Any thought on this?

Even setting aside Filmation's limitations, some animation decisions are downright ridiculous. For instance, it would have cost the same to make the ship in "Slaver Weapon" any colour except for pink!

Filmation had the same problems that some early episodes of the Simpsons had. Both companies contracted out some of their work to overseas animation companies. This meant that the extremes would be drawn in the US, sent oversees for in-between drawings and inkings, then sent back for animation. By the time everything came back, it was usually too late to make any changes, and the animators had to use what was on hand.

I've already said a lot of bad things about Filmation, but I will say in their defense that they weren't too far below the average for the early 70's, a.k.a, the Dark Ages of Animation. Hanna Barbara had sunk to one-offs of other TV shows, Warner Bros was practically non-existant, and Disney was occasionally making sub-par kiddie flicks.

How about those extreme close-ups into Kirk or Spock's eye, while they're talking to someone over their shoulder? Very, very, very cheap animation, simply moving the black dot of their pupil back and forth.
And I'm surprised no one has complained about Uhura have no whites in her eyes.
On the plus side, I liked the way they duplicated angles of the Enterprise flying from the original series.

Steve, NO ONE had whites in their eyes on TAS! For
the record Filmation used what's known as "limited
animation" which involved reusing the same scenes,
poses and action over and over. Actually, I've al-
ways The Animated Series had so-so artwork. Cer-
tainly, it suffers from comparison with what we
have today. Of course, to me the best animation
came from the Termite Terrace studio. I've gotten
quite jealous of the weight and three-dimensional
look the Warner's animators achieved. Oh yeah, I also suspect ST-TAS used rotoscoping for some of
the art.

What is roto-scoping?

TAS actually had some very good background art.

They loved that shot of Spock at his post looking into that viewer.

Kail- Rotoscoping is using live footage and drawing over it. Tex Avery did it on
occasion and certainly Disney used it in Snow
White for the titular character. I suspect rotoscoping was used because much of TAS really
does look like they traced over images of Shatner,
Nimoy and the others. Possibly photographs from
the original 79 eps? The Enterprise at any rate most definitely seems to have been rotoscoped.

Been thinking about it, and actually I'm not sure
rotoscoping is the correct term. Rotoscoping is, if I'm not mistakened, used to aid animators in
getting the physical movements of their characters
down accurately. The Animated Trek certainly did
not get the body languages of Kirk, Spock and McCoy, et al right. I supposed they could have at-
tached their faces onto other bodies...

Jerry Mouse's movements in his celebrated dance with Gene Kelly is one example of rotoscoping. In
FlashBeagle, Snoopy's aerobics dancing was roto-
scoped. The best example of rotoscoping is the
movie American Pop. All the characters' movements
were accomplished through rotoscoping.

One good use of rotorscoping was the comicbook scenes in the video of A-ha's Take on me.

I think Filmation (R) was also responsible for "The Brady Kids" cartoon too.

The Enterprise shots in TAS seemed like they were directly rotoscoped from the familiar shots from TOS.
The characters, especially Spock, were drawn to appear younger than they appeared in the live action episodes.

I felt his should be mentioned here too...
One of the "cheap animation shots" that happens quite frequently in TAS is a REAL TIGHT closeup of somebody (showing just their eye & nose) but not the mouth..yet you hear that individual talking. It sure saved money not animating the mouth.

The funny thing is though. I have a new TV (Sony Wega)where I've watched some TAS. It's a flat, square screen that shows more edges then some TV's

On those tight shots of the eye and nose, I can see the mouth and they are animating it.


I love TAS BTW

I think we should petition Paramount to put TAS on DVD. Is there anyone who has started doing this yet? I'd like to add my name to the list

I would also love to sign this list. I want TAS on DVD!!!!

I'd sign it!

So would I!!

After purchasing Jonny Quest, I cannot help but wonder what TAS would've looked like if was produced by the Jonny Quest artists of Hanna-Barbara...All I can say is: WHOA! That'd be cool!

Uh, I doubt it, John. Quest was produced in the early '60s. By the early-mid-Seventies, when the animated TREK was created, Hanna-Barbara was extremely deep into their limited animation mode. To get a better idea of what a Hanna-Barbara produced TREK might have looked like, it'd be better to think about the animation in such series as Those Were the Days, Sealab 2020 or Valley of the Dinosaurs, three of H-B's "serious" shows. In many respects, the art wasn't much better than what was being done for Scooby Doo, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, or Goober and the Ghost-Chasers.

Live long and prosper.

Hanna-Barbera

You mean, you have no other comment to make, Nove, than to point out my spelling error? Thanks for pointing that out, btw. As a life long H-B fan, I should've known better.

Live long and prosper.

Much of TAS really does look like they traced over images of Shatner, Nimoy and the others.

I haven't seen an episode of the animated series in years (not since 1988, when Nickelodeon was running it.) But, didn't a lot of the characters look younger then they did in TOS? Especially Kirk and Spock.

It would be SO COOL if they were to reanimate this series, at "ReBoot" standards of quality, but synch up with the original recorded dialogue. They could get rid of the redundant visual shots and anachronisms like reel-to-reel tape recorders, have more natural movement with more frames per second, and maybe even vary the music more - if they could obtain permission to do so, use some TOS score music for some scenes.

Unfortunately, they could not fix the nitpicks they created. In "The City on the Edge of Forever", the Guardian tells Kirk that it cannot change the way it presents history - i.e., at breakneck speed, yet in "Yesteryear", the Guardian proclaims that it has "set" the date and place for Spock to attempt to set his family history right. Of course, if someone with Bart LaRue's voice could redub the dialogue, then they could fix that nit by having the Guardian show "the history of Spock's family", with the Guardian saying, "the history you have requested is now before you", with Spock waiting for the right moment, then leaping (instead of walking, as shown).

MONEY SAVING TRICKERY:

The overuse of shadows for certain scenes...especially running scenes

Extreme closeups of people talking

Flipping images...to make the person / object face the other way

Cutting people off at the legs when they walk / run / dance...etc

Asking certain cast members to perform as other people, computer voices, etc.

Reuse of music