The Art Evolution of The Simpsons

[@EmployeeAMillion]

I mainly wanted to make this video to see if there’s still discourse around the way The Simpsons looks now. There’s a pretty sharp divide between fans who don’t mind how clean the animation has become, and those who preferred when it looked rough and unusual (or simply associate it with better times). It isn’t a topic that completely overlaps with the writing quality either, because I’ve heard people who like the HD style but are still dismissive of those episodes. Personally, Season 3 has my favourite animation of the show, but I’d still say 6 & 7 are my favourites for jokes and stories respectively. I’m sure some of you can relate to that conundrum, your favourite-looking season not necessarily being your favourite overall.

[@AJPiersonToonParadise]

Season 3-7 I think have the best designs for being refined and cleaner. Season 1 was definitely rough around the edges, and Season 9 onwards looks TOO refined. Dale Hendrickson is another overlooked member and contributor.

[@strawberrysoulforever8336]

As I said yesterday, I was fine with the animation until they switched to computer animation. It just doesn't feel the same.

[@AlkisenSuper]

The HD animation is often so "perfect" that it's boring. The old animation is so imperfect that it's perfect.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

At least you see it.

[@aprilpheles3912]

it's called cooperate Judaism art.

[@mart5610]

The HD animation still looks good. looks just like The Simpsons Movie but suited for TV

[@danielsmokesmids]

​@@aprilpheles3912it has nothing to do with Judaism Kanye. Take your meds

[@Nickersons-Theme]

I've never liked "HD" Simpsons, the older animation has so much more charm imo

[@Ihasnotomato]

The large pupil things is so funny to me because it's actually my favourite style despite what they wanted. Something about them just made them look so cute and endearing, and helped with that 'slightly daft' look. That, and tons of my favourite episodes had them lol. RIP large pupils.

[@seanicus100]

Yep. Big pupils make Bart and Lisa cuter, and those two characters are always funnier when they seem more childlike (I hate when Lisa is written to be too mature). And it makes Homer look more childlike which simply what he is. A big child. And "slightly daft" as you said.

[@MegaMet98]

I love some bigger pupils. As if used properly, they can be good. But having the big pupils when combined with a charater going wall eyed, it's more effective.

[@KyleRDent]

I'm a sucker for off-model animation. It looks more expressive and interesting to me, and it makes creating fanart much easier because there's less pressure for perfection. So long as you get Bart's spike number right, of course 😄

[@mart5610]

yikes if youre a sucker for bad animation look up the anime Sonic X. the first episode looks very good but the rest of the show gets very off model and there are constant animation errors everywhere

[@bocolatebhipbookie]

im a sucker for that early beavis and butthead / rugrats roughness with boiling lines n shit. it reminds you an a actual human was behind the creation of it. art is not supposed to be perfect and sterile.

[@tomlazoriksuccessfitness]

I’ve always said that the hand drawn animation from The Simpsons is incredibly underrated as far as animation on the whole goes. Some of the most beautiful moments the medium has to offer. Great video, my friend!

[@pablocasas5906]

I think the animation of The Simpsons often gets overlooked, even one on my favorite Simpsons writers, John Swartzwelder, said that he thought of the Simpsons as a radio show in that you could hear the audio without any images and still find it entertaining, but I disagree with him, without the wonderful visual work form the first 8 seasons I don't think the show would be as memorable as it is

[@tomlazoriksuccessfitness]

@@pablocasas5906 totally agree, and interesting he thought of it that way! One of my perfect examples of the majesty of the animation comes from the first treehouse of horror. Absolutely gorgeous

[@Waltman13]

Seasons 4-8 are my favorite era of the show animation-wise. Aside from it being animated on cels which is already a plus, the characters designs, backgrounds, animation, etc, had a perfect balance between looking consistent and on-model while still being simplistic and cartoon-ey like seasons 1-3.

[@SassyOnline]

6 deffo had the best writing 👌

[@gars129]

The late cel animated era was a pretty interesting one, because you really feel they had perfected how it looks. Much like most of Nickelodeon's shows it's a shame the 35mm was not preserved.

[@JonDan]

I've always wonder why Nickelodeon dont remaster their old Nicktoons

[@wheelzwheela]

Season 5 is like a thick leather wallet full of $100 bills useful for years. Current seasons are like a plastic dollarstore wallet filled with gift cards for a place you don’t want to shop.

[@thebatterymill]

I think you forgot to mention the period around Season 19 when the cel-like shadows were toned down and became what I see as proto-HD. Otherwise, awesome look into these art styles. I hope to see some analysis from more shows/franchises that have gone through changes in their animation.

[@NYRfan85]

Season 5 has my all-time favorite animation out of the whole series. The wacky animation we see in Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood, Homer Goes to College, and $pringfield just make those episodes even more hilarious. There's so many classic moments from this season that get amplified because of how goofy and silly the animation is. You can really tell the animators were having fun during that time!

[@SegaMario]

1:30 Man, the Ullman Simpsons' house has a hell of a lot of hallways.

[@Grim2]

7:03 - That's mainly due to telecine process. Teal was especially problematic for it, thus why Krusty's hair often appeared blue instead of teal.

[@tarvinneekomainitakaan]

Thank you for this well researched video. I've never known about how those Korean animation studios affected the visual look and style of The Simpsons (usually you only hear about the significance of Klasky Csupo and Film Roman), so that was definitely interesting. I had noticed myself that the character animation became a bit more stiff and the colours more bright in the last few cel-animated seasons, but I never knew exactly when and why this shift happened, so this video was informative on that subject as well. I have a feeling that some episodes from seasons 9 and 10 are still pretty close to the more expressive old animation style while others (especially on 10) have the slightly more stiff new one. Scrolling the list at 5:29 makes me suspect that the more old-school looking episodes of those years tend to be among the Anivision ones. I think the animation of The Simpsons probably peaked somewhere around season 4 (with highlights such as Homer's heart attack scene in Homer's Triple Bypass). I also love the look and character designs of seasons 5 to 8, but I might be biased because that's my favourite era in terms of the writing. I still find all the cel-animated seasons (up to 13) more visually charming than the later ones. Something in the show died when they went digital, and the sterile look of the 20+ seasons made it worse. Although the individual directors and animators can still make a difference by doing the best they can with this new technology. Speaking of that, I think Lauren MacMullan deserves a mention. She directed a bunch of episodes on seasons 12 to 16 and they really stand out visually from the others of that era in their use of camera angles and dramatic lighting.

[@KremBotop]

16:57 Holy cow you actually added "him"... That sequence really mimics the later cel era / season 11-14 style very well, though I wonder if the Graggle fad came after that episode entered production so they probably didn't have the chance to even consider putting / referencing him or something.

[@jacksonw4132]

I much prefer the rougher look to the earlier seasons, there’s a charm to it, when the animation gets too clean it just feels sterile and corporate

[@UltraEd14]

I'm a new fan and your videos are really well done! Your timing for editing is impeccable, and the research you do is awe-inspiring. You should definitely make this a series.

[@aaroncampbell80]

There is a very slight difference between Season 28 and Season 34 animation, outlines seem to be just slightly thicker in Season 34 as opposed to that of Season 28

[@the9thinning1]

definitely prefer the older animation style

[@user-jl7cz2pe6d]

16:57 Gumbly jumpscare

[@joetwodogs]

I hate the fact directors/animators end up going ‘safe and marketable’. There’s not a single person who doesn’t like older Simpsons because the animation was more expressive.

[@HarveyAndson]

Amazing editing and great video. But the newer seasons lean WAY more in to the off-model free-form style than the 2000s or 2010s seasons. It looks AMAZING now. It needed more credit

[@alam4359]

Yeah, there's these sequences in some of the newest Simpsons episodes that are so well fluidly animated that it's a shame that it doesn't get enough credit

[@XxDyneXxFreeEnergyx]

Season 1-10 animation is where it's at.

[@juord]

Always found it interesting how the designs in the TU shorts improved later on, especially when you compare the characters from the 87 to 89 shorts.

[@tiablue9106]

This is supposedly bc matt groening who was drawing all the storyboards had no idea how animation worked; he thought the animators would fix the character models to how they were supposed to look. So he gave them sloppy art and they animated them to look that way. At some point (ig after the first batch of shorts) he realized he actually had to draw them on model

[@juord]

@@tiablue9106 Honestly thought, the models of the characters from the Ullman Shorts were really just made to look that way until later on they finally became on model. Luckily animators working on The Simpsons would later have them be more on model while using an official character sheet like after Season 1 I assume. Since Season 1 and the later Ullman shorts look so much a like. Glad Klasky Csupo was able to fix that mistake.

[@acdh2971]

I thought I was the only one who noticed that they stopped drawing lines on the clouds! Once I noticed that, I couldn't stop unseeing it, there were actually some moments where the outline came back, like, I think in season 14's C.E.D'oh around the start they had a background where the clouds had the outline, but sadly it seems that it won't come back...

