Little Golden Books vs A.I

 

Which is better? 

Reasons as to why I keep on being invented in the entirety of social media it's because I can't seem to get enough of anti-creativity spreading across all platforms seemingly to think it's an entity. 

This stuff really bothers me. I would fairly say it's even an insult to art and creativity itself. 

Take popular more meticulous and "real" characters. There's more of a grasp and personality balance to them. This is a Little Golden Book featuring Tom and Jerry (and Nibbles). The sky is gorgeous, extremely simple but made with heart and soul. It's also very appealing and has a great set of warm color choices.

Yes. This is an actual book, from Amazon. 

Now visual wise, these artifical books aren't that bad. I have to unfortunately assume that the colors are actually decently suitable, but the main problem is that it was all generated to purposely waste short extent amount of time. Seriously, that would be easy for me to draw that dog, it could take me less than an hour to fully design the cover myself. Ey, let me know if you guys want me to do that.

What's even more horrifying is the author's name. I can't actually tell if Dustin Sparks is considered a "real" person, and if it somehow isn't than you know your about to go into a wrong turn.

I can utterly prove it by another A.I book I found that was made for people with love by The Argenton Triplets. Right away, you can clearly tell that the description is kinda bad. To me, it feels like something that a wiki article could make. Not to help that they're using a very boring font. I guess I don't hate the concept of this book as it does have some inch of creative thought into it, but there are over thousands heck even millions of other books hand-crafted that have more amusing stories than this.

Let's take a break and focus on more fun characters, and more natural color schemes.

Bugs Bunny rarely had any Little Golden Books in his existence, but this one stood me out the most.

Even if there was a limited style of colors, and no background styling whatsoever, it could still look appealing and worth collecting anytime. I mean these were basically made back in the 50s to 60s.

Walt Disney's Seven Dwarfs Find A House

c. 1952

Now it's the so ever loving tale of the Little Snow White, yes my friends, you'll get to see a newly clean version of a brief explanation on the original Grimm fairytale starring Snow White with a more sober expression and the ever such envious Evil Queen who has much more jewelry and accessories than you think.

In my opinion, I definitely think this has some connection being artificially generated like Snow White's unusual hands, and that I did see this is indeed new.

Yep.

What also made the original Little Golden Books exciting was the art style. Many artists like Richard Scarry, Eloise Wilkin, Tibor Gergley, Al Dempster and much more have had distinct and likeable art we could relate and be invested into.

The main problems I have with these books can be summarized briefly.

This particular design choice. Very uninspired.

Lazy font, very straight, very hard to look at.

Some details look too wonky and disorganized. 

Some of the earliest illustrations in books are thousands times more interesting and unique.

Now you may think that I'm only judging these books by the cover, but that's because you can tell that what's coming next is a bunch of lifeless and more contrived illustrations. 

(NGL I kinda like how they're mentioning information on what disorder the protagonist has) it's honestly pretty cool and what actually makes books still have potential today)

You can easily find a very appealing and more authentic illustrated book from over countless websites and media. Sometimes just only looking at the cover to captivate some inspiration can be nice. 

But with all that bogus, books and especially other art forms still have the chance to be great again it's just not going to be as naturally dependable as it once was. 

Donald Duck Cartoons That Helped Paved A Way With My Ideas

 

There is 2 Donald Duck shorts that left me feeling inspired.

I remember watching these and it left me feeling interested in watching more of the classic Disney stuff. 

While I liked the Disney stuff as a kid, I'm not too keen on knowing everything about the company. What I admire about it the most is the old movies and the Illusion Of Life, the best book on how Disney's films and characters made an impact.

The first cartoon is called Goose I mean... Duck Pimples (1945). This cartoon I liked not for it's utter surrealistic themes, but it was also really funny with a very amusing pack of one-off characters.

This short opens with one of my favorite starts. I like the intensity of the atmosphere, I love the extra detail of the tree branches and the rain effect is really cool.

You may notice that this particular cartoon hasn't had a remastered version yet, but honestly, that's for the best, I like alot of the color palette and seeing Donald without his usual sailor cap is very interesting. 

Unlike some of Donald's more unamusing hits like his Chip and Dale cartoons, the beginning of this cartoon is already insane, Donald tunes in the radio and Donald imagines that the ape is behind him and right away it becomes dark and disturbing.

I love the camera angles given here, so as the expressions. Jack Kinney rarely made any Donald Duck cartoons, he mostly made shorts starring Goofy but Donald's facial expressions here are extremely well-drawn and fascinating. The characters we get are actually likeable, unlike some of the characters in a surreal movie Alice In Wonderland (1951), they actually move and have fast paced energy without being tediously slow. For example, Leslie J. Clark who is obviously a nod to Les Clark (Nine Old Men Fame) has alot of smooth and interesting movements and feels more cartoony, and has a distinctive design. I really like it. 

The other characters are fun too and are what I expect in a likeable abstract cartoon, straightforward and energetic. Pauline has some excellent poses and an amusing personality and H.U Hennessy is a really funny bad guy and Bletcher as always does an excellent job voicing the character. 

Later in the cartoon, we get different backgrounds with each given action scene and there's absolutely no sign of filler or flawed moments in the slightest, its honestly just all played for exaggeration and creativity. 

