Who is the Most Hated Person in the History of the Animation Industry?

[BathTub]

Ralph Bakshi.  He and his Lord of the Rings movie blows!

...

Heh heh

I don't get the "heh heh" part, ...

Because he knew this was coming....

Damn, you been hitting the crack pipe?

Ralph Bakshi is a master of animation. He made some of the best American animated films and helped progress the art form. Pretty much every one of his films (discounting his most recent, which was the result of the director, the lead actress, and the studio wanting completely different things) is a masterpiece. If you think his films are bad, you know nothing about animation.

And Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures is the reason why we now have Ren & Stimpy.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

Are you saying that THIS is bad art?

And you're certain he drew these and not an underling who got squeezed out?

Bakshi rotoscoped.  And rotoscoping is a fancy word for tracing (I remember the armies in Wizards - documentary footage of Nazi troops with horns and red eyes drawn in).

I traced pictures out of books in the third grade.  That wasn't art and neither is what Bakshi does.

[GregMcduck]

Um, no, not really the same thing at all.

[Petey Wheatstraw]

And you're certain he drew these and not an underling who got squeezed out?

That remark was in relation to the actual film, Fritz the Cat, not Bakshi. But as long as you're bringing up Ralph's ability, are you saying that THIS is bad art?

Bakshi rotoscoped.  And rotoscoping is a fancy word for tracing (I remember the armies in Wizards - documentary footage of Nazi troops with horns and red eyes drawn in).

I traced pictures out of books in the third grade.  That wasn't art and neither is what Bakshi does.

Rotoscoping is not tracing. It's the difference between a tomato and a carrot.

[GregMcduck]

I'm not as a big of Bakshi fan as Isaac here, but to call Bakshi one of the worst people in the animation industry is just fucking stupid. Yes, Bakshi creates unique movies that don't gel with everyone. I'll be the first to admit that Lord of the Rings and Cool World sucked. But just because you don't like his art doesn't mean he isn't an artist. I think Jackson Pollock is a horrible artist, but I still think he's an artist.

Everyone else listed in the original post are people who have limited the things people can do, thereby constricting their art. There's a big difference between someone who makes a bad cartoon versus someone who tries to control someone else's cartoon.

[Petey Wheatstraw]

I'll be the first to admit that Lord of the Rings and Cool World sucked.

No, Bakshi would be the first.

Well, not really, but he admits that the films weren't made the way he would have liked to make them. I still enjoy Lord of the Rings, but the producer and Kim Basinger messed around with Cool World so much that the story didn't make a whole lot of sense, even if the animation was good.

[bettertomorrowamy]

I thought this whole thread was JUST to bait Isaac.

[esoobaC .T bocaJ]

what?! It's not?


wait, who's Isaac again?

[Petey Wheatstraw]

Ironically, when Spumco revived "Ren and Stimpy" on the "Adult Party Cartoon" on SpikeTV, those episodes were even more hated by the fans than the Games produced episodes.

That is completely false. The fans loved Adult Party Cartoon.

[esoobaC .T bocaJ]

one thing's for sure, Billy West didn't

West said in an interview that when Kricfalusi asked him to voice Stimpy, West replied by saying that he did not wish to voice Stimpy in this cartoon. West said in an interview that he believed that the cartoon lacked humor and that voicing Stimpy in it would damage his career.

[Petey Wheatstraw]

I don't think Billy West was even offered the role, nor should he have been. Eric Bauza did a better job with the voice anyway.

The claim that West felt that the series "lacked humor" and "could damage his career" is suspicious considering that not a single episode of Ren & Stimpy made after Kricfalusi was fired was funny, and to add to that fact, West has made plenty of unfunny cartoons (I.E., Doug) and has voice-acted in films and series that bombed and had equal threat towards his career. Anything could be a threat to one's career. You never know what would click with the audiences certain things are designed for. Adult Party Cartoon angered advertisers, but at no point in its development was it ever a threat to anyone that worked on it.

West can be a dick sometimes. I read an interview in an animation magazine in which he bragged about how much effort he put into coming up with the Brooklyn accent of a roach in Joe's Apartment. Every single voice in that movie was sped up like the munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. It's not as if you could tell which actor voiced which roach. For all I know, the character they credited Billy West with was actually voiced by Dave Chappelle. Would anyone tell the difference after the pitch is adjusted? No. You've just got another squeaky voice. You can tell the difference between some of the squeaky voices, but you can't really assign anyone to any specific high-pitched roach.

[ImOscardotcom]

I'll admit Bakshi is important to animation history and that he is an artist (rotoscope is a shoddy technique, but simply a technique nontheless). But that doesn't mean I like him. In his interviews he always comes off like a pompous asshole, and the one thing I've seen of his (Wizards) I turned off halfway through.

I'm going to have to go with Fred Calvert-and also Jake Eberts, Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the entire staff of the Completion Bond Company and anyone else who contributed to the destruction of the Thief and the Cobbler. When you take a director off a film he cares about, that's bad enough.
When you take a director who has worked on the film for almost half his life (Williams was 31 when he started work on the movie-he was 58 when he got kicked off) and then proceed to cut the film beyond all repair, you deserve everything that gets thrown at you.

[RoninFox]

Theres a lot of people to hate on that list, I don't know if I can choose.

I will say though, First season or so of Ren & Stimpy, good stuff.  The Camp years, bleh.  Adult Party Cartoon, worthless...that is all.

[Petey Wheatstraw]

rotoscope is a shoddy technique, but simply a technique nontheless

No, it isn't. Rotoscoping can be used in many interesting ways, and it always looks interesting. Max and Dave Fleischer, the guys who actually invented the Rotoscope, made some of the most respected works in animation history. Rotoscoping was the only way to perfectly mimic the dancing of Cab Calloway in the Minnie the Moocher cartoon. And only recently, films like Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, which use a variation on the technique, have won acclaim from critics and viewers alike, and were somewhat successful at the box office.

In his interviews he always comes off like a pompous asshole

What interview? The one where he punched a nun?

(Note: I am being sarcastic. He didn't actually punch a nun.)

the one thing I've seen of his (Wizards) I turned off halfway through.

You're commenting on ONE movie? Try watching Heavy Traffic, Coonskin (Streetfight) or Fritz the Cat. None of these have rotoscoping.

And American Pop has rotoscoping that's more "normal," as opposed to the experimental rotoscoping in Wizards/Lord of the Rings, and probably a little more to your liking.

[Petey Wheatstraw]

Adult Party Cartoon, worthless...

The Adult Party Cartoon is the way Kricfalusi always wanted to do the show. Those that didn't like the aired episodes might have liked the additional cartoons included on the DVD if the network had given the show a chance.