The Best and Worst of 2021

 

Be very afraid of what's to come next....new lockdowns, more
bad stuff similar to 2020?????

2021 was filled with hopes and dreams.  Some of them did come true, but others seem hesitant.  Especially near year's end.  We wanna see a better year than 2021, but will it?  I decided NOT to use "Woody" this year because I decided instead to go from "what a rotten year" to "proceed onto the next year with full caution."  Not everything was good in 2021, but the good, I believe, outweighed some of the bad.  We have a vaccine, restrictions (until somewhat recently though not as bad) are being lifted, big events returned, and of course some interesting animation moments this year

This year I decided NOT to pick a winner for each category like I always did (or losers for that matter).  Instead, I'm going to be summarizing what happened in each category with the perspective of my own two eyes.  If you had a favorite moment in 2021, let me know in the comments below.  Let's get started.

Animated Features

COVID still played a key roll in movies not being in theaters.  However, as movie theaters slowly opened up, more movies than last year came out theatrically.  HBO Max and Paramount + (which we'll talk about later) had decided that their movies would be released simultaneously.  So movies such as Tom and Jerry and Space Jam came out both ways.  Disney, meanwhile, got confused on what to do.  Some of their features came out theatrically such as Encanto.  Others, like Luca, came out only on Disney +.  The Addams Family, which was critically bad, ended up only in theaters.

Despite everything, Disney was dominant.  Not every movie was a hit both monetarily and critically, but those that saw films like Encanto and Raya and the Lost Dragon liked them.  Luca, had it gone into theaters, would have been the biggest success.  It's been suggested that some of the reasons for not being box office hits per say is because they would end up on Disney + almost soon after.  And in some areas, hesitancy is still around with the virus.

With movie theaters opening back up, however, allows for more stinkers to show up.  The first one...Tom and Jerry.  This was a live action/animated hybrid.  While Tom and Jerry themselves look great in their classic iconic selves, storytelling and gag writing fell flat.  And the less we talk about Clifford the Big Red Dog, the better.  Which by the way note to self....Update the Worst Ever Tom and Jerry post.  

Space Jam a New Legacy had the most mixed reviews.  Like last time, it was basically another commercial for a commercial.  There is one big Nike logo at the beginning of the animated sequences.  Also, Lebron James has a...mixed fanbase.....to say the least.  I will say this, his cocky personality matched better with Bugs Bunny (another cocky personality) than Michael Jordan ever did as he felt confused as to what to do.  This may be due to Lebron's acting
experience.  However, all is not bad as it did prove entertaining and it did help introduce a new generation to the Looney Tunes.

The worst thing to happen to animated features has to be the closure of Blue Sky by Disney.  Disney defenders continue to claim that it's all due to COVID causing to cut costs.  Well, that may be true to an extent, but I think it was Disney's plan all along when the Fox merger happened and COVID just sped it up.  While I am not a fan of most of their movies, they did create one of my favorites: The Peanuts Movie.  A shame that they did this, but everyone knew this was coming.

Animated TV series

When we last left the TV scene, it appeared hopeless but with some bit of hope.  Over the air would have classic cartoons again, and potential for other hit shows would be as I said....and uphill battle.  Well....somehow cable networks were finally able to figure out the uphill battle.  It's not perfect, the battle is still going on, and streaming is still the big thing, but I think cable networks are up to the challenge.

When the clock struck 12 and 2021 came into our lives, the right to air the Warner Bros. Theatrical Cartoon Library went full affect on Me-TV.  Certainly not the first time Me-TV aired cartoons, far from it (what say you, should I do a history of cartoons on Me-TV?).  But what did happen was astonishing.  Saturday Morning Cartoons include 1 hour of Popeye, 1 hour of Tom and Jerry, and 1 hour of Looney Tunes under the Bugs Bunny and Friends label.  Popeye also included Betty Boop.  Eventually Popeye would be reduced a half and hour to make room for The Pink Panther.  Unlike Boomerang and Cartoon Network's Tom and Jerry block, Me-TV's included as much of the MGM Cartoon Library as possible.  This includes Tex Avery, Barney Bear, and Happy Harmonies.  Still, Me-TV had cold feet with the Mammy Two Shoes cartoons, but everything else seems fine.  Also unlike Boomerang, Me-TV's broadcasts of the Looney Tunes have been more vast causing Boomerang to go into panic mode advertising "THIS is the right place" despite only playing 20-30% of the cartoons.  By year's end, approx. 70% of the Looney Tunes have aired at one time or another on Me-TV.  For Bugs Bunny and Friends, The Bugs Bunny Overture/This is It made its triumphant return to television introducing the show.  On Mondays-Fridays at 7am, Toon in with Me aired 5 cartoons a day hosted by Bill Leff and Toony the Tuna.  Criticized at first, the show only got better with time with facts about some of the cartoons treating them with the upmost respect while mixing in some corny comedy sketches.  In May, a week long tribute to Bugs Bunny occurred.  In December, a 2 hour special of Christmas Cartoons aired.  On Sundays on the new Me-TV +, a three hour random Sunday Night Cartoon block premiered in May.  Fans loved it for them just playing the cartoons and mixing them up just as Cartoon Network did on Acme Hour so many years ago.  The first year ended exceeding everyone's expectations.  Many new restorations premiered on Me-TV.  Many cartoons not shown in nearly 15 years came back.  By December, the library included those from Warner Bros., MGM, some from ViacomCBS (though all are public domain), and some from Sony.  And there are no signs of stopping now.

