As kids we used to watch the Saturday morning previews of the new cartoons and then the older brother would make us a schedule of what we'd watch -- which sounds really obsessive and weird, but it kept us from fighting ... sometimes. We'd watch ABC (channel 7) until Bugs Bunny came on, and then we'd move to channel 2 all the way through to the live action stuff: Shazam, Isis, and that show about the people driving around in what looked like an elongated styrofoam burger box -- I don't know what it was called, but they solved environmental issues in a post-apocalyptic Earth (it had a monkey and some Robert Foxworth-y looking guy, that's all I remember).
Anyway, so we get this disc set and first we watched it like a treasure box, waiting to see what would come up next, but that requires sitting through some serious crap. The c/r has decided it's better to use the episode guide on each disc, but I'm beginning to think the crap has something to offer as well, if only because it provides such an interesting study of how crappy crap can be.
I know a lot of people pick on Hanna-Barbera -- the backgrounds are bland, the characters are flat, the stories are bad and, in general, movement defies the laws of physics. Friends, you just haven't seen it up against Filmation.
Now, I know you Filmation die-hards are going to bark at me about the use of rotoscoping and live models and the characters have real movement -- hell, they will even sometimes throw in a shadow or two in the opening credits -- but they are the biggest offenders of lazy repeat shots and appear to be complete incapable of producing depth of field.
Hanna-Barbera:
Without even knowing the story, already you can tell it's early in the morning for George, his hair is a mess, he needs a shave, his hands (on arms made of noodle, sure) are in motion, and the detail on the house makes it seem like a Wes Anderson movie over the Michael Bay-ish production of Filmation:
Sure, there's some detail -- we know they're playing Pong (how topical!) and it's maybe in a garage because the background is concrete texture (or it's really old film stock), but it's dead, flat space with, what, 3 colors? Maybe 4 if you count the yellow "GAME OVER" part.
The character detail is just as exciting, perhaps more so:
Successive shots -- that Robin is a pretty intellectual fella. And what's all that happening in the background? Oh yeah, there's NOTHING happening in the background, that's what. If there was they may not be able to use the shot again.
Maybe I should hold off on my opinion until we get the Super Friends series from Netflix. But I can't say anything bad about Aquaman no matter who draws him.
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