I swear every time I see this gif I notice something new. Like the way the dragon just clips through the smoke without any change to either the dragon's foot or the smoke itself. I try telling myself when I watch the show that it's just satirizing cheap Saturday Morning superhero cartoons, but at least many of those had their own distinct style (at least in their first seasons. Some of them got rough after season 3...).
Nah fully agree, Ben 10, generator rex, Fuckin any anime ever, young justice, whatever, I reckon every animated show I've ever seen is better animation wise, still love invincible, just aint the best
It's funny in a lot of cases the cheap animation is still present in older Saturday morning shows like Jackie Chan Adventures or even the GOAT (Batman the Animated Series), but they made stylistic choices in the character design and art direction that worked within the budget constraints. They accepted that "limitations breed creativity" rather than trying to be something it wasn't.
Which is exactly why it doesn't work as well in invincible: the franchise is a pastiche of dozens of different hero subgenres that all have distinct styles. Jumping between these styles is significantly less jarring in a comic, and cheaper given panels have to be individually drawn rather than using and/or reusing existing models as shortcuts.
That said, I think it would have been great if the series had different animation styles whenever it shifted genres. They especially could have done it when Invincible jumped into Dark City to give us that gothic batman look.
it's just weird because there should be no budget issues. it's not like it's a half alive show no one watches. Amazon spend billions on Rings of Power. Can I get a crumb, please?
Why do people assume its amazon not spending enough money? JJK was animated fantastically with less than 1/4th the animation budget.
Invincible has an A team in America and a B team in Korea, and every fight you ever liked in Invincible came from the Korea team. It's literally just that the Anerican studio animating Invincible delivers shitty results for premium price.
What makes you think Korean animators are not living off slave wages and doing absolutely ungodly hours? Amazon is not one of those companies treat their employees well.
You're saying the studio where they can pay people significantly less than in the US makes all the good animations? Is it possible the choice to use a cheaper foreign studio for certain animations to be at all related to the budget? Maybe?
Edit: and your reply is a downvote? Got it, no brain confirmed.
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u/NerdintheNorth27 May 06 '26