100 Greatest Cartoons?

by **Kambei** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 1:27 am

I just sat through 4 hours of channel 4's greatest 100 cartoons of all time. I cannot give my honest reaction The moderators would censor it. Not only was there no Captain Dcarlet, but not even a mention of any Gerry Anderson show. None were even nominated. Yet pap like Dungeons and Dragon, He-Man and Thundercats made it in. And what the hell is Queer Duck? Even Bod made it into the Top 50. For Americans and others, imagine an even more surreal South Park type animation, but without the swearing from the 1970's.
In my opinion, Scarlet had the highest production values of any Anderson puppet show. I once heard it described as puppets done by Tarantino. It is still high profile and the new series must have brought it to the publics mind again. Thunderbirds is also one of the most popular GA programs of all time, plus the recent movie, and yet not even a nomination.
Sorry about the rant, folks, but I've been up for 20 hours now. Not been sleeping too well. Anyone who wants to check out the results should go to:
http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/t ... sults.html

by **shaqui** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 6:28 am

Uh... the Gerry Anderson series weren't cartoons Kambei...

Actually, having a think, 'Dick Spanner' would have had a legitimate claim to being nominated as it was stop-motion, but that's the only one. 'New Captain Scarlet', being CGI, just missed the boat there...

:cry:

by **Scarlet Lady** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 7:55 am

Captain Scarlet and Thunderbirds were nominated for the 100 greatest kids TV shows. Scarlet wasn't as popular as Thunderbirds, but from what I remember, did very well. My sister says both were in the top five... but to be honest, I can't remember. I do know that by the time I saw either, I was very tired, though.

by **Kambei** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 10:37 am

Shaqui, Magic Roundabout, Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run are not cartoons in the strict sense, either, yet they made it in. Same with Nightmare Before Christmas. None of these are strictly cartoons, they are stop motion animation. The same could be legitimately argued for puppet shows. In technical production terms, they are exactly the same. Figures manipulated into human movement with voices and soundtrack added. If I really wanted to be picky, does South Park qualify as a cartoon? It is not animated in the traditional sense, ie, by using drawn and painted acetates.
I would argue that CGI should qualify, not just because of Scarlet, though. In a sense, they have taken the old skills of animation and updated them using computers.
See, I'm much more reasonable once I've had some sleep and a gallon of coffee!

by **chrisbishop** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 12:18 pm

My two cents? New Captain Scarlet is VERY, VERY recent... Three weeks into airing? That might be a good reason why it wasn't nominated. There were CGI movies in the list, so CGI DID qualify.

Oh and - classic Scarlet wasn't a cartoon. So I doubt it does qualify.

Scarlet Lady, were the 100 best kid TV shows named on Channel 4 too? I just got the list of the 100 best cartoons off the net. I would like to find the other list as well.

by **chrisbishop** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 12:27 pm

Never mind... Found it.

Thunderbirds was on 24th position, while Captain Scarlet settled nicely at 51.

Not bad at all...

by **shaqui** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 1:48 pm

Kambei wrote:Shaqui, Magic Roundabout, Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run are not cartoons in the strict sense, either, yet they made it in. Same with Nightmare Before Christmas. None of these are strictly cartoons, they are stop motion animation.

I gather there was some creative license about the 3D animations, which are not strictly cartoons, but there were all stop motion. None of the puppet series could legitimately be argued to fall in that category.

'Dick Spanner', on the other hand...

by **hazel** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 8:05 pm

Kambei - nominations for 100 Best Cartoons closed before Scarlet went to air. And since it was a VIEWER poll, there's no way it could have been either nominated or voted for. Re your comment about 'CGI should qualify'. There were plenty of CGI entries, particular in the higher ranks: Shrek and Toy Story to name just a couple.
However, I agree about Dick Spanner! Loved that, and as the inclusion of such lovely stuff as The Magic Roundabout showed, stop-motion was acceptable within the definition of "cartoon". However, as far as I recall, when it was shown on telly, it was a fairly late night filler, and has hardly ever been shown since. It's pretty obscure, more's the pity.

by **Captain Indigo** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 11:53 pm

Sorry to be totally off topic, but having looked that the Kids shows (http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/G/greatest/kidstv/results.html), Dangermouse at 3, Magic Roundabout at 11 and Maid Marion and Her Merry Men at 15. What a wonderful set of shows!

by **Scarlet Lady** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 8:18 am

chrisbishop wrote:
Scarlet Lady, were the 100 best kid TV shows named on Channel 4 too? I just got the list of the 100 best cartoons off the net. I would like to find the other list as well.

I still have it on video, somewhere... I'll get Captain Tourmaline to find it - he's our tape-filing expert. :lol: