Putting up rubbish

[lupercal]

Athena has often conveyed, either to me or publically, the idea that we have a duty to put up awful DTV's in order to warn people away from them.

I think the same applies to every category. Excluding feature films, which is probably closer to capacity than anything else, I think we could do with putting up some short films, theatrical shorts, and web animations which are pretty bad. If for no other reason that we're never going to get a bottom 5 otherwise!

But apart from that, I know I've been guilty of putting up shorts because I think they're good, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that - but I've tried to mix in some that I thing are ordinary. I think I should mix in some that I think are plain bad, too (I wish I had a screengrab for Famous Studios 'Camp Town Races'. I mean, if you've never seen a giraffe in black face, this is a good place to start)

Effectivel I think it means that I will always be putting up stuff which I think deserves attention, but balancing it with stuff which I think deserves derision, or stuff which just falls somewhere between.

Loop

[athena]

I think shorts is always going to be a hard category to get a bottom-five simply because any short that actually reaches the distribution stage has to be liked by someone... although I suppose that could be argued for any category... at the end of the day it all comes down to taste anyways... ie. there are probably some fan sites out there that would be horrified by the fact that the Smurfs currently tops our worst TV series list.

Perhaps the better question would be, what makes a 'bad' piece of animation for our particular crowd?

[lupercal]

k,yhhvvvvvoyyvyvv

[MonkeyFunk]

I think shorts is always going to be a hard category to get a bottom-five simply because any short that actually reaches the distribution stage has to be liked by someone...

Theatrical shorts or "short films"?

I can't really think of anything eligable the short films category that would really qualify for a bottom 5. I mean, I've seen plenty of animated shorts that ahven't really appealed me, but nothing that really screams "one of the five worst animated shorts ever made".

Theatrical shorts are a different matter, since there must have been a ton of lame ones released over the decades, even from major studios. Off the top of my head one that hadn't been added yet is Donald Gets Drafted... just about every gag in it misfires so horribly I honestly don't know what the director was thinking. It's on the On the Front Lines DVD, and the difference between it and the great Der Fuehrer's Face is startling.

As for web cartoons... well, there's a lot of bad ones, but most are probably made by 16 year olds just getting started with Flash. So I'm not too keen on adding any just to point out how bad they are...

[starlac]

I know I've been guilty of putting up shorts because I think they're good

I can say that I've been guilty of this to a point, yet what am I suppose to do? I do have quite a number of theatricals in my possession and I'm sort of trying to lean toward the ones that might at least get reviews (i.e. ones that have a current DVD etc release somewhere).

The fact is that more famous ones are more likely to get reviewed, of course just because a short is well known doesn't translate as it being good.

Off the top of my head one that hadn't been added yet is Donald Gets Drafted...

I'm afraid I can't help with Camptown Races, as I haven't got it; but I can put Donald gets Drafted (and Der Fuehrer's Face) onto the database, I'll see about doing that then.

Every studio made bad shorts, it's inevitable when you consider just how many each of them were made; of course which of them are the bad/good ones is in some cases a subjective thing. Although saying that, some are bad whichever way you look at them.

Another question is how many people are going to go out of their way to buy and/or watch the real bad ones, certainly after seeing a couple of negative reviews for something you've never seen isn't going to encourage you to get it yourself outside of morbid interest (esp. if there are no positive reviews at all).

EDIT: I've been playing with the idea of adding a new theatrical short every one or two days or so, giving the amount I've got this is very feasible.

[lupercal]

The fact is that more famous ones are more likely to get reviewed, of course just because a short is well known doesn't translate as it being good.

I think there's also the fact that we fulfil a function of introducing people to new kinds of animation. I've introduced myself to it over time because of my work here. Athena told me once, probably 18 months ago now, that the Russian animation DVDs were amongst our 'bestsellers' so to speak. Of course they're also mostly very good, but maybe someone will want to get one of the Betty Boop DVDs, who might never have heard of her. Or maybe not. I dunno. I also feel that if people know of a few which aren't so good, they might make a more informed choice if there is more than one compilation out there (e.g. for the Van Beurens)

Loop

[athena]

Okay, maybe we should be looking at this a different way... what makes a "bad" short film?


I remember a couple years ago I went with my parents to "The Animation Show" (aka the Don Hertzfeldt and friends extravaganza)... I quite enjoyed it but when they came out the Hertzfeldt stuff definitely didn't sit well with them. I remember them particularly not enjoying Rejected (http://www.keyframeonline.com/Animation/Rejected/339/)... I thought it was rather funny, but... :shrug:

Truthfully, I'm surprised we haven't received any scathing reviews yet for Alice (http://www.keyframeonline.com/Animation/Alice/654/)... I can see how some of Jan Svankmajer (http://www.keyframeonline.com/forum/../CastCrew/Jan_Svankmajer/4297/)'s stuff would really not sit well with people.

[lupercal]

And I haven't even added 'Conspirators of Pleasure', where a female newsreader has orgasms while carp suck her toes.

Actualluy I'm surpisedwe haven't recieved any reviews at all for 'Alice', other than mine.

BTW I played it to my 73 year old mother and she thought it was really good, though it got a bit slow toward the end.

Loop

[MonkeyFunk]

Say, I've jsut had a thought. Is anyone planning to add Loonatics Unleashed, the show everyone loved to hate ever since the first pictures emerged?

I could see that booting out The Smurfs, and I don't think many people would object to that...