This is a style that has evolved out of fear. Fear of standing out from the other artists. Fear of executives. Fear of style. Fear of making a statement. This fear wove its way into the fabric of the whole business and each animator and cartoon artist. To this day, when I draw in my own style, I have a nagging guilish that I have a drawing is somehow undermining every rule of modern animation. Like there is an invisible Ranger Smith looking over my shoulder every minute and grunting each time I do something fun. In the cartoon business, it is considered irresponsible to do anything fun or natural to cartoons.
This was truly the case during the 1980s. Itwas so wrong to make not just a stylish drawing, or an expressive one, but even a decent one! A pose that was well-constructed would have considered completely radical and you could get fired for it. Everyone lived in suchfear of standing out that they succumbed to the ridiculous practice of tracing model sheets. Model sheets that were ugly drawings to begin with. - and no one was doing anything to change this crazy situation!