High on that list would be:

1. the roasting of Cam Chaos’ Dirk Greenhouse spots for Ecozone (for being such a “ripoff” of the Ripping Friends)

2. the bashing AND the defense of the bashing of the new George of the Jungle

3. the condemnation of that “How to Cheat at Flash” Book and the wholesale mud-slinging aimed at Flash in general that it spawned

4. And the character asassination of Loren Bouchard for that Dailymotion contest.

Anyone detecting a pattern here?

Cartoon Network for continuing to give more airtime to live-action movies and shows. And not enough time for quality animation

The Wackiest Moment this year was the whole OMF Fiasco, naw, it’s not “Oh, Mother BLEEPer”, but, that’s what some of us exclaimed everytime (and there were many of those times), OLD MACDONALD’S FARM came up out of context, on forums, on the radio, on blogs, etc… We were never sure if our legs were being pulled, or if it was, as we were told, someone with a “groundhog day” type of looping amnesia.

- Cartoon Network going live action.

- CG Popeye

-anything created by focus groups

just a couple off the top of my head.

“I know I’m opening a can of worms here, but what do you think were some of the dumbest moments in animation in 2007?”

Sad fact is, they are same ones every year.

Beowulf?

putting live-action onto CN!

the fillm, “Alvin & the Chipmunks!”

(need i say more!??)

A can of wriggling, juicy mo-cap’ed worms?

Giving Don Hertzfeldt that trophy at the Platform Animation Festival in Portland.

That poor trophy. lol

Warners not putting “Mouse Cleaning” and “Casanova Cat” and cutting other cartoons on Tom & Jerry Spotlight Collection Volume 3.

Hmmm, considering that you picked out some of their animation related ones, that were indeed dumb, this one at number 9 struck me:

9. French newspaper Le Monde
Ooh-la-la, gross!
The French daily Le Monde calls Ratatouille, Pixar’s movie about a rat in a kitchen, “one of the greatest gastronomic films in the history of cinema.”

How is this the ninth dumbest moment in business this year? How is it dumb at all? Gastronomic just means the art of good cooking. Sure if you only read the plot synopsis of Ratatouille, you may think, eww, rats in kitchens are gross, but the film was extremely successful in making all of the food look absolutely delicious, and celebrates food to such a degree that only films like the ‘noodle western’ Tampopo come close.

Sorry, but this is a reeaaally dumb entry on the Fortune list.

–>Cartoon Network’s shameless advertising of its “first live-action show.” “Ironically” the parts I enjoyed the most were the animated characters–and that was without predetermined bias 75% of the time. And now that the writer’s strike is still happening, the show and other live-action projects have shut down production.

–>The Tintin CGI movie statements, especially the sentiment that it will be in the same style as the original creator’s, but *better.* (the actual word was *improved*). You can’t get any more insulting than that.

That’s all I got off the top of my head.

Somebody giving John Kricfalusi money to make another crappy, ugly video.

I have very mixed feelings about the color restoration of “Popeye meets Sindbad the Sailor”. I can’t stand Brutus painted bright blue. It just looks wrong.

Live Action films on CN!

and the “Alvin & the Chipmunks” feature!!

Duh!!

To me, Classic Media greenlighting Disney’s crappy movie adaptation of “Underdog”

Tom & Jerry Vol. 3

Doesn’t the “Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie” in and of itself count as a dumb moment?

I think just how bitter and hateful people can get over the existence of certain cartoons that they do not like. Usually cartoons they haven’t really watched or don’t completely get. I think that’s very very dumb.

The ATHF thing was really Mayor Menino’s idiocy. The damn things looked like Light Brites, and no amount of fear mongering can change that key fact.

Oh, also pricing the animation box sets at 60$ and thinking they’re opening them up to the public.

Oh, and putting the new Goofy cartoon in front of National Treasue 2. LAME!

The city of Boston’s *reaction* to the Aqua Teen PR stunt?

Seriously, everyone in the government involved in that cluster**** should have been fired and blackballed all the was to Skid Row, and not allowed to ever manage so much as a lemonade stand until the day they died, homeless and alone.

