Wacky Races Analysis (OUAN402)

I originally got this box set out of the college library for my own personal joy, but then I watched it in full and thought that I might as well just blag it and blog it. I'll get to analysing some thought provoking animation very soon, just not right now.

Penelope Pitstop should be called "Penelope Regressive-gender-stereotypes-stop".

I really love this show, considering it came out in 1968 back when the zoetrope had just been perfected and horses were replaced with cars. I think it's aged well. The animation is incredibly dated in the sense that it has the Hanna Barbara quality that means characters are very rarely allowed to move outside a 2D plain, because otherwise the animation computer would catch fire and melt from the stress. Also their budget was slim. I love the art style, the hand painted backgrounds and the way it has a real handmade feel about it with the visible pen marks and things. Now I'm not saying that IT'S OLDER AND THEREFORE AUTOMATICALLY BETTER because that's ridiculous. A lot of old stuff is garbage, like the TV show "Bod" and Nazis and stuff. I just find shows like this and the original Scooby Doo to be a great example of a bygone and outdated era of making cartoons. The charm and innocence of these shows is what makes them almost like a security blanket for me. The slapstick comedy and the cartoonish villainy of Dick Dastardly reminds me of a pantomime that can enjoyed by literally anybody.

It also taught me that repetition is a great form of comedy. If it's funny to watch a guy set a fiendish trap and then get caught in it himself, then it'll be funny the next ten thousand times he does it.

Wacky Races and all the Hannah Barbara cartoons played an important role in animation history as they paved the way for more shows to take inspiration from them and carve out their own identities in the future (the best example of this is probably how "The Flintstones" influenced "The Simpsons"). The company also pioneered a technique called "planned animation" otherwise known as "limited animation", which was a way of working around a small budget by reusing animation and backgrounds.For me, Wacky Races is a golden beacon of great slapstick comedy and quality programming.

And the lessons it taught us are still relevant today.