I Totally Care About Cartoons A Lot, OK?

I am the type of person who often looks back at things that were happening either before I was born or at least before I was paying attention and think, "Why was everything back then so much more awesome than it is now?" Luckily, I have an older sibling who passed down his love for Transformers, Ren & Stimpy and House of Pain. Obviously, this isn't always the case but sometimes I can't help but think I missed out. Many industries get bogged down with the status quo, even if they follow the same formula as their revolutionary predecessors. The fact that they stick with it because it sold well and it's safe. It's one of the reasons I actually enjoy Spongebob Squarepants so much. It's not created by a committee, nor was it made to sell toys or merch (although it did after it's popularity exploded) or promote a network. It's just a visually appealing, creator-driven show. We more or less have one man to thank for paving the way for cartoons like that. My favourite great Canadian hero.

I'm speaking, of course, of John Kricfalusi, music video director, animator, brilliant character artist, creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show and voice of wisdom and creativity in an industry full of rehashed characters and beige, hack job ideas. He took full advantage of cartoons and what they are capable of. Strong, insane poses and huge expressive faces. I mean, just look:

Warning: partial cartoon Bjork nudity

Kricfalusi started watching cartoons during their Golden Age, went to Sheridan College, then worked on some cartoons in LA in the early 1980's. He's mentioned in interviews that it was some of "the worst animation of all time." A bunch of stuff happened between then and 1991, but I'm not really here to talk about how long it took to work his way up the ladder. The important thing is, he eventually started his own studio, Spumco, and started doing Ren & Stimpy. It was aired by Nickelodeon (because Nickelodeon used to be awesome) and the eventual result was a successful show that led to other cartoons in the 90's like Cow and Chicken, Aaahh!! Real Monsters, and The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat.

However, these shows began to disappear. We stopped seeing cross-dressing anthropomorphic characters whose teeth and eyes could fly out of their heads on command. They started getting replaced with kids and teens. Real people with real problems. Of course the real problems are always shallow and insipid because kids can't grasp complicated abstract concepts. It's not even the writing that I care about either, really. There were some great gang-of-kids shows like The weekenders, Rugrats, Doug and Hey Arnold! It's more the concentration on realism. No more noodle arms or magic dogs, these have to look like real teenagers! 6Teen looks like an advertisement for Ardene for Chrissake.

Kid's shows aren't the only thing that isn't safe any more. Cartoons for grown-ups have lost their anarchic twist as well. Every [adult swim] show either badly drawn flash animation or cardboard cutout flash animation. Us late night stoners like visually appealing things as well as stupid humor, you know. Cartoons can do things other mediums can't, and they seriously aren't even trying any more. (Apologies to fans of Futurama, Super Jail, and Adventure Time, which are all awesome and amazing shows.) I feel like I'm an old man yelling at people about how we did it back in "my day," except instead of something important like how hard we worked, or what we did or didn't complain about, it's about how modern cartoons aren't up to par like they were in the old days.

I'm a bit of a cartoon artist and often times my stuff starts to feel stale and boring. If that happens, I'll watch some Ren & Stimpy or Ripping Friends and have a total revelation every time. I heard Kricfalusi tries to never draw the same pose or expression twice and forced his animating team to do the same. It's a great exercise and very telling of his dedication to making things visually appealing and his attitude to cartoons as being something you should push and develop. Almost like a real art form or something.

To him, making cartoons was "To make something look real and alive, nothing can be symmetrical because nothing in real life is symmetrical. You have to make it look organic."

"Organic," eh? Is that what it's called these days?

Why I Gave A Damn If Video Games Are Art

Whenever this debate comes up, somebody always eventually says something to the effect of, "Well, hang on. Let's define 'art' before we go any further." Which in turn, makes me want to punch people. We all disagree so often and so ferociously on what "art" really is that it's almost become a silly statement to make. Art is universal, or at least it's supposed to be, but so many people scoff at something that thousands of others claim to be so fantastic that it changed their lives. The dictionary is no help, either:

• The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power

Well by the first part of the definition, video games certainly fit the bill. The second part... well, people are divided on it. Since the popular opinion is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, there's no point in trying to define it in the first place, right? (I should mention that I do believe art to have a certain objective nature in some respects.) So it almost seems that whether you say video games are or are not art, you'd still be right.

