Animated Toast!

A CHRISTMAS FLINTSTONE

2008-12-03T09:01:00.000-08:00

You may be familiar with A Flintstones Christmas Carol, the television special from 1994, or A Flintstone Family Christmas from 1993, or A Flintstone Christmas from 1977. But before all of those Christmas specials was a Christmas-themed episode from the show's fifth season. A Christmas Flintstone aired on December 18 and then again on Christmas Day in 1964.

The story starts out as Fred is lamenting to his friend, Barney, the fact that he doesn't have the extra cash to buy his family Christmas presents this year. Fred sees a "Help Wanted" sign in the window of Macyrock's Department Store and decides that he can pick up the extra cash with a part time job. Through a series of failed attempts in different sections of the department store, Fred becomes the store's Santa and he fulfills his duties with the utmost gusto. He sings with the kids, talks to them about presents, and even reads/sings them a story about how Dino the Dinosaur saved Christmas!

It seems that every Christmas special must include an original song to mark their place in the Christmas special history books, and The Flintstones is no exception. Only the song that Fred sings (multiple times throughout the episode) will only go down in the history books as being just plain awful.

Aside from the fact that Fred shouldn't sing any songs, the lyrics are just plain weird and don't really have anything to do with what is going on in the episode.

Christmas is my favourite time of year because
Everyone becomes a Santa Claus

But wait! That's only the first half of the episode! So much has already happened in the first ten minutes, but the episode takes a serious turn as Fred is visited by a couple of elves who want him to fill in for the real Santa who is sick in bed!

When the Flintstones first hit the air in 1960 it was praised for being a smart sitcom that was made for adults and dealt with real grown-up situations. Of course, because its a cartoon, some of the plots were a bit outlandish, but they were always based in reality.

By the time the fifth season rolled around the show was a hit with the kids. Changes were made to the writing, making it a bit more 'kid-friendly'. This plot of Fred flying around in a sleigh pulled by dinosaurs and unleashing a rain of presents on the unsuspecting town below was never something you would see in the show's first few seasons. But this is good example of how the show evolved over the years.

A Christmas Flintstone is not one of the better episode in the series but it does serve as a touching Christmas tale of a family that we all know and love. You can watch it for your self on The Flintstones - The Complete Fifth Season DVD.

CHRISTMAS COMES TO PAC-LAND

2008-10-01T17:13:00.000-07:00

Santa Claus crash lands in Pac-Land and breaks his sleigh and loses all his toys! Santa is distraught because he won't be able to make all his Christmas deliveries, but the denizens of Pac-Land don't understand the big deal for they have never even heard of Christmas!

After hearing Santa explain the meaning of Christmas, Pac-Man decides to help Santa and save Christmas...that is unless the Ghost Monsters can help it!

Pac-Man finds the sack of toys, the Pac-People fix the sleigh and Pac-Man has the brilliant idea of feeding the reindeer Power Pellets to give them a boost to help get Santa back on schedule. Christmas is saved!

Pac-Man follows the adventures of Pac-Man, his wife, Mrs. Pepper Pac-Man, and their kid, Pac-Baby. The family lives together in Pac-Land, where almost everything is round or shaped like Pac-Man, and spends their time stopping the evil Mezmeron from getting his hands on the 'Power Pellets', the source of Pac-Man's power.

Mezmeron's hired help consists of Pac-Man's well known video game adversaries, the Ghost Monsters: Inky, Blinky, Pinky, Clyde and Sue. They are the typical bumbling villains that always seem to be menacing at the beginning of the episode but goofballs by the end of the episode.

Pac-Man was created by Namco Games in 1978. Its popularity grew to epic proportions over the next decade and Hanna-Barbera decided to capitalize on the craze by creating a show based on the yellow pill-popper. This series lasted 43 episodes from 1982-1983. Originally, Pac-Man was part of a 90 minute programming block in 1982 by Hanna-Barbera called The Pac-Man/Little Rascals/Richie Rich Show but then broke of into its own half hour show in 1983.

Christmas Comes to Pac-Land aired in 1982 between the show's first and second seasons. Although not seen on regular television stations, this special is shown annually on Cartoon Network's Boomerang.

The special is pretty good considering it's a show based on Pac-Man. It has very good animation compared to any show made in the 80s, especially a show produced by Hanna-Barbera. It's themes of kindness, good-will and helping others in need are pretty standard in Christmas specials but this one does a nice job at not jamming them down our throat.

Although the story is quite touching, there are a few questions that I have: How do the Ghost-Monsters know Jingle Bells if there is no Christmas in Pac-Land? How did Pac-Man know what to do with the wrapped presents if he's never seen a wrapped present before? If the Power Pellets are so powerful why don't the Ghost Monsters eat them? And where is Mezmeron? Surely he would want to stop Pac-Man from saving Christmas!

The show has its share of problems, most of which are trying to fill the 22-minutes that make up this special. Each 22-minute episode of the series is made up of two 11-minute episodes, but the studio decided that this Christmas tale is too big for 11-minutes so they gave it a full 22-minutes. The problem is that there is not enough story to fill the 22-minutes so there is a lot a filler. Chase scenes mostly.

Christmas Comes to Pac-Land is not available on DVD yet. Although you can usually find it on youtube.

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE

2008-09-30T06:23:00.000-07:00

It's Christmas Eve and Noodles Romanoff and the No-Goods are plotting to destroy Roger Ramjet. They feel that Ramjet is responsible for the fact that they haven't stolen enough money for a Christmas tree, presents or anything to do with Christmas cheer.

So Noodles poses as a mall Santa and when Roger comes to the mall to give Santa his Christmas list he is captured by the No-Goods! But Roger's team, the American Eagle Squad, chase after Santa thinking it's the real mall Santa in a game of catch-me-if-you-can! They are lead directly to the No-Goods' hideout where they are promptly arrested and thrown in jail. Roger Ramjet and Christmas are saved.

Roger Ramjet is an early television cartoon produced by Pantomime Pictures that first aired in 1965. It stars the bumbling superhero, Roger Ramjet, who gets his super powers from Proton Energy Pills which give him "the strength of twenty atom bombs for a period of twenty seconds". To help him in his quest to save the city from injustice is the American Eagle Squad, four kids named Yank, Doodle, Dan and Dee.

Roger came to life due to the voice of Gary Owens, whose performance of Roger Ramjet is the first of Gary's many superhero voices. He also voiced Space Ghost, Blue Falcon and Powdered Toast Man.

Roger Ramjet is made up of 156 five-minute episodes and aired constantly since its debut in 1965 up until the late 90s. While the animation is quite crude and very limited, the charm of this series is the witty dialogue, the abundant action and the superhero spoof and this Christmas episode is no exception.

The story follows the usual plot: Roger Ramjet gets in trouble and it's up to the American Eagle Squad to bail him out. The only thing that make this a Christmas episode is that it happens to take place at Christmastime. Otherwise, it doesn't stand out from any other episode in the series.

If you would like to check it out for yourself, you can find it on disc two of the Roger Ramjet: Hero of Our Nation box set.

MICKEY'S ORPHANS

2008-08-29T06:59:00.000-07:00

By 1931, Walt and his crew had really gotten into their groove. They were producing quality cartoons and constantly updating their animation techniques as well as their artwork and storytelling.

When Mickey's Orphans was released on December 7, 1931, the audience loved it! They were touched by Mickey and Minnie's compassion toward the dozens of orphan kittens despite their destructive nature.

In this short, directed by Burt Gillett, a stranger leaves a basket on Mickey Mouse's doorstep in the harsh, cold, snowy winter night. Mickey finds the basket and brings it inside only to find that there are dozens of kittens in the basket!

Instantly, the kittens start playing in their destructive, yet innocent behaviour. But Mickey loves them through all of this, and even dresses up as Santa to bring them all presents!

In the end, everything is destroyed, even their beautiful Christmas tree!

There is not much in the way of plot in this movie, which is the way of many of these old cartoons. The interest is reliant on visual gags and fun music which this short provides.

Mickey's Orphans was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject (Cartoon) in 1932, the first year the category existed! It was up against It's Got Me Again, a very early Looney Tune, and the Silly Symphony, Flowers and Trees (also directed by Burt Gillett) which went on to take the Oscar.

As a Christmas themed cartoon, this one sort of leaves you wanting the kittens to have learned something about Christmas spirit. But instead, the cartoon ends with the kittens destroying Mickey's Christmas tree leaving Mickey and Minnie flabbergasted. Not quite the happy ending most specials try to convey.

You can watch Mickey's Orphans on the first disc of Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White, Volume One

TOYLAND PREMIERE

2008-08-27T21:22:00.000-07:00

Toyland Premiere is a theatrical cartoon produced by Walter Lantz for Universal Studios in 1934. The cartoon is part of a series of film called Cartoon Classics which featured cartoons in colour, a brand new medium at the time!

The story starts out in the North Pole where Santa and his elves are hard at work preparing for Christmas. Santa receives a telegram from Oswald saying that Santa is needed for the big Toyland Premiere Parade!

Santa prepares himself for the trip but finds that his suit has been eaten up by moths! But quick thinking on the part of the elves saves the day!

Santa and the elves take part in the parade and Oswald, who is a waiting for them at the end, invites them in for a great feast! Waiting for them at a large table is a bunch of Hollywood movie stars!

Hilarity ensues as Laurel and Hardy try to steal a piece of cake that is being guarded by the Frankenstein monster! The duo dress up as a dragon to try and scare Frankenstein away but the plan backfires as all the toys come to life and start attacking the dragon! In the end, Laurel and Hardy surrender and Santa blows put the candles on the cake. But he pulls a Big Bad Wolf and the cake is blown across the table and lands in Laurel and Hardy's faces. Their just deserts!

Toyland Premiere is a charming cartoon that really shows Santa as a fun person. He is not all business as most shows make him out to be. He has fun! He throws pies! He has a personality! He is also sad at the beginning of this short (and not because he has been kidnapped) which is something you don't see often either!

This short guest stars Oswald the Rabbit who had his own cartoon series at the time. Oswald was created by Walt Disney in 1927 and had a contract with Universal to distribute the pictures. When Walt's producer tried to take over his studio, Walt broke the contract, loosing the character that he had grown quite fond of (but this event caused him to create Mickey Mouse). Oswald remained with Universal for many years. This cartoon is his first colour appearance.

Also guest starring in this episode are a bunch of Hollywood caricatures! Some of these caricatures you may not recognize, but these were all top billing stars in 1934! You will see Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan) and his actress wife Lupe Velez, Shirley Temple, a black-face Eddie Cantor, the Frankenstein monster (Boris Karloff), Bing Crosby, and Laurel and Hardy.

Hollywood caricatures are still a very popular thing to do in animation (Family Guy and Simpsons being two examples) but that sort of thing really dates a show because, eventually those stars are going to be yesterday's news. And now, 70 years after this short's release, today's generation isn't going to even recognize Johnny Weissmuller or Lupe Velez.

You can see for yourself on DVD.

IT'S CHRISTMASTIME AGAIN, CHARLIE BROWN

2008-04-11T07:25:00.000-07:00

The first sequel to the uber popular A Charlie Brown Christmas, It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown was released in 1992 and is completely unnecessary.

It's Christmastime again and the Peanuts gang is preparing for the usual holiday activities. Charlie Brown is selling wreaths so that he can buy a gift for Peggy Jean, Sally is getting trying to find the meaning of Christmas, and Peppermint Patty and Marcie are both getting ready for the school play.

It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown was released on CBS in 1993 (the last time a Charlie Brown special would debut on that network) and was hoped to be another hit like the first.

The plot is very loose and choppy due to this whole special just being an animated collection of various Christmas themed Peanuts strips. It doesn't have the same flow as the original nor does it have the same charm. It doesn't deal with the same kind of important themes that the original does which is what won over millions in the first place. In fact, Charlie Brown doesn't even have a big part in this special. Instead, Sally, Peppermint Patty and Marcie, some of the more modern characters from the strip, are showcased. Even Snoopy only really has one scene!

But enough about the story; let's touch on the animation, acting and music.

The thing I have liked the most about the Charlie Brown specials is that they have been consistent in style and quality. The animation has improved over the years but it hasn't lost the look and the techniques that make it distinct. A friend of mine who works for Bardel Entertainment told me that they have been hired to produce a new Charlie Brown special. This will be a drastic departure from the style since Bardel animates using the Adobe Flash computer program rather than pencil and paper.

Another consistent part of the Charlie Brown specials is the voice acting. Producer Bill Melendez has always insisted on actual children providing voices for his cartoons which gives the acting a very distinct flavour. Hopefully this tradition will remain with this upcoming Bardel special. I should note that the voice of Sally Brown is Jodie Sweetin who is best known for her role as Stephanie Tanner on Full House.

Fans of the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack will recognize many of the Vince Guaraldi Trio songs in Christmastime Again. Vince Guaraldi died of a heart attack in 1975 and every television special made after his death used new music. It wasn't until 1992 and the production of Christmastime Again that the crew decided to resurrect his famous score. However, they remixed the tunes making them more rock and roll, which many feel is a bastardization of a masterpiece.

All in all, every part of this special adds up to a let down. This Christmas special is actually not that special at all. You can find it as a special feature on the Charlie Brown Christmas DVD.

THE CHRISTMAS ALIENS

2008-03-06T08:27:00.000-08:00

In 2003, a new generation was introduced to the Heroes in a Half Shell! A brand new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series debuted on FOX and was an instant success. The show is still going strong having aired six seasons with seventh on its way this September!

Fans of the original series from 1987 reacted very negatively to this new version of the heroes they grew up with. Gone were the cartoony characters, goofy catchphrases and shallow storylines. This new version follows the original comicbooks far more carefully. The stories are darker and they follow a serial format rather than self contained episodes. The dialogue is better and the animation is far superior to the original.

During the show's third season, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles aired its Christmas Special. It follows Michelangelo as he saves a truckload of toys from some thugs who want to ruin Christmas for a group of orphans. And while Splinter, April and the others are setting up a nice Christmas dinner in their sewer home, Mike takes part in a high speed car chase to retrieve the stolen toys.

The Christmas Aliens is a retelling of an old Michelangelo one-shot comic book. The Christmas story follows very closely to the original, only straying with the "family dinner" scenes featuring characters from the show. Fans of the comics will be happy to see Klunk, a kitten that Michelangelo befriends, make his first appearance in the show in this episode.

While the episode is not overly 'Christmasy', the inclusion of the family dinner was a nice touch. It is great seeing all of the supporting heroes in one room eating together. Silver Sentry, Usagi Yojimbo, Angel and others sat down to eat alongside series regulars like Master Splinter, April O'Neil, Casey Jones and the Turtles.

The episode states that a real Christmas activity is not being together with friends, but being with those less fortunate than us. So the crew packs up dinner and goes off to spend Christmas with the orphans.

The Christmas Aliens was released on DVD before it aired as part of the shows third season and is still available for purchase.

A SCOOBY-DOO CHRISTMAS

2008-02-20T07:32:00.000-08:00

Scooby-Doo has had new show every five or six years since its debut in 1969. And after a few lackluster incarnations of the series (13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo and A Pup Named Scooby-Doo) Warner Bros Animation, who now owns the rights to the Hanna-Barbera properties, created What's New, Scooby-Doo? in 2002.

This series took the characters back to their roots, solving mysteries as they traveled around the world. Casey Kassem returns once again to voice Shaggy, Frank Welker returns to voice Fred and does double duty by voicing Scooby-Doo too! Voice actor Grey DeLisle voices Daphne and Facts of Life actress Mindy Cohn provides a voice for Velma.

