How 'The Simpsons' Animation Evolved Over 30 Years | Movies Insider
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- čas přidán 15. 05. 2024
- On May 23, 2021, the 32nd season finale of "The Simpsons" will air on Fox, finishing off a landmark season where the show celebrated its 700th episode.
The series has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a segment on "The Tracey Ullman Show." On air for 32 years and counting, it's become the longest-running scripted series on prime time, the longest-running American animated series, and the longest-running American sitcom. And Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie have evolved a lot over the course of three decades - whether you look at the style of their movement or the details of their character designs, all the way down to pupil size.
In this episode of "Movies Insider," we turned to David Silverman and Al Jean, two of the main minds behind "The Simpsons," to find out how the show's animation evolved from the rough-around-the-edges style of Matt Groening's early sketches to the crisp, clean look of the show in its 32nd season.
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How 'The Simpsons' Animation Evolved Over 30 Years | Movies Insider - Zábava
I love how one of the biggest shows of all time has "no money" to do something essential, like a title sequence.
That's Fox for yah. LOL
It's not a priority
@@kingastaroth7912 you both are correct
@@tripi7906 not if I have anything to do with it
L
What made classical Simpsons so memorable for me was their tangential story lines. For example, Homer shopping in a grocery store ends up him traveling to Africa.
I liked classic Simpson's for focusing on Bart a lot more.
That sounds a lot like Family Guy
The Africa episode was seriously underrated.
@@_reverse-psycho_855 The Africa Episode gets a lot of hate from people but I personally actually like it, it's one of the few episodes where I never really understood the intense hate for it, its like calm down, it's not that bad, is it one of the best?- no, but it's not one of the worst either, it had its good moments and lines, I think it gets more hate than it deserves to get.
They still do that.
Perfect example of “isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different”.
Your body adapts. That's why
Except day by day it changed rapidly, even frame by frame LOL
The animation was the best in the 90s when it still looked “rough” but at the same time smooth and energetic
I agree
The change to digital was a detriment to the Simpsons, the show looks worse and lost a part of its soul
Exactly it’s just lazy now. This is what Arthur fell into and look how that worked out
Back then it really looked like animation (animated, from anima, soul). The movements flowed.
Today they look like dead rigid figures, the animators are just abusing lights and shadows to give them a fake 3D effect just to compensate for their mediocre animation.
@@calypso To be fair, digital animation is good, it's always good to use new technologies being used and whatever. The problem is how poorly they implemented it on The Simpsons. Now they just look like dead objects with a voice over. I like the well defined lines and to some extent the new light and shadow work they put on them... but all of that doesn't work if the animation is so stiff, so rigid, so dead. It's like watching a puppet show where there is only one person moving each puppet, one at a time so only the one puppet speaking is moving but the rest remain inanimate until it's their turn to be used. Idk if this makes sense. Example: All characters are static while Lisa talks, then Lisa shuts up and now she's static, Homer/Bart/Whoever suddenly starts talking and everyone else is motionless... I mean, come on, even Rick and Morty, Adventure Time and so many other modern shows that use computer animation do a way better job!!
No matter what happens, The Simpsons is always there for you
I wish the show would be canceled. The current Simpsons is a sham of what the show used to be.
@@_Painted yeah the storylines are repetitive and generic and some characters like Lisa have become really annoying
I reckon since Disney's bought them, they're gonna want to make their money's worth. They might not be gone for a while.
I think it would be better if they did shows as Lisa and Bart as adults
@@_Painted 1 x
Y’know, for a 40 year old, Bart is looking pretty fresh.
But still pretty fat.
Nicolas Labranche I do, and I just hate the Simpsons
i was the same age as bart when this show came out now im in my 40s wondering why bart is still young
@@fwef7445 we already saw Bart die old I haven't watched in a while but I think he died when he pulled his final prank on skinner saying skinner sucks
@Nicolas Labranche no
It's interesting seeing how they started creating character sheets only later on, after a few shorts. That is something that changed for the better nowadays. However, the fluidity, the principle of Exaggeration, and so much more... were completely abandoned for the sake of speeding up production and adapt to HD. A true shame. In this fast paced market, I find it ironic how HD basically forced companies to think "wait a moment, we should take the time to do this", but unfortunately at the expense of basic principles of animations. I wish we would all slow down production and focus on quality, but our life style seems to be antithetical to this crazy idea. Still, The Simpsohs remains in my heart, especially the early seasons.
Wow, well said
If only... I remember this interview with an animator of the cartoon network show "Steven Universe", in which they said "If you can recognize the character, it's on model"...
Characters on that show are incredibly inconsistent, not just from chapter to chapter, but from shot to shot! They never really made model sheets, and the ones they made used already existing assets...
And THEN other shows came and managed to go even lower than that already very low standard (Thundercats ROAR, for instance).
2D animation is pretty much dead. Disney no longer makes 2D animated movies, for instance, and it's a shame, because the medium still has a lot to give.
With the rampant nostalgia baiting, studios should bring back 2D animation instead of a recycled IP from the 80s. It's not like they don't have the money or can't find artists anywhere, or worse, that people somehow no longer want 2D animated movies and tv shows!
@@DonVigaDeFierro Hopefully Studio Ghibli doesn't go in the 3d direction, as well. Their 2d animated films are some of the best movies I've ever seen, but Earwig and the Witch seems mediocre at best. The animation is good for a first attempt, but I would much rather prefer something more on brand
@@dustyrat3067 Ah, yes. The Japanese animation industry is in a weird position, because they still make largely 2D shows, but add 3D to the complicated backgrounds, characters, effects, etc.
3D has its own qualities and it's cheaper to produce than 2D animation, so I'm not surprised that they're using it more liberally. It has its place and it can do amazing things (as Pixar/Dreamworks have shown us), and I'm really all for its adoption as long as the animation is good. Same for 2D... I prefer a good 3D animation over a mediocre 2D animation any day!
But 2D animation has its own uniqueness to it, and I would like to see 3D animation doing the job of making 2D animation easier, rather than replacing it completely...
Wow
1987-2009 had the best animation for me.
Especially earlier on, I loved the more energetic, fluid and messy look.
The coloring also looked a bit deeper back then.
i kinda prefer the older version, it’s a lot more energetic.
Same here.
Same. Everything from season 7/8 and under are by far the best.
00:02
Everyone does.
Eh, everybody's a critic.
i feel like the pre-hd seasons are the funniest, maybe bc the weird faces the caracters used to have like when homer vomits
no because the writers had more ideas, i mean you wouldn't have much idea left if you'd been doing a comedy since 1987
Until season 13 it had actually good writers. Then it got terrible. But no news, everyone know the writing team changed and it went downhill
the episodes from roughly 1991 - 1998 were the best. This is a fact generally agreed upon by all simpsons fans
@@lander77477 ok
Why is this an unpopular opinion????
The Simpsons is the greatest cartoon ever. I grew up on this show on a daily basis and I still watch it religiously 20 years later!
it’s bad to me
@@slumberpartybard6355 your weird
very gay this comment is
@@GoGodman yuh
@@SilverOnCZcams i don't know why this guy watches the simpsons religiously because its quite gay
insane that this show's almost as old as me. like I would have never believed a show I grew up with, saw the shorts then premier ep would STILL be going.
Yeah but its not good. Just because it still going, doesn't mean it should.
@@I_WANT_MY_SLAW haha, I don't necessarily disagree. It's just amazing to see, probably once in a life time kinda thing
Me too. It's surprising that the 80s show lived longer than that.
I'm pretty sure people wanted to cancel the show for being so bad, but I think it deserves a proper ending, like The Simpsons Movie which it's the true ending for me.
