Cartoons for geeks: rise of a new demographic?

R

rexymeteorite

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In the past, animation could (in the English-speaking world, at least) be broadly divided into two categories:

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Recently, though, we've seen the emergence of a new group:

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Geek animation is not entirely new, of course (anyone ever see Heavy Metal?), but it really seems to have boomed lately.

ITEM: For a start, there's the splurt of available anime (Japanese animation, of course, being a prime example of an industry that's been tapping into the geek demographic for some time now)

ITEM: Then we have all those DC/Marvel DTVs - along with the Hellboy movies, the Conan movie, the Dragonlance movie... fitting in somewhere between them and the anime boom are Animatrix, Batman: Gotham Knight and Highlander Vengeance.

ITEM: The combination of the Web and Flash has arguably given animators (the ones who can afford the resources, anyway) unprecendented amounts of both creative freedom and distribution. And what do they make with it? This.

ITEM: Some time back I turned on Channel 4 - CHANNEL 4, the UK's great bastion of artsy animation - to see a late night animated short. What I got was Shin Gi Tai, a film telling the, er, "story" of a bunch of people beating eachother up for no apparent reason in a Blade Runneresque cityscape, and looking suspiciously like a cutscene from a video game.

It's pretty clear that this is a phenomenon influencing both commercial animation (with geeks becoming a viable demographic) and independent animation (with cartoons being made by geeks, for geeks)

So, what do y'all think? Are geeks closing the gap between the mainstream and arthouse? Or are they just lowering the tone? It remains to be seen...
 
So we're all a bunch of geek-a-leeks?So we all having something in common that binds us like this?Well,so be it.I don't dress like a geek or look like a geek but if I'm a geek (you lousy-rotten-effin'-stereotype-giving-losers) so be it.:sweat:
 
Yeah, we're geeks. The fact that we're here at all indicates a certain degree of geekiness. And I say this as one of the geekiest geeks on this forum. However, I don't know if there will ever be a wave of animated programming specifically tailored for the geek. After all, there have been animation geeks around long before we admitted to or were ever acknowledged as such. As you say, it remains to be seen.

And, Lavenderpaw: There's no specific way that a geek acts, dresses or looks. Geeks are just like serial killers; we look like everyone else. ;)
 
I think it probably has a lot to do with the fact that most of the creative types working in the animation industry are themselves self professed geeks. So they tend to make shows that can appeal on a geeky level as well as entertaining the wider audience.

Plus the success of comic book movies over the past decade has probably helped to encourage the suits.
 
Interesting question. I'm not sure I'd call it a trend in that way just yet, or if it is, then it's not just limited to cartoons. Geek movies are taking over the multiplexes as well. I think that Hollywood has recognized the purchase power of the geek for a while. I suspect it's the Internet, where Hollywood types see hit counts and popular trends and figure that geeks will do their PR work for them.

That being said, I think that a lot of the 'toons you're mentioning were always being made, but just for syndication and kids markets. The real change now is that a lot more of those kinds of cartoons are being made for teens and adults as well. There have been superhero cartoons on TV constantly for years, but it's only now that they get the kind of marketing muscle that WHV put behind Gotham Knight or New Frontier, or that Sony put behind Spectacular Spider-Man.

It's also worth pointing out that a lot of those geek 'toons didn't exactly burn up the charts. Hellboy Animated apparently didn't sell well enough for them to do more, unfortunately, and I don't think the Dragonlance DTV or the Highlander anime will be getting any sequels (though perhaps that's just me saying I thought they really sucked).

-- Ed
 
I'm a geek, and I'm proud...in a weird sort of way. :p Anyway, it isn't really a rise of a new demographic, its more of acknowledging that the demographic is actually there and companies realizing that they (we?) could be profitable.
 
Precisely. For one, a major geek sterotype is that we hate the idea of hygenie, whereas I myself enjoy my daily shower.

As for the geek demograph being large, I'll believe that when we see more toon based networks being added to basic cable extended (i.e. Boomerang, Funimation Channel, Nicktoons). Ok, I do have Toon Disney, but I hear that it is still inaccesible for some.
 
I hesitated at first at believing this to be a new thing, but I guess it kind of is. It could simply be down to demographic changes, as the generation of kids who became geeks off the back of Star Wars and '80s cartoons have now grown up and permeated the art courses of the snooty, but then you could call the distinctly geeky sensibilities of the first generation of 'film brats' (including Lucas and Spielberg) part of the same phenomenon.

I guess what would be different now is the widespread dispersal of the internet and 'democratisation' of animation tools, giving the power to make cartoons to young artists who haven't had their geekiness pummelled out of them by years of film theory, have no need to win friends and influence people to get a shot at the industry, and furthermore are more likely to make cartoons due to their geeky persona. I suppose it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the number of animated short films has exploded on the back of geek-orientated subject matters.

And I'm saying this as a geek myself. I make no excuses and have a certain amount of pride that I'm 'one of them', but despite the geek cartoonist's willingness to go where the mainstream fears to tread, it's probably fair to say that the intellectual dexterity of your typical online animated short is rarely going to warm the heart of Sergei Eisenstein (a man with great and considerable respect for animation, I might add). This may change as the scene refines and deepens itself, but I'd be reasonably happy if it maintains its happy half-way house between avant-garde obfuscation and mass-market banality.
 
I think it would look more like one of those color dot graphs with circles of color overlapping-- because mainstream animation can be geeky-- and geeky can also be mainstream and artsy. Mainstream can also be a little artsy in it's own right.
 
Lavenderpaw, there's nothing stereotypical about being a geek. You can look and dress however you want to, but if you enjoy a certain genre or media (like everyone here does, considering the fact that we're on an animation board for crying out loud), then you're a geek. If you were being called a nerd, THAT would be an insult.

I'm a geek (mostly of anime and comic books) and proud of it. :sweat:
 
Also, here's one thing I forgot to talk about in the previous post. I mentioned the rise of the geek as producer, but just as important is the consolidation of the geek as consumer.

Here the internet makes another entrance. While before the present time geekery was a comparatively niche pastime (hence the traditional division between 'mainstream' and 'everything else') the rise of the world wide web has resulted in the widespread adoption of the 'long tail' as a feasible economic model (for those scratching their heads, a potted explanation is provided here). Geeks were a niche when considered in their own localised population centres, but the internet has allowed them to group together into a cohesive demographic of formidable size. And as the 'mainstream' has fragmented into various niches, 'geeks' have ironically turned out to the largest and most inter-connected and organised of these niches. It's the king niche, in other words.

All this has added up to geeks having far more influence and purchasing power than they did previously. While the mass audience has split up into quadrants and can no longer be relied upon to frog-march together to the cinema or sit down in front of the same television program, geeks have remained relatively cohesive and can be counted on to turn up in droves for big events and purchase the related merchandise, making them a make-or-break highly-coveted audience.

Take a look at the cinema. Ten years ago, the mass audience was turning out in shifts to see Titanic, and no other movie came close. Nowadays the most hotly-anticipated film of the year is a Batman movie.
 
This is just the sympton of Generation X rising to power. We of Generation X grew up on cartoons, and thus they serve as our inspiratinos. THis is more so for those who get into teh entertainment industries. Since they grey up on cartoons, they want to make cartoons, but with something their now adult-selves can enjoy. GenX consumers are in it for similar reasons. They grew up with cartoons, so on a subconscious level they aren't put off by cartoons. Any objections are merely skin deep and are the result of peer pressure and conotation.
Geek animation is how Generation X expresses itself.
 
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