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New cartoon series are truly interactive
By Patti Hartigan, Globe Staff, 03/05/99
See the kitty with the goo-goo eyes. So precious. So cuddly. So annoying.
Are you tired of the kitty-cat's peepers? No problem. Just click a button and
they disappear. Click again and replace them with snake eyes or Picasso-like,
cubist orbs.
This is a cartoon lover's dream, an animated feature where the viewer
actually gets to change the characters' features and to determine the plot.
It's genuine interactivity, the future of animated entertainment, and it's
happening now at a few sites on the Internet.
The cute kitty, for instance, is in a new series of experimental 'toons
launched by Cartoon Network Online, the Web site of Ted Turner's cable
network. The network, which is at http://cartoonnetwork.com, didn't go for the
obvious by retooling old classics. Instead, it recruited two underground
artists -- Gary Panter, the maestro of punk and designer of ''Pee-Wee's
Playhouse,'' and Mark Newgarden, creator of the notorious Garbage Pail Kids
trading cards. Panter came up with a series called ''The Pink Donkey and the
Fly,'' a surprisingly sweet 'toon about a braying animal who gets into trouble
like Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Newgarden's creation, on the other hand, is deliciously warped. It's
called ''B. Happy,'' a series about a foul fowl who is anything but joyous.
This blue bird of unhappiness encounters that cute little kitty and crazy
things happen. Newgarden introduces the fabulous Click-a-Rama feature, where
viewers get to make all sorts of amusing choices. There are plenty of on-line
jokes built into the feature; without spoiling the fun, let's just say there
are times when the program seems to malfunction, sort of like real life. The
cantankerous bird also does a high-tech version of what theater folks call
tearing down the fourth wall: The big blue bird bangs on the screen, mouthing
off at all those computer geeks on the other side.
''I've been told that 'B. Happy' is similar to me in my fouler moods,''
Newgarden says quite cheerfully during a telephone chat. ''Let's say I'm going
for a satiric bent.'' Newgarden is just like all the rest of us when it comes
to ''interactivity'' on the Net. He knows that 9 times out of 10, when you are
urged to click a button on the Internet, you're offered a ''hot'' opportunity
to buy some unique (read: useless) product or subscribe to some innovative
(read: expensive) service. He parodies that in his on-line 'toon.
Interactivity, of course, is the buzzword of the moment in the constantly
morphing Internet entertainment industry. Newgarden has big dreams for the
future: ''I see a time when shows are implanted in everyone's brain on a small
chip; do away with television, do away with the computer and go directly to
the middle of the head.''
For now, though, animation is clearly way ahead of video when it comes to
entertainment on the Net. Streaming video -- which might better be called
screaming video -- is an overhyped technology. It takes forever to download,
and then you have to squint at grainy images on a tiny screen about 2 1/2
inches wide. Thanks to a technology called Macromedia Flash, animation is
fast, and the resolution is crisp.
''What bothers me about streaming video is that it's trying to hammer one
medium into the other, trying to make the computer look like television,''
says Peter Girardi, creative director of Funny Garbage, the Web design firm
that produced the Cartoon Network series.
These Web features aren't like your typical Saturday morning 'toons. That
doesn't mean the folks at the Cartoon Network wouldn't like to spin one of the
new characters off in television land. ''The Internet is like the Nielsen
ratings on steroids,'' says Sam Register, vice president of Cartoon Network
Online. ''People respond quickly, and you get really great feedback. It would
be great if we found our next new hit character on line.''
Cartoon Network isn't the only outfit experimenting in interactive
animation: In 1997, John Kricfalusi, the creator of the ''Ren and Stimpy
Show'' who was booted by Nickelodeon honchos for being too outrageous,
launched his own animated Web series at spumco.com. It features George Liquor,
a red-blooded American who swears a blue streak while he's taking care of his
nitwit nephew. It's like ''South Park'' fueled by grain alcohol -- crude,
lewd, and bitingly funny. It's also honest about its commercial ventures: Its
advertisements are built into the content of the show, a technique that is
shamelessly refreshing.
Hey, everybody wants to make money out of the Internet, so why not just
be honest about it? Honesty is what drives Newgarden and his character, B.
Happy. A lot of so-called ''interactive'' content is pretty canned; Newgarden
toys around with that notion in his series. ''When I was a kid, I had this
play telephone,'' Newgarden says. ''You would push a button and Mickey Mouse
would say 'Hi.' I'd say 'Hi' back and Mickey Mouse wouldn't respond. It felt
like a cheat. The interaction has to be framed in a way so it doesn't seem
like a cheat.''
I certainly didn't feel cheated when I made the cute kitty's eyes go
bye-bye or when B. Happy banged on the screen, shouting, ''You double-crossed
me, computer geek!'' The next episode will be on line Monday. This geek is
ready.
And speaking of tunes, there'sa new comprehensive site at
http://www.tunes.com (formerly www.jamtv.com). This ''music hub'' provides an
astonishing compilation of audio and video clips, as well as access to the
archives of Rolling Stone, The Source, and Down Beat. Yes, you can buy music,
too, through links to e-commerce sites.
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