IKR. I was either younger or same age as Lisa when I first started watching and now I think I’m the same age as Homer and Marge (I don’t remember how old they’re are supposed to be, I’m guessing mid thirties)
@@I_WANT_MY_SLAW Well, South Park would like to say the word with you. It got from the seasonal rot now.
It's weird to think that Ronald Reagan was the oldest President and Joe Biden was in the Senate when The Simpsons started and now Joe Biden is the oldest President over 30 years later with the series still going on.
No it really isn't.
It just means we need to stop voting in old people.
Fake puppet president
@@I_WANT_MY_SLAW Yes it is lmao
@@JohnWick-vh2qy opposed to a real puppet president?
"To make things more demanding the Simpsons were going for a hand drawn look, so the artists used traditional ink and paint cell animation"
Or Translated:
"to make things exactly as challenging as all animation was at the time the Simpsons were going for the only kind of look that one could do at the time, so the artists settled for literally the only way that every single cartoon was created at the time"
Produced in a way that was shabby and low quality, carried by solid writing which to this date is severely lacking in Western animation.
Technically the computer was available if you bought one but it probably be harder than traditional animation at 1989
Not quite - there was also a technique where you photocopied pencil lines into the cel instead of hand-painted black outlines. A ton of shows (and even some Disney films) used that from the 60s and onward until the death of cels, precisely because it saved a lot of labour versus this older method of outlining. But it also gave sketchy, rough outlines, rather than the clean smooth outlines that The Simpsons went for.
TLDR: the special thing wasn’t their use of cels, but that they didn’t cheap-out on the outlines.
At the end there when homer is waving goodbye to his mom then afterwards just sits there for hours.. after leaving my family for me it hit so hard. Just like I do He could be thinking about all good an bad things from childhood and then life now as an adult but words at best probably shouldnt be spoken
The Simpsons is by far the greatest show ever to be grown up with.
No it isn't. The show hasn't been good in 20 years.
Family guy baby 🔥
@@etparadise7277 that's second on my list only cause I grew up with Simpsons from a small child. Family guy started for me in my teens.
It is for adults not kids
@@I_WANT_MY_SLAW - well most of us have already grown up, lol
Not gonna lie I think I just gained more respect for the employees from beginning to what we got now for what they do do I always kinda thought it was something throw together for money I owe my animation class teacher a apology
I still like the show but the old ones were better script wise in my opinion they focused more on Bart and I liked that.
I think your English teacher would like one too.
@@trentonklein5725 only for season 1 and 2
The show has been terrible for a good many years
there's something incredibly inspiring about all the struggles the simpsons team had to go through over the years. They never waited to have a perfect recipe, they just went along, doing their best and adapting and still managed to be successful all the way.
Nobody ever took Fox as a serious network until The Simpsons. At the time, The Cosby Show on NBC was the undisputed king of prime time but this little cartoon show from a struggling network dethroned it.
Where's Bill Cosby now?
@@RetroJack a free man
@@uwu- With a totally ruined reputation.
@@RetroJack true, but I'm sure the man's got enough money to laugh it off
@@uwu- I wonder what his lawyers and victim comp cost.
Friendly reminder that “sleep” is quite important!
Me at 2am.. Ik
@@kxiszo it's 2 am for me now, one hour difference
Hmm 4:32 am I think imma go sleep.
E
Thanks bro, you too
The simpsons is my favorite show ever, no matter how "mediocre" it is now, the show overall is fantastic
I still like the show tbh but most people don't
The funny thing is compared to everything else currently on air simpsons is far from mediocre. It was the best thing on tv then and its the best thing now. Hold modern episodes up to the earlier ones of course it won't be as good, but Tv in general has declined not just the simpsons.
kinda thought I was the only one…
Love them to .