While the older cartoons had better reruns this year, new and interesting things were happening on cable.  Nickelodeon started off with a new experiment: the NFL Wild Card Game Nick-ified.  This

meant that graphics would appear.  Slime cannons and Spongebob goal post netting appeared during live action while replay highlights included added graphics from strange objects to slime to characters from The Loud House, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Casagrandes.  We all thought it was gonna fail (there was an F bomb that was clearly heard from one of the players and the game stunk), but the ratings proved otherwise.  Nickelodeon has plans to do it again next year, and during the fall of this year, NFL Slime Time premiered.  Hosted by Nate Burlison and Young Dylan, it showed highlights from the past weekend's NFL games.  Wait did I say highlights?  I meant to say......SLIME LIGHTS!!!  All highlights featured additional graphics the same way they did during the Wild Card Game.  More Loud House characters, more Casagrande characters, and.....Smurfs?????  Yup, Nickelodeon began airing a new Smurfs series.  The new CGI series would help bring a new and better era to the classic blue creatures, though now causing more competition as Smurfs are now both Nickelodeon characters and Hanna-Barbera characters.  

It should be reminded that Smurfs is an independent series made in Belgium over 60 years ago.  As if there was no more tricks that year, Nickelodeon premiered a game show for their Nicktoons in February.  Tooned In seemed like a rushed job airing an episode a day, possibly due to COVID restrictions causing severe delays, but they made do.  Hosted by Nicky the cartoon loving robot, kids competed each other testing their knowledge of the Nicktoons or get slimed.  The next season allowed plenty of time to fix it up.  Now hosted by Jerry Trainor of iCarly fame but still co-hosted by Nicky.  Axed was the Nicktoons Nick-goon (he probably disturbed kids with his creepy cos-play).  Also, anyone can get slimed at any time.  It was not perfect, but it was fun trying to play along.  Casagrandes had an

Just one of a handful of awesome 
Casagrandes episodes

awesome season, Loud House not so much.  Although The Loud House as a franchise had a great year.  Lincoln Loud awarded the NVP each week on NFL Slime Time.  We'll talk streaming in a little bit but they had two movies including the live action A Loud House Christmas.  When announced, there were doubts, but as we saw clips and behind the scenes footage getting us more familiar with the cast, the end result is one of the highest rated Nickelodeon programs.  The Loud House is here to stay but so is Spongebob with the spin off series, The Patrick Star Show.  Going the Tex Avery route, Patrick Star received mixed reviews.  

Disney had some of the biggest hits this year.  Amphipia had a major episode leak on itunes causing a major controversy showing how popular the show was.  The Owl House tended to decrease in popularity.  Meanwhile, Disney Channel is having a hit on its hands.  After years trying to find a good home, Miraculous Ladybug was getting the fanbase it deserved.  Mickey Mouse got a new show for Disney Junior, Mickey Mouse Funhouse.  A new show began to be hinted with an intro video and some animatics.....The Ghost and Molly McGee.  Finally, something different for the Disney Channel including great songs, great representation, and lovable characters.  The fanbase began forming for the show.  Alas, Disney is focusing more on princesses, superheros, and Star Wars.  None of these shows are guaranteed the future past this year.  We hope fans will change their minds in the coming year.

Cartoon Network would have been the one having the most issues, but then fall came with major changes.  Half of Cartoon Network became Cartoonito, which showcased educational series based on research, the same research, thanks to being on HBO, being done by the people at Sesame Workshop.  Not all was great, the new Thomas the Tank Engine is heavily criticized, and Little Ellen, well, Ellen has some issues of her own not to be

covered on here.  Reruns of Baby Looney Tunes began airing on Cartoon Network everyday as a result of Cartoonito with hints of more Looney to come in the future.  The actual Cartoon Network pulled some surprises.  The Iron Giant, The Year Without a Santa Claus, reruns of older Christmas episodes from original Cartoon Network shows like Ed Edd n Eddy and The Powerpuff Girls took everyone by surprise.  By the end of the year, constant episodes of Teen Titans Go came to an end giving a fair balance for other Cartoon Network shows.  Adult Swim lost the rights to Family Guy though, thanks to Disney stealing away the rights for its networks like Freeform and FXX, but they allowed them to have a few more shows making their return in reruns: King of the Hill and Futurama.  FXX would be the ultimate home for the Fox adult shows from The Simpsons to Family Guy.  We all hope these changes lead to something big.

Streaming

A new player was added to the streaming wars.  Rebranding from CBS All Access is Paramount+.  The rebrand started out weak and bad with its new show and it's yet another Spongebob Spin Off, not a very good one.  Kamp Koral was the aged down versions of Spongebob and friends and was not well received.  The animation library on the service was lackluster with incomplete series selections.  That would turn around real quickly as new shows were added, shows not seen in a long time like Kablam, and complete series (save for music clearances).  The next big show for them with big fanfare would be the reboot of The Rugrats.  Sure it's in CGI, but it's the whole gang returning to the screens.  Promotion was high for The Rugrats and introduced a new generation to one of the first 3 Nicktoons.  

Most of the big things happening in streaming however was more scattered than just one place.  The first big thing was a major update to the Cartoon Network section of HBO Max with a lot of older originals returning in repeats just for them.  HBO Max also continued premiered new Looney Tunes Cartoons episodes with more to come in 2022.  Animaniacs, meanwhile, continue to be a big hit for Hulu.  For Netflix, The Loud House Movie, the animated one, was a big hit for the service, as would a few animated features added that year.  HBO Max would wait until Christmas for the biggest loser, however, with the politically woke Santa Inc.  It is currently the worst rated series on Rotton Tomatoes thus far.  And yeah, well deserved.....it's bad.

