YOGI BEAR’S ALL-STAR COMEDY CHRISTMAS CAPER
Original Air Date: December 21, 1982

List of force cameos? Check. Child being neglected because her dad is to busy with business? Check. Add child abduction, and this special has something for the whole family!

BACKSTORY

After working for MGM on Tom & Jerry cartoons for a number of years, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera had no idea what they were going to do after MGM decided to close their animation studio. The two had pitched an idea called “The Ruff and Ready Show”, but MGM shot the idea down. However, director George Sidney, friend of the two, was able to convince Screen Gems to pick up the show, and helped create the famed H-B production.

Hum the jingle if you know it! 

Following their run with “The Ruff and Ready Show”, the duo began to work on The Huckleberry Hound show. Now this is important for two reasons. Firstly, it is on this show that Yogi Bear originated and ultimately pulled a Steve Urkel on, by becoming the most popular segment on the show, thus earning his own TV show in 1961. The second and most important reason is that Daws Butler got to reign in his voice acting genius.

D’awwwwwwwwwws

If voice acting is an art, then Daws Butler is Vincent van Gogh. In The Huckleberry Hound Show alone, you hear Butler do a wide arrange of characters, from Huckleberry Hound to Yogi Bear to Hokey Wolf, as well as two of the three characters on Pixie & Dixie and Mr. Jinks. Even if you don’t have a love for these characters, Butler helped train such great VA’s like Nancy Cartwright, Greg Burson, and Cory Burton.

BREAKDOWN

Catch Phrase! This special begins with a number of H-B’s most famous characters going to visit Yogi Bear for Christmas. The group includes Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Auggie Doggy and Doggy Daddy – no brainer choices, right? Although strangely, they decided to include Snooper, Blabber and Hokey Wolf. Hokey Wolf makes a little sense (however without Ding-A-Ling, what’s the point?), but Snooper and Blabber? I’m a huge fan of the HBverse and a huge fan of detctives, and even I have little to no memories of these characters.

Were Lippy Lion and Hardy Har Har unavailable?

But to everyone’s surprise, Yogi went to the city to visit them! D’OH (Insert comedy whistle!) Ranger Smith, who makes the only smart move in this whole special, calls animal control, because hey, there is a wild fucking bear in the city.

Smarter than average, maybe. But he’s still A WILD BEAR

Of course, this is a Hanna Barbera cartoon, so the Animal Control units are as thick as you would think they would be. Of course, any dolt could do the gig if they had weapons like this…

 Practical marketing

Meanwhile, there is an adorable little girl, Judy, on her way to the mall with her father. You see, he’s a business man, who is way too busy with businessy stuff. So, like anyone with money, he leaves his daughter at the mall unattended.  You know, because it’s the 80’s, and the worst thing that could happen is she becomes Punkey Brewster.

Its ok, the Gooch will be with her. She’ll be fine

Yogi finally gets away from the Animal Control team by being the least obvious thing in the world: A mall Santa.

Master of Disguise

Judy runs into Yogi and Boo-Boo and asks for their help. Apparently, instead of being able to buy anything, she just wants to spend time with someone for Christmas. Weird… So Yogi and Boo-Boo just decide to leave with her. But wait, Judy’s father realizes that it is a tad insane, or at least criminally negligent, to just leave his daughter there alone and attempts to get her back.

Is Mall Security a step up from Animal Control? Nope

After Yogi and Boo-Boo successfully abduct her from the Mall (I have no idea what else you would call it), they successfully get something to eat after conning someone out of his pic-a-nic basket. (I hate that I had to spell it like that)  

What idiot dreams of having a picnic in December?

Realizing they have SOMEONE ELSE’S kid, they decided to find Judy’s parents. The rest of the Hanna Barbera gang joins up, and they all idiotically split up to find them.

Worst search party ever

Ok, this is where it gets monumentally stupid. I understand that you have to put cameos, but come on. Firstly, Snagglepuss runs into Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. This means one of two things. One, Bedrock is the most prehistoric city in the 1980’s, or two, they’re the most blue collar time travelers the world has ever known. But what good would our money be for them? Their currency was clams. CLAMS, GET IT? DOLLARS AREN’T CLAMS!!!!

Your money’s no good here, Fred. (Seriously, call the police)

How do they get the money? They beat the shit out of Snagglepuss. Our heroes, ladies and gentlemen!

Nothing says “Christmas” like beating a lion to death

 Next on the revolving door of cameos is Mr. Jinx, Dixie and Pixie.

“You know, maybe these Meeses ain’t so bad”

Well…

“Nope. I still hate these Meeses to pieces!”

And to end the cameo run, here is Magilla Gorilla, Yakky Doodle, and Wally Gator just for the shits and giggles. Mostly shits.

This would probably be more interesting if these were the Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law versions of the characters

While everyone is looking for Judy’s home, Judy notices that Auggie Doggy and Doggy Daddy love each other very much.

We just love each other so much! Why can’t everyone be like us?

Judy then realizes that she just wants her dad for Christmas…

Feelings make us sad.

As Yogi and the gang get back, they are stopped by the cops, and Yogi is arrested for kidnapping Judy. Yogi tries to tell her father that Judy didn’t want to be with him because he was so busy. Bad Dad claims he gives her everything that he can! Yogi then explains all she ever really wanted was his time.

But I’m a business man, who does lots of businessing!

Because of Yogi’s sentiment, Judy’s father drops the charges and everyone spends Christmas in the park, and they all live happily ever after.

Yogi wishes you a Merry Christmas. I wish he would’ve stayed hibernated

Who again?

There are a lot of mall Santas, and Yogi dresses a Santa throughout most of the special. However, the real deal never makes an appearance.

If you want to see a Daws Butler voice acting reel with a Christmas theme, then you’ll enjoy this. The story is bland, the characters are virtually unlikeable, and anyone who isn’t a Hanna Barbera character looks stupid. Furthermore, even the requisite cameos – arguably, this special’s saving grace – are so random and mind-numbingly dumb it borders on insulting. Sort of like if I just put a random photo of Hong Kong Phooey here for no reason.

He is the #1 super guy.

PRODUCT INFORMATION (Shop Amazon through us – it helps!)

Yogi Bear’s All-Star Comedy Christmas Caper is available on reasonably priced, standalone DVD. For the insatiable Yogi fan, we also recommend picking up the The Yogi Bear Show – The Complete Series set, and if you’re feeling masochistic, why not try the 2010 movie?!

Travis Foster writes for the gaming website PTFGN.com and you can follow him at @_TravFoster.

Yesterday’s Christmas Special
FUTURAMA “XMAS STORY”

2010′s Dec. 15 Christmas Special
EMMET OTTER’S JUG-BAND CHRISTMAS

2009′s Dec. 15 Christmas Special
SANTA CLAUS IS COMIN’ TO TOWN 

]]> http://www.acartoonchristmas.com/2011/12/15/yogi-bear-all-star-christmas/feed/ 6 http://www.acartoonchristmas.com/2011/12/13/tom-and-jerry-christmas/ http://www.acartoonchristmas.com/2011/12/13/tom-and-jerry-christmas/#comments Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:22:22 +0000 cantista http://www.acartoonchristmas.com/?p=4879

TOM & JERRY IN “THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS”
Originally Premiered: December 6, 1941

Christmas creates a change of heart between cat and mouse icons in one of their first cartoons ever…

BACKSTORY

Long before spawning famous characters Yogi Bear, Fred Flintstone and Scooby Doo, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera were paired together somewhat haphazardly by MGM during a hard restructuring of their animated division. Their first conception involved an adorable mouse pursued by a gray cat name “Jasper” and the rest was history.

Or was it? The duo’s first cartoon, 1939′s “Puss Gets the Boot” was released to little fanfare and was somewhat detested internally as formulaic and derivative. But wouldn’t you know it, Tom and Jerry, a phrase derived from 19th-century rapscallion slang, became immensely popular in theaters and was nominated for an Academy Award almost right out of the gate.

William Hanna, Joesph Barbera and “Puss Gets the Boot”

Tom & Jerry went on to star in over 150 theatrical shorts, win seven Oscars, and thrive in television syndication for half a century. Hanna-Barbera would resurrect them for multiple TV series (pairing new shorts with Grape Ape in the 70s, He-Man producer Filmation took a stab in the 80s with The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show, and Fox Kids’ Tom and Jerry Kids in the mid-90s) as well as one theatircal movie.

Gotta be where the action is

Tom & Jerry continue to star in direct-to-video fare and global commercial spots to this day. Bittersweetly, one last theatrical cartoon, 2005′s “The Karate Guard“, marked both the duo’s last bigscreen appearance and Joesph Barbera’s last time directing animation before his death.

