History MediaNotes / TheDarkAgeOfAnimation

** ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'' (1986): While it was a box office success and is credited into [[WinBackTheCrowd reviving the studio’s optimism for the future]], it had cheap animation and failed to make twice its budget upon initial release. This was only a success thanks to the small budget.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'' (1986): While it was a box office success, it had cheap animation and failed to make twice its budget upon initial release. This was only a success thanks to the small budget.

[-[[caption-width-right:320:[[VindicatedByHistory While many didn’t think the same at the time]], even [[LimitedAnimation cheap]], [[NoBudget low budget]] (some even OffModel) cartoons had fans, and still do.[[note]] In order: WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones, WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle, WesternAnimation/{{Underdog}}, [[WesternAnimation/FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids Fat Albert]], [[WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967 The Jungle Book]], [[WesternAnimation/SuperFriends The Super Friends]], [[WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas A Charlie Brown Christmas]], and [[WesternAnimation/FritzTheCat Fritz the Cat]].[[/note]]]]-]

[-[[caption-width-right:320:[[VindicatedByHistory While many didn’t think the same at the time]], even [[LimitedAnimation cheap]], [[NoBudget low budget]] (some even OffModel) cartoons had their fans, and still do.[[note]] In order: WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones, WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle, WesternAnimation/{{Underdog}}, [[WesternAnimation/FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids Fat Albert]], [[WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967 The Jungle Book]], [[WesternAnimation/SuperFriends The Super Friends]], [[WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas A Charlie Brown Christmas]], and [[WesternAnimation/FritzTheCat Fritz the Cat]].[[/note]]]]-]

[-[[caption-width-right:320:Even [[LimitedAnimation cheap]], [[NoBudget low budget]] (some even OffModel) cartoons had their fans, [[VindicatedByHistory and still do]].[[note]] In order: WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones, WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle, WesternAnimation/{{Underdog}}, [[WesternAnimation/FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids Fat Albert]], [[WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967 The Jungle Book]], [[WesternAnimation/SuperFriends The Super Friends]], [[WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas A Charlie Brown Christmas]], and [[WesternAnimation/FritzTheCat Fritz the Cat]].[[/note]]]]-]

* AnimationAgeGhetto: While the stigma didn’t really originate from this era, as early forms began to emerge in the previous eras, this era is associated with this stigma, as most of these cartoons became directed for children, [[WesternAnimation/FritzTheCat with]] [[WesternAnimation/WaitTillYourFatherGetsHome a]] [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones few]] [[WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries exceptions]].

The end of this period is usually believed to be the early 1980's, though the exact year is debated. Some say the dark age ended as early as 1981[[note]]when the ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'', the last Disney project Don Bluth was involved in before leaving premiered after a delay[[/note]], others say it was in 1983[[note]]when cartoons in America began to become more merchandise-driven, and ''Anime/{{Dallos}}'', the first [[OriginalVideoAnimation OVA]] in Japan, was released[[/note]], while others say in 1985[[note]]The premier of ''WesternAnimation/TheBlackCauldron'', which is usually considered Disney's final dark age film, the release of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'', which had lavish production that put their tv competition to shame and gave Disney a foothold on television animation they previously lacked, and the formation of Creator/StudioGhibli[[/note]], 1988[[note]]With the premiere of ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany'', the last film to use cel overlay, and the debut of Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit, which is widely held as the film that made animation fully respectable again through its celebration of the Golden Age[[/note]]; the latest ending given for it is generally 1989.[[note]]The release of ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid'', the first Disney film to break its long streak of commercial and critical disappointments.[[/note]]

The end of this period is usually believed to be the early 1980's, though the exact year is debated. Some say the dark age ended as early as 1981[[note]]when the ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'', the last Disney project Don Bluth was involved in before leaving premiered after a delay[[/note]], others say it was in 1983[[note]]when cartoons in America began to become more merchandise-driven, and ''Anime/{{Dallos}}'', the first [[OriginalVideoAnimation OVA]] in Japan, was released[[/note]], while others say in 1985[[note]]The premier of ''WesternAnimation/TheBlackCauldron'', which is usually considered Disney's final dark age film, the release of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'', which had lavish production that put their tv competition to shame and gave Disney a foothold on television animation they previously lacked, and the formation of Creator/StudioGhibli[[/note]], 1988[[note]]With the premiere of ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany'', the last film to use cel overlay, and the debut of Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit, which is widely held as the film that made animation fully respectable again through its celebration of the Golden Age[[/note]], or even 1989.[[note]]The release of ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid'', the first Disney film to break its long streak of commercial and critical disappointments.[[/note]]