[@Brewart2012]

You should do these for other long running cartoons too, Arthur, South Park, Family Guy, Spongebob, Fairly OddParents, etc.

[@PotatoBeanimations]

STRIAN?!

[@andeeharry]

They said for years that Smithers colour change, was an animation error, but recently, the showrunners admitted they didn't want Smithers to be POC, because they didn't want to stereotype him. They did well with Heavy Weight champ, Drederick Tatam (sorry I got the name wrong), Carl, Bleeding Gums, Apu, Janey? Julius Hibbert, Officer Lou. I am sure they could have done it well with Smithers too

[@thebatterymill]

What is the difference between studios such as Film Roman/20th Animation Studios and Rough Draft/AKOM, as in what duties in animating the show do they handle?

[@AJPiersonToonParadise]

Film Roman and Klasky Csupo handle pre-production (storyboard, timing, model sheets) and AKOM and Rough Draft are the overseas studios.

[@PodnerIsCool]

Bro just solved the Springfield mystery in one sentence 2:18

[@Whiteman2.0]

I don’t care too much for the animation, as long as it looks alright and I like it it’s fine

[@ThymeHere]

Amazing video.

[@CCJAN.5]

Older animation of the shows make it feel more nostalgic, amazing. Now it’s like…….ehhh

[@drecion1]

Really interesting to know that they once switched out the black line art for brown

[@thenotrious]

the best way to tell if a Simpsons episode is new or not is that it's not funny then you know it's one of the new seasons

[@gnggng.]

1 thing I loved about the older seasons is the way they draw the backgrounds, it just looks soo eerily, lonely and peaceful at the same time if you remove the bright yellow characters away. Like the one scene of Bart and his friends just saw 'Principle Skinner' riding out of the shed lot on his Harley Davidson and riding down the empty road.

[@petofiarkwright3236]

For me telling apart older and newer Simpsons episodes is very simple, since our country had a different man voicing Homer Simpsons in the past, and due to his passing, and unfortunately in the future some others (Lisa's VA, mr. Burns' VA), I can tell apart when it's an older episode and when it's newer. I'm from Czechia btw :)

[@christophersfirstyoutubeca8751]

I know I'm probably alone on this, but the digital ink is my favorite art style from the show. It just feels like the perfect in-between to the nostalgia of the classic art style and the smoothness of the modern art style.

[@the9thinning1]

also i cannot stand Marge's voice in the current seasons. it just sounds so painful for the VA, even if its not in reality (i have no idea if it is or isn't)

[@jonahgoldstein9905]

It is reality, being such a long running show, it’s not her voice actors fault. Julie Kavner is getting older and she obviously doesn’t have the range she used to during the shows early seasons

[@TheSpongeBoy]

@@jonahgoldstein9905 That's the point. Since the show has been going on like forever, that's why some actors like Julie Kavner and Harry Shearer are getting very old and their voices are degrading. I'm worried that if it continues, some of the main cast will die, since we already lost some of the supporting cast including Phil Hartman, Marcia Wallace and Russi Taylor.

[@Anonymous_Anon882]

I actually prefer how Marge sounds now compared to the earlier seasons.

[@social6077]

@@TheSpongeBoyeveryone dies at one point you know. Just FYI

[@ArnoldTohtFan]

For over a decade now, _The Simpsons_ has suffered from the colour grading mania that infected the minds of Hollywood DPs almost 20 years ago. _The Simpsons_ is now plagued by ugly teal skies and yellows that just don't look right.

[@CrumBummin]

The first 20 years of this century just got forgotten about?

[@Scripture-Man]

Fascinating trivia!

[@santiagodiaz3358]

16:57 is that a real episode?

[@emmastrange5557]

Yes but the background character is edited in. Context: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graggle_Simpson

[@sebastienr7852]

where's that clip at the beginning from ? where two guys say the bitey line and high five ???

[@Jvnet10]

It's from the halloween episode from season 34.

[@sebastienr7852]

@@Jvnet10 Thanks a lot for the info. Really appreciate it.

[@dylancooper3690]

Why is Graggle in the clip at 16:57?

[@mrpiccionedivino5598]

Because this is a experimental season 34 episode called "lisa the boy scout" where they put every weird fan theory and what not. Edit: i goofed, graggle was edited in the episode apparently.

[@TheSpongeBoy]

@@mrpiccionedivino5598 This channel added Graggle as a joke. He's never in the shows since it was just a fake hoax.

