Check out Jetsons shorts on www.adultswim.com

[Supreme]

Or rather here (http://www.adultswim.com/promo/200203.mayhem/index.html)
Then you can judge for yourself if it's worth taping/staying up for.

[kwantem]

Watched one -- not adult swim material at all. Too similar to the original Jetson's, with a touch of typical Spumco grossnest.

[Mister Intensity]

They are not worth staying up for. John K. is the most overrated cartoon producer of our times. HIS CARTOONS ARE NOT FUNNY, THEY NEVER WERE. His whole reputation was based on getting fired from Ren and Stimpy and painting himself as the poor defenseless animator who was bullied by the big bad Nichelodeon corporation. It's a shame that too many animators that came into prominence in the early 90's bought into his spin and decided to emulate him.

Gross looking faces, audiable bowel sounds, herky, jerky movements, gross looking character designs, screaming characters with funny accents, and protruding boogers ARE NOT FUNNY. Yet, that was the legacy of John K. He never had a sense of what made a cartoon funny: comic timing, relatable characters, comic situations, comic timing, comic timing, comic timing. Few, if any, of John K's cartoons had any of those factors.

His Yogi Bear and Jetson revamps were terrible with little respect for the original concepts. They were essentially Ren and Stimpy in Hanna Barbara drag. Thank heavens he didn't revamp the Flintstones. The recent On the Rocks Flintstones movie was an example of how to do an adult comedy cartoon right (they really should rerun it in the Adult Swim timeslot). That movie respected the original concept, you related to the characters at some level, the script was well written, the gags had good comic timing, and most importantly, IT WAS FUNNY. It wasn't about throwing everything at you in an attempt to gross you out in a postmodern attempt at humorlike too many of John K's cartoons are, it was just a good funny story about the Flintstones and the Rubbles.

John K. doesn't deserve any of the praise that he has received from the animation community. If Cartoon Network never shows those shorts again, it won't be a great loss. I'll be relieved if I never see a Spumco cartoon ever again, until John K. figures out how to make a funny cartoon. If you noticed, not too many of his post-Ren and Stimpy have taken off with the exception of Ripping Friends and the only reason that project took off was because Fox Kids was desperate for programming since Fox Kids was having a hard time attracting quality projects due to bad choices the past few years (and we all know the end result of that).

Mister Intensity

[Killtacular]

Jesus.

This is NOT the "Let's bash John K." board.

If you have something to say about the two Jetsons shorts, fine.

But this is NOT the place to go off on a wild Ranting Swede Rant about how much you hate John K. and then insult other people for complimenting him.

So stop.

[livingfruitvirus]

Actually Spumco is working on a Flintstones cartoon.

[Calhoun07]

Originally posted by livingfruitvirus
Actually Spumco is working on a Flintstones cartoon.

Not with John K, I hope. Cuz I really don't want to see his style on the Flintstones. I want to see more Genndy on the Flintstones!

[Killtacular]

Genndy didn't really have much to do with the Flintstones.

You know they still show Genndy's name on the new season of Dexter's Lab, despite him not being there.

They list his name because it's his animation staff.


And, sorry to burst your bubble, but.

Chris Savino and David Smith, the director and art director of Flintstones On the Rocks, are both from Spumco.



There's nothing wrong with John K.'s styles.. I put more blame on the writers. It's not like John K. writes every single one of the scripts to every single thing he makes. John K. is largely an art director and storyboarder, like Craig McCracken.

[Calhoun07]

Cool. Then I have a good hope the new Flintstones project will be good. So is the new cartoon for the Internet or will it be on Cartoon Network or AS?

[Killtacular]

I'm not sure.

I also heard Spumco was considering a Huckleberry Hound one too.

[SSJ_Gogeta]

I found the Jetsons spumco spoof mildly funny, but bastardizing more Hanna-Barbera classics with vomit jokes is not what I want.

I liked Flintstones on the rocks, and I hope Spumco keeps going in that direction. No drool, and barf jokes please.

[Mister Intensity]

Originally posted by Matt Wilson
Genndy didn't really have much to do with the Flintstones.

You know they still show Genndy's name on the new season of Dexter's Lab, despite him not being there.

They list his name because it's his animation staff.


And, sorry to burst your bubble, but.

Chris Savino and David Smith, the director and art director of Flintstones On the Rocks, are both from Spumco.



There's nothing wrong with John K.'s styles.. I put more blame on the writers. It's not like John K. writes every single one of the scripts to every single thing he makes. John K. is largely an art director and storyboarder, like Craig McCracken.

The directors of On the Rocks may be from Spumco but they were definitely were not trying to make a Spumco cartoon. I noticed that Genndy's name was attached to On the Rocks. Although, he may have had minimal involvement with On the Rocks, I assume that it was mostly his staff who did it but whoever did it, they did a wonderful job, IMHO.

I hope the Spumco Flintstones short never come to pass. The Spumco house style (regardless of who's responsible) just means gross out jokes, ugly character designs, and just plain bad, unfunny stories. This may not be a bash John K thread but my comments were based on my viewing of the four shorts and with the exception of one joke in the Boo Boo short (no spoilers but it comes in right in the beginning), it was terribly unfunny.

