1993: Year of the Furries

The Rise and Fall of Animation in North America over the past 30 years has seen truly stunning highs, and embarassing lows, all of which will be explained in this thesis.

Success and Progress always have their price, it is said. Innovation is something that we will never run out of, and never MUST run out of, if we are to remain successful. Animation has always been a tricky business, to appeal to wide audiences, without looking childish or shocking.

As discussed in the Cancellation of SatAM Sonic article, animation was on the decline before the industry decided to reorganize themselves and attempt to make quality art again.

The Animation Industry

Animation as a whole started declining in the mid-1970s with such low-quality "cookie-cutter" firms like Hanna-Barbara churning out dozens of low-cost, look-alike cartoons that were laregely interchangable in both plot and appearance (using the aptly-named limited animation). By the time the 1980s had arrived, the Walt Disney Company was considering abandoning the animation field altogether. The rise of anime's popularity in the 1980s with Voltron and other imported shows was not helping matters, either. The 1980s also saw the introduction of cartoons centered or even based off of toy lines, basically being half-hour-long commercials. 1988 would see a shocking surprise: the Walt Disney Company (through its live-action suspense-film branch Touchtone Pictures) and Warner Brothers (through their action-film branch Amblin Entertainment) teamed up to bring "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" to the theatres. This was an overwhelming success, and heralded a new golden age in animation. Public interest was renewed in animation, and Disney had gone full-swing back into animation with its ""Disney Afternoon" syndicated cartoon block. While originally promised to FOX network stations in the USA, this wound up in syndication to various independent stations across the United States and Canada, so FOX decided to start its own Fox Kids' animation block (this would later be re-named "FoxBox", then 4KidsTV, and has since merged with Kids' WB to become The CW4Kids) on weekday afternoons and saturday mornings to compete with both the Disney Afternoon (weekday afternoons) and ABC Kids (Saturday mornings). This, in turn, would inspire Warner Brothers to get back into the animation business and launch Kids WB and The WB Television Network (now part of The CW Television Network). Animated shows would become very popular on television and in mainstream society, and their quality would be very high from 1985 to 1997, before starting a slow but steady decline.

Resurgence

After shaking off the lazy and generally horrible-looking art of the 1970s, the animation firms actually began to make quality shows. With only primitive computer technology (by today's standards) to assist them, they had to rely on sheer skill and talent to create good shows. Thus, shows like Thundercats, The Raccoons, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were created.

Computer Graphics: The Double-Edged Sword

Technology was starting to advance quickly by the time the 1980s were drawing to a close. Disney had begun experimenting in computer generated imagery (CGI), also known as "3D graphics" as early as their 1988 film "Oliver & Company" (all of the moving, and many non-moving, automobiles were rendered by computers in the film). Even the Disney-Warner Brothers collaboration "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (also in 1988) was briefly considered for 3D graphics, but producer Robert Zemeckis shot down the idea, saying it was "too primitive" for what was needed, and the technology still needed to advance. Roger Rabbit was eventually made in a traditional animation/live action format, which was a sleeper hit at the box office. While a gamble on both studios' parts, it was a runaway success, recouperating its production costs ten-fold, and giving the animation industry in Canada and the United States the kickstart of inspiration it needed to make new, better animated shows. However, as graphics were improving on both the computer and traditional animation fronts, and as the new decade of the 1990s began, the era of high-quality, high-talent animation would not last.

The Youtube User "EhznoStian" said it perfectly, regarding the ""O. G. Readmore" segments on the classic ABC Weekend Specials:

"it's really too bad that the 90s saw the advent of CGI, because in the 80s, people were just getting to be so amazing at hand drawn animation. I mean, think about it - in today's day and age, a commercial like this would be something really cheap, but back then, there were so many good animators, that they could make a commercial like this with Disney feature presentation quality animation. There is a good side and a bad side to everything, and technologies bad side is it killed a lot of art."

While ReBoot was the first cartoon show to be done ENTIRELY in CGI, and Toy Story to be the first feature-length film to be done ENTIRELY in CGI (both being massive successes), the new technology would come to be over-used, and abused as some might think, in animation. Gradually, animation quality would begin to decline, as animation firms either adopted 3D graphics immediately for all new shows, to appear "better-looking" than their competitors, or were simplified to cut costs (and in the process, cut quality). This would simply cause a quality crash in the mid-1990s, very similar to the video game crash of 1983.

