What's with all the Akom hate?

[Philmister978]

I mean sure their work on A! and Batman:TAS (and some of their other works including X-Men: TAS, Transformers G1 and the first season of The Simpsons) was sub par and stuff. And that they were fired from Batman. But why the hate? They were really overused in the mid-late 80's throughout the early 2000's. That would (more or less) explain why their quite a bit of their work was poor. But there's no need to completely bash the company (especially since the guy who founded it directed Transformers: The Movie back in 1986 and also created the lightsaber effect in ILM's first film, Star Wars).

Granted, while Akom is far from my favorite company (ILM, Madhouse, TMS, Rough Draft and Toei beat it by lightyears), I still like their work (especially some of the errors, as they're quite interesting).

 

[Classic Speedy]

The Simpsons is easily the best thing Akom ever worked on, and I'm sure much of that is due to overseas supervisors who know what they're doing. (as well as the layouts being done here)

As for WBA, as I've said, I like some of their work on Tiny Toons (for example, "Cinemaniacs", "Animaniacs", and "Hog-Wild Hamton" are quite good), but once they began on Animaniacs, they just became extremely bland, stiff, and uninteresting. It wasn't necessarily BADLY animated from a technical standpoint, just not that cartoony. And on a cartoony show, that's a problem.

As for their action shows, all I could think about is how much better the animation would be if someone other than Akom had been doing the animation. Watch Batman TAS's "Feat of Clay" part 1 (by Akom) and then part 2 by TMS- there's no comparison. And the animation on X-Men almost always seemed lethargic, wrong for an action cartoon.

 

[Philmister978]

The Simpsons is easily the best thing Akom ever worked on, and I'm sure much of that is due to overseas supervisors who know what they're doing. (as well as the layouts being done here)

Obviously as they were the first overseas company to work on the show (soon followed by Anivision *which has since been absorbed into Sunwoo* and Rough Draft *While one of my fave animation companies, is severely overused nowadays*)

As for WBA, as I've said, I like some of their work on Tiny Toons (for example, "Cinemaniacs", "Animaniacs", and "Hog-Wild Hamton" are quite good), but once they began on Animaniacs, they just became extremely bland, stiff, and uninteresting. It wasn't necessarily BADLY animated from a technical standpoint, just not that cartoony. And on a cartoony show, that's a problem.

Again, that would probibly be because the company was just rushing to get stuff done. As (along with multiple other companies) Akom was swamped with animation duties during the decade (making them the Rough Draft or ILM of the 90's).

As for their action shows, all I could think about is how much better the animation would be if someone other than Akom had been doing the animation. Watch Batman TAS's "Feat of Clay" part 1 (by Akom) and then part 2 by TMS- there's no comparison. And the animation on X-Men almost always seemed lethargic, wrong for an action cartoon.

Yeah, wasn't it Feet of Clay that got Akom fired from batman in the first place?

But I think the whole reason why they animated the first four seasons of X-Men exclusivly is that Marvel (For some reason) apparently trusts Akom. I mean seriously, didn't they learn after G1 not to trust them?

Of course, with a lower budget, X-Men would have had bad animation from anyone but either TMS or Toei. Both of which should start being used for outsourcing again.

 

[wiley207]

As for Rough Draft Studios being overused, you got that right! Many Nicktoons (not by Klasky-Csupo) had Rough Draft Studios involved with the animation at some point, including "Ren & Stimpy" (mostly the Games-era episodes), "Spongebob Squarepants", "The Angry Beavers," "Rocko's Modern Life" (final season) and "CatDog."

Ironically, since the 2000s with the exception of some of those awful Sander Schwartz-produced Looney Tunes shorts, Warner Bros. Animation pretty much doesn't use Rough Draft Studios. Most of the time they just use DongWoo Animation, and they also tend to use Lotto Animation, Yearim Productions, Toon City Animation and Starburst Animation (in the 2001-2003 years, they also used Wang Film Productions, but I don't think they use them anymore.)

As for the Marvel Productions thing, this also happened to Muppet Babies in the fourth season. Toei Animation did the animation for the show's first three seasons, like they did with "G.I. Joe," "Transformers" and others, but in the fourth season, they switched to Akom. Right away the animation quality changed and would vary on a case-to-case basis; some of the early Akom episodes and the ones in the final season had poor character designs and stiff movements, some of the fifth season episodes looked pretty good, etc.

 

[Philmister978]

As for Rough Draft Studios being overused, you got that right! Many Nicktoons (not by Klasky-Csupo) had Rough Draft Studios involved with the animation at some point, including "Ren & Stimpy" (mostly the Games-era episodes), "Spongebob Squarepants", "The Angry Beavers," "Rocko's Modern Life" (final season) and "CatDog."

Exactly my point, whenever it isn't CG, Nick says "Screw it, just go to Rough Draft and ask them to do animation."

Seriously, other comapies (Akom included) seem to be ignored nowadays by Nick, something that didn't happen in the early-mid Ninties as there were a ton of different comapies for Ren & Stimpy *Including some Not too well known comapies and Wang, who also worked on the first season of Rugrats before being replaced by Anivision*)

Ironically, since the 2000s with the exception of some of those awful Sander Schwartz-produced Looney Tunes shorts, Warner Bros. Animation pretty much doesn't use Rough Draft Studios. Most of the time they just use DongWoo Animation, and they also tend to use Lotto Animation, Yearim Productions, Toon City Animation and Starburst Animation (in the 2001-2003 years, they also used Wang Film Productions, but I don't think they use them anymore.)

Interesting, though why hasn't WB not been using Wang since '03?

As for the Marvel Productions thing, this also happened to Muppet Babies in the fourth season. Toei Animation did the animation for the show's first three seasons, like they did with "G.I. Joe," "Transformers" and others, but in the fourth season, they switched to Akom. Right away the animation quality changed and would vary on a case-to-case basis; some of the early Akom episodes and the ones in the final season had poor character designs and stiff movements, some of the fifth season episodes looked pretty good, etc.

Yeah, and this is really noticable in G1 as the company made a truckload of errors that could proably fill up an entire topic.

 

[Classic Speedy]

As for Rough Draft Studios being overused, you got that right! Many Nicktoons (not by Klasky-Csupo) had Rough Draft Studios involved with the animation at some point, including "Ren & Stimpy" (mostly the Games-era episodes), "Spongebob Squarepants", "The Angry Beavers," "Rocko's Modern Life" (final season) and "CatDog."

There have been plenty of NickToons not done by Rough Draft.

Ren & Stimpy, despite using Rough Draft frequently, also used Mr. Big in Australia and Toon-Us-In in Korea, and also Wang on a couple occasions.

Fairly OddParents was by Yeson.

Hey Arnold!, post season 1, was by Saerom.

ChalkZone was by Wang.

Doug was by Hanho-Heung.

Invader Zim was by Sunwoo.

Pelswick, if you count it... some Chinese company, I forget their name.

All the Klasky-Csupo productions were by Anivision/Sunwoo (except Rugrats's first season).

Avatar was by Jm and Dr. Movie.

And the recent CG series, obviously, aren't done by Rough Draft.

But we're getting off the topic of Akom on the WBA shows. Here's a question for Tom, if he's reading this. About a week ago, I was informed by Keeper (who was informed by Jon McClenahan) that it was actually StarToons who did the animation for the various Randy Beaman sketches, not Akom. Is that true? Or did StarToons do some, and Akom did others?

 

[Peter Paltridge]

StarToons did all the Randy Beaman shorts; Tom said so in our interview awhile back. The shorts were each assigned to a different studio....Freelance did all of Dot's Poetry Corner for example.

 

[Classic Speedy]

StarToons did all the Randy Beaman shorts; Tom said so in our interview awhile back. The shorts were each assigned to a different studio....Freelance did all of Dot's Poetry Corner for example.

Ah, OK. One question, though: If StarToons did do all those shorts, why is "Brain Meets Brawn/Meet Minerva" (which is bookended by two Randy Beaman skits) credited to TMS and Akom, when StarToons worked on "Meet Minerva" and the two Randy skits? Is this just a credits error?

 

[Philmister978]

There have been plenty of NickToons not done by Rough Draft.

Ren & Stimpy, despite using Rough Draft frequently, also used Mr. Big in Australia and Toon-Us-In in Korea, and also Wang on a couple occasions.