BREAKDOWN

MGM, letting you know it’s about to get all Xmasy

A lot of people criticize Tom & Jerry for being repetitive and overly violent. Um, I think you mean that’s their biggest assets?! Those are the trademarks I look for in every T & J cartoon, and quite frankly, it’s weird when they’re not there.

The duo’s first ever title billing!

In a weird way, Tom & Jerry are a lot like Family Guy. The unrelated gags are always the star, and you can’t really ever tell which installment you’re watching if they don’t leave the house.

It’s about the small battles

This one’s particularly awesome for a couple of reasons. For starters, it’s pretty well packed with wall-to-wall Christmas imagery.

This picture alone should win 10 Oscars

Say what you will about the duo, next to Disney, no one did theatrical animation this gorgeously, this fluidly.

Click to enlarge

Second, “The Night Before Christmas” is only the duo’s THIRD cartoon. Not only is the relationship well established, the actually play with the formula a bit.

Tom still has yellow eyes at this point

After all, this is Christmas, and after Jerry finds a mouse trap rigged with a lethal cheesy presents, he heads out under the tree for a bunch of playful, diminutive romping that rivals the beloved Chip and Dale shenanigans found in “Toy Tinkers” and “Pluto’s Christmas Tree.”

Ruse foiled

Mostly the episode depicts Jer trying to get away from Tom, however, it then takes an unexpectedly sweet turn, and yeah,  maybe that was simply because this is a Christmas cartoon.

There will be homoeroticism 

Motivated far more by revenge rather than hunger, Tom eventually banishes Jerry outside during the coldest of times.

Must stay alive… Must star in Japanese laundry commercials

But the kittycat has a change of heart. He rescues Jerry from the cold, warms him by the fire, and allows him to live, if only for a precious few more minutes.

GASP! What have I done?!

Now if all this weren’t cockle-smoldering enough, immediately following his icey resurrection…

Love the fire light on Tom here

Jerry rushes over to trigger a trap he’d set in Tom’s milk bowl (FYI Tom & Jerry toons started out long. This was their shortest yet, and it still clocks in at almost 9 minutes.)

Pals already?! We’ve got 70 more years of this to go, fellas…

Jerry uses a candy cane to grab the cheese off of the trap that drove him out in the first place. Not only does it not spring back and kill him, it slowly grinds out a song like an Xmas music box.

Have you ever seen a happier rat?

So, not only was Tom not out to kill him initially, he was giving Jerry a gift?! Bet you feel like a real shithead now, Jerry!

None. In fact, when you think about it, would a just God invent two mammals solely to be at constant war with one another? Ergo, Jesus doesn’t exist.

Zilch, other than a silhouette in the opening titles. Perhaps when two animals ignore instinct in order to exhibit kindness, Santa Claus is irrelevant.

Keep it down, Kringle! There are pets fighting

Awesome. Short, sweet, and crammed full of some of the most beautiful, snowy Christmas imagery you’re likely to find in any piece of animation. Add to that, it contains classic a Tom & Jerry reparte right when the duo was hitting their stride.

PRODUCT INFORMATION (Shop Amazon through us – it helps!)

“The Night Before Christmas” is available on both the Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Collection Volume 2 and the vastly superior Tom and Jerry Golden Collection Collection Volume One Blu-ray. For one, the later does away with the introduction by Whoopi Goldberg, and oh yeah, they’ve been remastered in high definition and presented 100% uncut in chronological order. Animation Nerds: Sound up!

Slate.com offers an awesomely easy way to breakdown you favorite characters into proper pantoned ethnicity! See full pic after the jump…

Goddamn, this is great. First thing I loved is how this interactive chart can help you be a better animated bigot!

Click on over here to play with Slate’s interactive version

Note how not all colored characters are created equal. Bart Simpson and Top Cat could both be categorized as “yellow,” yet real world wars have broken out between cultures of similarly distinguished pigmentation.

Plucky, Genie, Grinch, Gazoo, Turtles – Christ, my head is spinning!

Another thing I couldn’t help but notice is that much of the wheel (roughly half) comprises blue and green characters, and most of which remain all-time personal favorites. It reminds me of a rejected Muppet t-shirt design from a recent Threadless contest involving a kickass premium Muppet Green Album pack. You should probably buy that, actually.

