American Animated series...

[Scarecrow]

In your opinion, what is the best ARTISTIC american animation (I do not mean best animated series... Most say the simpsons... which I never liked and the artwork is atrocious... same goes for South Park and Family Guy... that artwork sucks).

Basically... the best well drawn and animated american series (don't worry about the writing)

So far, the best I can dig up is the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002 version).

[Fish and Chips]

Do you mean which is the best drawn (stills), or which has the most fluid animation (motion)? Depending on which one we're talking about, my answers may change.

Neither of which is He-Man.

[Davidizer13]

If we're talking artistic merits only, I'd have to go with the early-90's Disney animated movies, Samurai Jack and Avatar: TLE.

[Blitzkrieg1701]

Fantasia, if we're talking movies.

As for TV, though... I dunno. TV doesn't really breed artistic creativity as far as animation goes.

[Roy Mustang]

Movie: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

TV series: Batman TAS


Comedy series: Animaniacs


[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[Scarecrow]

Do you mean which is the best drawn (stills), or which has the most fluid animation (motion)? Depending on which one we're talking about, my answers may change.

Neither of which is He-Man.

Well I figured it wasn't but I had a hard time of thinking of something better. And I mean best drawn... not fluid animation.

And I never liked the art in Batman TAS... When I was little I even thought it was ugly art. Some episodes were better done than others though.

Movies I could name a dozen with great animation/art (The Prince of Egypt is probably my favorite art and just as an over all animated movie). And ya I realize TV doesn't breed much artistic creativity... kind of why I came up with the question.

I was viewing top 100 animations and 90% of them were not pleasing to the eyes (flintstones, Simpsons etc etc etc).

[Peanut]

Megas XLR in recent years.

And I would agree with Roy about Batman TAS for an older animated series.

[BubblegumNinja]

The best American animation I have ever seen would have to be the Prince of Eygpt, even without Christian bias. Close behind would be Treasure Planet and Beauty and the Beast - in that order XD

As for animation series, that's a little tougher :/ Avatar was animated in Korea, so I don't know if that really counts... I really like the -look- of the new Fantastic Four, but I can't say the animation flows as well as I'd like. From what I've seen, Batman Forever is very good, and I enjoyed the earlier episodes of the new TMNT series as well. But no definate favourites...

Oh! Which reminds me (: There's an animation called 'Draw With Me' which I thought was absolutely beautiful. It isn't particularly clean in style, reminding me a bit of Ed Edd and Eddy with the outlines always moving, but there's something very touching about it.

[Bobtheduck]

I can't think of any American animated shows that really stand out visually. In fact, there are very few animated shows at all that stand out visually, even with anime. Ever since Hannah Barbara came to the scene, TV animation has been about being cheap. Even the higher quality ones, like Batman the animated series and Spawn, had MAJOR shortcuts.

As for films:

Secret of NIMH. That was about the pinnacle of visuals for American animation, despite being bogged down by rotoscoping in part of it (those stupid tractors)

A close second is Prince of Egypt.

[rocklobster]

Nothing tops Disney in American Animation (this includes Pixar). Nothing.

[Azariah]

I do love NIHM, but for the most part I think that animation in most of the world reflects its culture. Most of the world dosn't strive to be the best at one thing anymore, just to make quick cash.

[Roy Mustang]

And I never liked the art in Batman TAS... When I was little I even thought it was ugly art. Some episodes were better done than others though.

That is your choice and I respect. I may not agree with your view on that. But if we are post a cartoon and it be full US made, the Batman:TAS is out really. Some of it was made by Japaneses company anyway.

A lot of US cartoons were made over sea, like Fantastic Four (France) and Xmen (1992) were done over seas.


So really, I feel that this going to be a hard to post as what we see as artful and we all have our style and taste in artwork and I don't think most of us are going to agree with each other on the matter.



[font="Book Antiqua"]
[color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[Riggidig]

Haven't seen it in a while but The Spectacular Spider-Man series had some pretty good animation I thought. The one episode where symbiote Spidey goes up against the Sinister Six was rather awesome in the way the fight flowed constantly.

[Maokun]

I can't think of any American animated shows that really stand out visually. In fact, there are very few animated shows at all that stand out visually, even with anime. Ever since Hannah Barbara came to the scene, TV animation has been about being cheap. Even the higher quality ones, like Batman the animated series and Spawn, had MAJOR shortcuts.

I have to strongly disagree with you. It is true that Hanna Barbera in the 80's was the paradign of cutting cost and mass production for extremely cheap looking and brainless cartoons, even managing to destroy such solid franchises as Scooby Doo and Tom and Jerry, series that had been awesome in the 60's-70's, especially Tom & Jerry (which I seriously believe that belongs in self-respecting museums of the next century). However, they are neither the current standard of quality nor the only examples of the genre.

Take Warner Bross. Their cartoons usually had great animation and ideas and they constantly experimented. Most of their fully orchestrated soundtracks are masterpieces and the production values were always held high. here I have to mention the olbigatory Batman, the animated series from the early 90's which is a high point of televised animation. And then came Steven Spielberg and stamped its name on some series, which ended being probably the best animated and more intelligent cartoons I've seen outside of anime: Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain and Freakazoid. The animations is incredibly fluid, the lipsynch painstalkely faithful and the backgrounds rich and full of detail. IMHO they haven't been able to top those series afterwards, though their series from DC comics franchises are usually quite decent.

By then, Hanna Barbera had finally caught up with the times and using Cartoon Network started to experimentate beyond their tired old budget franchises, giving the chance to young, daring animators to create new franchises. Enter Craig McCracken and Genddy Tartakovsky and their awesome creations, especially the Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack. Both of them created new stylistic venues for animation and drawing and held super high production values. Ever since, the quality of their production and ideas have been constantly high.

And then you have the smaller third parties like Nickelodeon, with the renowned animators Clasky-Ksupo (even if you don't like their character design, like me, their technique is good) at the lead followed by several other good cartoons like cult series Invader Zim or Hey Arnold!. And what about Matt Groening and Futurama which is visibly high-budget? And all this without mentioning all the amazing offerings from Canada or Europe. Aardman's Wallace & Gromit jumps to mind.

Anime fans usually have a distorted perspective on non-anime cartoons, but there's a ton of good stuff to be discovered if you have the eyes and the patience for it. Yeah, there's a lot of dreck, but I'm sure you'll agree there are several worthless anime series too (GASP!) and being japanese is by no means a seal of quality for an animated series.

Try looking for the movie Flatworld, or for the french short "The monk and the fish", or anything by canadian Norman McLaren and then come back to pick up your blewn up shoes.

[EricTheFred]

Lion King - I think I was a lot more impressed with this than most people I've discussed it with, though.
Prince of Egypt
Fantasia
Heavy Metal
Wizards

Best TV series: Star Trek Animated

[Azariah]

I thougt Wizards was a mix of live action and art... it's been a long time sence I've seen it though. No that was that one version of the lord of the rings. Nevermind.

[EricTheFred]

I thougt Wizards was a mix of live action and art... it's been a long time sence I've seen it though. No that was that one version of the lord of the rings. Nevermind.

Wizards did use old war footage for backgrounds in many places. It isn't 'mixed' to the same degree as Cool World or such though.

[Azariah]

Cool World was mostly animation though. Roger Rabbit on the other hand was the other way around. Still very well drawn stuff.

[EricTheFred]

Cool World was mostly animation though. Roger Rabbit on the other hand was the other way around. Still very well drawn stuff.

Yes, but I thought it made a good example for anyone not familiar with Wizards. If it is not even to the degree of Cool World that should tell you how limited it is.

[Roy Mustang]

Heavy Metal was a Canadian animated film.

I keep running into this problem as ones that I would list as artistic American animated series and end up being animated overseas or in Canada.


[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[Nate]

Yeah, but the problem is that a large majority of shows are animated in other countries. I know that Simpsons and Family Guy use Korean animation studios. Heck, even a lot of anime uses Korean studios for their shows. If you're going by shows SOLELY produced in America then the number of shows becomes a lot smaller.

I mean even Batman: The Animated Series was animated outside the US.

[EricTheFred]

Personally, I think in terms of the original target market, not the country of origin. "Anime", to me, is animation originally created for the Japanese market, not animation from Japan... and considering how many Korean and Chinese names tend to be in the credits these days, it is probably wiser to think of it that way.

Heavy Metal was not targeted for the 'Canadian Market'. In fact, as is the case for a lot of the English Language animation out there, I don't think it could be considered targeted for any narrower an audience than all UK + Canada + US, or maybe even The Set Of All English Speaking Countries.

As such, I really don't split hairs like this when the subject comes up. I just substitute 'English Language' for 'American' and address the question in those terms.

[Roy Mustang]

But he is asking for best artistic american animation, not best target market for artistic american animation.

So to me as how he ask the question, it still stands on animation done in America.


[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang [/color][/font]

[Scarecrow]

Lol... Well actually I hadn't thought about most of the stuff being animated outside the US.... But I guess that would explain the extreme amount of styles and quality and such.

I initially meant anything that was actually animated in the US itself but I didn't realize how many where not actually drawn in the US is the first place.

[EricTheFred]

But he is asking for best artistic american animation, not best target market for artistic american animation.

Not sure if that entirely fit what I said, so I'll try this a different way. Unlike the live action TV and film realms, in which there are plenty of national divisions between the US, Canadian, UK, Australian, etc. industries, there isn't anywhere near as much realistic separation in the commercial animation industry. Its all just kind of the Nation of all English Speakers animation industry. (There's lots of separation at the art shorts level. For example, thanks to the Film Board of Canada, the Canadian front is constantly pumping out all sorts of wonderful stuff.)

So to me as how he ask the question, it still stands on animation done in America.[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang [/color][/font]

That's fine. Sadly, this reduces the field of potential candidates rather severely. Let's see. Chuck out The Land Before Time and All Dogs Go To Heaven because those are Irish. A number of well-known Disney features (for example, Tarzan) had portions done in France. Samurai Jack becomes a Korean series. Happy Feet is out, thanks to those darned Australians....

[Roy Mustang]

I have seen all of those anyway and they are fine stuff.

I initially meant anything that was actually animated in the US itself but I didn't realize how many where not actually drawn in the US is the first place.

See, the question was meant for anything that was actually animated in the US itself from the get go. So, I'm going on what the user ask for in this question.

[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[ShiroiHikari]

I think this thread is over. XD

Nah, just kidding. I think the art style and animation quality of Disney's Sleeping Beauty are both spectacular, AND it was made here in the US of A.