question: When cartoon series produce a movie (i.e. the Simpsons, Recess, My Little Pony, etc) why is the animation style of the movie often different than the animation style of the cartoon series?
comment: Money. A movie will generally have a higher budget than three or four episodes of a TV show, and will also be allocated more production time, which results in a different (usually crisper and cleaner) animation style. If you want to see the opposite in action, you can look at things like the Disney Channel series based on things like [*Aladdin*]( URL_0 ). You can even see it with the direct-to-video sequels; compare [this]( URL_1 ) from *Return of Jafar* to [this]( URL_2 ) from the original *Aladdin*, and you can see what the extra cash buys you.
passages: Unlike live-action films, animated films were traditionally developed beyond the synopsis stage through the storyboard format; the storyboard artists would then receive credit for writing the film. In the early 1960s, animation studios began hiring professional screenwriters to write screenplays (while also continuing to use story departments) and screenplays had become commonplace for animated films by the late 1980s.
  
  Section::::Criticism.
   The most important difference is that once a film is in the production phase, the marginal cost of one more shot is higher for animated films than live-action films. It is relatively easy for a director to ask for one more take during principal photography of a live-action film, but every take on an animated film must be manually rendered by animators (although the task of rendering slightly different takes has been made less tedious by modern computer animation). It is pointless for a studio to pay the salaries of dozens of animators to spend weeks creating a visually dazzling five-minute scene if that scene fails to effectively advance the plot of the film. Thus, animation studios starting with Disney began the practice in the 1930s of maintaining story departments where storyboard artists develop every single scene through storyboards, then handing the film over to the animators only after the production team is satisfied that all the scenes make sense as a whole. While live-action films are now also storyboarded, they enjoy more latitude to depart from storyboards (i.e., real-time improvisation).
   In the episode, Bart and Tom watch "The Ren & Stimpy Show". The producers contacted Nickelodeon to get authorization to use the two characters for that sequence. Nickelodeon was strict about what "The Simpsons" was allowed to do, and the producers were not allowed to have the savageness that they wanted. "The Ren & Stimpy Show"'s animators offered to do the layouts of Ren and Stimpy for the episode.
   Animation film crews have many of the same roles and departments as live-action films (including directing, production, editing, camera, sound, and so on), but nearly all on-set departments (lighting, electrical, grip, sets, props, costume, hair, makeup, special effects, and stunts) were traditionally replaced with a single animation department made up of various types of animators (character, effects, in-betweeners, cleanup, and so on). In traditional animation, the nature of the medium meant that "everything" was literally flattened into the drawn lines and solid colors that became the characters, making nearly all live-action positions irrelevant. Because animation has traditionally been so labor-intensive and thus expensive, animation films normally have a separate story department in which storyboard artists painstakingly develop scenes to make sure they make sense before they are actually animated.
   The simple answer is illustrated-films are an attempt to merge comic book sequential art with cinematic storytelling, whereas motion comics seem more intent on re-purposing comic books into cartoons. And I don't mean to sound like a dick because I think motion comics are cool, these are just different. On first glance, they look very similar ... and people might say 'it's moving comics on a screen, that's motion comics' to which I say 'just because "Seinfeld" is moving people captured on 35mm film doesn't make it the same thing as "Full Metal Jacket".' On one level you could see motion comics and illustrated films as siblings like comics books vs graphics novels or TV shows vs feature films, but there are deeper distinctions. Basically, we're filmmakers so we're bringing a cinematic sensibility to this... We animate motion in the frame, but the need for motion is different in film ... it's not like Michael Madsen bounces around the frame in "Reservoir Dogs" the way Wakko does in "Animaniacs".
   While budget became much less of an issue, overseas production houses would be chosen on a per-episode—or even per-scene—basis depending on the amount of money that was available at the moment. This resulted in obviously different levels of quality from episode to episode. This was particularly noticeable in shows like "Gargoyles" and "", where at times characters would appear wildly off-model, requiring scenes to be redone to the dismay of their directors.
  