Underdog reruns return on Tubi

Sneaking onto the streaming game is Tubi.  Using Disney money for selling off the Fox library, Rubert Murdox's company was able to build Tubi up as something to be dealt with.  So many different shows from different companies were picked up both new and library product.  The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo would be rescued from Warner Bros's paywall streaming wise.  Streaming rights of other cartoons include but certainly not limited to include a lot of DIC shows, Underdog, Tales of the Wizard of Oz, Garfield and Friends, Zig and Sharko, Gumby, Popeye, and last (yet least) public domain cartoons.  Streaming services like Peacock better watch out.

Peacock's still the weakest.  No major updates, just a handful.  Some cool things were added like Garfield and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but it's the same junk and no new stuff from their own library.  C'mon man, you are an embarrassment.

Anime

I must fully admit, I haven't been keeping up on the latest anime news.  It could be due to some lack of interest as of late.  But I do believe anime could be kicking some more western's butt at the moment.

Shows like Beastars, Attack on Titan, and My Hero Academia continue to be hits.  We even got some more Sailor Moon as Sailor Moon Eternal finally came out after being on hold due to COVID.  Also finally coming out after an even longer hold was Evangelion 3.0+1.0.

Most of the news comes from the industry itself.  Funimation closed the deal to merge with Crunchyroll.  This in theory means that Funimation will be the monopoly of anime, but the proof of that is somewhat untrue as Netflix and Amazon got big names this year.  Still, the vast majority would be controlled in the states by Sony.  It is a scary thought, but let's see what happens.

Speaking of Crunchyroll, we waited and waited and waited and waited for High Guardian Spice to appear.  It finally did this year..........and it stunk.  If it were for Cartoon Network, maybe

it'll pass, but it wasn't, and it was a cheap show.  Made only worse when the money to make it was supposed to go to Japanese creators, not original Crunchyroll shows and how it was originally promoted ONLY for its diverse crew (NOBODY CARES ABOUT THAT....they just want to know if the show's good or not).  Perhaps it was a trap because they knew that this was going to be a disaster? Also, the less we talk about Netflix's failed live action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop, the better.  

 

The Unusual History of Santa and the Three Bears

 Christmas movies come, Christmas movies go.  Many are considered timeless, others you have to dig deep.  Some involve saving Christmas, other simply tell the joy of Christmas.  Most are obviously live action, but there are good number of them animated.  Those, in my biased opinion, are the most memorable of the bunch.  Even if it becomes obscure, chances are if you've seen it, you remember it.  The same could be said about this little film, Santa and the Three Bears.

Depending on where you lived and when you were born, you may remember this film.  It was one of those cheap kiddie matinee movies released during the 1970s.  But was it really that much of a B picture?  Who made this picture anyhow?  That is our story which has bizarre twists and turns along the way.

The story goes back to the 1960's.  Tony Benedict was a writer at Hanna Barbera.  Perhaps his most famous creation was Astro the Dog on Jetsons.  He approached Joe Barbera with an idea of a Christmas special since Rudolph, Charlie Brown, and The Grinch took off.  His idea was about two bear cubs trying to stay awake until Christmas.  The problem already is that there was no villain for Hanna-Barbera.  So Tony self financed this movie himself.  He was able to finance this by telling the story to the children of some CEO in Vancouver.  The children loved it so much that Tony walked away with a check to get this project started.  As a result, Tony Benedict Productions was formed.  Many people from Hanna-Barbera helped out along the way.  Iwo Takamoto designed the characters.  Ed Love was one of the animators.  Jean Vander Pyle did the voice of Nana (Wilma Flintstone, Rosey the Robot) while Hal Smith (Otis on Andy Griffith) voiced the ranger.  Originally it would be called A Yellowstone Christmas and would be pitched to TV stations, but didn't sell. 

In came Warner Bros who became interested in it.  At first from what I can surmise is that Warners picked it up as is perhaps as a featurette the same way Winnie the Pooh was for Disney.  Proof of this could be seen on original prints for A Yellowstone Christmas.  However, they decided that it should be longer than 30 minutes for Saturday Afternoon matinee.  Songs were added, live action footage was added, and new animation/voice acting was commissioned.  It was believed this is where A Yellowstone Christmas was renamed Santa and the Three Bears. The title could be misleading to some thinking it's like Goldilocks and the Three Bears when in all actuality it's nothing like that.  Plus instead of a Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear is a Mama (Nana), Brother (Chinook), and Sister Bear (Nikomi). However at the same time this was all happening, Warner Bros. would merge with 7arts and while Warner Bros/7arts titles were placed on the film (even before becoming Santa and the Three Bears), eventually they decided to say no to the project all together despite it pretty much being all done.

Enter R and S Films in Hollywood, FL.  "R and S films distributed two kinds of films," recalls Tony Benedict, "children's films and soft core pornography." It also had deep ties with the now defunct Pirates World theme park.  Tony also recalls seeing posters of a children's film and a porno film side by side having the exact same actress.  They found interest in the film and bought it.  Tony was able to buy it back from Warner Bros/7arts and the film got distributed nationwide in 1970.  A contradicting story, however, is that it was R and S Films that renamed the film Santa and the Three Bears, not Warners:

“Following multiple new rejections one opportunity arose. Shelly Schermer operated a small distribution company that specialized in children films and soft corn porn. It was the only offer I had so we made a deal. Shelly re titled the film as SANTA AND THE THREE BEARS and booked it in more than one hundred movie theaters on Saturday and Sunday for a matinee weekends release Thanksgiving Day through Christmas in 1970. At fifty and twenty five cents a ticket is racked up half a million dollars in it’s first year. Precious little of that money found it’s way back to me.”

Special thanks to Greg Ehrbar for the quote taken from Cartoon Research.  

