I'm surprised you described the Skarsgard Pennywise as more cartoonish then Tim Curry's. Book authenticity aside, Tim Curry is so much more colorful and pops out that I find his appearance harder to take seriously. I agree that Skarsgard's version wasn't perfect though, his gray tunic and pants started to look drab and dingy towards the end of Chapter 1, and I never really got over how uninteresting it appeared to me after that. Probably they wanted to highlight Skarsgard's impressive expressions, which I totally understand, but it harmed his design overall.