Why Do Some Cartoon Drawbridges not Have Traffic Gates?

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This post is sort of modeled after Wiley2012's post viewtopic.php?f=14&t=230413&start=0 except his is about fire alarms, mine is about something else.

So cartoon watchers, especially the very observant ones, many cartoons feature or have featured drawbridges (not drawbridges used at castles, I mean roadway drawbridges as seen in coastal areas.) But some of them don't have traffic barriers/ crossing gates/ barricades, almost the same kind used at railroad/railway/level crossings.

Why don't some cartoons include gates or other warning devices like bells and lights on their drawbridges like on real drawbridges?

Is it because they're tedious to add/animate? Or could it be that the cartoon makers just don't find them necessary, find them redundant? Or as someone told me, maybe they're not considered. Or there's just no interest in adding them.

Some cartoons/animated shows do put warning gates on their drawbridges like:

- The Mask
- Buttons and Mindy (Animaniacs) (A swing-bridge is used, not a lifting bridge as seen in most other cartoons, at least all other cartoons I've seen with a drawbridge.)
- Batman the Animated Series (There were two episodes, one of them was "The Last Laugh)
- The Batman (but not until season 3 or 4, in the early seasons the drawbridge didn't have gates.)
- The Proud Family (the episode Suga Mama doesn't get her driver's license)
- The Fairly Odd Parents (Manic Mom Day, the episode Timmy switches bodies with his mother.)
- Hong Kong Phooey
- Rusty Rivets
- Handy Manny (One episode is Broken Drawbridge, the other is Firefighter Manny.)

These are some cartoons that didn't include gates on drawbridges:

- Phineas and Ferb
- Milo Murphy's Law
- Hey Arnold Movie
- Pokemon (they didn't in that episode about the biker gang in the Indigo Leauge episodes, but they did feature gates in a much later episode, actually a movie.)
- The Looney Tunes Show
- The Simpsons (at least not in that episode where Lisa takes the bus by herself trying to get to the Isis Exhibit at a museum.
- Groove Squad (movie)(A warning buzzer is featured in lieu of a bell)
- Popeye and Son

In the Disney animated series, Fillmore, the drawbridge doesn't have gates but does have flashing red lights, no bells or warning sounds though. Robocar Poli also features a drawbridge with signals but no gates. The signals have what look like Canadian crossbucks (the X-shaped railroad crossing sign) and a pair of lights, one solid green and one flashing red, and a bell or alarm.

Those are all the animated shows and movies I can remember that featured drawbridges. Please let me know if I'm missing any. And if you know anymore cartoons with gated drawbridges other than what I already listed, please mention them in the comments.

Drawbridges are less common in cartoons/animated shows than railroad crossings, at least that's what I think, although few cartoons feature both, whether in the same episode or more likely in separate episodes.

Something else about drawbridges, real ones usually come with red and white striped gates with gate-mounted lights, bells or alarms, and traffic signals, be them the red-yellow-green lights as used at street intersections, or some other signal (see the ones in Chicago for example!) And real drawbridges usually come with four quadrant gates, two that block entry to the bridge and the other two that block the exits (I believe the exit gates are supposed to go down once traffic has completely cleared off the bridge.)

Not that I'm complaining, and I don't really care if they don't do this, but drawbridges on cartoons that do have gates only feature two gates per bridge, although usually you only see one of them. And they usually block the whole road, both entering and exiting traffic at the same time. In The Proud Family, the gates only blocked entering traffic, and both gates were shown.

And although some cartoon drawbridge gates are also red and white striped, others I've seen were black and yellow striped, I don't know if I saw any black and white gates though. And, also not complaining though that would be great, none of the drawbridge gates have lights on them, whether just not mounted on the gate arm itself but there is a lighted signal, or no lights at all, not even signals or lighted warning devices.

But my thing is, why don't some cartoons feature moving barricades on drawbridges? I like it better when drawbridges come with gates, with or without lights or bells, although drawbridges with traffic signals but no gates are better than bare drawbridges!