Why so strong? Because Spumco gets too much unjustified acclaim, IMO. I remember the early 90's being a terrible time for humor cartoons and I blame it on the Spumco influence (on the other hand, it was the golden age of action cartoons due to B:TAS). A lot of the early World Premire Cartoons reeked of that influence, particularly the work of one director whose five or so entries were at the bottom of the very first World Premire Cartoons poll (that was rightfully won by Dexter Laboratory).

While I don't mind some revisionism when it comes to reworking some of the old Hanna Barbara standards (and frankly some of them need it), Spumco's throw everything out and replace them with clones of Ren and Stimpy and its supporting cast with no redeeming values style is not the way to go. On the Rocks may have used some Spumco's staff but it wasn't guided by the creative force behind Spumco, John K. and for that I am thankful. Two hours of the Spumco style would be painful and cause me to throw the television set out the window.

Comic timing, not gross out jokes, means everything in a humor cartoon. I doubt if John K. did the early Warner Brothers shorts, people would remember them some 50-60 years later.

Mister Intensity

[Supreme]

As far as Flintstones: OTR is concerned, I thought it was COMPLETELY a Spumco production. I had much of the telltale Spumco signs: the character movement, humor, drawing style and subtle, yet obvious, site gags (Fred & Barney in thongs).

The way I see it, alot of the nay-sayers do0n't get the subtle nuances of Spumco. There is really no fixing this. Just as some people don't get Bullwinkle past the point of it being a "kiddie' cartoon, they will never get Spumco and similar production companies.

And to bring up Genndy, I think his ealier work was MUCH better and funnier, such as 2 Stupid dogs and Secret Squirrel.

[Mister Intensity]

Maybe I don't get certain things and there are stuff that I just don't find funny (like close-ups of flies buzzing around drool). There is some Spumco influence of On the Rocks but it didn't overwhelm the overall charm of the movie. Part of that is probably due to the hands of the Hanna Barbara gatekeepers like Davis Doi (who I believe was part of that project). Besides, I didn't see John K's name anywhere in the credits and he certainly didn't have creative control (thank heavens).

I thought that Dexter was a maturation of Genndy's work. While I did enjoy the Secret Squirrel shorts (they should have made more), I found 2 Stupid Dogs too STOOOPID for words (after the first episode, I tuned out after the Secret Squirrel segment).

[Supreme]

At least you admit that you don't get certain things. That makes your rants more believable and understandable (I'm not sure if they're any more valid, though.)

The bottom line is, you either like the toons, or you don't. It should not be based on "I hate John K., so the fact that he had to do with last nights shorts made them suck, and the fact that he was not involved with Flintstones made it rule!"

[Mister Intensity]

Understood. It's not so much that I hate John K., but I have seen enough of his cartoons to know that they are not for me. I am more frustrated by the fact that too many people in animation hyped him up to look like an animation god and I for one don't see why he is placed on such a pedestal. That hype (and my affection for the original H-B characters) made me check out these shorts and I was disappointed that these shorts were just as bad as the Ren and Stimpy stuff I have seen from him. With so much hyp, making him look like the animation savior, his cartoons often come up as underwhelming, puerile, and disgusting.

Most cartoon studios have a signature style and that comes out in the product. While On the Rocks and the Spumco H-B shorts shared a lot of the same staff, the Spumco house style was more apparent in the shorts than On the Rocks even though the Spumco influence was there in terms of some of the gags, character designs, and voice work (I like the "retro" casting approach). With so many freelancers working with different studios, cross-polination is bound to happen.

I'll make this clear, until I see something that hits my funny bone from Spumco, they won't get any props from me, despite the apparent industry love affair with them.

Mister Intensity

[livingfruitvirus]

Why so strong? Because Spumco gets too much unjustified acclaim, IMO. I remember the early 90's being a terrible time for humor cartoons and I blame it on the Spumco influence (on the other hand, it was the golden age of action cartoons due to B:TAS). A lot of the early World Premire Cartoons reeked of that influence, particularly the work of one director whose five or so entries were at the bottom of the very first World Premire Cartoons poll (that was rightfully won by Dexter Laboratory).

That director would be Pat Ventura. He did 2 Yuckie Duck cartoons, 2 Sledgehammer O. Possum cartoons, and 2 George and Jr. cartoons. Afterwards he took off for Nickelodeon.

[Killtacular]

Pat Ventura was so terrible and god awful.

[Allen's Nickname.]

Chris Savino worked for Spumco on ren and stimpy untill john got fired or john quit (I've heard two diffrent stories) more recently he's been a storyboard artist on Dexter's Lab, The Powerpuff Girls, and Samuri Jack. Right Now he's the supervising director on Dexter's lab. Now, I know this isn't about Adult Swim but I thought i'd clear up what Savino has done.

[Karkull]

I have to agree with Mister Intensity a little on this one. Watching John K's cartoons is a little like passing a train wreck--they're so ugly and pointless that you can't help but watch. They're not pretty, but you can't help but watch them...if only to see what he'll do next.

[Clank]

Does that mean you think that HM and Aqua teen blah blah blah, aren't ugly?
Let alone poorly drawn and even more poorly animated.
My god, there certainly is no accounting for taste.

[mbaker]

I like some of John K's work, but he dose go a little overboard sometimes. I agree with how Flintstones On The Rocks payed respect to the original show. It was adult, but in a creative, and tastful way. Plus it was genuinly funny. Ironically that film was directed by two former Spumco employees with the strong guidence of the great Genndy Tartakovsky.