The Lookback : Phantom Investigators

The Flashback  Cartoons Kids WB

    We don't write enough about the 2000's.  Back into our safety zone with cartoons, but hey why not?   But continuing with a theme of short lived series , this one is an interesting case.  The series we look at today is from  Kids WB called Phantom Investigators. (get it ? P I ) The series ran for 13 episodes in 2002 then it wasn't renewed. (More on that later)

      If you have seen the  Nickelodeon series "Kablam" you may have seen a featured cartoon segment called "Life with Loopy".  The cartoon used  a mixture of mediums , so it used cardboard and puppetry with stop motion and hand drawing. .

     It was one of the main long lasting Kablam shorts that pretty much lasted the show's entire run.  It never reached it's own  series though.      Life with Loopy was created by Stephen Holman who also created a segment for Liquid Television  called Joe Normal. 

  You can see he had a style.  Copyright MTV (We guess) 

      If we are going in order of appearance ,  Joe started then it was Loopy.   Anyway we aren't really talking about either of  these, but they give us a glimpse of what we are talking about today.   In  May of 2002, Kids WB added a new series to their Saturday Morning line up , it also probably aired on weekdays , but who knows? 

       The show is about 4 middle schoolers, 3 of them have powers and 1 doesn't. (Guess which one is the leader of the group?)  Named Daemona, Jericho, Casey, and Kira.    As stated before, 3 of the characters have a power.  Jericho has the power of telekinetic powers , Casey can morph into things , and Kira has telepathic powers. (mind powers, mind powers).  

They spend their days investigating things that happen in their town.  (those meddling kids.)  One episode has them investigating a ghost haunting at house.   Meanwhile, episodes will have a sub plot of a character or more having a problem they need to solve.    

      Making  a point of that it has the same creator as Life with Loopy you see the same style  used here.  There's that use of cardboard and puppetry gives the show a 3D feel while in a 2D world. 

copyright Sony 

   Wouldn't be surprised if they actually burned the paper./

     Of course the show features phantoms and other spookies and they use their style to their maximum with them. 

Well, I am scared

Since he is dead he can take off his head. 

          

 For  fun we are going to take a look at an episode directly. In this case episode 8 , "Were-Dog"

after the jump. 

90th Oscars Nomination list

The Oscars 

     The nominations for the 90th Academy Awards have been announced, the awards show airs March 4th at 8pmET on ABC.

Here are the nominations.


Best Picture:

“Call Me by Your Name”
“Darkest Hour”
“Dunkirk”
“Get Out”
“Lady Bird”
“Phantom Thread”
“The Post”
“The Shape of Water”
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Lead Actor:

Timothée Chalamet, “Call Me by Your Name”
Daniel Day-Lewis, “Phantom Thread”
Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”
Gary Oldman, “Darkest Hour”
Denzel Washington, “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”

Lead Actress:

Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water”
Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Margot Robbie, “I, Tonya”
Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”
Meryl Streep, “The Post”


Supporting Actor:

Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”
Woody Harrelson, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Richard Jenkins, “The Shape of Water”
Christopher Plummer, “All the Money in the World”
Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Supporting Actress:

Mary J. Blige, “Mudbound”
Allison Janney, “I, Tonya”
Lesley Manville, “Phantom Thread”
Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”
Octavia Spencer, “The Shape of Water”

Director:

“Dunkirk,” Christopher Nolan
“Get Out,” Jordan Peele
“Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig
“Phantom Thread,” Paul Thomas Anderson
“The Shape of Water,” Guillermo del Toro

Animated Feature:

“The Boss Baby,” Tom McGrath, Ramsey Ann Naito
“The Breadwinner,” Nora Twomey, Anthony Leo
“Coco,” Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson
“Ferdinand,” Carlos Saldanha
“Loving Vincent,” Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, Sean Bobbitt, Ivan Mactaggart, Hugh Welchman

Animated Short:

“Dear Basketball,” Glen Keane, Kobe Bryant
“Garden Party,” Victor Caire, Gabriel Grapperon
“Lou,” Dave Mullins, Dana Murray
“Negative Space,” Max Porter, Ru Kuwahata
“Revolting Rhymes,” Jakob Schuh, Jan Lachauer

