Filmation

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Filmation was also the name of a technique for isometric graphics in 8-bits video games by Ultimate Play The Game.

Image:Filmation.JPG Filmation Associates was an American company that produced animated cartoons for television during the later half of the 20th century. It was founded in 1963 and, like other U.S studios, was based in California. During a period lasting from the 1960s through the 1980s, the only real competitors to Hanna-Barbera Productions in the field of TV cartoons were Filmation and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. Filmation's founders and principal producers were Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott. (Supposedly, the trademark rotating "Produced by" credit at the beginning of Filmation programs was a clever device to allow them to share equal billing; later Filmation productions credited only Scheimer, in the form of his signature.)

Many of its shows—particularly the productions of the late 1970s and 1980s—are notable for imparting a simple moral or life-lesson (explained by a key character, in a child-friendly manner) in the epilogue.

1 Animation style
2 Filmation on DVD
3 Quality issues
4 Filmation series
5 External links

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Animation style

As with other producers of Saturday morning cartoons, Filmation was more concerned with quantity than quality; however, they did make a number of attempts to rise above the standard animated fare and produce reasonably well-written cartoons. The best-known example of this is their animated adaptation of the Star Trek series, which included scripts contributed by well-known science fiction writers and starred most of the original cast. Other favorably remembered Filmation series included a 16-part animated serial of Flash Gordon (originally intended as a movie for theatrical release but shown in its entirety only once on NBC); Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, an animated educational series created by and starring Bill Cosby; and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, based on the popular line of Mattel toys. The animated adapatations of the Archie Comics characters were also noteworthy for the pop music produced for it, particularly the song, "Sugar, Sugar," which was a #1 hit single.

There were very few original animated characters created by the studio. Two examples were Fraidy Cat, a timid feline who has lost 8 of his 9 lives, which come back to haunt him; and Wacky and Packy, two cavemen who enter the modern age through a time warp. Both of these originally aired as segments of the Uncle Croc's Block show on ABC. (Which was hosted by Charles Nelson Reilly). Apparently, the show did so poorly, that ABC ceased ordering programs from Filmation. So in a period where ideas for cartoons had run dry (comedy was heavily scrutinzed for violence, and everything else seemed to copy the popular Scooby Doo format), Filmation's strong point was its adaptations of popular TV shows. (The studio also reportedly wanted to do a M*A*S*H cartoon, but was turned down; leading them to do the canine M*U*S*H spoof, which was the third animated segment on Uncle Croc's Block).

Filmations's other strong area (and where we see the most original concepts) was its live action shows, including Space Adademy, its spinoff Jason of Star Command, Ark II, Shazam!, and Isis. Filmation also produced a live-action series called The Ghost Busters in 1975; following the release of an unrelated 1984 movie of the same name, Filmation capitalized on the momentum by producing a new cartoon based on their earlier series. Also deserving mention was a special featuring several of Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes stars (paired with Filmation's own Groovie Goolies, a group of classic monsters). This aired in ABC's Saturday Superstar Movies in 1972. While most of the Warner Brothers characters were drawn well (veteran Warners animator Virgil Ross was working there at the time), and voiced by veteran voice actor Mel Blanc, the special is not liked by many fans of classic Warners animation; once again, because of the limited animation, as well as a weak storyline. This was not Filmation's last dalliance with classic cartoon characters; in the late 1970s the company produced new series based on the Tom & Jerry shorts as well as characters from the Terrytoons archive (Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle).

The Filmation studio was owned by TelePrompTer in the early 1970s, then by Westinghouse (through its Group W Productions division) in 1982, though in 1987 it was purchased by the L'Oreal cosmetics company. L'Oreal promptly closed the studio and ended Filmation's legacy. Animation scholars and fans believe the studio was closed for tax purposes. Filmation's last production was the feature film Happily Ever After (an unofficial sequel to the story of Snow White), released to theaters in 1993. Also, at the time of the closing, two new animated TV shows, one of them called "Bugzburg", were beginning production.

Since then, most of the Filmation back catalog has come under the ownership of Hallmark Cards, through their Hallmark Entertainment subsidiary; however, since a large amount of Filmation's output was based on characters licensed from other companies, many titles are actually under the control of other studios (notably Paramount and Warner Bros.).

In March 2004, ownership of the Filmation back catalog which was under the ownership of Hallmark was sold to a British company called Entertainment Rights. Entertainment Rights have since made the revelation that when Hallmark converted all of their Filmation shows to digital format in the 1990s, only PAL-format copies were made, with the original film prints apparently discarded. This was due to Hallmark's previously unknown (but long suspected) short-sighted policy of only distributing Filmation shows outside of the U.S., thus potentially leaving all Filmation shows forever running 4% faster than they originally did.

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Filmation on DVD

The original He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids are, so far, the only Filmation productions that has seen release in the United States and Canada on DVD.

He-Man was distributed by BCI Eclipse in the fall of 2005 as The Best of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (10 Episode Collector's Edition). On January 2006, BCI Eclipse stroke a 2 years deal with Entertainment Rights to eventually bring more episodes of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe in North America as well as other Filmation titles, most likely She-Ra: Princess of Power, The Original Ghostbusters, The Lone Ranger and The New Adventures of Zorro.

Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids was first released on DVD in early-2005, first with a "best-of" collection, then later with collections of the first two seasons (each with an audio CD featuring songs from the show). Their Halloween and Christmas specials were also released on DVD. All Fat Albert DVDs are released in the US and Canada by Urbanvision.

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Quality issues

Filmation has a reputation for exploiting the technique of limited animation to produce a number of animated series with a distinct look. They made heavy use of rotoscoping, and they also re-used the same animated sequences over and over, many times, to the point where the Filmation style was instantly recognizable (and often despised by TV critics and animation scholars). The studio is noteworthy for refusing to rely upon animation studios outside the United States for the bulk of its production.

Characters, as well as plots, seemed formulaic and repetitive. For example, most episodes of Ghostbusters had the same scheme (Bad guys develop an evil plan, the heroes are needed but always absent, Ghost Buggy the talking car complains about their dangerous position, Tracey the Gorilla pulls out of his back sack exactly the miscellaneous item the Ghostbuster need in a moment of despair, Eddie doing a number of clumsy/stupid things etc.) Many of the sounds and explosion effects used in their cartoons are also very familiar.

However it can be argued that episodes of He-Man and Bravestarr, in substance, and often animation, were pioneers of their time and paved the way for broader storytelling (He-Man's "The Problem With Power" dealt with He-Man beleving he had killed an innocent bystander, "Teela's Quest" introducing a now famous mythology on The Sorceress being Teela's mother, whom she is heir to the mantle of safeguarding Greyskull, the versed continuity shared between He-Man and She-Ra etc). Likewise, the scripts for Star Trek, which were often by the same people who had written for the live-action version of the show, tended to be quite sophisticated.

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