From: synth@yenta.alb.nm.us (Synth F. Oberheim)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.tiny-toon,alt.tv.tiny-toon.plucky-duck,rec.arts.animation,rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: Why tinytoons?
Date: 8 Oct 92 23:47:18 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: yenta unix pc, rio rancho, nm

dan@wombat.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Dan Parmenter) writes:

Dan> I have yet to come across any humor that the average 12 year old
Dan> wouldn't understand,

Really?  I could make up a huge list for your consideration, but instead
I'll just throw out some examples:

  In the episode "A Ditch In Time", as Plucky in a time machine goes
  spiralling out-of-control through a huge blinding vortex in time, we
  see a glimpse of several bills marked "ILM" flying by;

  In "K-ACME TV", an advertisement for the "Acme Home Cartoon Kit" comes
  chock full of writers, staff, executives -- as well as a reference to
  "some guy who does nothing but put his name on the picture".  The
  reference, as well as the caricature of a bearded man wearing glasses
  and a baseball cap, is [obviously] a jab at Executive Producer Steven
  Spielberg;

  In "Buster And Babs Go Hawaiian", the two rabbits stop Act I and make
  a trip to Spielberg's office.  The waiting room shows Andrew Lloyd
  Webber, dressed up in a cat costume, patiently waiting for his
  appointment ...

Now, how many 11-year-olds will know (or care) that ILM's special effects
are state-of-the-art and outrageously priced, that Spielberg is constantly
chided for his name-stamping, or that A.L. Webber was working with SS on
an animated version of the musical CATS?

Dan> and I have yet to come across any of the characters
Dan> who don't seem like horrendously debased versions of my beloved
Dan> Warner Brothers characters.

Do you think that the characters' personalities are clones of their Looney
Tunes counterparts?  I don't!  Neither Buster nor Babs are as blatantly
wily or malicious as the immortal Bugs; Hamton really is nothing like
like Porky; Elmyra is magnitudes more frightening than Elmer :-).  Granted
there are other characters that share a closer derivation to their 
originals -- Fifi La Fume lapses into chasing after hunks, Calamity Coyote
has been seen trying to bag Li'l Beeper.  But even these characters have
have more expanded definitions to their personalities that set them apart
from being mere clones ...

Dan> [TTA] just seems like unfunny mishmashes of old Warners bits,

Just how much TTA are you looking in on?  By and large, TTA relies on
plot a lot more heavily than the strung-together gags of LTs.  (Not to
put down the latter, mind you; it's just that I think that the two are
radically different in this respect ...)

Dan> reduced to their generic visual shorthand (there goes Buster Bunny
Dan> doing a letter-perfect Tex Avery "take" - how original) created by
Dan> animators and writers seemingly afraid of the possibilities of
Dan> their own imaginations.

I won't touch this one -- I'll leave it for Chris Adamson, perhaps :-) --
but I will say that you seem to want something very experimental, and I
don't think TTA ever intended to go that route.  TTA derives its sense of
originality from its characters and their interactions, as well as its
satire and pop-culture references.

Dan> I've heard various reasons for why I should like this show: Its
Dan> supposed "highbrow" humor that will "go over most people's heads",

I've never heard anyone refer to TTA humor as going over most people's
heads; rather that the show contains a lot of adult humor and in-jokes.

Dan> I seem to remember the mind-numbing tedium of school, the early
Dan> stages of future teen angst and a quirk of nature that during my
Dan> "tender years" made me a magnet for meat-brained morons and their
Dan> fists :-) :-)

I hope it didn't have a detrimental effect on your sense of humor ... ;-)


===============================================================================
    :: :: :: :: ::     Synth F.    synth@deepthought.unm.edu    U S E N E T   
 :: :: :: :: :: :: ::  Oberheim    synth@yenta.alb.nm.us             in color!
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"Pay no attention to the man holding me up!"