[foxfired]

800 is a huge achievement. But I have to admit, around 2011 I had completely given up on the Simpsons. Story and content aside, they did something with the audio. The quality of the voice is so clear that it sounds un-natural. You can see the same effect on many shows around that time. The voice is disconnected from the background music and sfx.

Anyway, they also improved the way the characters are drawn so much that it lost it's crude nature.

[WalterBright]

> they also improved the way the characters are drawn so much that it lost it's crude nature.

Computers.

I, too, liked the rawness of the earlier hand-drawn ones.

[Sateeshm]

The cell layers constraint led to better art. The detail in the background was minimal and the artists world compensate for it by interesting framing and lighting. Go back and watch one fish two fish or the black widower episodes from early seasons - just incredible animation.

You can see the number of lines drawn go up like crazy around season 10 or so, making it feel less realistic. Coincidentally, the writing also started to get worse around this time.