I totally agree with all of the above, especially the CG Popeye. Some off the top of my head are:

Shrek the Third
Beowulf
that horrible CG Tootsie Pop commercial
Family Guy (which will make my list every year it’s still on)

The Disneyland criticism is stupid. They don’t even have their facts right. Since when does CNN get their information from online tabloid “journalists” (i.e. MiceAge)?

I nominate Shrek 3.

For me, it’s

Underdog movie
Alvin and the Chipmunks movie teaser
live action on Cartoon Network
Canceling El Tigre (people, stop pitching shows to Nick. Cartoon Network needs those good shows)
making an mo-cap animated movie where the characters look just like the live actors (aka Beowulf).

And like every year, not giving animated movies from overseas a wider release. (Persepolis, Tekkon Kinkreet).

the first post of this thread.

“Out Of Jimmy’s Head.” Like the movie from which it was spawned, every live character has “cliche” written on them (picked on misfits, bullies, Lizzie McGuire wannabes) and the cartoon characters have zero personality.

stavner says:

“Somebody giving John Kricfalusi money to make another crappy, ugly video.”

Idiot John K bashers who think it gives them some kind of rep with other animators by being John K bashers.

I agree with mickhyperion that the Disney criticism is stupid. If anything, I think it’s a good decision because it’s being accomodating to the guests. But probably all the article’s writers saw was “changing” Small World and a chance to laugh at fatties.

Add me to the chorus of people decrying live action on Cartoon Network, and I’d like to add the abundance of just-film-it-live-action-already motion capture films.

:( . This one made me sad–> http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/fortune/0712/gallery.101_dumbest.fortune/51.html

Why the heck hasn’t Lil’ Bush made this list yet, or Adult Swim’s supposed-to-be-ironic-funny-but-falls-on-its-face Xavier: Renegade Angel. I never thought something would make me miss Squidbillies so much X( And on the anime side, they’ve finally greenlit a Dragon Ball Z live-action movie. Speed Racer looks great, and I’m a huge anime fan, so I feel like I should be excited about another anime movie… But all I feel is cold, cold dread.

Shrek 3 was an atrocity, but thankfully the Christmas special was much better–Still really didn’t make up for it, but it dulled the pain. Oh, and a crappily-drawn Transformers cartoon premieres just in time to make this list. My brother saw the preview with me, and I think we both died a little bit inside.

On the other hand, a lot of good things happened this year in animation… There’s Chowder, a lot of good animation books came out this year, um… Yeah, so hard to think of good things when I keep having scenes for Tim & Eric, Awesome Show, Great Job haunting me and giving me nightmares. There’s more though, I’m sure of it!

That we had to pay for a movie ticket to finally see a ‘funny’ new episode of The Simpsons.

Letting

Sanders

Go.

Well, Family Guy is one. If anything good comes out of the strike maybe it’ll be the show being canned a second time! (unfortunately i doubt it’ll happen, but the fact that Fox is ignoring Seth McFarlane’s requests to not air episodes he didn’t finish his own work on helps)

Plus, I think the butchering of Underdog is a big thing you haven’t mentioned yet. Why do I have a gut feeling they’re probably gonna do the same to Mr. Peabody the way things are going?

Heck, I think reality TV and unions are useless, but even I am beginning to think it would be great if the strike lasted for years! Most of the stuff I watch on regular ol’ TV is sports-related anyway.

Re: Oh, and putting the new Goofy cartoon in front of National Treasue 2. LAME!
——

Um…. please explain why?

The ballooning power of developement departments, top-heavy executives laying off more and more artists…focus testing, 3rd-party analyses teams and consumer product’s. Giving up on artists. Committee driven scripts. Scripts. Scripts and Writers.

…and the fact that all of the above mentioned actually loathe animation.

Top __ lists of dumbest moments in animation.

Disney announcing that their next 2-D film would have a black princess who’s a chambermaid in the 1920’s.

And the first post of this thread.

Andy Suriano is a decent writer and a talented artist, who has had a good view of all sides of the problem in the last few years. That the business is now on virtual life support due to years of development departments being given free reign and all the power in animation studios speaks louder than any rant that pops up on Cartoon Brew in its defense. The entire film industry may be going the way of the music business. Not a hell of a lot of vision at the top at any studio. The only real skill the creative execs and division heads had was saving their own sorry butts and even that has blessedly begun to crumble.

-Jeffery Katzenberg’s little temper tantrum at the hotel. Its nice that the leader of one of today’s biggest animation studios carries himself with such class.

Short-sighted bitching about a cartoon opening a live-action movie - ANY live-action movie. Why in the world would we want to potentially increase the audience for animation? What WERE we thinking?

I’m not an animator.

And I used to _like_ Kricfalusi, until his cartoons got ugly and unfunny. I still think that the Bakshi Mighty Mouse is one of the great cartoons of the 1980s. So when I talk smack about John K., I talk smack as a disappointed former fan.

“And the first post of this thread.”

Please Elaborate!

Stavner: you don’t even like Ren and Stimpy? I’d say those look a lot better than Might mouse myself

I like Ren and Stimpy too, except for the ones John K. did without Bill Wray and Bob Camp, for Spike TV.

This may not be a mistake for this year alone but for every year Disney has put off releasing Destino on DVD, I’m sick of waiting for this wonderful short film to be enjoyed freely. It was on youtube but I guess that got scared of what Disney would do if they kept if up there…..

Boondocks.

A great comic strip.
A difficult but overall excellent first season.
A second season that emerged as a degrading “trainwreck” so terrible it really belonged on B.E.T.

AE.

I just want to put in another vote for live action on CN and adult swim, as well as the cancellation of El Tigre and the greenlighting of xavier renegade angel aka the most unwatchable show ever made no matter what the medium. I also would like to add mocap being classified as animation. I’m not condemning mocap, it’s a perfectly useful film making tool. It’s just a different thing than animation; like puppetry, godzilla style “suitmation”, and jessica simpson (of which two of those three things I absolutely adore).

“Please Elaborate!”

there is no elaboration needed. the bitter grudge you have is abundantly clear in your post. now you want to bicker about it? you certainly aren’t worth my time. perhaps someone else will oblige.

John K defending racist caricatures. That was a real headscratcher for just about everyone who saw it.

“See guys, this drawing of an cherry with a caricature of a Japanese person using stereotypes from the 1940’s is just as racist as this lemon-head, because it’s offensive to people with jaundice.”

making underdog a real dog

making alvin and the chipmunks chipmunk sized

making beowulf.

The “Read A Book” controversy.

“the bitter grudge you have is abundantly clear in your post. ”

Nominating a bunch of frothy, ridiculous spectacles that didn’t need to happen is holding a “bitter grudge”????????

Like it or not, the kind of ass-kissing, shillism, backstabbing, backbiting, and hollering that occured in the four events I singled out were just obnoxious and unnecessary. The way people reacted to that Bob Cesca/Ecozone spot, you’d think no artist has ever borrowed from another artist, let alone from John K. That was Strike One.

Ten seconds of the New George gets leaked on the internet, and It’s the ultimate affront to “real cartoony art”. THAT was Strike Two.

Flash is the worst thing to happen to animtation because someone publishes a book called “How to Cheat at Flash”? Strike Three. YOU’RE OUT!!!!!!!!

And if that wasn’t enough, Loren Bouchard’s entire career was dragged into the mud over a Dailymotion contest that no one seemed to be well-informed on. Let’s just pretend this was Strike Four.

2007 was pretty underwhelming as far as Dumb events go IMO, because the other events listed (like the Aqua Teen Bomb Scare) didn’t piss me off nearly as much as what i’ve listed. That said, the Tom and Jerry DVD thing is worthy of the list.

Chuck Zimbellas at that animation nation chat site whining that people don’t know how IMPORTANT he thinks he is.

-Cartoon Network: And their third world programming

-Family Guy: The same writers who thanked fans for the show’s return are now ignoring fans’ complaints by A) measuring the show’s quality by ratings, exactly what killed the show the first time, and B) now using the strike to divert attention from the show’s creative direction.
Hope we don’t have to worry about a FG movie for a long time, if ever.

-Jim Hill and John K. bashing Pixar: Seriously, do they WANT Pixar to crash and burn? Does their commitment to the animation industry mean nothing to them?