A Scooby-Doo Christmas was released during the first season of the show in 2002. Scooby and the gang are on their way to Daphne's uncle's condo for the holiday when they find that the bridge leading up to the cabin is gone. This forces them to spend the night in the small town of Winter Hollow.

They soon find out that this town doesn't celebrate Christmas because every year it is visited by the Headless Snowman (who actually has his head throughout the special) who destroys everything to do with the jolly holiday! The gang knows that the snowman can't be real so they set out to find who is behind the destruction!

The story, music and characters are exactly what made Scooby-Doo popular in 1969 and this series pays tribute to every little bit, even to the point of parody. But now, because of Warner Bros' larger budgets, the animation is much better than anything from the original series and you'll be able to hear some notable guest stars too! Listen for Mark Hamil (Star Wars), Kathy Kinney (Drew Carey Show), James Belushi (According to Jim)and Daryl Sabara (Spy Kids).

There is a tiny Christmas message buried at the end of the episode. It seems like the writers stuck it in there because it's a Christmas episode and there probably should be a message of some sort. It just seems so contrived.

You can see for your self on DVD here or here.

A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS

2008-02-19T10:20:00.000-08:00

This one is my favourite Christmas television specials. It is one that I make sure I watch every year and is in the top five of most people's Favourite Holiday Specials list.

Why is this special so popular? The animation isn't very good. It was done on a shoestring budget, they hired children that had no voice acting experience, and the editing and sound mix are terrible! It seems that the reason this special was a hit back then and still is today is that the message shines through all the mistakes and shortcuts. In fact, the quality of the animation has sort of set the standard for all other Charlie Brown specials that try to mimic the quirky style.

A Charlie Brown Christmas captures every essence of the Christmas spirit through the depressing life of Charlie Brown as he sets out to discover what Christmas is. He finds out that it is not about the gifts or the aluminum Christmas trees. in fact, this special speaks out against commercialism, Linus tells the story of Christ's birth from the Bible, and ultimately the gang help Charlie Brown realize that friends and family make the simplest of things, like his under appreciated Christmas tree, seem extra special.

Not only is this a holiday classic, but it is also quite historical for a number of reasons. It is the very first of a long line of Peanuts holiday specials. 50% of all televisions in the United States were watching it on its first airing on December 9, 1965. It won an Emmy and a Peabody award. It has been shown every single year since 1965. It was directed by ex- Warner Bros and UPA animator Bill Melendez.

You can find A Charlie Brown Christmas on DVD, but you may want to hold off until next year when Warner Bros (the new rights holders) will probably release a deluxe, two-disc special addition.

ALIENS FIRST CHRISTMAS

2008-01-19T10:40:00.000-08:00

Aliens First Christmas is the second pilot for a show that never ended up being made. Produced by Canadian company Perennial Pictures, the special was released on the Disney Channel in 1991 and then went straight to the $2 bins at your local department store.

The show features Roger Peoples and his family show are transfered to the plant Zolonia for work. They are the only humans on the planet and they must learn the customs of their neighbours, Mavo and Charlick Zox, who must also try to understand this strange Earth holiday known as Christmas.

The quality of this program is fair but not up to the standard of many shows produced in the early 90s. The character designs and backgrounds and even some of the animation actually look like something from the 60s. But the story is a good one. The characters learn to overcome their differences and enjoy learning new things. Aliens First Christmas is the first Chirstmas special that I have watched that has a racism allegory.

Yes, this one is on DVD.

SONIC CHRISTMAS BLAST

2008-01-19T10:38:00.000-08:00

In 1993 DiC Entertainment produced two Sonic the Hedgehog animated series and aired them at the same time. They were created for two different markets but both were based on the ultra popular Sega video game series that started in 1991.

One series, Sonic the Hedgehog (often refered to as SatAM), was made for Saturday morning television and was a serial based show featuring more characters and darker storylines. It had 26 episodes and ran from 1993-1994.

The other, called The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was made for weekday syndication and only featured Sonic and Tails in more humourous and slapstick situations. The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog ran from September to December 1993 and had a total of 65 episodes.

While the show was popular, the real fans favoured the Saturday morning show. But for some reason, a few years after both series had come to an end, DiC decided to produce one more episode based on the Adventures series! This is probably due to the fact that it deals with Christmas, something that just wouldn't feel right on the SatAM series.

In an issue of the Sonic comicbook, there was an ad for this special, calling it An X-Tremely Sonic Christmas. Sega wanted the special to tie in with their new Sega Saturn game, Sonic X-Treme, which ended up being cancelled. So instead, DiC changed the name of the special to promote Sonic 3D Blast, a game that was coming out that holiday season.

Enough about the history! Let's talk about the episode: Santa is making a public television appearance to announce his retirement. But instead of cancelling Christmas, he names his replacement - Robotnik Claus! It's up to Sonic and Tails to stop Robotnik Claus from taking presents instead of giving them in order to return order to Christmas in Robotropolis. SPOILER: The show ends with Sonic freeing a captive Santa and Santa teaching Sonic how to obtain Ultimate Velocity (Super Speed) in order to save Christmas. Santa is so impressed with Sonic's work that he retires for real and hand the duty over to Sonic - who accepts! What?!

The episode brings back many fond memories for fans of the show who loved this goofy side of Sonic. The look and the feel of the show are the same, but there are many differences. The animation is much more goofy. The characters are stretched and squashed and make weird expressions that you won't find in the original series. Elements from the other shows, like Robotropolis, Princess Sally (who has no lines) and SWATbots (that don't look like their counterparts in other any other series) leak into this special which make me feel a bit uncomfortable.

It is nice to get most of the returning cast, including Jaleel White (Steve Urkel) as Sonic, Long John Baldry as Dr. Robotnik, Gary Chalk as Grounder, and Phil Hayes as Scratch. The only cast member to not return is Christopher Evan Welch who was eleven when he voiced Tails but hit puberty and thus had a voice that was too low for Tails in this special.

All in all, this is a goofy special that fits very well within the context of the original show but won't become a perennial favourite. You can find it on DVD along with three other episodes from Sonic Underground.

THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY

2008-01-16T07:45:00.000-08:00

Based on the song of the same name, the Little Drummer Boy follows the journey of Aaron, a little boy who hates humanity and finds himself the friend to all animals whom he communicates with through his drum. Through a dramatic series of events, he follows the three kings to Bethlehem where he meets a newborn Jesus and discovers the meaning of Christmas.

Unlike other Christian animated shows that are often really terrible (including the Hanna-Barbera series The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible), this special has some great stop-motion animation and is one of the most elaborate of the classic Rankin/Bass productions. The human characters are built to appear more human than other productions and the Middle Eastern sets bring a realism to the show.

The Little Drummer Boy will probably be the only Christmas special that I will review that doesn't have to do with Santa, Frosty, Rudolph or other commercial Christmas gimmicks. The fact that this show deals with the actual Christian celebration makes it extra special. In this consumer driven era it is nice to see a show that is not trying to sell anything and just wants to honestly promote good will toward mankind.

This is a very different production for Rankin/Bass. It is a serious drama rather than the fun-filled humourous adventures of other specials that we are used to. At times it moves a little slow, but it is only a half hour rather than the usual hour long program.

The Little Drummer Boy can be found in the Original Television Christmas Classics DVD box set.

THE GREAT WAKKOROTTI: THE HOLIDAY CONCERT

2008-01-08T14:03:00.000-08:00

When it comes to good humour, Animaniacs is not above creating a three minute cartoon based on someone burping the tune to Jingle Bells. In this case, the burper is the Great Wakkorotti, also known as Wakko Warner. Yakko serves as the pianist and Dot comes out in the middle to give Wakko a top-up of soda pop.

All of the animation in this short is reused from previous cartoons featuring the Great Wakkorotti and the only thing Christmas about this short is the song. It comes as a part of a bigger episode of Animaniacs along side 'Twas the Day Before Christmas, Jingle Boo and Toy Shop Terrors, which doesn't have anything to do with Christmas except that it takes place in a toy shop. This episode can be found on disc five of Animaniacs, Volume Two.

A CHIPMUNK CHRISTMAS

2007-12-23T20:52:00.000-08:00

In 1972, the creator and voice of the Chipmunks, Ross Bagdasarian, died of a heart attack. The Chimpunks' career was now in question. Without Ross, the Chipmunks albums stopped coming and it wasn't until 1979 when NBC decided to show reruns of The Alvin Show on Saturday mornings. A year later the Chipmunks released another album, Chipmunk Punk, which featured contemporary songs sung by Ross' son, Ross Bagdasarian, Jr.

The success of Chipmunk Punk and the reruns of The Alvin Show caused Bagdasarian Jr. to create a new animated special for the 1981 holiday season! A Chipmunk Christmas premiered on NBC and was a big hit! It sported all new Christmas songs (the soundtrack was the Chipmunks' third Christmas album) and new character designs by legendary animator Chuck Jones, who also served as the producer for the show.

The half-hour special tells the tale of Alvin Seville who gives his harmonica away to a terminally ill little boy for Christmas only to find out he needs it for a special Christmas gig. Alvin tries to raise enough money by Christmas to buy another, which causes Dave to think that Alvin only thinks Christmas is about money and greed.

Along with Ross Bagdasarian Jr. as Alvin, Simon and Dave and Janice Karman as Theodore, we also get treated with animation voice actors Frank Welker as Santa Claus and June Foray as Mrs. Claus! And fans of The Alvin Show will be happy to see a special guest appearance by Clyde Crashup (pictured below), voiced by the original actor, Shepard Menken!

The animation in this show is a nice look back at 80's television animation. While it suffers here and there from off-model characters and obvious shortcuts, the animation suits the show perfectly and is a great lead up to their next hit TV show, Alvin and the Chipmunks

You can find A Chipmunk Christmas and two Christmas episodes from Alvin and the Chipmunks on a special edition DVD.

The Santa Imposter Gallery!

2007-12-14T07:44:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Santa Imposter Gallery! Here you'll find pictures of the many people who have tried to be Santa over the years. Please keep on checking back because it will constantly be updated as more people don the red and white.

Fred Flintstone
A Christmas Flintstone (The Flintstones)

Noodles Romanoff
Twas the Night Before (Roger Ramjet)

Mickey Mouse
Mickey's Orphans

Snoopy
It's Christmas Time Again, Charlie Brown

Master Splinter
The Christmas Aliens

Charlick Zox (as Santa Clocks)
Aliens First Christmas

Dr. Robotnik (as Robotnik Claus)
Sonic Christmas Blast

Alvin Seville
A Chipmunk Christmas

Jack Skellington
The Nightmare Before Christmas

Dexter's Dad
Dexter vs. Santa (Dexter's Laborartory)

Ralph the Guard
'Twas the Day Before Christmas (Animaniacs)

Zim
The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever (Invader Zim)

Prince Adam/He-Man
He-Man/She-Ra: A Christmas Special

Shrek
Shrek the Halls

The Brain
'Twas the Day Before Christmas (Animaniacs)

Detective Harvey Bullock
Holiday Knights (Batman: TAS)

Chicken Boo
Jingle Boo (Animaniacs)

Homer Simpson
Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire (The Simpsons)

JINGLE BOO

2007-12-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

One of the segments in Animaniacs features a giant chicken who wants to be human. This giant chicken, named Chicken Boo, disguises himself in every episode to try to fit in with the normal world. But ultimately his cover is blown and he is run out of town.

In this Christmas episode of Chicken Boo, Boo pretends to be a mall Santa and fools everyone except for one kid. There is a tribute to A Christmas Story when the kid yells, "He'll poke my eye out!" Fans of Animaniacs will recognize this kid as Colin, who always had a story to tell about his friend Randy Beeman. This is his only appearance in a major role outside of his segment.

The other shorts in this episode are 'Twas the Day Before Christmas, The Great Wakorotti: the Holiday Concert and Toy Shop Terrors (Which doesn't have anything to do with Christmas except for the fact that they are playing in a toy shop). It can be found on disc five of Animaniacs, Volume Two.

TWAS THE DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS

2007-12-04T14:00:00.000-08:00

In December of 1993 Warner Bros produced two Christmas episodes of Animaniacs, one for the weekday syndicated episodes and one for Saturday morning FOX episodes. The episodes are made up of a few shorts featuring different characters from the show.

'Twas the Day Before Christmas is a Slappy Squirrel short but spends the majority of the cartoon focusing on Yakko, Wakko and Dot. In fact, half way through the cartoon, Yakko takes over narrating and Slappy really doesn't have anything to do with it from there on in.

The cartoon opens with Skippy getting ready for bed and asking his Aunt Slappy to read him a bedtime story. The story that he picks is about Christmas at the Warner Bros Studio. The CEO has a bunch of presents to deliver to the Warner siblings but doesn't want to do it himself. So he cons Ralph the Guard to dress up as Santa and deliver the gifts.

From here the story switches to a retelling of The Night Before Christmas with almost every major character from Animaniacs making a cameo! My favourite group of animators were put on this short so it looks stellar. Fans of the series will like this short mainly to see all the characters but also because Animaniacs does a good job with their parodies and this is no exception.

The other shorts in this episode are Jingle Boo, The Great Wakorotti: the Holiday Concert and Toy Shop Terrors (Which doesn't have anything to do with Christmas except for the fact that they are playing in a toy shop). It can be found on disc five of Animaniacs, Volume Two.

SHREK THE HALLS

2007-11-28T19:14:00.000-08:00

A new treat for the 2007 holiday season is a new television special starring everyone's favourite ogre! That's right, this year Shrek got his own Christmas special!

More importantly, Shrek the Halls will premiere as a television special! It seems that these days television specials are a thing of the past with companies chosing to send them straight to DVD. But it is great to see Dreamworks creating a soon-to-be-classic television special just like the olden days.

The story is set after Shrek the Third as Shrek, Fiona and the kids prepare for their first Christmas together as a family. The only problem is that Shrek has no idea what Christmas is! Shrek comes to the conclusion that Christmas is all about decorations, a big feast and telling a Christmas story to his family. But all of his plans go to waste when Donkey shows up with all of their friends who want to party through the holiday!

I am not a fan of the Shrek movies but this special is something different. It looks like Dreamworks spent a lot of time making this look like the movies. The animation is just as good as anything from the films and all of the original cast of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas returns to do the voices!

While the story a timeless classic, the search for Christmas and his reaction when it all gets messed up fits so well with Shrek's personality. The story doesn't feel forced and it is funny and heart-warming. But the best part is that it doesn't try to parody every Christmas special that ever came out (the constant movie parodies is a big reason why I don't like the movies).

All in all, this is a good special that I'm sure will be seen for years to come. It's not on DVD yet, but you can bet that if it doesn't come out this year you'll have to wait until next year to see it again.

ON ANGEL'S WINGS

2007-11-28T11:49:00.000-08:00

Once again, just like I pointed out in this Batman post, everything that was wrong about the first X-Men Christmas episode was corrected here.

On Angel's Wings aired during the second season of X-Men: Evolution in 2001. In this story, a new hero is seen in Manhattan rescuing people in trouble. His name is Angel and he is a mutant, but the public doesn't know it. But when the public does find out, and the very people he had saved quickly turn into his persecutors, it drives home Xavier's need not keep the identities of the X-Men a secret.

