Tuesday, Nov. 25 2008 @ 5:05AM
4) Bugs Bunny's Thanksgiving Diet
Warner Brothers cartoons have always had a dark side, but this '78 special manages to be both vaguely mean and kind of a scam. For one, it's all about Bugs Bunny putting a fat-girl rabbit on a diet for Thanksgiving, and then deciding at the end that everyone eats on Thanksgiving, so why not just indulge. (This was diet advice from the '70s, when dieting meant a ground beef patty, and a scoop of cottage cheese sitting in a canned peach half.) More importantly, it's really nothing more than a clip show with some newly created bumpers to act as intro, transition, and conclusion. That's not a special; it's a cop-out. If I can see the same stuff in rotation on any given Saturday morning, it sort of takes the "special" out of the special.
3) Mouse on the Mayflower
Sort of a sappy Pilgrim-precursor to An American Tail, a mouse tells the story of coming to America. It's earnest, it's musical, and it's vintage (1968, specifically) Rankin/Bass. So how can one attack a show that's this well meaning? Well, the fact that this is Rankin/Bass actually works against it; Tennessee Ernie Ford is no Burl Ives (no disrespect intended to Tennessee Ernie Ford, who doesn't get the material that Ives did--and who, by the way, I always thought as a kid was related to Tennessee Tuxedo) and honestly, crappy animation doesn't hold a candle to the charm of crappy stop-motion. In the end, though, it's the historic nature of the piece that holds it back--after all, if Rudolph had to substitute Yukon Cornelius for Admiral Peary, he definitely wouldn't have gone down in history.
2) The Thanksgiving that Almost Wasn't
Let's establish one thing before we launch into this: Hanna-Barbera was and remains a cornerstone of cartooning. That said, they didn't accomplish that feat by breaking a whole lot of new ground. The same goes for this lame, by-the-numbers special made in 1972, in which the title is sort of lifted from the 1966 Italian film "Christmas That Almost Wasn't", the music was borrowed from Scooby-Doo, and the sound effects from pretty much every other Hanna-Barbera cartoon made previously. It's one thing to see Shaggy and Scooby running frantically past the same sarcophagus six times in ten seconds; fully another for a Pilgrim boy to exclaim "Zoinks!" Which okay, he doesn't, but it's close. It's very close.
1) BC: The First Thanksgiving
This 1973 special deserves worst-first for many reasons. First, it features its titular character as having the voice--for no apparent reason, mind you--of Jack Benny. Not the real Jack Benny (who was still alive when this cartoon was made, by the way), but a hammy impersonation of Jack Benny. It's impossible, really, to argue about the depiction of a voice when transferred from a non-audio medium--after all, we have no idea what on-the-page characters on the page sound like in the creators' ears. But it's fair to say when something doesn't make sense; just like I'm pretty sure Blondie isn't a baritone, BC isn't Jack Benny. More importantly, the show itself is a completely cynical attempt to cash in on Charles Schultz' successful transition from the comics pages to small screens across the nation. The difference, though, is that Peanuts has charm and depth, while BC makes jokes like naming a character "The Fat Broad." (You can watch the entire show here, if you don't mind the insanity of someone taking the trouble to upload the BC Thanksgiving Special to YouTube, but refusing to let people embed it.) At any rate, given creator Johnny Hart's later (and interminable) born-again zealotry, it's ironic that the show sports the spiritual message of a sarcastic 1970s Hallmark birthday card.
Watch more Bugs Bunny"s Thanksgiving Diet videos on AOL Video
Warner Brothers cartoons have always had a dark side, but this '78 special manages to be both vaguely mean and kind of a scam. For one, it's all about Bugs Bunny putting a fat-girl rabbit on a diet for Thanksgiving, and then deciding at the end that everyone eats on Thanksgiving, so why not just indulge. (This was diet advice from the '70s, when dieting meant a ground beef patty, and a scoop of cottage cheese sitting in a canned peach half.) More importantly, it's really nothing more than a clip show with some newly created bumpers to act as intro, transition, and conclusion. That's not a special; it's a cop-out. If I can see the same stuff in rotation on any given Saturday morning, it sort of takes the "special" out of the special.
3) Mouse on the Mayflower
Sort of a sappy Pilgrim-precursor to An American Tail, a mouse tells the story of coming to America. It's earnest, it's musical, and it's vintage (1968, specifically) Rankin/Bass. So how can one attack a show that's this well meaning? Well, the fact that this is Rankin/Bass actually works against it; Tennessee Ernie Ford is no Burl Ives (no disrespect intended to Tennessee Ernie Ford, who doesn't get the material that Ives did--and who, by the way, I always thought as a kid was related to Tennessee Tuxedo) and honestly, crappy animation doesn't hold a candle to the charm of crappy stop-motion. In the end, though, it's the historic nature of the piece that holds it back--after all, if Rudolph had to substitute Yukon Cornelius for Admiral Peary, he definitely wouldn't have gone down in history.
2) The Thanksgiving that Almost Wasn't
Let's establish one thing before we launch into this: Hanna-Barbera was and remains a cornerstone of cartooning. That said, they didn't accomplish that feat by breaking a whole lot of new ground. The same goes for this lame, by-the-numbers special made in 1972, in which the title is sort of lifted from the 1966 Italian film "Christmas That Almost Wasn't", the music was borrowed from Scooby-Doo, and the sound effects from pretty much every other Hanna-Barbera cartoon made previously. It's one thing to see Shaggy and Scooby running frantically past the same sarcophagus six times in ten seconds; fully another for a Pilgrim boy to exclaim "Zoinks!" Which okay, he doesn't, but it's close. It's very close.
