Why I Stopped Caring and Love Art In Cartoons

I am a huge fan of animation There are so many different styles of animation from all over the world and I don't just mean anime( you crazy straw man person!). So many, in fact, that it would be really hard to  really go into every style of animation out there(they're like endless!!), Needless to say, It really saddens me when I hear things like "this animation sucks" or "this animation is too simple." The cartoons I usually hear this with is cartoons like Adventure Time or China, IL. Both of these are cartoons with super simple animation styles associated with them.

Owned by Cartoon Network

Owned by Adult Swim

As you can see above both these shows have a really simple style to them. I believe that that is a deliberate choice by the creators of the show. Both of these shows have a very surreal nature to them. The simple art style lends itself to the sort of crazy... stuff the characters do or get into. like in adventure time where you have demons, giant robots, ancient twin headed war elephants and in China, IL where you have building sized babies that later grow into men, dinosaur steroids, sudden transformations into animals because a character gained tenure at the college they work at, my point is both shows lend themselves crazy surreal atmosphere the shows have created for themselves. The simpleness of the design allows them to go crazy with the amount content and action they have on screen.

It also allows us as the audience to more easily sympathize with the characters. To paraphrase Scott Mccloud in is book Understanding Comics artists can give more meaning to characters by stripping away their details. In other words, you as the audience project more of yourself more in that role than the characters on the page or in this case screen. I also see the simpleness of the designs as a way to make it easier for the creation of fan art for the characters. Given a certain amount of time I believe I could draw the characters you see above and I'm not that great of an artist. What that does though is to make it easier for fans to create their own creations and keep interest going in the show especially with lulls between seasons.

This isn't to say the art can't get complicated because in both shows there are times when the show goes into a lot of detail with their detail. This can be to emphasize something is gross, evil, to create a sense of wonder or make something unsettling. Both shows have really fluid movement as well, and while it might not always be realistic movement it rarely ever comes off as unrealistic, weird, or just plain bad. Both these shows tend to focus on story and character dynamics as well. You are likely to see to see characters talk about how awesome the last movie they saw was or what's up with their friend who's acting weird. In both cases, it never seems out of place or out of character for the characters in the show.

My penultimate point of what I'm trying to say is that making a deliberate choice to make your simple animation style doesn't really make it bad or less of a show. It's just the surface level, the superficial level, that you are looking at if you think that is true. I personally believe that no bad art exists and at the end of the day it just comes down to taste. There are lazy animators out there, though.

Stay nerdy my beautiful friends.