  Section::::First-run syndicated animation.
   Animated films and TV programs have also been an area of heavy contention. The majority of animated film and television writing is not covered by the WGA's MBA. Most animated feature films have been written under the jurisdiction of another union, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 839, also known as The Animation Guild. IATSE's jurisdiction stemmed from Walt Disney's tradition of creating an animated feature via storyboards written and drawn by storyboard artists. In the years up until the strike, most studios began hiring screenwriters to write script pages which are then storyboarded. According to the WGA, 100% of animated feature film screenplays in 2005 were written by at least one WGA member. Some animated features, such as "Beowulf", were written under the WGA contract. The only animated television programs affected by the strike were Fox's "The Simpsons", "Family Guy", "King of the Hill" and "American Dad!"
   Another problem unique to animation is the requirement to maintain a film's consistency from start to finish, even as films have grown longer and teams have grown larger. Animators, like all artists, necessarily have individual styles, but must subordinate their individuality in a consistent way to whatever style is employed on a particular film. Since the early 1980s, teams of about 500 to 600 people, of whom 50 to 70 are animators, typically have created feature-length animated films. It is relatively easy for two or three artists to match their styles; synchronizing those of dozens of artists is more difficult.
   Director David Silverman said that unlike the TV series where "you [have] to pick and choose", the film gave them the opportunity to "lavish that attention [on] every single scene". The characters have shadows, unlike in the show. Silverman and the animators looked to films such as "The Incredibles", "The Triplets of Belleville", and "Bad Day at Black Rock" for inspiration, as they were "a great education in staging because of how the characters are placed". They also looked for ideas for a dream sequence, in Disney films such as "Dumbo" and the Pluto cartoon "Pluto's Judgment Day", and for crowd scenes in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". Silverman looked at some of the "Simpsons" episodes he had directed, primarily his two favorites, "Homie the Clown" and "Three Men and a Comic Book". Mike B. Anderson, Lauren MacMullan, Rich Moore, and Steven Dean Moore each directed the animation for around a quarter of the film under Silverman's supervision, with numerous other animators working on scenes.
   The same strong resemblance can be seen in "", a reboot of "Voltron" franchise, this time completely produced by American artists. Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim Dos Santos, both known for their work on the "" and its sequel "The Legend of Korra", served as showrunners while fellow crew member Tim Hedrick served as head writer.
   OVA titles generally have a much higher budget per episode than in a television series; therefore the technical quality of animation can generally surpass that in television series; occasionally it even equals that of animated movies.
   The problem with the animation from the producers' point-of-view was that it did not exhibit a distinct style envisioned for the show. At the time there were only a few choices for animation style. Usually, they would either follow the style of Disney, Warner Bros., or Hanna-Barbera. Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons had a universe that was bendy and the characters seemed to be made of rubber. The producers wanted a realistic environment in which the characters and objects could not do anything that was not possible in the real world. One example with the early animation being cartoonish was that the doors behaved liked rubber when slammed. The style of Hanna-Barbera featured the use of cartoon sounds, which they did not want either.
   The production staff at the U.S. animation studio, Film Roman, draws storyboards, designs new characters, backgrounds, props and draws character and background layouts, which in turn become animatics to be screened for the writers at Gracie Films for any changes to be made before the work is shipped overseas. The overseas studios then draw the inbetweens, ink and paint, and render the animation to tape before it is shipped back to the United States to be delivered to Fox three to four months later.
   In illustrated films, we drive the pace of the storytelling with the dramatic voice performances and the sound design, so that allows us to showcase the illustrations in a way where you can really take a moment to absorb the art in the same way you can when reading a comic book ... Motion comics are closer to a form of limited animation that uses comics as source material. Illustrated films are closer to the experimental cinema of Ralph Bakshi's work, Chris Marker's "La jetée" or animation like "Liquid Television".
   In an interview for the "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America" DVD, Mike Judge described MTV Animation as being very ad hoc: "Beavis and Butt-Head" didn't have an art director until the film was made, so until the film they'd never considered colour palettes from scene to scene. In the same interview, art director Yvette Kaplan said "everything was overlapping... we never had the luxury of one part [episode] finished" before another episode was finished.
   The Kids' WB censors were much more flexible with episode content than the Fox Kids censors were with "Batman: The Animated Series". Producer Bruce Timm recounted that "when we were at Fox, after every single storyboard, we would get five single-spaced pages of notes on things we couldn't do. On the WB, we usually get maybe two paragraphs of stuff we can't do. At Fox, they were really picky, not just about things you couldn't do, but just in terms of content and story. They had a million opinions about what we should be doing. Nobody bothers us like that at the WB".
   Other artists who contribute to animated cartoons, but who are not animators, include layout artists (who design the backgrounds, lighting, and camera angles), storyboard artists (who draw panels of the action from the script), and background artists (who paint the "scenery"). Animated films share some film crew positions with regular live action films, such as director, producer, sound engineer, and editor, but differ radically in that for most of the history of animation, they did not need most of the crew positions seen on a physical set.
   Timing is important for the animators drawing these frames; each frame must match exactly what is going on in the soundtrack at the moment the frame will appear, or else the discrepancy between sound and visual will be distracting to the audience. For example, in high-budget productions, extensive effort is given in making sure a speaking character's mouth matches in shape the sound that character's actor is producing as he or she speaks.
   This season's production run (8F) was the last to be animated by Klasky Csupo, before the show's producers Gracie Films opted to switch domestic production of the series to Film Roman. Sharon Bernstein of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that "Gracie executives had been unhappy with the producer Csupo had assigned to "The Simpsons" and said the company also hoped to obtain better wages and working conditions for animators at Film Roman." Klasky Csupo co-founder Gábor Csupó had been "asked [by Gracie Films] if they could bring in their own producer [to oversee the animation production]," but declined, stating "they wanted to tell me how to run my business."
   1992 in animation
  
  Events in 1992 in animation.
  
