This Existed: That Other Rugrats Spinoff

Nickelodeon The Flashback 

       We  continue our look at obscure and or short tv with something that might have had a reason to be obscure and short.     

      Rugrats is one of my favorite Nicktoons, they are in no no way obscure and short the series was Nickelodeon's top series, the only Nick series with a star in Hollywood, their special "All Growed Up" holds the record as the highest rated Nick program. In that same year with the success  and success of the series a whole, made Nick think of more ideas and this meant spin offs. "All Grown Up" started in 2003 and did well itself. Then there's this series. "Rugrats Pre School Daze" (Or Angelica and Susie's Preschool Daze)   It kind of fell on the  wayside with the All Grown up doing well , and the main Rugrats series fizzling out in 2003.  But 4 episodes were made.  Nickelodeon chose to run the series in the early hours of the morning during November 2008., which I recorded, but I can see maybe  why  they decided to just dump it before it was made a full series and just ended up airing on early hours.  

       Actually, there's a little more this series also has a backdoor pilot in the "Rugrats" an episode called "Preschool Daze".  That episode and this series seem to have some weird dissonance.  For this we are going to focus on the series not the back door pilot. 

     I  don't /do know why they would call the series "Rugrats Preschool Daze"  It's trying to connect us to the main series, which "All Grown Up" didn't do strangely. But with the exception of Angelia and Susie this series doesn't have the Rugrats gang in Preschool. (guess they didn't want two time skip spin offs?)  

     The episode I will be looking at is called  "Finders Keepers".   They kept voice  actors from the main series so Angelica's Cheryl Chase, and Susie's Cree Summer.  The animation is kind of strange , think it looks like 3D trying to be 2D or 2D trying to be 3D it's a deviation from  Rugrats or All Grown up.

see a little off. /Copyright Viacom 

      Seems that Angelia found some bugs and gets the class bug finder of the day thing or something, then of course being her foil, Susie finds something better. Harold is also in this series , he was kind of added when Angelia went to Preschool in the original series and he was also on "All Grown Up".  Savannah also shows up too, she was also see in All Grown up.    There's also a guy named Mr.Creeper which sounds encouraging.   Savannah wants to show up that she got a key from her mother because she's responsible.  Angelica wants  of course , to show off and she says she has a key too.  When the preschoolers have to go inside due to rain, she notices that the teacher has a key.  She finds the time to steal the key from the drawer.  (woah shameful)  When she runs  back to her spot to do the dancing with the class the key falls out and a kid steps on it and it's on his shoe.  During nap time when Angelica tries to show her friends  she can't find the key.

I wonder where the key went? Copyright Viacom 

        Apparently , the teacher uses nap time to go in to the closet and listen to new age music with a candle. The other kids wake up and they from the quickest whoo party to oh no , I've ever seen. Savannah  gets Angelica to try and talk about her key, thinking that she was lying.  Angelica thinks quick and makes up a scary story instead.  Where she says Mr. Creeper ate their teacher.  The teacher is locked up in the closet by accident and guess what ? She  needs the key that Angelica took and lost.

     I can hear the ocean behind this door . /Copyright Viacom

     Angelica , Susie, and Harold go to get the other key. Susie  already knows Angelica took and lost the other key.  (How does she know? In the worlds of Chuckie Finster, "Nobody Knows)  Apparently  the only other keys are with guess who?  Mr. Creeper. (what kind of name is that ) Miss Weemer , the teacher slowly looses her grip.  Angelica admits to Susie and Harold that she lied and did take the key but did lose it. 

     They decide to go to Mr. Creeper's shed to get the other spare key and they took Angelica's story literally so of course they think they could get eaten. (Even Angelica took her own story as fact) All 3 of them go the shed and find the key where Angelica charges to get it.  Gertrude the  secretary  finds the kids and they go back to the class. The teacher is saved and still a little off. 

The Lookback: Power Pack

The Flashback 

         This is probably the first time we've written about something related to comic books, that means this must be an accomplished day.   This  day (if you are reading this in 2018)  TV series and movies based of comic superheroes have littered our media for sometime now  (if you are reading this after the collapse of this , than well thanks for reading)  , but there was a point that superhero TV and movies kind of were spaced out a little bit.  The 1990's did bring us a great animated super hero TV but live-action was  different story.

   Now First a little history related to our topic.  

          Power Pack  is a team of super heroes by Marvel.  In  1984 the comic book series started. It's about  children super heroes created by Louise Simonson and June Brigman (who did the drawing) . They are a group of 4 children super heroes  with Alex at age 12 , the oldest,  Julie at age 10 , Jack at 8, and Katie at age 5.   

random shot from a comic cover, guess which characters are which. 

          The interesting things about this series are 1) the aren't orphans their parents are alive and well (and we don't mean Superman style adopted parents)  2) the parents don't know.  So the origin story (spoilers)  we are going to keep it short here,  the kids' father is a scientist named Professor Power, who is making a machine that an alien horse like thing named Whitemane warns him that he shouldn't do it.  Chopping some stuff out, he eventually is dying and hands his powers over to kids to save their parents and the day and they do!  So now they have powers. (We really zoomed through that)   The original comic book series lasted from 1984 to 1991  and again I am stopping there because the whole comic's life is not the point of our lookback.  

       In 1991 even though the comic book series ended,  Marvel deiced to maybe see if they could try it in a different medium. The idea was to have a Saturday Morning (because that's how things end up on this blog) live-action children's TV series.  What they made was a TV for NBC but it didn't make it as a TV series. 

  

   so join us after the jump as we look at this movie. 

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.