Whats important to you?

L

l.o.v.e_forever

New member
I've noticed that several people, including many prominent cartoonists, place the animation of a short above all else. This group includes... well, it includes John K., 'nuff said.

I've seen a lot of other people with similar tastes. I'm gonna go ahead and say now, that story (or humor) has always been more important to me. I don't understand why when gamers buy a game based solely on graphics, they're called idiots, but people who judge cartoons based solely on look are called sophisticated.

Anywho, what do you think?
 
Erm, if thats how you feel, you can put it in the thread. Though I'd think it a bit odd if someone thought Writing, Animation, and Music were of equal importance.
 
For action shows...

1. Writing.
2. Art
3. Animation

I find every aspect important, but I can generally accept anything about the show as long as the writing is good (even if it's just stick people or something). Admittedly, 'writing' is a catch-all of characters, story, and premise for me. Art would be second, as good art can benefit a series if used properly, and I would prefer a series to have as beautiful art as its writing. Animation would be last, as there's tricks you can use to cover it up, but in the end it's still important and can enhance the series.
 
I don't see why it's weird (although I'll put voice acting, music, and everything sound-related in a single category).

The way I see it, a cartoon is composed of many aspects that all contribute to the finished product, and in order to be considered excellent, it has to succeed in all of them. This isn't to say that it has to be perfect on everything, as I can sit through mediocre writing if the art is good (Foster's) or mediocre art if the writing is good (He-Man). Heck, there are some Merrie Melodies where the only reason I watch them is due to the music.

So no, to me is not a question of "which" as much as it is about the overall product.
 
In order of most important:

Writing
Animation
Music

One thing everyone can agree on is that a story should be well told and well thought out so that it can captivate an audience.
Animation isn't that important, but in terms of decent marketing, that's usually it's prime selling point. People would prefer something beautifully animated instead of something Clutch Cargo-ish.
Music's not that as important as the above two.
 
It's threads like this that make me glad TZ exists.

If we're looking at things from a non-analytical entertainment standpoint, writing is most important. A well-animated cartoon that's boring as sin might be pretty to look at and the animation might be worth studying, but that alone won't convince me that it's enjoyable.

Writing, to me anyway, is the meat and backbone of a cartoon, since that's where the characters, personalities, story, conflict, and humor/drama/action/what-have-you come from. Animation (and music) might help emphasize, expand on and improve on these things, but they're more on the surface than truly essential to the cartoon.

But if I may paraphrase Bill Watterson for a moment "the best cartoons haved funny writing and funny drawings."
 
Writing ... because if a cartoon is ugly (see: Teen Titans), I can always do something else and treat it more like a radio show, just listening to it while looking at, say, the computer.
 
Writing its the biggest obviously but to me Music makes a cartoon go from good to amazing. Music is very powerful and can make any scene thousands of times better if the correct music is chosen. Music is extremely important.

When I look at animated shows i like the most, the ones with great music clearly go ahead any others.
 
Depends on the cartoon, really. Oskar Fischinger and Len Lye's abstract animations don't have any writing at all (not in any widely-accepted sense, anyway), but they get along just fine without it. But if an episode of The Simpsons tried to get by without a script, then... well, yes.

But if we keep it to cartoons which do use all three elements, then I'd still say that the order of importance depends on the particular work. But for me, each element still has to be, at the very least, good. If the cartoon fails in one area, then it's flawed.
 
Maybe I should define my criteria a bit better. I consider pretty much anything that's less freeform than pure improvisation to have writing in it. Meaning at some point, someone had to have put down in paper what they were going to do in a cartoon, be it outline, storyboard or script.
 
I'm surprised "music" is even on here at all. The music can greatly enhance your experience, yes, but I've never seen anyone turn down a whole show just for bad music, and I've never seen anyone enjoy a show for the music alone, either. If music is the only good thing in a cartoon, people will download it or buy a CD and not bother watching.

I'm also amazed that nobody has brought up acting.

Animation is nothing without a great script...but a great script is nothing without great voice work. The delivery and emotion of lines can and often does render perfectly decent writing damn near unwatchable, while even the most derivative, stupid dialog can be made entertaining by the passion of the actor.

How do you think Dane Cook earns legions of fans without ever telling a joke? He tells his mundane, completely unremarkable little life stories (the ones he didn't steal, anyway) in an engaging, exciting fashion, and there's nothing wrong with that. I like listening to him myself when he's on.
 
I really should have substituted music for acting... I was just trying to think of a third option, and thats the first one that occured to me.

Allow me to give some twisted logic:

There was a Making Fiends thread that got some responses, I think a month ago, and when I went in and said that the shows Animation was awful. Somebody (I'm way too lazy to look up who) said "Yeah, it is, but the writing makes up for it."

Now, as previously stated, the animation in this show is bad. God-awful, actually. To make up for that art, the show would have to be modern Shakespear. And I've heard nobody saying that.

Thus: Writing>Animation
 
For most cartoons, I would choose the writing as most important, because when I watch a cartoon, unless I'm studying the specifics of the animation art or looking for good music, I'm there for the story.

Animation and music both come second for me:

Good animation would make it really eye catching, and music makes you feel more for the scene - like when they add these bouncy background music for funny scenes, they always make them funnier.
 
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