[@OwlGal]

This is such a stupid thing to complement the video on, but I love that for the mug shots of the people who worked on the show, you put their names under the images but their names are all screencaps from the show

[@abhrntcrtre]

that teenage couch gag you included where the kids have a party i had completely forgot about i followed the artist that did it and was so excited to see them make a couch gag because i had followed them previously for their simpsons art spikermonster is a goat and was creating this teenage simpsons comic spin off and the fact they included it was soo cool

[@leroyhudson8952]

I watched an episode from season 25 the other day and Kirk vanhouten had pure grey hair in a background scene in the church and then it was back to the correct blue grey.

[@drebone1986]

I didn't have a problem with the digital art but when they did change some of the artists were clearly lazy cause the simpsons would find reasons to slow down in the first couple of seasons of it. Sometimes it'll do something and in the same episode the movement would be like stop animation almost. That's the most annoying of it, it's so clean that animation is simply look to the left and to the right with no personality. You lose a lot of the charm until recently animation wise

[@IndogaKirai]

I would like you to volunteer as an animator for 2 weeks. Let's see how much work your will get done. Professional animation is just as exhausting and back braking as programming and utilitarian works an often they are underpaid.

[@drebone1986]

@@IndogaKirai Them getting underpaid and me not being cut out for the job is not what I was addressing, obviously I want them paid and overpaid for overtime to get it done and to they credit a lot of it is done, I'm simply stating that the charm of the in-between motions was lost in the beginning because most of it was cut. Didn't say that they couldn't draw or it doesn't look like the Simpsons, just saying it was too streamlined and after 10-12 years of hand drawn and a sudden switch to digital I noticed. I didn't say mistreat animators or underpay they or that it was even the animator's fault, I just said at some point someone made a decision to just make them look left and look right and nothing extra and I was applauding the courage it took to finally get back to that standard of early Simpsons to prove that the animation could be done and even follow the older clips so seamless now because someone decided that it was necessary to do that again. No I don't want to volunteer to do a job I know I'll fail at immediately just to prove a point, I don't need to walk in an animator's shoes to have an opinion of art, I didn't even say I hated the art I just compared the art to before and one looks better IMO but it doesn't mean the other is worthless, I can love both things for different reasons

[@LuciosTwitch]

2:35 Brad Bird gave us that face?

[@Plushi_Stolas]

80's. 90's. [missing decade]. [missing decade]. And now!

[@danseth5775]

They Simpsons don't necessarily live in Springfield Missouri. The creators purposely leave it ambiguous , almost every US state has a Springfield somewhere in it

[@frankb5728]

It's my personal opinion as a lifelong Simpsons fan that the quality of both the writing and art has improved in the last 2 to 3 years. The shift from SD to HD was a rough one, it lost so much character because of the lacklustre animations. My favorite art style is still from around season 5.

[@Hemingway5000]

The writing on modern simpsons is absolutely atrocious 😂

[@frankb5728]

@@Hemingway5000 The writing has been improving. It's a Simpsons renaissance

[@HellsCaretaker]

The 90's Simpsons were still the best. The new episodes just aren't what they used to be. Too serious, more like a soap opera with themes that simply have nothing to do with The Simpsons. Just my opinion.

[@AngyBrit]

Homers Head used to look like a thumb😂😂

[@Gregorio-r8u]

Unitel video was actually in charge of transferring the simpsons until the middle of season 9, edit la was only in charge of the last ep of season 9 and the first 3 ep of season 10. I say that in edit la, it didn't change the animation that much. but in the tenth season they said to add 4mc which I think was when the simpsons stopped appearing from seasons 4 to 9

[@CatdogRockos8]

I defiantly prefer the earlier art from the 80s and 90s. The new art is good but the old art is way better in my opinion.

[@birdlegscass]

I'd gladly watch more vids like this

[@Tafuller]

it took me a while to figure out there was the virtual Springfield theme in the background

[@Akrenix]

16:57 GUMBLY?!

[@JonDan]

I like this deep analysis of Simpsons art evolution, new suscriber 🗿

[@ArtemKonstantinovich]

The 90s were my favorite Simpsons

[@OmegaFox09]

Personally I find the modern animations more stiff and dull. I found that the older animations seemed to be more lively and expressive

[@CrazyPangolinLady]

I do think the cut stuff from the pilot looks nice, in its own way. Complicated shots and smooth animation too. But it’s not the Simpsons way.

[@PanikGrafik]

Early 90s was best, no soul now

[@25COfficial]

1:07 there i am gary there i am!

[@mart5610]

I like the new animation. Sure there's less moments where characters look off model and glimpse of squash and stretch but overall it looks new and clean. Reminds me of how The Simpsons Movie looks. That was mind blowing to see back in the day and still looks good and its understandable why they would use that as a template for the animation in the HD episodes.

