Let’s not lose hope. Let’s fight against the darkness. Let’s take some time to appreciate what we have. Hug your loved ones. Happy Christmas and let’s make 2025 better.
Hover puppy
I have a lot of questions if I’m taking this animation at face value. But mainly I just want our little hot dog to get his propeller tail back.
I hope Checkers didn’t read that one
Do children still write letters to the President? What do they write in their letters to the President?
Natterjack
I’m not entirely sure what a grotty, double-crossing, shiggling old groak is, but it doesn’t sound great.
a/k/a “Too Many Underpants”
Okay, maybe Kitty isn’t wearing too many underpants if she keeps losing them like in this cartoon.
Goblin mode
Today’s cartoon isn’t really vintage as much as it is faux vintage, in that it was made to look like something from about 100 years ago but it was only made 15 years ago. My question now is – is 15 years old vintage?
Eye, eye
Wow – it’s not every day you come across a cartoon voiced by James Mason. Menacer of Georgy Girl and Lolita, I’m reading via his IMDB page that he was a pretty good guy in real life. He saved a kid from drowning in Judy Garland’s pool once, and another time he saved a bunch of lost Buster Keaton films when he found some old film reels in his house that had once belonged to Keaton. Oh, he also illustrated and co-wrote a book about cats with his wife.
Okay, enough Mr. Nice Guy. Let’s get back to menacing.
M’ladies Sugarpie and Stuffinsbottom
I’m not a linguistics student, but if I were a linguistics student I might have to write my thesis on the baffling regional and otherwise accent choices in this cartoon. It would either take a ton of research to understand it, or it would require a whole lot of pulling stuff out of my ass and expounding on that. Hey, I’ve read lengthy pieces about how Jennifer’s Body is actually a subversive piece of feminist art instead of another instance of Diablo Cody saying “ain’t I clever?” in too many words. I’m sure I could figure this one out.
Content warning (I guess?): The indigenous “witch doctor” makes no sense whatsoever, but some people might not enjoy the tepee/one feather bullshit. He doesn’t say “how” or “ugh” or anything. I mean, his accent is the one that sent me over the edge to be honest. It’s not a Paul Lynde impersonation, but what is it?
Missing context
“Years ago, the witch had taken Rapunzel from her mother and father because they had sco…” – what? Because they had
- scolded her for stealing their chickens
- scones and wouldn’t share
- scoliosis
- Scopitones of the witch doing the Hully Gully from back in her go-go dancing phase, and it saddened her to think of her lost youth
What was it? There are a lot of other lost lines here but that one is really driving me up the wall.
Stumbling blocks
I’m posting the Saturday morning cartoon several hours late in part because I kept running into a lot of cute cartoons that unfortunately had lousy moral lessons. I don’t always need to agree with the politics of a piece of art or entertainment, but this week in particular I’m just not in the mood for some of this crap. Minorities in a society shouldn’t need to be model citizens in order to be treated as humans. Terrible men don’t deserve to have romantic or sexual partners just because they’ll act badly if they don’t get them. And so on and so forth.
There’s nothing exceptional about the cartoon I finally landed on, other than the fact that there aren’t any racial stereotypes in the animals going to grade school. They’re just a bunch of animals acting like we used to act in grade school – you know, like animals. The revenge at the end is maybe not the best, but the elephant doesn’t go overboard and I’m gonna be fine with it. You can’t take the high road if somebody keeps flattening your tires.
Fancy Notions 
