Yet again I’m making a post about animation/animated shows that inspire me
to reach greater and work for my goals. These are a few examples of modern
animated television shows that are extraordinary in how they treat their
audience and what sort of messages they give to their viewers.
First of all I would like to bring up the newest program from Disney that has reached a vast audience in numbers and not to mention also the age differences – ‘Gravity Falls’.
The show has been slightly criticized and censored by the producers mostly because the subject matter is very brave and if I dare to say it, rather grim and dark. Just like Laika’s “Coralline” the subject matter has been criticized of it is suitable for children, but the show refuses to speak down to kids or its audience in general and thanks to this brave attitude and on point humor it has become a fan favorite one dares to imagine what it could be, if not for the censorship, which mostly is concerned about representation. Another thing that I admire about the show and its creator, that when asked about who is the shows targeted audience (again question raised from the occasional dark subject matter) the creator responded, that he’s making the show for himself. I find that very admirable.
First of all I would like to bring up the newest program from Disney that has reached a vast audience in numbers and not to mention also the age differences – ‘Gravity Falls’.
The show has been slightly criticized and censored by the producers mostly because the subject matter is very brave and if I dare to say it, rather grim and dark. Just like Laika’s “Coralline” the subject matter has been criticized of it is suitable for children, but the show refuses to speak down to kids or its audience in general and thanks to this brave attitude and on point humor it has become a fan favorite one dares to imagine what it could be, if not for the censorship, which mostly is concerned about representation. Another thing that I admire about the show and its creator, that when asked about who is the shows targeted audience (again question raised from the occasional dark subject matter) the creator responded, that he’s making the show for himself. I find that very admirable.
(Gravity Falls intro posted below)
The second animated show I wanted to bring up is Steven
Universe. It’s hard to know where to even begin with this one. It’s amazing visually,
story and humor are completely on point and the character representation is
very vast and vivid (not only by race, body size, gender identity, but also it
showed a lesbian couple, confirmed on screen to in fact be a couple, kiss on
screen. It was portrayed as of seemingly platonic, but given the censorship on
this subject matter lately it is very impressive.). It touches a lot of
important notes any story should and some episodes hit, for a lack of a better expression,
too close to home and when it’s over your left sitting there wondering what honestly
did you just see. A lot of episodes in the further season can just be described
as very lucid and heavy with melancholia. This is one of the many reasons the
show is so good. It doesn’t speak down to its, yet again, very vast and diverse
audience, but instead it treats them as adults, even more so to be honest.
(Steven Universe intro bellow)
The last show I wanted to talk about I have mixed feelings about. Don’t get me wrong it is a wonderful peace of animation. An excellent story compared with very grim and rather existential story and writing. Over all the show being more of an experience than anything else. The last animated show I wanted to talk about, which gives me incredible, seemingly endless, amounts of inspiration and drive Is – Over the Garden Wall. I made it often clear how I feel about children being exposed to grim and thought provoking subject matter. This cartoon has not changed my opinion what so ever. Perhaps only increased it. I would recommend adults to watch this short series it is just very relatable and incredibly thought provoking as I mentioned before – an experience among anything else, the atmosphere is incredibly on point and adds to the whole general mood of the show itself. I dropped the title sequence bellow and am going to let it speak for itself:
(Over the Garden Wall title sequence)
to summarize this post I would just have to say that these animated shows are beyond inspirational to me. It is a personal dream and an aspiration to one day be able to work on a project similar to these animated shows because yet again, they are incredibly inspirational.
