Animation error
An animation error is an unintentional mistake made by the animators of a cartoon, wherein some detail is inconsistent with the rest of a scene or episode. This can range small details vanishing from a character for a couple of frames through to a character being shown in a place they can't possibly be. They are especially prevalent in cartoons from the eighties that were commissioned largely to sell toys rather than out of pure artistic desire.
Please note, these are distinct from continuity errors caused by scripting errors where the animators are clearly just doing as they're told, regardless of how little sense it makes. For example, Tork appearing as a Renegade in "The Gift" when he will later be re-introduced as a novice Guardian in "Guardian Academy" is a continuity error, not an animation error, as the script calls him out by name. It is also a different beast to intentional choices made by the producers that differ from the toyline, such as Scooter's head being consistently featured between the handlebars of his character model when on the toy it ends up unseen down by his front wheel, or the exaggerated flexibility of the Power Suits.
Challenge of the GoBots[edit | edit source]
Considering its' much-derided primitive animation and slapdash production Challenge of the GoBots perhaps has fewer animation errors than one would expect. Though due to the aforementioned style there was perhaps less for Hanna-Barbera and Wang Film Productions (to whom Hanna-Barbera outsourced the bulk of the episodes to) to get wrong; broadly speaking if a Challenge script didn't require something to be drawn the animators didn't draw it. Crowd scenes and the like are rare and when they do happen tend to be filled out with generics; it is not rare for an episode of the series to only feature a dozen or so characters, meaning it was easy for the animators to keep track. However, it's far from immune.
Notable recurring errors include:
- The character models for both factions' Super GoBot Porsche scientists - Professor Von Joy and Dr. Go - being swapped over, especially for non-speaking appearances.
- Along with Zeemon, both Von Joy and Dr. Go are occasionally portrayed as much smaller than other GoBots - which is ironic, as their toys were around twice the height. Possibly the animators were confused by this state of affairs.
- The number of fingers Cy-Kill has on each hand switches between three and five.
- BuggyMan is pictured alongside the Guardians on GoBotron - as these often come alongside Hans-Cuff it would seem the animators got him confused with the famously non-descript and also blue Night Ranger.
- Small Foot's eyes often disappear from her visor - this addition was not on the toy and were left off some of her character models, which is unlikely to have helped. That said, they most often vanish during longer shots, so it could just have been laziness.
For a longer list, consult the 'Animation and Technical Error' sections of each episode.
Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos[edit | edit source]
The Japanese series based on Machine Robo are generally of a higher quality in terms of animation. Part of this was due to animators generally being more experienced (and better paid) than those from Hong Kong at the time, though the most telling factor was likely that in Japan new episodes were shown once a week rather than five a week, leading to more time to perfect animation before episodes were broadcast. However, Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos was not without animation errors - though due to the show's habit of treating most of the cast as interchangeable generics it is harder to pin them down. As several characters are shown to be just one of myriad identical Machine Robo the show can dramatically kill off Skyline Robo then just have another Skyline Robo show up. Whether this is just the producers getting away with a universe with a really lax set of rules or not is open to interpretation, however...
Machine Robo: Battle Hackers[edit | edit source]
Battle Hackers is slightly better behaved with its' supporting cast, largely because with a regular cast of some thirty characters there is less space for them. However, like Revenge of Cronos it is not above such problems.