Having this episode reiterate the mission statement of the series instead of getting overly Christmasy was a good idea. It doesn't stand apart from the series as a special episode but it does deliver a heartfelt story. The animation is also on par if not better than most episodes. Nothing was rushed so that they could get this out on time and the result is vibrant colours and beautiful backdrops and really nice movements.

If you wish to see this episode, it is included in X-Men: Evolution, Season 2, Volume 2 - Powers Revealed.

HAVE YOURSELF A MORLOCK LITTLE X-MAS

2007-11-28T11:42:00.000-08:00

It's Jubilee's first Christmas with the X-Men and she is excited to be a part of the holiday cheer. Jean, with unwanted help from Gambit, is preparing a dinner for the family while Storm, Wolverine and Jubilee do some last minute shopping. But things don't go according to plans when the trio stumble upon the news that Leech, one of the Morlocks who live in the sewers of New York, is dying.

A far as Christmas episodes go, this one is quite awful. And as far as the rest of the series is concerned, this takes first prize for worst X-Men episode ever. There are two ultra sappy stories here. One focuses on Jubilee and how, since she is an orphan, she has never experienced Christmas with a family. I have no problem with this story. It is a good, wholesome, cliché Christmas message.

But the second story told here is the tale of the Morlocks, mutants whose mutation has altered their looks to the point that they cannot live amongst the public like the X-Men. This is Fox's way of sticking in a Public Service Announcement about helping those less fortunate than yourself. This is fine and noble cause but since NO ONE CARES about the Morlocks we find ourselves rooting for the Grim Reaper when Leech's pulse drops!

And what the heck is up with that blood transfusion anyway? Logan's blood can not heal anyone. That is not how it works! And if that were the case, why didn't they use Wolverine's blood to heal everyone who gets hurt on any of their missions from that point on? And why was Wolverine so stuck up about donating blood? They say he let someone down in the past but they never explain it!

The animation is rushed, the dialogue is terrible and the story rushes around so fast that you feel like you've accidentally hit fast forward on your remote!

I'm sorry to say that all you that want to see this episode will not be able to for a while as Disney, the current rights holders, have no plans to release this series on DVD in the near future. Maybe youtube?

RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER

2007-11-28T09:06:00.000-08:00

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a department store creation, created by Mongomery Ward in 1939. (Ward's is now an online only store based out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa). The character was adapted into a song by Johnny Marks and recorded by Gene Autry in 1949. But it wasn't until 1964 when Rankin/Bass produced its now-famous stop-motion tv special.

The story of the reindeer with the shiny nose followed the song very closely but added many subplots, such as an elf that wants to be a dentist, the island of misfit toys, and the abominable snowman.

Son of the famous reindeer, Donner, Rudolph has a bright red nose that Donner believes to be a flaw. Ashamed of his son, Donner covers the nose in mud so that Rudolph would appear 'normal'. But his nose is revealed during the Reindeer Games and Rudolph is shunned for being different. Meanwhile, Hermie the Elf is also having problems fitting in as he wants to be a dentist rather than an elf. Together, the pair head out to find out where they belong. The journey takes them on many adventures including a land where all of the misfit toys reside. They also face and, with the help of Yukon Cornelius, defeat the Abominable Snow-Monster.

This special airs every year on NBC making it the longest running Christmas TV special. And special it is. The lovable characters and fun songs make this a classic show for kids of any generation. The care that Rankin/Bass put into the stop-motion animation gives the viewer a feeling that heart and soul went into this production and even though details like lipsync seemed to be not important, the overwhelming charm made this incarnation of the misfit reindeer a timeless classic.

The main theme of this show is one that everybody can relate to. The story of one who is hated a feared for having extra gifts is something that everyone goes through at least once in their life. That is the connection that draws everyone in. Everybody has gifts and you should not be ridiculed for using them.

In many ways, this is the story of the X-Men. Rudolph is a mutant and should be a superhero. That's my inner geek talking.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer can be found in the Original Television Christmas Classics DVD box set.

BATMAN: TAS - HOLIDAY KNIGHTS

2007-11-26T21:03:00.000-08:00

In 1997, Batman: the Animated Series was given a total make over and dubbed The New Batman Adventures. The characters were given a more modern and stylized look and the adventures became a bit more kid friendly with the introduction of Tim Drake as Robin and Batgirl as a regular cast member. The series launched with this Christmas special.

Everything that was wrong about Christmas With the Joker was corrected with this episode. The animation is way smoother and the new look compliments the characters a great deal.

The story of Holiday Knights is also a better one and is written by Paul Dini (Lost). It is three mini-stories of events that happen during the two weeks before New Year's Day. First, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy hypnotize Bruce Wayne and go on a wild shopping spree; then on Christmas Eve, Clayface is caught shoplifting by Renee Montoya, Harvey Bullock and Batgirl; and finally, on New Year's Eve, the Joker has a plan to blow up Gotham City when the clock strikes midnight!

It is charming and fun and fits in with the rest of the series, unlike that other piece of garbage I mentioned before.

If you want to check it out for your self Holiday Knights is available in Batman: the Animated Series, Volume Four

BATMAN: TAS - CHRISTMAS WITH THE JOKER

2007-11-23T20:30:00.000-08:00

When Batman: the Animated Series hit the airwaves in 1992 it was an instant success. The dark and moody interpretation of the Dark Knight was welcomed by fans young and old. The first episode, On Leather Wings was very serious and was given a 'feature film' treatment in terms of storytelling, camera angles and voice actors.

But the second episode produced, Christmas With the Joker is almost a 180 degree turn in the wrong direction! I cannot express how much I despise this episode. It is the weakest of the series and a low blow after a fantastic pilot episode. The animation is awful, characters (Joker especially) were of model, the lipsync is way off and the story tries to cram way too much into 22 minutes.

I knew this one was bad news as soon as the episode started with the Joker singing 'Jingle Bells, Batman Smells' while blasting through the roof of Arkham Asylum on a rocket powered Christmas tree.

This is the first introduction to the Joker and in particular Mark Hamill as the voice of the Clown Prince of Crime. But while the Joker is an evil sadist bent on ruining Batman's life, this Joker is a funfilled jokester who just loves a good, deadly prank. While the pilot episode brought realism to the screen, this one brought absurdity.

If you want to check it out for your self Christmas With the Joker is available in Batman: the Animated Series, Volume One.

The Santa Gallery!

2007-11-20T12:35:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the Santa Gallery where you can see the many difference appearances that Santa has taken on over the years! This page will be constantly updated so check back often!

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

A Christmas Flintstone (The Flintstones)

Christmas Comes to Pac-Land (Pac-Man)

Toyland Premiere (Cartoon Classics)

Aliens First Christmas

Sonic Christmas Blast

A Chipmunk Christmas

Jingle Boo (Animaniacs)

Shrek the Halls

A Pinky & the Brain Christmas

Dexter vs. Santa Claus (Dexter's Laboratory)

'Twas the Fight Before Christmas (Powerpuff Girls)

Xmas Story (Futurama)

Nightmare Before Christmas

Frosty the Snowman

NEW BLOGS AND A NEW DIRECTION

2007-11-16T17:18:00.000-08:00

I know that I have been neglecting this blog. If any of you still read this you may be interested in knowing what I have been up to.

I have come to the conclusion that there are too many 'general animation' webpages out there. And while the features like Thursday Theme Songs (which takes way to much to maintain due to copyright infringement on youtube) and the Cartoon Character Challanges are fun, they are not enough to hold the blog.

So what am I going to do to keep this blog alive? I'm not sure quite yet, but I do know that last December, the Christmas cartoon reviews were a big hit so I may do some more this December and then figure out where to go from there.

On another note, I have created two new webpages that feature the wonderful world of Disney:

Covering the Mouse (www.coveringthemouse.com) feature Disney music that has been reinvented by artists over the years. Can you imagine Gene Simmons singing When You Wish Upon a Star, Marilyn Manson singing This is Halloween or William hung singing Can You Feel the Love Tonight? Come on over and check it out!

Comics and Stories (www.comics-and-stories.com) features the fun adventures of your favourite Disney characters from the pages of the Dell, Gold Key, Gladstone, Gemstone and Disney comic books!

TRAILERS! TRAILERS! TRAILERS!

2007-07-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's been a while since I've posted and a lot has happened since then! In particular, a boat load of trailers are out for some upcoming animated projects. Let's take a look:

Horton Hears a Who

Blue Sky's first non-Ice Age movie sure looks good! Dr. Seuss Characters really translate well to computer animation! This one hits the theatres March 14, 2008!

Alvin and the Chipmunks

This looks strangly better than I thought. But I'm still against it. It hits theatres this Christmas.

Beowulf

Beowulf is the new motion-capture film from Robert Zemeckis. Looks fun and epic but will probably be bogged down with people who this the characters aren't life-like. Get over it! Enjoy the motion-capture for what it is! After all, it is a new technology. It isn't going to be perfect! Beowulf hits theatres November 16

Tales From Earthsea

Tales From Earthsea is the newest film from Studio Ghibli. This film was released last year in Japan and is being released in the UK next week. The North American date has yet to be announced but it has to be soon.

Spectacluar Spider-Man Animated Series

This clip was taken at the San Diego Comicon and give a nice preview of what the upcoming series will look like! It looks like fun!

Transformers: Animated

This incarnation of the Transformers looks like it may be the most faithful to the original series we've seen yet. Listen for the fans going crazy when Grimlok appears on screen!

MEGA CARTOON CHARACTER CHALLENGE #3

2007-07-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

The top left image still hasn't been guessed in two weeks! It's now worth three points! I'm giving you another week to figure it out along with these new additions.

Congratulations to coolb who correctly identified these first two characters as being Nina Harper from Braceface and Dum Dum from The Peril of Penelope Pitstop. And congratulations to newcomer Peter who correctly identified the third character as Captain Majors from The Godzilla Power Hour!

Da Points:

athena: 1
ben: 2
coolb: 8
coolshades: 1
eagle-man: 5
katie: 1
peter: 2
starlac: 7

BILL COSBY'S BEARD

2007-07-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

I've been watching my Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids Volume Two DVD and got through half of the first disc when something came on the screen that I thought I would never see! Bill Cosby with a beard! But not just any beard, a super ugly beard!

I thought that maybe he was sporting a beard to teach the lesson of that episode, but then I went on to the next episode, and the next, and the next. It appeared that the beard would stay! I don't know if this lasts the whole rest of the series, but I sure hope not.

Though all his various TV shows, The Cosby Show, I-Spy, Kids Say The Darndest Things, Cosby, never have I ever seen Bill Cosby with a beard. I think it scares me.

HOW DO YOU FIND ANIMATED TOAST?

2007-07-10T17:51:00.000-07:00

Gawrsh!

Here is a short list of phrases that people have used to google my blog.

I want to thank the makers of the Transformers movie because most of my hits of late have been people doing searches for my various stories!

There have been many searches that have brought me a chuckle and i want to share them with you. All spelling and grammar has been unedited.

I have no idea what these people were searching for:

nbc and lymphoma and hamburger and 1996
marine biologist
anim,ated cartoon alien lives with professor in woods changes into dog
contextual references artist clocks used as a theme
haapy fris daay
movie a 'quirky american talk show host' underwater animated film

I know what they are searching for but don't they know how to use google:

i want to see spider man posters
cartoon network's upcoming transformers animated will be set in which city?
on the little mermaid what is sebastien ?

If you are one of these people then please explain yourselves!

LOONEY TUNES VOLUME 5, POPEYE & WOODY DVD SPECULATION!

2007-07-09T12:01:00.000-07:00

Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 5

News has hit theGAC Forum that a trailer for the upcoming Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Five will be included on the Popeye the Sailor DVD set on July 31!

Past releases of the Golden Collections have been announced in July so we should get an official release date soon! This is the final major vintage cartoon DVD release expected for this year and it should arrive in November. What other vintage cartoon DVD's are there this year? Check out this previous post!

UPDATE: Just announced! Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Five will arrive October 30th!!

According to the forum, based on the clips seen in the trailer, this is a small sample of some of the cartoons we should see in volume five:

"Milk and Money" (LT, Avery, 1936)
"Little Red Walking Hood" (MM, Avery, 1937)
"The Daffy Doc" (LT, Clampett, 1938)
"Patient Porky" (LT, Clampett, 1940)
"Prehistoric Porky" (LT, Clampett, 1940)
"Porky's Preview" (LT, Avery, 1941)
"The Wacky Wabbit" (MM, Clampett, 1942)
"Scrap Happy Daffy" (LT, Tashlin, 1943)
"The Old Grey Hare" (MM, Clampett, 1944)
"Hollywood Daffy" (MM, Freleng, 1946)
"Bacall to Arms" (MM, Clampett, 1946)
"A Pest In the House" (MM, Jones, 1947)
"Buccaneer Bunny" (LT, Freleng, 1948)
"Paying the Piper" (LT, McKimson, 1949)
"Little Red Rodent Hood" (MM, Freleng, 1952)
"The Turn-Tale Wolf" (MM, McKimson, 1952)
"The Super Snooper" (LT, McKimson, 1952)
"Red Riding Hoodwinked" (LT, Freleng, 1955)
"Bugs Bonnets" (MM, Jones, 1956)
"A Star is Bored" (LT, Freleng, 1956)
"Goldimouse and the Three Cats" (LT, Freleng, 1960)
"The Abominable Snow Rabbit" (LT, Jones, 1961)
"Senorella and the Glass Huarache" (LT, Hawley Pratt, 1964)

Popeye the Sailor: 1933-1938

And while we're on the topic, Cartoon Brew has posted some stills of the upcoming Popeye DVD and they look AMAZING! The restoration is remarkable! Check out the stills here and here.

Jerry also tells us that this set is going to be loaded down with special features including individual featurettes on all the characters, spotlights on music, influence on pop culture,
Thimble Theater featurette, audio commentaries, pop-up commentaries, and a bunch of Ko-Ko the Clown cartoons!

Wow! This may be the best DVD set ever!

The above picture is a still from the Popeye set and the below picture is a still that I pulled off of one of the public domain DVDs that I have. This should give you an example of the restoration that was put into this set.

Woody Woodpecker and Friends

Also, those of you who are interested in the Woody Woodpecker and Friends DVD set that is coming out on July 24 may be interested to know that woodywoodpecker.com has updated their site to give you an in depth detail of the upcoming set.

The site give a complete disc track list as well as bonus feature list and some cool downloads! Check it out!

MEGA CARTOON CHARACTER CHALLENGE #2

2007-07-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge features two carry-overs from last week and two new challenges. I'm giving you a week to figure these characters out.

Congratulations to starlac who correctly identified these two characters as being Cranston Goat from Cats Don’t Dance and Sophie from The Chipmunk Adventure.

Da Points:

athena: 1
ben: 2
coolb: 6
coolshades: 1
eagle-man: 5
katie: 1
starlac: 7

THE CHIPMUNKS HAVE LANDED!

2007-07-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

In a previous post I mentioned an Alvin and the Chipmunks live action movie. Well, feast your eyes on this:

Not only is this movie actually being made, but it is due out December 14!! With this rush to get the film out along with the ugly designs of these classic characters, my hopes are not high at all.

The main thing that bugged me at first was the hiphop style they seem to be sporting. Fans of the original series, the Alvin Show, and the 80s comeback, Alvin and the Chipmunks, will remember the Chipmunks in a band. Will these Chipmunks be in a band? Probably not. The Chipmunks of the past have always sung popular music. In the 60s the popular style was Beatles-style rock and in the 80s it was what is now known as classic rock. But what is the most popular style of music today? Hiphop. So now that I think about it I realize that it is appropriate for Alvin, Simon and Theodore to be all thug and bling. But that doesn't mean i have to be happy about it.

