Category: Cartooning

Peter’s nut — ow! — buster

To the surprise of many in these recessionary times, this year’s live presentation of Piotr (or Pyotr or Peter) Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker by the Boston Ballet is selling out. The other big thing in entertainment going on right now isn’t typical holiday fare, it’s James Cameron’s “Avatar.” Frankly, I’m not fond of computer-generated characters, except the cartoonish varieties, and the previews for “Avatar” looked stupid to me. But it’s been getting good reviews, at least when the 3D projection is done right. And Bismo liked it, so I’m planning to see it in IMAX next week with Eric.

What I have to acknowledge and admire about James Cameron is that his attitude is similar to that of Walt Disney, who was told that “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and, later, Disneyland were crazy ideas. Disney’s most far-out movie venture was “Fantasia,” which didn’t turn a profit for 30 years. As Cameron has done with “Avatar,” “Fantasia” in its day pushed every technical boundary there was. Its use of multi-channel surround sound was, to say the least, groundbreaking. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to hear Fantasound exactly as it was originally presented, as explained here…

YouTube doesn’t have a good copy of the Nutcracker Suite from “Fantasia,” so I have done my own transfer, in stereo, with the original, restored Stokowski soundtrack. Walt came up with the idea of using fish for the “Arabian Dance,” which I think is the only sequence that doesn’t work.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/DEC/Fantasia.flv 512 384]

Verizon’s knock at att

tastewar reminded me of Verizon’s ad featuring the Island of Misfit Toys. It doesn’t knock the iPhone, just the network that supports it.

I was a Cingular customer when the iPhone was first announced three years ago, and I was surprised when the AT&T brand name prevailed. It’s completely outdated. “American?” No, international. “Telephone?” OK, I guess that still applies. “Telegraph?” Uh, no.

Last spring I switched the family from AT&T to Verizon. My basic Samsung flip phone had been handy for checking e-mail, but it got so slow as to be useless. Obviously, the phone didn’t slow down, the GSM EDGE network had. When I visited the AT&T store at the big local mall it was apparent I was no longer part of a customer demographic they wished to serve. It was 3G or nothing, and I was a voice customer.

The incredible success of the iPhone — my buddy Bismo is a fan — makes AT&T seem like a winner, but its monopoly can’t last. Once Verizon starts rolling out the LTE 4G network that uses the former UHF TV band, I bet you’ll find the next generation of iPhone there, and then AT&T will be in a world of hurt.

Hermey or Herbie?

Hard to believe it’s been 45 years since the secular, stop-motion Christmas favorite “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” first appeared on TV. As a kid’s show, Rudolph is both unusual and inspired. For example, King Moonracer, ruler of the Island of Misfit Toys, seemed to have been based upon Aslan, who symbolizes Christ in “The Chronicles of Narnia.” So perhaps there’s a religious element to the show, after all.

The most significant aspect of Rudolph was the groundbreaking introduction of a gay elf with an oral fixation. This clever subtext was lost on most people for many years, just as John Lennon’s reference to a–holes filling the Albert Hall wasn’t obvious.

Curiously, the controversy most often mentioned about the elf character in Rudolph isn’t the question of him being gay, but whether his name is Hermey or Herbie. The answer is here, in an article by Rick Goldschmidt:

http://www.tvparty.com/xmasrudolph.html

One thing I should make clear is that the elf who wants to be a dentist is named Hermey. Why everyone is calling him “Herbie” I will never fully understand.

OK, so it’s supposed to be Hermey. But what I don’t understand is why Goldschmidt doesn’t understand, because the answer is obvious the first time the character’s name is spoken by Boss Elf. The ReadSpeak captioning on the DVD of Rudolph has it right, but listen to the pronunciation.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/DEC/Rudolph.flv 512 384]

Quite clearly, it’s “Herbie.” Boss Elf says “Hermey” the second time, but then two of the elves seem to say “Herbie.” So why is there any confusion about the confusion?

The second Black cartoon princess

Hearing that Disney is introducing a black princess character called Tiana, animation fans can’t help but recall the most notorious of all mainstream cartoons, “Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs.” Click here to see an article I wrote about it way back in 2002. (It’s funny now to see that I considered 20 MB to be a huge file, but at the time I had only 100 MB available for the entire site.)

It’s interesting to see how the imagery has been updated, and toned down, from 60+ years ago.

If you have never seen “Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs,” here it is. Keep in mind that when this cartoon was released in 1943, “Amos and Andy” was one of the most popular shows on radio; which explains, but doesn’t justify, the depiction of black people. Also, WWII was in high gear, and movie censorship regarding the, uh, earthier side of human nature was relaxed a bit for the duration.


Merrie Melodies “Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs” (1943)
by 100X

Also of interest on that old pre-YouTube DogRat web page is this video that I spliced together from “Bugs Bunny, Superstar.” The quality is barely passable, and the material is worthy of a fresh transfer, so I’ll add it to my to-do list.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/DEC/TermiteTerrace.flv 320 236]

Obama deploys troops to stop Charlie Brown

What a shame that “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was preempted this week by President Obama’s speech at West Point, announcing the deployment of 30,000 additional troops in Afghanistan.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/DEC/ColbertCharlieBrownXmas.flv 512 384]

Russell Wiseman, the mayor of Arlington, Tennessee, was apoplectic about “A Charlie Brown Christmas” not being shown Tuesday night.

“Ok, so, this is total crap, we sit the kids down to watch ‘The Charlie Brown Christmas Special’ and our muslim president is there, what a load…..try to convince me that wasn’t done on purpose. Ask the man if he believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he will give you a 10 minute disertation (sic) about it….w…hen the answer should simply be ‘yes’….”

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/dec/04/mayor-fires-at-obama-online/

But if Russell were a wise man, he would have checked the TV listings and seen that “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was already scheduled to be repeated this coming Tuesday night. Not only that, a second showing has been added for December 15th to make up for the one missed this past week.

The ABC Television Network will celebrate the joy of the holidays with the classic animated Christmas-themed PEANUTS special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, created by late cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, airing TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8 (8:00-8:30 p.m., ET) and TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET).

“It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” was aired twice in October by ABC. I wonder what Mayor Wiseman thinks of Linus’ singular belief in the Great Pumpkin?