Why are the so few shirts about rainbows?!

If you thought the movie was The Smurfs’ only act of uninspired, nostalgic villainy unleashed upon mainstream entertainment, then you, my friends, haven’t seen the video game…

The people of Earth have spoken: “I want to eat shit, and I want to do it opening weekend!” It’s not that I was grandstanding for Cowboys and Aliens, but I never would’ve believed the movie-going public would’ve chosen something as universally reviled as The Goddamned Smurfs to see over that, Harry Potter or Captain America.

*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh*

There’s no accounting for taste. I mean, other than box office estimates, which puts Smurfs in a photo-finish tie for #1 with Jon Favreau’s promising genre mash-up, both apparently pulling in $36.2 million smackeroos over the weekend.

Your God cannot hear you now!

 Rather than harp on the depressing notion that people will apparently see anything, I figured I’d point you to an equally amazing discovery in the field of bad taste. Yeah, The Smurfs seems poised to be one of the critically lowest-scoring movies of the summer (look out, Zookeeper!), however, the video game tie-in has been among us for almost two weeks, and not a single professional reviewer has seen fit to touch it.

Smurfetts dancing to a Bjork parody? How timely!

 Fortunately, I got to dig into Ubisoft’s Smurfs Dance Party during my write up on the horrible history of Smurfs games, and it’s truly a sight to behold. Savvy gamers will see it immediately as the Just Dance rip-off that it most certainly is, but I ask you to look past the licensed Katy Perry tunes (she’s the voice of Smurfette in the film, evidently) and its unnecessary need for existence in general. The Smurfs have pulled of a two pronged attack on our culture, and you simply must see the blight they’ve left on the field of music. A live-action Gargemel singing and dancing to a song about himself? Oh, yes indeed!

Yep, to save a little scratch, the “composers” of Smurfs Dance Party have set “classics” like “Walk This Way,” “Mr. Bombastic,” and, oh yes, “Who Let The Dogs Out?” to Smurf-alicious parody and the results will make you think you’re dreaming. Other games in the retrospective are notable for some of the last instances of new, 2D Smurfs animation, but the piece was started for little other reason than to showcase this wonderful monstrosity. You’ve earned it, America!

One of the things I’m lovin’ about Netflix Instant Watch is that we’re starting to see cartoons pop up there that haven’t seen the light of day in years…

Such is the case with Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures, whose first Hanna-Barbera-produced season began airing on CBS in September of 1990, just a year and some change after the duo’s first movie. Wanna see the intro?!

The most amazing thing about the show, besides that face-melting theme song, is that Excellent Adventures somehow managed to land the entire main cast from the film! Okay, maybe the inclusion of Alex Winters doesn’t impress you, but it looks to me like Keanu Reeves has never provided his voice to anything else ever, with the exception of a few Matrix spinoffs.

Even the anti-establishment George Carlin took a little Flintstones money

Outside of a few minor differences (Bill’s dad got fatter, their teacher was promoted to principal, the Circle K became the “Kozy Korner,” etc.) the cartoon was remarkably faithful to the film, as far as cartoon spinoffs go, and fans dug the hell out of it it. Sadly, it was not to be…

Early CG time tunnels? INCLUDED!

CBS wasn’t happy with the show’s performance, so Fox decided to take the reins a year later, handing production over to DIC Animation, the hilariously inept producers of Legend of Zelda cartoon I posted last week. Instead of traveling exclusively through time, the second season saw Bill and Ted embarking on sillier missions throughout pop culture, featuring more comedic plotlines and ridiculous sitcom parodies.

A briefly produced cereal is about the only merchandise we’ve got to know a Bill & Ted cartoon ever existed

Worst of all, Fox axed Alex Winters and Keanu Reeves as the voices of Bill & Ted, and replaced them with the actors starring in the live-action TV show adaptation the network was mounting. Both versions lasted less than ten episodes in 1991, so I’d like to think they kinda killed one another.

