The point I picked up from the article I want to research into further is how streaming has caused the shifting tastes in viewers and what viewers want from adult animation. I started looking into the history of animation aimed at adults.
https://time.com/5752400/adult-animation-golden-age/
https://filmschoolrejects.com/brief-history-cartoons-adults/
I then looked into how streaming has changed viewers habits.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/falonfatemi/2022/11/14/how-tv-viewing-habits-have-changed/
Then I went and looked how animation specifically is being affected.
https://www.ign.com/articles/the-state-of-streaming-animation-are-we-in-a-new-golden-age
The articles from earlier dates covering this is a lot more positive as Netflix was allowing opportunities for new animated shows that may not have been greenlit for traditional TV to get a chance. Then this is contrasted with the start of 2022 being the beginning of a low point. Most of the shows they were cancelling were animated and they were moving away from any new animation. Then other companies like HBO Max followed suit and even started to remove animated shows from their service entirely.
This push has caused a huge rift in streaming services as there isn’t anything to pull animation fans to any of the bigger companies. This will cause more harm in the long term I believe as the only way audiences will be able to watch their favourite animated show if it has been removed from its platform and with no physical media is to illegally stream. It also discourages audience from starting to watch new shows ‘as it will probably be cancelled after the first season’ causing a downward spiral.
https://ew.com/movies/animation-boom-coronavirus-pandemic/
This article made me realise how this is just a bad business practise as it talks about how the COVID-19 pandemic really caused a boom to the animation industry. Animated shows and films were some of the only content being released as it could be worked on more remotely than live action. Also viewers having nothing else to do but try out shows they might not have before. Once lockdowns and restrictions ended this left audiences still wanting animation but now they’re left with nothing.
One thing I noticed about a lot of these articles is that most of them mention Bojack and very few talk about Big Mouth. This goes along with the argument that Bojack is quality tv that sticks with you and big mouth is just passive watching.
I also looked at their IMDB ratings.
Bojack had an average of 8.8/10
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3398228/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_6_nm_1_q_bojack
While Big Mouth had 7.8/10
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6524350/
I found this interesting as while the general audience seemed to love Bojack with it’s finale having a 9.9 but the article made it out to be like no one appreciated Big Mouth when it was still considered good to the average viewer.
I then looked into the Rotten Tomato ratings to see what the general critics view is.
Bojack in this had 93%
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/bojack_horseman
And surprisingly Big Mouth had a higher rating of 94%
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/big_mouth
I was trying to think as to why this would be the reason but it could simply be down to more people watching Bojack as it has been out for longer and is considered ‘better’ so more try it out or there genuinely is something there in Big Mouth the article ignored.
The article we decided to look into as a group was a bit repetitive at times and felt at times like it was just a way for the author to air out complaints about the show ‘Big Mouth’ rather than a serious look into the two shows and what it says about TV. It didn’t really talk about or analyse Big Mouth in any serious capacity only to mention how it’s inferior to Bojack.
The night before the presentation happened by group was made aware that one of our members had taken a leave of absence so we had to try to work around that. So the presentation was shorter and probably looked as if it was lacking.
Overall I think my group did well on the presentation. It was a little disjointed so I think we could’ve worked more on making it something cohesive. After watching the rest of the group’s present I do feel like our presentation was lacking in the visuals. We just wanted to focus on the content of the presentation and what we were saying rather than the appearance but I think we should’ve spent some more time on the visual.
I also think the presentation may have been too short but we were trying to fill in for another member who had left. I think if we had more time for that we may have been better prepared. I also think my part was too general and I should have included things like statistics from any articles etc I read. I let my concern over time get the best of me.
This is what I had prepared to say for my part in the presentation.