Adapted Screenplay:

“Call Me by Your Name,” James Ivory
“The Disaster Artist,” Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber
“Logan,” Scott Frank & James Mangold and Michael Green
“Molly’s Game,” Aaron Sorkin
“Mudbound,” Virgil Williams and Dee Rees

Original Screenplay:

“The Big Sick,” Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani
“Get Out,” Jordan Peele
“Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig
“The Shape of Water,” Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” Martin McDonagh

Cinematography:

“Blade Runner 2049,” Roger Deakins
“Darkest Hour,” Bruno Delbonnel
“Dunkirk,” Hoyte van Hoytema
“Mudbound,” Rachel Morrison
“The Shape of Water,” Dan Laustsen

Best Documentary Feature:

“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail,” Steve James, Mark Mitten, Julie Goldman
“Faces Places,” JR, Agnès Varda, Rosalie Varda
“Icarus,” Bryan Fogel, Dan Cogan
“Last Men in Aleppo,” Feras Fayyad, Kareem Abeed, Soren Steen Jepersen
“Strong Island,” Yance Ford, Joslyn Barnes

Best Documentary Short Subject:

Edith+Eddie,” Laura Checkoway, Thomas Lee Wright
“Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405,” Frank Stiefel
“Heroin(e),” Elaine McMillion Sheldon, Kerrin Sheldon
“Knife Skills,” Thomas Lennon
“Traffic Stop,” Kate Davis, David Heilbroner

Best Live Action Short Film:

“DeKalb Elementary,” Reed Van Dyk
“The Eleven O’Clock,” Derin Seale, Josh Lawson
“My Nephew Emmett,” Kevin Wilson, Jr.
“The Silent Child,” Chris Overton, Rachel Shenton
“Watu Wote/All of Us,” Katja Benrath, Tobias Rosen

Best Foreign Language Film:

“A Fantastic Woman” (Chile)
“The Insult” (Lebanon)
“Loveless” (Russia)
“On Body and Soul (Hungary)
“The Square” (Sweden)


Film Editing:

“Baby Driver,” Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss
“Dunkirk,” Lee Smith
“I, Tonya,” Tatiana S. Riegel
“The Shape of Water,” Sidney Wolinsky
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” Jon Gregory



Sound Editing:

“Baby Driver,” Julian Slater
“Blade Runner 2049,” Mark Mangini, Theo Green
“Dunkirk,” Alex Gibson, Richard King
“The Shape of Water,” Nathan Robitaille, Nelson Ferreira
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” Ren Klyce, Matthew Wood


Sound Mixing:

“Baby Driver,” Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater, Tim Cavagin
“Blade Runner 2049,” Mac Ruth, Ron Bartlett, Doug Hephill
“Dunkirk,” Mark Weingarten, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo
“The Shape of Water,” Glen Gauthier, Christian Cooke, Brad Zoern
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” Stuart Wilson, Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick


Production Design:

“Beauty and the Beast,” Sarah Greenwood; Katie Spencer
“Blade Runner 2049,” Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola
“Darkest Hour,” Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
“Dunkirk,” Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis
“The Shape of Water,” Paul D. Austerberry, Jeffrey A. Melvin, Shane Vieau


Original Score:

“Dunkirk,” Hans Zimmer
“Phantom Thread,” Jonny Greenwood
“The Shape of Water,” Alexandre Desplat
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” John Williams
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” Carter Burwell


Original Song:

“Mighty River” from “Mudbound,” Mary J. Blige
“Mystery of Love” from “Call Me by Your Name,” Sufjan Stevens
“Remember Me” from “Coco,” Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez
“Stand Up for Something” from “Marshall,” Diane Warren, Common
“This Is Me” from “The Greatest Showman,” Benj Pasek, Justin Paul



Makeup and Hair:

“Darkest Hour,” Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski, Lucy Sibbick
“Victoria and Abdul,” Daniel Phillips and Lou Sheppard
“Wonder,” Arjen Tuiten



Costume Design:

“Beauty and the Beast,” Jacqueline Durran
“Darkest Hour,” Jacqueline Durran
“Phantom Thread,” Mark Bridges
“The Shape of Water,” Luis Sequeira
“Victoria and Abdul,” Consolata Boyle