I also love the ending punchline, that little silly voice saying "Well possibly it was only your imagination" considering that Donald had to go through a few minutes of pure unrealistic possibilities. This was so different than what you usually see in Donald's cartoons and even his personality is different here. After re-watching it, it lead me to make my own version but this time with Dredd The Moose using his vivid imagination to meet with unusually different characters and silly scenarios.

First is Groucho, obviously inspired by Groucho Marx from the Marx Bros, and his witty charming humor. 

Secondly is the beastly Wolf, his fur is a reddish-brown tone. He's described as being bold and logical, while also being welcomed to any situation. 

And lastly The Jester who is simply a performer with tons of talents, in most instances, he grabs out a yo-yo, but still keeps accidentally failing over and over again, but The Wolf can't get enough it.

This isn't where it starts, but I did it anyway, hope you like it. 

For the next and final cartoon, is something a little more passable, but it was definitely drawn to me in alot of ways, like the title of the cartoon, Donald Duck and The Gorilla, and some of the scenes are actually really enjoyable. 

Just like with Duck Pimples which would come out a year later, this film has an introduction that's quite similar. It begins with a house, it's storming, and Donald alongside his nephews are listening to the radio. 

Like I said, this version of the cartoon I captured pictures to isn't entirely the remastered version, in fact it was partially on the House Of Villains DVD, but I prefer the colors to this print alot more.

Anyways, this film heavily focuses on the suspense that a gorilla has escaped the zoo, and the nephews worried that they are fully aware that it might break through their house. It's all pretty darn good so far.

Then completely obvious out of nowhere, Huey, Dewey and Louie decide that they would disguise themselves to trick and scare Donald. It's weird how the costume looks identical to the actual real gorilla we get to see later in the cartoon.

This is fresh for a short subject by Disney. I remember first watching this film and being heavily impressed by how creative you can get in only 7 minutes and a straightforward premise. 

This frame of Donald accidentally using the candle to burn the door knob is an underrated and stellar image. 

My favorite sequences are when the chase actually begins, especially when the gorilla tries to destroy Donald's table, it's fantastic.

I did feel like the ending to this cartoon was kinda embarrassing. Both the gorilla and Donald crying while the nephews use the tear gas is just not that clever to end it off. 

Still both these cartoons have alot of good qualities and have interesting premises and character development. 

So what I came up with was Dredd The Moose meeting with spooky, or horror novel characters.

The first one I created was a tap-dancing skeleton named Ol' Smoky. I talked about this character of mine in another post I made last September. 

Here's the link if your curious.

https://sngexplorationblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/halloween-is-coming.html?m=1

If you read that post, you'll know that I came with alot of more conceptual characters that Dredd will meet next.

The titles will be inspired by those classic Abbott and Costello movies.

What Makes Mickey Mouse Famous?

 

There's one considerable thing I kept in mind for a long time, and that's how impactful cartoon characters can be. 

Today I'm coming back talking about one of the most recognizable fictional characters ever made, Mickey Mouse. A few months ago I mainly talked about his evolutionary designs and different styles throughout his nearly century run. It was fun but as of now, what made him actually famous? 

When I was a kid I always found Mickey and his friends to be likeable characters, nothing more, nothing else. 

When I was a teen, I related to Bugs's more relaxed, witty and smart nature, his cartoons were more fun and the character had alot more personality.

Now I freely understood why Mickey Mouse had more importance than Bugs, it's mostly the marketing, and the simple appeal.

He's also more easy to draw than Bugs is, which is why so many people think he's a global icon. Anyone could pull off a little sketch and still resemble the mouse we all know and identify.

He's the symbol of "childhood" but so as over hundreds of other characters. But I can understand. He is the mascot of Disney and the animated films mostly the classics, were part of people's childhoods. I was that kid who adored watching Disney Jr. every morning so it makes total sense.

I think it has to also do with the classic 2D traditional style that influenced so many animators. 

You could do more with just a simple and sweet character but Mickey was just the all-around trendsetter, and anyone can relate to his good nature. 

When it comes to the other supporting cast that Mickey Mouse is most known for is Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto, but what was always weird to me was his girlfriend that looks nearly identical to him, still managed to be quite memorable and timeless enough even though I sometimes forget Minnie exists.

So the real reason is this, what started off as a simple little rodent with a likeable personality became famous for what he is today? Well from what I gathered, when Steamboat Willie was released it became the first synchronized sound cartoon ever to be made. He became a hit and later throughout the midst of the late 20s-early 30s, he became more popular and attainable by audiences. This set off a new course of other animation studios to do the same, like Warner Bros, MGM and so much more. 

Now in my opinion, Disney especially their shorts weren't always an influence. What started was a rabbit named Oswald, but somehow for stupid reasons, Universal stole the character and that's when Disney came up with a mouse and it all started from there. Another case was the impact of Bugs Bunny who reinvented the wheel of animation for a more comedic, witty and slapstick approach to the medium. 

If you agree with my overall facts then good for you because if you want to check out my post about Mickey's experimental but interesting designs from 1928 to today click this link.

https://sngexplorationblog.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-designs-of-mickey-mouse.html?m=1