Fairly OddParents was by Yeson.

Hey Arnold!, post season 1, was by Saerom.

ChalkZone was by Wang.

Doug was by Hanho-Heung and Plus One.

Invader Zim was by Sunwoo.

Pelswick, if you count it... some Chinese company, I forget their name.

All the Klasky-Csupo productions were by Anivision/Sunwoo (except Rugrats's first season).

Avatar was by Jm and Dr. Movie.

And the recent CG series, obviously, aren't done by Rough Draft.

But we're getting off the topic of Akom on the WBA shows. Here's a question for Tom, if he's reading this. About a week ago, I was informed by Keeper (who was informed by Jon McClenahan) that it was actually StarToons who did the animation for the various Randy Beaman sketches, not Akom. Is that true? Or did StarToons do some, and Akom did others?

Obviously the CG Shows wouldn't be animated by Rough Draft.

BTW this is also off topic, but is CGCG (From Star Wars, Bionicle and Penguins of Madagascar) related in anyway to Wang Films?

and also, can anyone link me to Paul Dini's rant about Akom's exceptionally poor workmanship on Batman?

 

[Hiya Animation]

Isn't Akom still doing Simpsons episodes?

As for Rough Draft being "overused" well... they deserve the work. They are one of the best animation studios out there and the work they put out is consistently high quality.

 

[Philmister978]

Isn't Akom still doing Simpsons episodes?

As for Rough Draft being "overused" well... they deserve the work. They are one of the best animation studios out there and the work they put out is consistently high quality.

Yes, though not as much as they used to. The last episode that I have seen with their name on it was Welcome to Homerica (I'm certain that they did some season 22 eps though).

And for the comment about Rough Draft. It is true that they do produce High Quality. But that still doesn't excuse it from being way too overused.

 

[wiley207]

Speaking of Akom, here's a puzzler of sorts. There was an episode of Tiny Toons that Akom animated entitled "The ACME Home Shopping Show," but for some reason was credited to Kennedy Cartoons. I don't know why; it definitely had the look and feel of your typical Akom episode. HOWEVER, a few scenes did show quite a bit of bouncing or dance sequences, not drawn by Glen Kennedy but by the Akom animators. Maybe Glen Kennedy supervised it anyway? Usually when stuff by Kennedy is animated by another studio, it's either Wang Film Productions (such as in "The Looney Beginning," "New Character Day" and "High Toon") or Startoons (back when the only animator on staff was Jon McClenahan!) Or maybe WB wound up sending the wrong episode to the wrong overseas studio?
The credit is also unusual. Look at this:

Usually an episode animated by Kennedy Cartoons is credited like THIS:

(taken from "You Asked For It Again," not one of their finer efforts)

That just makes it even more mysterious. Now that we have Tom Ruegger here, maybe he knows what happened behind the scenes?

 

[The Spectre]

I noticed another credits oddity. While watching "Dating, Acme Acres Style" the other day I thought the animation seemed below usual Wang standards. Checking the end credits to see if there was any explanation for this, I noticed the animation supervisor was credited as "Warren Marshall" rather than Dave Marshall. I wonder if this was just a credits error or if the usual Akom supervisor was working with Wang Film for some reason.

Then, there's also "Fairy Tales For the 90s", with animation credited to Wang and character layouts credited to Kennedy... with the result looking not much like either.

 

[Old Guy]

Didn't Tom once say that sometimes they made segments for one episode, but used it on another or sometimes scenes were cut and used in another episode? Maybe that's why the credits don't match.

 

[Philmister978]

Speaking of Akom, here's a puzzler of sorts. There was an episode of Tiny Toons that Akom animated entitled "The ACME Home Shopping Show," but for some reason was credited to Kennedy Cartoons. I don't know why; it definitely had the look and feel of your typical Akom episode. HOWEVER, a few scenes did show quite a bit of bouncing or dance sequences, not drawn by Glen Kennedy but by the Akom animators. Maybe Glen Kennedy supervised it anyway? Usually when stuff by Kennedy is animated by another studio, it's either Wang Film Productions (such as in "The Looney Beginning," "New Character Day" and "High Toon") or Startoons (back when the only animator on staff was Jon McClenahan!) Or maybe WB wound up sending the wrong episode to the wrong overseas studio?
The credit is also unusual. Look at this:

Usually an episode animated by Kennedy Cartoons is credited like THIS:

(taken from "You Asked For It Again," not one of their finer efforts)

That just makes it even more mysterious. Now that we have Tom Ruegger here, maybe he knows what happened behind the scenes?