Visual Effects:

“Blade Runner 2049,” John Nelson, Paul Lambert, Richard R. Hoover, Gerd Nefzer
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Jonathan Fawkner, Dan Sudick
“Kong: Skull Island,” Stephen Rosenbaum, Jeff White, Scott Benza, Mike Meinardus
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” Ben Morris, Mike Mulholland, Chris Corbould, Neal Scanlon
“War for the Planet of the Apes,” Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett, Joel Whist

A Look at What Killed Weekday Cartoons

Joshuaonline's Essays

              There has been much said on what "killed" off the Saturday Morning network children's television programming block,  so much you can find them on Youtube and other places easily, but we are going to a different side of this, what caused the end of Weekday children's programming (that is not PBS) on over the air television?

The Animaniacs  were a weekday cartoon during their run. 

       The Early Days 

       Weekdays, after school, was the prime time for children and teens because they had just gotten out of school and television stations hope that maybe they would spend a little tile watching their channel instead of doing other things.  Kind of like, how networks felt that daytime television was a way to target housewives.    Weekday mornings , before school, was also a prime time location for children targeted programming.    

     NBC used to offer children-targeted programming on weekdays from the start of their television broadcasting to 1956, yes they gave up really early on Weekday cartoons.   Alot of the NBC, ABC, CBS affiliates did their own local children's shows around this time as well. "Captain Kangaroo" ran CBS weekday mornings from 1955 until the 80's it was the only consistent thing about CBS' morning programming in their history. 

    With daytime television for the affiliates being mostly done by the networks (though local stations could preempt for what they wanted to do)  Non affiliated, also known as - independent stations, saw an market they could go for, Children's TV.  WGN-TV had the famous Bozo's Circus. So programs that were targeted to the children's market were strong on weekdays as much as Saturdays. 

  

     I would still say that focus for makers of programs for Children were weekends, more than weekdays, meaning they'd the more "quality" or newer programming on Saturdays and weekdays was for repeats and lower budget programming.   Independent stations  would sometimes compete against other one or two doing the same kinds of programming. (In many television markets in the 50's to 80's they had more than 3 commercial stations and could just as many indies. )   

  The 80's

        The peak for syndication market , would have to be the 1980's probably the best time  there ever will be for syndicated television in the United States.  This in general , but the children's television market also got a boost in the 1980's.  One thing that happened in the late 70's and 80's was that there were more independent stations popping up , in mid-sized and smaller markets.  That means there was more market for syndication to try to get some audience it needed.   

   Afternoon cartoons were those traditional things like "Tom and Jerry" , "Looney Tunes", and more but there was something coming to add to this.  In 1983 the first cartoon series made just for syndication started.  "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" was made by Filmation in conjuction with Mattel (more on that in a second). Another series, by DIC also started this same year, "Inspector Gadget" 

     These shows were made with weekday in mind, instead of the network model where they seemed to let a show run for 13 episodes (13 Weeks) then give up and repeat them until the new season and maybe that series would return or they just finished up and went on to something, these series were made with 65 episode target.  65 episodes means you could do 5 new episodes a week for 13 weeks, then repeat them.    "He-Man" proved popular enough to have two seasons and 130 episodes. "Gadget" had two seasons reaching 83 episodes. 

     When I mention Mattel ,this is important, the 80's also started a trend that wasn't allowed before,  Cartoon series based off toys.  Mattel made the He Man toys and a great way to promote them is a TV series,  She-Ra too.  In the 1950's alot of children's programming , like alot of television at the time in general was run by the sponsor companies. Later there were regulations placed to not allow this.  But the 1980's meant alot of deregulation and one of  the things deregulated was children focused television. I  may talk about that in some more detail at some later point.  

     So the idea of a program that could be based off a toy line was able to be added to television in the 1980's.  The main 3 networks were kind of iffy on allowing these kind of shows on their Saturday Morning line up, but an independent station who is more in need for content, and reruns of "My Mother the Car" doesn't do it, this became a match made.   Hasbro made TV series based off their toys like "My Little Pony". These programs became successful and this may have seed something that I will to later. 

