Cartoons!

[Twig]

Aha! I misunderstood your misinterpretation all along. That's a whole lot more reasonable than what I originally thought you were saying. You should've been more clear in your objection! I would've admitted being guilty of lack of clarity far sooner!

JERK!

[Merus]

To try and bring this to a head, I interpreted your comment exactly the same way dium did and was planning on saying something about how I heard Season 3 was good and did that not come together.

[Twig]

You also interpreted it incorrectly! There's no shame in that. I thought both seasons one and two were good, barring the relationship garbage. Well, I had other issues, too, but overall I'm generally more positive on Korra than most people I know. (Haven't watched season three, yet.)

[Twig]

Been watching Steven Universe for you, tegan, geez.

 

Wow that cat fingers episode is the stuff of nightmares.

[tegan]

everyone please stop arguing and watch Steven Universe instead

 

Wow that cat fingers episode is the stuff of nightmares.

 

I know, right? Catkira.

[Twig]

I think it really would have given me nightmares if I had seen it as a kid!

Also Amethyst's lips freak me out.

[Twig]

I'm almost caught up and it continues to be super good! Also just got to the part that made you compare it to

Madoka

. Dang.

 

EDIT:

For a while, I was wondering where the fifth Gem was, since there's the star on the door with five colors, I assumed one was missing and would show up eventually and at first assumed that was Lapis, but then it went Madoka so now I'm left wondering again!

[tegan]

EDIT:

For a while, I was wondering where the fifth Gem was, since there's the star on the door with five colors, I assumed one was missing and would show up eventually and at first assumed that was Lapis, but then it went Madoka so now I'm left wondering again!

 

I've been wondering about this as well. I figure maybe there's a Sapphire Gem or something.

 

Also, go back and watch the first episode and "Monster Buddies" now. The Centipeedles are trying to get into the temple for unknown reasons in the former and the gem tries to assume humanoid form before it turns into the Centipeedle in the latter.

[Twig]

Daaang. I had noticed the latter at the time, but didn't really make note of it until now that you pointed it out in the greater context. O:

 

Also, I really like this short-form cartoon that still manages to have a really engaging story without feeling like episodes should be longer. And also is just enjoyable on a moment-to-moment basis. This and Adventure Time. So good. Which reminds me, I need to catch up with that.

 

And Gravity Falls...

 

Unrelated: Is Regular Show worth watching? I've seen a few episodes with friends after a night of drinking but don't remember it being exceptional. May have been the environment/mood or may have been that I only watched a few earlier episodes.

[tegan]

I'd say Regular Show is pretty good, but it's also something I never actively seek out and don't miss now that I'm not watching it.

 

I just think it's crazy that it even exists as a kids' block show on Cartoon Network when the original short is about two convenience store clerks dropping acid on Halloween.

[Twig]

Hah, I wouldn't be surprised if that sort of thing was pretty common, though I have nothing to back this idea up. I guess Rick and Morty's original short, while still leading to a Grown-Up Cartoon was way more over the top and disgusting and wouldn't be allowed on most TV.

[dium]

I like Regular Show (although I haven't seen any new episodes in a couple years). You can clearly see its roots in that original short: the protagonists are total slacker-types in the 18-25 age range and it feels like they've applied a simple, deliberately un-camouflaged word filter in order to make the show child friendly (beer --> soda, etc). That might sound like garbage, but I actually like the results a lot. Most shows about (male) adult slackers, such as Workaholics, tend to make me uncomfortable and dislike everyone in them. Take the same general premise and soften the edges, make sure none of the protagonists can do anything detestable without learning a lesson, and add more than a touch of cartoonish fantasy, and it's much more entertaining!

[tegan]

This is still a pretty good joke.

 

[Cleinhun]

I started watching Steven Universe because of you guys and now I'm mad at myself for waiting this long. It's a really good show! Why have I not been watching it this whole time?

[tegan]

Just wanna say, this miniseries premieres tomorrow night on Cartoon Network and will air in full across the week. I may or may not have watched the premiere through questionably legal means, and it's totally great:

 

 

 

 

 

Also:

 

An aside about Gravity Falls: I am increasingly infatuated with the fan theory that the journals were written by...

Old Man McGucket. I've been thinking about it and he's old enough, he's clearly experienced with advanced technology and is unphased by strange phenomenon, his first name is Fiddleford -which matches the "PROPERTY OF F" label on the laptop- and his right hand is continuously covered by a bandage that could conceal either a sixth finger or be the result of losing said finger.

 

Nailed it. Sort of.

