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(Last FAQ Update - February 15th, 2012. Rewrote some of the answers, added pictures.)
So, obviously you want to know what the hell you're looking at here. Hopefully this will square some stuff away.
BLOG QUESTIONS
1. What's this blog about?
Exactly what it says on the tin. It's Nothing But Cartoons. I intend for this blog to talk about all forms of cartoons, from the beginning to the very latest of cartoons with the same mindset and treating them all the same way, instead of immediately loving a cartoon because it's from one era or immediately hating a cartoon because it's in a certain art style or art medium.
And at the same time provide screenshots, because to be quite honest, my words have way less impact if you can't directly see just how nutty these things can get.
2. Where did you get the idea for this blog?
I created this blog because when searching for blogs that cover older cartoons, I found that whatever blog I pulled up came in only three varieties: Dry, news-related animation blogs that talk about the business behind cartoons, blogs that basically put down entire decades or entire mediums as crap because back in their day cartoons were just soooo much better, or blogs that just skimmed the top of several decades of cartoons and said very blanket statements about everything.
And, to be honest, I was getting fed up with the mentality that the 90's is the greatest era ever or that the 2000's is absolute crap. I try to keep the tone absolutely the same so that I judge every work on equal standing. I'm not putting anything on any pedestal and I'm not going to instantly bash something just because I think the premise is stupid. I'm going to compliment and bash every cartoon that's in my target.
And I also love cartoons. And feel that not enough sites talk about the Western side of cartoons beyond either "cartoons suck nowadays!" or "Anime is so much better anyways".
2. So, what, do you hate the stuff that you talk about? You seem pretty angry in these posts. Chill out.
Yeah, I do sound quite sarcastic in all of my posts, but rest assured, if I honestly hated what I was watching, I wouldn't be writing this stuff. I actually tried several different "voices" for my blog before settling with this one, just because it was the one that my friends thought was the funniest. Snarky, dry, angry, whatever you want to call it, it's all in good fun. I'm not really insulting anyone and I don't honestly hate the cartoon; I'm just going with whatever sounds funny to me. Whether or not it works is dependent entirely on who's reading it; I've had people say that this site was absolutely hilarious and then had other people say that my jokes were lame. It's all in the eye of the beholder.
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| For example, I think this show is only mediocre and, despite the ridiculous premise, honestly had some good ideas. Obviously not everyone is going to agree with me here. |
Or, if you don't like that question...
2. Dude, you just said that Creepy Crawlers: The Animated Series was good, engaging entertainment. What the crap, have you no taste?
...but at the same time, while I am sarcastic, it's hard for me to say that a cartoon is truly horrible because I'm one of those people who, because of the way I overanalyze stuff, I end up having loads of fun watching the stupidest things.
Because come on, look at this show.
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| Hating on this show is like hating on the mentally challenged kid in your class for eating all the paste. |
3. In other words, your "gimmick" is to over-analyze everything? What does that even mean?
I try to find explanations for everything and try to fill in the situations happening on screen with too much detail. Often called "Fridge Logic" or "Fridge Horror", sometimes something will pop up in a cartoon that, if you dwell on it for too long, completely changes the tone of the situation into something darker or weirder than what the creators intended. A good example of this would be when you realize that Rabbit and Owl are real animals surrounded by talking stuffed animals in the Winnie the Pooh cartoons, and then you wonder just what that would that imply for their living arrangements. Another example is if a character has an unexplained scar and you try to make a backstory for how they got that scar.
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| This character has no backstory, so why not just make your own? |
4. Do you do that when you normally watch cartoons?
I'd be lying if I said I didn't, but I also do it when I play videogames too. My mind just has to fill in the blanks, no matter what nonsense I choose to use to fill that idea. It's just a character trait of mine that I choose to exploit for comedy.
5. Then why not do a video blog? These posts are long and full of writing!
Several reasons for the format I use.
a. I find comedy blogs with lots of writing flippin' hilarious so I'm writing what I know. (how successful I am is, again, up to you)
b. I have no webcam, nor do I want to own one.
c. I don't like the idea of recording my face talking, even if there are clips from the show interspersed here and there and putting it on the Internet.
d. The Nostalgic Critic and a million other people have done it before and are a lot better at me when it comes to speaking.
You could argue that the written blog has also "been done", but it all sums up that I have way more fun writing than I do messing with video formats. I'm not going to do it, and I never will.
6. What, you hate video blogs?
I follow Let's Plays and video blogs all the time. I'd just be absolutely crappy at it, and felt that I'd rather not subject complete strangers to my voice.
7. What type of posts show up in this blog?
I'm currently working on having two types of posts in this blog; the regular Overanalysis Review and the List. So far, at this point of writing, I only have the Overanalysis Review posts in circulation.
Basically the posts that are on my blog function as sort of reviews, sort of "pick apart everything that happens in this cartoon" things. This posts will mainly be screenshots and me making fun of the animation, and it ends with an honest review with what I thought so it's actual fair criticism. The Lists would consist of stuff like Top Tens and what obscure movies have really good soundtracks, but I'm still thinking of ideas that won't look like Nostalgic Critic rip-offs. For now, just assume that all the posts are going to be Overanalytical Reviews with dozens of screenshots throw into the mix.
