Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Fred Moore, Where Are You?

Let's see.  There's seven of these little guys.  Could it be?  Why yes!  It's the seven dwarfs.  Well, they're public domain, so anybody can use them, right?  What's that?  This is a Disney project?  DISNEY?

Welcome to 7D, a new TV series for Disney Jr.   Quick!  Which one is Doc and which one is Happy?
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7 comments:

  1. Chris SobieniakJune 19, 2012 8:31 PM

    This is just stupid! Not worth anyone's time, even pre-schoolers!

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  2. Zartok-35June 19, 2012 9:10 PM

    This show isn't going to be a refreshing break from contemporary cliches, I see. These characters look exactally like something off Total Drama Island! Tom Reugger is involved, so there's some hope; but not much.

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  3. ThadJune 19, 2012 9:13 PM

    Haven't you familiarized yourself with what Disney's recent TV fare looks like, Mark?

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  4. Pete EmslieJune 23, 2012 7:03 PM

    Starting with Eisner and continuing under Iger, Disney has become a company that seems uncomfortable in its own skin. It's like they went from being a fine cuisine restaurant to one with McDonald's envy, desperate to cater to the tasteless masses. I just don't get it...

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  5. ThadJune 23, 2012 7:27 PM

    Pete, it's been that way well before Eisner...

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  6. Pete EmslieJune 23, 2012 8:48 PM

    Sorry Thad, but I don't agree. When Ron Miller and Card Walker were at the helm, Disney may have become more conservative and risk averse , but there was still the unmistakable Disney look and feel to everything they produced. I know you don't care much for Disney yourself, but for those of us that grew up loving Disney films the loss of that Disney "look" is extremely disheartening. I think you know very well that I'm specifically criticizing the way Eisner and Iger have forsaken the Disney in-house look and gone for all of these very unDisneylike shows and movies, indistinguishable from everybody else's product. Let's be honest - you WB fans were aghast at what they did to the Looney Tunes characters when they did that idiotic "Loonatics Unleashed" show, as well you should be. I see this revisionist approach to The Seven Dwarfs as being just as bad as that.

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  7. ThadJune 23, 2012 11:12 PM

    Pete, I apologize for this, but what you wrote compelled me to dash out a lengthy reply...

    That 70s/80s art is more "Disney", but at what cost? Remember: it was during Eisner's reign that a lot of the standard characters art went back to something more traditional (the button-eye Mickey became prevalent on merchandise), the studio actually entered that fascinatingly evil world of animated television, and you can't deny that the features got better and less inbred for a few years. He screwed up big time later, no denying that. But the years before he came to power were just as much a breeding ground for all kinds of ugly artwork and just awful films. Rather than Mickey looking like Adventure Time, he looked like Filmation.

    There are parallels to the WB characters, and the main one is that the corporate offices just don't care about these characters' livelihoods. Once in awhile, they'll employ a guy who's clearly going beyond the status quo, like that guy drawing the Hallmark Looney Tunes cards, or the guys writing and drawing compelling versions of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck for Egmont in Denmark, unseen and unappreciated by American audiences. Or you. And god bless you, because you're among the few who actually care about maintaining a standard of good drawing and integrity in a thankless vacuum.

    LOONATICS, like this D7 thing, was clearly a completely separate entity from the original source. I think they'll do less harm than the Nichols/King shorts did to the Disney shorts' reputation in general.

    The D7 designs are ugly to be sure, but I think the originals can rest easy. Should we see a shift in Grumpy "kiss my ass" t-shirts from the Tyla model to this hackwork, then you have every right to complain.

    Conversely, there does seem to be an overwhelmingly cynical campaign to shove that paramountly lame Looney Tunes Show down our throats as the 'official' version of the characters; something like that deserves far more disdain. (There might be hope as they realized what a POS they have on their hands and are now bringing in people that can actually draw the characters, like David Alvarez. There was already an interstitial animated using Alvarez's work, and Porky and Daffy actually look like Porky and Daffy.)

    I think though, Pete, that we both agree that the work is moving towards a purer form of crap.. I just happen to think that that devolution began a lot earlier...

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