Oh Yeah! Cartoons: #12: Magic Trixie

Nickelodeon 

    Previously,  I left my heart in nostalgic days.   [HERE]

                #12 Magic Trixie 

Season 2, Episode 2b 

             Season 2 did have change over all in the series for example, the amount of new shorts kind of drifts to a show with more reoccurring. For example this episode has only this as a new short and with it being flanked by a new "Fairly Odd Parents" short and "Tales from the Goose Lady"  that will be  the trend through this season.   

   

          Magic Trixie was created by  Alex Kirwan, with direction by Rob Renzetti. This short goes with a more retro design again. The thing about 90's cartoons , since this was an era of more original content, and new networks and outlets providing them, the influences of older media would come up as inspirations for many of the time period's ideas. 

                The cartoon also goes for a muted tone where the colors are there but not as bright, giving it a look, only getting brighter when it fits the story.  Our main character doesn't seem to talk, her name is Trixie she's interested in magic. She buys a simple trick from the magic shop. There's a magician, he's flashy and has expensive stuff a contrast to Trixie.   He invites Trixie on the stage and he notices that every time she pulls something from her hat some thing comes out, when he tries it nothing comes out.  

       I get that old "Looney Tunes" vibe with Bugs and Daffy at that moment when the crowd is cheering her and not him. Then  she ends up being an assistant and is able to out do the magician. Oh and she does say words at some point.   

    The magician gets jealous and tries to trap her with some wild animals, where we get a creative sequence of her using magic and getting around his trap.  She has proven herself to have natural talent and  becomes the lead magician while the other one has become her assistant. 

    This one is fun, it's very nostalgic in how it feels like a retro 30's /40's (the 19 ones, for you future readers)  there's a simple fun to it and it's like  a mixture of a silent cartoon and talking one. The short is just plain fun. There's a lot of creativity and a nice little message added in.

   I don't see this one being a good one for a series, the whole concept feels like a complete story told in 7 minutes,  that I'm not sure where a series could go, but that might be limits in thinking about it more than anything else.   Well, check it out!   

   That's it for now, tune in next time, when we turn a goat into an Oldsmobile. 

     

Oh Yeah! Cartoons: #11: Fathead

 Nickelodeon 

           Previously, it was to be continued yet it never was...continued [HERE]

#10 Fathead

Season 1, Episode 13b 

             Fathead (what did you call me? I'll sue!)  is also from the season 1 finale and also a special 11 minutes.  It was created by Vince Calandra  who worked on "Rugrats" , "Ren and Stimpy Show",  "Rocko's Modern Life" who later wrote for "Two Guys, a Girl and Pizza Place" which is  kind of just fun to acknowledge. 

 

          

          This one takes place in caveman times, and the intro voiceover sounds like Tommy Pickles, but our main character is named Fathead.  Fathead is apparently the smartest caveman (boy)  who invented golf and fire. (not on the same day that'd be too much)  Of the leaders named Lord Amur comes over and places a  bird's nest on his head. His son, named Junior speaks English so we can understand what this means it's time  for a manhood test for Fathead he has to steal an egg from a T-Rex or get banished. (harsh) 

    His sister, Taung (voiced by Sarah Rayne) explains that Junior technically cheated during his test  why not try a different way to do it.  The thing you'll notice in this short is that the parents don't speak with in normal (to us) talk but the kids do speak fluent English. Essentially giving us a very noticeable generation gap and kind of creative. 

      Later Taung and Fathead's friend, Horst, go and find some Neanderthals to trade some jewels for a rock that is painted to look like an egg. Junior was lurking and knows about the plan, that Fathead doesn't even know about yet. 

      It's the day of the test and Fathead goes out and his sister tells him about the fake egg, he has to find it. The boy decides to not cheat and decides to use that big brain they've been saying he has and trick the T-Rex with a fake T-rex (by appealing to it wanting  mate).  We do get a dino chase scene and a cool pterodactyl tried. It was pretty cool he used his father's story to help think of this plan. 

    Anyway, since Junior thinks the egg on his head is the rock, he declares it fake and smacks it and it cracks open and he gets attacked by a baby T-Rex. Thus proving it wasn't fake and not having to be banished. 

      This was pretty fun to watch, I like how it looked.  The story was pretty interesting, taking place in caveman times, using the framing of the kids being more evolved over the adults but having the adults' old ways still providing some use was pretty good. 

   If it was a series , I could see it working. The concept has a lot of spaces to work , maybe world exploration. I think it work also work if it's not every episode being Junior vs. Fathead but would show rivalry.  It was also pretty nice to have a brother and sister not be at odds with each just because. 

     I do wonder if this one like, "Planet Kate" was meant  to do more than it made. This is another one I wish had ended up being a Nicktoon (another line I'm going to say alot) . I liked the concept and the story of the this cartoon.  It really was pretty interesting and glad it strayed away from anything like a random gross out moment just because caveman days.  

        So I enjoyed that, and give this a look for the fun of it. 

     That's it for now, tune in next time when we pitch a caveman series to CBS daytime and they wonder if we're alright.         

         

   

        

Oh Yeah! Cartoons: #10: Planet Kate

Nickelodeon 

Previously, they are called the feelers, and I they made me feel .[HERE]

                                                  #10 Planet Kate

 Season 1, Episode 13a 

        Planet Kate  is the longest short we've looked at so far, that's right it's 11 minutes instead of 7. So a more standard length of non 22 minute cartoon series. This was the part of the season 1 finale.  Created by Jamie Mitchell. It is interesting how this one is longer by 4 minutes, there must have been something they had planned for this, but  not in our timeline apparently.  

          This one even has a theme song intro, so something was happening. It takes place in the desert there's a girl named Kate talking to her mom as she's frantically looking for her map, which was a homework assignment.  Kate is voiced by Shayna Fox, whom was the voice of Reggie on "Rocket Power" that's why I had to tell you that, if you hear her voice and wonder huh? familiar.  She goes to look for her dog named Toby and she talks to us to say that alien dogs have arrived she hasn't told her parents about them. Apparently the dogs are there to dig up to find the lost city of dogs. 

      For the alien dogs they got the voice actors of Billy West, Maurice LaMarche, Cree Summer , Nancy Cartwright. Stacked wow!  Yes, the dogs do have her map assignment.  They come back down to Earth with her dog with them as well.  Anyway, she figures out that they are using her map to find the hidden city,  the twist was the map wasn't a real thing, it was just for her assignment. 

 

   The alien dog group is sad that this was all for not, during their sadness they reveal a second half to the map, which is on a rock structure they dug up and it's apparently more map and some how Kate's map fits with the half they found.  

       They take her homework again, now realizing that by change it might be real.  She takes Toby with her and leaves them be, and we get the three saddest words ever, "To be Continued"

     That's right , there's a To be continued.  Now I'm sad.  First off this was a great start, there's an idea of this lost city of dogs being searched by aliens, they have a hook with the map proving to maybe be real, and the characters seem interesting.  The style also kind of reminds me of "Hey Arnold" crossed with "All Real Monsters" which is not a sentence I expected to write.  Kate does look  a little like Arnold's relative in some way. 

   

       I do wonder if Nickelodeon had bigger ideas for this one but then something fell through, that's sad, the to be continued line kind of hurts, I would like to see more. It was a fun short to watch, it was engaging. So yeah I did really like this one and now wish I could go to a parallel world where this was a series.  If you are alright with a little pain of watching something you know doesn't have more, then check this one out for the curiosity at least or to lament at what we could have had.

    That's it for now, tune in next time when we see what our parallel universe blog is writing about instead.   

      

Oh Yeah! Cartoons: #9: The Feelers

Nickelodeon 

       Previously,  three superheroes save the town, but not the three you think [HERE]

   

  #9 The Feelers

Season 1, Episode 11c

Hey look another short crated by Bill Burnett.  I kind of like the concept of personified bugs, there's something fun about that idea to me. This one is about an insect band who are trying to make it big, meaning to appeal to humans. 

                   The first song kind of feels like an 80's song with the lead singing bug , Mitzi, is giving me Joan Jett vibes. The bugs are in our normal world, so they are small and almost getting crushed under humans.  Mitzi gets an idea to visit a recording studio to appeal to humans.  

    The song the two humans singing is kind of funny how self aware it is.  They find a spider to help them with the stuff to record. Mitzi starts singing a love song about lightbulbs because she's a moth. Every song in this short is fun, I love that's there's  love song about a lightbulb.  They decide that humans don't want a love song about lightbulbs (sung like that, I'll take any song) 

      They make a song about going to Hollywood and making it big.  Then the record producer returns and bug sprays them, the other bugs think Mitzi is dead. The record executive shows up to hear the song that the humans were making and producer ends up flying the Feelers song. Mitzi isn't dead.  The executive now wants the Feelers. The short ends with the bugs dancing.  

                This is one I really wish had become a series, it seems like fun idea. The songs were really fun, they had that cool 80's vibe to them. I like character designs and the bug idea appeals to me. There's something really fun about this one.   There feels like potential in this one.(I'm going to be saying that alot too huh?)  

          This one didn't bug me. (boo!)  It's hard to find anything negative in some of these. since it's judging a seven minute short pilot that would have been modified if it had become a series. If I do find something I really don't like I note it, but that's not always going to be a big case.  

  That's it for now, tune in next time when I listen to a fly band.    

Oh Yeah! Cartoons : #8: Youngstar 3

Nickelodeon 

       Previously, A boy and his dog, a classic story   [HERE] 

  #8 Youngstar3

Season 1, Episode 10b 

         Another superhero theme huh?  A timeless idea. Youngstar3 was created by Miles Thompson. There are three superheroes Youngstar, a little boy,  Shero, a robot woman, and Old Man, an old man.  There's a giant monster causing havoc and our heroes have to go out and hero.  

   

           That's really what I can say about it from that point. It's 3 odd heroes fighting a giant fish monster. It's fun, I  like the three heroes they have their own unique characteristics and seem like an interesting team. The ideas they use to stop fight the monster are creative and really gives a really fun viewing expirence.

    

      I love the animation style too, it does fell very 90's (because duh) but it seems like it would fit on Nick or Cartoon Network at the time It feels like alternate world "Powerpuff Girls" by the simpe background designs and the character designs feel very Dexter's Lab/ Powerpuff Girls.   

   

         I think this would have been a fun series, there are so many ideas that could have been done for episodes, different monsters and villains. Giving the characters a little more personality through the episodes would have been fun to see. 

    There is something very charming about it, the jokes don't always land but they all feel earnest. And bonus points to having a grandpa be a superhero that's kind of fun, you don't see that really.  Give this one  a watch, it's fun.  

   That's it for now, tune in next time, when say a boy, an old  man , and a robot woman walk into a bar, I ducked. 

2022 Oscar Nominations announced

Oscars

 

                 The 94th Oscars  nominations were announced Tuesday. The best picture category has been expanded  to allow for 10 movies to vy for the top spot.  Netflix gets a 2 out of 10 chance of winning with Don't Look Up and Power of the Dog  ,  Dune from Warner Brothers did get a nod, and showing how the awards had to be flexible towards movies that didn't either have a theater launch or a hybrid model, especially in the animated category.    The Award show is set to air on March 27 at 8pet/5pt on ABC.

Here's the full list 

Best Picture

Belfast

Laura Berwick, Kenneth Branagh, Becca Kovacik and Tamar Thomas, Producers

CODA

Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi and Patrick Wachsberger, Producers

Don’t Look Up

Adam McKay and Kevin Messick, Producers

Drive My Car

Teruhisa Yamamoto, Producer

Dune

Mary Parent, Denis Villeneuve and Cale Boyter, Producers

King Richard

Tim White, Trevor White and Will Smith, Producers

Licorice Pizza

Sara Murphy, Adam Somner and Paul Thomas Anderson, Producers

Nightmare Alley

Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale and Bradley Cooper, Producers

The Power of the Dog

Jane Campion, Tanya Seghatchian, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning and Roger Frappier, Producers

West Side Story

Steven Spielberg and Kristie Macosko Krieger, Producers

Actor in a Leading Role

Javier Bardem

Being the Ricardos

Benedict Cumberbatch

The Power of the Dog

Andrew Garfield

Tick, Tick…Boom!

Will Smith

King Richard

Denzel Washington

The Tragedy of Macbeth

Actress in a Leading Role

Jessica Chastain

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Olivia Colman

The Lost Daughter

Penélope Cruz

Parallel Mothers

Nicole Kidman

Being the Ricardos

Kristen Stewart

Spencer

Actor in a Supporting Role

Ciarán Hinds

Belfast

Troy Kotsur

CODA

Jesse Plemons

The Power of the Dog

J.K. Simmons

Being the Ricardos

Kodi Smit-McPhee

The Power of the Dog

Actress in a Supporting Role

Jessie Buckley

The Lost Daughter

Ariana DeBose

West Side Story

Judi Dench

Belfast

Kirsten Dunst

The Power of the Dog

Aunjanue Ellis

King Richard

Directing

Belfast

Kenneth Branagh

Drive My Car

Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Licorice Pizza

Paul Thomas Anderson

The Power of the Dog

Jane Campion

West Side Story

Steven Spielberg

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

CODA

Screenplay by Siân Heder

Drive My Car

Screenplay by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Takamasa Oe

Dune

Screenplay by Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve and Eric Roth

The Lost Daughter

Written by Maggie Gyllenhaal

The Power of the Dog

Written by Jane Campion

Writing (Original Screenplay)

Belfast

Written by Kenneth Branagh

Don’t Look Up

Screenplay by Adam McKay; Story by Adam McKay & David Sirota

King Richard

Written by Zach Baylin

Licorice Pizza

Written by Paul Thomas Anderson

The Worst Person in the World

Written by Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier

Documentary Feature

Ascension

Jessica Kingdon, Kira Simon-Kennedy and Nathan Truesdell

Attica

Stanley Nelson and Traci A. Curry

Flee

Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen and Charlotte De La Gournerie

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Joseph Patel, Robert Fyvolent and David Dinerstein

Writing with Fire

Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh

Animated Feature Film

Encanto

Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Yvett Merino and Clark Spencer

Flee

Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen and Charlotte De La Gournerie

Luca

Enrico Casarosa and Andrea Warren

The Mitchells vs. the Machines

Mike Rianda, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Kurt Albrecht

Raya and the Last Dragon

Don Hall, Carlos López Estrada, Osnat Shurer and Peter Del Vecho

International Feature Film

Drive My Car (Japan)

A C&I Entertainment/Culture Entertainment/Bitters End Production

Flee (Denmark)

A Final Cut for Real/Sun Creature/Vivement Lundi !/MostFilm/Mer Film/VICE/Left HandFilms Production

The Hand of God (Italy)

A The Apartment Production

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (Bhutan)

A Dangphu Dingphu: a 3 pigs Production

The Worst Person in the World (Norway)

An Oslo Pictures/MK Productions/Film iVäst/Snowglobe/B-Reel/Arte France Cinéma Production

Cinematography

Dune

Greig Fraser

Nightmare Alley

Dan Laustsen

The Power of the Dog

Ari Wegner

The Tragedy of Macbeth

Bruno Delbonnel

West Side Story

Janusz Kaminski

Film Editing

Don’t Look Up

Hank Corwin

Dune

Joe Walker

King Richard

Pamela Martin

The Power of the Dog

Peter Sciberras

Tick, Tick…Boom!

Myron Kerstein and Andrew Weisblum

Live Action Short Film

Ala Kachuu – Take and Run

Maria Brendle and Nadine Lüchinger

The Dress

Tadeusz Łysiak and Maciej Ślesicki

The Long Goodbye

Aneil Karia and Riz Ahmed

On My Mind

Martin Strange-Hansen and Kim Magnusson

Please Hold

K.D. Dávila and Levin Menekse

Animated Short Film

Affairs of the Art

Joanna Quinn and Les Mills

Bestia

Hugo Covarrubias and Tevo Díaz

Boxballet

Anton Dyakov

Robin Robin

Dan Ojari and Mikey Please

The Windshield Wiper

Alberto Mielgo and Leo Sanchez

Documentary Short Subject

Audible

Matt Ogens and Geoff McLean

Lead Me Home

Pedro Kos and Jon Shenk

The Queen of Basketball

Ben Proudfoot

Three Songs for Benazir

Elizabeth Mirzaei and Gulistan Mirzaei

When We Were Bullies

Jay Rosenblatt

Music (Original Score)

Don’t Look Up

Nicholas Britell

Dune

Hans Zimmer

Encanto

Germaine Franco

Parallel Mothers

Alberto Iglesias

The Power of the Dog

Jonny Greenwood

Music (Original Song)

“Be Alive” from King Richard

Music and Lyric by DIXSON and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter

“Dos Oruguitas” from Encanto

Music and Lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda

“Down To Joy” from Belfast

Music and Lyric by Van Morrison

“No Time To Die” from No Time to Die

Music and Lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell

“Somehow You Do” from Four Good Days

Music and Lyric by Diane Warren

Production Design

Dune

Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Zsuzsanna Sipos

Nightmare Alley

Production Design: Tamara Deverell; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau

The Power of the Dog

Production Design: Grant Major; Set Decoration: Amber Richards

The Tragedy of Macbeth

Production Design: Stefan Dechant; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh

West Side Story

Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Rena DeAngelo

Costume Design

Cruella

Jenny Beavan

Cyrano

Massimo Cantini Parrini and Jacqueline Durran

Dune

Jacqueline West and Robert Morgan

Nightmare Alley

Luis Sequeira

West Side Story

Paul Tazewell

Makeup and Hairstyling

Coming 2 America

Mike Marino, Stacey Morris and Carla Farmer

Cruella

Nadia Stacey, Naomi Donne and Julia Vernon

Dune

Donald Mowat, Love Larson and Eva von Bahr

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram and Justin Raleigh

House of Gucci

Göran Lundström, Anna Carin Lock and Frederic Aspiras

Sound

Belfast

Denise Yarde, Simon Chase, James Mather and Niv Adiri

Dune

Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill and Ron Bartlett

No Time to Die

Simon Hayes, Oliver Tarney, James Harrison, Paul Massey and Mark Taylor

The Power of the Dog

Richard Flynn, Robert Mackenzie and Tara Webb

West Side Story

Tod A. Maitland, Gary Rydstrom, Brian Chumney, Andy Nelson and Shawn Murphy

Visual Effects

Dune

Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles, Brian Connor and Gerd Nefzer

Free Guy

Swen Gillberg, Bryan Grill, Nikos Kalaitzidis and Dan Sudick

No Time to Die

Charlie Noble, Joel Green, Jonathan Fawkner and Chris Corbould

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Christopher Townsend, Joe Farrell, Sean Noel Walker and Dan Oliver

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Kelly Port, Chris Waegner, Scott Edelstein and Dan Sudick

Oh Yeah! Cartoons #7: Olly and Frank

Nickelodeon 

            Previously, Twins turn robots into saving the jungle. [HERE]

     #7 Olly and Frank

From Season 1, Episode 6

   Olly and Frank  is from  Bob Doyle who has a prolific  career, he has worked on "Fairly Odd Parents" , "ChalkZone", "Danny Phantom";  he also created "Yin Yang Yo!"  and "Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!"  

       Olly is a boy smart boy who wants to impress a girl named Daisy-May and stop a bully named Bratwurst (can't imagine why he would be mean). After his science project fails, he decides a new idea is take part of his dog's brain and put inside Frankenstein like monster. Dog brain means it acts likes a dog. 

      It's like Frankenweenie but weirder. He brings the dog monster to school which wasn't the best idea.  There is some chaos and Olly gets suspended. He yells at Frank to go away, meanwhile Olly sees Bratwurst harassing Daisy and stands up for her, which kind of works. 

     

       Olly and Daisy end up in danger and Frank goes to save them. Daisy asks Olly to go the dance with her.   

    

       Olly and Frank is pretty interesting. I do like the idea of a Frankenstein's monster dog.  I do like how Daisy isn't impressed by the sausage named bully and  it's sweet how she was open to talking to Olly in the start and asks him to the dance at the end, making it much more rewarding and interesting than the boy being afraid to talk to the girl and other bog standard things you'd see.  

   Since I do this part where I think about it being a series, here's that. I'm not sure, the short wraps things up pretty well. I guess an expanded idea could be like Olly and Frank go through different adventures, maybe Daisy is a friend. (Better than resetting and having Olly go through trying to get Daisy to notice him and having the bully be reset)  I think it might have been an interesting series. but the short is alright.  

   

   It also gives me a "Dexter's Lab" vibe by the designs and maybe the strange science, like just screwing off the dogs head to get a piece of it's brain. I kind of miss that fun absurdity in cartoons. There's some fun to be had watching cartoon.

  That's it for now, tune in next time when we put a cat's brain in a robot. 

Oh Yeah! Cartoons: #6: Twins Crimson and Those Amazing Robots

Nickelodeon 

   Previously, I'm an ink boy in an ink world, made of Papermate Ink   [HERE]

       #6 Twins Crimson and
Those Amazing Robots 

Season 1, Episode 6b 

     Long title, aright, Twins Crimson and Those Amazing Robots was created by Carlos Ramos who later on created the short lived Nicktoon, "The X's".  

       

    Twin siblings, Bene and Beck,  are destroying the house by existing and their 50's mother kicks them out the house to play. Apparently, their house leads into the jungle where they go play for awhile until they find a new town called Metroplex, a town of the future.  Robots are destroying trees and stuff when Bene kicks one and starts yelling at it , she's taunting a robot.  (Power move) 

         That works and the robots start cleaning up the mess for the animals, and fixing the trees. A faceless man sees this and wants it stopped and sends out more robots to destroy stuff, and this becomes a robot fighting show. Bene and Beck  get the animals to come in and join the fight. Never thought I'd see a rhino take down a robot, but cool.   They do stop the bad robots from destroying the jungle and the evil guy accepts this and decides to build somewhere else. (huh, alright then) 

   The good robots take them back home and the parents faint. (or die hmmm)

     

     Beck's voice sounds like Ralph Wiggum a little, and that might because both twins are voiced by Nancy Cartwright. Cheryl Chase is the voice of the mom.  It's kind of funny that Cartwright uses hints of her Wiggum voice in this. There's some sounds like Nelson in this too.

    

         The art style is nice, they made Beck blue and Bene Pink, you'll see parents in those colors at the end.  They do the classic you don't see the parents' faces.  The world is interesting, there's whole jungle in the back of their otherwise normal suburban house.  I liked how the story kind of becomes a robot battle with animals to save the jungle, pretty creative.  The robots have some fun designs each one is different. 

      

      It might have been fun if it had become a series, I don't see it lasting long, but it would have been a fun ride.  The characters don't seem interesting at first , but  you see some characterization and have pretty interesting dynamic.  I had fun watching this one.  

   

        That's it for now, tune in next time, when Bene yells at Bart Simpson.