How can a cartoon be "camp" without ALL cartoons being "camp?" Aren't basically all cartoons extreme/exaggerated/etc. in the context of real life/live action?
I mean, what are Looney Tunes if not that? When they animate the characters, designing the key frames is literally referred to as "posing" the characters. Cartoons have historically been about doing funny/goofy/extreme poses and interactions.
You've got Bugs Bunny arguing with and taunting his enemies while getting shot at and literally dodging bullets, Wile E. Coyote getting squashed and blown up into pieces and coming back for more, etc.
Later, the "realistic" cartoons came in, but they're still cartoons and there are still plenty of things "outrageous" in the context of realism in cartoons. The fact that they're cartoons in the first place, meaning they're drawings, could be considered "outrageous" in and of itself. But ultimately, they tend to still have plenty of goofy things in them.
So as far as I can tell, either all cartoons are camp or none of them are. It's all relative, and the most outrageous/absurd stuff in cartoons was done in the early days.
Which movie in the Disney Animated Canon can be considered the campiest?
The following examples need elaboration:
- G Gundam arguably falls under this trope. Some say it's good precisely because of it, others say it's just good, period.
- Star Driver, as one might expect from a Super Robot show produced by the Ouran High School Host Club team, is absolutely dripping in camp.
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
- James Whale famously employed this in his 1930s horror films, particularly The Old Dark House and Bride of Frankenstein.
- The Showa (1955-1975) Godzilla films were just filled with this.
- Final Wars. "Kid, there are two things you don't know about the Earth..."
- Xanadu
- The Disney flick Condorman falls squarely into this category. It's pretty entertaining if you don't mind suspending your disbelief a bit (and remember that it was intended for kids).
- The 5000 Fingers Of Dr T, especially this number
. The movie was written by Dr Seuss, and it's exactly what you'd expect from him.
- Mommie Dearest.
- The original Battlestar Galactica series.
- Tales Of The Gold Monkey had more than its share.
- Special Unit 2, an original series on Sci Fi.
- Both Hercules The Legendary Journeys and Xena Warrior Princess delved into this on occasion
- The B-52's based their entire career around two core concepts: catchy songs and heavy camp.
- David Bowie, especially Ziggy Stardust.
- Steps, even by The '90s pop standard...
- Most Richard Strauss operas — especially Salome.
- The musical of Little Women takes the short and melodramatic play that Jo and her sisters stage in the early chapters, and turns it into a musical number spanning the entire cast (all... six of them), stuffed chock-full of wholesome, affectionate camp.
- The entire output of Gilbert And Sullivan falls into this category, but was probably intentional from square one. Still well-executed, catchy, funny and well worth watching.
- Devil May Cry. In the second game the developers forgot this, but the third game made up for it in spades.
- The Tiberium series of Command And Conquer games is mildly campy. Red Alert pushes it Up To Eleven.
- While all of the games take themselves dead serious, the Metal Gear Solid series does have its fair share of campy parts.
- Animutations.
- Commentary The Musical.
- 'Pegasus is ruthless. Camp, yet ruthless'. Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series lives off this.
- Everything Doctor Steel - or his fans - do is done consciously and conspicuously over the top.
- Schoolhouse Rock is so camp that it often gets in the way of being educational. Maybe that's why students like them so much.
- Where there's a whip *whipcrack!* there's a way!
- M. Bison, in the animated Street Fighter series. This is delicious!
- He Man. So much so, that even in the 80s, many were suspicious that it was actually gay propaganda. (Especially with names like Ram-Man, Man-at-Arms, Extendar, and last but not least, Fisto. Yes, these were real).
Is it okay if I edit your post to reflect which ones have been fixed?
First key to interpreting a work: Things mean things.
Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Examples need more elaboration
, started by artman40 on Mar 13th 2011 at 5:31:05 AM
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman