainly produced to help toys (Transformers, My Little Pony, Mighty Max, to name but a few).

Here are a few of my favourites.

Tales of Worm Paranoia

Larry and Steve

The PowerPuff Girls

What a Cartoon was a brilliant format. So many long running cartoons that we know and love today were catapulted into full production thanks to What A Cartoon, shows like The PowerPuff Girls (above), Johnny Bravo, I am Weasel, and even Seth McFarlane's Family Guy, with the above show 'Larry and Steve' being a very early, friendlier precursor to the cult show.
'What a Cartoon' was masterminded by a man called Fred Seibert, who has championed the idea of creator driven cartoons for a long time. Currently, he owns his own production company, Frederator Studios, still producing creator driven shows, including afew of my personla favourites cyrrently in production, Pen Ward's 'Adventure Time', and J.G. Quintel's 'Regular Show'.

Adventure Time Pilot

A Typical Regular Show episode - (slight language)

Video Games.

Video games were actually one of the key things that helped me decide to become an animator. Back in the 90's, bright, colourful, character driven video games were king. None of todays, gritty, brown, macho shoot 'em ups that the market is saturated with today.

To me, one company stood out brighter than the rest, the Santa Monica based studio, Naughty Dog, of Crash Bandicoot fame. I think this video should give you an idea of just how great these guys are.

The Naughty Dog Story

These guy's, excuse the pun, were game changers. They were creating games that seamlessly blended gameplay and technical wizardry, with lush visuals, and fantastic animation. Just after Naughty Dog's 2001 Playstation 2 title 'Jak and Daxter' debuted, I was sure I was going to become an animator. I even email Naughty Dog's Art Director, Bob Rafei, and expressed my interest in becoming an animator, and even begged fro a few tips. 2 days later, he replied, with a whole bunch of tips on squash and stretch, timing, you name it. It was a massive boost.