History MediaNotes / TheDarkAgeOfAnimation

** ''WesternAnimation/TheNewScoobyDooAndScrappyDooShow''

* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'' and its many clones

The end of this period is usually believed to be the mid/late1980'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/TheLittleMermaid1989'', 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]]; the latest ending given for it is generally 1989.[[note]]The release of ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', the first Disney film to break its long streak of commercial and critical disappointments.[[/note]]

Originally, LimitedAnimation was primarily an 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 time and money.[[note]] Much like the debate over [[MediaNotes/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 unfortunate successor to UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation, starting in the late 1950s and lasting until the mid 1980s. LimitedAnimation, as well as the limitations of MismatchedAtomicExpressionism, 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.

Originally, LimitedAnimation was primarily an 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 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.

WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes was still producing some decent and entertaining shorts late in TheFifties, as some of its most memorable shorts were from this decade. While the animation was increasingly limited following the studio's re-opening (after a six-month closure in the wake of the 3-D craze) in 1953, the writing, along with the continued high-quality output emerging from the unit under the directorial wing of Creator/ChuckJones, managed to produce some timeless classics in spite of that. However, due to budget problems, Creator/WarnerBros forcibly shut down its animation studio for good in 1963 (though a brief revival was unsuccessfully attempted in the late 1960s). The characters would get a revival in the form of the smash hit anthology repackaging series ''[[WesternAnimation/TheBugsBunnyRoadRunnerShow The Bugs Bunny Show]]'', which [[VindicatedByCable reaired]] many of their old theatrical cartoons and, being exposed to younger audiences, ultimately helped to immortalize the characters as pop culture icons. In syndication, ''The Porky Pig Show'' did the same for many other shorts that weren't shown on its parent series. (And not just Warner Bros., either; if any motion picture company had a theatrical short to their name, animated or [[Film/TheThreeStooges not]], they would be on the bandwagon). With the onset of the 1980s, the surviving players of the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation Golden Age]] were about to get back in the game in a big way.

For this era's successor, see UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation (which lasted from the mid-1980s through the early 2000s).

* ''WesternAnimation/Birdman1967'' (more notable for ''WesternAnimation/HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw'', its [[UsefulNotes/TheMillenniumAgeOfAnimation Millennium Age]] spoof, than the actual show)

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Sealab 2020}}'', (more notable for its [[UsefulNotes/TheMillenniumAgeOfAnimation Millennium Age]] spoof ''WesternAnimation/{{Sealab 2021}}'')

* Creator/DonBluth resumed working during this era, after leaving Disney in the early 60s to go on his Mormon recruitment mission, eventually getting fed up with the public's complacency with mediocracy and was famously the first animator who [[UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation did something about it]].

* Creator/IsaoTakahata: Though he came from Nippon Dōga-sha during UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation of the 1940s (post-UsefulNotes/WorldWar2), he did many things when Nippon Dōga-sha became Creator/ToeiAnimation in this era.

* {{Animesque}}: Though far more readily associated with UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation and UsefulNotes/TheMillenniumAgeOfAnimation, this concept actually has its roots here. The first American animated series to deliberately employ anime tropes was ''WesternAnimation/FrankensteinJr'', which was closely based on ''Anime/{{Gigantor}}''.

* PrimeTimeCartoon: This trend lasted until the late 1960s (save for numerous animated specials), though it has been revived during the beginning of UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation.

* SaturdayMorningCartoon: Saturday Morning cartoons experienced their heyday during this period, which continued for quite a few years afterward. Not only were Hanna-Barbera cartoons regular airings, but cartoons from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation would be exposed to a new generation, and in some cases, [[VindicatedByCable become even more widely popular]] [[VindicatedByReruns than they were originally]].

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 ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'', 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), retreated from fairy tales for the next 30 years, 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.

* ''ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}''

* ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'': The 1980s series iteration of ''Franchise/AlvinAndTheChipmunks''.

* ''Computer Critters'': A series of [=PSA=]s that aired on the Creator/AmericanBroadcastingCompany in 1984.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'' (1986): While it was a box office success and is credited into [[WinBackTheCrowd reviving the studio’s optimism for the future]], it still had cheap animation and was competing against ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'', in which the latter was more successful than this. This was a success party due to its 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''.

* ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero''

* UsefulNotes/LooneyTunesInTheSixties: This era covers the final days of Termite Terrace before they closed the studio.
* UsefulNotes/LooneyTunesInTheSeventiesAndOnward: Post-Termite Terrace.

Originally, LimitedAnimation was primarily an 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.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheKingKongShow'' (1966-1969): An InNameOnly adaptation that only happens to [[Film/KingKong have the title character]] in it.

* AnimationAgeGhetto: While the stigma didn’t really originate from this era, as early forms began to emerge in the previous eras, this era is where the stigma truly began to become strong, and it’s therefore 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]].

* HumansAreWhite: Non-white characters were rare during this era, but they were more common than they were during the Golden Age.

* AnimatedAdaptation: for example, ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' cartoons, ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'', Filmation's adaptations of ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'', ''WesternAnimation/TheBeatles'', etc.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBeatles''