• 18Nov 07

  FMV and the demise of KoKo the clown

  So I decided to start a blog seeing as how SW, my usual time wasting routine, has gone downhill in quality, and to give the dozen or so fans I have on this site something to read.

  A thought occurred to me while I was sitting in a laundry mat perusing the arcade cabinets. I noticed that a one "Target Terror," a mediocre effort at a light gun game (especially considering the 2004 release date, used FMV for all the character animation. This brought me back to the days of Sega CD and how Sega saw the future in FMV... we all saw how that panned out.

  My point is, this seems very similar, nay, parallel to the fight between the Fleischer brothers and Disney in the early days of animation. See, the Fleishers were hell bent on making the motions in their animations as real as possible. This led to the invention of the rotoscope, and if you watch any of the old KoKo the clown cartoons (Out Of the Inkwell series) these motions are dead on. Disney took another route, forcing his animators to instead study the art of motion.

  Now, niether of these follies were the epitomel demise of either company, and both are still used today, but I just thought it was interesting how things panned out for these early pioneers of games and animation. I encourage everyone to watch the Fleisher brothers ingenius efforts, and to a lesser degree to go back and play things like Phantasmagoria and Fox Hunt (yes I know Fox Hunt wasn't on Sega CD, but It was my favorite FMV game).

  I know this is a bit of a crappy editorial, I promise much longer more detailed incites in the future. For know though, I'm off to get some 7-11 taquitos to fuel my late-night, screenplay writing binges.

  • Posted Nov 18, 2007 9:33 pm GMT
  • Category: Editorial
  • 0 Comments
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