About my last post, diregard that. As I've pretty much decided to make a (fairly) long rant about the company called Akom (as if the topic isn't already indication enough).
First off, I'm wanting to bring the topic of discussion back to life, so post after this.
Second, this is my views only, if anyone objects, that's fine.
Finally, before I begin, anyone unfamilliar to the topic in question, I'd advise you to watch X-Men, Transformers G1, The Simpsons, Batman, Animaniacs, Tiny Toon Adventures, The Tick, Rescue Heroes, Earthworn Jim, Dr. Rabbit's World Tour, Bucky O' Hare, My Little Pony, Dino Riders, Robocop, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes' first season and Spiral Zone (all shows Akom has animated either exclusively or with other companies). Or just read the topic from the beginning:
http://toonzone.net/forums/showthread.php?t=262773
Before I forget, here's the rant:
As you all know, Akom (also known as AKOM, but I prefer it with a capital 'A' only) is a rather... interesting South Korean animation studio. Which is home to some of the worst animators in history this side of Filmation (Though I find that the latter is worse in every whichway possible). And like all animation studios, its in a love/hate relationship. For those who like it, I don't blame you but do I have to show you this Picture again (rehtortical question):
As you probably can tell from the picture above, the company's pretty bad right. Well yeah, but I'll get to that later. Seeing as this is a Warner Bros. forum, I'm just going to get down to business- That being their work on WB's shows:
TTA:
As Johnny Mack stated earlier, he wasn't at all impressed with the company's work (Understandable). And he right. As the series went on, Akom's rather bouncy and semi-fluid animation went down the tubes. To me, the company's season one episodes looked dretty decent (not on par with TMS or Wang mind you,, but then again, Wang's looked pretty awful early on. But it was miles better then Kennedy or Encore) and had near perfect timing (acording to Speedy Boris in two of his reviews). Whereas in season two, Akom's quality took a sharp nose dive. The added uneeded shading and didn't look cartoony enough (In other words, they were bland). Season three was similar.
A!:
Well, as Speedy stated in this topic earlier, A short on this series was garenteed to be bad (Partially his words, partially my words). Much more bland animation and uneeded shading took its toll here as well (Plus the fact that they were working on other shows probably didn't help matters). So nothing much to say here.
Batman:
And now, we're here to the topic of debate in this rant/opinion. Many people (The fandom, Bruce Timm, myself, etc.) have expressively stated that the company did shoddy work that was on par with some 60's Hanna Barbara action show. But, Timm also stated that Akom actually pulled through with a few episodes (Mad as a Hatter, The Mechanic and What is Reality all come to mind), Plus he actually stated that the opening scene in The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne contains some of the best animation in the entire show. Which brings up the question, "Is this the same Akom that did the eye bleeding work for Cat Scrach Fever?" Answer, yes. Especially when you take into acount that CSF has some of the worst Akom animation in the show (and in 2D in general, Even Filmation would laugh at it). I'd be guessing the fandom sighed a great sigh or relief when Akom got fired. And just don't talk to me about Feat of Clay part 1. Just don't.
I have nothing to say about Earthworm Jim or Taz-Mania as I have little knowlage aside from their openings (okay, I did watch some of Taz-Mania, but that was a long while back, and I barely remember it). And we already know that StarToons did the opening for the latter.
Now, Akom's work in Transformers G1 (The picture above comes from The Five Faces of Darkness Part 3) was as mixed as Batman's, I'll let City of Steel, The Core and The Autobot Run pass as these were Akom's first animation jobs. Season three has no excuse though. Especially Carnage in C-Minor. I'm almost wondering if Akom wanted to be fired from the series with this episode.
Akom animator: So I got this episode about the Autobots crash landing on a planet full of beings that can only speak in Sing Song. What can I do to make the animation as bad as the plot?
Akom animation supervisor: Well for starters, how about we make as many animation errors as we can, say maybe make the Constructicons about half of Ultra Magnus' hight and Draw Broadside in an abandoned character model I forund on a piece of used napkin. Oh, I also want to to put in as many other errors as possible. I want to make sure we're fired from this.
Animator: Will do sir.
Unfortunately, something went wrong and Marvel, being the company they are, decided to keep them for almost every animation project the company made (because they're cheep like that). This does not, however, explain why the animation in Attack of the Killer Tomatoes' second season is actually a million times worse then Akom's.
Speedy was also right about the company's best work being on The Simpsons (Not the first season however, that was pretty bad). But I will state this fact as well, the animation in Arthur was was pretty decent.
Spiral Zone and My Little Pony: The Move also deserves mentions as well. With Spiral Zone in question, there were two animation Studios (Akom and Visual 80 in Japan) in the series (the show was obviously low in budget as they reused the same six actors for nearly every role) and they got the two cheap ones. Suprisingly enough, Both Peter de Celles and Chris Millar state that Akom did the better work. Especially since you take in account that their X-Men, Tranformers and the majority of their Batman work ranged from sub-par to eye bleedingly bad.
My Little Pony: The Movie on the other hand had both Toei (the better company in G1) AND Akom work on it. But the movie was bad anyways.
Also, before I go, I have a quick question. Anyone know which episodes they animated of Gargoyles?- Thanks for the edit Narf. It won't happen again.