Perhaps the reason why computer generated imagery isn't as appealing as it was originally hyped to be is that it appears dull, lifeless, sterile, nd artificial, even with high detail. Traditional hand-drawn animation just has that magical spark of innovation and hard work put into it.

While the 1990s and early 2000s would see the majority of their cartoons still drawn by hand, many would begin to slowly decline in quality, looking more and more like the 1970s cartoons by Hannah-Barbera (the very situation that spurred the renaissance in the first place!), by the end of the 2000s, most cartoons were done in CGI, while cartoons simply evaporated from the over-the-air networks on saturday mornings entirely, with what precious few remained looking vastly-inferior in comparison to cartoons ten or even TWENTY years before.

Newer is not always better.

1993: Year of the Furries

There is one small comfort in all of this, however. Though animation has had its lowest of lows, the year 1993 was its very highest of highs, with unrivalled quality in animation and storylines. The year 1993 will always be fondly remembered by this webmaster as the "Year of the Furries", and as the year animation reached its very peak in terms of quality. Though many shows share similarities of gritty "Bladerunner"-like cities in a post-apocalyptic future, or contain elements of "freedom fighters" battling an evil menace, each show or video game was innovative, original, captivating, and entertaining.

I consider 1993 as "Year of the Furries" from the amount of anthropomorphic animal characters in cartoons, video games, and other media released, or available during that year. I've split this essay into several portions, each describing the show or video game within this article.

Sonic the Hedgehog (ABC)

For more on Sonic the Hedgehog, see the Cancellation Page.

An easy choice to pick, Sonic the Hedgehog was "born" in 1990, and stormed onto the video game scene in 1991. His popularity was immediate, with his video game on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive selling millions of copies. The follow-up sequel (Sonic the Hedgehog 2), also for the Genesis/Mega Drive, performed even better. In late 1992, DiC Enterprises was contacted by SEGA of America to create a cartoon tie-in to their video game character. Fairly quickly, they made sixty-five episodes of "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog", and began searching for any interested network to air their shows. DiC eventually arrived at the offices of the American Broadcasting Company, which had expressed interest in the show. Upon seeing the quality and general content of AoStH, however, ABC quickly declined, and said "if you make a better version, we'll air it". DiC had little time to spare, and made just twenty-six episodes of "Sonic the Hedgehog", but the amount of time taken, and detail within the show more than impressed ABC, which green-lighted it for two thirteen-episode seasons.

What set "SatAM" Sonic the Hedgehog apart from nearly every other cartoon on the air before and since, is how dark and mature its storyline and theme were for a children's cartoon show. SatAM managed to have a dark storyline without appearing brooding, over-the-top, or emo.

Sonic would continue to ride high until mid-1995, when "Sonic-Mania" began to die down.

Star Fox

StarFox originated as "SNES Glider", a technical demo program that was intended as little more than a "proof-of-concept" or "proof-of-feasibility" for the new Super-FX processor that Nintendo was designing. Shigeru Miyamoto, StarFox's creator and head of Nintendo, was walking through a shrine dedicated to the Japanese kitsune god, Inari, when he stopped and admired the statues of the foxes wearing their iconic red scarves. He instantly got an idea for a 3D flying video game about foxes, and knew it would fit with colleague Dylan Cuthbert's "SNES Glider". The game was quickly designed into Star Fox, whose starring character was named Fox McCloud by Cuthbert. Star Fox would be released in April of 1993 on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as a SLEEPER HIT, pushing the very limits of the 16-bit console, with stunning and futuristic graphics (even for today).

Bubsy the Bobcat

Sonic's immediate success spawned a legion of imitators, one of which was Bubsy the Bobcat, who appeared in 1993. His first three video games were fairly successful and popular, but after an abysmal showing on the PlayStation in 1995 and a lackluster failed cartoon pilot, the entire franchise fell apart.

Aero the Acro-Bat

One more imitator of Sonic, Aero was another generic platformer who experienced brief success before the market for anthropomorphic video game characters became saturated. His first game was released in 1993, though at the tail end of the 2000s, he's experienced a renewal of interest of sorts.