1) BC: The First Thanksgiving
This 1973 special deserves worst-first for many reasons. First, it features its titular character as having the voice--for no apparent reason, mind you--of Jack Benny. Not the real Jack Benny (who was still alive when this cartoon was made, by the way), but a hammy impersonation of Jack Benny. It's impossible, really, to argue about the depiction of a voice when transferred from a non-audio medium--after all, we have no idea what on-the-page characters on the page sound like in the creators' ears. But it's fair to say when something doesn't make sense; just like I'm pretty sure Blondie isn't a baritone, BC isn't Jack Benny. More importantly, the show itself is a completely cynical attempt to cash in on Charles Schultz' successful transition from the comics pages to small screens across the nation. The difference, though, is that Peanuts has charm and depth, while BC makes jokes like naming a character "The Fat Broad." (You can watch the entire show here, if you don't mind the insanity of someone taking the trouble to upload the BC Thanksgiving Special to YouTube, but refusing to let people embed it.) At any rate, given creator Johnny Hart's later (and interminable) born-again zealotry, it's ironic that the show sports the spiritual message of a sarcastic 1970s Hallmark birthday card.
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17 comments
Comments
Magical Shrimp said:
Here in Canada, Thanksgiving specials are rendered even more uninteresting by the fact that ours is in October, when kids are getting excited about Halloween. I mean, what did you care more about as a kid: monsters and candy, or pilgrims and turkeys?
DJ Maniak said:
You realized you used the clip for #2 twice, right?
Quilty said:
And the moral of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is basically this: that Peppermint Patty is an obtrusive bitch.
THANK YOU. I've hated Peppermint Patty ever since "Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown" and the infamous "why aren't you making me bacon and eggs instead of cold cereal" scene. Ol' Chuck shouldn've thrown her out as bear food.
Rob said:
Thanks, DJ Maniak. I posted this while I was pre-drinking for Heroes last night, so I'm surprised there aren't more errors.
Jeremy said:
I've never seen it but I assume you're right on the money with B.C. as #1. God, I hate that comic. Sometimes it manages to be even more annoying than Family Circus. If there's one thing worse than someone trying to shove cute kids down your throat it's someone trying to shove Jesus down your throat.
This is coming from someone who is a fairly devote christian as well.
Comics should be used to make people laugh and sometimes think like Calvin & Hobbes. They shouldn't be used as a damned soapbox.
Ann said:
Why would Winnie-the-Pooh celebrate Thanksgiving? He lives in Sussex. Where there aren't any turkeys.
Apothecary said:
True enough, Ann, but then there aren't any Kangaroos either.
This list begs the question; are there any good Thanksgiving specials?
Wendo27 said:
I seem to remeber a Thanksgiving special that I loved as a kid that featured a bear and fox who ran around dressed as pilgrims.
Then again, I remember liking The Worst Witch movie (insert pun here) and it features Mrs. Garrett and her eveil twin with pink hair. ...and musical numbers - what was I thinking when I ordered that from Amazon?
Tiffers said:
This won't count as a Thanksgiving special, but Friends always had really good Turkey day episodes. They are actually some of my favorites.
BAM said:
Bill Murray did NOT do the voice of Garfield in the cartoons. It was Alonzo Morning, who did a Bill Murray impression, for Garfield, as well as voicing Murray's Peter Venkman character on the Ghostbusters cartoon series
Ambling Onwards said:
BAM: Alonzo Morning? Alonzo Mourning is a basketball player. You mean Lorenzo Music, who also voiced Carlton, Your Doorman, on "Rhoda". And he definitely wasn't doing a Bill Murray impression.
What the article is referring to is the fact that Bill Murray voiced Garfield in the movies. Which I agree is sort of sad for Bill Murray. A paycheck's a paycheck, I guess.
"Starman" Matt Morrison said:
Which is quite ironic given that Lorenzo Music ALSO voiced Peter Venkman (i.e. The Bill Murray character) in The Real Ghostbusters cartoon and that he was reportedly replaced by Dave Coulier (and his horrible Bill Murray impression) because Murray was shown the cartoon and asked "Why the hell do I sound like Garfield?" or some such.
Jim Rohner said:
Why haven't Thanksgiving films/TV specials caught on? They pretty much all seem to suck with the exception of Eli Roth's "Thanksgiving" trailer.
Shadowen said:
What, no Home Improvement thanksgiving special, with its "The writers were on acid when they wrote this" stop-motion wood puppet dream sequence?
OM said:
...Thanks for pointing out the inaity and retardedness of posting a clip to YouTube and then not allowing it to be embedded. I recommend that anyone coming across any idiot who does this that you leave negative comments as to their decision and their parentage, and then notify them you've downloaded the clip anyway using YouTube Downloader or some other plugin, so their disabling imbeds is useless anyway. If you've got the time, and the clip is worth it, repost it under a new account, and let the "embedding disabled" chumps go frack themselves.
Dumbest thing YouTube ever did was letting embeds be togglable.
fatsuperman said:
This is too weird. I lost my virginity to the girl who did the "Dorthy" vocals in the Oz special. In 1982 she used to stayed with her grand parents next door, while Mischa's mom did dinner theater in Cleavland.
Justme said:
The B.C. special had the main character's voice more like Bill Cosby imitating Jack Benny. Or maybe Fred Travalina imitating Bill Cosby imitating Jack Benny.