[Twig]

 

Just wanna say, this miniseries premieres tomorrow night on Cartoon Network and will air in full across the week. I may or may not have watched the premiere through questionably legal means, and it's totally great:

 

Wow awesome that is quite an evocative trailer.

[tegan]

Yeah, the whole show is very unsettling and murky while also being sort of wistful. It's great.

[Blambo]

I refuse to watch that on grounds of vignetting is stupid.

[BobbyBesar]

So, I've watched about a dozen episodes of Stephen Universe, and while it has some charm, I don't think I can say I like it overall.

 

One the plus side, the lore around the Gems which is slowly being hinted at is pretty cool. There's a pretty interesting ruined civilization vibe. I even sort of like the way it's being dripped out very slowly.

 

But, I really can't make myself enjoy Stephen. He's self-consciously hijinks oriented in a way that just sort of grates on me. There's a little too much forced-feeling wackiness. There are bits I like a lot. For example, I like his interactions with a lot of the supporting characters. But when he's by himself, I just get tired of Stephen.

 

I have a few other thoughts that I can't quite justify, that I think are just tied to episodic children's TV format, so I can't really hold it against them.

 

The last few episodes I caught also had a really weird animation thing going on, where things got melty-er than usual, and Stephen's arms stopped having any consistency with the standard character styling. Based on my understanding from Adventure Time, it seems like they're giving more leeway to directors with stylistic things like that these days, which is fine, I guess, but still weird.

 

I think it suffers in comparison to Adventure Time, which isn't really fair as Adventure Time is a fairly singular thing.But Stephen seems to fall more squarely on the children's show side.

[tegan]

So the entirety of Over the Garden Wall got leaked and I watched the whole thing in one go tonight. Oh man, is it ever great. I hope y'all have been watching it.

 

I think my favourite bits are either when it pays tribute to old Fleischer cartoons (like the creepy too-smoothly-animated Highwayman's song and Greg's dream) or when it gets legitimately scary ("The Ringing of the Bell").

[Apelsin]

With the help of Netflix I've started watching Ducktales for the first time in over a decade

The Swedish theme tune is not as good as I remember, but the voice actors are just as great!

 

Also, the series summary finally answered my question regarding where Donald is during all this. Apparenty he's out serving in the Navy?!

[tegan]

Ducktales, like a lot of the Disney Afternoon stuff, kind of drops in quality after the first few episodes made to draw in viewers. I feel there's still a few strong episodes in there, though. I always liked "Hotel Strangeduck," "The Curse of Castle McDuck," "Ducky Horror Picture Show," and "Allowance Day."

 

I hated Bubba the Caveduck though. It looks like he wasn't in as many episodes as I thought; but any time he was around, my interest just dropped.

 

 

 

Man, I already wanna rewatch Over the Garden Wall. I love that every single thing in that intro sequence eventually pays off.

-the narrator is the frog's singing voice
-the first shot is Beatrice's human form and the dog from the first episode, with the bluebird she presumably threw a rock at taking off
-next are the giant turkeys and the cat that lived in the pumpkin head of the mayor of Pottsfield
-the circus where whatsherface's fiance got a job as a gorilla
-all the toys are of the characters from the tavern in "Songs of the Dark Lantern," up to and including the talking horse
-Quincy Endicott staring at the painting before thinking he's seen a ghost
-Adelaide using the scissors
-the boat the two boys are playing with is the one that all the frogs were on
-Lorna sorting bones
-the fishing fish that helped save Wirt from drowning
-Greg picking up the Rock Facts rock from the old lady's garden
-the woodsman and his daughter

 

I also love how goddamn creepy the beast is. I took a screenshot of the one view you get of it on my second watch.

[namman siggins]

Nice little short:

 

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/cartoon-brew-pick/augdemented-reality-2-by-marty-cooper-105305.html

And a new Song of the Sea Trailer

And I'm also thinking about going to this:
http://www.cinefamily.org/films/animation-breakdown-2014/

[tegan]

I rewatched all of Sym-Bionic Titan earlier this week, and now I'm bummed that there's no more to watch. Anyone here ever see it? It was a one-season wonder from Genndy Tartakovsky that got cancelled because there were no toy tie-ins (seriously). It's like John Hughes and Leiji Matsumoto got together and decided to make a show about high school drama and giant robots.

 

[SuperBiasedMan]

Hot damn Over the Garden Wall is fantastic. Just watched the last episode and I know I'll have to rewatch it to absorb it fully. It's been a long time since I saw something that worked so coherently with itself and made all the parts really mesh together. And I loved how dark it got away with being, dark and just weird in some of the ways the show worked. Agh, I have to watch it againnn.