Category — Kids

I came across a random picture from “Beetlejuice“, the cartoon spun off from the amazing Tim Burton film, and realized I watched that show every Saturday morning. I don’t even think I liked it at first, but after awhile it was a staple of my television cartoon menu.

In the tv series, Lydia and Beetlejuice are besties who hang out all the time seeing how Lydia is anti-social. She would much rather hang out with the dead than living people. The gothic duo would travel to the “Neitherworld” whenever Lydia had the time. Lydia was such an awesome character in the movie, who wouldn’t want to watch what chick does in animated form? She’s like quintessential anti-social, kinda goth, really smart girl character before MTV gave us my favorite cartoon nihilist, Daria.

“Beetlejuice” ran for four seasons, starting out on ABC for three years and then finishing up on Fox for its last season. If you’re feeling nostalgic for late-eighties/early nineties animation, the Blu-Ray edition of the Beetlejuice dvd contains a few episodes of this series. And if my memory serves me correctly, I think The N airs episodes every blue moon or so. Beware, the cartoon was made for kids, so it’s somewhat lighthearted in comparison to the movie. No word when the actual tv series will be on dvd yet.

I’m a huge Jim Henson fan, especially his breakout television program “The Muppet Show”. The puppet variety show began in 1976 and ran for five years with a total of 120 episodes! My top 3 favorite muppet characters are Animal, Kermit the Frog, and the old man duo - Statler and Waldorf.

Can’t pick a favorite muppet? I know it’s hard. If you or someone you know (like me!!) is a huge fan of Jim Henson and/or “The Muppet Show”, you should give them their own personalized muppet for the holidays.

What? How can this be you ask? FAO Schwartz has opened up a Muppet Whatnot Workshop! For $90-130 bucks you can design your own muppet doll and have it delivered to you in just a few weeks! If you prefer dvds to dolls, the tv seasons are available on dvd today.

The Muppet Show - Season 1
The Muppet Show - Season 2
The Muppet Show - Season 3

Source: Gothamist

Tuesday night of this week, the CW ushered in a new addition to the Spoiled, Rich and Vapid 30-Year-Olds Playing Teenagers in High School genre, with their “reimagined” and revamped “90210.”

In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit it: I Tivo-ed it. Worse yet, I then watched it. This is not my first, nor will it be my last, extremely regrettable decision.

Long story short, if you find “Gossip Girl” to be a little too well written and complex (you know, with their super sophisticated “OMFG” campaign and all), then the new “90210″ just may be the show for you. Well, “90210″ or Teletubbies.

Kelly and Brenda– that is, Jennie Garth and Shannon Doherty, respectively– both make appearances in the first episode, and considering neither has anything better to do, they’ll have recurring roles. I’m guessing Tori Spelling is in a padded room somewhere.

So, if you’re planning to stick needles in your eyes this Tuesday night, watching “90210″ just may substitute as a strange, new torture for you, my dear little masochist. I, on the other hand, will be picking up the old “Beverly Hills 90210″ on DVD to remind myself of why I hated this show the first time around.

I’m officially adding “Talespin” (1990-1994) to my list of favorite Disney cartoons. I never watched these episodes in order, but if Baloo was on the television set, I was definitely glued to the screen.

“Talespin” follows the adventures of Baloo, the loveable sloth bear pilot of the Sea Duck, his protege, Kit ‘Li’l Britches’ Cloudkicker, and Rebecca Cunningham, the manager of their air delivery company. They make deliveries from their home base in the ficitonal Cape Suzette. Eventually, in almost every episode, Baloo winds up into trouble with either the Air Pirates led by Don Karnage, the Thembrians, or Shere Khan’s gang.

Fueled by nostalgia, I scoured the internets and discovered that two episodes of “Talespin” were actually banned after airing originally on The Disney Channel. What harm could little ol’ Baloo do to impressionable young minds?! Apparently enough to ruffle Disney’s feathers, especially if you have plots involving Thembian terrorist bombs and a not so PC depiction of a Japanese-esque island called Panda-la! It’s speculated that you can see the blacklisted eps in Canada or if Toon Disney accidentally shows them again.

I wouldn’t count on those episodes to be released on dvd. Nevertheless, you can buy “Talespin” Volumes 1 & “Talespin” Volume 2 today for less than $25 bucks. Supposedly, a volume 3 is in the works.

