Intextual Cartoons

In animation there are no physical boundaries of what an animator can create, this in theory gives the animated the freedom to say or do anything without the hassle or expense needs in film, such as actors, paper work, crew etc… In the early period, the ‘difference’ embodied by the animality of Gertie the Dinosaur, Felix the Cat or Mickey Mouse also embraced the freedoms of the medium and its potential meanings and effects. (Paul Wells, 2002, p 23). As characters are illustrated by drawings or other animation, references to actual people can be detached through disclaimer. A great example of this is a disclaimer at the beginning of South Park, although this does not happen in other shows.



But thats not it, one more thing has to be added to the equation… censorship. Nowadays writers for the leading mature comedies are pushing the limits of how far a story can go with out getting censored, sometimes to prove a point and other time I think to try and get themselves censored. Some recent controversy happened with an episode of South Park that depicted the profit Mohammad wearing a bear suit, the episode was not pulled but very highly censored. Here are the creators of South Park expressing their view previous to this uproar.



An ever becoming more frequent convention is using intertextual references in adult cartoons. This may be caused by a few reasons; the writers have run out of fresh ideas or, as technology has progressed it is enabling animations and cartoons to be created more efficiently and easily. Bernadette Casey and Ben Calvert quote that;

‘The Simpsons play fully deconstructs itself in a knowing and highly self-referential manner as well drawing on a wide range of popular cultural references as a source for its humour’. (Bernadette Casey, Ben Calvert , 2007 , pg 21)

This enables the animator to keep up to date with current social goings-on in the world. 80’s and 90’s animations like The Simpsons, Bevis and Butt Head and South Park etc… didn’t tend to use intertextuality as much as they are used today, instead stuck to a more creative un referenced narrative storylines. With this technology advance cartoons can be more cutting edge and can satire a political view or event just after it happens. In 2006 the ‘Crocodile Hunter’ Steve Irwin died of a tragic accident, less than a week later he appeared in South Park in a joke, season 10 episode 11.

Here is an example of intertextuality in Family Guy, a Jurassic Park reference.





Adult cartoons look at American culture and can be very political and occasionally have political views and issues embedded in the story. The Simpsons is great example, here are a few political topics it has addressed: environmental issues, immigration, gay marriage, election campaigns, alcohol and drug abuse and many more. >Follow this link to a video on political humour in the cartoon American Dad!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEBbB679NIc

In the next blog i will compare childrens cartoons and mature cartoons.

Filmography

Jurassic Park - (1993) - Steven Spielberg

Family guy, Tales of a Third Grade Nothing - (2008) - Jerry Langford


References

Paul Wells (2002). Animation and America. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pg 23.

Bernadette Casey, Ben Calvert (2007). Television studies: The Key Concepts . Oxon & New York: Routledge .pg 21.

Online References

Wikipedia. (Continuous). Adult Animation. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adult_animation. Last accessed 24 May 2010.

Censoring Animated Films: a look back at cartoon censorship.. (Unknown). Adult Animation. Available: http://vintage-animated-films.suite101.com/article.cfm/censoring_animated_films. Last accessed 24 May 2010.

Wikipedia. (Continuous). Politics in the Simpsons. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_in_The_Simpsons. Last accessed 24 May 2010.

Kyle Hanna . (2007). Is To Family Guy What Futurama Is To The Simpsons. Available: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:xvlH0DGblekJ:www.imdb.com/title/tt0397306/usercomments+american+dad+on+politics&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a. Last accessed 24 May 2010.