Arthur Season 16 Episode 1

I just got home from school and all I have to say is this:



UGH...



WHAT.. AN.. EYESORE...



(this review pretty much sums up how I feel about this episode as well as the entire Season. DON'T GET ME WRONG: the content was classic Arthur on the good episodes, but the lousy animation has distanced me, and I SERIOUSLY WANTED to enjoy most of these episodes too!)



WHERE TO START...



If they can afford to have figures like Alex Trebek, Frank Gehry, Matt Damon, Fred Rogers, Lance Armstrong, and the like, THEY CAN AFFORD BETTER ANIMATION THAN THIS TRASH! What the hell is the pledge drive money being spent on, PBS?? Whatever happened to "value for your money, PBS??





I liken flash animation and traditional animation to an acoustic guitar vs an electric. Both sound great - when played by musicians who know their instruments and the sound they want to achieve. However, you don't try to turn an entire heavy metal band with electric guitars into acoustic without repercussions, though!!! Yes, some acoustic versions of songs or passages call for it, and that's OK. But be that as it may: EACH INSTRUMENT HAS ITS OWN SOUND and there's a time and a place for both.





>>> LIKEWISE WITH FLASH & HAND DRAWN!!!





YES, BOTH-CAN-LOOK-GREAT - when done by people who KNOW the look they want to achieve for the final product, and are knowledgeable of the tool's strengths/limitations from the start and take them into consideration.



However! Most flash is used because *it's cheap*, to cut corners, or as a substitute for hand-drawn when it isn't appropriate, and those mentalities are why flash deservedly gets the flack it does and this season is ammunition for the critics of flash animation sadly! (BTW, I would have had absolutely no problem with them using flash to cut costs if flash's style FIT Arthur's, but sadly it DOESN'T... )



Compare that to using flash as the APPROPRIATE TOOL for the job (and it CAN be a good tool indeed!) and being used to create ORIGINAL works from the ground up. The results SPEAK volumes. Look at MLP:FIM, Foster's Home, Mucha Lucha, or Happy Tree Friends for example...





>>> Lets face it: FLASH IS ITS OWN STYLE even when done right. It seems to want to draw shapes and animate things in straight lines, angles, or a grid and "correct things", and that's why characters in this season look off-model and movement is stiff and awkward, puppet like. Flash also just doesn't do any justice to the linework, wide color palate, brush strokes, and the range of motion Arthur's style has - IT JUST DOESN'T: that's it, that's all. They were using a limited functionality TOY to do too big of job and don't want to man up and ADMIT IT. I have even talked to various animators who've said the same thing BTW.





DON'T GET ME WRONG:





I SERIOUSLY WANTED to enjoy "Read and Flumberghast" for example as I admire the creativity they put into it, and it's my favorite episode of this season along with "Night of the Tibble" (and "Last Tough Customer" for the positive message). I can't though because the characters looked like bobblehead dolls with those jerky "string puppet" like tweening motions, along with over-saturated colors, dark, uniformly thick lines around everything, nothing drawn out (including facial features and eyes), hair/long ears staying in place with wind/motion. Movements were stiff, awkward and distracting, and characters looked like hollow, lifeless, off-model empty shells of themselves, LIKE EVERYTHING WAS MADE FROM CARDBOARD. Even the second half of this season was more or less the same (although they did thin the dark outlines a little) plus weaker plots.





My favorite character Nadine's tail looked like they just pinned it on outside her dress like Eeyore the donkey's in one scene, and then under her dress in the next, among a plethora of others.





Ladonna and Bud are nothing but walking talking southern stereotypes in this episode and there was NO need to put them in the cast. The show doesn't need any more stereotypes, PBS!!





CONCLUSION:



This show was a work of art before this crud showed up but now it's like a chair with a broken leg, and this animation is that broken leg. The plot, storylines, and creativity are the other legs, but you still can't sit down comfortably even if it can hold you up (unless you like sideways rocking chairs and staying on your toes, LOL).



This episode and the entire season looks fan made on GoAnimate dot com or Newgrounds (and you can do better than that PBS, 9 Story!!), and they should have stuck with traditional animation's style. We don't care anymore whether the production is here or abroad next time around. Just do it right, please, however long it takes.



Flash took the heart and SOUL of this show and gutted it, and now it does nothing but AGGRAVATE my depression. The good things that made Arthur were DEFINITELY THERE in most episodes, but the animation leaves too much to be desired.



Season 16's animation IS THE ONLY REAL GRIPE I have against this otherwise great show I still love right now...

i dont get everyboadys hatred too this episode, the animation is a little stiff but its a great episode, full of adventure and the new character lodanna is great fits the show very well

It killed my childhood.



From the poor animation

To the terrible story line

Future episodes contradict past episodes too.



In this one, they made a contradiction that the store owner doesn't know anyone in the clothes shop.

They ruined Mr. Rathburn's approach on kids

Killed off wheelchair girl from season 15.



In future ones, Kate's storyline gets reset.



Just god need to make the stories about kids problems.... not random ones like DW getting married.

This episode was really awful. I could tell right away that something was wrong. First the animation was terrible, the way they moved looked like some kind of computer animation. and I felt like the charecters were drawn sloppily too. I also believe that they changed Arthur's voice again. The new charecter they added to the show i felt was irratating by the way she talked.(if it were up to me i would have never added her.)The only thing that didn't change was the music. This was the only episode that I couldn't finish watching because it was that horrific. Hopefully PBS doesn't turn me into a liar about this show and fixes the flaws in the future episodes, or else I will have to say my childhood has been killed tonight.