Do you remember “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” on Nickelodeon? I remember watching that show when it premiered in 1991.

“The Tale of the Thirteenth Floor” episode clip:

It was like a wonderful jumble of tv serial theatrics reminiscent of “The Twilight Zone” and themes from the Goosebumps book series. Didn’t you just get chills when they threw that dust onto the fire?! Granted, as an adult re-watching these episodes, some of the thrills have gone. Still, I think “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” was a pretty decent original kids series.

Each week they had new characters and stories to tell, sometimes with a twist of horror, other times more science fiction based. This serial format helped keep this tv show on air for 5 seasons! That’s a pretty big feat for a darkly themed kids show. Definitely longer than what most primetime sci-fi shows get these days! Look at “Moonlight” for example. Mick St. John’s dashing looks and vampire charisma couldn’t keep it on air past one season.

At least on the Internet and TV re-runs. Before there were movie marathons, there were Saturday mornings at local movie house that kicked off with ten free cartoons, an episode from a movie serial like “Superman,” followed by a double feature. Among the cartoons thee were sure to be several “Loony Tunes and Merry Melodies.” What a shelf life these classic animated shorts have had.

Good old Bugs Bunny was the best of all the Loonies. He was one of the first anti-heroes (later we had “Bugsy,” whose name must have somehow derived from “Bugs”), a walking contradiction, half con man, half lovable innocent. The same crazy rabbit who kept asking, “What’s up, doc?” also said: “Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out alive.”

And what cartoon character ever had a funnier nemesis than the stuttering, clueless Elmer Fudd. I laughed at Looney Tunes all through childhood. So did my kids. Their kids will too.

Here’s a taste of the great Bugs in action on YouTube:

Hasbro Toys is coming out with a new line of My Little Ponies to celebrate their 25th anniversary. Some of the ponies will be designed by celebrities (like James Spader?). Who knew so many people loved plastic pony dolls?

I can’t remember whether I loved the dolls or the “My Little Pony” television show first, so I guess the cartoon worked its magic on me.

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Since the Wachowski’s Speed Racer has been giving the franchise a bad wrap, I decided to scour the internet for fond memories of the “Speed Racer” cartoon. Maybe by doing so, people could forget about the bad reviews.

Let’s start off with a little historical background from SpeedRacer.com:
“Speed Racer began as a Japanese “Manga” entitled Mach Go Go Go created by Tatsunoko Productions in 1966.

In 1967, the 52 episodes of the series were dubbed into English and syndicated nationally on television. For nearly 20 years, Speed Racer ran in the afternoons five days a week. During this time the world of Speed Racer was deeply etched into the memories of millions of youngsters who would rush home from school to see the show.

Speed later enjoyed a comeback on TV in the 90’s on MTV, and then ran for almost 5 years on the Cartoon Network.”

I’m pretty sure I watched it on Cartoon Network in the wee hours of the morning. I don’t remember much about the plot but I do love the characters.

In both the film and the show, I’m most drawn to Racer X.

Maybe “Speed Racer” was too simplistic and thus wasn’t the best candidate to become a movie. I know it’s supposed to be a kids movie, but that’s no excuse for mediocre screenwriting. Even “Dora the Explorer” has a plot that makes sense and is entertaining.

My advice is to skip the IMAX version and just watch it on a lcd television, so at least you can still enjoy the special f/x without having to stress about the meandering plot.

Nostalgic for the early 90s? Then, check out the New Kids on the Block reunion on “The Today Show”.

Ah, the mega mix almost made me misty right until they did that remixed version of “Right Stuff”. Now, it just makes me feel old. Their performance reminded me of a tired wedding act. I cannot believe grown women camped out since Wednesday in the RAIN to see that. That is way worse than me liking their terrible NKOTB cartoon show.

Source: People

More sad new today, The Weinstein Company are making a live-action “Fraggle Rock” movie.

Is nothing sacred? Are the 80s just pure fodder for film remakes? And why can’t they stay true to the original format? Not so long ago, if the original tv show had puppets, then the movie would obviously have puppets (i.e. The Muppet Movie). Or if it was a cartoon, then the movie would be a cartoon like with The Jetsons: The Movie. Honest and true to the source.

I don’t see the absolute need for a “live-action” interpretation. I really think movie audiences can handle the puppets. Plus, I’d much rather have it stick close to the original instead of turning into some bloated cgi-character mess like Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Source: I Watch Stuff