Many different prints were made of this however, and since it was a success that first year different versions of the film were released.  This is where things get tricky for us as we have been exposed or not been exposed to several different versions of the film causing us to ask ourselves "which one is the real version" and "which one is the best version".  This blog is no stranger to going deep diving, and I am not stopping now!  So here we go, these are the many versions of Santa and the Three Bears:

1. A Yellowstone Christmas version

The shortest version on our list, this was the original version pitched to TV networks and Warner Bros.  There are even a Warner Bros/7arts title card at the beginning and a Warner Bros/7arts logo at the end of the film during the credits.  It could be seen why the TV networks turned it down.  The story was not exciting, epic, or dramatic.  It was short, sweet, and simple.  Then again, Charlie Brown was short, sweet, and simple.  Sometimes TV executives are the dumbest people in the world.  Sure I could see where someone could be bored by this version, but it feels very wholesome.  I can't say that a whole lot with Christmas specials today.  This version was never released widespread due to not being sold by a network and the changes being made by Warner Bros/7arts later on.  Tony Benedict at one time uploaded his 35mm copy of this version (omitting any reference of Warner Bros to make it look like it was made for TV), but it has since been taken down.  Don't worry, I backed it up.  

2. Hal Smith version

This version is believed to have been the original theatrical version and may be one of the most common.  At this point is when the movie is longer with more songs and new animation, all still done by Tony Benedict Productions.  The intro and outro features Hal Smith in live action.  In the intro, he begins to tell the story to his niece and nephew about how when he was a park ranger and two little cubs wanted to stay up and enjoy Christmas bringing us into the actual movie.  At the end of the credits, the children have fallen asleep but Hal wakes them up to show that Santa Claus had come while the song "Wonder of Christmastime" finishes up.  Wikepedia claims that Barry Mahon directed the live action sequences with Hal Smith.  This is false information.  First, he nor R and S are given no credit.  Second, R and S is a third rate movie production company based in Hollywood, FL.  They reused actors and actresses from their production companies.  There was no way they could have afforded Hal Smith to do scenes for them as he was in bigger time productions like Andy Griffith, and the only reason he did Santa and the Three Bears in the first place is his close ties with the folks at Hanna Barbera including Tony Benedict who considered him for the role.  Finally, this version while officially released by R and S still bared a "distributed by Warner Bros/7arts" trademark.  This made me believe that these were commissioned by Warners to help pad out time for theatrical release.  Many streaming services as of late have been using this version, though the quality appears to come from 2nd generation VHS tapes.  Goodtimes Video allegedly put this version out without the live action sequences.  

3.  Pirates World/Porpoises version

R and S made their own version of the film which would be the longest version made.  A handful of new animation was added, though it was mostly for the title sequence and additional footage at the beginning of the animation sequence.  All live action scenes take place in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area.  More specifically, the now defunct Ocean World Marine Park.  Perhaps it too was owned and connected to Pirates World?  The live action scenes were up to R and S quality standards......all bad quality.  Here, another ranger is with his own nieces and nephews from Florida (much much older nieces and nephews I must add).  They are complaining about not being in the Christmas spirit because of the Florida weather.  They decided to do something fun by going to Ocean World and seeing the porpoises.  The tour guide shows them all the animals in the park and they get to watch some of the dolphin shows.  After a while, they sit and have lunch once again complaining about how it's too warm for Christmas.  So the uncle tells the story about his co-ranger staying at Yellowstone for the winter and dealing with the two bear cubs wanting to stay up for Christmas.  So wait, one ranger in one version is going to Florida to tell this story while the other ranger in another version, the real Mr. Ranger who experienced it all, goes to his own family and tells the same story..........ok.  After the cartoon portion, the kids go back to seeing more animals and watching the porpoises perform.  There was even a Christmas themed show with the dolphins getting their Christmas gifts to help brighten Christmas Spirits.  The last of the performances ends the movie with "Wonder of Christmastime" playing the whole time (cause when I think of the magic of Christmas, I think of Dolphin Shows....DUH!!!!!).   The film ends with a card advertising Pirates World showing some of their rides and attractions.  Thus, turning a charming little film into one big commercial for Florida parks.  Of all the versions of Santa and the Three Bears, this is the most cringe-y.  The acting is bad, it's all about Ocean World as opposed to the cartoon itself as would R and S's next Christmas film, Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny.  It gets worse, the film was not shy about talking about the capture of porpoises describing how "they finally give in realizing they could not escape".  WHAT?!  Why would you do that making these creatures feel emotionally traumatized by that?  This is why I cringe the most at this version.  Only to cringe more when you realize this park had connections to animal abuse.  Fortunately, this version is very uncommon.  Multicom Entertainment Group has this version well preserved as they have the original masters.  More on that later

4.   Modern Sound Pictures version

Finally, Modern Sound Pictures licensed this movie for non theatrical distribution.  This now defunct company used to rent out 16mm prints of movies and short subjects both owned and licensed.  Usually this meant showings at churches, schools, etc.  However, as one would expect, this resulted in pirates going the extra mile renting out these prints and making multiple dupe copies of the film, which obviously was against the law.  This resulted also in many bad prints of the film in circulation even to this day.  Modern Sound Pictures took the Pirates World version but edited out the live action sequences and any references to those said sequences or Ocean World.  This includes cuts and new titles created in some slots.  This version is also very common because of the dupe prints made.  Many copies of it gives an eerie feeling with the muffled sound, splices and dices, warped music, scratchy soundtrack, and a sudden spliced in Modern Sound Pictures title card.  Oh, and sometimes faded too.  If a fair print is shown, however, and is transferred properly, this version is not that bad.

There were also other versions to have allegedly appear including one in Dallas with sequences made for the Dallas locals.  But as you can see, this movie has been altered multiple times with multiple versions during its peak run.  When it was all said and done however, Tony Benedict received zero money for the film.  R and S and its shady practices said "Oh...we need to recuperate funding."  This shady practice forced the company to close and the copyright of the film to lapse.  Not before, of course, being released theatrically for many years and also syndicated to local television.  In later years, it appeared on TBN, USA, and Fox Family during their annual 25 Days of Christmas.  But, because of it entering in the public domain, it has appeared several times on VHS and DVD in various quality from multiple companies like UAV and Goodtimes.  Streaming companies mostly put this out in VHS quality with the Hal Smith introduction including Peacock and Tubi.  However, only one company (outside of Benedict himself with his Yellowstone print) has tried preserving it in great quality, Multicom.  After research from what I have concluded is that Multicom has the original masters to this film.  But again, the library they have are dirty films (not necessarily porn though) and those God awful Goodtimes Video ripoff movies.  This showed up on Youtube in 360p and on The Archive.tv in 486p.  It even appeared (with ads) on IMDB/Amazon Prime.  However, Multicom claims it's 4k ready.  This all came out recently. Has that version or Tony's been released on home video?  As far as I know, nope.

Santa and the Three Bears is no Rankin/Bass or Charlie Brown, but it is an enjoyable film.  It's probably the best of those categorized low budget Christmas flicks because its original purpose was to be a higher budget film in the first place before having to steep so low.  The characters are well designed and well animated.  It gives me a little bit of The Berenstain Bears vibe as Nana is a lot like Mama Bear and Chinook and Nikomi remind me of Brother and Sister Bear.  If one watches a good copy of it, it looks really cute and neat.  It deserves to be preserved, restored, and presented better than what it has been these past 50 years.  Because the kids that watched it and remembered it enjoyed it, be it in theaters or on television. 

My special thanks to Tony Benedict and Stu Shostak who interviewed Tony on an episode of Stu's Show.  Many of these stories you are reading today come from the show.  I also hope you enjoyed reading about this rarely seen Christmas movie.  I wish you all a Very Merry and Safe Christmas and here's hoping for a Happy New Year! 

Holiday Classics Guide 2021

 

It is that time of the year, holiday specials are here.  This blog post (updated constantly) will be your guide to where you can find your holiday favorites this year.  Without further ado, let's get crackin.  

ABC

Disney specials such as Olaf's Holiday Adventure and movies such as Frozen will return as well as the Christmas Classic Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

AMC: Best Christmas Ever

The Best Christmas Ever block will return with the Rankin Bass specials from the Warner Bros. library.    

Boomerang

No news yet, but a ton of Hanna Barbera holiday classics are up on their streaming service

Cartoon Network

For the month of November, a surprise airing of The Year Without a Santa Claus; it's first ever airing on Cartoon Network.  This will happen around Thanksgiving.  As far as December goes, The Powerpuff Girls Twas the Fight Before Christmas, Ed Edd n Eddy's Christmas special, and other older Cartoon Network Christmas episodes will return to TV this year.  And while not a Christmas Movie, fans are excited to see The Iron Giant air in December this year.

CBS

Rudolph and Frosty will air once again on the network.  They also will air The Story of Santa Claus with the now late great Ed Asner.  Interestingly enough however, Rudolph will air much earlier than expected, the Monday before Thanksgiving.  

Disney Channel

There's a really good holiday episode for the latest animated series, The Ghost and Molly McGee.  In it, Molly learns from her good friend Libby about Hanukkah.  Other than that, not sure what else. 

Freefrom: 25 Days of Christmas

Rudolph, Frosty, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and The Little Drummer Boy will be a part of the schedule once again this year.  In addition, some of your favorite Disney movies will be a part of this block.  Full schedule here.  

Me-TV: A Very Merry Me-TV

Me-TV will again this year air holiday episodes of the shows that they air on their network.  Animation wise that would also include Christmas Flintstone.  This year, however, a brand new special: now that Me-TV got TONS of cartoons, Me-TV's Super Colossal Cartoon Christmas will present 2 hours of Christmas Cartoons featuring a brand new restoration of the rarely seen Somewhere in Dreamland, a Max Fleischer Color Classic cartoon.  Hosted by the characters from Toon in With Me and Svengoulie.  Full schedule here 

NBC

Not a whole lot of information this year.  A new Trolls special will air and as usual the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, back in full force after being reduced severely due to Covid-19.  The Grinch will air again

Nickelodeon: Nickmas

On Black Friday will be the new live action movie A Loud House Christmas based on the animated Loud House series.  Meanwhile, The Loud House's spinoff series, The Casagrandes, will have a new Christmas episode.  New specials with The Rugrats and The Patrick Star Show will premiere and other repeats of previous specials will air.  Schedule of premieres here

PBS

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will air the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  Meanwhile, the Christmas Classic A Charlie Brown Christmas will air the Sunday before Christmas.  Both airings at 7:30pm ET/PT

Turner Networks: Winter Break

The Grinch will return as part of a new holiday block called Winter Break.  Most of these shows are movies including the annual 24 hr Christmas Story marathon.  The Grinch will be the first special to air this season, Saturday November 6th.  In addition, The Year Without a Santa Claus will air on TBS.  However, this appears to only be the case for the month of November since it could move over to AMC.  Full schedule here

Alvin and the Chipmunk Knock offs: The Singing Reindeer

 

Just when this series of posts had died it was brought back to life with a new discovery.  It's time to look at the fate of the next Alvin and the Chipmunks knock off.  You all know Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, and Vixen, Comet and Cupid,  Donder and Blitzen.  But do you recall, the most NERVOUS Reindeer of all????

