The Big Picture: The Collar

[hipster666]

The whole cast of TV cartoon characters I think DID get into something of an arms race, at least in terms of who could get the weirdest character on TV and have kids get it. The Schmoo springs to mind, Captain Caveman of course, but Looney Tunes did some pretty impressive wacky toons. Personally I loved their remake of Little Red Riding Hood which was done by someone who had overdosed on acid.

 

[shadowmagus]

My mind...it has been blown. Kudos to you sir.

 

[GothmogII]

Lord knows Yogi Bear was probably one of the ONLY good properties Hanna-Barbara cranked out.

Then Hollywood happened and turned it all to crap.

Actually, a lot of the Adult Swim content can be seen as an outgrowth of the old Hanna Barbara stuff, when it's not outright parody or reference like Harvey Birdman or Space Ghost Coast to Coast it's subtle and sometimes not so subtle jibes at the old properties like Johhny Quest or Scooby Doo in The Venture Bros.

 

[Ymbirtt]

Heh, it's a good thing nobody does this any more. I mean, can you imagine how distracting it would be if you suddenly realised that none of the characters in one your favourite games had necks attached to their heads?

Spoiler: Oh...

Spoiler: Wait...

Yeah. My mum ruined Mass Effect for me when she pointed that out...

 

[NKnight]

Bob, you're awesome! Let's talk about animation a little bit more! Please

An episode about Yogi's collar? Thats clever stuff. Well done.

Hanna Barbera? Hell yeah! ^^

 

[TWEWER]

I don't really regard Gundam and Voltron as "early anime".

 

[Subject7]

Ah yes, my weekly dose of vitamin smart.

 

[alandavidson]

That was a very interesting episode. I had no idea that Yogi was actually a floating head.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

I'd read somewhere on the internet somebody writing that their mom said LA Noire looked like Clutch Cargo. My dad said the same thing. I'd forgotten about looking it up until just now.

 

[JoeyMousepadd]

Can it be? Is it true? Did bob make an entire episode of TBP without mentioning comics or transformers? This is amazing!

That mouth effect isn't limited to early tv. There's a modern kid's show called Dirtgirl World where they do that for the eyes and mouths of the main characters. I stumble over it from time to time when looking for something for the kids to watch. The show creeps me to the core.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpuSXYpfJRc

 

[AzureRaven]

Another great episode Bob. Can't wait for next week's. I love not knowing what random thing I'm going to be hearing from ya next.

 

[wooty]

Ahhhh, Clutch Cargo, I remember seeing that in Pulp Fiction. Nice to finally know what the shows called after 13 years of wondering

 

[Sampler]

Really? And after all this time I thought it was because Hanna-Barbera animators were big playboy bunny fans...

 

[Zac Smith]

Reminds me of the film Chicken Run, a clay animation film about chickens trying to escape a coop, every single one wore some kind of scarf in order to hide the obvious joins from the head and body

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

The Collar

The real reason Yogi Bear - and so many other cartoon characters - wears a tie.

Watch Video

That collar also signified the death of adult animation.

With a lot of the talent and all production was going into making the medium cheaper and all of it focused on kids combined with the death of Walt Disney, the idea cartoons were for kids and only kids took out any chance for mature adult focused animation. That barrier has really only started to be broken down.

 

[SatansBestBuddy]

Took me a minute after reading the title (and sitting through the ad) before watching the show to realize that the collar would make for a nice shortcut in animation since that would mean you could animate the head separate from the body and thus have the body be mostly static while the head does all the hard work.

And then the show turned out to be about that and I felt like I was smart for 5 minutes or so.

Thinking on it, didn't the Flintstones do exactly this as well? Wouldn't that make them first to the post?

 

[esperandote]

I had no idea about that. Everithing i thought a knew is in serious doubt now.

I wonder what young William Hanna and Joe Barbera would come up with these days.

 

[Sabrestar]

Okay, that was an awesome episode. I feel like I've spent an hour in a random Wikipedia trawl, but learned a lot more. Good stuff!

 

[UNHchabo]

It's "drawing", not "drawring". Where did you get your weird pronunciation?

It's fairly common pronunciation in New England, especially among those with a Bostonian accent (Bob conceals his pretty well most of the time).

That one doesn't annoy me, but one aspect of the Boston accent that does annoy me is pronouncing "drawer" as "draw". Two of my friends do that.

 

[esperandote]

It's like finding out the Matrix is real.

Me: But what's the hat about?
Someone else: Just to match the collar
Me: Oh.