January 31, 2008
There’s another brand-new feature at J. Cart. Overanal. — actual bloggish-type links to other sites. Astounding!
For our first Ex Situ, we’ve got two links on the same theme: skeletons of cartoon characters.
Artist Michael Paulus has rendered what he imagines the skeletal systems of various cartoon characters would look like: >Catena Ex Situ
Korean artist Hyungkoo Lee did one better. He made actual sculptured skeletons of some classic characters. Be sure to check out the pencil sketches, too: >Catena Ex Situ
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ex situ | 
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Posted by The Editor
January 29, 2008
This is one of the finest (and longest) submissions from the old archives. And we are not just saying that because it was written by the Editor’s wife way back when they were still dating.
Contributed by Rachel M.
Mulan may at first glance appear to be quite revolutionary in comparison to the traditional formula for romantic tales which Disney has been known to employ. After all, it is the heroine of this film who ends up saving the lives of all the major male characters, including not only her love interest but also her father and the emperor, not to mention the whole of China. Mulan is not one to pass out from a prick of a spinning wheel spindle or a bite of a poison apple, into a sleep from which only a kiss from a handsome prince can wake her; she grabs a sword and joins the army. Clearly, this is far from just another Cinderella story. Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | 
Mulan, from the archives, gender, the female gender | 
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Posted by The Editor
January 27, 2008
There’s a new feature here at J. Cart. Overanal., and it’s called Mini-Analyzations! We’ll throw these up a few at a time. These below are all from the old archives.
Again, don’t hesitate to send in your own.
- I guess it’s worth mentioning that of the 101 dalmatians, the minority of them had blue collars. This has implications ranging from gender discrimination (the color of the collar is associated to the character’s gender) to socio-economic generalizations toward blue collar workers.
- Contributed by Fawzi
- In Robotech, haven’t you noticed that the RDF is considered a defense force? Only Japan has a national defense force, and since the show was animated in Japan, it would be obvious that they would be a defense force. If the show was animated in the United States, they would be the Robotech Army.
- Contributed by Seprihoth5
- If you will note at the beginning of The Simpsons, the “Simps” part is visible before the “ons” part. This is undoubtedly a reference to the word(s) “simpleton” or “simple-minded,” etc.
- Contributed by Peter I.
- In Transformers, all the bad guys were some kind of flying object and the good guys were some type of vehicle.
- Contributed by LUVMYHALEYBUG
- The native country of Boris Badunov and Natasha Fatale, Pottsylvania, is basically a combination of the extreme American stereotypes of World War II Germany and Cold War Russia.
- Contributed by The Editor
4 Comments | 
101 Dalmatians, Mini-Analyzations, Robotech, Rocky & Bullwinkle, The Simpsons, Transformers, from the archives | 
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Posted by The Editor
January 24, 2008
Contributed by “PRomanIV”
I read in one of the dozens of over-analyzations on this site that Japanese “children’s” anime has a tendency to allow a bit more violence than western cartoons. This got me to thinking: Have you ever noticed just how ridiculously far Voltron (the original, I’ve never seen the new one) goes to insure that NO ONE DIES.
I’m doing this from memory, but let me site the examples I can think of:
Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | Voltron, anime, death, from the archives, violence | Permalink
Posted by The Editor
January 24, 2008
Contributed by The Editor.
When Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? first came out, it was firmly established in each episode that the ghosts, monsters, etc. were always fake. But, in subsequent incarnations of the show, the preternatural began to become much more commonplace. Compare the rubber ghosts of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? with the “actual” ghosts of The Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby-Doo. It appears that adding the “actual” ghosts was another attempt to add new life to the franchise, following the disasterous addition of Scrappy-Doo to the list of characters. It is also worth noting that in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, all of the monsters are fake. Even though this series was produced after The Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, it takes place before it, when the monsters were still people in costumes.
1 Comment | Scooby-Doo, from the archives | Permalink
Posted by The Editor
January 24, 2008
Contributed by Emily M.
I noticed that nothing has yet been posted about My Little Ponies. In my opinion, the MLPs are definitely living in a lesbian separatist colony. I’ll look primarily at the movie (I don’t remember what it was called…probably just The My Little Pony Movie or something. The plot revolves around this evil purple stuff that threatens to destroy their little village). First, all the My Little Ponies are female. No males appear at all until later in the movie, when they consult this elf guy, and then later when the brother of Megan (the female human heroine arrives. When these male characters appear, the sexism surrounding their interaction with the other female characters (the human boy acts braver than the girls and scoffs at them, and the male elf guy is their source of advice and wisdom…interesting, since he is practically the only male character, that this would be his role) is disappointing, but a lesbian feminist theme emerges nonetheless. As the movie opens, we see the MLPs’ happy little world…all female, adults and young-’uns living together communally. Interestingly, there are often “baby” versions of the same pony sold in stores. This would support the theory that the ponies reproduce by parthenogenesis, an asexual reproductive process that would result in the same genes in the daughter as in the mother. And, due to age differences within the colony/commune, reproduction is probably going on. The ponies are very happy and supportive of each other. Soon the movie’s villains are introduced..a witch and her two daughters! Here, as well, we have all-female characters in a close-knit (though, because they’re evil, dysfunctional) family relationship! During a song-and-dance routine, some male relatives are mentioned, but disparagingly. It’s an all female world that we see (well, almost). Oh, and in one of the shorter MLP videos, during a part of the song that mentions “wiping away tears” or somesuch, one pony affectionately licks another’s face. I think more analysis is needed on the phenomenon of lesbian-feminist My Little Ponies.
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5 Comments | My Little Pony, from the archives, homosexuality, the female gender | Permalink
Posted by The Editor
January 24, 2008
On the approximately 10th anniversary, Cartoon Over-Analyzations has risen from the grave in the form of a blog. Here’s how it will work: starting out, I’ll begin posting “classic” over-analyzations from the old site every so often. Hopefully, before I run out of those, all of you out there will have started submitting new ones to overanalyzation AT gmail DOT com.
Now, it’s been about six years since we were last on the grid, so there should be plenty of fodder for new over-analyzations. Are there existential dilemmas in Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends? Does Brad Bird’s oeuvre contain creepy Objectivist subtext? Is there a Lorenzo Music/Bill Murray Ghostbusters-Garfield conspiracy? Were Paw Paw Bears simply evolved Snorks with a totemic religion? Or maybe Scooby and Shaggy, like, totally smoked weed, man. These and other questions require more than careful analysis. They demand over-analyzation.
4 Comments | blathering blatherskite | Permalink
Posted by The Editor
