I am going to talk about the first animated thing made for Nickelodeon , yes I am going to talk about Ren and Stimpy, Doug , and Rugrats. Nope , going further back still to the 1980's well 1988, the first animated program made for Nickelodeon, "Christmas in Tattertown".
The reason for the phrase made for Nickelodeon is in important is because this is not the first animated thing that aired on the network, but the first where the network was interested in maybe deciding to one pick up such a thing. I talk more about that after the special.
The special came out in December of 1988, and I could have saved this post for the 30th anniversary next year , I'd rather do it now. I will say more about the background later.
The special starts with narration, and the narrator tell us that he going to tell us about a girl named Debbie. ( I hope she's the main character or this is getting strange.) Who loved her stuff dolls , dog and Ms. Muffet. One day she finds a strange book and something strange happens, they get sucked into the book. (Jump into reading) She lands in Tattertown, and the narrator is gone or something. Ms. Muffet is alive and happy that's she free of Debbie now. Debbie doesn't like that she ran off.
See not very happy
Apparently this special was being narrated by talking sax named Miles, he explains that Tattertown is a place where everything you've lost winds up. (There should be more keys there) Also the things that get lost become alive, (My question is who lost their sax?) Debbie continues to chase Mrs. Muffet who really refuses to go with her. In Tattertown they don't know what about Christmas.
hmm that YO-YO looks like it had a night out
Muffet (yes writing ms. alot would be annoyiing) and a spider go to a part of the town where the unsavories hang out , though Muffet is not impressed by them and says that she would them better at causing trouble than they are. Debbie decides to continue her mission to find something for Christmas. She explains what Christmas is to the members of the town. Muffet finds out that they are trying to make Christmas and she of course doesn't like that and wants to stop it. (Scrooge like)
Looking like Christmas
Debbie goes to a book store that's run buy an evergreen tree named Tannenbaum (get it because ... oh forget it) and she asks him to be the town Christmas tree, which he at first says no to before he finds out there's no competition and goes along with it. Muffet apparently has a thing for tabbaco pie (what? Yes Really) but doesn't get chance to eat her treat (results may vary). Her spies Tad and Wendle end up as part of Christmas and they send her a post card. (That was nice of them)
Maybe this is why she's cranky , going through pie withdrawls
Muffet decides to dress p like Santa Claus and have Sidney the spider dress up like a reindeer to trick everyone. Debbie tries to explain a little more about Christmas while Muffet's army heads into to town. Just as Muffet tries to take the town , the real Santa shows up and Muffet wants to take him out , but her army isn't very bright and they start destroying themselves. Santa apparently is having fun and then he rides off. (well that was random) Debbie doesn't feel the townsfolk know what Christmas is , so she plays "White Christmas" (I mean the one with Bing Crosby's voice ) and it causes everyone one to tear up and Muffet ends up in jail. (That is one powerful song)
Santa's not coming to town this year
First my thoughts : I think this was fun , the animation style reminds of me retro 30's and 40's cartoons, the jokes remind me of Looney Toons. Though it does seem a little messy in it's plot but I don't think that was point. It's like pure madness as a cartoon but it's not like trippy animation it's more just how the special presents itself. This was from the period were television animation was trying to get off the that whole "Sell Toys" thing it was going through and going into that renaissance that the late 80's started and this period became known as. So harking back to the days of animation where everything was a lot more ,dare I say , loony and violent makes some sense. There a lot of loose things to that to don't connect together very well, and the ending doesn't seem to do anything either, but there is something there. It's a good special : It's not the greatest but I did enjoy it very much and just love the randomness and the characters are interesting and especially Muffet who steals the show.
More after the Jump.
I was wrong to say special , that's kind of what it became this was originally a pilot for Nickelodeon. The series was originally picked up in 1989 for 39 Episodes but it never came to be. It was created by Ralph Bakshi, who I could mention everything he's worked on in some capacity and we'd be here all week.
This and a special that came later on ( I may get to one day) were the early signs that a cable network was looking to get into their own animation business and without this trial and that other special who knows what the present would be like? The idea that this special may have given them some confidence to one day really get into the animated creating world is amazing. ( A world without Rugrats existing is a scary one)
That's our lookback , tune in next time after we finishing wondering how tobacco pie works.
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