A little over a year ago, Roger Ebert published a blog entry defending his position that video games are not and can never be a valid art form. I'm way too late to really weigh in on this with any kind of relevance, plus there have been better and more eloquent people than myself who already have. I'm not writing this to pick apart his argument (although I do have a few rebuttals to make, and I will), despite the fact that I strongly disagree. However, there are a couple of things I'd like to say now that the dust has had a while to settle and we can take a look at the aftermath.

First, I'd like to thank Roger for saying what he said. Anybody who thought of video games as art, whether casually or vehemently and actively, was whipped up into a frenzy. From blog entries to water-cooler discussions, gamers everywhere, who had merely accepted them as the next medium for artistic expression, were now seriously considering what it was that made them think that, and why it mattered. Many people took it as a direct insult (I don't blame them, it was easy to take the article as very, very condescending); others merely re-evaluated what they defined "art" as. I have faith that many game developers that had previously been cautiously crossing boundaries are now pushing a little harder; while developers who have been making artistically driven games for a long time now, like Valve, BioWare, Thatgamecompany, Naughty Dog, Square Enix, Konami, Double Fine, Atlus etc. now have an even louder base to support them. So first off, thank you for pissing us off. We needed that.

My next point is half observation, half rebuttal. I'll bring up a decent sized chunk of part of his closing remarks:

"Why are gamers so intensely concerned, anyway, that games be defined as art? Bobby Fischer, Michael Jordan and Dick Butkus never said they thought their games were an art form. Nor did Shi Hua Chen, winner of the $500,000 World Series of Mah Jong in 2009. Why aren't gamers content to play their games and simply enjoy themselves? They have my blessing, not that they care.

Do they require validation? In defending their gaming against parents, spouses, children, partners, co-workers or other critics, do they want to be able to look up from the screen and explain, "I'm studying a great form of art?" Then let them say it, if it makes them happy."

Ignoring the extremely patronizing tone, I take issue with this for two reasons. First, that performing in a sporting event isn't the same as creating a game. I understand that he is talking about how basketball and Mah Jong aren't art forms, but there is no room for development, expression or innovation in said games. They have stayed the same for years Even so, physical competitions are sometimes described as artistic, think about figure skating, dancing, Olympic gymnastics events and so on. Comparing video games to sports would be pointless to the argument if it were accurate. Which it is not.

My second issue is that Ebert seems to think that it doesn't matter if nobody called it art. Nothing would change, right? Unlikely. What would you say if I said writing, painting or film wasn't art. If you're a fan, you would likely get upset. That's because, not only has it trivialized a form of expression you cared about, but it has also taken the onus off the creators to hold their work up to a standard. When a medium is called "art," there is suddenly a whole lot of responsibility that goes with that. It silently requires that people innovate and develop new skills, refining the medium into something extraordinary.

I'm not really upset about the article, really. It was sort of the first time somebody from outside the realm of video games really took a serious, grown-up stab at it. That alone is something to appreciate. It wasn't what I'd hoped for, or expected from somebody as smart as Roger, but what can you do? It all worked out for the best, anyway.

Women in Video Games: Why BioWare is Awesome

Girls are becoming a much larger part of the gaming demographic, or even gaming culture as a whole. In fact, I think I know more women that play World of Warcraft on a regular basis than men (and I know a lot of WoW players). I could be imagining things, but it seems as though more and more companies are acknowledging females as a viable target demographic or at the very least they are including them as a group to keep in mind when developing video games. I'm not just talking about having girls in games, that's been going on for a while now. I'm talking about realistic women. You know, the kind of woman that would actually inspire a ragtag group of warriors and unite them under the same cause. The kind of woman that kicks ass, takes names, and wears proper ass-kicking attire.

Seriously, that's cool and totally sexy and everything, but come on. What the hell?

To be fair, that was taken from Bayonetta, a game with more over-the-top fight sequences than all three Matrix movies put together. It's not exactly going for realism. However, how many times have you seen an RPG with big manly men, covered in armor and spikes, only to find that the girl in the group fights in a chain-mail bikini; or the group of commandos with warpaint and uniforms, accompanied by the girl who runs her ass off in a mini-skirt? Even when you see a female warrior with full plate armor and a giant spear, she's wearing goddamn high heels (she's a badass but with a hooker twist).