I want your opinion. There have been some pretty awful cartoon-to-live-action movies over the years. What is your favourite live-action remake? What is the worst? leave me a comment with your opinion.

Here are some of the ones that I remember to help you out:

THE KWIK-E-MART HAS ARRIVED!

2007-07-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

Who needs the Kwik-E-Mart?

Well, it's happened! A handful of 7-Elevens have turned into Kwik-E-Marts in order to promote the new Simpsons Movie that hits theatres July 27.

Inside you will find many Simpsons themed snacks that manufacturers have made especially for the promotion. But the real treat is that some manufactures have made item that are taken directly from the show! It's true! Now you can buy a box of Krusty-Os, a can of Buzz Soda and your very own Squishee!

I think that this gimmick is a great idea, not only because it is fun but also because it shows that 7-Eleven has a sense of humour. Everyone knows that the Kwik-E-Mart convenience stores are based on the 7-Eleven franchise, but to have 7-Eleven actually take that stereotype and run with it show us that they are able to laugh at themselves. Good job 7-Eleven!

MEGA CARTOON CHARACTER CHALLENGE!

2007-06-29T06:43:00.000-07:00

Today's challenge is four times the challenge! I have selected four cartoon characters for you to guess. If you know any of all of them then leave me a comment! I'll reveal answers on Monday!

TRANSFORMERS AND SPIDER-MAN POSTERS!

2007-06-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

First of all, I want to state how sorry I am for neglecting this blog. Work has gotten busier and I have been spending more time preparing for my switch over to Animated Views.

However, I have come across two posters for a few new shows next year and I want to share them with you.

Click to see full image.

Transformers: Animated is set to air spring 2008 on Cartoon Network and looks like an amalgamation of all the different series and the movie. Some of the new movies designs, like Bumblebee, have been borrowed but Optimus Prime is a Fire Truck as he was in Transformers: Robots in Disguise.

Over the years, the various different versions of Transformers have had some pretty ugly character designs. Most of the reasons for ugliness were becasue they were too busy. CG shows like Beast Wars, Transformers: Cybertron and the new movie used character designs that were overcomplicated (they used the "it's CG, so why not?" mindset). They were so detailed that it made it hard to watch since characters would get lost in background or each other.

Other shows like Transformers: Armada and Transformers: Energon were Japanese-made, and you know how the Japanese are about their robots. Super detailed and probably a pain to animate.

This new show is heading in the right direction by keeping their characters neat and clean but still distinct and with style. Too bad I don't like this style at all! Transformers are supposed to be hard and tough. These designs make them look too organic. It's like the characters are wearing foam robot outfits. I hope the storytelling holds up.

Click to see full image.

The Spectacular Spider-Man is set to air in spring 2008 on the WB! Network. This series is to compliment Spider-Man 3 but is not related like the MTV Spider-Man series. It is being developed by Gargoyles creator Greg Weisman.

According to this poster, we should see Doctor Octopus, Sandman, Electro and Vulture in the series and Weisman has said that Venom and Green Goblin will also show up. The series will revolve around a 16-year old Peter parker and his friends Flash Thompson, Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, Betty Brant and Liz Allan.

Some concept art has made its way online and while these are not the final designs, you can get a feel for what they are going for. Sort of X-Men: Evolution. I can't wait to see this one.

NEW TRANSFORMERS MOVIE THEME SONG!

2007-06-19T07:17:00.000-07:00

Transformers Soundtrack

With the Transformers movie just around the corner I thought it would be fun to post a bunch of the various verisions of the theme song the I have found.

The Transformers theme song is one of the most recognizable cartoon themes. If you ask a random person on the street most likely they would be able to sing a line or two.

The other day I was picking up some kids from their school and one kid saw the Autobots pin I wear on my jacket. He asked me if I liked the show. I said yes and then he asked me if I knew the song. I said I did and I started singing. "Transformers! Robots in disguise!"

"That's not how it goes!" he shouted at me! "It goes, Transformers ENERGON! Robots in Disguise!" I felt so old.

Here are three versions of the theme song from the three seasons of the generation one show.

Transformers - Season One

Transformers - Season Two

Transformers - Season Three

If you are a fan of Transformers: the Movie you should know this one. It is by 80's metal band Lion and it was recorded for the film.

Transformers - Lion

This one is a cover of the Lion version of the theme by a band called Black Lab. www.myspace.com/blacklabband

Transformers - Black Lab UPDATE: I got in trouble for posting this mp3 so I have taken it down. You can hear it on their myspace page if you want to hear it.

All the fans were wondering if a new recording of the theme would be made for the new film. Fans were overjoyed when this song was leaked onto the net a few months ago. But their smiles turned to frowns when they heard the new verision by Deceptibot.

Transformers - Deceptibot

It was later revealed that this song was a big joke and now the real theme has been revealed and it by a band called Mute Math. Check out their site: www.myspace.com/mutemath

Transformers - Mute Math

I like this version by Mute Math and am excited to hear it in the movie! Can't wait until July 7!

WALL*E TEASER TRAILER

2007-06-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

Pixar's Wall*E

A teaser trailer for the new Pixar/Disney Wall*E has just been added to apple.com. It gives a little taste of the animation and story but also gives a short interview with Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton about the history of the film. I suggest you watch it now. Wall*E is scheduled for release June 27, 2008.

COMPLETELY CRAZY CARTOON CHARACTER CHALLENGE #21

2007-06-15T07:20:00.000-07:00

Here we are once again for another round of the Completely Crazy Cartoon Character Challenge! Do you know who this is? Leave me a comment and I'll let you know on Monday if there is a winner!

UPDATE: Congratulations to eagle-man who correctly identified this character as John Jameson from Spider-Man: Unlimited!

Da Points:

athena: 1
ben: 2
coolb: 6
coolshades: 1
eagle-man: 5
katie: 1
starlac: 5

FIVE WORST SIDEKICKS OF ALL TIME

2007-06-13T11:09:00.000-07:00

Every so often, television executives feel the need to boost ratings. They think that a good way to boost ratings in a show is to add a new character. This new character is small and cute, usually furry, and is used as comic relief. While there are exceptions to this rule, I''m sure you will find that most of these annoying cartoon sidekick follow this criteria.

I hate these characters.

I have compiled a list of my all time least-favourite sidekick ratings grabbers. Do you agree? How much do you hate these creatures? Are there any that I missed? Leave me a comment or two!

H.E.R.B.I.E.

5: H.E.R.B.I.E. from Fantastic Four 1978

The second Fantastic Four television series was produced by DePatie-Freleng in 1978. The popular rumour was that the producers didn't want children to mimic the Human Torch's ability to light himself on fire so they cut him from the show. The real reason was that Marvel optioned his character out to another film company to do a solo movie. The Torch's replacement was a robot created by Mr. Fantastic called H.E.R.B.I.E. (Humanoid Experimental Robot, B-type, Integrated Electronics). He went along on all the mission as was a vast source of information and handy tools.

The character was designed by comic legend Jack Kirby and was voiced by Frank Welker. Many fans hated this character not only because he replaced the Human Torch, but also because he was played up as a "cute" character that turned out to be me more annoying than anything else. HERBIE has since gone on to appear many times in the comicbooks.

I know that HERBIE doesn't fit the criteria. He wasn't created to boost ratings. But, gosh darn it, he's annoying.

Godzooky

4: Godzooky from The Godzilla Power Hour 1978

It's a bad sign when a studio feels the need to create a new character because the title character doesn't have enough character. The Godzilla franchise was going strong and Hanna-Barbera wanted to cash in on the success by bring their animated spin on the monstrous legend. But the stories were too serious. The Godzilla Power Hour needed something to lighten to mood.

Enter: Godzooky, Godzilla's nephew. Godzooky was just slightly bigger than the humans and had wings that allowed him to fly. Don Messik provided the dog-like noises he made. He was a useless character and often got in the way or caused the episode's problem in the first place. He was way to cute for his own good and if I were Godzilla, I'd use my laser eyes to send him back to the middle of the Atlantic.

Bat-Mite

3: Bat-Mite from The New Adventures of Batman & Robin 1977

Bat-Mite first appeared in Batman comicbook in 1959 but disappeared in 1964. People realized early on that Bat-Mite was overly annoying and totally stupid. Unfortunately, Filmation thought that he could boost ratings on their second Batman animated series, The New Adventures of Batman & Robin.

In this series, Bat-Mite, voiced by Filmation Executive Producer Lou Scheimer, is a magical imp who happens to be Batman's biggest fan. He even makes his own 'Batsuit' and wears it all the time. While he meant well and really wanted to help the Caped Crusader, he really only got in the way and caused more problems for the duo. I always wondered why the three of them seemed to have a good chuckle at the end of the episodes. I'm sure Batman could figure out a way to get rid of him for good.

The Great Gazoo

2: The Great Gazoo from The Flintstones 1965

At the beginning of The Flintstones' sixth season, ratings were so low that the Hanna-Barbera producers and writers felt that something needed to be changed. They created an alien being from the future called the Great Gazoo, voiced by Harvey Korman, who was exiled to Earth for inventing a doomsday weapon. Gazoo is only visible to Fred and Barney (and their children) which causes many problems as he pops up at the most inappropriate moments when other are around. He often tries to help but usually ends up making matters worse.

I see the Great Gazoo as one of the very first sidekick ratings boosters. The show was cancelled at the end of that season and many say that it was the fault of the Not-So-Great Gazoo but the ratings were so low before he appeared that it's hard to say whether Gazoo made any difference at all. But what is for certain is that Gazoo is ultra-annoying and didn't make any sense in the show what so ever.

Scrappy-Doo

1: Scrappy-Doo from Scooby-Doo & Scrappy-Doo 1978

If you ask any fan of Scooby-Doo I'm sure you will also hear them say how much they hate Scooby's nephew, Scrappy-Doo.

In 1978, rating were getting low and ABC was threatening to cancel Scooby-Doo. Hanna-Barbera was already trying new things to keep the show alive, such as having the gang fight real supernatural monsters rather than just people in costumes. But when they created the super obnoxious Scrappy-Doo ratings actually went up! So they retooled the show to focus more on Scrappy and less on Scooby. Bad move.

The reason people watched Scooby-Doo is because they wanted to see Scooby-Doo. When the screen time is filled this loud-talking lame-brain it's no wonder people think of Scrappy-Doo as the downfall of the Scooby-Doo franchise.

24 HOURS? 24 FRAMES PER SECOND!

2007-06-12T06:51:00.000-07:00

It thrills me to no end that one of my favourite shows has been turned into a cartoon! The popular action series 24 made its internet debut a few weeks ago on degreemen.com.

Produced by the producers of the show, 24: Day Zero is nine Flash animated vignettes that tell a story of Jack Bauer and CTU before the events of season one. Fans will be happy to know that they will be able to see the return of some of their favourite characters, including Nina Meyers, Tony Almeida and George Mason.

Icebox, the animators of these shorts, chose to create a very comicbook-like style for their show which works very well. The constant split-screens seem more like comicbook panels now. However, some of the characters don't translate too well, the animation is very limited and the writing is nowhere near as good as the show. But it is still 24 fun and Keifer Sutherland even voices Jack Bauer!

This isn't the first time we've seen an animated version of 24. One week before these hit the internet The Simpsons aired an excellent 24 parody as part of their 400th episode season finale! Sutherland lent his voice to that show too.

Three episodes are availible on degreemen.com with another coming in a couple of days.

CHANGE IS COMING...

2007-06-11T07:01:00.000-07:00

Looking to the future

Hello everyone!

It's been over a week! Where have I been? Well, I got a week off work so I decided to take a week of everything and make it a real vacation.

There will be a few changes to Animated Toast over the next little while. The main change is that I have been invited to be a contributing writer to Animated-Views. I'm not sure how that will affect this page. I may shut it down or it may be radically changed. We'll see.

The other change will be to the Cartoon Character Challenge. It has been over a week and no one has guess the answer to the June 1st Challenge! I have decided that I am not gonna tell you the answer! I am going to still post a new Challenge every Friday but the old,un-guessed Challenge will still be there and worth an extra point for every consecutive week that it remains un-guessed. So keep trying!

I hope that all of you enjoy your time here and I would love to hear your input!

Stay frosty!

COMPLETELY CRAZY CARTOON CHARACTER CHALLENGE #20

2007-06-01T13:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome to June everyone and welcome to the twentieth edition of the Completely Crazy Cartoon Character Challenge!

Leave me a comment if you know who this is. Please state the name and where this character has appeared. I'll let you know who wins on Monday!

UPDATE: It took two weeks to find a winner but it finally happened! Ben correctly identified this character as Edward, Wendy's husband and Jane's father from Peter Pan: Return to Neverland!

Great job, Ben! You get two points for this one! Good to have you on board!

Da Points:

athena: 1
ben: 2
coolb: 6
coolshades: 1
eagle-man: 4
katie: 1
starlac: 5

THURSDAY THEME SONG: THE ADVENTURES OF THE LITTLE PRINCE

2007-05-31T08:58:00.000-07:00

The Little Prince

The final installment for "Narrative Theme" month is Japanese show based on a french book.

The Adventures of the Little Prince

In July of 1978, Hoshi no Ojisama Puchi Puransu was released in Japan. The series, which means Prince of the Stars: Petit Prince, contained 39 episodes may of which were directed by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. Yasuhiko not only directed but was also the character designer. He then went on to be the influential character designer for Mobile Suit Gundam.

The series was re-cut and dubbed into English and brought to a North American audience in 1982. Only 26 of the 39 episodes were dubbed.

The story, which is loosely based on the 1943 book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, follows the adventures of a young boy who lives on a tiny planet called B6-12. He lives alone on that planet so every episode he rides a comet to Earth, his favourite planet and meets the local people.

The show was a hit with small children and became quite dear to children of the eighties. Do you remember this theme song?

OMG! THE POLICE KILLED KENNY!

2007-05-30T23:54:00.000-07:00

They're back!

I just got back from the Police concert here in Vancouver. What a great show. These guys are some great musicians and they just kept on punding out hit after hit for almost two hours! The stage was simple and classy, with no huge video screens or pyrotechnics to impress us like some other bands feel the need to do (Nickleback).

The sold-out stadium was chearing the entire time with particularly loud screaming for some of the more popular hits like Roxanne, So Lonely and Every Breath You Take.

Stewart Copeland is an amazing drummer and I spent most of my time watching his moves hoping that one day I would be half the drummer that he is. For a few of the numbers he left the kit for an amazing assortment of various percussion instruments. He set a simple rhythm to his iMac and filled in the beat with cymbals, bells, tympani, and other drums and noisemakers.

Dispite being twenty years older, Sting was still able to sing his songs. While his voice can no longer get those incredibly high parts anymore he still retained all the energy and did a great job through out the show.

Andy Summers still had it too. He pulled of some amazing guitar work and really played to the crowd. A couple of times he got lost and you could tell by the look on his face that he was just noodling on his guitar until he could figure out where he was. But he rolled with it and if you weren't paying close attention you wouldn't have noticed. That's a good musician.

I did notice that Andy was wearing a South Park guitar strap and while I'm sure you are wondering why I'm posting this post on an animation blog you will have to humour me with this loose tie-in. I really just wanted to talk about the show.

This picture was taken by my friend Courtney who was at the Monday night show.

