LS Mark's Catching Up Review (SPOILERS)

 (SPOILERS)


(GO FUCKING WATCH HIS CARTOON ON AN INCOGNITO TAB)

Oh boy

cartoon critics making anything

critics making anything


There are people that follow their dreams and try to make the cartoon they'd like to see in their minds like with Monkey Wrench, Eric from Tornada, and even Helluva Boss to an extant

and then they're people that can only rip shit apart and feel as if they have no choice but to rip shit apart instead of making shit because easier so to speak

those are the people that in my opinion, make some of the worst independent work on the planet

especially if it doesn't land


You got Doug Walker making his crummy Demo Reel show 

Then you had The Insidious Mr Enter and his equally shitty Growing Around series 

followed by DaftPina's Saturday's Off cartoon

These series were all failures and despite some of them not coming to fruition, this goes to show that you'll have to make something equal to your gross entitlement on what a series should be if you want your work to be revered

otherwise it'll just be a total mess with more to make fun of than the content you criticize

It's like criticizing how a cook makes fillet mignon and then trying to make a fillet mignon without the sauce, spices, or even the cut of beef that makes people hanker for it in the first place after bitching about how better the minimum wage worker has it because you don't have a job and access to the ingredients despite trying to put your money where your mouth is at no avail


You have Doug Walker trying to diverge away from The Nostalgia Critic by making an Always Sunny like show without the karma or even better production value and mostly it's just corny pop culture references that no one will get, the same shit that Doug rants about in his "comedic" reviews

Then you have Enter, the less I say about him as a person the better, but lets just say his show idea and concepts amongst the art for his stuff is boring. It's safe, bland, and unappealing to look at. Why is he an animation critic if he has terrible taste in art styles

and then you have DaftPina's show,      enough said


However, the lineage of Critics trying to make their own stuff doesn't stop there

we have a new contender that surprisingly relies on a lot of internet talent to pedal his crummy cartoon

and his name is LS Mark

Judging by the lack of respect I have for these guys, I can safely say I can't stand Mark

Not only are his tastes in animation crummy, but his takes about animation really make me scoff

he doesn't like when cartoons get off model (Much like Alex Hirsch)

he values writing over animation which I consider an antithesis on the visual medium as a whole

and it sounds like he's always discontent about something which makes his reviews a bore and chore to get through


So you can only imagine how I feel about his new indie pilot, Catching Up

Wow, another blandly named cartoon, 

wowzers

he's not even trying to separate himself from the other pilots

I can see Growing Around and Catching Up sleeping together like 2 twin babies in a bed

but seriously, this cartoon isn't the worst thing I've ever seen, it's just mediocre

painfully mediocre

This pilot comes from a guy that constantly rags on SpongeBob's new animation "distracting from the writing" but somehow his boring slog of a sea of long awkward pauses with nothing happening distracted more from the writing

I almost contemplated clicking the X on my incognito tab in order to stop watching it because it felt like a friggin movie 10 minutes in

I always felt like this would've been ok if it was 11 minutes long

and some idiot would say "Oh then he'll have to make everything fast paced and that'll ruin his vision and be annoying" when Courage The Cowardly Dog already has episodes with atmospheric pacing and it managed that with a 11 minute running time

The Courage episode, A Beaver's Tale, is a premiere example of how to have this type of pacing in a cartoon and not have it be boring

For most of the episode, we don't even know who is causing the flood and Courage drifts the desolate town of Nowhere to find who is causing it and most of the time it is told with no dialogue or any other noises, until Courage finally finds The Beaver making the dam and pesters him to stop until he reveals why he's the way he is

It was atmospheric, short-film esque, and still peaked my interest and other viewers because there wasn't billions of characters distracting from the atmospheric moments like in LS Mark's pilot

I'm gonna be honest, I'm sorta interested in some of the BG Characters in the short more than the 2 main characters which I feel were trying so hard to be like Wirt and Greg or Dipper and Mabel or Wander and Sylvia without wondering what made those characters enjoyable in the first place

It feels like the main characters were made just to see how hard he could try to make the characters likeable rather than trying to write interesting characters because while I do sympathize with these characters in their situation, it feels like they forgot to pack some interesting quirks into these characters let alone used some crazy animation to signify a personality for the mouse if Mark wants to "properly" utilize expressive animation