    A new broadcast network was launched in 1986 , called FOX, most of it's early stations were these independents but since Fox has limited scheduling (as a nice work around the rule against having a broadcast network and a production company being co-owned) the former indie stations still had alot of time to program themselves including the afternoon, and they could continue with their children's programming. 

1987 Changes Everything 

       I personally think the success of shows based off toys showed Disney the syndication market can be a viable way of making getting into television making. Disney had made their first animated TV Series, "Gummi Bears" in 1985, but that was for NBC, this was something different.  In 1987 they launched "Ducktales".  "Ducktales was different than other series in this market, it wasn't there to sale Ducktales toys, or based of a toy line (though there may have been toys after because of the popularity).   Disney putting their hat in the weekday animation game was the beginning of a big change.  Ducktales proved popular where Disney made a whole new syndicated block - The Disney Afternoon. (Which I've written about before) 

  Like a FOX 

      FOX decided to jump into the weekday and Saturday game in 1990 ,with FOX Kids (I've written about before)  FOX affiliates didn't really have to dip into the syndication market as much , Disney Afternoon could have stayed on their stations but in many markets it moved to the remaining indies. and any remaining syndicated programming could have moved off these stations as well.  Fox provided by 1993 , 3 hours a weekday of programming  there were some who also had morning blocks.   Thanks the removal of the regulation that FOX worked around in the 80's  a production company could now own a network, so Warner Brothers and Paramount saw and opening, this is also how Disney could buy ABC.  In 1995 Warner Brothers launched the WB network and Paramount/ Viacom launched UPN.  Most of these affiliates were former indies and they incorporated their children's blocks time slots for their own uses of launching Kids WB and UPN Kids. This included weekday afternoons and mornings.  

  Now the what killed part , after the jump

It's A Charlie Brown Lookback : Happiness is Warm Blanket , Charlie Brown

Peanuts  The Flashback 

         This is the newest special we've looked at for the Peanuts  and as of this writing the last new special to appear so far.  "Happiness is Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown" came on out in 2011. It was the first new one since 2006 "He's a Bully, Charlie Brown"  . Even though ABC currently has (again as of this writing in 2018)  rights to the Peanuts specials, this one aired on Fox in 2011 , 2012 ,and  2013. It was released to purchase for home viewing too.

          Like the other specials made after Schulz death and some before, this one is mostly based off  strips themselves.   This was the first special made after the death of  Bill Melendez, so it was the first and so far only one made without his direction,  his voices for Snoopy and Woodstock were used though as recorded with director Andy Beall doing  any extra voices.  The voices of the characters continues the tradition of using children as per normal.

         Since music is as noted part of the specials, this one uses scores done by the head Mark Mothersbaugh whom you may know did the music for the Rugrats and was the frontman for Devo. He does try to keep it a feeling of jazz so it's off putting.  The animation is not CGI they found a Korean animation studio to do the basic 2D hand-drawn animation, but it not done in 4:3 but 16:9 HD so their is one change from past specials. 
 
   That's enough background, here's a look at  "Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown".

           It starts with Woodstock flying past familiar characters doing their familiar things they are known for then it reaches Linus where he digging holes looking for his blanket.  This is going to be a flashback special.   Linus is playing baseball with his blanket, which does seem to go well, then he 's walking with Charlie Brown who asks him isn't he afraid of what kids think of his carrying around a blanket, but Linus shows him why he's not.  Snoopy drags Linus around with the blanket.

     Linus that day started a new country/ copyright Peanuts 

     Now we get a Schroeder playing piano scene and tossing  Lucy off the Piano.  Linus watches television with his blanket, while Snoopy acts like a vulture  targeting the blanket , and he enters the house. (don't ask how, he's magic)  Lucy tells Linus it's wash day and she takes the blanket away. 

    More after the Jump

Christmas: The Flashback: Christmas in Tattertown

Christmas  The Flashback  Nickelodeon 

      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.

Christmas: Charlie and Lola : How Many More Minutes until Christmas

Joshauonline UK  Christmas 

      This time in our Christmas watching  we don't go really for a special  or something Peanuts related instead we delve into something off the wall for us.

