I've been watching old episodes of Masters of the Universe with Moonbase Junior. he's nearly 5 and totally hooked!
Watching this 80's cartoon it struck me how similar some of the movements were to much older cartoons I was watching when I was a kid in the 60's and early 70's. Or am I seeing things?
Here's Skeletor walking.
and here's Rocket Robin and his merry men walking
and I'm pretty sure the cartoon Spider-Man walked like that back in 1967.
Boy how I enjoyed looking back at these old cartoons.
What was your favourite?
I always disliked Rocket Robin Hood because when Yorkshire TV took over the Yorkshire area ITV franchise from Granada, in 1968, they stopped showing Gerry Anderson shows like Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90 and showed that naff cartoon, in the same afternoon slot, instead.
ReplyDeleteNo contest !
So you don't like Rocket Robin then Mish!
DeleteEr ...no !
ReplyDeleteMasters of the Universe was produced by Filmation which rather like Hanna Barbera was renowned for cheaper animation so characters always walked in one direction. plus lots of static shots of faces with just tne mouth moving and then there were the same backgrounds every few seconds. The worst for me was Scooby Doo where they run past the same door or window multiple times in every chase scene. Great fun
ReplyDeletethough and as a youngster I probably didn't realise the cost cutting at the time.
I liked Rocket Robin Hood, it had a great theme tune. Yorkshire TV didn't show any supermarionation shows until 1976 when they showed Thunderbirds and advertised it as a new series even though it was over 10 years old by then. I suppose it was the first time they had shown it. I don't recall seeing the other supermarionation shows on Yorkshire until 1981.
Its staggering that Gerry Anderson shows were shown so much later in Yorkshire. I don't get it. What happened to the 1960's?
DeleteFilmation shows were all hand drawn animation, as its well before computer animation. As a result, the walking action would be completed with a limited number of animation frames, repeated again and again to give the illusion of movement. Modern computer software can do this automatically by a process called 'tweening' which came from the animation studios, whereby the start and end frames are created and the connecting frames 'between' the two are created automatically.
ReplyDeleteI like that simple tweening walking action Wote. Thanks for the insights.
DeleteI liked Rocket Robin Hood at the time, mostly because there was a spaceship in the titles or the show which reminded me of the Scalecraft Aerocar. MOTU I hated for its soppy moralising messages in every episode and that ridiculous wizard thing floating about. I almost bought Merman when the toys first came out, but then saw the rest of the line and thought - nahh..
ReplyDeleteThose Rocket Robin spaceships are so cool. There's something very Boba Fett too about Rocket Robin zooming off with his rocket back pack at the start!
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