With the success of Liberty Records scoring David Seville and the Three Chipmunks, you bet your boots the huge record company, Capitol Records, was paying attention.  During the holiday season of 1959, Capitol signed with Russ Regan to create singing reindeer.  The Singing Reindeer would be 3 of Santa's reindeer: Dancer, Prancer, and a new member of the Reindeer Games, Nervous.  Nervous would be the easiest to identify because of his stutter. Interestingly enough, Nervous would make reference to Don Knotts before he was Barney Fife when he was best known as The Nervous Man. This made Nervous the main character of the gang just like Alvin was with the Chipmunks.  Already this was well established who these characters are.

Their first song came out in 1959 called The Happy Reindeer.  This begins confusion as to whether they were called The Happy Reindeer, The Singing Reindeer, or both.  However, the records labeled them as The Singing Reindeer with their first 45rpm stating "Dancer, Prancer, and Nervous the Singing Reindeer".  While not as popular as the Chipmunks, The Happy Reindeer did hit the top 40 charts that year.  One thing that was different than the Chipmunks was the speed of their voices.  The voices were only sped up about 15% similar to how Mel Blanc's voices were sped up.  However, the same type of Saxophone like music used in the Chipmunks are used here making it very obvious it was competing against Liberty.  Thus, they weren't as high pitched, but good enough for Capitol to promote.  Not long after, Ross Bagdasarian, creator of The Chipmunks, took a stab at them by making a single of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer sung by the Chipmunks and Rudolph would too have the same speed and voice like Nervous.  Could this have been the only legit competition of the three singing chipmunks?  Who knows.

And promote The Happy Reindeer Capitol did.  An animated music video was made to help promote the song and was sent out to local TV stations (more on that later) and what's more, Capitol had a pay for play promotion using Nervous to introduce specific segments before tossing to the on air DJ.  These include weather, time, days until Christmas, and a Christmas greeting.  

The success of The Happy Reindeer led to another 45rpm.  This time it's The Happy Birthday Song.  This was an original song, and it was in no way a Christmas Song despite being sung by The Singing Reindeer.  And like The Happy Reindeer, it too had an animated music video.  The song itself did not sell well.  However, local TV stations kept this one alive in some parts of the country thanks to local kids shows using this as a way to introduce who's birthday it is today.  The best example of this is WGAL 8 in Lancaster who used this all the time of their local kiddie show, Percy the Platypus.  While most of its appearances were local, Captain Kangaroo did air this cartoon in the 60's.  

The two animated segments pre-date The Alvin Show by a couple of years, though this would not be an animated show or series like Alvin or even The Nutty Squirrels, but unlike The Nutty Squirrels, the animation style is very similar to The Alvin Show.  Simple backgrounds, UPA style limited animation, and completely animated to the original tracks.  However, the designs were different each time.  It is unknown who animated these.  It could have been known on the only copy out there of The Happy Reindeer, but the time code hides it.  It's also assumed both were made in color, but the only copy of The Happy Birthday Song is a black and white Kinescope of Percy the Platypus (or potentially another show).  

After a while, kids shows were starting to see their demise by the late 1960's due to changes in children's television.  This would also lead to the end of Percy Platypus by 1974.  The Happy Reindeer may have already been obscure by then, but The Happy Birthday Song would still have been remembered, even if that's all it would be.  With each passing year, The Singing Reindeer would become more of a distant memory of the past as the birthday segment and the song had not been shown widespread since the late 60's early 1970's.  Just like most of the knock offs, The Singing Reindeer would fall into obscurity with only memories from those who grew up watching shows like Percy the Platypus.  It seems as though Dancer, Prancer, and Nervous would continue to be long forgotten....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................And then......THIS happens:

John......Susan.....Charles.....Rosemary........Sophie

In 2020, a Youtube series of videos titled The Walton Files were released.  This fan made project was inspired by the hit game Five Nights at Freddy's.  In it, a bunch of tapes have been "discovered" by someone about a very short lived place called Bun's Burgers.  This would have incorporated the same aspects of Chuck E Cheese, but something went horribly wrong causing so many disappearances, but we know from watching these tapes that there was more than meets the eye.  I won't go into too much detail since this is not what this post is about, but along the way, a worker named Ashley finds a clown animatronic and a tape reading 06/11/74  DISCARD.  She puts the tape in, and the animatronic begins to perform.  The track on the tape appears to be warn out but seems to be the birthday song for the closed restaurant giving creepy vibes already for being so old but then it glitches and began listing some names: John, Susan, Charles, Rosemary, and Sophie...all are victims of these disappearances except Sophie who is supposed to be a victim.  This frightens Ashley which in turn, she meets up with the Bun animatronic leading to her gruesome demise.  

With The Walton Files being popular to the horror Youtube community, creator Martin Walls began uploading an official sound track to the series.  One of these tracks is the uncanny birthday song heard before Ashley's death in its entirety.  Fans began to speculate it the creator himself made this to make it sound old and worn and used from a long gone family fun center or did he use some other source.  Sure enough, not only would it be the latter, it would exactly be The Happy Birthday Song by The Singing Reindeer.  Somehow, someway, Martin must have found this looking for a generic birthday song that sounded like something those animatronics would sing, took it, slowed down the pitch slightly, then mixed it into the video.  Immediately upon notice of this, fans began going toward these videos on Youtube of The Happy Birthday Song, listening to it, and then commenting on them.  While boomers who grew up with this began recalling fond memories of Percy the Platypus, millennials began to comment and in some cases trolled the comments with references to the infamous scene in The Walton Files including listing the names the tape lists.  The result....a rediscovery.  A new chapter to the lives of The Singing Reindeer.  Even I never heard of this until watching The Walton Files and me getting curious about the song since it gave an eerie nostalgia to it.  Only to find out it was made to compete against the Chipmunks years ago, I had to write this entry to tell the real story that is more than just another Walton Files reference.

