Scooby-Doo v.s Spongebob?
They're both pretty famous, but I'd have to say Scooby-Doo. Scooby-Doo has a well developed story line, realistic characters, and generates constant suspense. With Scooby-Doo, you can experience an exciting mystery with each episode, and the show is considered a classic. The story revolves around a group of characters instead of just one. Spongebob is also nice, but Spongebob is now turning into an over-used icon, and the shows are going downhill. The comedy is a bit silly, and it looks like the story writers are running out of ideas. The older Spongebob is better, but I still prefer Scooby-Doo a little more. With Scooby-Doo, there's action, thrillers, horror, comedy, love-stories, and mystery, so basically it's the complete package. :)
Why can't we hear the characters off screen (Family guy, spongebob)?
EDIT: OK, I see what you're talking about now. In that case, it's usually because when the show is in syndication, or is repeated, sometimes the rebroadcast or syndicated version has sound edited or altered, so that you can't hear the off-screen character. Either this is done purposefully, or else it's due to the audio settings on the network feed to the cable or satellite provider. Sometimes when digital files are copied, edited, and recopied/resaved, there can be some loss in either video or audio quality. This can cause some background sounds, including off-screen dialogue, to be edited out. I've seen this in other places besides TV shows being rebroadcast or run in syndication. Sometimes when a film or TV show that is in an older format is being converted to the newer format, such as Disney films being released to DVD or Blu-Ray, during the digital conversion and "remastering", while video quality can be altered, sometimes audio quality is sacrificed. Here's a good example: In the Disney film "Lady and the Tramp", after Aunt Sarah arrives to take care of the baby for Jim Dear and Darling, she shoos them away and hurries upstairs to see the baby. Lady runs in, and Sarah is already cooing over the baby, with the baby giggling and cooing. Then Sarah reacts to Lady being in the nursery, chases her out of the nursery, and slams the door. Next as Lady gives a look of disgust and begins to head downstairs, where she would soon meet Si and Am, Sarah's Siamese cats, Sarah could be heard attempting to comfort the baby, promising she wouldn't let Lady frighten him anymore, then begins singing "Rock-A-Bye Baby". When the film was rereleased to VHS back in 1998, the remastered audio ended up stripping out part of that. You would hear Aunt Sarah promising not to let Lady frighten the baby, but as Lady turns, the audio cuts out, except for the background music leading up to Si and Am's appearance, and "The Siamese Cat Song". When the film was released to DVD, the audio was restored, and you could hear Sarah singing again. Best way to really combat this is to have a home theater system set up that would play those background vocals, but might require constant tweaking.
Okay so in the SpongeBob SP movie... do they really say?
lol when mr krabs whispers in spongebobs ear if you listen carefully he sounds like he is saying jackass
How long does it take to make an animation (contemporary cartoons/anime) and how can they produce it so fast (weekly)?
Weekly TV shows actually take about 6 weeks on average to make. Productions have different teams working on different episodes in parallel (why you'll see different directors listed for consecutive episodes), or they have an assembly line where shows move through stages going from department to department. Some animated shows, like The Simpsons and Family Guy take months - something like 9-12 months per episode - because they have a pipeline set up to deliver X shows per season, so a show moves through the pipeline a season's worth of weeks ahead of when it airs. I've heard Spongebob Squarepants episodes take 4-5 months to create, and I would imagine there's a fair amount of animation reuse in each episode.A notable exception is South Park. South Park episodes are produced in 6 days - from concept to final delivery. South Park's unique low-fi look helps them to do it, but it's still a pretty amazing feat. If you're interested there's a documentary about it called 6 Days to Air. It's on Netflix, but you might be able to find it elsewhere. I'd recommend watching the South Park episode "Human Centipod" before watching the documentary.
How much does it cost to make a cartoon?
