The old animation adds more comedy to pre-movie

[Original Raw and Uncut]

Is it me, or do the sloppy drawings in pre-movie Spongebob make the episodes funnier than they actually are. Post 2nd Movie spongebob may have a lot of funny faces and whatnot, but the hand crafted nature of pre-movie is what adds the extra zest to the humor.

This design of gary is far more likely to make me wanna spill my guts out in laughter:


Than this one does:



Just the gritty and hand-crafted look of pre-movie makes the show feel more natural, instead of artificial.


Same with SpongeBob, look at how disproportionately drawn his body is:



The hand-crafted nature of this design adds more human-like atmosphere to the show, it adds more realism. The wobbly lines say "Hey, this was made by a human being, this is imperfect" An episode like Band Geeks wouldn't be as funny if it had modern day sounds and animation. The wobbly lines and dark shade of yellow add that organic homemade feel to the show. Although seasons 2-3 were animated using digital ink and paint, they still retain the hand crafted nature that the first season had.

This however, looks more artificial, and too perfect, despite post 2nd Movie having extreme facial expressions:


Everything is too bright, and the outlines are too straight


Yes, Post 2nd Movie SpongeBob is good in it's own way. But the newer art style and modern sound effects kind of takes away from the charm of that the original run had. Think of it this way, modern Tom & Jerry will never be as funny as the orginal, why because the original had elements that made it feel more original, it had the muffled 1940s audio, and the extremely grainy cel animation. The new stuff doesn't have that which takes the originality and the charm away. I already know I'll get a lot of backlash for this, so fire away.

 

[Vuvuzela Smasher]

While I do think the old animation looks funnier, I also think Steven Universe is good enough proof that drawing things off-model doesn't work well in this age of crisp animation, so the crew shouldn't try to replicate the old animation style.

EDIT: But then again, it worked okay for Adventure Time.

 

[Sara SquarePants]

You're absolutely right

I like the style of OLD SpongeBob and think this new stuff sucks

It's too exaggerated

 

[Original Raw and Uncut]

While I do think the old animation looks funnier, I also think Steven Universe is good enough proof that drawing things off-model doesn't work well in this age of crisp animation, so the crew shouldn't try to replicate the old animation style.

EDIT: But then again, it worked okay for Adventure Time.

The crew shouldn't replicate the old style, I don't think they could. You gotta look at the fact that Season 2-3 were animated using Toonz Prenium, while Season 4 onward uses Toon Boom. I think it would impossible to draw a markerbob episode on a tablet. Other styles they could replicate, but it wouldn't have the lower frame rate that season 2-3 had. The colors would also be too bright.

 

[Yoh Manta]

The new animation in Spongebob is fine, but I do agree that the old animation helped convey the comedy better. Godliness like this is not easily replicated.

 

[Original Raw and Uncut]

Maybe it's the fact that season 2-3 move at a lower frame rate than other seasons do.

 

[JerryTheSnail]

People always refer to the old episodes as looking "sloppy" or "wobbly", but honestly it just looks more hand drawn, there's nothing sloppy about it. I do think everything looks a bit too polished now though, I thought season 9b was a good balance but season 10 onwards looks SUPER polished. That's why I think the rocko special looks good, it's rougher and more hand drawn looking but doesn't look outdated because they're not trying to make it look "old" they're just trying to maintain the tone of the original series. I think super clean polished animation is just what you get when a show runs for a very long time and the network puts more money into the animation budget. I think they COULD find a good medium between the old and new looks of the show but that's probably not gonna happen because Nickelodeon and RDK would most likely view that as a step backwards. I do miss the show feeling loose and fun, when it was just writers and artists working with the small(er) budget they had and making what they wanted to make regardless of how appealing or clean it looked.