I'm just saying there's a kind of malaise to European animation. Japanese animation is fun, and has an inherent goofieness to it, no matter how serious it tries to be, and American animation tends to be more on the "happy ending" side of things. It's just a cultural thing. I don't tend to watch European animation because it tends on the "disturbingly eclectic" Nothing is ever very funny, except for Aardman's stuff ( which I consider BRITISH, not European ) French animation is really taking off, in fact I like it quite a bit, and there are students coming out of France with amazing talent.
In fact, you couldn't talk about great European animation without mentioning
ALLEGRO NON TROPPO :}
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Hiy1EZfVGYU
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1Ox2AyNUJiw& ... ed&search=
But European animation...for the most part...too dark, too abysmal, with a general feeling of "
we are doo-med!" Sorry, it's just the way I perceive it. Especially the old EASTERN EUROPE animation, from old Soviet Bloc countries. As much as I tried to like it ( all my artist friends seem to think that kind of stuff is cool ) it doesn't speak to me. And that's probably why I don't like anything by KLASKY-CSUPO, the American company (
headed by people from Eastern Europe ) that made RUGRATS and REAL MONSTERS, because the style is so repulsive and blatantly European (
not to say all European styles are repulsive, but Klasky's wierd wobble lines and distorted facial features make me cringe. The same goes for ED, EDD, and EDDY. )