themoviesmith's profile

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Saturday, March 11th, 2023 7:04 PM

Live Poll: Formulaic Cartoons

​Cinematic titles has used popular formulas (i.e. third act conflict) for years in order to create entertainment. When these formulas are over used they develop clichés and can become frustratingly predictable. This dependence on a specific formula can probably be best illustrated in animation.​

​Which of these formulaic cartoon series do you find the most frustrating?​

​Note: Spoilers Ahead​

​List: ​​https://www.imdb.com/list/ls564829443/​

Poll:https://www.imdb.com/poll/b-kh07TrUww

​I'm sure I am missing some examples so let me know if there are other examples. ​

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1 year ago

Even being sometimes really mean, they get away unpunished, protected by a naive granny/hound...

The Sylvester & Tweety Show

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074062/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

It's the Wolf

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11427366/

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1 year ago

I like the poll idea. I agree there are probably a lot more examples of this out there. FYC, in your introduction "has" should be "have". Cinematic titles have used popular formulas (i.e. third act conflict) for years in order to create entertainment. I like all the points you are making to illustrate your point. I also took a stab at tweaking the order a bit and a couple word choices below.

FYC,
​It is common for cinematic titles to use formulas, such as third act conflicts, in order to be entertaining. Due to overuse, these formulas develop into clichés and are irritatingly predictable. This over reliance on a specific formula can probably be best illustrated in animation, specifically in cartoon shorts series.

Which of these formulaic cartoon series do you find the most frustrating to watch?

(edited)

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@urbanemovies​ Thanks Urb for the suggestion. I like it better and have changed the introduction.

Thank you!

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@themoviesmith​ This website is usually good for that kind of stuff. I think you will find some good examples and explanations of how each of these series use a formula.

(edited)

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@urbanemovies​ Yes, I've used it before. Love tv tropes even for a read.

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I too love the TV Tropes website. They cover video games in addition to movies and television series. Hell, they might even cover novels.

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1 year ago

I think the Adventures of Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius should be added  to the answer pool, based on the formula cited above.

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@urbanemovies​ I never really saw that show, but I'll add it to the list. What is teh definition of teh formula for it?

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@themoviesmith​ I don't understand "teh", but I think this is the answer to what I assume is your question.

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(Hm. I thought everybody including ChatGPT knew that the anagram "teh", born of a dyslexic keyboard, signifies and constitutes the word "the" so as to be a definite article of expression.)

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(Looking at the proper shortcut positioning of the fingers on the standard keyboard, I can see that sometimes the middle finger of the left hand punches the "E" key before the index finger of the right hand punches the "H" key, but for some reason, the index finger of the left hand always punches the "T" key before either of the other two events.)

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@jeorj_euler​ I am kinda old school, when I want to play a computer game, I just feed the paper tape for the program to upload.

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@urbanemovies​ I've added it to the list. Also, I don't know if you are aware but there is an interesting theory going on about the Jimmy Neutron universe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBdKnPcNyl8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARoP4GNgKVg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34PeOFhgi48

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@jeorj_euler​ Yeah, my keyboard is dyslexic...definitely not my typo. LOL 

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@urbanemovies​ ,

@jeorj_euler​ I am kinda old school, when I want to play a computer game, I just feed the paper tape for the program to upload.

I still have a paper tape of the second program I ever wrote. I wrote a BASIC program in high school over 50 years ago to compute factorials. The print out shows the full value 220! (220 factorial). The paper tape and the printout are rather fragile.

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1 year ago

@themoviesmith ,

For your consideration:

Pinky and the Brain (1995–1998)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112123/plotsummary/

Pinky and the Brain are two laboratory mice living at Acme Labs whose genes have been spliced. The Brain is a genius, whereas Pinky is quite insane. Before each night is done they will unfurl a plan before the dawning of the sun to take over the world. Their twilight campaign is easy to explain: In order to prove their mousy worth they'll overthrow the Earth.Dan Dassow

Shorter version:

Pinky and the Brain, two laboratory mice, nightly unfurl a plan before the dawning of the sun to take over the world.

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@dan_dassow​ Thanks Dan. 

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@themoviesmith​ ,

By the way, Pinky and the Brain is one of my favorite animated cartoons. I'm a big fan of Maurice LaMarche and Rob Paulsen. Even though the series is clearly formulaic it turns that aspect on its head through parody of science fiction tropes.

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@dan_dassow​ I l enjoyed Pinky and Brain too and your suggestion made me recall 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063889/

Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines

Villainous Dick Dastardly and his snickering canine sidekick, Muttley, take their destructive antics to the skies.

Their mission: stop the bugle-blowing Yankee Doodle Pigeon. 

Besides the title duo, the other misfit members of the high-flying Vulture Squadron include the cowardly Zilly and chief designer Klunk, whose many mechanical contraptions look impressive, but are never quite able to "stop that pigeon."

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@mariojacobs​ Thank you. I've added to the list with a paraphrase of your synopsis. 

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1 year ago

FYC:

The Fairly Oddparents: Timmy makes a wish to his fairies that he would later regret and seek to undone, usually learning a valuable lesson in his journey.

Blue's Clues: We are welcome to a house, Blue has an idea and the audience with the character have to find three clues to figure it out, it always included a song and finally Blue could do whatever she wanted.

Captain Planet and the Planeteers: A villain shows up doing something that harms the environment, they try to talk to the native population who, except for one person is for the plan as it brings some perceived advantage, the planeteers get captured, the are rescued and summon Captain Planet who saves the day and gives an important ecological lesson.

Dora the Explorer: A trip in a map with a destination with three subsections including a song and a backpack giving something useful to Dora who asks at the end to the kids what was their favorite part of the episode.

I found these ones here: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/StrictlyFormula/WesternAnimation, where you can find more examples.   

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@Pencho15​ Thanks Pencho. I've added Fairly Oddparents, Captain Planet, and Dora. I'm still hesitant about Blue's Clues since it is mainly live action. 

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1 year ago

Congratulations, @themoviesmith!

Formulaic Cartoons

Live Poll: https://www.imdb.com/poll/b-kh07TrUww/

Please change "Poll Suggestion" to "Live Poll" in the discussion thread title and change the settings so that it appears under "Praise" now, rather than "Idea."

 

FAQ: Updating Threads After Poll Goes Live

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@dan_dassow​ Thank you Dan!