Yes, that is weird. Though I think it might be the WB staff not realizing until the last minute.

But then again, let's just find out from Tom himself.

 

[Philmister978]

Okay, quick question. Does anyone know exactly why Akom's site doesn't show anything beyond an animated logo animated by them?

 

[Jonny Mack]

Speaking of Akom, here's a puzzler of sorts. There was an episode of Tiny Toons that Akom animated entitled "The ACME Home Shopping Show," but for some reason was credited to Kennedy Cartoons. I don't know why; it definitely had the look and feel of your typical Akom episode. HOWEVER, a few scenes did show quite a bit of bouncing or dance sequences, not drawn by Glen Kennedy but by the Akom animators. Maybe Glen Kennedy supervised it anyway? Usually when stuff by Kennedy is animated by another studio, it's either Wang Film Productions (such as in "The Looney Beginning," "New Character Day" and "High Toon") or Startoons (back when the only animator on staff was Jon McClenahan!) Or maybe WB wound up sending the wrong episode to the wrong overseas studio?
The credit is also unusual. Look at this:

Usually an episode animated by Kennedy Cartoons is credited like THIS:

(taken from "You Asked For It Again," not one of their finer efforts)

That just makes it even more mysterious. Now that we have Tom Ruegger here, maybe he knows what happened behind the scenes?

I did make one road trip up to Toronto to meet Glen and his gang, and at that time I met a whole gaggle of Korean animators who were very polite but couldn't speak English ... they were living together in a house near the studio that Kennedy Cartoons had rented. I assume these names are those guys.

 

[The Spectre]

I don't think wiley207 was questioning the Korean names in the list of animators, but the fact that "The Acme Home Shopping Show" is unique in that doesn't credit any animators besides Glen Kennedy as director (suggesting that it was supervised by Glen, but without his usual stable of animators).

 

[Philmister978]

I don't think wiley207 was questioning the Korean names in the list of animators, but the fact that "The Acme Home Shopping Show" is unique in that doesn't credit any animators besides Glen Kennedy as director (suggesting that it was supervised by Glen, but without his usual stable of animators).

OMG! It's Jon! Anyway, getting that out of the way.

I'm getting where you're going with this whole Glen-Kennedy-Supervising-Akom Thing happening with "The Acme Home Shopping Show", but I'm just as puzzled as you are.

Oh, and I just found you something that I think some of you have already have known. The company actually won an award. And to think that a company that has done horrible work on X-Men, Transformers G1 and Batman:TAS got one is pretty interesting indeed.

 

[Robochao]

I mean sure their work on A! and Batman:TAS (and some of their other works including X-Men: TAS, Transformers G1 and the first season of The Simpsons) was sub par and stuff. And that they were fired from Batman. But why the hate? They were really overused in the mid-late 80's throughout the early 2000's. That would (more or less) explain why their quite a bit of their work was poor. But there's no need to completely bash the company (especially since the guy who founded it directed Transformers: The Movie back in 1986 and also created the lightsaber effect in ILM's first film, Star Wars).

Granted, while Akom is far from my favorite company (ILM, Madhouse, TMS, Rough Draft and Toei beat it by lightyears), I still like their work (especially some of the errors, as they're quite interesting).

I agree. They have their share of good moments and bad moments in animation. AKOM's best work is definitely the Simpsons. I really like their other shows too. I think there was some negative reception to Toei being dropped for AKOM in Muppet Babies. Everyone's main problem with AKOM is that when compared to the A or B studio, they look like the bottom of the line. These days I can't tell the difference between an AKOM Simpsons or a Rough Draft Simpsons because they've been working on it so long that they've managed to obtain a consistency. I can tell a difference between them in older episodes though as Rough Draft was much more fluid beginning in S4 and later on.

AKOM Tiny Toons looks nice to me but it still shows that late 80s stiffness that people are unhappy about. I like all the styles though. That's what makes each company interesting in it's own way.