Taking the Gamble
Over the Remake
By HOWARD BECKERMAN
Beckerman is an animation producer. He recently completed
the Black Flag campaign, and teaches animation at The School of Visual Arts in
NYC.
Animation has always been thought of as an expensive medium.
Today with such special effects films as "Star Wars" or “Close
Encounters" with budgets that run into the millions and the average Disney
animated feature costing about $7 million, these thoughts seem to have a lot of
validity. There are even TV commercials, running just a few seconds, that could
cost hundreds of thousands of dollars if the technique required is unusual. On
the other hand, TV specials and series of the animated type are often
handicapped by limited money.
One area that seems to get passed over in all of this discussion
of economics, is the part that content plays in the overall animated film. In
recent years it has become fashionable to use animation as an interpretive
medium. By this I mean that a good many spots and children's shows contain
styles or characters that have originated outside the animation medium. This is
apparent in the use of the popular super hero characters in commercials and in
Saturday, morning entertainment, and in the desire to apply the styles of
magazine cartoonists to the medium. Not that there is anything wrong with this,
animation can do anything. In fact it used to be considered unlikely that any
style that did not look like the established mode of animated cartoon art could
not be animated. at all. Happily, this has been proven to be a false
assumption.
Plays were always made into movies and now movies are made
into plays. "The Wiz' has come down the yellow brick road all the way from
the MGM film made in 1938 which was based on the turn of the century book which
had been a popular stage production long before Judy Garland wished herself
over the rainbow. I suppose it would be a good idea for some enterprising
producer to make a musical out of "King Kong". It's ripe for the
plucking. It's already been a motion picture, an animated series and a film
remake.
For TV, an original animated series or special is somewhat
of a gamble, since they only have a short time to advertise new shows and
because of network competition any prominent name that attracts the right
audience is welcomed with open arms. So it is that the subject matter of
programs will continue to include "safe" properties that are easily
recognizable to the viewers.
All of the foregoing being understood and appreciated by all
of us in the film business, I think that it still behooves us to find a way to
create original properties for TV that have new characters, stories and art
styles that reflect the true aspect of animation. Felix the Cat, for instance
was an animation original way back in 1919. His shape and his actions were designed
for the limitations of the medium at that time, as a result he was both a
technical and a box office success. True, the Popeye character was derived from
the popular comic strip, but in the skillful hands of Max Fleischer's animators
he became a stronger character.
The rehash of properties from other mediums seems to lack
the authentic original quality that is found in subjects that have been
designed for the medium for which they are intended. Andy Hardy fared well in
the old MGM series, an animated cartoon version of the property might sound
like a reasonably good idea but because of the nature of animation for TV it
would come out as a weak offering. Is Tarzan better as a live person or an
animated character?
Animators with rich imaginations should be given the
opportunity to come up with something original. How many times have we been
asked to create ideas for a Christmas special and then find out that the
network was all filled up with such material. When I was a kid, a Christmas
special at the local movie was any good film suitable for children.
"Pinocchio", which had nothing to do with Christmas, had all the good
things that lend fantasy and fun to a kid's holiday.
Today, films must relate directly to the holiday, resulting
in numerous bland attempts at fun and fancy through watered down
representations of Christmas.
Taking a chance on something original in the animation area
for TV might result in better programming simply because a lot of animation
talent wouldn't be wasted in trying to imitate other people's efforts in areas
that are not easy to animate. If the nature of TV animation is limited budgets
and tight schedules, then the type of characters designed for these shows and
the type of humor could be designed to fit these limitations.
Filling a half hour with trite actions and stories in the
long run benefits no one. The audience suffers from the lack of originality and
the animators from the lack of. substance in their work. Eventually, TV and the
advertisers will suffer from lack of interest.
A commercial that uses animation with an original look to
it, in my estimation, has more going for it than some spot that shows the
results of endless hours of tracing over the actions of a live actor. I suppose
17 agency and network representatives will now jump forward and show me that
sales are up in those areas that have used the same techniques that I have
eschewed. Be that as it may, we are dealing with a fickle business in the first
place, and when TV advertising falls off, and advertisers go elsewhere to show
their wares, the blame will be on cost or demographics, and we will never
really know at what point the audience got up to go to the refrigerator and
decided never to come back.
The responsibility for these unique animation efforts should
fall to the smaller studios that are not in the thrall of the large networks.
Large studios have to maintain enormous staffs and consistent output, which
tends to force them into a more rigid production schedule. Smaller studios can
afford to experiment with unusual styles and storylines, because it would be in
their best interests to do so since they would have sole rights to the
properties and can then gain future revenue from their use on television, in
theatres or on tape. Even more important, the audience will have something
worthwhile to see and remember; a trip to the refrigerator may not even occur.
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