Sex-appeal sells. I get it. Hell, I totally love it. Not every game needs to look like an issue ofHeavy Metal magazine, though. You can be realistic about it. It's not really all about the look, either. Hell, the female version of Commander Shepherd of Mass Effect has outfits that look like a dominatrix outfit, but made of kevlar. She's accompanied by a girl, Miranda, who's ass is nearly exploding out of the latex (I'm assuming) that contains it; and another, Jack, who's covered head to toe in tattoos and you can see almost all of them. However, Miranda is cold, calculating, precise and loyal but sometimes a little uncaring. Jack is hot tempered, destructive, vindictive and anti-social, yet she approaches sex casually. Real, strong characters.

Even Shepherd, whom you control and can shape into many different characters, is worth examining. She is, in all her incarnations, a no-nonsense, strong and inspiring military officer. Her voice is low and firm without going too far or sounding butch (which is fine, but it's good to know that people don't think that independent women are mostly shaved-head lesbians). In fact, when I compare it to male Shepherds voice, he sounds like a total chump. Even if the first game had the option to be female as a tacked-on afterthought, they certainly did a good job in both games, particularly the sequel.

"Sorry, I'm having trouble hearing you. Getting a lot of bullshit on this line"
Awesome.

Bioware is one of my favorite companies for many reasons. One of the biggest reasons is because of the emphasis they put on writing. They create realistic characters. For example, not every female has to be a stone cold murderer to do it right. Dragon Age II had a character by the name of Merrill, a Dalish elf blood mage who is half runaway, half outcast but completely confused with herself. She goes with you because she's totally helpless, despite her frightening power, and hopes that you can help her out somehow. The cool thing is that she doesn't fit into that stereotype of a damsel in distress. Part of her character is that she is bumbling, sheltered, easily embarrassed and unsure of herself and your job, if you like, is to help her on her way; not to rescue her. Not only is she an interesting character, but a cool juxtaposition: a trembling and adorable flower that commands horrible, forbidden demon magic. Neat, right?

If you took sex appeal out of games completely I'd be just as unhappy as if it were running rampant. It doesn't have to go, it just has to make some fucking sense.

Chris Cunningham: If Lovecraft Directed Short Films

In my late teenage years I had a slight interest in video editing and short films, something that never really blossomed into a career path, but I still maintained a moderate interest. One of my siblings gave me a copy of The Work of Director Chris Cunningham. I cannot possible describe the mindfuck I went through. You might not know it, but you've probably seen his videos. Many people are familiar with the Monkey Drummer video he did in conjunction with Aphex Twin.

Pictured: penis drumming.

Speaking of Aphex Twin, Chris has done a large portion of his work for him. The videos he creates are just as bizarre as the music.

Warning: lewdness and... uh... what-the-fuckery. When you're done that,

watch "Come to Daddy"

There's a longer version of that, but you get the idea. However, the coolest part about Cunningham's works are some of the tricks he uses. You think Gondry can come up with some cool camera tricks? Well, you know that scene in 300 where they consult the oracle (a truly disturbing part, that I can't say I was a fan of for various reasons,) and she's floating around, seemingly like she's underwater? Yeah, she was underwater. They filmed her in a tank in front of a green screen. Chris Cunningham figured that out way back in 1998 when he directed Portishead's Only You.

They had to digitally remove any bubbles, and back

in the stone age that was really hard.

However, all the videos I've shown are either grotesque, or at least very bizarre. I could go on about more videos that fit that description, like his live work, or the forever disturbing Rubber Johnny (those images will stay with me to the grave.) That seems to be his forte, for sure. However, he's no stranger to creating pretty and uplifting things. He directed a video for Bjork's All Is Full Of Love that blew the top off what was considered possible for a music video. It's now on permanent display at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Keep in mind, this was filmed in 1999 and it still holds up today.

Ok, so Bjork-faced, lesbian robots is weird. However, it still proves he can make "nice" videos. In any case, that's not the only award he's received. It won "Best Special Effects," and "Breakthrough Video" at the MTV Music Video Awards (which meant a little bit more at the time, I hear). His Windowlicker video won "Best Video" at the Brit Awards and he was the first person ever to have a music video win a Gold Pencil at the Design and Art Direction Awards.

He is one of my favorite directors. He co-founded the Directors Label DVD series with two other phenomenal directors: Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze. It is a series dedicated to collections of short works of other striking directors. Their website seems to be down now, but you can find many of them online, and I absolutely suggest you get them.

Even commercials aren't safe from his creepiness.