I thought this was cool.

The ‘notes to animators’ at 00:43 are the letters ‘popping’ off the potato chip packet as it snaps back on his head.

And background color continuity? That’s pretty a clearly stylistic choice – the kind John K’s been making for years. Decades, even.

I’v seen a couple commercials he has made, like this and the raketu one, but where are these commercials shown? who sees these? all that work/money, but how many people view these commercials?

The comparison to Jim Tyer is justified. Tyer could bang out the footage which was Terrytoons main concern, but I don’t know what the schedule was for this. The tech gitches may or may not be an intentional thing for John. He is a madman.

What’s really lazy is assuming you know the circumstances someone was under when they created something. It’s one of these blog buzzwords that everyone is copying each other saying: “His screenwriting was so lazy” or “Her directing was so lazy”.

People definitely have a right to voice their opinion and be critical of something, but calling someone lazy insinuates that you know what they went through and how they acted in making something. It’s self-centered to think you can assume such things. And, frankly, most of the criticisms I see on this blog and others come from people who don’t do shit, let alone produce something great. So how would you even know what “lazy” means?

Crazy as always- which is good and bad!

I personally side with the comments that point out Johns general “sloppy, formless, flat look and animation”, but I want to provide a possible reason.

John K has said that he was greatly influenced by Jim Tyer, an animator for Terrytoons.

Jim Tyers animation stood out in that at times it would become strange and formless, but this was not for artistic reasons, it was a necessity in order to work with the tight schedules and minimum budget that the Terrytoons often had.

To take this and try to turn it into a “style” is foolish, it’d be like trying to make a meal from mud.

Actually, watching it a few more times, presto chage-o, I quite like it!

The odd mistake is friggin’ annoying, but that’s just me, (rat’s tail becomes two at one point!)but ah well.

As Jennifer said, it seems some of it was done in a rush. Hopefully his next project will be given enough time. Quite nice that he goes to the effort to acknowledge all who helped to make it on his blog.

I can’t believe I missed the car on the roof in the background first time!

I thought this was pretty good, and it almost made me want to buy a shirt. Great animation John. Keep experimenting.

Attacking this piece because you think John K. is overly critical of other animation is kind of admitting you are not judging this on it’s own merits/ your honest reaction to it.

I actually just enjoyed watching it, it’s fun and energetic and very entertaining (made me laugh).

The second time I watched it I laughed at stuff I didn’t notice the first time.

There’s plenty of extremely polished multi million dollar stuff out there to suck in. He’s being brave, there’s a fun experimental joy to his recent stuff.

People still think the original Ren & Stimpy stuff is just crazy extreme drawings thrown together without any control. I think this work is just as deceptive.

I think the technical stuff/faults and rule breaking are clear to see, but clearly the creator(s) don’t care. This makes me wonder ‘Should we?’, ‘Do we?’(care that is).

I think the animation is great. I like the sloppiness and the ‘what the hell’ quality. Better to go too far than not far enough. There’s a lot of life to it.

I just hate all the aggression and the bully-boy humour. Not healthy.

There’s undoubtedly good stuff here, but that’s no reason to write off any attempt at criticism, this is how we become better artists, seeing what other artists do, and asking what it does right and what it does wrong, and how any missteps could have been avoided, and regardless of what anyone says about John K, it’s that he always produces something interesting enough to warrant discussion. Personally, I feel his newer stuff has something of a dissonance between style, technique, and tone. His work has always occupied a space between ’50s modern design, and McKimson-esque solidity, but now it seems like the level of abstraction in the design, specifically the degree to which it’s seeped into the acting (i.e. the strange eye singularity collapses), has started interfering with the raw humanity that used to come from sense of organic form, what’s more, his desire nowadays to make everything move around in these zany flowing ways means that these abstractions don’t really “hit”. He seems to have this idea that it’s really more about “feeling” the drawings, but drawings that are that stylized or abstracted can’t really be felt with that kind of immediacy, which is why Chuck Jones cartoons where always so deliberately paced.

This is a hell of an experiment. I think whatever John does at this point of his life will be a test of his new ideas put to work. Some will fall short and others will open doors for others to shamelessly rip off.

Per second of footage packs a lot of information. Hiearchy of forms are present, color theories are in place. Big success here is the directness of his lines using a Cintiq. There’s no loss of energy. This has the force of Milt Gross’ most manic comics.

Personally, I want to see more so the experiments continue and see how this develops.

Lazy or not, looked like he had great fun doing this!

And opinions are like a$$h0les, everybody has one!!

i like how on johnk’s blogspot there is hella fanboys just stroking his ego and here theres some harsh criticism of his work,, g00d opposites ;-) thnx cartoonbrew

I want to temper my earlier review by saying that on second viewing, there is a lot to love in this thing! I still think a few scenes don’t read well, maybe it was rushed at the end of editing.