Treatment of animation in the UK Rant

Post by **Wonderlicious** » October 29th, 2005, 5:01 pm

I'm sorry if this gets a little intense for some (hopefully it shouldn't)...

I am so annoyed about the treatment of animation in the UK. Here are the reasons...

1. Animated shows are sometimes shown years after they premiered to a wide audience. The Simpsons and Family Guy have fallen prone to this. In the UK, due to the BBC's decision to not advertise, one has to have a TV licence (which costs around £100 a year). That only accounts for the five major stations. This is one of the reasons why extra TV (cable and sattelite) isn't as common over here (or at least to my knowledge). Unfortunately, from what I believe, Rupert Murdoch (the idiot who runs the Fox corporation) runs the Sky sattelite programme and keeps stuff like The Simpsons as a selling point for the package (read: Sky keep The Simpsons and Family Guy up to date on their channels and leave the series four years late on network television). Family Guy, despite being six years old, only came out on network TV last week and with no publicity at all. So a person like me who's parents don't have Sky (hey, I'm a teenager

) hasn't ever seen a full episode of Family Guy and despite being a huge fan of the yellow people, has only seen around 10 episodes from the past four or five years.

2. DVD releases of classic material are abysmal; only four Walt Disney Treasures have been released here, Alice in Wonderland, Brother Bear and Who Framed Roger Rabbit only got 1 disc releases whilst there were Region 1 2 Disc Edition, many Looney Tunes and Hanna Barbera sets are "store exclusives" and can only be bought at these over priced shops and there's a general lack of promotion for animation on DVD. I can import, but why should I have to?

3. Maybe due to the above point, there's a lacklustre feeling towards animation on DVD even with animation fans. A few months ago, a friend of mine is a fan of Disney (though not as big as me, of course) and said that she had lost her Cinderella video. I told her that the DVD was coming out, and her reply was "yeah, but it isn't one of the originals". Honestly, I'm one of the only people who has any other animated films on DVD aside from Finding Nemo and Shrek 2.

4. The original aspect ratio is often disregarded. Actually, many modern 1:85:1 films appear in their proper widescreen ratio on TV over here, as is the norm with a lot of modern programming. However, a lot of Academy Ratio material ends up matted down to widescreen, from modern day stuff such as Spongebob Square Pants to even great classics such as Looney Tunes and various Scooby Doo stuff. Also, the Brother Bear DVD only has the 2:35:1 ratio cropped down to "Family Friendly Widescreen" version, which made me get nervous having to blind buy the Region 1 release as opposed to renting the pan and scam Region 2 copy. Fortunately, I liked the movie, so the worry was pointless.

5. Aside from a few Hanna Barbera and sometimes Looney Tunes things, no classic animation is shown on TV. Tom and Jerry, Classic Disney shorts and more are becoming rarer. Even Disney animated films which were always on TV at Christmas in the UK (Alice in Wonderland, Dumbo) haven't been on in years. This is a missed oppurtunity to show gold to a newer generation.

So there, animation is treated poorly on all fronts in the UK. Just thought that I'd make others aware. Thanks for reading my rant.

Post by **Ben** » October 29th, 2005, 8:53 pm

True...true...

Boomerang is a great channel, with hours of decent, old-school, correctly ratio'd toons on everyday, though.

What did your friend mean by Cinderella not being "one of the originals"??

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » October 29th, 2005, 11:45 pm

Let's put this in perspective.

Most people are VERY ignorant of the entertainment they watch.

Honestly, they don't care WHO animated the films or WHO did the voices. It's just a disposable commodity to them.

Most people are NOT deeply into animation and consider it kid's stuff.

There have been more than a few people who've worked in animation that never considered it a big deal, either. It's just a job and a paycheck to them. And I'm not even talking about executives and producers. I'm talking about the animators and story people themselves!

It's just the way it's been for decades now.

I'd be less concerned about what other people think and just enjoy it on your own.

It can be an expensive habit, yes, which I why I ALWAYS try to get the best in-store deals I can. The other option is looking for used DVD/DVD set deals or finding a dealer who imports this stuff cheaper.

There are other "less legal" ways of getting animation, but I'm not going to go into them. Definitely NOT a good idea to go that way -- especially with anything produced by major studios. There's a real crackdown going down on black market/dupes and I'd imagine someday the authorities will go after consumers buying counterfeits, too.

Post by **Wonderlicious** » October 30th, 2005, 4:45 am

Ben wrote:What did your friend mean by Cinderella not being "one of the originals"??

I think she was referring to the first videos of Disney's animated films that came out in the late 80s and early 90s.

Post by **ShyViolet** » October 30th, 2005, 4:57 pm

There's a real crackdown going down on black market/dupes and I'd imagine someday the authorities will go after consumers buying counterfeits, too.

Illegal downloads as well.

I think she was referring to the first videos of Disney's animated films that came out in the late 80s and early 90s.

Is it because that's before they "cleaned up" the films and enhanced the colors?

"And now...our Feature Presentation!"

Post by **Ben** » October 30th, 2005, 7:03 pm

Ahhh... (Ben looks appreciatively at his Disney LaserDisc collection)...

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » October 30th, 2005, 11:07 pm

One thing I'm doing when I get a DVD recorder is to transfer ALL the laserdiscs I care about to DVD-RW.

Why? Some of my discs definitely have signs of rot and the LD player isn't going to last forever.

Heck, I don't even know of ANY show that will service my LD player if the motor happens to go bad or (very likely already happened) my laser lens gets scratched.

That's just the way technology is. Even now, many DVDs WILL go bad in far less than 10-15 years.

The home video companies spend as little money as they possibly can pressing these 5-inchers and consumers pay for it in the end with discs that go bad well before they should.

The situation with LD is even worse. It's a bigger surface, more glue or laminate can deteriorate, and these things seem to self-destruct quicker than even VHS tapes!