The Wolf seems more like a dipshit with no interesting qualities about himself other than he's cynical and the first one in the room to notice that something is off

But he's boring, no wonder no one would ever hang out with him. I get that they're trying to have him be usually cynical until he sees his unlikely friend be abused by those 2 girls, but there's nothing I can say about his personality, what he likes, or even his interests let alone any faults he has

If they're trying to have a story about a cynical character who has a genuine reason why no one would ever be his friend except for 1 person, then I could imagine

and it seems like they're trying to do that but there's nothing that makes the wolf character stand out let alone with no comparison to other characters similar to him like Benson, Squidward, Wirt, Dipper, or even Shrek

I can see a Shrek dynamic going on where The Mouse is Donkey and The Wolf is Shrek except it's not interesting enough for me let alone others to get invested in

There needs to be more of a reason why The Wolf has no friends (and it could be communicated indirectly as well)

Is it because he's a cynical bastard
Is it because he can't relate to anyone
Is it because he is more invested in his studies

Is it because he's a dork

Is it because he's pathetic

Is it because of his interests (lack their of)

You could have any reason for The Wolf to have no friends and it will give me an idea on why The Wolf has no friends or hates everyone

and if there's gonna be some idiot that'll tell me "they're planting seeds for the end" I'm just gonna say that it's not that evident because we don't know a bit more about The Wolf let alone to care about him, and it never changes in the end as Clay and Rob, the named of the Wolf and Mouse, are boring characters

There's no quirks that make them memorable let alone interesting characters

Just watch Gravity Falls or Over the Garden Wall for this character dynamic done right

Hell, watch the first Shrek movie


Now the designs and animation


The rigging is ok, but to me, it could be a hell of a lot better

and to do that they'd have to improve on these crappy designs


I know there's a group of nutkisses who will defend Mark's mediocre art, but I don't care

The designs are underwhelming

I couldn't even tell that Clay is a wolf, and Rob's design (The Mouse) pisses me off

it gives me the vibes of OK KO Sonic and Tails, which can look very underwhelming in certain angles despite those versions coming from a better show than Catching Up

The Mouse's design is bland, it feels like they're trying to capture the aura of KO, Seasons 1-4 Spongebob, Sonic, and Steven Universe without the charisma or pizazz

They make him out to be an overly optimistic character but they're not very engaging enough for me to smile or frown with him

Hell, I think it could be more interesting if it was just the mouse and no Clay



Clay's design sucks

Like I said earlier, I couldn't tell this was a wolf, and it just doesn't feel like a wolf

It feels more like a cat or a basic furry species of unknown origin

I've just been informed that it's a cat, Where's his tail?

It's like he decided to try to make a wolf character, and then midway into production he then turned the wolf into a cat because he also wants his stuff to be as iconic as Tom and Jerry

the other designs are just eh

Stuff that I've seen better in stuff like Yin Yang Yo or Rocko's Modern Life

and too be honest, I feel the background characters are over designed as opposed to the main characters who should be getting that type of treatment



Now onto the elephant in the room


The Lighting

God damn, would it kill an audience member's trust if you toned down the brightness

I've been trying to conceive where the lighting begins and ends let alone why it had to be there in the first place

There's probably gonna be a nutkiss that says "It's a stylistic choice" only for shows like Gumball and even some Spindelhorse shows to have it as a stylistic choice better

also the former is trying to go for a cartoons filmed in real life aesthetic 

Gumball has an excuse where as Catching Up doesn't

And I don't care about what they do for an aesthetic

With the way something looks, you don't need a reason for something to look like something

Not every detail about a show needs to be a preconscious decision, but it's funny to me that someone like Mark bitches about Spongebob looking "weird for weird sake" and then has this weird lighting for no reason other than to impress a bunch of dipshits he doesn't know

The pilot would've benefitted if there were more solid colors with it's dramatic lighting like in My life as a Teenage Robot

This show is the best looking action show I've ever seen not just because of it's design, but because the dramatic colors are solid and don't distract from the silhouette's of the characters

You can tell that even while a building is burning down where Jenny and The Crust Cousins are in the scene


With Catching Up, I barely see the silhouettes and if I do then I'm lucky

also the lighting is very distracting

It distracts more from it's writing than what Spongebob does now, and I heard they're toning down the expressions these days so any retort out of Mark's ass would be yesterday's news at this point


Nevertheless, The lighting for Catching Up sucks and was one of the biggest complaints to even other critics of this pilot


Another aspect that bugs me is the inconsistent art direction


I'm well aware that Mark is highly inspired by Butch Hartman shows, hence why some of the designs remind me of The Fairly OddParents or anything Bob Boyle worked on in the 2000's

But one thing that bugs me is the inconsistent way the brows work in Catching Up

It's as if Mark cant decide if he wants the characters brows to be free form or organically attached so when he plays both lanes for the mouse it looks weird


and speaking of the writing, it is the most uninteresting high school Superbad Ripoff story where they go to a party and try to party and get drunk but it's boring, drawn out, and uninteresting, and don't do anything funny with the character dynamics except for a big with Zach Hadel playing a guard

for one line, not doing anything funny with him

Although this is possibly the only upside with this pilot I can think of, they don't do Zach Hadel justice by having him not do one of his wacky voices

It seems like they only got e celebs like Oney, Sr Pelo, and even Tomar just to do nothing funny with them

and don't forget, Dumbsville helped out with the songs

Yeah, that guy, the freedom of speech waving asshole who like being mean towards artists just because they made something that didn't go by his grimey standards

pray for modern day artists and creators these days


So yeah, LS Mark's forgettable story of no spice and pizzazz was boring as expected

and with how much his legacy of ripping shit apart, being overwhelmingly negative, defending the animation community despite their lack of originality and thought, and also ruining discourse about animation for future generations to come, it makes me wonder what people even see in him

I don't understand why people defend him, he's overly negative, harsh on everything new much like his whore ex girlfriend, has no idea about animation and the minds of cartoonists despite being on himself, and sucks the nuance about animation discourse and just sides with the popular opinion

Among other things, LS Mark can't draw to save his life, he's bad a recreating art styles, and mostly got his influence from Butch Hartman like previously stated

and even then he can be a bitch about it

Talk about complain about eating a subway sandwich you made



Anyway, lets review why LS Mark's shitty pilot shouldn't garner support in the future


1. Bad visuals
2. Long pauses for no reason
3. Terrible taste of aesthetics

4. Over blown lighting

5. Boring characters

6. Overdesigned character designs

7. Boring plot

8. Uninteresting qualities about the characters and plot
9. I gotta be honest I just can't get over how bad #8's elements are
10. Boring visuals

11. Doesn't take the opportunity to be a cartoon

12. Tries to seem nuanced but is as bland as tofu

I think you get the point at this point


LS Mark is a hack who can't draw to save his exploding heart


a lot of these rantsonas are like this

crossing their arms, can't draw, has the worsts tastes if not identical tastes, barely do any effort to watch the cartoons they reviewed, expect a squeaky clean character rather than a good one or an interesting one, and generally only care about getting a fillet mignon on their plate like the lions they are rather than caring about the chef who made it and their conditions

yeah, those guys, fuck them Go watch Rebeltaxi


and while I could just end it here and defame Mark because it's my blog and I do what I want

It is hard to at the very least put yourself out there and make a cartoon, especially since you've made a legacy just hating everything or just being a cartoon critic and trying to be the voice of what's good and what's not good in animation, however it comes with a territory since you do create and expectation to be better than the things you're ripping apart, and when you fail miserably it cracks a facade you try to hide that gives your fans hope in you

That's Catching Up for you

It's what should be his demo reel but instead is treated with so much more respect than actual good indie cartoons like Punch Punch Forever or even The Amazing Digital Circus

 

Do yourselves a favor

PLEASE watch Punch Punch Forever
PLEASE watch a Miles John Video
PLEASE watch Homestar Runner
PLEASE watch Bridge Kids
PLEASE watch a Marc M video
even watch Yo Mama if you have to

but please don't watch anything LS Mark makes unless you want to sleep early before 9 O'Clock



and as always, See you next time, hopefully