Posted: Jan 17 2008 11:27 pm Post subject: Violence in Superhero cartoons
I'd like to explore this topic next month (February). I know I can't get the Greatest American Hero series all together by that time, so we're changing it to this.
We won't look at every superhero cartoon, but a few. I'll explain this more as I think of the concept. But basically, remember back to the Fantastic Four cartoon of the 70's how they replaced the Human Torch with Herbie the Robot cause parents thought their kids would try to imitate the Torch, and light themselves on fire *cough* bullshit.
In the Spider-Man cartoons of the 80's, you never really saw Spidey punch anyone, did ya? I remember seeing a lot of punching in the 60's version. We'll touch on that as well.
Now you'll have an idea of what I'm talking about. Maybe we'll take it outside the realm of cartoons. Who knows? _________________ John R. Gibson
Host/Writer/Creator Video Masters TV
"The whole planet Houston?" -General Zod
"Am I supposed to conduct with my penis?" -Peter Griffin (Family Guy)
"What does God need with a starship?" - Star Trek V
I think that Human Torch thing was just a rumour. I heard that the real reason was that the character had been optioned for a solo movie, so they weren't allowed use him in the cartoon.
I'm not sure which is true though. All I know is that the 70's one was the one I grew up watching and I was really confused when I saw the 90's show and they had the Human Torch instead of the robot.
Spidey wasn't allowed to punch anyone in the 90's show either. It didn't hurt the show though. I never really noticed. Also nobody was allowed to die (the Green Goblin was sucked into a dimensional void instead) and they weren't allowed use words like death or kill - it was always destroy etc. _________________ http://www.what-song.net http://www.rogershanks.com
Let me find the Wiki link where I read about the Torch.
I don't see how they could have done a movie about the Human Torch. They couldn't even get the special effects of a man on fire right in the '94 version of Fantastic Four. _________________ John R. Gibson
Host/Writer/Creator Video Masters TV
"The whole planet Houston?" -General Zod
"Am I supposed to conduct with my penis?" -Peter Griffin (Family Guy)
"What does God need with a starship?" - Star Trek V
Posted: Jan 22 2008 1:45 pm Post subject: Re: Violence in Superhero cartoons
John Gibson wrote:
But basically, remember back to the Fantastic Four cartoon of the 70's how they replaced the Human Torch with Herbie the Robot cause parents thought their kids would try to imitate the Torch, and light themselves on fire *cough* sh*t.In the Spider-Man cartoons of the 80's, you never really saw Spidey punch anyone, did ya? I remember seeing a lot of punching in the 60's version.
It all comes down to Broadcast Standards, and Practices. A group of censors hired by the networks to make sure the programs aren't too violent, or too sexy. Their strict guidelines were what made alot of cartoons from the 70's, and 80's pretty lackluster. Which is why most animation buffs call the 1970's one of the worst periods in animation history. The syndication market wasn't as restrictive as the networks. At least in the early 80's. Filmation saw this, and took advantage of it when they launched 'He-Man'. The less restrictive nature allowed He-Man to actually punch people. (Even if it was usually 'the camera man') The show still had some limitations, but offered a bit more freedom than what the networks would allow back then.
Splodge wrote:
Spidey wasn't allowed to punch anyone in the 90's show either. It didn't hurt the show though. I never really noticed. Also nobody was allowed to die (the Green Goblin was sucked into a dimensional void instead) and they weren't allowed use words like death or kill - it was always destroy etc.
I always found it amazing that the DC cartoons weren't as restricted as the Marvel cartoons. Bruce Timm once said that while they were pushing the envolope with 'Batman:TAS', they knew full well that kids would also watch this simply because it was 'Batman'. So they were creative with how they staged the fighting, and death scenes. Timm also said that giving crooks laser guns wouldn't cut it, either.
John Gibson wrote:
I don't see how they could have done a movie about the Human Torch. They couldn't even get the special effects of a man on fire right in the '94 version of Fantastic Four.
I couldn't imagine how they could pull of a flaming guy in the late 70's, either. That in itself was a bad accident just waiting to happen. Heck, i couldn't imagine Reed Richards' stretching pulled off successfully in those pre CGI days. At that time, you could only pull off The Fantastic Four in animation. Which is why they had several different cartoon shows of varying quality before getting their own movies. _________________ If it's got wings, i can crash it!
I wrote an email to Kenneth Johnson last night in regards to how the TV's Hulk (Lou Ferrigno) never punched a bad guy. They were either pushed, or thrown somewhere. I asked Mr. Johnson if this was his intention, or perhaps there was an outside party involved in censoring the amount of violence on the Hulk. Here's what he had to say, and an excerpt of this will make it into the show. I should probably ask permission first.
Here's Kenneth Johnson's response to me:
The choice was mine from the very beginning, John. Thanks for noticing. And if you look at my original Bionic Woman you'll find that exactly the same is true.
Punching was not only too easy, I always considered it violent overkill in both instances. Nor was it nearly as clever, inventive or fun.
It was also not within the basic nature of either Jaime Sommers or Dr. David Banner. -- In spite of being an out-of-control child who was capable of lots of property damage and tossing people aside, the creature that Banner became still had Banner's basic humanity underneath. Susan Sullivan said it pointedly in my pilot: the creature would never kill because David Banner would not.
(Editors note: A little promotional here, but that's fine, I'm perfectly fine with you guys checking out his stuff. The original Bionic Woman rocked!) All of the very latest info about the new releases of The Hulk, my Alien Nation movies and my new V novel is at www.kennethjohnson.us
Thanks again for taking the time to write. It's wonderful to hear that my captured your imagination. And that you noticed an aspect of it that was very important to me.
Best...
Kenny
I can't tell you how thrilled I was that he wrote back. Sometime today, I'm going to write back, and ask if it's ok to use an excerpt of his response at some point in the show. Perhaps I should write the appropriate script for the segment first, hehe. _________________ John R. Gibson
Host/Writer/Creator Video Masters TV
"The whole planet Houston?" -General Zod
"Am I supposed to conduct with my penis?" -Peter Griffin (Family Guy)
"What does God need with a starship?" - Star Trek V
haha, hey, that's the voice of Space Ghost! Neat! _________________ John R. Gibson
Host/Writer/Creator Video Masters TV
"The whole planet Houston?" -General Zod
"Am I supposed to conduct with my penis?" -Peter Griffin (Family Guy)
"What does God need with a starship?" - Star Trek V
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