SHREK? BLECK!

2007-05-29T11:02:00.000-07:00

Shrek grimaces at his new movie.

If you want to see some of the worst animation ever, check out this promo for the Shrek babies that made their big screen debut in Shrek the Third.

Speaking of Shrek the Third, the second sequel to the popular Shrek franchise hit it big on opening weekend. $121,629,270 and the highest opening weekend for an animated film! Wow!

I can't say that I am a fan of these Shrek movies. I enjoyed the first one because it was new and fresh. I liked the parody and the characters, but now I am disgusted with the fan-base and marketing strategies.

Dreamworks seems to be marketing this movie to kids, which is very understandable: It is an animated film with cute characters and fart jokes. But the writers of this movie have filled the second film so much with Hollywood in-jokes that I find it hard to believe that children had a good time at all. Scenes are segued to the extreme in order to fit the most irrelevant movie parody thus distracting from the story.

I found Shrek 2 very hard to watch and, while I plan on watching Shrek the Third, I will wait until I can rent it.

Not Disney Princess!

But enough is enough. Dreamworks should let this franchise rest before they milk it dead. They have got three blockbuster movies and should stop while they are on top. Will they? Of course not. A fourth film is already in to works as well as a Puss-In-Boots spin-off and a Shrek holiday special for tv.

I really wish they would focus more on the rest of their animated library. I felt that Over the Hedge, a fantastic film, didn't get the publicity that it should have.

On the other hand, the upcoming Bee Movie has had some great marketing. The live-action trailers were great teasers and now I read that Jerry Sienfeld launched himself across a zipline in his bee costume overtop the Bee Movie premiere at the Cannes Film Festival! Great stuff! This is what Dreamworks should be doing!

CLONE WARS TRAILER IS OUT!

2007-05-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

We are mighty!

Check out this new trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series.

This two-minute preview showcases the animation and special effects. I really like how they are keeping the look of this show consistent with the look of the films. But i also like that they are not trying to make the characters look real beyond belief. They have a definite cartoony look to them.

I was a little wary about this show but upon seeing this trailer, I have a new hope.

Click here for the trailer!

COMPLETELY CRAZY CARTOON CHARACTER CHALLENGE #19

2007-05-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

Here we go again! I feel that the characters I post here are too easy for all of you. I'm gonna try and make this a bit harder. Good luck!

As always, leave me a comment if you know who this is. I'll reveal the correct answer on Monday.

UPDATE: This week's winner is starlac who correctly identified this character as Janine Melnitz from Extreme Ghostbusters!

Starlac, I thought I could throw you for a loop with this one, but I guess not! Way to go!

Da Points:

athena: 1
coolb: 6
coolshades: 1
eagle-man: 4
katie: 1
starlac: 5

THURSDAY THEME SONG: FLASH GORDON

2007-05-24T08:18:00.000-07:00

Week four of "Narrative Themes" month brings us one of the greatest sci-fi series of the seventies:

Flash Gordon and Dale Arden.

Flash Gordon

What was the ultra-huge sci-fi movie blockbuster that came out in 1977? You got it! Star Wars re-wrote the way space and sci-fi movies were made, so it is no surprise if you watch the old Filmation Flash Gordon series from 1979 and see a lot of Star Wars influence.

Originally as a comic strip from the 30s, the animated adventures of Flash Gordon follow the edge-of-your-seat adventures storylines that leave you on a cliffhanger at the end of every episode.

This serial style of storytelling was not new to the comic strips but it was something that was not usually done in a children's cartoon. Enticing viewers to return everyday to see what happened next worked well for the show as it ran its sixteen episode premiere season but did not bring in the ratings that the network wanted.

Princess Aura

Two years later, NBC ordered a second season but insisted that each episode was to be self-contained. In fact, NBC wanted two eleven-minute stories per episode! They wanted a show that was geared to a younger audience in the hopes to get stronger ratings than in season one.

An addition to the show was a small baby dragon called Gremlin that was added as the pet/sidekick/comic releif that every show in the seventies and eighties seemed the need to have. Gremlin stole the spotlight in many of the episodes only to be hated more and more by the fans.

To fans of the show, this second season was a disgrace. The fun and adventure of the first season had disappeared and what remained was a pile of garbage. The show was cancelled after eight episodes.

MORE CLONES ON THE WAY!

2007-05-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

My what big eyes you have!

Starwars.com has released a promotional poster for the brand new Clone Wars animated series that is set to debut in 2008.

This show will be computer animation and will take place between Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

It will also be a continuation of the 2003 Flash animated series Star Wars: Clone Wars that aired on the Cartoon Network.

So far, Anthony Daniels is the only confirmed cast memeber for the show. He has always been the voice of C-3P0 in all six movies and every animated series. Good for him for returning once again. Fans eat that stuff up.

COMPLETELY CRAZY CARTOON CHARACTER CHALLENGE #17

2007-05-18T10:57:00.000-07:00

Here we go again! Leave me a comment if you know this cartoon character! I'll reveal the winner on Monday!

UPDATE: This week's winner is starlac who correctly identified this character as Taffy Dare from Captain Caveman!

Da Points:

athena: 1
coolb: 6
coolshades: 1
eagle-man: 4
katie: 1
starlac: 4

THURSDAY THEME SONG: CHALLENGE OF THE SUPER FRIENDS

2007-05-17T13:13:00.000-07:00

In 1973, Hanna-Barbera launched the very first animated series based on the superhero team the Justice League of America!

This childrens' show went through many changes before airing, the most significant is
changing the name to Super Friends. In the height of the Vietnam War, HB thought it would be too jingoistic so a new 'friendlier' name was given.

There has never been a more epic battle

Challenge of the Super Friends was the third Super Friends series that ran during the 1978-1979 television series. The hour-long episodes were made up of two half-hour segments. The first segment stories were similar to the previous season, The All-New Super Friends Hour, which featured Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and the Wonder Twins, Zan and Jayna.

The second segment stories were called The Super Friends vs. The Legion of Doom which saw a handful of villains teaming up to take over the world and take down the Super Friends.

l-r Apache Chief, Black Vulcan and Samurai

Twelve villains were hand picked by Lex Luthor to join the Legion of Doom.

The roster included Solomon Grundy, Sinestro, Black Manta, Cheetah, Giganta, the Scarecrow, Toyman, the Riddler, Bizarro, Brainiac, Captain Cold and Gorilla Grodd.

The heroes that battled the Legion of Doom were Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash, Green Lantern and Hawkman.

The Wonder Twins were cut from the roster in the half of the show for some reason.

Three new characters were created to join the Super Friends in order to add a
bit of cultural diversity to what would be an entirely white cast of characters. Their names are Black Vulcan, Apache Chief and Samurai and I'll let you guess which ethnic group each of them represent. While Hanna-Barbera's intentions were good at the time, they now seem quite stereotyped.

The theme to the Legion of Doom segment was written by John Beal and narrated by William Woodson.

FINAL TOM & JERRY DVD SET ANNOUNCED!

2007-05-16T12:10:00.000-07:00

Adding to the wonderful list of classic cartoon DVD being released this year is the final volume of Tom & Jerry! This is very exciting news and I hope that Warner Home Video will pay a bit more attention in what they are doing with this set. Volume One and two were advertised as complete, uncut and unedited but that was not the case as a number of shorts in both volumes were edited! Look for the description below.

Tex Avery's Droopy

Woody Woodpecker

May 15: Droopy - the Complete Theatrical Collection 24 shorts on 2 discs. All of Tex Avery's and Michael Lah's shorts including the Oscar nominated One Droopy Night. I have started watching this set and while the cartoons are a joy to watch, this set contains some of the worse cases of DNVR I have ever seen. It is very distracting to watch.

July 24: The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection 75 shorts on three discs that include fan-favourites such as Woody Woodpecker, Andy Panda, Wally Walrus, Oswald Rabbit and many other Walter Lantz classics!

July 31: Popeye the Sailor - Volume 1: 1933-1938 60 shorts on 4 discs. All of the great Fleisher Studios Popeye cartoons are presented here, many for the first time, fully restored and in chronilogical order! Commentaries, documentaries and featurettes make up the many bonus features.

Popeye the Sailor

Early art work for
Tom & Jerry Vol.3

September 11: Tom & Jerry Spotlight Collection Volume Three This final volume will complete the collection of Tom & Jerry shorts directed by Will Hanna and Joe Barbera. A fourth volume of the Gene Deitch and Chuck Jones short would be nice but not likely.

December 11: Walt Disney Treasures: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit 26 shorts on two discs. The Treasures line of DVD is an annual event that Disney fans always look forward to. This year is a major highlight as this pre-Mickey Mouse star comes to DVD in a complete collection.

December 11: Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald - Volume Three 30-35 shorts on two discs. This third volume will include the first cartoons starring Donald's co-stars, Chip n' Dale!

But wait! There's more! We should hear about Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Five sometime this summer. That set will have 60 more Looney Tunes shorts on four discs and will come out sometime this fall! Talk about good news! I won't be leaving my house this summer!

GRINDHOUSE MOVIE POSTERS

2007-05-15T11:50:00.000-07:00

Every Friday somethingawful.com has a Photoshop contest open for anyone to enter. A few weeks ago, contestants were asked to create a movie poster for a pre-existing movie to look like a classic 'grindhouse' poster. Many of these are live-action films but a few animated movies have sneaked in there. While these animated ones are not that great, the rest of the collection are worth a look.

Grindhouse Movies Photoshop Contest

MICKEY THE TERRORIST?

2007-05-14T14:16:00.000-07:00

Mickey? Is that you?

Here is a video that has been making the rounds on the internets. I figure it is good video to show here as I have recently been posting about various different cartoon bootlegs (you can read my posts about a bootleg Disneyland and Felix the Cat).

This video is a few clips from a Palestinian children's television show called Tomorrow’s Pioneers on Hamas’ Al Aqsa TV. The show stars Farfur, a Mickey Mouse clone, who teaches kids about Islamic rule and delivers some pretty harsh propaganda.

Why hasn't Disney put a stop to this? It is obviously a blatant rip-off and I can't imagine Disney wanting to have their spokesperson portray this kind of attitude. They must have some reason for not getting their lawyers on the case but I don't know what it is.

While this video is harsh and ripe with propaganda, let us not forget the films that Disney made for the very same reason during the USA's war-struck years. Education for Death is a good example.

COMPLETELY CRAZY CARTOON CHARACTER CHALLENGE #16

2007-05-11T15:44:00.000-07:00

You know the drill: Leave me a comment if you know the answer and I'll let you know if you are right on Monday!

UPDATE: This week's winner is eagle-man who correctly identified this character as Marie Curie from Clone High!

Eagle-man jumps into second place but is still has a while to go to beat coolb's lead.

Da Points:

athena: 1
coolb: 6
coolshades: 1
eagle-man: 4
katie: 1
starlac: 3

THURSDAY THEME SONG: REBOOT

2007-05-10T20:05:00.000-07:00

This month is "Narrative Theme Song" month. These theme songs feature a voice, usually the main character, explaining the plot overtop some cool music. This week's theme song is the first every computer animated television series.

The season one cast:
Bob, Frisket, Enzo and Dot

ReBoot

ReBoot is a historical cartoon. In an age where almost everything you see on tv is computer animated it is hard to believe the first completely CG series was only thirteen years ago. That's right, in 1994 the Canadian computer animation company known as Mainframe Entertainment debuted its first television series.

Bob is the guardian of his city, Mainframe, which happens to be the inside of a computer. Along with his friends, Bob must defend Mainframe from the evil viruses, Megabyte and Hexidecimal. To make matters worse, Bob must also enter "games" that the "User" plays. If the User wins it destroys a good portion of the city.

The show was a fun adventure show that gained a good following. While it is fun for the kids, the real fan base was in the college crowd. Everyone and everything is named after a computer term and all the games parody actual games so the references that go right over the kids heads smack the college age right in the forehead.

Enzo and AndreAIa all grown up
from season three.

Every episode in the first two seasons is self-contained. However toward the end of the second season the series took a much darker turn and ended on a cliffhanger. The show then got shelved so that Mainframe could concentrate on their new show, Beast Wars: Transformers.

Fans of the show pushed for a third season and after a year hiatus, ReBoot returned with a great storyline and impressive graphics due to the advance in the studio's graphics department.

Fans were thrilled. There third season was more than any of them could have hoped for. The third season concluded with a fantastic series finale but many questions still remained causing everyone to wonder if a fourth season would ever be made.

Three years later, a fourth season, in the form of two tv movies, were released and the fans were once again happy.

This theme song is narrated by ReBoot's main character, Bob.

2007: A VERY GOOD YEAR FOR CLASSIC ANIMATION

2007-05-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

Tex Avery's Droopy

Fans of classic animation are loving this year. Within the last month five major classic cartoons have been announced in a deluxe DVD package:

May 15: Droopy - the Complete Theatrical Collection 24 shorts on 2 discs. All of Tex Avery's and Michael Lah's shorts including the Oscar nominated One Droopy Night.

July 24: The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection 75 shorts on three discs that include fan-favourites such as Woody Woodpecker, Andy Panda, Wally Walrus, Oswald Rabbit and many other Walter Lantz classics!

July 31: Popeye the Sailor - Volume 1: 1933-1938 60 shorts on 4 discs. All of the great Fleisher Studios Popeye cartoons are presented here, many for the first time, fully restored and in chronilogical order! Commentaries, documentaries and featurettes make up the many bonus features.

Popeye the Sailor

Woody Woodpecker

December 11: Walt Disney Treasures: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit 26 shorts on two discs. The Treasures line of DVD is an annual event that Disney fans always look forward to. This year is a major highlight as this pre-Mickey Mouse star comes to DVD in a complete collection.

December 11: Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald - Volume Three 30-35 shorts on two discs. This third volume will include the first cartoons starring Donald's co-stars, Chip n' Dale!

But wait! There's more! We should hear about Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Five sometime this summer. That set will have 60 more Looney Tunes shorts on four discs and will come out sometime this fall! Talk about good news! I won't be leaving my house this summer!

THE ULTIMATE DISNEY BOOTLEG

2007-05-07T12:55:00.000-07:00

This is not Donald Duck

This post was brought to my attention the other day by Cartoon Brew. It appears that there is an amusement park in China called the Shijingshan Amusement Park that bears a striking resemblance to Disneyland. Everything from the castle to the characters are blatant rip-offs of the originals.

Japan Probe as a nice in-depth look at the park with many pictures and videos. One video focuses on how the costumed employees often take off their heads in public! A major Disney no-no!

A young girl with short men
with beards.

When asked about the Mickey Mouse copyright infringement, park officials state that the character isn't a mouse, but a cat with really big ears!

One tourist was noted saying "I don't understand why that is such a big problem. Shouldn't others be able to use those characters besides [Disney]?"

How long can this last? Well, the park opened 21 years ago and so far Disney hasn't had it shut down. The park attracts 1,500,000 people a year with their slogan "Disneyland is too far!"

COMPLETELY CRAZY CARTOON CHARACTER CHALLENGE #15

2007-05-04T08:28:00.000-07:00

The Completely Crazy Cartoon Character Challenge is back with #15! I tried to make this a hard one so do your best! Leave me a comment if you know who it is and I will reveal the answer on Monday!

UPDATE: This week's winner is coolb who correctly identified this character as Gandra Dee from DuckTales!

Coolb is outta control! Is there no one who can stop this cartoon know-it-all?