The end of this period is usually believed to be the early 1980's, though the exact year is debated. Some say the dark age ended as early as 1981[[note]]when the ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'', the last Disney project Don Bluth was involved in before leaving premiered after a delay[[/note]], others say it was in 1983[[note]]when cartoons in America began to become more merchandise-driven, and ''Anime/{{Dallos}}'', the first [[OriginalVideoAnimation OVA]] in Japan, was released[[/note]], while others say in 1985[[note]]The premier of ''WesternAnimation/TheBlackCauldron'', which is usually considered Disney's final dark age film, the release of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'', which had lavish production that put their tv competition to shame and gave Disney a foothold on television animation they previously lacked, and the formation of Creator/StudioGhibli[[/note]], 1988[[note]]With the premiere of ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany'', the last film to use cel overlay, and the debut of Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit, which is widely held as the film that made animation fully respectable again through its celebration of the Golden Age[[/note]], or even 1989.[[note]]The release of ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid'', the first Disney film to break its long streak of commercial disappointments[[/note]]

The end of this period is usually believed to be the early 1980's, though the exact year is debated. Some say the dark age ended in 1981[[note]]when the Reagan administration began deregulating television and the ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'', the last Disney project Don Bluth was involved in before leaving premiered after a delay[[/note]], others say it was in 1983[[note]]when cartoons in America began to become more merchandise-driven, and ''Anime/{{Dallos}}'', the first [[OriginalVideoAnimation OVA]] in Japan, was released[[/note]], while others claim it happened as late as 1985[[note]]The premier of ''WesternAnimation/TheBlackCauldron'', which is usually considered Disney's final dark age film, the release of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'', which had lavish production that put their tv competition to shame and gave Disney a foothold on television animation they previously lacked, and the formation of Creator/StudioGhibli[[/note]], while for Disney, it can be as late as 1988[[note]]With the premiere of ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany'', the last film to use cel overlay, and the debut of Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit, which is widely held as the film that made animation fully respectable again through its celebration of the Golden Age[[/note]].

* ''Lucky Luke'':
** ''[[WesternAnimation/LuckyLukeDaisyTown Daisy Town]]''
** ''WesternAnimation/LaBalladeDesDalton''

Originally, LimitedAnimation was primarily an [[DoingItForTheArt artistic choice]] for filmmakers like Creator/ChuckJones, Robert Cannon, and John Hubley who were tired of {{Disneyfication}}. With the closures of UPA and Creator/{{MGM}}'s animation studios, it became primarily about saving [[ExploitedTrope time and money]].[[note]] Much like the debate over [[UsefulNotes/AdobeFlash Flash Animation quality today]].[[/note]] Creator/HannaBarbera – founded by the eponymous duo in response to MGM abruptly shuttering its animation unit and firing them – was very prominent during this time (to the extent of holding a monopoly over the Saturday morning animation market by the '70s), thanks to how cheaply produced and rushed their television cartoons were. Given how these series [[SpeechCentricWork used dialogue over visuals]] to move the stories forward, they rapidly became what Jones would describe with justified derision as "illustrated radio". Still, they created not only successful kids fare in the 60s like ''WesternAnimation/YogiBear'', but prime time series like ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'' and the influential AdventureSeries ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'', which created a whole new television animation genre. Unfortunately, the studio soon fell into a crippling creative rut with the SaturdayMorningCartoon timeslot, which led to them endlessly copying the concepts of their most successful shows, with ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' and the long-running, oft-retooled ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'' the most prolific templates.

The end of this period is usually believed to be the early 1980's, though the exact year is debated. Some say the dark age ended in 1981[[note]]when the Reagan administration began deregulating television and the premiere of ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'' the last Disney project Don Bluth was involved in before leaving causing it to be delayed[[/note]], others say it was in 1983[[note]]when cartoons in America began to become more merchandise-driven, and the release of ''Anime/{{Dallos}}'', the first [[OriginalVideoAnimation OVA]] in Japan[[/note]], while others claim it happened as late as 1985[[note]]With the premiere of ''WesternAnimation/TheBlackCauldron'', which was widely Disney's final dark age film, the release of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'', whose lavish production had put their tv competition to shame, as well as helping Disney to have a foothold on television animation, and the formation of Creator/StudioGhibli[[/note]], while for Disney, it can be as late as 1988[[note]]With the premiere of ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany'', the last film to use cel overlay[[/note]], and for Richard Williams, it can be as late as 1992[[note]]With the workprint release of ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler'' which wasn't well received banishing him from the project & then the film being reworked[[/note]].

