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Thursday, March 09, 2017

The Dr.Seuss Lookback : Daisy-Head Mayzie

The Flashback 

    It's another Dr.Seuss cartoon special lookback ..this one as far as I can say is rare one as the title gives away is called "Daisy Head Mayzie".   This special is based off the book of the same name that was published  in 1995, after Dr.Seuss' death ,it was written by him but not illustrated.  Also , in a twist , the special came out before the book was released. Hanna-Barbera animated the special for the co-owned TNT channel in 1995.





     Our special starts and is narrated by the Cat in the Hat and he explains that a daisy grew out of Mayzie's head.  Two boys start making fun of her  and get the rest of the class laughing at her. (because flowers are funny?)    The teacher tries to pull it out of Mayzie's head but it's connected to her.  We get the repeated "Daisy-Head , Daisy-Head Mayzie" thing by the kids  and it turns into a random song.    The teacher decides to take Mayzie to the principal  (because why not?)  and the Cat in the hat says that principal knew everything. He mentions where daisies do grow (like Missouri) and that that they don't grow on children's heads.  The flower starts wilting  and this causes Mayzie to weaken , the teacher throws some water on them and it gets better.
                                 
Forget the daisy... does that boy have tail? /Copyright Warner 

     The principal calls Mayzie's parents , a doctor , and bunch of other people to solve this problem. ( guess the town is busy with that, crime went up 93%) Mayzie sees some bees heading toward her so, she jumps out the window and bees chase her. Don't worry though , she falls inside the principals office right at the same time her father, the other people are there . Her mother screams and faints. (oh I though you said she was hazy not daisy.)
                                 
She has angered the flower god / copyright Warner

   The mayor shows up (because , forget  those pot holes there's a flower growing out of a child)  and he sings that he is important and etc, and sings that if he is reelected the Daisy on Mayze problem will be sorted.  (Umm Mr. Mayor what about the crime problem?)  Then comes an entertainment agent and he wants her to sign a contract to be famous, her mother and principal urge her not to because what about her town. (You know the same town that apparently made you issue number 1)
 Mayzie signed her name. The Daisy does too. (don't ask)
                                       

They should be wondering how he can stand up on those legs/ copyright Warner 

      Mayzie and the daisy become famous. There are Daisy head products all over the place it's become an international phenomenon, but Mayzie ends up being un happy and runs away.  Mayzie says that nobody loves her (awww) then the cat in the hat appears  and gives more narration when the daisy starts pulling out it's pedals doing the "loves/loves me not thing"  and ends on "loves her". This makes Mayzie happy. Then the cat in the cat flies her back to her home town. (what?)  The cat in the Hat says the moral of the story is love over fame and glory , oh and the daisy is gone (well kind of ).   That's the special.

      Now we comment: this special is way different than other Dr. Seuss specials ... most teach a moral, and have imagination to them this one seems like they found that the good doctor was writing something before he died and might as well publish it for some money.  I am not sure how the book goes  meaning if anything is different  , again it was possibly even un finished or a rough draft that wasn't ready for publish.  The reason  I say that is it feels clunky and lost somewhere if the moral of the story is love over fame and glory, yet the audience was never shown that anybody in the town loved her as much as alot of people trying to deal with the flower situation or repeating the "Daisy Head Mayzie" thing in the taunting tone. The doctor thinking that he could get grants to study, the mayor to get reelected , but we didn't see anybody loving her at all to make us think that oh well she shouldn't sign with the agent. The agent didn't even seem dodgy or someone that we could think that maybe she shouldn't sign a deal with him.  When the parents and principal urge her not to sign for and think about her friends and school, it doesn't make sense without any context of  why should Mayzie  There's filler but not filler that advances the special like seeing the Grinch in the cartoon version do his stealing ... but the songs, facts about daisies ,bees and other elements.
To me at least , it was an ok special that feels like it had something but it just wasn't finished.  Still better than the movies.(now we run and hide)

  Tune in  next time when  we join Mayzie  by growing daisies out of our heads.  #JoshuonlineDaisyheads
   

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