Da Points:

athena: 1
coolb: 6
coolshades: 1
eagle-man: 3
katie: 1
starlac: 3

THURSDAY THEME SONG: GARGOYLES

2007-05-03T17:27:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to Thursday Theme Songs! It feels great to be back and I have a fun month planned for all of you! This month's theme is "Narrative Theme Songs". These are theme songs that have talking over the music, usually by the main character, telling you the plot of the show. Our first theme song is the Disney cult classic,

Gargoyles

Goliath and the clan

Created by Greg Weisman, Gargoyles had an interesting life of ups and downs. When the show was in development in 1993 Disney had never done a serious, sci-fi drama before. They didn't know if people would buy into it but they let Weisman do his thing and the result was 13 episodes that aired during the 1994-1995 season. The show dealt with many difficult subjects, such as victims of gun violence, and got the attention of many parental groups who were torn between liking the message and not thinking it was appropriate material for a children's cartoon.

The show's main characters are a group of Gargoyles who lived in medieval times. They were stone by day and warriors by night, sworn to protect their home, a Scottish castle. By they were put under a spell that turned them to stone until the spell was broken hundreds of years in the future, our present.

Goliah SMASH puny robot!

Fans of Star Trek got into this show because of the multiple Star Trek actors who lent their voices to the characters. Marina Sirtis, Jonathan Frakes, Kate Mulgrew, Michael Dorn and Brent Spiner are just a few of many.

This is also the first serial show for Disney. Fans got into the show because characters changed and grew, people switched sides, and major continuity made the show interesting to watch. The writers often brought in elements of Norse history, King Arthur history and even elements of Shakespeare.

Gargoyles became a huge hit and Disney asked for another season. So Weisman and his crew set out to make another 13 episodes. But Disney didn't want 13 episodes, they wanted 52! Could Weisman pull it off? You bet!

Elisa and Goliath

Weisman left the show after its second season but the show lived on for two more seasons called Gargoyles: the Goliath Chronicles. The animation team changed, giving it a much softer, Little Mermaid feel to it. The stories also changed and the fans we not happy with the way many of the characters changed. The series ended in 1997 with a total of four seasons, 78 episodes.

The loyal fan base lives on to this day with people all over the world writing fanfiction and making their own continuations of the stories. An annual convention called Gathering of the Gargoyles meets where people can meet other fans, voice actors, the production team and dress up and have fun.

This theme song is the second season theme in which they added narration by Keith David, aka Goliath.

ROCK OUT WITH GUITAR HERO'S NEW AD

2007-05-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

Gorillaz animation director Pete Candeland created this rawk-awesome commercial for one of the best new video games: Guitar Hero II.

It is animated by Robert Valley and has a great style!

Check out a good quality version here or watch the crappy youtube version below.

DISNEY RETURNS TO MAKING THEATRICAL SHORTS!

2007-04-30T22:20:00.000-07:00

How to Hook Up Your Home Theater

Spending time in Walt Disney World really got me excited about everything that Disney is doing right now. The constant quality that Pixar/Disney keeps turning out. John Lasseter being put in charge of Disney Feature Animation and him resurrecting the 2D department. The good reviews of Meet the Robinsons. The return to fairy tales with Frog Princess. All of this makes me think that a new era of Disney is just around the corner. Now check this out:

Disney and the brilliant John Lasseter have made the decision to bring back theatrical animated shorts in the same style as they used to in the good old days.

When Disney started his career in the 20s all the studio produced were five to seven minute shorts that were shown before feature films. Many of these are landmark films that have influenced the evolution of animation. A few examples are Steamboat Willie (the first cartoon to sync animation with sound effects and dialogue) and Flowers and Trees (the first colour cartoon made with the Technicolor process). When Disney and other studios started making feature films the shorts became less frequent and then the invention of television killed the production of shorts all together.

Goofy is doing what he does best.

But Lasseter saw the benefit in giving the audience more for their money and helping out up-and-coming artists polish their craft so he created shorts that appear before every one of his Pixar movies.

Now he is doing the same with the Disney movies starting with a brand new Goofy cartoon called How to Hook Up Your Home Theatre. This cartoon will be Goofy's return to the big screen and will be an homage to the How to instructional shorts of the forties and fifties.

You can read an interesting interview between Animated News and Disney animators Andreas Deja and Mark Henn here Here are a few highlights:

"John Lasseter came in and announced that we were going to do shorts again, because Pixar’s doing shorts and it’s a good idea to nurture new talents and attach directors and storytellers to the new films, and everyone was thrilled." -Deja

"We really wanted to pay attention, even though the subject matter is contemporary, that the look and feel still has the fun and feel that you see in the older classic Goofy shorts." -Henn

I don't care what movie this short will be paired with! I'll pay top dollar when it comes out this fall!

BON VOYAGE!

2007-04-17T12:38:00.000-07:00

Katie and I are off to Iowa to get married! And then to Disney World for a honeymoon! WooHoo!

Animated Toast will be taking the next week and a half off for vacation. But we will return on April 31st. Thursday Theme Song will return on May 3rd and the Completely Crazy Cartoon Character Challenge will return on May 4th.

See you soon!

DVD REVIEW: ANIMANIACS - VOLUME ONE

2007-04-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

Volume one box art

Animaniacs
Volume One

No. of Discs: 4
No. of Episodes: 25
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Release Date: July 25, 2006
Run Time: 550 minutes
Full Frame - 1.33:1

Story: Animaniacs is a multi-character skit show in the same style as The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show and Harveytoons. Each five-ten minute short focuses on a different group of characters.

Pinky and the Brain, two lab mice bend on global domination, Slappy Squirrel, a retired cartoon character who was big in the 30s, Buttons and Mindy, a little girl and her faithful dog who keeps her from getting hurt by sacrificing himself, Chicken Boo, a chicken who wants to be a human, and of course, the three Warner siblings who are just wacky and zany.

History: After working on Tiny Toon Adventures, producer Tom Rugger wanted to create a show with characters based on the old-time cartoon characters of the 30s and 40s. The result was the Warner Brothers and their sister, Dot.

The show was hugely popular not only with children, but also with a college-age crowd because of the many cultural references that children don't understand. Two of the show's characters, Pinky and the Brain, left the show to star in their own spin-off.

Polka Dot?

Favourite Episode: King Yakko This parody of the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup is a joy to watch. Not only is it ripe with slapstick, puns and fun songs, but it also has some of the better
animation in the series. Yakko inherits the kingdom of Anvilania just in time to defend it from a rival kingdom that want to take all of its anvils.

Audio & Soundtrack: Music plays a big role in Animaniacs. Multiple original song were written for each episode often parodying famous classical and folk songs. The most famous song in the show has got to be Yakko's World in which Yakko sings every country (and points to each one - great animation!) to the tune of the Mexican Hat Dance.

The audio on the dvd is Dolby 5.1 (which is stupid because the show was originally broadcast in 2.0) and 2.0 so you get to pick how you want to listen to the Warners.

Video & Animation: The use of rotating, over-seas animation studios causes each episode to vary in quality. This is most notable in the Warners sketches because each team makes the trio look off-model when comparing them to each other. I remember watching the show and thinking how good the animation was. But I was thirteen. Even the timing suffers from the lack of a theatrical budget.

The video on this dvd is good for the show. Everything is clear and clean.

Baloney in their slacks.

Extras: Not much here except for an interview with voice actors Rob Paulsen, Jess Harnel, Tess MacNeille and Sherri Stoner. It is hosted by Maurice LaMarche and the gab for a while about what they liked about the show. It's sort of interesting but only if you are a big fan of the show.

Packaging: Warner Home Video has released this set in a digi-pack that has two discs set one on top of the other, making it impossible for the bottom disc to come out with removing the top disc. I realize it saves space but it is quite annoying. Package art look great and follows a similar look with the Pinky and the Brain releases.

Summary: This show, just like the old Looney Tunes cartoons, suffers from dated jokes but is otherwise a pretty funny show. And while the animation sometimes suffers, you will still get a kick out of watching it. A-

Trivia: Yakko, Wakko and Dot were originally ducks called Yakki, Smakki and Wakki but the idea was scrapped because they thought that Disney has already over-saturated the duck market (DuckTales, Darkwing Duck).

Episode Guide:
Animaniacs.doc 59K

COMPLETELY CRAZY CARTOON CHARACTER CHALLENGE #14

2007-04-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to the CCCCC #14! This one should be fairly easy so I want a last name too! Leave a comment with your guess and I will reveal the answer on Monday! Good luck!

UPDATE: This week's winner is coolb who correctly identified this character as Aja Leith from Jem and the Holograms!

There is going to be a two week hiatus as I will be out of town getting married and going on a honeymoon. But the Challenge will return in May! See you then!

Da Points:

athena: 1
coolb: 5
coolshades: 1
eagle-man: 3
katie: 1
starlac: 3

THURSDAY THEME SONG: JOHNNY BRAVO

2007-04-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

Week two of "Here's Johnny!" and I've got a good one for you! This will be the last week for Thursday Theme Songs this month because I will be going away for a few weeks (to get married!). I will resume the Thursdays when i return in May!

But now...on with the post:

Who wouldn't want a piece of this?

Johnny Bravo

Johnny Bravo is a show about picking up chicks. Johnny is a totally ripped, Elvis influenced, ego-maniac who will try just about anything to get a girlfriend. Unfortunately, he usually messes up and gets clobbered by whatever girl he's trying to impress.

The Cartoon Network show ran four seasons and 65 episodes between 1997 and 2003. While the absurd and slapstick humour is some of the appeal, the real reason for watching the show is to see which guest star will make a cameo!

Donny Osmond is a regular guest star
on the show.

Everyone from cartoon characters like Scooby-Doo and the Gang, the Flintstones and Huckleberry Hound to real life stars like Mark Hamill, Adam West, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Don Knotts, Dr. Phil, Jessica Biel, Alec Baldwin, Luke Perry, Farrah Fawcett, Dionne Warwick, Mick Jagger, Richard Simmons, Mr. T, Shaquille O'Neal, Seth Green, and Donny Osmond, who was a regular guest star. The guest stars were perfectly charactered with the actors providing the voices to their cartoon counterpart.

The series was created by Van Partible, who did a bulk of the writing and animating. Butch Hartman, creator of Fairly Odd Parents, and Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy, joined Partible to make the show hilarious.

There was supposed to be a live action Johnny Bravo movie starring the Rock but for some reason it was shelved.

TIME'S UP FOR THE FELIX CLOCK

2007-04-10T10:24:00.000-07:00

Harmless? Hardly.

Felix the Cat Productions is suing the manufacturer of the famous Kit-Cat Klock stating it is a "blatant knockoff" violating 100 copyrights registered in the last century.

Felix the Cat is the world's first cartoon star having appeared in hundreds of theatrical films since 1919 as well as a few tv shows, a comic strip and a comic book, and every single piece of merchandise you can think of!

The California Clock Co. made the clock back in 1930, a decade after the first appearance of Felix. The clock was used as a gimmick to bring a smile to peoples faces during the depression. The eyes that follow you around the room and wagging tail became a household name and recently, because of the internet, has seen new life in this generation.

Would these eyes lie to you?

But now the two companies are going to court because the California Clock Co. has been advertising their clock as the Felix Clock on their webpage since 2004. Felix Productions is also going after retailers like Walgreens, Bed Bath & Beyond, Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com because they sell the item.

This was stupid on Kit-Cat for infringing on the copyright (even though everyone thinks of Felix when they see this clock), but why is Felix going after them three years after Kit-Cat used Felix's name on the webpage? And why are they going after all those retailers? They are victims of circumstance! Felix should think about making some new Felix cartoons if they want more money instead of sueing everyone like this!

JOHNNY HART DIES AT 76

2007-04-09T18:06:00.000-07:00

Johnny Hart's B.C.

It is sad that more and more significant people of the golden era of cartoons and animation are passing away. This past weekend saw the death of Johnny Hart, creator of the beloved comic strip B.C. He was 76 when he suffered a fatal stroke on Saturday while he was at his drawing table.

B.C. began its forty-nine year run on February 17, 1958 and is one of the longest running comic strips continually drawn by its original creator. In fact, Hart drew the daily strip up until the day he died!

The cartoon follows B.C., a caveman whom Hart says is modelled after himself. Along with his friends, Peter, Wiley, Clumsy Carp, the Fat Broad, the Cute Chick, Curls, Thor, and Grog, they live their daily prehistoric lives together contemplating life. The jokes often involve puns, dry wit and topical humour. While they live in caveman days, there are many out of context references to modern things like Wal-Mart and the United States.

Hart often brought his religion into the strips which has brought some controversy surrounding his Christian beliefs. The Easter 2001 strip below had Jewish readers complaining that Hart thought Christianity was above their religion. Hart later stated that he was trying to pay tribute to both religions.

click for larger image

Johnny Hart will be missed. His legacy lives on through the many cartoonists that Hart's work has influenced.

THURSDAY THEME SONG: JONNY QUEST

2007-04-05T08:45:00.000-07:00

This month will only contain two Thursday Theme Songs because I will be out of town on a vacation/honeymoon for the last two weeks of April. So I have two theme songs for you and if there is ever another month with only two Thursdays I will post another two on this theme: "Here's Johnny!"

Are we there yet?

Jonny Quest

Jonny Quest, the story of an eleven-year-old boy who tags along on his scientist father's dangerous explorations, is a fan favourite of kids young and old. The action and stories are exciting, the drawings and animation are fun to watch and the characters are fun to be around.

When Hanna-Barbera first developed the show, they wanted an action-adventure show based on the popular radio program Jack Armstrong. But licensing fell through and the show was reworked into Jonny Quest.

One of the first things you will notice about this show, especially comparing it to other Hanna-Barbera shows like Scooby-Doo, Flintstones or even Super Friends, is that the artists have pulled out all the stops.

How is Dr. Quest gonna get outta this one?

Hanna-Barbera shows had a small budget because they were a small time animation company. They didn't have the revenue that Disney or Warner Bros did so they had to find creative way to make their show good but cheap. A lot of the time the animation suffered because it would be to expensive to make a character get up out of a chair or change direction while running on screen.

But HB knew that Jonny Quest needed to have better quality animation and artwork in order to tell the stories the wanted. The result was bold and dynamic characters and backgrounds and animation that was still limited but way more fun to watch.

The show was cancelled after one season even though ratings were high. The show was just too expensive for Hanna-Barbera to keep in production.

This theme song is by Hoyt Curtin who did most of Hanna-Barbera's music in the sixties and seventies.

KWIK-E-MART IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD!

2007-04-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

Who needs the Kwik-E-Mart?

In order to promote the new Simpsons Movie that hits the theatre on July 27, 7-Eleven is converting eleven of its stores across the United States into "Kwik-E-Marts", the popular store from the Simpsons tv show.

The deal is not final yet but if all goes well you will see the exterior of the store changed to look like Kwik-E-Marts and you will be able to by products like Krusty-Os and Squishees (Simpson brand Slurpees).

A fun idea! I hope to see it follow through!

DVD REVIEW: BATMAN: TAS, VOLUME ONE

2007-04-02T13:19:00.000-07:00

Cover art

Batman: the Animated Series
Volume One

No. of Discs: 4
No. of Episodes: 28
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Release Date: July 6, 2004
Run Time: 625 minutes
Full Frame - 1.33:1

Story: Batman continues his everyday quest to rid Gotham City of criminals and other underwold scum. Sometimes he is joined by Robin, Boy Wonder.