However, this does not mean ''everything'' from this era was ''bad''. Creator/{{Disney}}'s output remained respectable and generally well animated. However, the failure of the lavish feature film ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'' prompted both a downsizing of the animation studio and a retreat from fairy tales for the next 30 years. Walt Disney, had, by this time, begun to draw away his focus on films due to his increased interest for television and theme park projects during the '50s. Disney had been feeling more and more creatively stifled as the decades moved on; the bold, experimental projects that had made him a household name in the 1920s and 1930s nearly ruined him in the 1940s as audiences' tastes changed and his artists experienced the strain of appeasing his demands (while receiving virtually no on-screen credit, none the less) within an increasingly industrialized working environment, as opposed to the more close-knit familial atmosphere of the studio's early-30s incarnation, climaxing in a 1941 strike depriving Disney of over a thousand staff members, including master animators Art Babbitt and Bill Tytla. Resultantly, Disney's lofty ambitions for the medium rapidly eroded over the following decades, increasingly delegating the creative tribulations of his feature films to directors such as Gerry Geronimi and the emergent [[Creator/DisneysNineOldMen group of directing animators dubbed the 'nine old men']] and shifting to an emphasis on
generally more family-friendly and formulaic material while pursuing other creative ventures. He attempted one last shot at a more experimental animated film at the end of the decade with ''Sleeping Beauty'', an enormously high-cost attempt to craft a film coherently translating the angular, stylized concept art of staff background artist Eyvind Earle into an hour of full animation. Despite Disney's initial high ambitions for the film, its mammoth cost, compounded by creative conflicts between Earle and the film's directors, elongated production across almost a decade and resulted in the film's box-office 'failure', given the magnitude of earnings required to recoup its budget. Subsequently threatened by bankruptcy, Disney laid off a number of his staff members (including several longtime animators) and reluctantly ceded to using the xerography process, a dry photocopying process that eliminated the need to hand-ink the animation, which was both a cost-cutting measure and the only practical way to produce a film with such visual complexity as their next feature, ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians''. However, the technology only allowed for black outlines, which forced a hard scratchy visual style for years (at least until ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers'', when softer outlines with various colors became technically possible). These changes had a noticeable effect on the quality of the 1960s Disney films, and the death of Walt in the middle of the decade hit the company ''extremely'' hard, sending their studio into a hard slump post-''[[WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967 Jungle Book]]''. Although they would release [[WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh a]] [[WesternAnimation/TheRescuers few]] [[WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective features]] that critics enjoyed and made money, Disney continued to struggle, forced to use re-releases and the theme parks to stay afloat, until the release of [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit two]] [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 movies]] in the late 80's that were huge hits with critics and audiences and showed that they finally recovered enough to be compared to their Golden Age heights.

* [[Creator/{{Sanrio}} Sanrio Animation]]: Short-lived animation studio by Sanrio that made animated films based on Japanese literature [[note]] such as adapting two of Creator/TakashiYanase's book ''Anime/TheRoseFlowerAndJoe'' in 1977, and ''[[Anime/RingingBell Chirin no Suzu]]'' in 1978 [[/note]], manga [[note]] the ''Manga/{{Unico}}'' series [[/note]], and original content. The studio was active from 1977 till 1985 with a total of ten animated films. Their works were notable for [[SurpriseCreepy containing disturbing imagery]] and [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids depressing storylines]] while aimed at children. Compared to other animations studios during this period, Sanrio Animation's films contained [[SugarWiki/AwesomeArt high quality animation]] with characters being very expressive and [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic memorable music scores.]]

* ''Animation/TheNightTheAnimalsTalked'': An early 1970s TV ChristmasSpecial directed by Creator/ShamusCulhane.

* ''Animation/{{NuPogodi}}'': Animated series that ran in the [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]] throughout this period.

The unfortunate successor to UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation, starting in the late 1950s and lasting until the mid 1980s. LimitedAnimation was the rule, not the exception during this time. Its start coincided with the UsefulNotes/FallOfTheStudioSystem in Hollywood. The theatrical short slowly died off, and cartoons moved to television. Naturally, this era would leave a lasting impression on American culture, for better or for worse, as the [[AnimationAgeGhetto primary target audience for cartoons]] became children.

** ''Anime/TheRoseFlowerAndJoe'' (''Bara no Hana to Joe'') (1977)

** ''[[Anime/RingingBell Chirin no Suzu]]'' (known as ''Ringing Bell'' in the west) (1978)

* [[Creator/DePatieFrelengEnterprises David [=DePatie=] and Isidore "Friz" Freleng]]

** ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTramp'' (1955): The first film released after Disney TV series premiered and the last successful hand inked film on initial release.
** ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'' (1959): While it's often considered the last Disney Golden Age film, they were inspired by UPA to make cartoony and angular features. This was filmed in 70 mm causing it to go overbudget the main reason for its failure.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'' (1986): Sort of as this film, while a box office success, had cheap animation and failed to make twice its budget upon initial release. This was only a success thanks to the small budget.
** ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany'' (1988): Definitely the last of Disney's Dark Age since it's the last to use cel overlay. This film also received mixed reviews from the critics and the last critical failure from the Disney Animated Cannon till ''Pocahontas''.

* AnimationAgeGhetto: This era is commonly seen as the birthplace for this stigma and its effects on the industry since.
** A notable aversion is ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'', which remains the only Trek series to earn an Emmy Award in a non-technical field.

* DorkAge: In full swing with many established franchises at this point in time.

* NarmCharm

* SoBadItsGood: The only reason most of the cartoons made in this era are still remembered is because of how unbelievably awful they were.