Eng 271 HW (Post #8) Classification Essay

Cartoons

Pretty much everyone nowadays has seen a cartoon at least once in their life. The term cartoon now refers to an animation, or an animated cartoon. Even though the original meaning of cartoon is simply, “a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art," meaning drawings, most of which were for satirical purposes, people now use it to refer to animations.

Many people have grown up with cartoons, such as classic Disney movies, or cartoons that were, and still are played on the weekends, or after school hours for kids.

When most people think of cartoons, they think of just “cartoony” cartoons, when in fact, there are many different types, two others being “realistic” and “anime” cartoons.

PowerPuff Girls

“Cartoony” styled cartoons are the ones that most are familiar with, and the first to come to mind when cartoons are mentioned. This style is generally very simple, and includes strangely deformed animals, plants, or people. Some examples of this are the well known Disney characters Mickey Mouse, Donald duck, and so on, none of which actually look like the animal they supposedly are.

This style was the first to come about when cartoon animations were first created. An example is “Pauvre Pierrot,” which was one of the first animated cartoons ever created. It made its first public appearance on October 28^th, 1892, to an audience in Paris. A more well known animation, “Steamboat Willie” by Walt Disney, was created in 1928, the beginning of the golden age for cartoon animations.

These early cartoon animations were the base for the various different styles of animations that are seen today. In a sense, this style was the original style, and the other types are simply variations of it.

Another group is the more “realistic” cartoons. This style of cartoon is most often used for super hero cartoons and the characters look more like real people than the deformed “cartoony” cartoons.

The reason for this style is because most super hero shows were based off of a comic, and the comics were generally drawn in that “realistic” style.  Some examples of this style are the cartoon series “X-men”, “Batman”, and many other super hero comic-based cartoons.  Though this style may have included busty, thin-waisted women, and incredibly muscular men, this style was still far more accurate than earlier cartoon animations as far as actual proportion went.

PPG in Anime style

Another group that has become popular around the world is “anime” style cartoons. Anime most commonly refers to Japanese cartoons, as the anime style originated in Japan, and is somewhat of a mix between “realistic” and “cartoony” cartoons, where the characters aren’t completely deformed, but not completely realistic. The style itself may vary between being somewhat “realistic” and somewhat “cartoony”, but it is distinctly different from western cartoons. The one part that most find notable about this style is the disproportion of the eyes most anime cartoon characters seem to have, given that this is normally the only part that is noticeably out of proportion.

While the first Japanese animation was created in 1917, the style of anime hadn’t begun developing until the 1960s. The style itself wasn’t known outside of Japan until the 1980s. Like “realistic” cartoons, a lot of, but not all, anime is based off of a comic, or manga, as it is otherwise called. Some are even based off of games, like the popular anime series Pokémon.

When people hear the word “cartoon” they think of the wacky “cartoony” cartoon animation. But, as it has been shown, there are many different styles of cartoons.

 Cartoons are now a diverse and well-known source of entertainment.  While “cartoony” cartoons are the original style of animated cartoons, there are now many new styles and types, “realistic” and “anime” cartoons being just two other variations.