As the creator of the greatest crass animation since Beavis & Butthead, John Kricfalusi knows a thing or two about precipitating the decline of civilization.
Since by his count, it happened sometime in the late Sixties or early Seventies, Kricfalusi blames the hippies for "the death of form": toys turning from fun, character-rich forms to featureless, crappily made mush.
Personally, I'd blame meddling corporate beancounters who cut production costs and dodged the remotest possibility of a liability lawsuit.
And then there's TV--and color TV at that--which took over from toys the primary job of entertaining children at home, relegating toys into dependent, TV tie-in status where all they have to do is s[t]imulate more TV watching, not actual imaginationary play.
But then, I haven't had my masterpiece ripped from my control and ruined by a bunch of Viacom suits, nor have I derived almost my entire living making TV shows, so what do I know?
It would support my theory that that half-shapeless rag doll, half-grinning plastic demon from Family Affair, Mrs. Beasley, was one of the messengers of the Apocalypse, though. Think about it.
Also, am I the only one who think that Theodore Chipmunk on the left looks like John Hodgman?
The Death of Form [johnkstuff via boingboing]
John K, while a genius animator and a master of the goofy facial expression, is a nutcase at best. The man is litterally starting a personality cult over on his blog, teaching up and coming artist not just the basics of good classical animation but his bizarre nostalgic world view as well.
Most of John's pining for a world that never was can be pretty much logiced away the way you did above. Bravo. BTW, if you ever want to see him bleed from the rectum tell him how much you like "Tiny Toons".
That's not Theodore, it's Simon! Theodore is the chubby one in green, Simon wears the glasses, and Alvin of course is the pompous one with the red hat.