A Look Back On The Pop The Top Cartoon: Part 4

Final Thoughts

Why Pop The Top will always be better than The Pancakes Cartoon

    I've kinda talked about this in the other posts, but I'll just be explicit here. For all it's faults, I believe Pop The Top trumps The Pancakes Cartoon in every way. For starters, the story was much easier to follow in Pop The Top. It was just a kid trying to open a glass soda bottle, simple as that. Every part of the cartoon stuck with that story, and there was no filler to drag the cartoon out. People who've seen the cartoon can remember exactly what it's about. This is the total opposite of Pancakes. "Why does that kid want to get poked in the ribs?" "Why does someone have to poke you in the ribs if you call them 'Pancakes'?" "What kind of an insult is 'Pancakes'?" "Why does that one kid have a bag on his head?" Honestly, I can't tell you, and this was the most fatal flaw of Pancakes. People will put up with crappy animation if the story's entertaining. But Pancakes didn't even have that going for it.

(Make sure you have the volume down when you start this. The talking is a lot louder than the music.) 

  

       The art in Pop The Top was also head and shoulders above The Pancakes Cartoon. The drawings for Pop The Top all started with construction. Most of the drawings were successful while others weren't so much, but at least it all TRIED to look professional. Pancakes just feels clunky and amateurish. The animation is also a million times better in Pop The Top, primarily because it had a reason to be animated. The story was created so that it would have to be told with moving pictures. The movement dives the story forward, and it moves pretty damn well. Pancakes really didn't even need to be animated since most of it was characters standing and talking.

Cold, Sterile, and Formless VS Warm, Inviting, and Structured

     But the biggest reason why Pop The Top will always be better than Pancakes is the attitude I had going into the projects. Pancakes was fun for about the first month or two, but after that it was just a menial task, a chore to be completed, a burden to be endured. There's no reason to have that mindset on what's supposed to be entertainment or art. On the other hand, Pop The Top was fun pretty much the whole way through, even with the approaching deadlines. I wanted to make a cartoon that would be fun to watch, and, even with its flaws, I feel like I succeeded.

The General Reaction

     Overall, I'd say the reaction to Pop The Top was pretty positive. I don't think anyone was blown away, but everybody who saw it seemed to be impressed. I think a lot of people liked the happy, light-hearted tone of the whole thing, which was what I was basically going for. The President of the Maryland Institute of College and Art (MICA) visited KSA for the inaugural graduation ceremony, and he said he liked the childlike and fun nature of the cartoon. One of my roommates said he liked how it was funny without trying too hard.

     Like I said in one of the other posts, I think the biggest thing that people liked when they saw the cartoon was the animation itself. Everything from the squash and stretch, smears, and the overlapping motions made people feel nostalgic for old cartoons from the 40s. Someone from my Mom's church said the cartoon reminded him of "that poor coyote from the roadrunner cartoons", and he wasn't the only one who said that. I didn't even think of that when I was making the cartoon, but it makes sense.

After Pop The Top

     After I finished the cartoon, I didn't really know what to do next. In fact, a part of me is still isn't. I had one trimester left after my Senior Thesis class, but they were both science classes that killed a lot of free time I could have had. I did manage to go back to my sketchbook and work on improving my drawing skills, and that's pretty much what I've been doing since then, on and off.

Some studies I've done this summer

       I've had a real hard time motivating myself to start working on new ideas for some reason. I can get myself going if I'm already into a project, but I've always had a hard time starting. I talked about some ideas with dean at KSA, and we both agreed that I should work on something generally short as long as can get into it.

     Now, I've mentioned before that I studied the animation book from Preston Blair, but in that time I've also studied blogs from animators that promote the classics from Disney and Warner Bros. It was then that I'd realized that my old designs were just too amateurish, but it took me a while to change them because I was too stubborn. But it was a few days ago when a read a book on independent animator legend Ralph Bakshi, that gave me the inspiration to do and idea I've had for a while but hesitated to follow through with; The time has come for Harold the Paper Bag Kid to take off his bag.

      Now, this was not a recent or an easy decision, but I've thought it over for some time. Back in November I had a heart-to-heart talk with one of my old high school friends about growing up, how sometimes people grow apart and how things change. This got me thinking of taking the bag out of Baghead. Maybe this would get me more interested in my cartoons again. I also thought a cartoon about this might be a way to vaguely talk about some more personal issues and maybe be a little serious for once.

     I also wanted to get rid of the bag since it's very limiting from a visual stand point. I could only show him from a few angles since his face is flat on the front of his bag. This means no side views. Really, you can't have a character who can only be shown from a few angles if you want to animate them. I got to thinking about some flat-faced characters like Spongebob or The Brave Little Toaster and how their faces don't really seem attached to what's supposed to be the head; the faces feel pasted on. At least their characters had some decent, and even good, artists working on them, but there was one character in particular who broke the straw on the camels back for me.

This has got to be the ugliest damn design I've seen in my life.

     Now I don't watch too much TV anymore, but when I saw Mr. Bag for the first time, I knew Harold's bag had to go. The design was just so lazy, I knew I could do better. I wouldn't really be making such a fuss about it if I wasn't so personally invested in Harold's character. And that's the thing here. Even though the bag's coming off, his character will remain basically the same.

     As of now, I'm leaning more towards making a comic about Harold taking his bag off. I know I'll at least start it out that way. I actually considered animating this for my senior thesis, but I didn't feel confident enough with the idea yet. Still, I may animate this sometime in the future, but for now I hope to do a short comic about it, since I feel it might get a little wordy. I'm going to get started on it soon since I have a meeting with the Dean at KSA, and I'd like to show him that I've at least started on something. Besides, I've been doodling this new design for quite some time, and I'm having more fun drawing it than I ever had drawing that bag. I hope to have it done in two or three weeks, depending on how long it is. I'll post it when it's done.

In the mean time, here's a drawing I did of one of my friends characters.