   Short in short  : Charlie and Lola is  British animated series that aired on the young children's channel CBeebies and also on BBC Two, it has aired in other countries as well. It's based of a picture book series made by Lauren Child in the year 2000, it got popular to where it became a television series in 2005.


   We are going to be taking a look at the Christmas episode called "How Many More Minutes until Christmas?"

   The episode starts with Charlie explaining to his sister , Lola what an advent calendar is. Then she's in class with her friends and talking about what in the advent calendar and Father Christmas (Santa) .  The days progress on.   She makes a card for her friend Lotta and a card for her invisible friend Soren.  (Who we get to see!)  Then she writes a letter for Santa putting  it the same colored envelope as Lotta, guess what probably will happen later.   It's time to pick a Christmas tree.

    When it's time open the cards for each each other and Lotta opens hers and finds out that the letter for Father Christmas  meaning the two got switched.  Lola worries that Father Christmas might not come , Charlie tries to convince her that maybe if they try again  so she agrees.   When there's a phone call she finds out that her grandparents who she wished in her letter to come,  aren't coming.  Now It's Christmas Eve  and they all go caroling and the snow starts falling meaning (they dreamed a white Christmas).  Charlie and Lola do the Christmas Eve routine leaving milk and cookies out. They  can't find the door for Christmas Day in the advent calendar and I guess imagine themselves in the calendar.  The elves they meet all look dejected and C&L explain to them and wonder where the door went, and the Elves (Who speak in some of repeating thing)  to find out they've ran out of wrapping paper.

    We are Santa Elves.... well never mind / Copyright Tiger Aspect 

       So Charlie and Lola leave the Elves and  then they find out the sky is made of paper and decide to tear some of the sky off to make wrapping paper. Then help wrap up the presents and she wonders if they saw her letter, but they are unsure.  Then her letter makes it through the shoot.  (Charlie and Lola save Christmas)   Now it's Christmas!  (yay)  The presents are wrapped in sky paper  (what is this universe?)  and it apparently Llola asked Father Christmas to give her brother a pineapple, the grandparents make it after all.

        There is sparse writing in this because there are not alot of things that  were in the special that were part of the plot as much.  "Charlie and Lola" is a really good series for younger children  but can be enjoyed by anyone , there characters are charming and sweet.  For a Christmas episode it has alot of Christmas in it, the build up to Christmas from Charlie and Lola's point of view , where time feels slower and the excitement builds.   The animation of the series a whole is a nice mixture of taking the books and applying to animation. It uses a mixture of 2D cel animation , paper cut out , fabric , and photomontage.  Like the Peanuts the adults exist but aren't shown or even heard (even more  like the Peanuts in comic form) and they use child actors for the voices. 

    It's not a bad Christmas episode  either,  I like again like the charm of just showing Christmas ' build up and the things that we do this time of year, making cards , lists, getting trees, advent calendars and more.   Again like the series it's good for younger children that's the target audience but the older children and parents can watch with out feeling  like their brains are melting.


 That's the look at this tune in next time when we find out what happens we we jump into a calendar from 1923.

Christmas Lookback : Santa Claus

CHRISTMAS  Flashback 

          Well this is different. Yes I say this a TV blog in the sense we talk about well, television  but we do sometimes have to veer away from that as I also consider this to be  a blog that talks about the media (though rarer  than talking about the Peanuts)  we instead take  a look at a movie. This movie is something.

   Our movie is from 1959 and called "Santa Claus" it's about Abe Lincoln.  (we kid)   Santa Claus was made in Mexico  in Spanish but was picked up the next year in for U.S viewers in English.  For you MS3TK fans it's been featured there, so for the first time that I can that about something on this blog.

      This bodes well huh?

      The movie starts with titles and credits with Jingle Bells playing and takes about 1:40 to get to the movie.  Apparently Santa Claus doesn't live in the  North Pole, no he's in space right above the North Pole. (That's kind of strange)  Spaces Santa is laughing as he decorates his house and it's almost Christmas .   Also Santa doesn't have elves working in his toy shop, nope he has children as the announcer put its  they are from different parts of the world.  ( Why dose Santa have children working for him, that seems to be not something that Santa should be doing?)  After going through each location of where he gets children from , they go through each stereo type of what you think of when the mention a location.   (Though weirdly , England's  kids are just singing London Bridge, for some reason)

Don't get mad that some got their countries others got regions it's 6 minutes long , good to hurry it up. 

