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CATS, Spongebob, and Theatrical Representation
7 years ago
General
I love to find fan-made animatic of songs from musicals. Hamilton, Wicked, Heathers, etc. Now some of you may know one recent Broadway hit has been the Spongebob musical, which surprised everyone by not being a mere cash grab. However, while I did find animatics, one thing bothered me about them: Almost all of them drew characters like the actors in their costumes. Now that it isn't to say I don't like the costumes. Quite the opposite. But I'll explain my issue at end of a note. As a side note, I only found TWO animatics so far where the characters look like their cartoon selves.
It was then I realized I had the exact same problem with CATS fanart. Most of the characters are drawn closely resembling the costumed humans. Some fans (especially in fanfiction) try to justify this by saying say that these are the cat's Jellicle forms when humans are not around. While that is an interesting concept, that's not the issue here. I prefer fanart that shows the characters as normal cats or, at best, Zootopia-style anthros like I commissioned Betsy and Greykitty to do.
So what is my problem with both these examples? Well, to get right to the point, these costumes are merely abstract, if well made, representations of fantastical characters so we can better connect with the actors under the costumes and makeup. It's not to be taken literally. Yet these fans draw them exactly like that. To me, that's boring, if not downright self-restrictive. I'm reminded of something that happened during the making of Genndy Tartakovsky's Clone Wars shorts between Attack and Revenge. At first, the animators tried to make the characters look exactly like the actors who portray them but then they realized they were limiting themselves and redesigned them. I feel the same thing is going on here. In a way, they are drawing the actors, not the characters.
Now I am not condemning these fans for doing this. If they prefer to do it that way, that's completely fine. It's their choice and I don't want to force them to do anything. I just think there is untapped potential.
It was then I realized I had the exact same problem with CATS fanart. Most of the characters are drawn closely resembling the costumed humans. Some fans (especially in fanfiction) try to justify this by saying say that these are the cat's Jellicle forms when humans are not around. While that is an interesting concept, that's not the issue here. I prefer fanart that shows the characters as normal cats or, at best, Zootopia-style anthros like I commissioned Betsy and Greykitty to do.
So what is my problem with both these examples? Well, to get right to the point, these costumes are merely abstract, if well made, representations of fantastical characters so we can better connect with the actors under the costumes and makeup. It's not to be taken literally. Yet these fans draw them exactly like that. To me, that's boring, if not downright self-restrictive. I'm reminded of something that happened during the making of Genndy Tartakovsky's Clone Wars shorts between Attack and Revenge. At first, the animators tried to make the characters look exactly like the actors who portray them but then they realized they were limiting themselves and redesigned them. I feel the same thing is going on here. In a way, they are drawing the actors, not the characters.
Now I am not condemning these fans for doing this. If they prefer to do it that way, that's completely fine. It's their choice and I don't want to force them to do anything. I just think there is untapped potential.
