Favorite tv shows

[redchild]

There are so many one-liners and references to mature themes that are obviously pitched toward adults, and the children don't get the 'full' picture until they view it again when they're older.

I actually find this to be true even of older Disney movies. You've got a mother trying to murder her step-daughter in Snow White, domestic abuse in Cinderella, a weird psychedelic trip in Alice in Wonderland, social discrimination in Little Mermaid, Simba as Hamlet in Lion King, etc. It just takes time for it to sink in. While Disney has bastardized many fairy tales in order to retain the company's wholesome image, I still think much of the original story remains intact.

It is quite a jump really from watching Warner Brothers cartoons etc with simple plots and slap-stick comedy as the driving force.

I actually find many of the animated productions at Warner Brothers to have very good writing...well, at least those in the nineties and early 00's (because I'm biased); I don't know how they are now. Looney Tunes, for example, was hardly kid-exclusive fare. The slapstick appeals to kids (though to be honest I never found slapstick that funny as a kid, but I love it now) but the scripts are smart and witty. I'd say the same is true of Anamaniacs and Pinky & the Brain. Their superhero shows are also very good.

With such a large portion of our society being involved with gaming these days, I'd expect that the gulf between reality and animation will become even narrower as well?

There isn't much of a gulf between reality and animation as a lot of the time animation draws from life. However, gaming as a whole, not just animation itself, can blur the lines between reality and fantasy.

But you would rarely find someone who wants to play a game that reminds them too much of reality. The real world does not have futuristic sci-fi cities and space ships or dragons and floating castles, but you can render them to the point that that is what they would look like in real life. Also, nobody wants to remember that being slammed by a battle-axe or armor piercing bullet to the head will kill you instantly, but rather will only damage your avatar -60 health points. While basing a world on reality gives the player a more immersive experience, they still need to be fantastic in order to have any appeal.

Also, many people are mistaken in the notion that mo-cap = realistic animation. It's lazy animation and the results show in dead, lifeless character movements. As I mentioned before, copying reality does not always necessarily yield the best results.