can the star trek animated series be reanimated?

[tmosler]

Hi i just had a quick question. I just came up with a wonderful idea. Since the star trek animated series had pretty good stories but most people disliked it due to it using bad animation. Why cant for a future blu ray release CBS just reanimate the series with top of the line animation while still using the same stories and voices by the actors. So is this possible and whats everyones thoughts on this?
Also I hope its okay I put this thread in the star trek original series catagory since i couldnt find any star trek anmated series catagory.

 

[Dukhat]

I think it would be better to make a new animated series instead of reanimating an old one.

 

[boobatuba]

I disagree with the premise that TAS "had pretty good stories." Most of them were abysmal, IMO.

 

[Vanyel]

Expense. Animation is not cheap. I don't think it's as expensive as cleaning up and transferring film into HD, but starting from scratch would cost too much. I agree a new animated series would be the way to go, if you're going to be starting from scratch anyway.

 

[Vanyel]

Didn't there used to be a TAS forum?

 

[Redfern]

Alas, no, there wasn't. various members have asked for one, but it was decided (so far) by the board operators that there would not be enough "traffic" for a dedicated sub-forum. And, since the animated series is presented as a continuation of the "five year mission" and not too much was changed (other than the medium) it made sense to keep animated series topics under the umbrella of the original series section.

Now, ptrope, moderator of the Trek fan art sub-forum has toyed with the idea of recreating a single episode from the cartoon using digital model animation in sync with the original soundtrack. He thought "The Time Trap" might be one of the more intriguing choices since it would depict various Enterprise sets, area of a Klingon ship and a council chamber aboard an alien vessel. It would also present the opportunity to show a variety of aliens including Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans, Andorians, Tellarites, a Gorn and a few others not seen in the original series like an aquatic female and an insectoid.

And while he has built sets for these locales, Fate has dealt her cruel hand by causing at least two, maybe three disk crashes that wiped his work. Right now, the project is in extended limbo, but feel free to ask Ptrope any questions. Let me search for his ongoing thread and I'll provide the link.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Relayer1]

This cropped up a few weeks ago in another thread.

Most people seemed to want it reanimated. Personally, I think some of the episodes could do with a few tweaks to remove some of the silliness too. The consensus also included the inclusion of remasters of the original versions in the box set so you can choose.

I think they could probably 'make' a couple of new episodes using voice samples from other episodes and TOS, licenses allowing.

 

[Redfern]

Ah, here's the thread in question!

http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=35124

Yeah, I threw in my two cents on occasion.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

The backgrounds in "Yesteryear" were great.

 

[Redfern]

Yep, impressive enough that when the original series was "remastered", the digital crew added a 3D creation of Spock's home town (we assume) to an establishing shot for "Amok Time" based upon the painting for "Yesteryear".

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Christopher]

I don't want TAS to be "reanimated." That's disrespectful to the original creation. Its animation wasn't actually bad, just limited. It was done in a style that was characteristic of the era in which it was made, and it was actually a better example of that style than a lot of its contemporary cartoons. Filmation's artwork may not have moved much, but it was generally more cleanly drawn and less error-filled than the work the other major US limited-animation studio, Hanna-Barbera, was doing at the time. And its background painting were beautiful, the best in the industry. I'd hate to see that artwork replaced by some generic 3D computer animation.

The only reason the FX shots were redone in TOS Remastered was because the optical techniques used at the time reduced the resolution of the film and made it unfeasible to bring those shots up to HD resolution. But since pretty much all of TAS is cel animation, the resolution and image quality should be pretty consistent throughout, so it would be an all-or-nothing kind of deal.

The only way I'd tolerate a reanimation would be if it kept the original look and feel of TAS -- the same background paintings, the same character designs and 2D art style, even the same shot composition and storyboarding to a large extent, just with more varied and fluid motion added and with errors corrected. (I think "The Time Trap," especially its first act, is fraught with animation errors and images that don't fit the dialogue. It could use some cleanup.) This might be doable. In the current Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles CG-animated series, there's a running gag of Leonardo being a fan of an old cartoon called Space Heroes, whose art style is an astonishingly accurate TAS/Filmation pastiche.

