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INTEREST: Gundam Creator Yoshiyuki Tomino Expresses Thoughts on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Fi

jdnation wrote:

While Spider-verse is more than your typical kids film, it's still largely a family-friendly affair. So while stylistically it's a breakthrough, in terms of content, it's nothing outside of the norm. And also being based on a big Spider-Man franchise certainly helps. And Spider-verse is still an action comedy A big reason why you get those is more a prejudice of the consumer market, where these films also sell toys and merchandise, and that's another big reason they get made. Which is not really something more adult fare can really pull off, outside of the Otaku market in Japan.

But even children shows seem to lack merchandising these days. Steven Universe's concept of fusing to create new forms was practically made to sell toys, yet all it has is some basic Funko Pops. No figures at all. She-Ra: Princesses of Power don't seem to get any merchandise either. They've actually put out more toys for the original 80s She-Ra than the current reboot over the past year.

I think companies just don't see the value in merchandise for animated shows anymore.
Marvel movies have numerous figures, as does Stranger Things. The market is there, whether its for kids or adults. The biggest hurdle seems to be applying it to animation rather than live-action. I guess animation is too uncool for kids these days. They'd rather watch Marvel movies, Star Wars, and live-action shows, and buy the toys for those. Literally the only people I see talk about these cartoons are grown adults on Twitter and Tumblr. It's like the market has completely swapped.

Tomino wrote:

Tomino said that he spent a week thinking about why the film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. "At first glance, it looks like a live-action film, and it's very experimental in various places. For American film goers, it may be their first time watching an animated film that isn't expressly for kids. I won't appraise the film's quality, but on a technical level, I can see how much hard work the staff put into it."

It didn't used to be that way. I remember when Batman Mask of the Phantasm was in theaters, and it was great. It's a shame animation like that doesn't exist anymore in the west. But I guess with the success of the MCU they all want to focus on live-action movies and shows based on comics these days rather than make a new DCAU-like animated continuity of mature storytelling and writing.

I thought Spider-Verse looked super ugly myself, but at least it tried something different and wasn't just another Disney or Pixar animated film. So it probably deserved to win based on that alone.

Visual vomit like Steven Universe and Netflix She-Ra don't get proper toylines because kids don't care about them. That is why the former isn't aired wall-to-wall on Cartoon Network.

But CN doesn't work that way though, unless they get a stake on the merchandise. For example, the Total Drama shows occupy the prime real estates on CN's schedule right now, and they can't build on toys for that. Same with Netflix - they don't get a stake on the merchandise. All they care for are the viewerships.

enurtsol wrote:

But CN doesn't work that way though, unless they get a stake on the merchandise. For example, the Total Drama shows occupy the prime real estates on CN's schedule right now, and they can't build on toys for that. Same with Netflix - they don't get a stake on the merchandise. All they care for are the viewerships.

Teen Titans GO has tons of merchandise and toys. The main difference is Teen Titans GO is extremely popular with children where as Cartoon Network's other shows are not, and skew an older audience who generally don't buy toys, and figuring out a way to capitalize on those audiences has been an issue for networks for the longest time.

Primus wrote:

Visual vomit like Steven Universe and Netflix She-Ra don't get proper toylines because kids don't care about them. That is why the former isn't aired wall-to-wall on Cartoon Network.

But CN doesn't work that way though, unless they get a stake on the merchandise. For example, the Total Drama shows occupy the prime real estates on CN's schedule right now, and they can't build on toys for that. Same with Netflix - they don't get a stake on the merchandise. All they care for are the viewerships.

Remember ... the original Disney movies as well as the Looney Tunes theatrical shorts were originally aimed at adults. Also as late as the 1960s, western animation such as Johnny Quest contained plenty of violence and adult themes. How and why western animation transformed into being primarily for children would make for an interesting think piece. Especially since in the ensuing decades the attempts at "adult animation" in the west (see "art" in this area from Ralph Bakshi, Robert Crumb, Seth Rogen) usually ends up being even more juvenile than ecchi anime aimed at 11 year olds.

Oh yeah, and calling Spider-Verse's animation ugly requires criticizing the excellent title and closing sequences of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood which looks exactly like it. Though they will deny it if asked, Kimba the White Lion/The Lion King style (Matthew Broderick even states that he thought that the project was a Kimba the White Lion remake) I am absolutely certain that the folks who made Into The Spiderverse were "familiar" with Phantom Blood.

Remember ... the original Disney movies as well as the Looney Tunes theatrical shorts were originally aimed at adults. Also as late as the 1960s, western animation such as Johnny Quest contained plenty of violence and adult themes. How and why western animation transformed into being primarily for children would make for an interesting think piece. Especially since in the ensuing decades the attempts at "adult animation" in the west (see "art" in this area from Ralph Bakshi, Robert Crumb, Seth Rogen) usually ends up being even more juvenile than ecchi anime aimed at 11 year olds.