Well I'll be damned. For two months, I had nothing to post on my blog. Not because hardly anybody reads blogs anymore but because I have writers block, that and I work at retail now.
Why did I decide to write a post about writing in Cartoons? Because of that goddamn Writers Strike that happened in May 2. Apparently the writers are pissed off about not getting compensated enough for their work and Hollywood refusing their demands for higher pay. That as well as the rise of AI tools taking over the writing, the art.... whatever. Bottom-line is that this has not been good for anybody....
Anyway. Rant over, on to the main topic at hand.
Sorry for the image of Harlan Ellison.
I don't think he liked Cartoons but I didn't have a good image of what a cartoon writer should look like.
Why is writing important for Cartoons?
It sets a template for how the cartoon should look as well as provide a thematic story for it.
This has actually been important for Cartoons since the beginning of medium.
But really it's prominence, at last to my theory, was more or less spurred by the cheapening of cartoons of the 1960s when Hanna-Barbera become prominent thanks to The Flintstones.
Barney, You're gonna be a writer for our show and you're gonna turn me in the perfect script!!!
NO IF'S, AND'S, OR BUTS!
The animations made by Hanna-Barbera were nothing short of cheap due to the expenses that full animation brings. Bill and Joe could not afford the budgets that Disney and Warner Bros. had to produce television animation and make it effective so they had to make things as cheaply as they could.
But with corners cut, they needed something that will help the animation stand out and that's the writing. And the voice acting.
Quite the trade-offs.
But yeah, the with animation now being limited to model sheets, pose charts, tracing, layered cels, etc. the both the writing and the voice acting were more important than ever.
But suddenly, there comes the pressure. Since the animation budget has been cut, really good writing is more important than ever. And pressure not only comes from the studio but also from fandom as well.
Failure of great writing is not tolerated which explains the above image of Michael from HEAVY TRAFFIC holding a pipe for example....
Or even better, this image of Roger Meyers Jr. from the Simpsons who's about to throw his nameplate at a Harvard Writer.
Why am I writing analogies about how fandom perceives perfect writing? It's two-fold:
I see a lot of comments, posts, etc. on how a lot of their favorite shows can suffer actually suffer from bad or lazy writing on our part. And I kid you not..
As for my views on the writing? It's really in a sorry state of affairs and one of the reasons why this
writers strike happened in the first place.
Hopefully, this strike will subside.
Update:
The WGA Strike ended around the end of September 2023 but I forgot to update this blogpost when I heard the announcement.
Also, during July 2023, the SAG-AFTRA strikes happened but that's a different topic compared to writing but still, studio executives shouldn't hold all the money for themselves and not pay residuals to writers or actors. Actors and Writers have homes and essential bills to pay you know.
Another Update as of February 2024:
Both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes have ended but the damage to the industry has already been done. What I didn't touch upon on this blogpost about why the strike happened is because of Studios pushing for AI usage regardless of writers and actors refusing AI.
More like it's a matter of being compensated for their likeness but it's still a major issue to deal with.