Biker Mice from Mars

Brainchild of Marvel Comics' Rick Ungar, Biker Mice From Mars is similar to both Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (CBS), and Sonic the Hedgehog (ABC) in the regards that it had anthropomorphic freedom fighters, and that it also debuted in 1993. The similarities end there, however, as the "Bros" (Modo, Vinnie, and Throttle) flee from the devastation on Mars to find help on Earth in battling the fish-like Plutarkians. The show aired on FOX on Saturday Mornings for two years (until 1995), and recently found a revival in Europe and on 4Kids TV. While seen by many as a rip-off of TMNT, this show is still remembered for being one of the most dark-themed and mature childrens' titles made.

Swat Kats: The Radical Squadron

Another cartoon featuring anthropomorphic animals (this time, cats), Swat Kats was made by the (in)famous Hannah-Barbera studios. Widely known for their mediocre, limited-animation and cookie-cutter animation techniques, Swat Kats is perhaps their best work, featuring actual effort and detail, as well as having compelling storylines of Jake Clawson and T-Bone as they fight to defend MegaKat City. The series as a whole is drawn in an interesting hybridization of American animation and Japanese anime.

As cool as the first season of Swat Kats is, season two seems to be even better, becuase it looks even more anime-ish... and just generally looks better than the first season. The storylines are a bit darker.. almost like it was copying SatAM Sonic the Hedgehog (which was made around the same time). This just goes to show that if Hanna-Barbera were to actually put in some god-damned EFFORT into their works, their cartoons can kick ass! Sadly, it was not meant to be, as Swat Kats would be their last work as an independent firm... after that, they were bought by Time Warner (along with the rest of their owner, Turner Broadcasting), and merged into Cartoon Network.

It was unfortunately cancelled towards the end of season 2, with three unaired episodes remaining uncompleted, and a further two on the drawing board/concept stage. The final episode after cancellation was 1995's "(Kats Eye News) A Special Report", a "clip show" of sorts that summed up the series in an attempt to close up any loopholes and tie up any loose ends.

Like most other "furry" themed shows of the late 1980s and early 1990s (examples: Sonic the Hedgehog's three cartoons, Biker Mice from Mars), Swat Kats has stood the test of time and aged very well, looking better than both cartoons from the previous era (1960s and 1970s), such as "Jabberjaw" (another H-B property), and cartoons from the next era (late 1990s-present), with cartoons such as "Pelswick", "Sheep in the Big City", and "Phineas and Ferb". Part of this reason is that people had to rely on sheer artistic skill to make thing look great, and they were just finally getting to become incredible with hand-drawn animation, pushing its limits almost every time a new cartoon was made, but now, they relly on computer generated imagery to make generic cartoons that look like they were made with Adobe Flash.

Like Biker Mice from Mars, Swat Kats also aired on FOX on Saturday Mornings.

Dog City

This Canadian import from the Global Television Network aired on FOX alongside Biker Mice and Swat Kats. Airing in 1992 and continuing until 1994 (FOX) or 1995 (Global), this show featured an interesting blend of live-action muppets (thanks to the late, great Jim Henson) and animation (thanks to world-reknowned Canadian firm, Nelvana), about a budding cartoonist german shepher Elliot Shag, and the tails of his tough-guy film noir Brooklyn-accented detective, Ace Hart.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

While considered a parody of the classic graphic novel Ronin (and having spawned numerous parodies of themselves in the process), the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles burst onto CBS in early 1987, with one of the strongest pilot episodes seen in any show, PERIOD. The first season was by far one of the strongest in terms of storylines, as this was when the turtles broke out the van, the helicopter, and others. Perhaps this was a case of "too much, too fast", because cracks were starting to form by season four, and by season six (1993), the show had exhausted most of its ideas, and was running on fumes of its past glory. TMNT would rebound slightly during their final season, in 1998, and would find a resurgance in the late 2000s with a new series, thanks to 4KidsTV.

Animaniacs

Animaniacs debuted on FOX in 1993, but found a home on the WB Television Network in 1995. Starring three puppy children, the show tells the story of their adventures with their friends throughout the Warner Brothers studios in Burbank. They were partially-inspired by Tiny Toon Adventures, which was widely considered to have sparked the "Warner Brothers Revival", around the same time as the Disney Renaissance, in the 1990s.

Tiny Toon Adventures

Tiny Toon Adventures started in 1990, and completed its last episodes in 1992, but would recieve wide showing on television stations in syndication well into the 1990s. Tiny Toon Adventures is widely-regarded as jump-starting the cartoon resurgance at Warner Brothers, spurring further shows like Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, and so on.