      This movie is like 90 minutes long and they spent nearly 6 minutes on the thing with the kids. Then we go to the devil (what am I watching?) and his underworld  where apparently he does interpretative dance.   There's one demon that he wants to send to our world named Pitch to make the children of the world do evil , his punishment would be ice cream.  (noooooo!)

Ice Cream would just melt , wouldn't it ? 

       Earth now, and the children gaze at stuff  they want for Christmas. We focus on a mother who is very poor and she has a daughter named Lupita who wants a doll.  Also there 3 boys that the devil wants to use for his evil plan to make kids evil.  They already have turned against Santa.  So yes Santa and the devil are enemies.  Santa wishes he could stop him but he can only go down on Christmas Eve. (Why? You are magical but fine , plot reasons)

    Did you know Santa has a magic telescope?  Well he does, he uses it to spy on children. He also also has machine the knows everything, a machine that can listen to everything and see everything. (The government's dream)   So  Santa and 3 of his worker children decide to spy on the girl we saw earlier, Lupita in Mexico.  She apparently was thinking about stealing a doll  and Pitch tries to make sure she does it but the narrator doesn't want her to. (What?)  She decides not to steal it.

This is just strange 

        Santa is happy that she didn't listen to the devil. There is  a machine that can also find any child no matter where they are and they use it to find another child who is sleeping. So of course Santa invades the little rich boy's dream. (Personal space Santa.)  He dreams that his parents are  wrapped in boxes to be opened on Christmas day.  (alright then)  Santa says that all he wants is the love of his parents.  Then they spy on Lupita's dream. (because why not?)  The devil decides to also bother Lupita while she's sleeping. (This Lifetime movie is not strange enough)  Apparently Lupita dreams that she has a doll and is surrounded by living dolls. (what?)

Disturbing 

      One of the dolls wants her to be evil but she doesn't be evil.  This wakes her up . Santa says Pitch way pay but again has to wait for Christmas Eve because reasons Now it's time to spy on the 3 boys there were being bad earlier.  They conspire to lie to Santa about being good this year but he heard them oh he doesn't like being called old.

          Now we get children writing letters to Santa , it was kind of cut in there randomly,  (When do the martians show up?  What? Oooh we should have looked at that movie instead) Ever wonder how Santa gets his mail in space?  Well the mail dumps into some thing and it flies up a Chimney into space into a door in Santa's house.  Also just for fun , one child asks Santa for a brother so  since they were good he arranges the later for the stork.  Those parents are going to be happy, how does he know they even want another kid ?  Come on Santa!

ehh not my problem 

         It's almost Christmas Eve and he tells his children workers to umm keep on working.  You know what this movie was missing? Yes Merlin, the wizard.   Merlin is Santa's helper and he has  a magic lab in space with Santa.  They only see each other once a year.  Also there's blacksmith who makes a key that opens all doors. (creepy)   Then Santa ummm exercises. (what am I watching?)

Merlin is not wizard in the kitchen though

      Also Half this movie is Santa laughing. Santa has a sleigh pulled by plastic reindeer that the worker children clean while singing.  Santa has to get back before the sunrise or the reindeer will turn to dust. (why?)  This Santa eats a diet of pastries and ice cream of clouds. (what?)  He says that on Earth we eat everything.  (better than clouds ?)    So Santa finally can go to Earth now.

   Mars? 

