Last Christmas , I talked about Nickelodeon's first attempt at original animation , "Christmas in Tattertown" . Then I gave it away. (I quit) So Nickelodeon dipped their toes into original animation now they were going to dip their whole foot in. (stop) Anyway, We've had Christmas so now it's time to talk about the most famous holiday of all, Thanksgiving. ( You are really going all out on this)
I think something important about this special and the one before it was that yes, Nickelodeon was looking for something different to do then it ever has done before. These two specials were them trying to see how it worked and what they wanted to do. These are the linchpins into what eventually became the Nicktoons. So, now to look at this special that came out on November 22nd 1989. (Unless someone else corrects this date)
The special starts with a voice over telling us that Thanksgiving is a special holiday. Then the same narrator talks about Cranberry sauce when he asks a person working at a factory and we get a joke about Cram berries. (get it get it?) This special has mini segments as wrap-arounds with two main segments, which I will get to in this post umm now. The first main segment is called "Thanksgiving Nightmare" this one starts with a family eating Thanksgiving dinner and there's a mouse who wants to steal the meal. There's also a cockroach that wants to steal the meal. The family decides to "three bears" it and go out and walk off the dinner. This causes the mouse and roach to jump into action. I've also learned that mice and roaches are mortal enemies. The family has a cat because of course. One of lady family members sees the cat with a bone and she tells him that if she catches him so much as even a pea she's going to throw him out permanently. (bit harsh there)
No, please don't you see I am not an average cat! / Copyright Viacom
The mouse has a mouse gang and he talks about how bad roaches are (the great roach vs rat war hadn't begun yet) meanwhile the roaches also have a large meeting and talk about how bad the mice are. (So umm the people in this house need to call an exterminator. ) The cat decides to watch TV. The mice decide that this would be a good time to capture the turkey. Meanwhile the roaches do their plan of attack as well. This has become a mouse versus roach war. The cat sees all the mess and decides to use a vacuum cleaner to take care of it. (This cat is not from our Earth) The rodents and roaches are sucked up except the head roach and mouse.
Mice. Rodents want to the rule the world/ Copyright Viacom
The people come back and the house is a mess and guess who gets blamed for the mess? (Yep, the roach.) Yes, the cat and woman throws him out. He seems alright since he has a drumstick. I guess. Back to a mini segment. There's a hunter he's shooting carrots because sure. Now, it's time to see how animals celebrate Thanksgiving. (We get a rabbit multiplies like rabbits joke here)
There's a second long segment called "Thanksgiving Dreams" I see what they did there. It has an interesting animation start where it airs in like slow moving still picture book animation. It starts with the Great Depression. This one has a mom and her two kids ( a boy and a girl) and we talk about how it hard it is for food. The kids names are Sam and Emily. This animation style doesn't last too long because at least to me it feels like headache maker. The kids awake over the night hearing a noise then they start shrinking. They make it to kitchen where everything is dancing.
I think this is real/ copyright Viacom
The carrots even dance and have faces as they dip themselves into boiling water. A loto of the food starts preparing themselves. (food is weird) I'm not going through every single little thing. This sequence is kind of like an old fashioned cartoon with the movement of objects and dancing. Anyway, there's a dough monster because when you add to much yeast this happens. Sam gets pepper all of the kitchen and causes everything to sneeze. This does make the dough monster sneeze and shrink back down. Then Sam and Emily wake up and apparently food magically appeared. The mother is confused but she's happy and it's a happy ending.
Where did this food come from? I don't question it! /Copyright Viacom
More wrap-around astronauts have dehydrated Thanksgiving. Some older people watch some football. What do turkeys eat for Thanksgiving? They eat man!!!!
I think that was an alright Thanksgiving special. I liked how it talks about the traditions of Thanksgiving and does some light humor in the wrap-arounds. The first long segment was quite fun though if you feel that cat got a real deal that might turn you off. The concept was an interesting one. I think the 2nd one was pretty fun too, though the start was a little much because of the animation the rest of it was a nice little story and was a nice hint of throwback to old style animation. The animation in the special is well done and crisp so Nick wasn't cutting any corners here.
Tune in next time when we found out that the reason we eat turkey is because they'll eat us first.
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