Christmas At Home (2007, Vintage Home Entertainment)
I picked up this low-budget collection of public domain Christmas cartoons last year for a whopping $2 at Walgreens. Honestly, I don’t even remember buying it, but I’m guessing I did it after Christmas because it was still wrapped in plastic. Certainly if it was purchased before Christmas I would have watched it. I hope I got a nice discount on it and didn’t pay the full price!
Clocking in at FOUR HOURS AND TWENTY MINUTES, for $2, this is actually a really great deal if you’re into Christmas and old cartoons. Though these cartoons have all fallen into the public domain, most come from well-known animation studios: Warner Bros., Fleischer Studios/Famous Studios/Paramount, Rankin Bass and even Jam Handy! Then there’s a handful offerings from National Telefilms Association and Cathedral Films. I don’t recognize those names. There’s a Russian cartoon as well, I can’t tell you who produced it though because it’s all Greek to me! Also, it is cool to note that a number of these ‘toons were directed by Max and Dave Fleischer!
A few cartoons have no credits, you can tell they were chopped off but that’s the nature of the beast for public domain. These cartoons span the decades. I think “The Shanty Where Santa Claus Lives” (1933) is the oldest and “Santa’s Pocket Watch” (1978) is the most recent. Also, in the nature of public domain, the quality varies. The picture can be shaky on some shorts, while the sound also is not so great. There’s even one cartoon that is downright blinding. It’s so bright, you can’t even make out the credits, so why bother putting it on the disc?
The highlight of the disc is the inclusion of Rankin Bass’ 1979 classic Jack Frost. I fell in love with this stop-animation special when I saw it on ABC Family a long time ago. It’s definitely the best non-Rudolph/Frosty/Santa Rankin Bass special. It’s pretty cool to see it show up here even though it’s been given numerous low-budget DVD releases and Warner Bros. has given it a proper “Special Edition” release in 2008 (since they own half the Rankin Bass rights anyway I guess they figured they might as well).
CD Universe lists this DVD as no longer available, but I know my local Walgreens still has quite a few copies this year. If you pine for simpler times and really goofy cartoons, you should pick up a copy should you ever see one. You’re definitely going to get your few dollars’ worth.
Here’s the list of cartoons:
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (1948)
Santa’s Surprise (1947)
Ginger Nutt’s Christmas Circus (1949)
Christmas Comes But Once a Year (1936)
The Shanty Where Santa Claus Lives (1933)
Hector’s Hectic Life (1948)
Snow Foolin’ (1949)
Gift Wrapped (1952)
Santa’s Pocket Watch (1980)
Somewhere in Dreamland (1936)
Santa and the Three Bears (1970)
Jack Frost (1979)
The Little Christmas Burro (1978)
The Star of Bethlehem (1956)
The Candlemaker (1957)
Christmas Visit (1959)
Toys Will Be Toys (1949)
The offerings during the holiday seasons at fast food restaurants always blew the doors off the typical cheap kiddie toys you could get in a Happy Meal, Kids Club meal and the like. That’s when the fast food chains would partner up with some type of timeless childrens’ property and give us a plush toy that would last a lifetime. If not physically, then certainly in heart and spirit, but then again, I’m speaking for myself. Though I no longer own a Holiday Huggable, I’ve always found comfort in knowing that they exist, I owned one and that my Baby Fozzie was an extremely important piece of my stuffed animal collection!
It’s pretty funny that a stuffed animal from a fast food joint can mean so much to you but that’s what is so wonderful about being a kid. The most simple things can be the greatest things when you’re young and innocent. So what does that say for me when I’m pushing thirty and wish I had my Baby Fozzie back?
The Holiday Huggables were a part of the 1988 holiday season and available with the purchase of any McDonald’s grub (for an additional fee). I want to say they probably cost about $1.99, which I think was the standard fast food plush toy rate, but I certainly didn’t pay for it– so what do I know? I wonder if my parents kept the receipt…
Sadly, in my house a Baby Kermit never slept. Somehow both my sister and I had Fozzie. Hey, I loved Fozzie as much as anyone, but why couldn’t I have a Kermit ?! I seem to recall a friend having Kermit and being very jealous over it all.
I mentioned a few months ago in a post (Cartoons That I Want On DVD Part 2) that the 1988 Ruby-Spears Superman cartoon was a show I was really looking forward to seeing someday on DVD, well… that day has come!
It snuck up on me but it was released last week and I plan to pick it up this week. Look for a review soon! In the meantime, check out the Joe Ruby and Ken Spears interview posted over at Comics Worth Reading.
Seems like it was only five days ago that I talked about ’80s ‘bots… Let’s do it again.
Alphie II
Alphie II I’ve touched up on before, but he still deserves a mention here. He’s a learning robot! As you probably could tell, he’s not the first version of Alphie, but he’s the coolest version.
Horde Trooper
Another Masters of the Universe character/toy. Horde Troopers were awesome and the grunts for Hordak and his Evil Horde. If you don’t believe they were awesome, just check the listings on eBay. It’s not uncommon to see one of these going for around $100. I never owned one, I remember playing with one. Hm… I should try to remember what childhood friend that was and ask if he’d be willing to sell! The toys were marketed as part of the “Masters of the Universe” line, but when it came it came to animation, they were stuck on She-Ra: Princess of Power because the planned third season of Masters of the Universe was canceled in favor of starting up that new franchise.
Remember robots? Big and clunky? They had the funny weirdo computer voices and didn’t understand human emotions at all? Often, they were man’s best friend, a veritable slave meant to fetch us a scotch on the rocks or help us with our hall monitor duties. Sometimes, though, they were Public Enemy No. 1 seeking to exterminate human life.
Modern entertainment would rather you believe that cyborgs are “the bee’s knees” or “the cat’s pajamas”, but we don’t really know exactly what those phrases mean. You might as well say cyborgs are “the griffin’s snare drum” for all the sense it makes.
Besides, EVERYONE knows that just like peeing in your pants (Billy Madison reference!), good old fashioned robots are the COOLEST. Now it is time to soldier forward by taking a look back at some of the coolest robots from the coolest decade.
By the way, the post title implies nothing. There will be no hearting robots from other decades! Sorry, Urkelbot. =(
Johnny 5
The star of 1986’s Short Circuit and 1988’s Short Circuit 2 (if ever there should’ve been a subtitle of “Electric Boogaloo”…) won America’s heart with his constant quest for “input”. Who’s Johnny? JOHNNY 5!
Killbots
The killbots are the mall security guards gone EVIL from the movie the 1986 movie Chopping Mall. The movie was originally called Killbots, but performed poorly and was re-released as Chopping Mall, with a misleading movie poster emphasizing horror over the movie’s actual genre blend of sci-fi/thriller/unintentional comedy.
If you have anything retroriffic you'd like to send me, feel free to email me at metalmisfit @ comcast.net. We can also just shoot the breeze, if you like.
Posted by Metal Misfit 
Posted by Metal Misfit 
Posted by Metal Misfit 
