cheril59
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Do I need to say this again? The Powerpuff Girls: West in Pieces used digital ink and paint, but special effects were used to make it look like an old western film.
Cel Animated Show That Switched to Digital Coloring
- Thread starter ToonJay723
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Now that the forum is operational again, I thought it'd be worth mentioning that Warner Bros. recently gave "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" a high-definition remaster, currently streaming on Tubi!
The digitally-colored first season had the episodes upscaled and then some color-correction and noise-reduction applied, and they look pretty good! It's good to know Warner IS capable of restoring the Hanna-Barbera output animated on their computer system in the 80s; I suspect it just requires a bit of extra work due to the 640x480 video output from said computer.
The subsequent seasons that used hand-painted cel animation were restored from the original animation negatives, as expected. It looks kind of similar to the digitally-colored episodes now, but a lot sharper. But it's not entirely perfect; there are some shots where they just upscaled and did noise-reduction on the TV masters. I suspect said shots were either misplaced or damaged from the negatives, very much like the recent HD restoration of the Looney Tunes short "Beanstalk Bunny" that had a brief shot similarly remastered from a theatrical print to cover up the damaged section of the negatives.
Could this mean a Blu-Ray release of "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" might not be far off?
The digitally-colored first season had the episodes upscaled and then some color-correction and noise-reduction applied, and they look pretty good! It's good to know Warner IS capable of restoring the Hanna-Barbera output animated on their computer system in the 80s; I suspect it just requires a bit of extra work due to the 640x480 video output from said computer.
The subsequent seasons that used hand-painted cel animation were restored from the original animation negatives, as expected. It looks kind of similar to the digitally-colored episodes now, but a lot sharper. But it's not entirely perfect; there are some shots where they just upscaled and did noise-reduction on the TV masters. I suspect said shots were either misplaced or damaged from the negatives, very much like the recent HD restoration of the Looney Tunes short "Beanstalk Bunny" that had a brief shot similarly remastered from a theatrical print to cover up the damaged section of the negatives.
Could this mean a Blu-Ray release of "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" might not be far off?
I wouldn't be surprise at this point if all this remastering could lead to the blu ray release of this show
Dylan James Yi
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Ahem, I have just sorry to tell ya that, the South Korean series Dooly the Little Dinosaur used cels at the start on the 1987-88 series for the first season, then it switched to digital coloring starting on the revived 2008-12 series for the last two seasons.
Cytz
It can happen
You're referring to the 2001 Babar reboot which was separate from the original 1989 series. Nelvana likes to combine them for whatever reason, and whenever they do they call the reboot "season 6".
CassieTheDragon
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I'm a bit late to this, but were the Between The Lions "Cliff Hanger" segments cel animated? I'm not entirely sure.
Dylan James Yi
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I think it was in digital coloring, then later it was switched to Flash animation.
DeanBurrito25
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Are you certain about this? Clips I've seen don't look any different from the rest of the season's episodes. Is there an in-line credit that could confirm?
CassieTheDragon
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Huh? I thought Arthur did use cels in the beginning and then switched digital later.
CassieTheDragon
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These are the final brand new western animated cartoons to be cel-animated, as well as when they switched:
Dragon Tales, 1999 (final cel-animated episode segment was season 1 episode segment Over and Over, switched to digital in 2001 for the season 2 premiere segment Lucky Stone)
SpongeBob SquarePants, 1999 (final episode segment produced with cel-animation is season 1 episode segment Sleepy Time, switched to digital in 2000 for season 2 premiere segment Your Shoe's Untied)
Ed, Edd N Eddy, 1999 (final cel-animated episode segment is the season 4 finale Take This Ed and Shove It, switched to digital in 2004 with Christmas special Jingle Jingle Jangle)
The final cel-animated Disney cartoon, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (premiered in 2000), is extremely hard to come by on the internet with decent quality footage, but this is Disney's final (and possibly the final) brand new cel-animated cartoon ever.
However, only half of the episodes aired were cel-animated, with 30 of it's 65 episodes being digitally animated. The final episode, titled "42", aired in 2001.
Honorable mentions include King of The Hill, which switched very late in 2004, and The Simpsons, which switched in 2002, but both were made well before cel-animation became obsolete for new cartoons in 2000.
Because I couldn't find good screenshots for Buzz Lightyear, I added Pokémon (1997) as a major anime that switched to digital. It's last cel-animated episode was A Crowning Achievement; the anime switched to digital in 2002 with Here's Lookin' at You, Elekid.
The following cartoons were never cel-animated:
Little Bear, 1995
Caillou, 1997
Family Guy, 1999*
Futurama, 1999
Rocket Power, 1999
Courage, The Cowardly Dog, 1999
Little Bill, 1999
Dora The Explorer, 2000
As Told By Ginger, 2000
Clifford The Big Red Dog, 2000
Sheep In The Big City, 2000
Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat, 2001
The Fairly Odd Parents, 2001*
Cyberchase, 2002*
Kim Possible, 2002
My Life as a Teenage Robot, 2003*
*pre-series pilot was cel-animated, series proper was not
Dylan James Yi
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Though Little Bill was flash animated here (the first Nickelodeon flash animated show; not counting with Blue's Clues since 1999 and El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera; the first flash animated Nicktoon in 2007), predating Warner Bros. Animation's ¡Mucha Lucha! in 2002 and Adult Swim's Home Movies since the second season in 2002.
Rocket Power was the first Klasky-Csupo Nicktoon to be digital coloring (not counting with the Rugrats TV movie "Runaway Reptar").
Courage the Cowardly Dog is the first Cartoon Network show to be digital coloring (not counting with the What-A-Cartoon! shorts).