      Rich boy's parent have rich parent things to do  so they'll leave him at home as they see him in the morning. Meanwhile the 3 bad boys want to capture Santa , take his stuff and make him their slave. (What am I watching?)  Lupita wonders who Santa Claus , and he's never brought her any dolly.  Oh yeah there was a devil in this movie, Pitch is freezing  and he hears Santa Claus.  His plan is to stop Santa by moving a Chimney out of place.   (that's how they work?)     So, Santa goes to the spot and he tries to go down the chimney and he smells Pitch is around. Santa uses his parasol to land on the ground to get in the house, because apparently chimneys don't have holes that lead to fire places? 

more after the jump

A Christmas Lookback: A Christmas Story (no, not that one)

Christmas The Flashback 

       I remember seeing this special every year when Cartoon Network used to air classic cartoons as part of their Christmas line up . I really didn't know the name  of it until later on though.  "A Christmas Story" is a special from Hanna-Barbera made for syndication.  It is interesting to note that is one of the few Hanna and Barbera specials that didn't include their characters from other works.

    It was written by Ken Spears and Joe Ruby (later on starting Ruby-Spears)  and premiered in 1972.   So let's look at "A Christmas Story".  (We already made that joke in the title) 

    Hanna and Barbera did reuse the songs in the special for other holiday specials because they were masters are re using their stuff.   It's Christmas Eve and a boy a named Timmy has to go to bed but his father promised to read a story to him so he gets a little extension.  His father reads "A Visit from St. Nicolas"  The mouse that lives the house (named Gumdrop)  remembers that he didn't hang up his stocking so he grabs it tells the dog named Goober.    The Father continues reading the story and Timmy falls a sleep and gets to put to bed.

A Young Fred Rodgers gets read to by his father. He does look like Fred. /Copyright Time Warner

        Goober and Gumdrop decide to go to bed, but then a crisis is happening Gumdrop finds Timmy's letter for Santa on the floor and Gumdrop wakes up Goober to tell him that Timmy's letter never made it. Goober misses the point and tries to go back to sleep so Gumdrop tells him that hey they need get Santa that later tonight because well it's Christmas Eve.

Goober looks like he's seen the 60's / Copyright Time Warner 

    So they decide to get to Mr. S.  Claus. to get the letter to him before it's too late. So first they have to figure out where to look for Santa, and that means a song.  There's a montage of them looking for where Santa might be fitting the song. Some cats who live in garbage cans spot Gumdrop and they of course want to do umm well you know.  (Join them for Dinner)    We get a chase scene that makes me wonder where Goober went.    Finally , Goober shows up and scares off the cats.

Ahh We were just inviting him for dinner! /Copyright Time Warner 

   They spot Santa he doing his Santa thing and heading toward the orphanage then they tail him (ha tail) but they lose him and they start looking through windows to see where he's been. (Where Santa leaves his presents)  They find a house that hasn't been visited  they need to get on the roof , the best  option is to take a ladder they found and climb on the roof.  The wind has other plans as it blows the letter and the ladder turns into stilts which Goober uses to  chase the letter which he does get. (Most unbelievable part of this whole thing)

Alright then, a dog can use silts/ Copyright Time Warner

    They spot a mail truck (what's it doing out here at this time of night?) the mailman spots Goober  and puts him in his truck so he can see where he lives to get him home and out of the cold. Santa goes to the roof they were on while Goober tries to break out of the truck , but instead knocks the truck out of break and he turns the truck but crashes it into a tree. (woah)  Then Goober cries, and this inspires another song, this time about hope.    Goober makes a noise and the other dogs  know him apparently and pass the word to the other animals to search for Santa. ( I like how one dog finds the cats from earlier and demands them to look for Santa.)     Another song, "Which one is the Real Santa"  another song they  reused for another special later one.  So there's a montage of them looking at different Santas. (So Many of them)

  And thus Santa Con was born / Copyright Time  Warner 

     Sadly, no luck and they return home dejected.  They feel bad for Timmy , but Gumdrop suggests they stay awake for Santa maybe he'll come but guess what they fall asleep.  The next morning Santa Came!  Woo hoo.  Apparently , Santa found the letter and read it. (Santa is a wizard!)  It ends with Peace on Earth.
           

           I still like this one, there's something simple about it but that's a good thing they have a clear goal and it moves the plot along, the songs were good and honestly H&B thought the songs were good enough to reuse them for other later specials.  It does have some H&B goofiness but that's their thing.  The two main characters are great  and believable that they are friends.   It's a fine Christmas special I give it a 7/10.

    Tune in next time when we get our mail truck out of the shop, it crashed some how.