Wow! I’m glad someone agrees with me. Although I do think that there are pros and cons to the new and old episodes, i still think the show realy holds up. And you gotta hand it to them, after 30 years of episodes of course its gonna be mediocre at times, but i still think its truly great.
ive heard the new season is actually good
The Simpson’s has to be the greatest animated show of all time. I’m currently on season 29 on Disney plus. I could rewatch every episode, and it’ll be like if it was my first time watching it like I was 8 again. It will always be my favorite animated show. I’m glad it’s still around. 👌🏼
:)
Finally, someone who actually watches the new seasons instead of taking one look and shoving it in the corner
It kinda baffles me that money was an issue to scale up to HD in 2009.
Like you would think, after been on the air for 20 years being one of the biggest cartoons money wouldnt be a problem.
We're talking about The Simpsons, which is sold to literally every country in the world.. Dunno, seems weird to me.
It's probably their adherence to budgets that has enabled them to last 30 years.
I thought it was weird too... I guess each episode cost a lot of money to make and they prob only make a fraction of what they made decades ago from the show
Maybe the HD are expensive bc they need to redraw all thing and object
the people with the most money are always the stingiest with it
90's Simpsons (seasons 1-10) will always be the best! 📿🍩🛹🎷👶
So much so, the show ended for me after season 10.
Season 1-8 is perfection after that it's a hollow shell of itself
Agreed
I go to season 9 then its well and truly over
Yes and I will only watch those episodes on an old CRT tv I have. Old episodes look super weird on disney plus, with the tops and bottoms of the images cropped out
7:06 this was my favourite style.
True. And why does sangwoo look different on your pfp?👁👄👁
@@olracroma1670 who tf is sangwoo
@@bossshrek1241 he's from killing stalking. It's manhwa.💅
@@olracroma1670 I hate anime
@@bossshrek1241 good for you
The 2nd to 7th season of the Simpsons was the best sitcom/ television show of all time … it is a pity the storylines and humour radically changed declined after this…
2-8 more like, season 9 was when the show became crap (minus the first episode).
like most shows in the 21st century they just became Democrat propaganda
Did the writers change much at that time or what/who could be the reason?
Yeah true
@@haliaeetus8221 Pretty much. Simpsons always have team of writers (around 12-15 people) who works on the show at the same time. Like half of that writers left show (amd were replaced by new unfortunately less talented writers) in 7 season, when storyline became less grounded, more absurd and ratings slowly beggin to drop, by the season 9 only 3 of classic writers remain
The animation for the Modern Simpsons, while clean and clear, loses the charm the early seasons had, specifically with the animation feeling robotic at times
1:42 Considering the show first aired in 1987, an era when digital ink and paint was still VERY experimental (Disney didn't fully adopt it until 1990) I'd say the use of cel animation was less of a conscious style decision, and more of a "this is pretty much the only option we have" situation.
I'm 31 years old and still watch the show everyday. I grew up with them!
I will never forget first seeing them on the Tracey Ullman show when I was a kid. I thought it was so hilarious and unique, I had never seen anything animated that wasn't for children
There's been a lot of it since before The Tracey Ullman Show... Heavy Metal, Ralph Bakshi... the original theatricals from the early years weren't _exclusively_ for children; the best ones are the ones you can watch again as an adult without being annoyed and find something new.
This is a really in-depth and well rounded video. I enjoyed it!
I like seeing how the animation improved over the years. I wish same could be said for some of the writing. Many sharks have been jumped in the last 25 years.
Not the animation the visuals
The original are legitimately terrifying.
its terrifying how long this show has been going for. Put it out of its misery already.
I like the original, its meaningful
@@purefoldnz3070 nah
@@Maximus20778 super nah
Those shorts are cursed
0:16 Maggie costs $486.52 now compared to $847.63 in the past!
Thats a nice detail inflation
This was fantastic to watch. As a student and practitioner of traditional animation I loved seeing these behind the scenes aspects.
When he said confused bird look that's exactly how I always felt it was
0:06 with all due respect that is the second title sequence to the Simpsons
Then she showed the 3rd intro
@@gachaakiememes3255 that's the 4th or 5th counting music changes
Wow such a lovely and comprehensive coverage of the Simpson’s animation evolution. I love it and I love the show!