Which brings us to the end......from singles released on records to being a staple of local TV stations in some regions of the country to being forgotten and then....ultimately....a piece of Youtube Horror.  Something old and forgotten is once more brand new.  If you are into horror, I must say The Walton Files is one of the most scariest things I've seen in a long time.  Probably scarier than Five Nights at Freddy's because it's not jumpscare after jumpscare...it's unsettling horror knowing something is going to go horribly wrong using the art of analog horror, and it works really well.  As for Dancer, Prancer, and Nervous the Reindeer, well it's interesting to see something old and nostalgic from both kiddie records and children's shows' history and while not widespread is long remembered to help celebrate birthdays and Christmas.  So let's listen to The Happy Birthday Song one more time:

DVD Review: The Loud House Season 2

 

It's time to head back to the Loud House.  Paramount began combining the season 1 discs and the season 2 discs for two 4 disc sets of some sorts.  That makes it easier to review the second season, which just came out as a complete season.  This means we will look back on the second season of Nick's hit show.

More details about The Loud House could be found on my Season 1 DVD review, but to give you a recap about it, Lincoln Loud is the main protagonist who has to live with his 10 sisters which could cause tons of conflict.  Sharing the bathroom, watching TV, and whose turn it is to change Lily's diaper are just to name a few.  Lincoln, however, is always the Man with the Plan to get around these issues; sometimes they work, often times they don't.  Each episode shows Lincoln and his siblings learning to get along with each other and their friends making this a true family show.  All 11 Loud Siblings return, Lincoln, Lucy, Lana, Lola, Luan, and others.  

The Casagrandes debut in season 2

Season 2 is presented in production order, not chronological.  This is an interesting choice because during production of season 2, creator Chris Savano is fired for sexual harassment with his co-workers, an issue only reported recently due to the MeToo movement.  This means you may see a gradual change from episodes with Savano's involvement to those without.  Let me be clear, creatively great for creating a show bearing similarities to what I grew up with in the 90's. Professionally and personally, not very good.  Perhaps it could stem back to his own childhood when he had to live in a big family that abused him.  It would show in his involvement with the show.  Even in the slightest of scenes, Lincoln gets somewhat abused by his sisters in some way.  We'll get to the controversial moments in a little bit.

Iconic scene from L is for Love

The Loud House season 2 made way for more character development not shown in season 1.  While most episodes are Lincoln centered being the face of the show, more episodes began to focus on the other siblings and characters as well.  Potty Mouth is one of the first episodes I watch, but would be a

Ronnie Anne's character develops
slightly in season 2

little while longer before I became a fan.  Get ready for the punchline at the end.  This is also the first season where we see the parents faces as opposed to being just silhouettes.  This meant that the writers could do more with the characters and add more personality and not just "being the parents".  Speaking of character development, the iconic L is for Love episode is on here, where we learn more about one of our major characters, and it doesn't show until the very end.  Lynner Take All deals with Lynn's bad sportsmanship both winning and losing (but mostly winning).  This brings the famous Lynner Lynner Chicken Dinner line.  Yes Man has the iconic Best Dang Brother song sung by Lincoln's sisters, and No Laughing Matter is Luan centered when she overhears her siblings saying she's more annoying than funny, thus hurting her feelings.  That's not all, many specials are on here including Tricked where Lucy makes a haunted corn maze and The Loudest Mission: Relative Chaos, the first true Ronnie Ann centered episode.  She has to move into a big apartment with a big family.  This sets up the later spin off series, The Casagrandes.  

Lincoln forced to wear the costume
at the end of No Such Luck

Not every single episode is great.  Remember the controversy I mentioned about Lincoln's abuse?  Well, no kidding; the top two most hated episodes appear on season 2 because of that.  No Such Luck is about Lincoln causing back luck for Lynn's games every time he shows up.  He shows up in costume, breaking the bad luck, and should have realized that Lincoln is not the bad luck.  Well, the last scene makes Lincoln having to wear the costume at all times to resume Lynn's luck.  Yeah....and it's not better with Brawl in the Family either.  Lori and Leni have a major argument causing them to stop talking to each other.  Lincoln tries to help, but he only makes things worse.  Once he completely leaves them alone, they make up.  So what's the message....You are not needed at all????  You can see why fans hate them.  Incidentally, I am not a fan of 11 Louds a Leapin believe it or not.  It was the first special, so more padding had to have been done, but it's the same repetitive jokes from Luan trying to tell 12 jokes before Christmas to Leni's new Christmas outfits which were actually parts of decorations.  All is not loss however, as it's not "Lincoln Saves Santa", rather talking about the true meaning of Christmas.  Not to mention Clyde gets that one special kiss from Lori under the mistletoe.  All is indeed lost, however, in Suite and Sour; every single sibling is purposely annoying to help tell the story of the parents wanting alone time, but the kids don't want to go to Aunt Ruth's.  Even the very hilarious ending doesn't help.

The scariest thing to Lucy is saying the word, YOLO!!!!!

What are my personal favorites?  We gotta talk about Back in Black, the first really good Lucy centered episode, where Lucy thinks being regular and normal would help make Rocky like her only to find out he already liked her but was just too afraid.  Great funny moments throughout.  "You can take the girl out of the coffin, but you can't take the coffin out of the girl."  Change of Heart has Clyde trying to change his behavior in front of Lori since he gets nervous and has a nosebleed every time he sees her.  Leni helps him out, but when Lori notices, she thinks that Clyde likes Leni now and ends up starting to get a little bit jealous.  Like with 11 Louds a Leapin, it has another cute and cool moment with Lori and Clyde.  And you know, even though Lori and Clyde will never be due to age differences and Lori dating Bobby, it's nice to see some wishful thinking with Clyde...been there many times before.  Those nostalgic for classic Nickelodeon will enjoy Legends, where Lincoln and his dad competes in the show, Legends of the Hidden Temple.  More faithful and more fun than what's on The CW with their version.  And look out for when Lincoln and his dad makes fun of the kids who could never figure out the simple Monkey Statue puzzle.  