-Idiot Disney execs whining about Pixar’s creative leverage: First, Disney shouldn’t trash-talk Pixar’s films until their own animated films start hitting the 200 million mark.
Second, those comments were possibly from the same morons who had a hand in destroying Disney’s in-house animation a few years ago. No use mourning a business plan that ruins lives.

I agree The Chipmunks teaser trailer is the dumbest move on 2oth Century Fox’s part

But, Thank Ross Jr. for getting rid of the bad advertising when the film came out

The film itself It’s quite good, The Chipmunks act like the same Chipmunks we know and love

It has a good plot and very entertaining!

The crappy trailer to “Surf’s Up” which featured live-action filmed penguins in a movie theater cracking terrible jokes instead of showing funny stuff from the actual movie itself, thus dooming the movie to flop.
Good thinking, ad people.

I’m going to agree with Kevin. Besides, cartoons should inspire pure pure humanity! Not hate!

Why not talk about the best things in animation instead of the worst. This will just become a hate orgy.

-Futurama releasing new adventures.
-Rattatoullie kicking ass
-Chris Ware animating an opening for ‘This American Life’
-Disney releasing its first new short of many
-South Park’s amazing ‘Imaginationland’ trilogy.
-Chowder is beautiful stuff
-Was the Stephen DeStefano Plastic Man short out this year? I can’t remember… whatever happened to it I wonder.
-Death Note came out in the states this year, so I guess that counts. In the states.

There. All awesome things. Just the tip of the iceberg. What else…

Dumbest this year: my cynicism.

Best: Ceaser’s list and positivity.

…AND mentioning the Plastic Man pilot! hehehe

A lot bothered me about ‘I Am Legend’. But the CGI vampires made it even more difficult to watch.

• Terrible marketing of “Surf’s Up”. Everyone I know who saw this movie said the same thing, “This is gonna sound crazy, but it was actually kinda good and smart!”. If you’re a director who made a good and smart animated movie, you don’t want audiences to assume it’s stupid and fart-jokey from the ads.

• The mo-cap bashing “Happy Feet” got after it won Best Animated Film. Seriously, just because Savion Glover’s feet were used as dance reference, folks say “it’s not REALLY animated!”. Come on.

• The announcement of Shrek 4 and Shrek 5.

As for The Chipmunk Movie — you might not enjoy it, but it made $42 million its opening weekend. Doesn’t sound dumb to me.

Whoa! According to Andy’s blog… Plastic Man pilot… DEAD!? :(. What happened? That thing was amazing.

Dumbest moment? Big Hollywood companies making cartoons for tv and feature length animated movies, all trying to be either the next Family Guy or Shrek.

Personally, I think cartoons should go back to being 5-7 minute shorts in the movie theaters.

Another dumb moment: having all those UPA cartoons stuck on YouTube when they should be put on DVD.

> Ceaser says:
>
> :( . This one made me sad–>

(bothering to quote from it)
51. Apple
One, two, three, four, we’ll sue you if you send us more
Nine-year-old Shea O’Gorman sends a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs suggesting ideas for improving her beloved iPod Nano, including adding onscreen lyrics so people can sing along. She gets back a letter from Apple’s legal counsel stating that the company doesn’t accept unsolicited ideas and telling her not to send in any more suggestions.

Reasons to hate the corporate world!

> Andy Suriano says:
>
>The ballooning power of developement departments, top-heavy executives laying off more and more artists…focus testing, 3rd-party analyses teams and consumer product’s. Giving up on artists. Committee driven scripts. Scripts. Scripts and Writers.
>
>…and the fact that all of the above mentioned actually loathe animation.

BINGO!

> Mr. Semaj says:
>
> -Cartoon Network: And their third world programming

I’ll never understand that channel again!

> -Family Guy: The same writers who thanked fans for the show’s return are now ignoring fans’ complaints by A) measuring the show’s quality by ratings, exactly what killed the show the first time, and B) now using the strike to divert attention from the show’s creative direction.
> Hope we don’t have to worry about a FG movie for a long time, if ever.

My sis is rather stunned I don’t like FG at all given the circumstances I resemble Peter Griffin too much, but I just can’t stand it for all the above reasons!

> -Idiot Disney execs whining about Pixar’s creative leverage: First, Disney shouldn’t trash-talk Pixar’s films until their own animated films start hitting the 200 million mark.
> Second, those comments were possibly from the same morons who had a hand in destroying Disney’s in-house animation a few years ago. No use mourning a business plan that ruins lives.

