this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024
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Showerthoughts

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Just thinking, is the art style only symbolic of the universe or is everything actually like that in-universe?

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They see themselves like that but that's also their reality, they don't know otherwise.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You occasionally get situations when the animators switch the art style every now and then, but the characters still exist in the same universe, so I wonder if the characters wonder why everything looks slightly different.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I believe they don't. They don't realize there was ever a change.

[–] clubb 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Inside Out is a great example of just that. While I couldn't find the scene, here's an excerpt from tvtropes.com:

*Entering the Abstract Thought Chamber in Inside Out caused the characters to turn into 2D figures with increasingly less defined shapes. *

If I remember correctly, the characters actually acknowledge the shift to less detailed artstyles.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Fair, there are several examples of characters acknowledging the shift in very specific circumstances. Often said circumstances are plot related one way or another.

But usually that's not the case, and if you have a change of art because now it's a different studio producing the animation or they release a new season with a different art director and budget then no, it's implied that the aesthetic status quo has always been the same.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Depends on whether the author is breaking the fourth wall or not

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Beans day!!

[–] [email protected] -3 points 3 months ago (2 children)
[–] ccunning 12 points 3 months ago

Like it or not, it’s not being “brought” here; it already exists here.

[–] unreachable 6 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 months ago (1 children)

In Star Trek SNW's crossover episode with Lower Decks (cartoon), Boimler's first comment when he meets the crew from SNW is that they look "very realistic"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

And eventually it is explained that they see the world as animated because they are all permanently drunk.

[–] samus12345 17 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Strange New Worlds/Lower Decks actually addressed that.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I'm so sad they are cancelling the show after this next season airs in a few weeks. Best animated adaptation of an existing universe.

[–] samus12345 2 points 3 months ago

Same! It's my favorite current Trek show.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

no, what, whyy? :(

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago

It depends on the author! Authors create symbolic universes and they get to choose the rules of those universes. You can read Robert McKee’s work for more on this.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago

Depends on the author.

[–] aeronmelon 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I remember something with a cartoon character commenting on how live-action people look kind of disturbing and surreal. They noticed the difference, and it didn’t sit well with them. Their own uncanny valley.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago (2 children)

In "Treehouse of Horror VI" Homer becomes 3D and comments how he's "so bulky".

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

The other characters are quite perplexed about the idea of 3D, too, not just the stupid Homer. A scientist gives a brief lecture, similar to how scientists IRL introduce 4D.

Anyway, that answers the good old question "Is the gruesome cartoon Itchy & Scratchy photorealistic from the Simpson's POV?"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Photorealistic: yes. However, it could be debatable whether it's gruesome. We see situations that characters survive with short term damage but no long term consequences (example: Homer skating into the canyon). So while it would be gruesome to us, it's probably closer to slapstick to them.

[–] Shapillon 3 points 3 months ago

I never thought about its gruesomness this way.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

It would be abhorrent for us to see photorealistic cat organs but I guess kids in The Simpsons' universe are raised differently.

[–] samus12345 3 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

And the first thing he did in the 3D world was go to an erotic bakery. I always thought it was a dumb throwaway joke but after thinking about it, that would be a fun first experience in the 3D world

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

In Peanuts, all adults would sound like "wah wah, wha wah wha wah wha wah", to which the children would respond as if they made perfect sense.

Then again, I prefer thinking about your second possibility so I'm going with that one:-).

[–] Agent641 8 points 3 months ago

Im not high enough to answer that!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

Art style. But they don't notice it the same way you dont notice art style of people around you, and fish don't notice the water.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss have jokes about the art style. Sounds to me that the characters see each other the way we see them.

[–] Carighan 7 points 3 months ago

In Chip and Dale 2022, they explicitly refer to the "upgrade" to 3D rendering from the old painted style (like plastic surgery to them), so I assume they are fully aware of their art style.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

It depends on the work, in some it's symbolic and in some it's in-universe.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Some times it's part of the plot, like in comics such as Gwenpool and 8-Bit Theater. But usually, from what I notice, how a character perceives the world around is not explained.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Most cartoons I assume they just see the world as it is in the cartoon. However SpongeBob SquarePants sees it the way it looks when they do those live action segments.

Ren & Stimpy see it as a cartoon, but they see it in the style of those super gross closeup shots. "It's hiiiiideous, Stimpy!" "I'm scared, Ren!"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

I’m not an authority on this but I believe that objectively a character WILL look like “that” but when viewed subjectively they look like “this”. So, in short, to answer your question: yes, but not really. I hope this helps.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Centaurworld is a pretty good example of characters being aware of their own animation style as one character slowly transforms between the two.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Final Crisis had some of this with Thought Robot superman. Iirc they included 3D glasses so you could see Superman reach out to you in our realm one he gained concession of us. Check out some other Grant Morrison works for trippy meta fiction (pls read Animal Man)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Do you see other people realistically, or like in Euclidean Space?

[–] SomeGuy69 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

There 2D is like our 4D. The same way we can't see 4D, they see 2D as normal and 3D is unachievable to them as for us 4D. Same with the style. They see themselves at the same style as what is normal to them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Much like ourselves, they see each other in the cartoon style of their universe.