Hahahah....You dumb kids that could never figure out the Monkey 
in Legends of the Hidden Temple

I'm pretty sure the package will be similar to some of the Rugrats where the main cover is the sleeve and the two original separate sets remain separate, which is still strange that Paramount is still releasing them in half seasons despite releasing Casagrandes as one complete season.  The good news is that the once a year ordeal is over as we will have 3 complete seasons on DVD by year's end.  Cover art continues to be extra effort, even if I'm not a fan of them, those cover sure beats the alternative: a character in a plain background, since you know home media is starting to die off.  Like last time, no bonus features included, and again, might be just me, but picture quality on DVD is starting to worsen.  And no, not because HD is out there, perhaps it's due to compression, or maybe it's the fast paced animation in The Loud House.  Other than that and the episode order being based on production, everything is on here complete.

ORANGE you glad I reviewed this DVD?  Hahahaha....Get It??!!

Those collecting Loud House DVDs see this as a no brainer to own.  I must advise those wanting just 11 Louds a Leapin that this is the only way to go (or at the very least, season 2 part 1); The Loud House a Very Loud Christmas is NOT a region 1 DVD as should ONLY be available in other territories.  Supporting these releases help support The Loud House in general, and so far the support is working as the second volume of season 3 is coming very soon.

Nicktoons 30th Birthday

 NOTE: This is a reissue from a blog post 5 years ago.

On this day, Nickelodeon debuted their first three Nicktoons: Rugrats, Doug, and Ren and Stimpy.  Each one had creative freedom and did whatever they wanted without restrictions of the shows like Hanna-Barbera of DIC.

Nicktoons is of extreme importance as the cartoons would help bring back animation big time along side The Simpsons, Disney, and some WB shows.  Gone would be shows like The Smurfs and was replaced by shows now deemed towards a general audience (even though they were also grabbing kids attention).

Nickelodeon was just a mere kids channel for cable since the late 70's having to acquire licenses for other shows like Inspector Gadget.  Once Looney Tunes went on the air, they knew they had a winner with their ratings and thought that they could create toons of their own because once the Looney Tunes license has ended...that's it (it ran for 11 years by the way).

Each of the 3 shows was different.  Ren and Stimpy was based on exaggeration.  Doug had more subtlety.  Rugrats was more adventurous (albeit baby adventures).  Ren and Stimpy lasted a good long while and had a few reboots I think for Spike TV to get away with more raunchy stuff.  Doug ended up being acquired by Disney for a brief time and gave him his own movie.  Eventually though, Doug would truly be split in two.  The Nickelodeon originals stream on Paramount + and Nick channels while the Disney era would end up on Disney +.  Rugrats outlasted them all with 9 seasons, 3 movies, a spinoff series All Grown Up, another failed spinoff series, and a reboot in 2021.

After the first three, the 90's were indeed "All That".  Rocko's Modern Life, Hey Arnold, Aaahhh Real Monsters, and Catdog are to name a few.  Even the late 90's spawned Rocket Power, Wild Thornberrys, and a little known show called Spongebob Squarepants.  

The 2000's gave us Fairly Oddparents, Jimmy Neutron, and an attempt to recreate anime with Avatar the Last Airbender.  This is when Spongebob became a hit.  Underrated shows from that era include Invador Zim, Chalkzone, As Told by Ginger, My Life as a Teenage Robot, and The Mighty B,  By 2009 however, Nickelodeon suffered a downhill spiral.  The focus was more on live action shows like iCarly and others related to it.  Sure, Spongebob got a successful 2nd and 3rd movie, but some of the decisions include buying the rights to Teenage Mutaint Ninja Turtles (very creative...NOT) and acquiring shows that became hits once again such as Alvin and the Chipmunks and Miraculous Ladybug.

Back in 2016 for Nicktoons' 25th, I wrote the following:
"If Nickelodeon was smart enough, Nicktoons could come back.  Now they are rethinking what they've done and wish to reboot their older series.  I wish they'd go back to creating new great products for themselves instead of rehashing the old ones, make not so good ones, or not paying attention to the newer ones at all.  Especially with cartoons flourishing again, every studio is doing something new and creative except Nick."

Little did I know, that same year, a show was going on that was doing just that.

The late 2010's saw a slight reassurance of good Nicktoons returning.  In 2016, The Loud House debuted and quickly became popular.  So much so that it now has two movies (one animated one live action), shorts, novels and comic books, and a spinoff series called The Casagrandes.  And just as Nickelodeon the channel was more Spongebob focused, the rise of streaming gave way to a new era of content consumption.  Soon, all the Nicktoons became available for streaming including CBS All Access which became Paramount + in 2021.

All this stems to the millenial generation who grew up watching the original Nicktoons.  By the 2010's, the old shows became the talk of the town and it encouraged reruns on some Nick channels including on Pluto TV and Paramount + as well as reboots.  The Rugrats returned with much fanfare in 2021.  There also was Kamp Koral and The Patrick Star Show which were spin offs of Spongebob.

The Nickelodeon of 30 years ago certainly was much different compared to today.  Nowadays, corporate management has caused Spongebob to be the face of Nick, but one thing's for sure, Nickelodeon paved way to a great era of cartoons and memorable characters that we can identify with.  So bring out the cake and some extra slime.  Play the birthday song and PLAY IT LOUD!!!!!!  Happy 30th Nicktoons!!!