  Section::::Events.
  
  Section::::Events.:January.
  
  BULLET::::- January 9: "The Simpsons" episode "Radio Bart" pop singer Sting is special guest voice.
  
  BULLET::::- January 27: During a rally of the Republican Party, President George H. W. Bush states that ""the American Family (...) needs to be a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons."
   Audiences generally find animation to be much more interesting with sound. Voice actors and musicians, among other talent, may contribute vocal or music tracks. Some early animated films asked the vocal and music talent to synchronize their recordings to already-extant animation (and this is still the case when films are dubbed for international audiences). For the majority of animated films today, the soundtrack is recorded first in the language of the film's primary target market and the animators are required to synchronize their work to the soundtrack.
  
  Section::::Evolution of animator's roles.
   Section::::List of cartoon series.
  
  BULLET::::- "The Simpsons" (1989–present)
  
  BULLET::::- "" (1992–1993)
  
  BULLET::::- "Tiny Toon Adventures" specials (1992–95)
  
  BULLET::::- "Eek! The Cat" special (1993)
  
  BULLET::::- "The Tick" (one episode) (1996)
  
  BULLET::::- "" (1994–1995)
  
  BULLET::::- "Life with Louie" (two episodes) (1994–1996)
  
  BULLET::::- "The Critic" (1995)
  
  BULLET::::- "Spider-Man" (one episode) (1995)
  
  BULLET::::- "King of the Hill" (1997–2009)
  
  BULLET::::- "Family Guy" (1999–2002, 2005–present)
  
  BULLET::::- "The PJs" (1999–2000)
  
  BULLET::::- "Futurama" (1999–2003, 2008–13 on Comedy Central)
  
  BULLET::::- "American Dad!" (2005–14, 2014–present on TBS)
  
  BULLET::::- "Sit Down, Shut Up" (2009)
  
  BULLET::::- "The Cleveland Show" (2009–13)
  
  BULLET::::- "Bob's Burgers" (2011–present)
  
  BULLET::::- "Allen Gregory" (2011)
  
  BULLET::::- "Napoleon Dynamite" (2012)
   This problem is usually solved by having a separate group of visual development artists develop an overall look and palette for each film before animation begins. Character designers on the visual development team draw model sheets to show how each character should look like with different facial expressions, posed in different positions, and viewed from different angles. On traditionally animated projects, maquettes were often sculpted to further help the animators see how characters would look from different angles.
   Animation for the film began in January 2006, with the "Itchy & Scratchy" short being the first scene to be storyboarded. Groening rejected making either a live-action or a CGI film, calling the film's animation "deliberately imperfect" and "a tribute to the art of hand-drawn animation". The film was produced in a widescreen 2.39:1 aspect ratio, to distinguish it from the look of the television series, and colored with the largest palette the animators ever had available to them. A lot of the animation was produced using Wacom Cintiq tablets, which allowed images to be drawn directly onto a computer monitor to facilitate production. Animation production work was divided among four studios around the world: Film Roman in Burbank, California, Rough Draft Studios in Glendale, California, and AKOM and Rough Draft's division in Seoul, South Korea. As with the television series, the storyboarding, characters, background layout, and animatic parts of production, were done in America. The overseas studios completed the inbetweening, digital ink and paint, and rendered the animation to tape before being shipped back to the United States.
   In 1989, "The Simpsons" began airing on Fox Broadcasting Company in prime time, becoming a massive hit among American audiences. In response, ABC, CBS and NBC each developed animated series to air in prime time, but none of the shows were successful. One series, "Capitol Critters", focused on subjects such as gun control, interracial violence and political corruption. In his review of the series, "Variety" critic Brian Lowry wrote that he felt that the series' approach was "muddled", and that "the bland central character and cartoonish elements [...] will likely be off-putting to many adults, who won't find the political satire biting enough to merit their continued attention. Similarly, kids probably won't be as smitten with the cartoon aspects or look". The series was cancelled after one month. "The Critic" was somewhat more successful, but achieved low ratings because of ABC's sporadic scheduling, and was cancelled by the network. Fox picked up the series, but cancelled it four months later. While Fox allowed "The Simpsons" to portray animated depictions of human buttocks, ABC would not allow similar scenes to appear on "The Critic".
  