Any answers? Or any other comments (no harsh comments please!) And again, if you know anymore cartoons, be them animated shows or movies, that have moving bridges, preferably gated bridges, please list them so I and others who happen to be interested will surely know.

Thank you.

because the artist forgot them/didn't do his/her research and just thought "sure I know what a drawbridge looks like!", and no one else noticed /cared either.
It's industrial production, and people are sloppy - but unlike in real life, there aren't any consequences to these mistakes, so they keep happening.

I've worked on cartoons and stuff. most of the time, no one really cares, but sometimes, if you correct something, and it interferes with the (poorly) written story, you get in trouble with your superior. it happened to me mostly when the light direction wouldn't make sense, but the way the shadows fall was important for the story. The fact that I'd argue for hours that the writing was sloppy didn't make it better. I'm so happy I don't work in that industry anymore.

Thanks for the reply! I hoped I'd get one!

And I got one from someone who worked in cartoons!

I don't know very much about the cartoon industry and I'm a cartoon enthusiast, but I didn't know you could get in trouble for correcting something even a poorly written story. I probably would have been guilty of that too, maybe!

It is true most people don't care if a drawbridge doesn't have gates, or railway crossing gates don't have lights on them and if the railroad crossing signals look cheesey, or if fire alarms don't have strobe lights or other flashing lights. But unfortunately that stuff doesn't get passed me!

Maybe I care too much about things like this! I am quite nitpicky about some things including what I listed on the last paragraph. And sometimes when things are not a certain way, or when I don't see some I want to see, including on cartoons, I get disappointed/upset, and sometimes frustrated.

Many people don't care about such things as lighted crossing gates, lighted fire alarms, gated drawbridges, urinals missing in the men's/boy's rooms, cartoon characters having dotted eyes in lieu of white eyes, cartoon characters having four or five fingers (I prefer 5-finger and that's how I make my cartoons and cartoon fanart) but I do. I don't know why, I just do! And I don't wish I wasn't like this, I like that I'm this way and that I'm different from others. And I have that exaggerated feeling of "someone has to care!" That's not true, I know, but that's just how I think and feel, and I wouldn't trade it!

But I should try to care a little less about such mundane things. And I know not everything has to be so realistic though I wish some things were. Then again, if I was a cartoonist/animator, both of which I'm not and never will be!, I guess even I would have trouble animating things like 5 fingers, a fire alarm with strobe lights, or a railroad gate with lights, especially if it was going up or down!

Plus I'm okay with cartoon characters having dotted eyes and four fingers, cartoon crossing gates sin gate lights but I still prefer white-eyed and 5-fingered cartoon characters and hope more cartoons show lighted train crossing barriers and lighted fire alarms, even if the lights are red flashing lights, not white strobe lights.

I know not all cartoons are going to feature gated drawbridges/Bridges with boom barriers, much less gates with lights on them, but I wish they all would. And I don't care if the gates are another color than red and white, although some should be! And I do hope some more cartoons will feature gated drawbridges, even if the gates get smashed by crazy drivers!

Thanks again for answering my post! And if things didn't work out with you in the cartoon industry or you had bad experiences that turned you off, I'm sorry to hear that!

More comments are welcome people, but please keep them respectful, I'm not that desperate!

If you've ever seen Roger Rabbit you should know it's because it's funnier that way.

I have seen Roger Rabbit, and not just Who Framed Roger Rabbit but some other cartoon videos related to him and I like Roger Rabbit! He's no Buster Baxter but I still love him so!

But, and I don't mean to sound mean and rude, but what does this have to do with drawbridges? Unless there's a drawbridge scene in Roger Rabbit I'm unaware of.

Actually you just gave me an idea! viewtopic.php?t=384995 Thanks! I guess that worked out after all!

Same reason why the Empire in the Star Wars series has no safety rails on their ships and stations: traffic gates and safety rails are for the weak!! !