History: The series was created by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini and Eric Radomski who created the show after seeing the success of the two Tim Burton Batman movies. It has since become a cult classic and is the most accurate interpretation of Batman in animation. The series aired from 1992 to 1995 with 85 episodes.

Mr. Freeze

Favourite Episode: Heart of Ice This is the first episode with Mr. Freeze who is, by far, my favourite character in this series. Dini wrote a brand new origin story for Freeze that gives him a very tragic past and a very complex character. Animation in this episode is great and Dini always writes a good story.

Video & Animation: This show's animation was hit or miss. Most of it was great but every once in a while there would be episodes with off-model characters and choppy animation. There is even a scene where the Batmobile actually curves to go around a corner! I found most of the Joker episodes to be quite poor (especially Christmas With the Joker).

The video quality on this dvd may seem grainy with a lot of dust and scratched but that is actually a product of the show. All of the backgrounds were painted on black canves which created a lot of dust that got trapped between cells. It's not a fault of poor film stock or a bad transfer and is very much part of the show.

Audio & Soundtrack: Warner Bros television shows always have a great soundtrack. This is due to the actual 30 piece orchestra that they use to individualy score every episode. Top notch! And the audio on this set sound great in 2.0 Dolby Stereo.

Batman

Extras: There are two interesting episode commentaries on Heart of Ice and On Leather Wings by Bruce Timm, Eric Rodomski and Paul Dini. There is also a lame Flash animated tour of the Batcave and a stupid retrospective featurette. The highlight for me in this set if the pilot promo, The Dark Knight's First Night which has never before been released.

Packaging: Warner Home Video has put together a really nice digipack that features original artwork as well as screencaps from the show. Many, myself included wondered why the red and yellow colours were used as they do not reflect the show at all. But they match the style of the other DC Comics Animation releases and because it looks like it belongs in a set I'm okay with it.

Summary: Fans of the series will not be disappointed with this set. Everything is intact and it looks great. My only complaint is that the packaging doesn't relect the show. But that is quite minor. A-

Triva: In many episodes you can see a character read a Tiny Toon Adventures magazine! Keep your eyes open!

Episode Guide:
batmananimated.doc 50K

DVD EPISODE CHECK LISTS

2007-03-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

Gummi Bears main cast

I have something I want to try and I need your comments and feedback.

I'm going to start writing some DVD box set reviews and I'm going to include an episode guide for the dvd set that gives a breakdown of the episodes on each disc.

I'm thinking that people can use it as a checklist so that they can check off the episodes that they have already watched if they don't feel like watching the whole set in one sitting.

What do you think? Is this something that you would use? The link below is a sample of the guide that I would include. Let me know what you think.

gummibears.doc 93K

COMPLETELY CRAZY CARTOON CHARACTER CHALLENGE #13

2007-03-30T11:07:00.000-07:00

Here we are again for another great installment of the CCCCC! As always, leave me a comment with your guess and I'll reveal the answer on Monday! Good luck!

UPDATE: This week's winner is coolb who correctly identified this character as Sonia from Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats! Coolb takes the lead! Keep it up! I'll see you next week!

Da Points:

athena: 1
coolb: 4
coolshades: 1
eagle-man: 3
katie: 1
starlac: 3

THURSDAY THEME SONG: SEALAB 2021

2007-03-29T13:01:00.000-07:00

This is the last week for our "Underwater Adventures" theme on Thursday Theme Song. Today's show is one of [adult swim]'s finest work:

Standard dress code on Sealab

Sealab 2021

Way back in 1972, Hanna-Barbera produced Sealab 2020, a show that teaches kids about being environmentally friendly, particularly to the sea. The show was dumb and boring and canceled after thirteen episodes.

Fast forward to 1995: Adam Reed and Matt Thompson stumble upon an old episode of Sealab 2020 and decide to add their own dialogue making it funny. Thus, Sealab 2021 was born. The series ran 52 ten to twelve minute episodes on Cartoon Network's [adult swim] from 2000-2005.

Taking place one year after the events of Sealab 2020 the crew has gone a bit crazy living underwater for so long and now they just spend their time goofing off and acting stupid. And boy is it funny.

Sealab group photo

Sealab 2021 uses recycled animation and backgrounds from the original show and adds in new animation when necessary. The animation quality is very limited and quite bad but the writing is funny and makes the animation tolerable.

The show has a huge cult following, many of which say the show 'jumped the shark' when Captain Murphy voice actor Harry Goz died in 2003. Captain Murphy's character was written out of the show saying he went to fight in the Great Spice Wars. The series went on for a while after but it was never the same and was eventually canceled.

The theme song for the show is by a group called Calamine.

If you want to see an episode of the original Sealab 2020 then check out the Sealab 2021 episode called '7211' on the second season DVD set. It is an actual episode of the original show (7211 refers to the production number of the original episode) with the new voice cast dubbing in the dialogue and edited for time constrains. You will see just how boring the original show was.

NEW TRANSFORMERS MOVIE POSTERS

2007-03-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

Two new posters for the upcoming Transformers live action movie have been released. They are your typical "here's your good guy" and "here's your bad guy" posters where they are facing each other and looking like they are gonna jump right outta the posters and start punching each other. Take a good look at these guys.

Click image for larger picture

Take a close look at the symbols above Optimus Prime's eye and the one below Megatron's eye. What do they mean? Are they the new Autobots and Decepticons logos? If they are, I don't like them.

TURTLE BOX OFFICE POWER

2007-03-27T11:36:00.000-07:00

This past weekend saw the opening of five new movies, including The Hills Have Eyes 2 and Reign Over Me, but it was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that took the box office this weekend beating out two-week champion 300.

I have not seen this movie yet but I'm glad to see that the Turtles have not lost their touch. Eighties children fell in love with the old cartoon and the popularity lasted through the mid-nineties with ten seasons of cartoons and three live action feature films.

The franchise looked like it may be in trouble in in late nineties with a terrible, live-action version of the show that was supposed to be a continuation of the movies but ended up being garbage. But the new Turtles show that came out a few years ago showed that the Turtles could still be popular. Hopefully this movie will solidify the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise for a long time coming.

I plan to see this movie on Easter weekend so I'll try to get a review of it up in the few days following.

COMPLETELY CRAZY CARTOON CHARACTER CHALLENGE #12

2007-03-23T16:36:00.000-07:00

Here is this week's challenge. Are you up for it? Do you know this character? Then leave me a comment with your guess and I will reveal the answer on Monday!

UPDATE: This week's winner is starlac who correctly identified this character as Hopopotamus from Disney's The Wuzzles! Starlac is tied for first! Keep it up! I'll see you next week!

Da Points:

athena: 1
coolb: 3
coolshades: 1
eagle-man: 3
katie: 1
starlac: 3

THURSDAY THEME SONG: THE SNORKS

2007-03-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

This week's "Underwater Adventure" is classic for all you 80s kids out there:

Image from slocartoon.com

The Snorks

First a Belgian comicbook by Nic Broca in 1982, Snorks became and animated series produced and animated by Hanna-Barbera from 1984-1986. The 65 episode series featured a race of underwater creatures that had snorkle-type growths on their heads that allowed them to propel through the water at fairly high speeds. They have your typical Saturday morning adventures and usually end up learning a leason or two by the end of the episode.

Many people compare the Snorks to the Smurfs, another Hanna-Barbera series that came out a few years earlier. In each show, the race of creatures is small, but that is where the similarities end.

There is not much to say about this show. It came, it was mass-marketed, it was popular, it disappeared. It has not had a DVD release yet, which has saddened many of the show's fans.

POKEMON REVELATION

2007-03-21T12:07:00.000-07:00

What? Kids still love us?

I work with children in an after school program in East Vancouver and we have been putting on a special camp for Spring break this week (which is partly why I haven't been posting regularly).

I was quite surprised when I saw a bunch of kids pulling out their Pokemon cards so that they could trade and battle. Is Pokemon still popular? Apparently so. Pokemon first aired in North America in 1998 and took the continent by storm. The series is still being made to this day, now pushing 500 episodes, but it is nowhere near as popular as it was at the end of the previous millennium.

But kids are still playing the game. And the really fascinating thing about it was that out of this group of about five boys from camp is only one of them is Asian. The camp has about forty kids and over half of them are Asian (this is Vancouver after all), so to see a Columbian, an Iranian and two Greeks playing Pokemon and totally into it was quite a surprise. What a multi-cultural world we live in!

NEW "WEIRD AL" VIDEO - TRAPPED IN THE DRIVE-THRU

2007-03-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

Straight Outta Lynwood

A new video for "Weird Al" Yankovic's newest album, Straight Outta Lynwood, premiered on myspace today.

Trapped in the Drive-Thru is an 11-minute epic parody of R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet and this new animated video was produced by Flash animation web-toon favourite Doogtoons.

This is the tenth music video from this album and the eighth to be animated by a popular internet animation company. Other videos have included Don't Download This Song by Bill Plympton, Weasel Stomping Day by the Robot Chicken Animation Team and Do I Creep You Out by jibjab.com.

COMPLETELY CRAZY CARTOON CHARACTER CHALLENGE #11

2007-03-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome once again to the CCCCC! As usual, leave me a comment if you know who the character is in the picture below! I will reveal the answer on Monday!

UPDATE: This week's winner is starlac who correctly identified this character as Pearl Pureheart from Mighty Mouse! Way to go! Keep up the good work and I'll see you next week!

Da Points:

athena: 1
coolb: 3
coolshades: 1
eagle-man: 3
katie: 1
starlac: 2

THURSDAY THEME SONG: SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS

2007-03-15T10:39:00.000-07:00

If anyone askes who the most popular cartoon character of the mellenium is, most will say SpongeBob SquarePants. Who is this sponge and why is he so special? Those questions and more will be answered in this week's "Underwater Adventure" Thursday Theme Song!

SpongeBob and the denizes of Bikini Bottom

SpongeBob SquarePants

Ever since SpongeBob Squarepants debuted in 1999, the show has mega-high ratings. In fact, it is the only cartoon to contently be in the Neilson Rating's Top 10. It beat down the Pokemon wave of popularity and his image appears on virtually everything that can be sold.

The premise of the show is simple: It is about the day to day adventures of a sponge living at the bottom of the pacific ocean. SpongeBob lives in a pinapple in Bikini Bottom where he goes to school, works at a fast food restaurant and plays with his neighbours, Patrick the starfish, Squidward the squid, and Sandy the squirrel.

Creator Stephen Hillenburg was a marine biologist until he desided to switch careers and join Nickelodeon in 1993 and worked as a writer and storyboard artist on Rocko's Modern Life. When Rocko was canelled, Hillenburg decided to create his own show based on the sea creatures that he grew to love in marine biology.

SpongeBob's Macy's Day Parade float

The appeal of the show is the absurd humour. The writers have been smart by making a lot of the humour appeal to adults. While the goofy characters are great for the kids and international markets, many of the situations and character traits are those that only adult would understand. This created a large fan base for the show.

The show took a hiatus of sorts after the movie was released in 2003. Between 2003 and 2005 only seven new episode were made and the show saw its lowest ratings and was threatened with cancellation. This may have been a really elaborate marketing gimmick because the major comeback and new season of SpongeBob brought in record numbers and many more new fans.

SpongeBob SquarePants will be back for a sixth season and Gene Simmons is going to provide the voice for a sea monster in one of the episodes.

FILMATION SUPERHERO ANIMATION TO DVD!

2007-03-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

Batmite, Batman and Robin

Rumour has it that Warner Brothers is finally getting around to releasing the DC Superhero Filmation cartoons from the 60s and 70s.

According to Earl Kress' blog, The New Adventures of Batman and The New Adventures of Superman will be released on June 26.

For many of the DC Superheroes this was the first time they were seen in this medium. Superman and Batman already seen their own series, the Fleisher Superman series from the 40s and the Adam West Batman being the most popular, but heroes like Flash, Green Lantern, Teen Titans and Aquaman made their debuts through Filmation. Check out this previous post on Aquaman for a tast of a Filmation show.

This is an excellent start to the Filmation superhero franchise and I hope to see many more releases from Warner Bros.

While we are on the subject of classic toons to DVD, you may be interested in knowing that Space Ghost and Dino Boy and Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, two shows that Cartoon Network has bastardized into Space Ghost: Coast-to-Coast and Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, are coming to DVD on July 17. This info also comes to us from Earl kress' blog.

FLUTE + BEATBOX + INSPECTOR GADGET = FUN!

2007-03-13T13:19:00.000-07:00

Check out this amazing clip of Greg Pattillo playing the flute and laying down some sweet beats at the same time! The tune is the theme song to Inspector Gadget and half way through he switches it with that techno song from Beverly Hills Cop.

ALICIA KEYS TO BE A DISNEY PRINCESS?

2007-03-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

Click picture for larger image

Disney's Annual Shareholders' Meeting happened last week and Disney unveiled some new work from their new, upcoming 2D feature The Frog Princess. I have posted two pictures here of some character designs for the lead character of Princess Maddy that were projected on a big screen as Randy Newman played and song on the piano.

As you can see, Maddy will be Disney's first black princess. Mandy is a young southern girl living in New Orleans in the Roarin' 20s. I don't quite know how the whole 'princess' thing will fit in, but I guess time will tell.

Click picture for larger image

Alicia Keys has been auditioned for the role of Maddy and rumour has it she has been called back for a second interview. Keys has never done any voice work before to my knowledge. I hope that she turns out to be a good fit. I like her singing voice and since Frog Princess is a musical set in the 20s so I think Keys is a good fit.

COMPLETELY CRAZY CARTOON CHARACTER CHALLENGE #10

2007-03-09T13:05:00.000-08:00

Welcome once again to the CCCCC! As usual, leave me a comment if you know who the character is in the picture below! I will reveal the answer on Monday!

UPDATE: This week's winner is coolb who correctly identified this character as Lord Bloth from The Pirates of Dark Water! coolb is now tied for first place! Way to go!

Satuday, March 10th saw record numbers here at Animated Toast! Thanks to everyone who came to check out this week's Challenge! See you next week!

Da Points:

athena: 1
coolb: 3
coolshades: 1
eagle-man: 3
katie: 1
starlac: 1

THURSDAY THEME SONG: AQUAMAN

2007-03-08T12:12:00.000-08:00

This week's Thursday Theme Song, and going along with the Underwater Adventures theme, is the very first aquatic superhero:

Aqualad and Aquaman

Aquaman

Filmation, most know for their 80s nostalgia hit He-Man, got into the animation business quite early. 1963 saw the debut of their first show, Rod Rocket, and 1966 saw the debut of their second show, The New Adventures of Superman.

In 1967, Filmation repackaged Superman into a new hour-long series called The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure which featured reruns of the six-minute Superman episodes and new six-minute Aquaman cartoons.

Also included in the show were rotating 'guest star' episodes feature many DC Comics stars, including the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, the Atom, Superboy, the Justice League of America and Teen Titans. Most of these heroes were seen for the first time in this series and would go on to their own series in later years.

"Superman! I'm open!"

The animation in this show is very limited as was the practice by Filmation. Budgets were very small so animation was reused as much as possible and characters only moved if they really needed to. This became Filmation's signature in animation and lasted all throughout the studio's life.

In 1968, Aquaman got his own series which was a 30-minute version of the Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, only without Superman.

Aquaman's voice was provided by Marvin Miller, who is best know for his work as Robby the Robot in Forbidden Planet. Aqualad was voiced by Hanna-Barbera regular Jerry Dexter.