[@daveythesearcher]

I guess it nostalgia but I think it looked way better in the 90s than now

[@ShockwaveFPSStudios]

I don’t really care about the animation evolution, as I actually the think the episode structures within each era of the Simpsons are vastly different when analyzing them.

[@NoUploadJustComment]

Southern Missouri?

[@michelerich1590]

the old way was so much better. feels way funnier. the more realistic, it loses the charm. same thing happened with south park. the early animation was hilarious on its own

[@xdluck_xd7481]

I quite enjoy the art style of seasons 14-18

[@manuelloyo5545]

Too

[@kojisan1]

"Obviously the visuals are given a lot of thought and everyone involved wants it to look as appealing and presentable as they can, but it hasn't always been that way". >Goes on to show a clip of an older episode with better animation and charming visuals that exposes the blank, soulless stares of modern Simpson characters and robotic animation. I've heard enough. Good luck with your endeavors, son.

[@Soul-cry1]

Once the Simpsons switch to digital it lost all its charm visually, there's an organic flow that can only be done with hand on paper.

[@muppetism]

I’m surprised you didn’t talk about how they have been using puppet animation.

[@Andrew-is7rs]

90’s was the best

[@MinaSmol]

You have to be 13 or older to watch this show. :)

[@ShoegazeForever]

Neat

[@carnage0685]

cursed 80s simpsons

[@amitpangali]

Go over how south parks artstule has gotten worse. The stule clash with apl the old charaxters and the new stuff with the weird realism and extra detail

[@CheeseMiser]

That begining clip confused tf out of mr

[@Metalheadreaper87]

I only like the early seasons of the Simpsons.

[@druklimack2111]

90s rules

[@ThymeHere]

3 days 380 likws 4,82k subs

[@autumn702]

How long until they start using AI to completely animate the show? Will we look back fondly at this "sterile" era of the Simpsons?

[@someuser4166]

generally id say most animation from the 80s looks a whole lot better than any modern stuff but the simpsons is an exception. it looked horrendous back then...

[@Anonymous_Anon882]

Horrendous.

[@Caolan114]

17 minutes and It all circles back to "Nu simsons bad"

[@jessebake188]

Bros gonna blow up

[@Dutchneedmoney]

#0:11

[@NateTheGnat]

What's silly is the obsession with such minute details as pupil size. I don't think my 10 year old self could tell the difference between Bart with regular pupils and Bart with larger pupils. Let alone care about it. As long as the jokes are funny, who really cares? A show like Ren & Stimpy had the opposite approach where no two drawings could be the same and there was no "on model"... which I think is a superior way to make animation.

[@maximilianobartomucci6044]

Ren & Stimpy's production had a character model sheet/reference just as elaborated and strict as The Simpsons, it's just that it also covered situations where the characters deformed their proportions, and those deformations were as carefully planned as the standard models.

[@NateTheGnat]

@@maximilianobartomucci6044 when john k was in charge of the studio, he was very strict about the characters being animated like the old 40s clampett style cartoons. that's why the animation is so much more fluid than in the simpsons.

[@MsDisneylandlover]

Big fan of the show. I loved watching on Disney Plus..

[@MsDisneylandlover]

This show came a long way

[@j19n7200]

it should have ended in season 30

[@Kakascrot]

Yeah the animation ruined it for me, I preferred the janky inconsistencies, a lot of times it made it funnier imo

[@Chineseisntalanguageapparently]

80’s 90’s 2000’s no, 2010’s no 2020’s yea ig but you could’ve made it clear instead of being lazy with your thumbnail

[@box420]

They used to be funny but every since they started getting Political i cant wait them. Family guy is getting to that point now too

[@Thomas-yr3id]

The old animation is how I determine if an episode is gonna be good before watching, Simpsons went down hill as soon as that new cloud intro.....sadly

[@GrazzaD]

The newest HD animation is off model.

[@firstreality3867]

I didn't expect to see a hunky adult Milhouse and now I'm not sure what to feel.

[@jefferyjones8399]

I am a defender of modern Simpsons. I think it's still very good.

[@thenotrious]

💀💀💀💀💀

[@Wafflepants-dl8fk]

16:41 you say "FRESH" everyone yells "GARBAGE!!!!!!!!!!!"

[@terzofan55]

I prefer the old version back when it was hand drawn instead of on computers plus the old episodes are way more funny then the new episodes modern simpsons is rubbish apart from the halloween episodes they are fine