 

[milo bloom]

I say leave it and, in fact, I actually wouldn't mind seeing new episodes animated in exactly the same style (sans true animation errors, of course), but with the same limited movement and designs.

My five year old loves it, we have all the Trek shows in our instant queue on Netflix and he asks for the Trek "with the monsters" (since they have more aliens).

 

[Redfern]

Well, obviously, such a project would likely never be done on a professional, commercial level. But, Christopher, do you honestly disapprove that much of Ptrope's opportunity to try such as a personal, recreational endeavor? D*mn...that's "cold"!

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Christopher]

If he wants to do it, fine. He has every right. But I'd never want it to be issued as a "replacement" for the real thing.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

If anything, I'd rather have the incidental music redone than the animation. There seemed to be so few cues they had to choose from.

 

[mb22]

I say leave it and, in fact, I actually wouldn't mind seeing new episodes animated in exactly the same style (sans true animation errors, of course), but with the same limited movement and designs.

My five year old loves it, we have all the Trek shows in our instant queue on Netflix and he asks for the Trek "with the monsters" (since they have more aliens).

http://www.danhausertrek.com/AnimatedSeries/NewEps.html

 

[Christopher]

If anything, I'd rather have the incidental music redone than the animation. There seemed to be so few cues they had to choose from.

I love that music, but I wouldn't mind hearing it supplemented with music the same composers did for later Filmation shows like Space Academy, Jason of Star Command, Flash Gordon, and Blackstar.

Sometimes I wish that Filmation had gotten the rights to do a second animated Trek series in 1980, something following up on TMP and using its designs. It wouldn't be the first time Filmation had revisited the same franchise; they did one Batman series in '67 and another one a decade later (this time with Adam West and Burt Ward), and in the '80s they made some lame attempts at reviving their live-action superhero shows Shazam and Isis in animated form. But generally the quality of their animation in the late '70s and early '80s was considerably better than it had been when they'd made TAS in '73-'74, and the music had gotten richer and more impressive. And it would've been nice to get some more TMP-era adventures. An animated show could've done a lot with the alien crew members only glimpsed in the movie.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

If anything, I'd rather have the incidental music redone than the animation. There seemed to be so few cues they had to choose from.

I love that music, but I wouldn't mind hearing it supplemented with music the same composers did for later Filmation shows like Space Academy, Jason of Star Command, Flash Gordon, and Blackstar.

Sometimes I wish that Filmation had gotten the rights to do a second animated Trek series in 1980, something following up on TMP and using its designs. It wouldn't be the first time Filmation had revisited the same franchise; they did one Batman series in '67 and another one a decade later (this time with Adam West and Burt Ward), and in the '80s they made some lame attempts at reviving their live-action superhero shows Shazam and Isis in animated form. But generally the quality of their animation in the late '70s and early '80s was considerably better than it had been when they'd made TAS in '73-'74, and the music had gotten richer and more impressive. And it would've been nice to get some more TMP-era adventures. An animated show could've done a lot with the alien crew members only glimpsed in the movie.

I think I remember their Lone Ranger and Tarzan series from around 1980, if those were indeed by Filmation. Pretty good animation by the standards of the time.

 

[Christopher]

I think I remember their Lone Ranger and Tarzan series from around 1980, if those were indeed by Filmation. Pretty good animation by the standards of the time.

Yes, those were Filmation's work. Tarzan was from a few years earlier, but was still on the air as part of the same block as The Lone Ranger in '80 plus Zorro in '81. By that time, Filmation was using more elaborate techniques like rotoscoping; instead of just reusing static poses, they had more dynamic action sequences that they reused over and over. This was still the case when He-Man and She-Ra came along a few years later, though by that point the original Filmation composers had left.

Most Filmation shows are on DVD now, but unfortunately their Tarzan isn't, because Disney holds the DVD rights to Tarzan in animation and they didn't want the Filmation show competing with theirs, or something. Which is a shame, because Filmation's Tarzan was one of the most authentic adaptations of the Edgar Rice Burroughs novels that's ever been done -- quite possibly the most authentic one ever done for television, aside from the toned-down violence.

 

[Redfern]

Didn't Filmation produce an earlier verson of "The Lone Ranger", one that aired in the latter 60s making it one of Filmation's earliest efforts? Or was that another studio?

Sincerely,

Bill