The voice you will hear in this theme song is none other than Ted Knight who was the narrator in many cartoons of this era including Super Friends. His most well know work is Ted Baxter from the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

ON THIS DAY IN 1986: CARE BEARS MOVIE II

2007-03-07T12:26:00.000-08:00

Theatrical poster for

On March 7, 1986, The Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation hit the theaters and brought a whole new wave of merchandise to a whole new generation of children.

The original Care Bears television series was produced by DiC Entertainment who produced 21 episodes before handing it over to Canadian animation company Nelvana who's first task was to bring the Care Bears to the big screen in The Care Bears Movie in 1985.

The Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation was not actually a sequel but a prequel and an origin story of the Care Bear's first Care Mission. It paved the way for the new television series that Nelvana was launching after the movie. The new series would introduce a bunch of new characters including, Hugs and Tugs, Grams and the ever-popular Care Bear Cousins.

Grumpy Bear

The Care Bears franchise has been a massive force that has struck young children of every generation since 1981 and is still going strong to this day. Care Bears can be found on everything imaginable, they have their own stage show and new computer-generated direct-to-dvd movies are currently being made.

How many of you loved the Care Bears? I know I did. I had a few of the stuffed bears and some of the videos and some of the comicbooks. I think my favourite character was Grumpy Bear.

CAN THE LITTLE MERMAID DANCE?

2007-03-06T11:57:00.000-08:00

How do mermaids dance?

Walt Disney Theatrical Productions is putting together a Broadway musical version of The Little Mermaid. WDTP, which also produced the Lion King and Beauty and the Beast Broadway versions, will colaborate with Alan Menken, composer of all the original Little Mermaid tunes, who will write a bunch of new tunes for the production.

There are two confirmed cast for the production: Sierra Boggess as Ariel and Norm Lewis as King Triton. The musical will have its world premiere at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House on July 26, 2007 in Denver, Colorado. The musical will officially open on Broadway on December 6, 2007.

I must ask this question: Can Ariel dance when she is a mermaid? The glitz of Broadway productions is the choreographed dancers. Will Ariel be sitting on a rock being pushed around while all the fish are dancing? Now that I mention it, fish don't have legs and everyone else will be mermaids! How the heck are they gonna pull this off?!

I may have to shell out the money to go see this when it comes to Vancouver.

Check out the official website and blog.

COMPLETELY CRAZY CARTOON CHARACTER CHALLENGE #9

2007-03-02T12:18:00.000-08:00

Welcome to another installment of the CCCCC! This week we cater to the sci-fi fans out there with this cartoon character! Do you know who it is? Then leave a comment and check back on Monday for the answer!

UPDATE: This week's winner is katie who correctly identified this cartoon character as Prince Barin from Filmation's New Adventures of Flash Gordon.

Da Points:

athena: 1
coolb: 2
coolshades: 1
eagle-man: 3
katie: 1
starlac: 1

THURSDAY THEME SONG: THE LITTLE MERMAID

2007-03-01T12:59:00.000-08:00

Welcome to a new month and a new theme! The month of March brings us "Underwater Adventures!" Every show this month will feature the residents of the fathoms below! First up:

C'Mon Urchin! Everyone's doing it!

The Little Mermaid

With the huge success of Disney's 1989 blockbuster hit The Little Mermaid, the Mouse House sat around thinking of a way to keep the popularity going. The result was a tv series based on the ever popular characters from the film and placing them in events that happened before the movie.

The Little Mermaid television series aired in the fall or 1992 with a tv special called A Whale of a Tale and them went on to become a Saturday morning hit.

Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel from the film, reprised her role of the mermaid for the series which featured new songs, some that are arguably better than the film's tunes! The most popular being In Harmony. New characters, like the merboy Urchin, were also introduced to support regular cast members Ariel, Sebastien and Flounder.

The actual English title card

The animation was not any where near the level of the movie but Disney's Television Animation Department did quite well compared to some of their other work. The Little Mermaid was the first show to spin out of a Disney movie, which has now become the norm.

The theme song is a medley of Part of Your World and Under the Sea, the two most popular songs from the movie. You will note that the end of this clip is in Spanish. This is because I couldn't find an English version! Sorry...

A MOUSE OF MANY FACES

2007-02-27T12:10:00.000-08:00

Communist Mickey

Recently, Cartoon Brew has posted two articles about a different type of Mickey Mouse.

This first is a Nash car commercial produced by Disney in 1955. The redesign, by Tom Oreb, adapted the mouse and Pluto into a very 50s 'modern' style.

This was the first and only time that Mickey Mouse has ever appeared in this modern style. Apparently, Walt received many letters from a kid blasting Walt's modern art Mickey, calling it Communistic. Walt got so mad that he forbade Mickey from ever appearing in commercials that were not promoting Disney products.

Sputnik Mickey

This second version of Mickey and the video below is a pilot for a video game called Neo-Mickey.

Based on a Neo-comic style, Mickey exists in a world of transluscent imagery, shape shifting creatures and detailed patterns. With the help of a power-packed Neo-Suit full of gadgets, Mickey encounters extraordinary creatures from many new worlds, with stories and adventures that extend way beyond our galaxy.

This Flash animation was made by Barry Baker and Matt Cruickshank and has wonderful imagery and incredible imagination. I really like this Mickey and I hope that the video game takes off and we see more of this style.

HAPPY FEET WINS THE OSCAR!

2007-02-26T13:36:00.001-08:00

Why so glum? You just won an Oscar!

Some people are surprised, others are not. But the fact remains that Happy Feet has won the Best Animated Feature Film Academy Award for 2006.

But what does this mean for the future of animated films? Will the motion-cature process become the new thing? Is 2D dead? Is CG on the way out? Even Disney is now jumping on the mo-cap bandwagon, setting up their very own department dedicated to motion-capture.

A quick look at this year's animated films tells us that not everyone is switching over to mo-cap...yet. Shrek the Third, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Bee Movie are all CG and the hand drawn Simpsons Movie is sure to be a big hit this summer.

But you can probably bet that because of Happy Feet's success, every studio will start production on a mo-cap movie and have them out as early as next year.

Also, Torill Kove's The Danish Poet won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Subject.

COMPLETELY CRAZY CARTOON CHARACTER CHALLENGE #8

2007-02-23T10:49:00.000-08:00

Welcome to another edition of the CCCCC! If you know who this cartoon character is then leave a comment and let everyone know! I will reveal the answer on Monday!

UPDATE: This week's winner is coolb who corectly identified this cartoon character as Owen Burnett from Gargoyles! He even went as far as to say that Owen is also the character Puck. I didn't need that much info but it is great to see that you and Meghan are such big Gargoyles fans! Thanks for playing and see you next week!

Da Points:

athena: 1
coolb: 2
coolshades: 1
eagle-man: 3
starlac: 1

THURSDAY THEME SONG: PAC-MAN

2007-02-22T11:08:00.000-08:00

This week is the last installment of 'Toons Based on Video Games' Month. This week's theme is arguably the most popular video game of all time.

Pac-Man

Pac-Man followed the adventures of Pac-Man, his wife, Mrs. Pac-Man and their child Pac-Baby. Together they live in Pac-Land and spend their time stopping the evil Mezmeron from getting his hands on the 'power pellets', the source of Pac-Man's power.

Mezmeron's hired help consists of Pac-Man's well known video game adversaries, the Ghost-Monsters: Inky, Blinky, Pinky, Clyde and Sue. They are the typical bumbling villains that always seem to be menacing at the beginning of the episode but goofballs by the end of the episode.

Pac-Man was created by Namco Games in 1978. Its popularity grew to epic proportions over the next decade and Hanna-Barbera decided to created their own show based on the game. This series lasted 43 episodes from 1982-1983. Originally, Pac-Man was part of a 90 minute programming block in 1982 by Hanna-Barbera called The Pac-Man/Little Rascals/Ritchie Rich Show but then broke of into its own half hour show in 1983.

The Pac-Man series also had its own video game spin-off, called Pac-Land which was a side-scrolling platform game, like Super Mario Bros.

Here is an interesting fact about the Pac-Man video game that I got from Wikipedia:

A "perfect Pac-Man game" is defined as one where the player completes all 256 levels with a maximum point score and without losing a life. The first such game was verified by the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard on July 3, 1999. Billy Mitchell, of Hollywood, FL, achieved the feat in six hours. To attain the maximum possible score of 3,333,360 points, it was necessary for Mitchell to eat every fruit, every energizer, every blue ghost and every dot for 256 boards.

DISNEY VILLAINS - BEST AND WORST

2007-02-21T20:11:00.000-08:00

My feet are really cold. And instead of getting slippers, I decided to write this blog.

The other day in my character design class we were discussing our favorite Disney villains. It got me thinking... what makes a great villain? What is it that makes someone truly villainous? I went through the list of Disney villains and discovered there are four basic villain types: Silly, Power-Hungry, Animal Killer, Evil.

The Silly villains are like Clayton (Tarzan), Captain Hook (Peter Pan)and Gaston (Beauty and the Beast). They're basically plot elements for the story. There needs to be a villain, but the movie wouldn't be the same with a truly evil villain. They're mostly stupid or oblivious.

The Power-Hungry villains would be Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty), Hades (Hercules) and Jafar (Aladdin). Their motivation is simply that they're not at the top and they'll get rid of anyone who stands in their way of getting there.

The Animal Killer category I know seems weird, but I think it deserves its own classification. Is Cruella (101 Dalmations) power hungry? Is McLeach (The Rescuers Down Under) really pure evil? The reason we hate them is because they're trying to kill our heroes simply because they're animals. Would Cruella kill a human? No, probably not.

The Evil villains are the villains who have no motivation to harm others or do the bad things they do. They're pure evil. We really hate them, even though they're just a bunch of drawings moving quickly in front of us.

So my Top 5 Disney Villains list consists of the following truly evil villains:

1. Judge Claude Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
2. Scar (The Lion King)
3. The Queen/Witch (Snow White)
4. Shere Khan (The Jungle Book)
5. The Stepmother (Cinderella)

I realize the last three have motivation in that their status or power is being threatened by the main character. But the reason I put the Wicked Witch and Stepmother on there is because they're heartless towards girls who should be treated as their own daughters. The Wicked Witch actually tries to have Snow White killed. And Shere Khan has what I would call the same kind of evil as the Borg from Star Trek. When he shows up, you know you're screwed. All of the animals of the jungle are scared to death at the mention of his name. He rules the jungle because his threatening presence has given him that power. I think he's one of the scariest Disney villains.

Scar is very similar to the two stepmothers. He does have motivation - he wants to be in charge. He is a power hungry villain. But whereas the stepmothers tried to get rid of daughters who weren't technically related to them... Scar kills his own flesh and blood. There's also the manipulation factor that really twists him.

My top, most evil, most despicable villain of all time is Judge Claude Frollo. He's racist, judgemental, cruel... and he does it all in the name of God. He judges on appearance. He manipulates. And everything he does is to make him look good before God. We're never really given a real motivation for why is the way he is, other than his religion. To me, he's as evil as they come.

And just because I feel like it... here are my Top 5 Worst Disney Villains:
1. Sir Ector (Sword in the Stone)
2. Governor Ratcliffe (Pocahontas)
3. Prince John (Robin Hood)
4. Gaston (Beauty and the Beast)
5. Clayton (Tarzan)

Not that I don't like these characters. They just aren't great villains. And then there are movies like Dumbo and Bambi that just don't really have villains. Maybe that's why they put me to sleep. Let me know how you would rate your villains!

ANIMATED SHORT NOMINEE: MAESTRO

2007-02-20T18:48:00.000-08:00

"Five minutes before the Big Performance. The Maestro is getting ready for the execution behind the curtains. Time is slowly ticking away..."

If you have seen this animated short yet, please take a few minutes to screen it.

Maestro is a five-minute, computer animated short by Hungarian director Geza M. Toth. The filmmaker, who has a very hefty resume, has created about 150 animated commercials and short films but this is the first Oscar nomination that he has received.

If you didn't the first time, pay close attention to the camera and sound design. Upon watching it for the first time, I was wondering why it was nominated. The animation is nothing spectacular and there was no story (until the end). But once you know the premise then everything falls into place.

A great film indeed but I don't think it should win.

SIMPSONS TRAILER THE THIRD

2007-02-19T10:23:00.000-08:00

A brand new Simpsons Movie trailer is out now and this time it's the real deal! No more teaser trailer! This is a full blown trailer with animation from the movie!

They really are making this movie look epic. Literally everyone will be in it and the animation looks really sharp!

Thanks to his dim-wittedness and carelessness, Homer accidentally pollutes the local river with toxic waste from the nuclear power plant where he works. The outcome is catastrophic as it forces everyone in Springfield to evacuate, possibly forever. While the town tries to figure out what to do, an angry mob of homeless citizens takes their aggression out on the newly unemployed Homer.

I've included the trailer below but if you want to see a higher quality (and longer) version click here.

COMPLETELY CRAZY CARTOON CHARACTER CHALLENGE #7

2007-02-17T09:03:00.000-08:00

Welcome to another week of the CCCCC! Do you know who this cartoon character is? Then leave a commetn with a guess! I'll reveal the answer on Monday!

Do your research! I want this character's real name!

UPDATE: This week's winner is starlac who corectly identified this cartoon character as Rainer Wolfcastle (McBain) from the Simpsons! Thanks for playing and see you next week!

Da Points:

athena: 1
coolb: 1
coolshades: 1
eagle-man: 3
starlac: 1

THURSDAY THEME SONG: EARTHWORM JIM

2007-02-15T13:05:00.000-08:00

It's week three of "Toons Based on Video Games" month here at Animated Toast and this week's entry is a funny one!

Earthworm Jim

Based on the popular video game series, Earthworm Jim ran two seasons, 23 episodes, from 1995-1996. The video game was notable for its completely absurd and surreal humour. The titular character was voiced by Dan Castellaneta (The Simpsons' Homer Simpson) with many other popular voice actors and comedians filling the other roles: Andrea Martin (SCTV), Jim Cummings (Winnie the Pooh), John Kassir (Cryptkeeper), Kath Soucie (Rugrats' Phil and Lil), Jeff Bennet (Johnny Bravo), Charles Adler (Tiny Toons' Buster Bunny) and Edward Hibbert (Frasier's Gil Chesterton).

Jim was just an ordinary earthworm until a robotic suit fell on him and gave him superpowers. From that day on Earthworm Jim saved the world and the galaxy from evil. Each episode ended with a cow falling from the sky, which is the same way each level of the video game ended.

Many of the secondary characters and villains from the games made it to the series, including Jim's sidekick, Peter Puppy and love interest, Princess What's-Her-Name. The regular cast of villains included Professor Monkey-For-A-Head, Psy-Crow, Evil the Cat, Queen Slug-For-A-Butt and Bob the Killer Goldfish. The series also created a bunch of new characters, including Evil Jim who made it into one of the later video games.

Earthworm Jim was a laugh out loud cartoon. Its completely absurd humour made it a joy to watch and the animation was great. The only problem was that its humour was also its crutch. Many people, younger kids especially, didn't get that particular brand of humour and thus the rating dropped and the show was ultimately canceled.

A few episode have been released but no DVD is in the works for the near future. But you can guarantee that once the DVD set is announced the cult following will ensure good sales.

Master television and film composer William Kevin Anderson wrote the music, lyrics, orchestration and even sang it the theme for Earthworm Jim! Anderson also did themes for X-Men: Evolution, Biker Mice From Mars, Astroboy and Fantastic Four.