Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Rocky and Bullwinkle Madness

When I watched this show as a kid, I thought it was the most boring cartoon ever...I didn't care for it. Maybe I wasn't paying attention to the story or anything.

The only thing I could remember from this show was the magic hat gag where Bullwinkle is trying to pull a rabbit out of his hat and either gets a tiger,rhino, or a lion. One time he pulled out Rocky!


I apologize for the bad sound quality in this video. This is the only one I can find.

Yesturday, I was watching a Rocky and Bullwinkle episode because I was bored and... oh boy! that was some kind of craziness I missed out! The stories are random and it didn't really make much sense! It was so crazy I actually laughed from watching! This is what I get from watching that show, ignoring it, then turning on a simpsons episode and start thinking it was the greatest thing ever. Nowadays, that show plus others are boring! Most of the stories are the same thing, nothing is exaggerated, theres more seriousness than fun(Family Guy is an exception to all this), and most dissapointing...nothing exciting ever happends!

One shock that came up to me is that June Foray and Bill Scott did most of the voices of the show! I wonder how it would of looked if Mel Blanc got in the act?


It's always a blast to watch real voice talents go at it in a cartoon show than watching some random bum go on it and ruin the fun. Which is also a quality to cartoons nowadays. They are just taking their normal voice and putting it on a cartoon character. When I see an actual voice talent, I feel like I'm looking at the character, but, when im looking at somebody else, I think of the guy who will put on a mcgruff costume and start yelling "hey kids! Im that Mcgruff guy!" You get the point, right?

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Al Hirschfeld and Exaggeration

Hey! I was in a art store with my dad and he showed me a book about this artist named Al Hirschfeld. I was actually stunned to see this guy's caricature artwork because it was so different looking than most artists.
Out of most artist, this one is my favorite! Not just because of the way he composed his drawings, but the style! It's awesome! Al Hirschfeld really knew how to get those sweet smooth lines! I wish I could have that "loosy" control with my pencil to get a nice smooth finish instead of my usual "roughy" finishes. However, that's not the only thing he's best known for, it's really his caricature drawings!
You can tell that Hirschfeld had some way of seeing things just by looking at these drawings. It's amazing how the idea of actually drawing what you are seeing could do to one individual. The sad part is that most people don't do that. They don't draw what they are seeing, they draw what they are SUPPOSE to see. To me, that is a bad idea. We do art to express our take on reality instead of being some sort of duplicating copy machine.

I think exaggeration is something that happends naturally, not forcefully. We don't exaggerate because it's the rule. We exaggerate because that's how we see things. Al Hirschfeld was the perfect role model for that sort of thing. Apparently, that's his way of being an artist. It's HIS take on real life. Though, it's not just him and exaggerating that makes him an artist, there's other things. Some people are real to be real. I mean, i'm not saying exaggerate because it expresses personality,but to me, it's a good way to do so. You can be real or exaggerating whenever you want. I don't care if you are real, if that's your take on life, so be it. I'm not the art boss and neither are the guys who tell you how to do your artwork.

Here is a segment from Fantasia 2000 that shows Al Hirschfeld's take on New York. Now remember that Al Hirschfeld was the one responsible for the artwork in this segment. Hats off to George Gershwin for the music by the way. You really gave that New Yorky mood for this one.



I hope you enjoy the segment if you haven't seen it as well!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Up and Ready to Go!

The Animationtropolis is now up and ready to go! I will be posting at least once a day except Saturdays and Sundays since i have bowling on those days. I will be talking about animation, blog news, notices, and much more!

If you wish to improve this blog or have a story that you want me to post, please contact me! Here's my e-mail: nickybug9@hotmail.com

Thank you for checking this place out and I hope you come back and read some of my posts!

-Nick