Horror Cartoons, Can They Work?

L

* Lord Voldemort *

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This actually started of as some thoughts I?ve had concerning the feasibility of an animated series based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft. Considering that Lovecraft?s works tend to get referenced across multiple animated series, from The Real Ghostbusters to Justice League to The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, I was wondering if it wasn?t time for someone to create a show dedicated to exploring the Cthulhu Mythos.

But then that got me thinking about how few dedicated horror ?toons there really are out there, at least in western animation. The only one that really comes to mind is the old Tales From The Crypt animated series and let?s face it, the most terrifying thing about that show was the Crypt Keeper?s puns.

I imagine a lot of this is probably due to the constraints of S&P, after all it?s hard to really deliver good creepy chills when the system is practically designed to prevent just that. On the other hand, action drama shows like Gargoyles, Avatar: The Last Airbender and the DCAU have done a good job of bending the rules for the sake of drama. Could horror do the same? Often the scariest things are those that are implied but unseen, so maybe it wouldn?t be so hard after all.

What are your thought?
 
Lovecraft gets a little silly when you show it and don't imagine it. That's why there have been so few successful adaptations of it to any visual medium. It just stops working so well once it leaves one's head. There's ways around that by making the horror more implied than seen, though.

But as for horror cartoons in general, the Spawn cartoon seemed to work rather well despite the thinness of its superhero plot. Invader Zim had some rather disturbing moments. And there was a lot of genuinely creepy, give you nightmares stuff in Courage the Cowardly Dog.

I say it can work because with animation you never really have a solid point of reference, everything could shift at any moment and that disorientation can add to the fear.

What I would like to see is Warner Bros. use some of the dozens of DC horror properties they have licenses to. Seriously, a House of Mystery anthology show featuring Cain and Abel and Destiny and Eve and Lucien and the houses of Mystery and Secrets would be great. People wouldn't accuse it of ripping off Tales From the Crypt because they're only familiar with the TV version and he's very different from the comics version.
 
Cool World was originally conceived as an animated horror film.

Danny Antonucci is planning on producing one as well.

Anime has a broad example of horror on TV, film, and video.
 
It depends on the person.

I don't think I've ever been frightened or creeped out by an animated show or movie meaning to be "horror".

In animation, the most horrific moments tend to be ones that hit on a truth about the human condition. Just throwing monsters and gore isn't going to scare many people.
 
Invader Zim got downright creepy when it came to horror. Episodes like 'Bestest Friend' (At least the scene where Keef opens his, um, 'gift') and 'Dark Harvest' prove that horror can be done in animation, and be done incredibly well.
 
I know its not a tv series but Salad Fingers freaks me out.

I think a western animated horror series could work really well. But it seems like Americans are afraid of making cartoons that are serious. I'm not saying there arent any serious western cartoons, I'm just saying that there's very few.
 
Mystery Inc. comes into mind but mostly because the monsters look interesting and scarier than previous Scooby shows like What's New. Also The Secret Saturdays had some horror moments, especially the final episodes.

Wouldn't mind watching a cartoon base on H.P. Lovecraft's work but depends how well the story works if they make a cartoon series and of course would like that HBO or other makes the cartoon similar on how they did Spawn and not downgraded to kid friendly like Tales from the Crypt.

This is just my opinion but i have read Uzumaki(Spirals) and seriously it would be kinda creepy to see it made into a cartoon/anime with all the creepiness the manga had.
 
Good point, for all the tentacled beasties, Lovecraft's particular brand of horror tends to be very cerebral and abstract which can be hard to translate into a visual medium. That said, I think good writing would do a lot to compensate for that. Of course, good writing is something else that a lot of cinematic Lovecraft adaptations seem rather lacking in.



Yeah, Zim and Courage were pretty freaky at times. Which is interesting as they were both ostensibly comedy toons.



Indeed, animation offers the opportunity for surreal and unsettling imagery that live action lacks.



Well, I'm game.
 
One of the best examples of horror in animation I've ever seen would have to be UPA's adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell Tale Heart. I'd definitely suggest anyone who thinks horror can't work in an animated medium check it out before debating any further.
 
This is why the Hellboy dtvs were so disappointing. It seemed by design to be going for a kid friendly audience, yet tried to do something adult. But it also disappointed the adults with.lack of everything the comics stood for. The vampire one were the better of the two, but still.

Liquid television and a recent French made film "Fears in the Dark" are examples of what can be done. I think even Samurai Jack had some good examples of horror.
 
You should check out some stopmotion stuff, also. There's a character in Henry Selick's "Slow Bob In the Lower Dimensions" that's creepy business. The Other Mother in "Coraline" is nightmare inducing, too.
 
To be honest, I find kids' horror typically more unsettling than "adult" horror for the simple fact that it gets you while your guard is down. Watch a slasher flick, and you know what you're in for. Watch Invader Zim, and did you really expect a kid's eyes would be ripped out?
 
I thought we were discussing on horror animation for the TV, it seems to work well for the TV. Which such mild examples like Billy and Mandy(Although most of this stuff is done rather childish though). For film. it would be difficult though...


Before some greedy bum decided to turn into something similar to "a toon rabbit" and it bombed and all that did was cause Bakshi to never do another animated film again.

I remember reading a book called Out law animation that talked about this. Anyone know if Danny is still doing animation? He seems to have disappeared from all of us after Ed edd n eddy was finished.


the greenman said:
This is why the Hellboy dtvs were so disappointing. It seemed by design to be going for a kid friendly audience, yet tried to do something adult. But it also disappointed the adults with.lack of everything the comics stood for./QUOTE] I think it would have been better just to see the crew who worked on Batman:the animated series to do Hellboy. But hell even those leave me disappointed for my favorite comic being done by somebody who doesnt have a clue what the heck they are doing.

Alright. Some animated films have scared children even though they are not that quite horrorish(meaning had parts to scare them just a pinch). Like Nightmare before xmas, coraline, Black Cauldron, Secret of Nimh, just to name a few. But for an adult animated horror film. Well...This would be somewhat difficult to do. Unless if its handled right it would bring up a whole bunch of horror films. But however It wont likely happen anytime soon unless somebody makes the perfect animated horror film to allow studios to push the limits. Unless we are getting and is wildly considered as the new Friday the 13th or even Nightmare on elm street. Or even something to allow animated films of such nature like Horror, it isnt going to happen anytime soon.
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It was a gory retelling of "Three Little Pigs". Bill Kopp and Pat Ventura worked on it and was produced by Nelvana.

Speaking of Courage, I read John Dilworth was involved in this masterpiece:

eviltoons-2.jpeg
 
That was the last episode ? I remember catching it late one Saturday night during a syndicated airing after the first third was gone and just bugging out trying to figure out what I was looking at.
 
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