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Bobbing heads in cartoons

AnonusAnonus
edited 2014-10-13 23:14:05 in General
I'm pretty sure Hanna-Barbera invented this. And as fond of H-B as I am I don't know if I can forgive them for this. This trope has lurched on for decades despite not needing to.

Comments

  • BeeBee
    image
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    Not those bobbing heads

    I mean when cartoon characters in TV cartoons speak, their heads usually bob up and down while doing so

    H-B initially came up with it so as to make a scene more visually interesting, but as TV animation got less limited, this trope remained in force
  • BeeBee
    edited 2014-10-14 01:05:25
    I'm not sure what you mean, really.  I mean I can think of stuff like stock frames in Scooby Doo of certain characters delivering exposition where their head jitters a bit, but it was just lazily aligned cels and I don't think that's what you mean.

    Which really reminds me of why I didn't like Hanna Barbera cartoons.  The animation was so slapdash, even for a rushed studio with so many recycled frames -- it's like the cartoon equivalent of getting a McDonalds burger with the patty and the cheese both halfway off the bun in different directions.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    I like H-B cartoons - the comedic ones that predate Scooby (e.g. Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, The Flintstones) - because of the character designs, backgrounds, and voice acting. People don't tend to give H-B credit for the writing, but it wasn't incapable of being fun, though like the rest of H-B it tended to vary in quality. (Having Warner Bros. veteran Michael Maltese, writer of some of the best cartoon shorts of all time, on board helped!)

    As for bobbing heads, I don't mean jittery cels. I mean heads moving up and down while speaking, in a planned manner. (I wouldn't say H-B was lazy when it came to jittery cels - they just seem like things that people who were used to making cartoons on much more liberal schedules before coming to H-B wouldn't catch with their newer, faster schedules)
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    I do notice something of a dichotomy in my mind - in my mind, aesthetics trump writing when it comes to my perception of H-B, and writing trumps aesthetics when it comes to Jay Ward (who I think of as the only other '50s-'60s TV animation player with any real legacy today), though they had their moments on both fronts.
  • AnonusAnonus
    edited 2014-10-14 02:04:28
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    I do kind of worry that my fondness for H-B is misplaced - it exists mainly out of nostalgia (I watched lots of Boomerang as a kid - I do kind of worry that a lot of others of my generation either simply didn't have the channel or went "eww" at its programming and avoided it), and H-B didn't wholly invent the house style. It's kind of like Tom and Jerry meets UPA (understandable; Ed Benedict, who designed most of H-B's most iconic characters, was a big believer in the UPA philosophy and, like many other H-B talents, the founders included, a veteran of MGM's cartoon studio), and UPA's cartoons have fallen into such obscurity that people other than animation buffs don't really point to them as a visual hallmark anymore...
  • Salix BabylonikaSalix Babylonika
    https://i.imgur.com/IoGc2jA.jpg
    that's like, not a thing anymore.

    that is very much a trope of like 60's animation, or things that parody it.



    I like H-B cartoons - the comedic ones that predate Scooby (e.g.
    Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, The Flintstones) - because of the
    character designs, backgrounds, and voice acting. People don't tend to
    give H-B credit for the writing, but it wasn't incapable of being fun,
    though like the rest of H-B it tended to vary in quality. (Having Warner
    Bros. veteran Michael Maltese, writer of some of the best cartoon
    shorts of all time, on board helped!)
    I'm gonna like, strongly disagree with you here.

    Quickdraw McGraw was alright, but I don't think I ever laughed at Hucleberry Hound. It just wasn't funny, I'm not even sure if it was supposed to be.
  • AlirozAliroz
    ...And even when your hope is gone
    move along, move along, just to make it through
    (2015 self)
    I thought Huckleberry Hound was funny.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    beyond the mojave said:

    that's like, not a thing anymore.

    that is very much a trope of like 60's animation, or things that parody it.

    I've seen it in things made well after the '60s, and not parodies of it either.

    I don't think Huck is that FUNNY, but I do think he's likable. His back-up character Mr. Jinks is definitely funnier, though.
  • OdradekOdradek
    My dreams exceed my real life
    People did this in Okami
  • BeeBee
    edited 2014-10-14 16:39:14
    Granted, it actually does have a purpose in video games -- especially those with a) no voice acting, b) a standard camera angle that doesn't let you see the speaker's mouth, and/or c) characters that don't have mouths rendered at all.  They have to have some way of signalling to you who the speaker is.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    http://notanothersonicblog.tumblr.com/post/101819739397/i-have-to-say-this-is-some-very-biased-one-sided

    See, this is what I was talking about
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    image

    Bobbing head!
  • TachyonTachyon
    imagei will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch
    Some of these seem fairly naturalistic, imo.
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