After Tax Day, The Gloomers‘s Future Is Not So Sunny
If you ask me, it doesn’t seem fair to call April 15th the gloomiest day of the year. Sure, a little later today I have to send the federal government more money than I’ll spend on clothes, food, and action figures this year, but once that check is mailed, the pressure will be off and I’ll no longer twitch anytime someone says the word “deduction.” (Until next year, of course.)
Tax services monolith H&R Block knows better than most how grumpy folks get around this time of year. But they’re not just acknowledging it, they’re embracing it by sponsoring the premiere episode of a new animated web series, The Gloomers.
The first three-minute installment introducing this not-all-that-wacky wacky nuclear family (complete with McFarlane-esque talking pet) isn’t big on character development, and the only really funny joke revolves around their interpretation of an IRS tax agent. But while the pitch for the series is that the Gloomers have it worse than any other family, so far the worst thing to happen to them is that they had to pay their taxes. What a bunch of drama queens.
Of course, the truth is that the Gloomers do have it pretty rough, because their series is buried inside a social networking site designed to give recession-plagued Americans a space to complain about their problems. (People who don’t like Twitter because they think it’s just a bunch of people whining about trivial woes, meet your worst nightmare.) And while the first episode is being hosted on H&R Block’s web site as well, it seems like future episodes will only be available to members of the Gloomers network, thus completely eliminating any possibility of going viral.
The animation and character design, headed up by Flintstones animator Mark West, isn’t bad and with more opportunity to develop, this could become a web-sized equivalent to Family Guy. But the honest truth is that like most people, I find it hard enough to check Facebook and Twitter every day — there’s simply no way to add another social network to that. After today, I’ll probably never revisit thegloomers.com again, and thus never see another episode of The Gloomers. Unless I get the urge to complain about how many social networking sites I’m already on. Maybe then I’ll stop by again.
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Liz: thanks so much for your review of The Gloomers. As CEO of The Gloomers, I wanted to take a moment to comment on your article: When we did 14-34 age focus groups for The Gloomers, the majority of people said that The Gloomers was not just another Facebook. They told us Facebook was really not for the kind of “glooming” and discussion that will happen on The Gloomers. They said Facebook was largely for updating profiles, checking out friends photos and so forth. They were very excited with the promise of The Gloomers: interacting with the characters, having an animated Gloom Room where you can comfortably vent about anything with you friends.
The Gloomers is first and foremost about the cartoon. We believe the social network aspect of the website will cross-pollinate the cartoon and vice-versa. This is not just another Facebook wannabe. Time will tell whether the cartoon family catches fire. Poor economy or not, the focus groups said The Gloomers is a unique, fresh new place to go “get your gloom” out and laugh. As such it creates a very unique interrelationship between the social network and cartoon that no other TV show currently offers. Most television show websites are essentially a prop for the show itself, offering no meaningful content outside their core show. The tagline for our site is “Where Gloom Meets Laughter.” Our ambitious hope over time is that we take some of the sting out of gloom for people, and replace it/soften it with The Gloomers laughter. Our initial sponsorship with H and R Block and two other marquis sponsors out of the gate has me feeling bullish that we are on the right track.
Interesting, good post, thanks for the information.
You know, the main problem with “The Gloomers” isn’t the fact that it’s buried in a stupid business plan – it’s actually even simpler than that: the content is terrible.
It’s depressing to see such low-quality content (both in terms of animation AND comedy/writing), when there are no doubt thousands of unpaid, struggling animators and comedians who are capable of so much more.
The animation is static, the VO is flat, and the laughs are just non-existent. Seriously, you can’t “focus group” your way into a successful cartoon when the funny just isn’t there in the first place, and NOBODY is going to jump on board another wannabe social networking website when there’s no incentive.
Even if The Gloomers was the funniest cartoon on the internet (which it is not, by a long shot), it would be hard to pull in an audience to a website in which you have to register to watch cartoons.
I know this is pretty harsh criticism, but it’s frustrating to see so much money being thrown into talentless projects. Aside from the character design, which ranges from good to serviceable, the rest of the show is pure dreck.
-Sol
Can anyone explain that to me in layman’s terms?
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As the director of the animation that you are referring to, I find your criticism very honest. I don’t mind it because it makes me strive to be a better animator. The animation was done under a very tight deadline (3 weeks from start to end) with a very small budget. Could it have been better? Absolutely. I think, however, we did a great job given what we had to work with and it gives us a foundation to build off of for the future. I invite you to keep watching, because it will only get better from here.
I happen to be one of those “struggling animators” that you mention and I will always be grateful to Dan for giving me a chance when no other studios would.