8. Why are the comments turned off?
It's not because I hate constructive criticism or even people commenting on my blog. I just want to avoid two things.
A. Spam.
B. People getting absolutely angry at me for my opinions and picking a fight with me on my page.
Plus I feel that having comments would wreck the format I'm going with, so for now, they're staying disabled.
9. Can I request a cartoon to be reviewed?
At first, I tried to do this, but now I'm tentatively saying no on this, just because sometimes people will request cartoons I simply can't review and other times they request stuff that I have no interest in talking about. It sounds really petty, but I feel I can write a lot more material if I talk about stuff I'm very familiar with.
10. What won't you review?
I'm in the process of writing a detailed list about this, but for a summary of my detailed list I won't review, it sums up to adult cartoons, anime, puppets, and anything that's not available both online and offline. I'm not psychic; I can't exactly review something like "Izzy's Quest for Olympic Gold", a cartoon that currently doesn't exist at all online, has no VHS or DVD release, and would currently only exist if a network put it in circulation or if someone gave me their VHS from 1995 when they recorded it.
Oh, and it also has to be English. Someone's going to think I'm limiting myself, but really, there are episodes online of Creepy Crawlers that only exist in Russian, but are completely devoid of most of their context if you don't know what they're saying.
11. Why do you post so many screenshots?
Partly because it's hard to illustrate what's happening in the cartoon with just the text (and would be honestly quite boring if I did it that way) and partly because cartoons are largely a visual medium. If a character has a decent spittake, by god, I'm going to include it. I love me a good sight gag.
12. Why do some of the screenshots look so bad?
If a cartoon is labelled "Online Only" or the DVD is incredibly hard to find, 8 times out of 10, I have to hit Youtube and rip the screenshots from the video. The other 2 times out of 10, I actually have to practice google fu and find an incredibly outsourced video. So far, I haven't resorted to downloading torrents or buying bootleg DVDs, but just be aware that some shows just don't have the luxury of being well-known and being rescued by DVD companies like Shout Factory.
See these two screenshots? One of them clearly is a video recording on account of the network bug, the faded out colors, and the fuzzy quality. The other is from a DVD, which is why the colors are bright and cheery and the lines are nice and crisp.
Ripping screenshots off of Youtube does sounds totally unprofessional, I know, but to be honest, this was never intended to be professional in the first place. I write as long as I find it fun. I know this makes my site look like a big mess of infringed copyrights and, if SOPA passes, I'm probably going to get this site shut down, but eh, I had a good run.
13. What if you take screenshots from a video I post?
The only way I can see this being a problem is if you posted watermarks on the video (which happened with the Witch's Brew post I did for one of my friends), but seriously, what I'm doing is about as illegal as someone taking a twenty minute episode and posting it onto Youtube if you yourself aren't the copyright holders of that show. If anyone complains, well, at least I'm enjoying the video.
Although seriously, if you have an issue with this, we can chat through e-mail and we could work something out. I haven't had anybody complain SO FAR but I'll be totally reasonable once someone complains.
14. Your site looks ugly and plain!
I'm not a Graphic Design major and know next to nothing on HTML. This year, I'm thinking about bugging one of my friends to make a decent banner and a decent background, but for now, it's entirely text-based.
15. What's the easiest show to review?
Anything to do with the Disney Afternoon. I'm not sure if it's the particular style of the writing, the fact that I grew up on those cartoons as a kid, or if it's because it has a lot of bright colors and funny animals, but nothing is easier to talk about than a Disney cartoon. ESPECIALLY the late 80's early 90's shows.
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| This is what children need to see in their cartoons. |
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PERSONAL QUESTIONS
1. What's your favorite cartoon?
Too many to count.
2. What's your least favorite cartoon?
To be honest, I don't know. When I watch cartoons, I almost always find something salvagable about them, whether it's because they're so bad they're funny or if something is so weird that it arguably works to the cartoon's favor. Even something like Felix the Cat: The Movie, something the Internet widely regards as terrible, the ideas are just so stupid that I end up laughing. I try to find something good to say about everything I watch, at least.
3. Alright, what's your least favorite cartoon you had to do your blog post so far?
Widget the World Watcher - Widget's Walkabout
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| "Hooray! I'm absolutely boring!" |
And in case someone goes up to me and yells at me for insulting their childhood hero, well...at least the theme song is nice and they got good voice actors, I guess.
4. What's the most popular blog post?
Creepy Crawlers - Night of the Creepy Crawlers
By a WIIIIDE margin.
To be honest, the fact that this post is popular kind of surprises me, because Creepy Crawlers is not a well-known show by any stretch of the margin, nor is it even a cult classic. When I started this blog, I thought that everyone was going to read the Darkwing Duck posts and disregard the posts about the obscure crap they've never heard about, but if anything, the obscure crap is often the most popular.
But hey, at least now I can say that I have the best Creepy Crawlers: The Animated Series episode review ever!
...which isn't something to brag about, actually. WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE.
4. Why do you like cartoons so much?
To Be Answered Later. I intend this to be at least two novels in length.
