John K is such a jackass in general though about anything that didn’t come from him.
I was mentored by several people who worked under him for Ren and Stimpy, and I’ve never met anyone who’s said a nice thing about working with him.
His blog is also one of the more toxic fixtures of the animation industry, leading to tons of people who look up to his style of critique in much the same way many engineers looked up to Linus’s early aggressive rants (but worse). He’s the proginator of the derogatory “Calarts bean mouth” description that so many wannabe artists throw around without thought, and led to so many death threats and harassing of brilliant artists.
That’s not even mentioning his rampant sexual abuse allegations and dating underage girls.
John K made some great content but man is he a blight on the industry as a whole, since Ren and Stimpy finished.
Meanwhile since you mentioned Genndy, who I’ve had the pleasure to work with directly, he’s an artistic genius and just great to work with. Genndy and Craig McCracken pushed an art style that defined multiple generations of cartoons, and Genndy pushed forms more than most people I know of.
A lot of the more fun stylization in CGI is thanks to Genndy pushing Sony hard. The first hotel Transylvania is mind blowing if you analyze the animation, and a huge part of that is Genndy drawing over frames to show the extreme silhouettes that he wants. Technology was then developed to allow artists to fit those forms repeatedly and reliably. That’s had knock on effects to other CG films, even ones from Disney and Pixar who analyzed how much he pushed forms. Not to mention he created three of the best shows: Dexters Lab, Samurai Jack and Primal. primal is a master class in story telling and cinematography.
Anyway long rant to say, man I dislike John K but Genndy is awesome.
The animation and storytelling are masterful. I really enjoyed the second half of the first season in particular the episodes "Plague of Madness", "Coven of the Damned", and "Slave of the Scorpion".
Hype depends on who you interact with, but a few impressions:
I was really impressed with Jonathan Blow's The Witness. Exquisitely designed and thought out.
The animated series Primal by Genndy Tartakovsky. A pulpy cartoon without dialogue unlike anything else animated from the US.
The tv series Doom Patrol. Clever, revels in the absurd but still manages serious drama on what it means to not be completely human any more.
Philosophy in general. I've always seen it as academic wank, but i couldn't have been more wrong. It gives you the ability to step back in a way that pure science cannot. Excellent tool to learn about yourself too.
On a more controversial note, I was initially put off by critical race theory (talking explicitly about race in academia? Putting blame on the prosperous west?), but I must say it makes a lot of sense.
Hacker Cinema
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Primal, although it is a series and not a film, offers a counterpoint to most of these critiques.
Glad to see Primal mentioned in the comments, still waiting for season 3!
https://www.joblo.com/genndy-tartakovsky-primal-season-3/
Primal (basically no dialogue).
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt10332508/
John K is such a jackass in general though about anything that didn’t come from him.
I was mentored by several people who worked under him for Ren and Stimpy, and I’ve never met anyone who’s said a nice thing about working with him.
His blog is also one of the more toxic fixtures of the animation industry, leading to tons of people who look up to his style of critique in much the same way many engineers looked up to Linus’s early aggressive rants (but worse). He’s the proginator of the derogatory “Calarts bean mouth” description that so many wannabe artists throw around without thought, and led to so many death threats and harassing of brilliant artists.
That’s not even mentioning his rampant sexual abuse allegations and dating underage girls.
John K made some great content but man is he a blight on the industry as a whole, since Ren and Stimpy finished.
Meanwhile since you mentioned Genndy, who I’ve had the pleasure to work with directly, he’s an artistic genius and just great to work with. Genndy and Craig McCracken pushed an art style that defined multiple generations of cartoons, and Genndy pushed forms more than most people I know of.
A lot of the more fun stylization in CGI is thanks to Genndy pushing Sony hard. The first hotel Transylvania is mind blowing if you analyze the animation, and a huge part of that is Genndy drawing over frames to show the extreme silhouettes that he wants. Technology was then developed to allow artists to fit those forms repeatedly and reliably. That’s had knock on effects to other CG films, even ones from Disney and Pixar who analyzed how much he pushed forms. Not to mention he created three of the best shows: Dexters Lab, Samurai Jack and Primal. primal is a master class in story telling and cinematography.
Anyway long rant to say, man I dislike John K but Genndy is awesome.
+1 on Primal.
The animation and storytelling are masterful. I really enjoyed the second half of the first season in particular the episodes "Plague of Madness", "Coven of the Damned", and "Slave of the Scorpion".
Hype depends on who you interact with, but a few impressions:
I was really impressed with Jonathan Blow's The Witness. Exquisitely designed and thought out.
The animated series Primal by Genndy Tartakovsky. A pulpy cartoon without dialogue unlike anything else animated from the US.
The tv series Doom Patrol. Clever, revels in the absurd but still manages serious drama on what it means to not be completely human any more.
Philosophy in general. I've always seen it as academic wank, but i couldn't have been more wrong. It gives you the ability to step back in a way that pure science cannot. Excellent tool to learn about yourself too.
On a more controversial note, I was initially put off by critical race theory (talking explicitly about race in academia? Putting blame on the prosperous west?), but I must say it makes a lot of sense.