Cartoon Brew Discussion

I like Jerry Beck. While I DISAGREE with him on his review of the ATHF movie, I love that he can tell the difference between writing-based cartoons and art-based cartoons and can see the good qualities in both, unlike John K. (who is an awesome cartoonist but not a good critic).

Amid, on the other hand...

He's paranoid. And this is coming from a Glenn Beck fan. Remember when the Hub launched? He said the era of creator driven animation was over.

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/ideas-commentary/the-end-of-the-creator-driven-era.html

Not to mention that the clip he used is from one of the two good series on the network.

Jerry Beck is a bitter old man who seems to hate everything past the 1960's. He also hates women and probably goes go karting with Armond White on Saturdays.

No, that's John K. you're thinking of.

You just described John K. to a T, minus the part about him being funny.

Jerry Beck actually enjoys Invader ZIM, Spongebob and Pixar. And he liked Megamind.

edited 18th Apr '11 1:14:15 AM by TacoWiz

BROTHER!!!

Also, I often look at the business section.

I ALWAYS KNEW I HAD A BROTHER!

• hugs

I read that section too. I check CB daily...sometimes more than daily.

Jerry's alright most of the time, but I can't stand that Amid guy. He's pretty much set to hate everything by default. And the comments section is just a terrible, terrible place.

edited 18th Apr '11 7:50:46 AM by CTM

He posted about an adult Conan-themed art gallery on the blog and didn't put a NSFW tag on it until someone had to tell him to do it! (see CB page here) He's a whiny, childish, unprofessional, stubborn, gossipy critic who moved to a city where the animation industry is doing miserably so he could fish off of excuses for what he calls "journalism".

edited 18th Apr '11 1:35:33 PM by kyun

And when he did put up the NSFW tag, he still put the image on the main page, instead of after the jump.

I honestly quit going to Cartoon Brew after that.

I agree that Jerry's posts were often insightful and interesting, but it's just not worth putting up with Amid's crap.

'BUT WAIT -- -- a-aaaah THERE'S MORE!' He added the tag by writing "NSFW sort of"!

Yeah, that was odd. Especially because there were a few SFW images he could have chosen. I of course have no objections to homosexuality, and I have no objection to sexual images as long as it's not a bunch of children or animals.

I do wonder if people would be acting so badly if it had been hot women, though.

Neither do I, but I do have objections to cartoon characters strung up by their genitalia right there on the main page.

My problem was that it's a blog VIEWED BY PROFESSIONALS, MORE THAN LIKELY AT WORK.

That was my problem, too. A SFW picture could have demonstrated the point fine.

Might as well link to the actual Cartoon Brew page here!

Oh and if you go to the blog, they have a recent CG Animated Films List that remind me of a lot of tropes.

I agree, Amid flipped his s**t when he heard about the HUB and My Little Pony, but now I think he is also focused on the dangers posed by virtual studios and "creation contests".

As a person beginning to study animation and who hopes to have a career in it, I would have to say that yes, Amid is probably the Glenn Beck of the world of animation criticism, but in his defense, the prospect of unsalaried, speculated work is definitely more threatening than My Little Ponies or the HUB where you will actually get salaried pay.

He sounds pretty paranoid, but his paranoia seems to occasionally raise very good points about the industry (StrawmanHasaPoint).

edited 19th Apr '11 2:31:42 PM by Gr3mlinify

Here is the article that Shota was talking about {{http://www.cartoonbrew.com/comics/todays-strange-brew-by-john-deering.html}}.

I personally think that the comments below are the best part!

The fumiest thing to note is that he completely broke down when it turned out Lauren Faust wanted to make My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic. He could not seem to understand that anyone would actually want to be involved with a cartoon based on a toyline.

I agree. It was even more hilarious when one of the commenters (who I believe also knew Faust very well) had to explain to him that it was her dream to work on a project like My Little Pony b/c she loved the franchise but hated the corniness of the shows.

edited 19th Apr '11 2:59:00 PM by Gr3mlinify

MA-NY. CAR-TOONS. NOW. ARE BASED ON A TOY-LINE. I wish there were more syllables in that sentence so I could emphasize the importance of it. No one can take any risks today, because everyone in the world put the economy in the toilet. I can't wait to see the day publishers stop offering him authoring work, and he has to eat his words.

edited 19th Apr '11 4:29:30 PM by Shota

I'm part of the generation that grew up with Batman the Animated Series, Gargoyles, X-Men, Animaniacs, Angry Beavers, Hey Arnold, etc., so I do think its really annoying that a lot of shows are only being greenlit if they are based on toys, but...

I admit, I haven't seen any My Little Pony episodes (I definitely plan to, though) but I have only heard good things about MLP. If Lauren Faust (or any other experienced individual) could take a toy franchise and give it a new vision similar to what Bruce Timm did for Batman and what Houston and Squillace did for X-Men, then maybe there is still a chance for good quality shows to be made some day...maybe

I would like to think that high quality toy commercials would be better than uninspired ones, but then again, maybe I am too naive. Maybe Amid is right (assuming he has worked in television and not just on shorts and student films???) and it can only get worse from now onwards.

edited 19th Apr '11 4:56:21 PM by Gr3mlinify

Jerry black is one of my favorite animation historians, but Admid is a fucking dickhead. Cartoon Brew may be the source for animation news, but however its like Internet Back Draft happening 24/7 due to how much its stupidity is going on down there.

They are still bickering about the Looney Tunes show. Hell they wont even give a chance of it saying that it will suck. That type of criticism should go for horribly animated shows like Johnny Test and Problemz Sloved. Also, Admid needs to get an anvil dropped on his head for bashing on Friendship is Magic. That show is a good show and he needs to stop acting like a John K wannabe when it comes to bashing on today's cartoons. FIM is one of the only shows out there that I watch on today's bullshit excuse for cartoon entertainment other than Sym Bionic Titan.

edited 20th Apr '11 6:12:15 AM by Theoriginalblader

Maybe Amid is right (assuming he has worked in television and not just on shorts and student films???) and it can only get worse from now onwards.

Amid has never worked on any kind of animated project before, except when writing the Art Of books.

Yeah.

Thanks for the clarification. I thought so too, but I didn't want to jump the gun and say it in case there was some small project that an Amid fanboy (do those even exist?) would use it as evidence that he knows what he's talking about when it comes to tv production (which I doubt).

I would like to think that having a background as an art historian and being a film festival judge makes him a reliable expert on creative-control, but not when you actually have to work within certain constraints on a production team. From what I have heard and read in interviews from other professionals, the two fields are pretty different. I wonder if Amid has ever acknowledged that in his posts?

edited 20th Apr '11 1:02:57 PM by Gr3mlinify

I've heard Amid is working on a book about John K

Ha. :D