Like the lion’s share (Thundercats joke) of internet terminology repeated ad nauseam by angry people, the feeling becomes the term always just kind of existed in the discourse by virtue of how frequently and confidently it’s used. Seeing CalArts thrown around so liberally and with so many irrationally strong emotions attached to every tweet, thread and rant video this announcement spawned got me wondering if we actually have an agreement on what CalArts even is? What it means, where it comes from, what qualifies as it, and so on. The Image that launched a thousand angry posts The recent online shitstorm that was the announcement of Thundercats Roar ( ) ignited a whole new debate and reevaluation of the pseudo-term, as well as igniting the fury of a lot of older men towards a kids show that is explicitly not for kids but that (thankfully) is besides the point.
CALARTS is an invented term by animation fans attempting to affix a label to the style of the current era, but has no doctrine, guidelines or proponents and is very much a nebulous critique with no agreed upon definition beyond the examples we ill-advisedly label it because of that lack of a definition.
If you are even tangentially aware of the animation discourse that is debated/fought tooth and nail on twitter on a nearly hourly basis, I am firstly sorry for your misfortune but am also confident you have heard the nefarious portmanteau of “CALARTS STYLE.” Levied exclusively against new television animation premiering on Cartoon Network, using CALARTS as a critique became a ubiquitous shorthand for bemoaning the perceived unoriginal and uninspired aesthetics of new animation, essentially accusing the industry of making all cartoons looks alike nowadays.