Im 28 years old im still watching this secretly because other people just dont understand that watching cartoons as an adult is normal
I miss when there was low quality and good animation.
i watched a video about that a few weeks ago
It's amazing that this is still going!
Very interesting that they weren't given any (or very little) budget to redo the title sequence.
I like how I can roughly tell how old the episode is based on the style and quality of the writing!
Oh and the animation too
I grew up on the Simpson’s! My older brother would watch it at 6 after the news and dinner and I’d sneak in to watch too from the age of 4 until now! 1990-2021 for me and of course I went back and watched the original episodes and shorts! Literally the best series on TV
A very nice case study of my favourite show of all time. Good Job team Insider!
that outro was beautiful
Loved this video. Exactly what I was searching for.
This is so crazy. I used to have a "how to draw the Simpsons" book from the nineties, that laid all this out in more detail. I remember entire pages dedicated to how many spikes to put in Bart ant Lisa's hair. So much mastalgia here!
Mastalgia haha?
Truly, an insider's video. So many technical insides. Love it
Too bad the writing quality didn't improve with the animation.
To bad you are blind
@@kingsavagebruh147 I'm so sorry buddy, but at least you can hear huh? The birds chirping, the leaves rustling, your parents calling you downstairs for pie. Don't be sad, enjoy the things you have :)
@@dorkle9085 what if there deaf...? And there orphans...
How can someone become better then perfect
@@dorkle9085 "your parents calling you downstairs for pie" 😂
It seems like it gets worse every year despite how long it’s been
Season 7 was sooo good, especially the Halloween special! Definitely my favourite ep.
Nice video btw, learnt a lot I didn't know about the Simpsons.
4:41 that was satisfying
0:02 me donating to my favorite streamer
I love the background music. I want a library of all if it
That ending Outro with Hommer waving goodbye to his mom got me... 😞
Can't believe I was eight when this show first premiered.
8:00
Found peter
Glad I found this, I just started re-watching the whole episode recently. I am on Season 4 now. Last time I do this was in 2012.
insider has its own channels for its own content, i like how organized that is
The first season has some beautiful animation!
Is it just or anybody just touched this videos notification redirected to a video about friends.
The Simpsons was the first and last show my family watched together in the early 1990's. It's strange to think it's still going on considering I think I last saw it in 1995.
4:41 bro I love how it went in sync
Holy crap what an incredible video
i just wish my television station back then air The Simpsons so i know the show well since i was kid
I still have the old dvds and I just watched the hd ones and wow do they look beautiful
This is actually a topic I've been curious about for ages! Thanks for the interesting upload Insiders :D
Ya know, even though the simpsons might have lost a lot of fluidity and that "human touch" feel to it in the later seasons, it is admirable how they reinvented themselves when dealing with camera movement, scene planning, attention to detail etc. I do think it was an improvement, unfortunately it came without the most substantial thing about the show like the storyline and jokes
Scripts aside, which is the thing that's currently failing in The Simpsons, it's nice to see that they're constantly improving and fixing their "look". I must say though, I digged the color pallete of the older episodes, with those jarring, extreme colors and kinda flat backgrounds with straight geometry and kinda empty spaces. It gave everything a slight uncanny feeling. Specially the night shots with used those deep purples and blues. It's an iconic look.
Yeah the colour theory in the early seasons was really strong. Heightened, yes, but very strong.
8:01 that's one big cell Peter
I appreciate that the show is still going today as I grew up watching it, but the best seasons were when I was a kid. The shows all but dead now in terms of quality comedy and content.
I haven’t watched the show in probably 10 years, but I’ll go back to the old classic episodes and watch those. God I miss watching those on TV with the family during dinner.
It kills me when people say how bad simpsons is now but admit to not having watched in years ...makes 0 sense
I like the 90’s and early 00’s Simpsons, nostalgia. I also like the super modern episodes with extra movements and shadows.
