California Institute of the Arts

underlying animation skills. As the decade progressed, the term came to refer to a cartoon aesthetic different from the one Kricfalusi described. Works that have been said to exemplify this version of the "CalArts style" include Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, and Over the Garden Wall, which were from CalArts graduates Pendleton Ward, Alex Hirsch, Daron Nefcy, and Pat McHale respectively, but also the works of many non-CalArts animators, such as Rebecca Sugar's Steven Universe, Ben Bocquelet's The Amazing World of Gumball, Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon's Rick and Morty, Domee Shi's Academy Award-nominated Turning Red, etc.
Detractors claim that because of CalArts' importance to American animation, it often inspires other styles of illustration. American animator Rob Renzetti questioned the use of the term, saying that it has been applied so broadly as to be functionally meaningless as criticism, and is instead just name calling. Adam Muto, executive producer on Adventure Time, has …