In the latest “old man shakes cane and yells at sky” news, Eric Molinsky , a former storyboard artist for Nickelodeon, has expressed his disapproval of kids these days and their new-fangled interpretation of the characters they loved growing up.
Molinsky, who worked for animation studio Klasky Csupo from 1999 to 2002 on Nickelodeon 90s classics like Rugrats, The Wild Thornberrys, Rocket Power, and As Told By Ginger, finds that many reinterpretations of the Rugrats characters as adults are frankly, too cute.
They’re too fashionable, too stylish, too good-looking, too confident.
Too cute.
These young people doing fanart in their free time, in their own style, of characters they loved, in fond tribute to the varied series Molinsky had a part in working on? To Molinsky, that’s unacceptable.
“It really bugs me — not the quality of the artwork, but the interpretation,” writes Molinsky. “We referred to them as lumpy babies for a reason. If we ever drew the Rugrats as being too cute, our executive producer would scold us. We were supposed to emulate the style of Eastern European animators... When I worked on " All Growed Up ," a made-for-TV movie where the Rugrats imagined themselves in junior high, I tried to keep the awkwardness in tact [sic].”
The offending artwork, which is not and has never been official artwork, features attractive reimaginings of young people in slick clothes, radiating a quiet sense of stylish poise and Millenial chic. Molinsky, a self-described Gen Xer, attempts to put his foot down and issue a canonical Word of God to these artists, who are simply talented people on the Internet with the gall to love these shows, not anyone hired to do anything official for any studio at any point, ever:
“So no. The Rugrats did not grow up to be fashion models or self-confident hipsters. Especially not Chuckie. They grew up to be average if not slightly lumpy looking people — just like their parents.”
You hear that, you nostalgic Millenials? Stop having fun the way you want to have fun! Don't like things in a way that differs from this one storyboard artist's position!
In a frustrated rebuttal, artist Celeste Pille posted:
“The artists cited here grew up as fans of the show and felt like spending some time ‘fondly remembering’ (the reprehensible behavior of ours you cited) the cartoon we liked so much by reinterpreting it through our own artistic lens. Me? I like fashion illustration. That’s what I like to do for fun. I didn’t ask Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Nylon, The Guardian, etc. to pick up my drawings and I certainly didn’t show up at your door and demand you accept my little drawings as your new look.”
She added, “So throwing a temper tantrum and publicly blasting fans of a cartoon you worked on is your mode of operation. Okay. If it interests you to know how others respond I’m happy to share that Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, is the one who saw my little grown up drawings and liked them enough to show them to Craig Bartlett, the creator of Hey Arnold. He sent me a really nice message saying he loved the drawings and was so pleased to see young fans grow up to carry on the love for the characters in their own way. I mean, you do you, but maybe consider protecting the legacy of your work by not bitterly picking on young people who do things for fun online.”
Now there’s a thought. If a Gen Xer shakes their fist at the sky long enough, but nobody’s around to see it, did it really happen?