It's a good question, and one that can be kind of tricky. Like you and Mats pointed out, it's really a question of (wo)man power.In the industry it's pretty typical for animators to get paid by output as well, $x/second of animation. So for a lot of studios, we do our costing on time as well, which is part of the reason why even for simple things like basic explainer videos, pricing is usually done per minute (or even per second).Though it gets more complicated, as we know, not all seconds are equal. A minute of South Park animation gets done a lot easier (faster) than a minute of The Boondocks.I could go on for awhile but to give you a ballpark, on the simple end, let's say cutout animation like South Park. With a lean partner, you could probably be looking at anything from $2,000 - $5,000 USD per minute of Animation, depending on the character style and feel. On the more complicated shows with things like fight scenes, and traditional animation, you're looking at $7,000 - $10,000 ++ USD per minute.It sounds like a lot, and it is, but for a lot of people starting out the idea is to create a pilot that they can show the world in order to get funded, many times this doesn't need to be a full 22 minute episode, and we've worked with a few clients who start out with shorts to pitch and get funding or picked up. I would say if you've got a budget in the realm of around $15,000 - 20,000 USD and willing to do a lot of the work yourself with regards to scripting, driving the storyboards, etc, then that's a good start for a short pilot.Though once you're producing for TV, then that's probably just enough to cover a voice over.TL:DRShow like The Boondocks or Justice league will probably set you back around $10,000 USD per minute of animation once you get rolling. Though that's just the animation, writers, directors, and actors at that level cost real money as well, the Simpsons actors were making $400,000 per episode, and cost apparently about $1,000,000 per episode, so sky's the limit.Hope that helps, and good luck!
Is Japanese animation better than American animation? Why?
The animation style is different, but I wouldn't compare the animation at all. It's the storytelling. While both Western and Japanese animated movies (Pixar and Disney being the representative of the Western, and Studio Ghibli being the representative of the Japanese) tend to be family-themed, a lot of Studio Ghibli films has a much more matured take to it (Grave of the Fireflies, Princess Mononoke, The Tale of Princess Kaguya) compared to most of the American animation films (Up being the only one with a more matured take coming to my mind).But there's the TV too.See it this way. American animation mostly focuses on these three aspects:Family animated movies (Disney, Pixar, etc.)Adult cartoons, or animated sitcoms (Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, etc.)Children cartoons (SpongeBob, Tom & Jerry, Looney Tunes, etc.)While Japanese animation has a much broader general audience, being:Anything by Studio Ghibli for family viewing.Anime series that basically covers all genres for all age type.It's rare to find some sci-fi thriller in animation in the America, and it is unheard of for an animated film/series with a psychopathic megalomaniac that wants to rule the world and is actually the main character of the series, which makes you want to root for that basically evil guy, but these are just a few found in Japanese animation.To end this, American animation targets audience of families, adults/teen humour, or children.Japanese animations' targeted audience is not limited to a specific category, and they produce tons of new animations every year for the TV, therefore having a wide range of genres and targeted audience for each series, which allows more creativity to flow in the storyline, making some of the series having a potential to rival even the best Western live-action movies and TV series, but with animation, anything is possible, unlike live-action.And that is why I think, in some aspects, Japanese animation triumphs the Western animation.
What are the most disparate iconic characters voiced by a single actor?
There's certainly Mel Blanc, who voiced every Looney Tunes character imaginable. Yosemite Sam, Speedy Gonzales, Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Marvin the Martian...these are just some examples of an incredibly wide, and iconic, repertoire. Each character had its own distinct style and personality.For a more non-traditional answer I can't help but think of Johnny Depp, who voiced the plucky lizard in "Rango," the tentative Victorian British hero, Victor Van Doort, in the dark animated tale "Corpse Bride," Captain Jack Sparrow in tons of video games related to "Pirates of the Caribbean," and an undersea badguy on "SpongeBob SquarePants." I don't know that any of these characters other than Captain Jack (who didn't start out animated) can be considered "iconic" but they certainly demonstrate that the man has range.
Name some characters that have a weird way of talking?
Toby , from The Office , barely moves his lips when he talks , pretty creepy. I wonder if the actor talks like that in real life. Then there's Capote , I think PSH pulled it off with the voice and all. (and yeah , I know Truman Capote was a real person not a made up character) and how could I forget the master of weird , Christopher Walken. your turn