Is art in general in some sort of dark age?

[Ultima22689]

I remember as a kid there were some absolutely epic music singles done in disney cartoons and the animation looks better than alot of the stuff you see today unless you look at some hardcore anime. When I look at what's popular today in general, not just one genre, it seems to an extent all mediums of music, cartoons, even books to an extent seem to be lacking to alot of the classic stuff. Am I just being paranoid or is there some base for this? Thoughts?

Just for kicks, here is Tim Curry being awesome followed by Robin Williams doing win.

[youtube:ill73164]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PLQ1XfaTuU[/youtube:ill73164]

[youtube:ill73164]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grVzHu-_LcU[/youtube:ill73164]

[joeactor]

Disney / Pixar is working on "Rapunzel" at the moment.

Here's a little info (with some pics):
http://www.latinoreview.com/news/new-co ... unzel-7585

It's supposed to be done in a 2-d animation style resembling the painting "The Swing".

... the same site is reporting there will be music too:
http://www.latinoreview.com/news/mandy- ... ncess-8139

Should be interesting to watch as more info is released.

Cheers,
JoeActor

[Ultima22689]

Indeed, i'll be on the look out.

[andrewclunn]

New technology is the long term friend of art, but the short term scourge of it.  Or to be more clear with an analogy.  Music making software is great for composers, but terrible for musicians.  While technology is changing a medium or format then production value matters.  When the technology becomes widely enough distributed that anyone can take advantage of it, then art thrives.  Medium stability is good for art, but changes expand the potential of what that art can do.  This is currently effecting movies and video games quite clearly.  However, books, music, static visual art (paintings and the like) are all fairly stable now.  And if you think that they are declined as art forms, then perhaps you're just not looking in the right places?

[McQ]

I don't think art, in general, is in a dark ages. I don't even think animation is.

[Jolly Sapper]

That which is expected to make money will get more of a green light to be produced and distributed that the truly awesome stuff.

I'd have to agree with andrew's sentiment above, changes in the technological medium mess up the balance of art and creativity.  It will take some time to even out I suppose.

But for the time being, its now easier than ever to create and distribute loads of crap, cheaply, to the lowest common denominator of consumer than ever before!

[Sophus]

Actually our artistically driven economy is pretty good for Right-Minded folks (for the moment). Art schools and colleges are feeling some pain from the economy but professional artists are doing quite well.

[Miss Anthrope]

I don't know if I'd use the term "Dark Ages", but yeah, as far as animation goes the general quality seems to fluctuate with the times (for instance, Warner brothers cartoons took a serious dip in quality in the early '60's for economic reasons, and this is related to why Hanna-Barbera cartoons did so well by using what is called "limited animation"). One thing I miss is that a lot of kid's cartoons today don't use full-frame classic animation (remember DuckTales, Darkwing Duck, etc?), now you see a lot more limited animation (Flapjack, Chowder; however, cartoons like these do make up for it with style and can be quite artistic in their own way). I do often find myself turning towards japanese animation these days for truly awesome, awe-inspiring animation.

However, Disney is doing 2D again (Princess and the Frog), and the indie circuit still produces some amazing stuff (check out "The Animation Show" DVD's, there's some stuff on them that blew my mind, like this short: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVxIp8J5E4E , which is absolutely stunning). Even South Park has really evolved, making the most of its style; this past season really impressed me. Also, 3D animation has been really coming into its own.