From the looks of things, it's only going to get bigger. Maybe it's a good idea if we look at this year for what it was.

When looking over the last year of animation, it's safe to say the guy who blew it wide open was Mike Judge.

This year, Judge hit the entertainment industry with a 1-2 punch that I have to honestly sit back and admire. For starters, his first feature film, Beavis & Butt-Head Do America, threw about a $100 million into MTV's coffers. Then he also launched King of the Hill on Fox, which is now the second highest-rated show on that network. It should also be noted the #3 show is another animated series, The Simpsons. In fact, when you think about it, it also says something when the #2 and #3 shows on a TV network are both cartoons. That's never happened before.

On the other hand, one neat person I know of, an executive at The Cartoon Network, once said "We are the generation that grew up watching cartoons on TV. We used to love getting up on Saturday mornings and watch our favorite shows. A lot of us have now grown up. Guess what? We still love cartoons."

"The big difference now is a lot of us have grown up to become television and movie executives. It didn't take us long to realize there were a lot more of us out there than there were people who didn't like cartoons. So what did we do? We started producing more cartoons. Also, we have started producing cartoons that entertain us as adults, not just what we liked as kids."

King of the Hill, South Park, Johnny Bravo, Sam & Max, the Batman/Superman Adventures, Cow & Chicken, Spawn, Spice City and even Space Goofs were all introduced this year and it's important to note that they ain't just for kids. They're to entertain us adults as well.

Further, there are a number of older shows, such as Life With Louie, Rugrats, Dr. Katz, the soon-to-be-cancelled Duckman, and the Simpsons, that have not only thrived over the last several years, but continue to prosper.

In other words, there's a ton of good animation coming on the tube. From the looks of things there will be a lot more good stuff in the very near future. Shows I'm personally looking for are Sunbow's Zippy The Pinhead and Skeleton Key, the Silver Surfer and even Marv Wolfman's kid-oriented Pocket Dragon Adventures. These are all shows that have one good thing going for them or another. They are all due some time in 1998. I'm sure I'll have a lot of other shows to look forward to by this February, when the nets make their new schedule announcements.

That isn't all we have to look forward to. Disney already announced it is going into head-to-head competition with the Cartoon Network by creating its own all-animation cable network. At the same time, Steven Spielberg has just made a five-series commitment to Nickelodeon. Who knows? Maybe Reboot will finally be seen in the U.S. again.

On the film front, Beavis & Butt-Head was the warning shot. Disney's not going to be the only studio putting out commercially successful films anymore. True, the way Turner treated Cats Don't Dance was horrid, but Fox proved you can put out another highly successful film with Anastasia. To top it, I have to admit Disney's own Hercules was a far better film than Hunchback and Pocahantas by a long shot, and from the looks of things the box office backs me up on that claim.

There's an incredible number of animated films currently in production. Spielberg's Dreamworks announced they are busy doing a story of Moses, which will then be followed by an animated adaptation of the Broadway hit Cats. Fox, flush from the success of Anastasia, is now hard at work on Ice Planet. Warner Bros. Quest for Camelot is also scheduled for next year and then Disney should release two new animated feature films, one a sequel to their last mega-hit, Toy Story.

Still, the most encouraging news I got this week was from no less than Bill Plympton. His next feature, I Married A Very Strange Person, is not only getting its debut at this year's Sundance Film Festival, it's not only to be shown five times that week, but is also one of the finalists for Sundance's Best Dramatic Film award. Now ain't that something?

Then there's the mega-deal the aforementioned Mr. Judge just sealed with MTV. From what I understand, he not only is slated to produce an entirely new series, but at least two more movies, one of which will be a sequel to Do America.

If that isn't enough, I wouldn't be surprised if the original home video front really starts stepping into high gear next year. Disney and Universal have a string of successes with their various projects ranging from the Aladdin sequels on to the various incarnations of Land Before Time. What I'm really waiting to see is how well is WildStorm's Gen 13 video will do. After all, this film has a sterling director working on it in the person of Kevin Altieri. If it's done right, it could be the video that breaks the domestic OAV out of the kiddie genre and into more mature markets. That's also due out next year.

So, in all, it's been a heck of a year for animation. There's still plenty I haven't even touched in this column. Such subjects as the still critical shortage of animators, how important animation is to commercials, the latest uses of CGI both on film and on your PC and innumerable others are in my to-do list. Maybe one of these weeks I'll even do them.

You'll just have to read this column every week to see. Believe me, I don't think I'm going to run out of ideas for this column any time in the near future.

previous animated shorts

Animated Shorts, Dec. 19, 1997
Animated Shorts, Dec. 12, 1997
Animated Shorts, Dec. 5, 1997
Animated Shorts, Nov. 26, 1997
Animated Shorts, Nov. 21, 1997
Animated Shorts, Nov. 14, 1997
Animated Shorts, Oct. 31, 1997
Animated Shorts, Oct. 24, 1997
Animated Shorts, Oct. 17, 1997
Animated Shorts, Oct. 10, 1997	Tex Avery, the man and the myth.
Animated Shorts, Oct. 3, 1997
Animated Shorts, Sept. 26, 1997
Animated Shorts, Sept. 19, 1997
Animated Shorts, Sept. 12, 1997
Animated Shorts, Sept. 5, 1997
Animated Shorts, Aug. 29, 1997
Animated Shorts, Aug. 22, 1997	A lot of big names are lining up for guest spots on the new Hercules TV series. Find out who!
Animated Shorts, Aug. 15, 1997	The adventures of Sam and Max, stars of a hilarious CD-ROM, are now coming to TV this fall.
Animated Shorts, Aug. 8, 1997	Hey groovy chick! What's shakin'? Talk to the creator of Cartoon Network's latest sensation - Johnny Bravo, the Last Real Elvis Clone, in this week's Animated Shorts.
Animated Shorts, Aug. 1, 1997
Animated Shorts July 18, 1997	An interview with Bill Plympton, the one-man animation studio.
Animated Shorts, July 4, 1997	Interview with Spicy City Creator Ralph Bakshi
Animated Shorts, June 6, 1997	Anime gets organized in the US
Animated Shorts, May 16, 1997	It seems the world can't wait for award-winning animation director Bill Plympton to put the final touches on his second full-length feature, I Married A Very Strange Person. As such, he's is putting together 25 of some of his best shorts in one neat package and calling it Mondo Plympton. I hope the world is ready for it.
Animated Shorts, May 2, 1997	Donovan Cook and Nightmare Ned!
Animated Shorts, April 25, 1997	Spawn : The Animated Series
Animated Shorts, April 4, 1997	Saturday Morning Lineup