We can only pray they’ll die soon!

> Zekey says:
>
> The crappy trailer to “Surf’s Up� which featured live-action filmed penguins in a movie theater cracking terrible jokes instead of showing funny stuff from the actual movie itself, thus dooming the movie to flop.
> Good thinking, ad people.

Funny I hadn’t seen that, but then, I wouldn’t bother seeing that film anyway!

> Ceaser says:
>
-Death Note came out in the states this year, so I guess that counts. In the states.

And not Europe or Latin America like always? :-)

> Shaw says:
>
> Dumbest moment? Big Hollywood companies making cartoons for tv and feature length animated movies, all trying to be either the next Family Guy or Shrek.

I only wish they made shows with a ’story’ for once and not let it be a string of visual gags, scatological humor and whatever else can be stuck in to plug up any real silence one might want to achieve in critical moments.

> Personally, I think cartoons should go back to being 5-7 minute shorts in the movie theaters.

I’d rather just see less corporate hands in animation, period!

> Another dumb moment: having all those UPA cartoons stuck on YouTube when they should be put on DVD.

Sadly true.

“-Jim Hill and John K. bashing Pixar: Seriously, do they WANT Pixar to crash and burn? Does their commitment to the animation industry mean nothing to them?”

I don’t know about Jim Hill but John K. said Pixar as the best animation studio today.

“John K defending racist caricatures. That was a real headscratcher for just about everyone who saw it.”

I love funny caricatures, especially the ones in Coal Black.

- Signed, A Black Man

Thomas says: The “Read A Book� controversy.

You mean the short or the controversy itself?

Stereotypes in media will offend some (or many), and not offend others. One person who likes a stereotypical image is offset by the many who are offended by it, or by those to whom it helps keep a stereotype alive.

I condemn stereotypes that only have the purpose of hate behind them, not humor. That’s why I would laugh at that wolf as a Jewish peddler in the Disney Three Littles Pigs short instead of one in Nazi or KKK Propaganda.

I would say the ridiculous coverage of the Simpson’s movie and it’s feel good “Made in America” or “Saves 2D Animation” spin. You know, stories like this?

Also, I would say that the Hellboy animated films were successful (although visually awful) while the Screw On Head pilot (beautiful and funny) was never picked up.

Definitely Cartoon Network execs calling a cartoon “animation-y.”

I’m Jewish, and i gotta say, I don’t think the wolf is funny. Its just kind of dumb, a snapshot of how gentiles saw a people they were oppressing back in the day. Same goes for that guy who fixed the World Series in ‘The Great Gatsby’. Yeah they were better than the Nazi propaganda, but they still weren’t great. They were made out of contempt, which is a step away from hate. I only find them funny in the ironic sense. Not in the sense that its funny because he’s dressed as a stingy Jew, or that the shuffling black man doesn’t get it. I probably can’t convince the people who think otherwise, but why is that ‘funny’?

The wolf in the 3 little pigs was supposed to be Jewish??? Man, I’m the most naive white person ever. I didn’t even realize until somebody told me in college that the crows in Dumbo were supposed to be black. I suppose that one positive side to all this is that some of these stereotypes fly right over the heads of younger generations, and eventually will be meaningless.

The wolf dresses up as a Jewish brush salesman in one scene, another version of the sheep in wolves clothing. It comes right before the actual sheps in wolves clothing and tends to be cut out of most versions of the toon. Yeah, you’re right, eventually these stereotypes will be meaningless, and that’s good.

Hmmm, well, high, *VERY* high on my list would be the overuse of digital video noise reduction when transferring classic cartoons from the theatrical and classic TV age to DVD, thinking that they are giving the viewer the ultimate restoration. Stop letting the computers do all the work or give over the dusty old reels of classic cartoons to people with a genuine affection for the stuff…and, if the video companies are afraid to do this, thinking that the independent art lovers might end up raking in the bucks, well, why not hire the independent art lover to do this job and watch the money roll in when grateful fans show their support to the point where megastores and online dealers find that the item is flying off the shelves?

Stop tampering with the past and look to the future!!

Family Guy.