Quel surpise! Channel 4 commission the 100 Greatest Cartoons, just months after they land The Simpsons, and waddya know. The Simpsons comes out top!
Whilst it’s undoubtedly funny, nobody would argue that the level of animation is fairly rudimentary. And indeed, the whole of this list is pretty worthless. South Park at no. 3? Family Guy at no. 5? In fact out of the top ten, only two are not either being made at the moment, or have been produced in the last few years. Indeed I’d argue that a lot of the recent computer animation films are more technique above quality.
But in general, this is a ridiculously biased list with short-lived poorly made films filling up the top the end of the list. I didn’t really watch the programme that accompanied it, but couldn’t help noticing that there was a longer discussion about the Beavis & Butthead “huh huh huh” (no. 32) than there was about Mickey Mouse (helped in the creation of a multi-billion dollar company – no. 31!).
Can you take any list seriously that puts Fantasia at no. 53 and Snow White at no. 60? And there’s a distinct lack of those fabulous Tex Avery shorts that don’t feature famous characters, such as Red Hot Riding Hood – one of my all time favourite cartoons which, criminally, isn’t even available to buy in the UK.
On another note, when is C4 going to stop filling four hours of primetime television with such pointless fare? Wasn’t Kevin Lygo putting a stop to all the Z-list commentators talking about clips that they’ve watched about 10 seconds before “commenting” on them. Something that was mercilessly parodied on the Armando Iannucci show over New Year.