The Disney Afternoon

This was also the year that The Disney Afternoon went into full-swing. Containing such classics like "Ducktales", "Talespin", "Darkwing Duck" and "Bonkers" among others, this syndication block was originally intended as FOX's saturday morning block, but for whatever reason, found itself on various independent stations during weekday afternoons.

Ducktales and Gummi Bears would actually predate The Disney Afternoon, having first aired in 1985 on NBC, but would find a second home in Syndication. Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers would air from 1989 to 1995. The remainder of the shows will be listed in the table below.

Name	Start	Finish
Ducktales	1985	1995
Gummi Bears	1985	1993
Darkwing Duck	1989	1995
Bonkers	1993	1996
Raw Toonage	1992	1994
Marsupilami	1993	1993
Goof Troop	1992	1993

TaleSpin

TaleSpin was a largely-successful experiment on Disney's part, taking characters from The Jungle Book, and putting them in a 1930s flying-themed cartoon. Similar to ABC's 1980s television series Tales of the Gold Monkey on many levels, the show was one of the longer-lasting members of The Disney Afternoon, first airing in 1990, and ending in 1994. While it was originally supposed to be a vehichle starring Launchpad McQuack of Ducktales, he was used in Darkwing Duck, and the decision was made to reuse the characters from The Jungle Book.

Raw Toonage

Though containing disney characters (and made *by* Disney), Raw Toonage is not part of The Disney Afternoon, though its star character, Bonkers, would be spun off into his own show within TDA fairly quickly. This series aired on CBS, and was an assortment of short cartoons.

Marsupilami

Another CBS show drawn by Disney, Marsupilami is a popular Belgian childrens' comic book character, who found himself in Raw Toonage, before gaining his own spinoff as well, only landing on CBS' Saturday Mornings, instead of in The Disney Afternoon. It tells the tale of a yellow, leopard-spooted jungle creature and his interactions with the world.

Bonkers

Bonkers was created partly as a result of Disney being unable to secure permission from Warner Brothers to make a cartoon about Roger Rabbit. It starred Raw Toonage alumni Bonkers D. Bobcat as a police officer in Hollywood, alongside human partner Lucky "Pickel" Piquel, and was about their capers throughout the insane city that is Los Angeles.

The Others

Disney and Warner Brothers were not the only ones making quality animation at the time. There were other, smaller, firms that managed to pull off spectacular works of art for their diminutive size.

ABC Weekend Specials

ABC had also continued its broadcasts of its gracefully-aging "ABC Weekend Specials", featuring O. G. Readmore, an anthropomorphic tabby cat wearing a nautical captain's suit who read to his feline friends at his "Friday Night Book Club" in their alley in a generic American city's downtown core. While acting as the host of the Specials to introduce the viewers about the stories (such as Tom Sawyer), he would occasionally star in them as well, and even briefly had his own puppet show. The Specials would unfortunately be taken out of ABC's saturday morning syndication reruns by the end of 1997, having been on the air since 1977 (ending new episodes in 1989), and starring Readmore since 1983.

Animalympics

Animalympics is another early start to the renaissance, having been made in 1979 by the upstart Stephen Lisberger. As a full-length feature presentation, this film showed audiences a glimpse of what was to come, with alternating scenes of pure eye-candy, and of simpler, more Hanna-Barbara-esque scenes, but never dull with its Olympics-themed storyline. Lisberger Studios (the studio that made the film) would go on to make one other largely-popular film: 1982's TRON (with help from Disney), before going bankrupt in the mid-1980s. This film is listed because it enjoyed broadcast runs in 1993 on cable networks like Family Channel (Canada) and The Disney Channel (United States).

The Raccoons

The Raccoons were arguably Canada's finest animation achievement of the 1980s. The titular ringtailed characters first starred in a christmas special on the CBC in 1980, and would get their own series from 1985 to 1992 (ultimately ending repeats and being removed from the CBC's broadcast schedule in 1998). The Raccoons were an early mellow, non-violent prototype towards the whole animal-freedom-fighters-that-love-nature-vs-the-evil-industrialist theme that the Biker Mice from Mars and Sonic the Hedgehog would perfect as the 1990s dawned. While the animation was similar to Animalympics (Hinton Studios was a very low-budget operation, much like Lisberger Studios), it did have the in-between look of quality, and the cartoon's relatively-impoverished studio still managed to churn out great works of art for YEARS, before going bankrupt in 1992.