I know it's silly, but I love watching this show over and over again because it has such nostalgia attached
Why and how exactly is that even close to being silly?
Same
Congratulations on releasing this video, it's top-notch for sure
So many fond memories of watching the Simpsons hear in Australia the simpsons used to be on every night at 6pm and Wednesday nights 7:30pm for new release episodes and 7:30 pm Friday nights and then i would watch the Simpson marathons every Saturday morning on FOX8 from 8am until 12pm as I kid good times
Can't wait for Season 100
Yup
@@Zramy no it’s not. It’s still as popular as it was
You'd better get accidentally trapped in a cryo-chamber, then you won't have to wait.
The oldies are still the goodies in my opinion! ❤️😊
So thorough!
8:00 Love this one :)) there is even a early drawn Homer rofl
impressed by the cast and crew as always
I feel like I’ve seen different renditions of this video/ concept like 5 times over the years.
I love how expressive the animation was in the early 90s especially in the do the bartman video
DannChap
you could not have said that any more amazing
looks great, wish they could invest time into some *good story lines*
2:44 FISH
This 14:32 video is entertainingly educational. The history of animation of The Simpsons was presented complete with interviews of the key people. This video is a nice piece of work.
I love how peter from family guy is literally in the background at 8:01
Its amazing that the episodes never stop after all these years
Hard to believe I haven't watched a single new episode in 20 years and it's still on.
from what I see in the show, the newer seasons also use 3D Rendering (the background such as buildings and so on are 3D models rendered to a 2D Plane and then the characters are added on top of this layer).
This can be seen in shots when they zoom out of a Window with someone behind it, the whole building and map is a 3D Model where as the person is a flat model and does not change, just gets smaller. I am not sure if they do use 3D Rendering or pain stakingly animate the 3D aspects but to me it looks 3D and very well done, this can also be seen in Family Guy.
They went from a 2D Drawing to a fully 3D World while still keeping the 2D aspects, not bad.
Yes i saw the 3d to. The car is so smooth moving like family guy and the simpsons (include futurama)
THEY PUT IN SO MUCH HARD WORK TO BRING US THIS ART, I LOVE THE TEAM UP THERE, THANK YOU FOR AT LEAST 20 YEARS OF AWESOME MEMORIES
The only reason the Simpsons is still on is because its still a cash cow overseas. They don't care about impressing anyone in the U.S. anymore.
Simpsons is the only “adult show” that almost every kid has watched
I feel like the older animations had more "movement" or animation to their physical and emotions both like-wise, it's sort of like a little tidbits added to give the character's more development, but as the year's go by, I can see how slowly each animation was toned down to much smoother animations
Honestly never did I consider such small thing's about the simpsons, despite being a childhood favourite cartoon, all I could think about was being captivated by these amazing and creative character's ... truly amazing
Can't wait for season 33
They keep saying "there was no money"... That franchise makes a ridiculous amount of money every year from ads, games, toys and other merch. If the Simpsons didn't make mega bucks they wouldn't have continued to make it for the past 30+ years.
I wouldn’t be surprised if very little of that money went to the actual animation team though. Cutting corners maximizes profits
Fox wouldn't give them money. Most of the money goes to Fox. Take it up with the higher ups.
Unbelievable, it is hard to believe that there was that much of hard work, art and geniuses behind The Simpsons. These people must have really proud of their selves for what they have been doing. I wish one day I also become a useful person like these people. My God, running this series like this is like running a whole world of yours. To be short I really admire this masterpiece, THANK YOU A LOT ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
Amazing video! By the way what is the name of the outro music? It is awesome!
Personally I think the animations from seasons 3, 4, 5 are the most fun and is my favourite animated period of the entire series.
But It may be due to nostalgia and bias from my subconscious mind because season 1 to episode 1 season 9 tie with Seinfeld season 2-7. To me those two series are head and shoulders above any other tv series