The Adventures of Paddington Bear was the first Cinar (then Cookie Jar; now Wildbrain) to be digital coloring, as Caillou was already digital coloring at the start since 1997 until switched to flash starting with the fourth season of the series.
The 1998 unaired version of the Family Guy pilot "Death Has a Shadow" was already in digital coloring instead of being cel animated.
And speaking of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, second segments of Episode 32, Episode 35, Episode 38, Episode 39, and Episode 43, first segments of Episode 40, Episode 44, Episode 45, Episode 47, and Episode 33, Episode 34, Episode 36, Episode 37, and Episode 42 of Recess used cels instead of digital coloring, "The Ratings Game" is the last episode to use this before changing back to cels, and this when the show ended in 2001 was likely the last Disney Television Animation production to use cel animation.
"How I Spent My Strummer Vacation" was the last The Simpsons episode in production to use cels (though "Helter Shelter" is the last cel animated airing episode of the series), not counting with later Season 14 and Season 15 episodes used cel animated couch gags (due to some being repeats), while the opening sequence until "Lisa the Drama Queen" still used cels (being animated by Klasky-Csupo and AKOM; despite Film Roman doing the animation production at the time with this and Rough Draft Korea), aside from Bart's Chalkboard gag on "Barting Over" and the Christmas opening sequence on "Kill Gil, Volumes I & II" and "The Burns and the Bees" (aside from the title logo, the Chalkboard gag and the TV screen at the end).
As speaking of this, some many episodes of the show that are since digital coloring though used clips from cel animated episodes (mostly for the flashbacks on some parts) including "The Great Louse Detective" (for the Frank Grimes' death flashback), Flanders' Ladder (for Maude Flanders' death flashback), etc.
The Wild Thornberrys episode "The Gift of Gab" was the first one to use digital coloring animation for a few shots of Eliza getting her powers. This was likely the last episode to use cels before switching to this for a full time starting with the episode "Black and Mom All Over".
Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts (including the ChalkZone shorts) will not be counted here (aside from many cel animated shorts including The Fairly OddParents, some that are animated by Rough Draft Studios, etc.)
Though Stressed Eric was switched with digital coloring since the second/final series, this was switched to widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9 from the full screen aspect ratio of 4:3 (possibly the first British animated show to do this), since this was being produced in this ratio.
Not counting with Ed, Edd n Eddy, it's possible that The Powerpuff Girls was the last Cartoon Network show to use cels in the episode “West in Pieces” (though it made to look like an old film; not counting with Whatever Happend to... Robot Jones?).
And becuase of Johnny Bravo switching to digital coloring since the third season, “Galaxy Boy Johnny” is the first episode to be animated by Rough Draft Korea.
The Hanna Barbera animated series of Pac-Man for the episode "Nighty Nightmares / The Pac-Mummy" was likely the first animated show to use digital coloring, as because they thought that the 1980s revival of The Jetsons was the first one to use this.
The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries episode "The Nutcracker Scoob" is likely to be the first Scooby-Doo animated-media to use digtal coloring (this later used in the first season of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, predating What's New Scooby-Doo?).
cheril59
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The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries actually used digital coloring starting with episode 5a, "Doom Service".
And the Cyberchase pilot already used digital coloring.
And Rough Draft Korea did not work on "Galaxy Boy Johnny", it was Koko Enterprises. Rough Draft only handled the first season along with Sunwoo.
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Been watching Ace Ventura Pet Detective and it seems that starting in season 2, there are digital painters listed in the end credits.
cheril59
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So, the first season used hand-painted cels except the Christmas one, that used digital coloring. Season 2 onwards switched to digital coloring.
Made some corrections and added Ace Ventura.
And I made a correction for Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Originally I listed that "Sunquake", "War and Peace and War" and "Rookie of the Year" were digital, but they're actually cels. So 38 cel episodes, and 27 digital. I've also notice weather an episode is cel or digital is based on the animation studio. Episodes from Hana, Jade, Sun Min and Tama are all cel. Episodes from Disney Japan, Toon City, and Sunwoo are all digital. Sae Hahn and Wang were the only studios that used both processes.
And I made a correction for Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Originally I listed that "Sunquake", "War and Peace and War" and "Rookie of the Year" were digital, but they're actually cels. So 38 cel episodes, and 27 digital. I've also notice weather an episode is cel or digital is based on the animation studio. Episodes from Hana, Jade, Sun Min and Tama are all cel. Episodes from Disney Japan, Toon City, and Sunwoo are all digital. Sae Hahn and Wang were the only studios that used both processes.
CassieTheDragon
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Actually, Sunwoo Entertainment did did animation for season 1 of Dragon Tales along with Wang Film Productions, but cels of this show exist.
Someone in a different part of this thread said that Arthur was never animated with cels; it's possible this is true, as I can't find any cels on the internet, however both Wikipedia and the Arthur Wiki claim that it first began to use digital animation in 1999.
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CassieTheDragon
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How are you sure that Cyberchase used digital coloring? Wasn't it cel animated?
cheril59
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Well, there were some shots of big shadows behind the characters, but it was colored digitally from the beginning. And the Family Guy pilot used digital coloring, as the animation was rendered in 30fps.
CassieTheDragon
Active Member
Eh, they might've wanted to go with a different animation style in the pilot.
I'm pretty sure Arthur DID use cels pre-1999, but they're incredibly, incredibly rare. Here's one, I dunno what episode it's from.
However this is the ONLY one I could find.
Dylan James Yi
Active Member
Same thing happens with Rough Draft Studios, which also animated the first season of the show for most episodes. AKOM never have animated many Dragon Tales season 1 episodes.
"The Long, Dull Winter" is likely the last Arthur episode to use cels.
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