By Connor Dunphy Yo, it’s Dead Homer Society. You know how it is, you ain’t here if you don’t. Let’s get straight to it, because I got something to rant about. Charlie and his accomplices have done a real fine job of utterly deconstructing Zombie Simpsons. And it deserves every single bit of it, because watching it is like seeing your beloved Grandma contract dementia and then proceed to start being really mean and horrible for no reason. Everything they’ve mentioned: the dialogue, the storylines, the characterization, lack thereof of all three, it’s all grade A, 100%, farmer’s dream bullshit.…
Category: Pies Are Easier to Draw
It’s Not a Real Hallway, But an Incredible Simulation!
“Good thing this alley got so narrow in the middle.” – Lou Since I don’t know much about animation, I submit this with my usual caution. But can anyone tell me what the fuck is going on with the hallway through which temporarily crazy Joan Rivers drives a golf cart? First image: Right here this already doesn’t scan. I think they’re trying to go for some kind of fisheye type shot, except that the scale is all out of whack. The door on the right is bowed like it would be, but the closer door on the left is only…
Cutting Digital Corners
“Don’t worry, baby, the tube’ll know what to do.” – Homer Simpson I’ve never worked as an animator, nor even been able to draw decently, so feel free to take the following with a grain of salt. Having said that, I’ve sat through every single one of the HD episodes of Zombie Simpsons, and I think all their digital tools have made it increasingly easy for them to cut corners. Take the image below from “Love Is a Many Strangled Thing”: There’s nothing terribly remarkable, it’s just an establishing shot of the school. (You can see Bart’s stupid tractor ride…
Compare & Contrast: Disney, The Simpsons, & Zombie Simpsons
“Yeah, I used to be rich. I owned Mickey Mouse Massage Parlors, then those Disney sleazeballs shut me down. I said, ‘Look, I’ll change the logo, put Mickey’s pants back on!’ Pfft, some guys you just can’t reason with.” – Railroad Bridge Bum Walter Elias Disney is an inescapable presence in American animation. Whether or not you like him, his work, or the giant company he spawned, when it comes to animation you are living in a world he did a great deal to shape. The Simpsons always had some fun with this, enough that SNPP has an entire page…
Wanted: Background Artist
Very late in “Loan-a-Lisa”, Lisa and Nelson go to an entrepreneur’s convention. There’s no real plot reason for this to happen, but they had to cram the Facebook guy into this episode somehow. And so was born one of the most pathetic scenes in a pathetic episode. In the credit where credit is due department, they did have some creative signs in the interior establishing shot of the convention, but that’s all they had. Once that was over, all that happened was crappy animation, lame exposition, and the laziest and worst kind of guest voice: the celebrity cameo. Mark Zuckerberg,…
Storyboarding the Simpsons Way
“Don’t worry, I just drew up a little blueprint, now, lemme walk you through it. This is the door, he goes through that. This is the roof. And this happy character here is the sun. He shines down on the house, see?” – Homer Simpson This post of storyboarding resources from Dakota State University contains a link to a sweet PDF from AnimationMeat.com that shows various animation layout techniques and shots with examples from the Simpsons. Here’s a sample (click to embiggen): If you’re at all interested in how the show gets animated or presented, this is a really interesting…
Animation Showcase: Homer Goes to College
– By Bob Mackey When The Simpsons had its prime-time debut in 1989, the show’s animation was considered crude by most. While it’s true that the visuals improved by leaps and bounds after that first rocky year, the original 12 episodes of The Simpsons – despite their roughness – still stand as a major leap forward in the progress of television animation. And over The Simpsons’ first handful of years, talented artists like Brad Bird, David Silverman, Jeffrey Lynch, Jim Reardon, Wes Archer, and Rich Moore (amongst others) not only defined and refined the look of the show; they also…
Compare & Contrast: Nude Burns
“Hey Mom, did he have those spots all over his body?” – Bart Simpson “I heard that!” – C.M. Burns One of the few genuinely interesting things I learned while tormenting myself with the Season 12 commentaries was that Zombie Simpsons isn’t allowed to show ass crack. (Of course, The Simpsons was so fond of cartoon nudity that they had enough for an entire ending credits montage of it by the middle of Season 7.) Now, all shows labor under some burden of censorship, that’s just the way of the world. But Zombie Simpsons doesn’t even try to get clever…