With the cartoon airing on two different networks, produced by two animation companies, and film ownership passing from Orion to MGM to wherever, rights to the animated Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures have remained tangled ever since. Only a single episode had been made available for purchase (only as a special feature on Bill & Ted’s Most Excellent Collection) so you gotta love that we live in age where Netflix can cut through the red tape and make nostalgic gems like this available. Now, if I can only find the Teen Wolf cartoon…

All the Toons headed to you this Tuesday, March 22nd in the format of your choice…

This site’s a labor of love for all of two people, and the very little money it makes comes exclusively through people buying DVDs through the Amazon.com links scattered, quite unsubtly, throughout the site. Clicking on them costs you nothing, but each sale kicks a few sheckles back to us, so we encourage you to do so when the mood strikes. Someday it may even cover the cost of our hosting! Or so we pray… Enjoy!

Yogi Bear
DVD | Blu-ray | 3D Blu-ray

Okay I sincerely apologize for this, people. But hey, I don’t pick what or when Hollywood releases bile, because if I did this probably wouldn’t have happened. I miss Dan Ackroyd as much as anyone, but to see him outshined by Justin Timberlake doing a Boo Boo impression is a very sad thing indeed.

Speaking of sad things and Yogi Bear, the video embedded below is probably the best thing to come out of the whole CG debacle: An unofficial parody of one of my favorite films of the last decade, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Oh, and a far less embarrassing Yogi DVD appears below as well.

Venture Bros. Season 4
Blu-ray | S4 Vol. 2

If you don’t like this show, I probably won’t like you. I kinda knocked the Venture Christmas Special, but the show is easily the finest cartoon currently in production. For those of you like me who balked at the Venture Bros Season 4 Volume 1 DVD release, you’re being rewarded with a full (and extended) season in glorious 1080p High-Def.

Title screen from A Very Venture Christmas

Thrill as Brock and Dr. Venture are forced apart for the longest period in the series. Giggle as a convicted pedophile becomes Hank and Dean’s primary caretaker. Folks not equipped with Blu-ray will also be able to purchase Season 4 Vol. 2 today, but that coupled with the price of Vol 1 actually makes it more expensive than the Blu. Blu-ray for less than Standard Def?! A rare feat!

Robots
Blu-ray

Shit, am I that out of touch with modern animation? Does “From the Creators of Ice Age” really carry that much clout?! After watching a mastodon voiced by Queen Latifah yell “Yabba-Dabba-Doo!” in the third movie, I’d figure one would go out of their way to distance themselves from that low rent franchise… okay, maybe I’m too cynical.

I’ve actively disliked everything from Fox Animation has put out since Titan A.E., and yes, I’m increasingly annoyed each time Robin Williams stars as anything other than a blue genie, but I really do like the overall look of this film. And who doesn’t love robots?! That said, this new Blu comes fairly cheap at $17.99, yet it appears to be missing some of the special features from the SD release.

Garfield 1 & 2
Blu-ray combo

Speaking of CG travesties courtesy of Fox, here’s Garfield! The first film bundled along with its sequel, A Tale of Two Kitties. That is so clever! But only when you compare it to the titles Jim Davis has bestowed on his own book collections. Garfield: Out to Lunch? Garfield: Chews the Fat?! I hope he never runs out of ways to tell me his cat is comically obese!

Honestly, I wrote some high praise on A Garfield Christmas as proof that this character didn’t always suck. These films offer no evidence of that, but if you’ve got kids who don’t care about that, this combo package breaks down to $10 a film.

Easter 3-Pack Fun
DVD

Cool, and Easter set! Two of which are Rankin/Bass obscurities I haven’t seen in years. The first is a traditionally animated origin story that borrows a bit from The Velveteen Rabbit, and the other’s billed as a semi-sequel to Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, but that’s probably mostly due to a stop-motion appearance by Fred Astaire.

Strangely enough, it’s bundled with a latter day Hanna-Barbera special I have no recollection of, Yogi the Easter Bear, which is most notable for being the last time Don Messick voiced Ranger Smith and Boo Boo before his death in 1997. I might be writing one of these up but I ain’t promising anything.

Disney’s Wild About Safety: Timon and Pumbaa Safety Smart: Healthy & Fit! Classroom Edition
DVD

What the hell is this?! I’d seen Timon and Pumbaa drop knowledge on me in the Disney Parks on occasion, but I had no idea it was available for purchase. Nor do I have any idea what a “Classroom Edition” designates, let alone why it costs $30 for 12 minutes of animation… but whatever! I’m just happy to know Disney’s still cranking out educational animation. Plus I quite liked T&P’s cartoon show, and the clips I’ve seen from other entries in the Safety First series seem to have upped the animation quality quite a bit. I’m gonna start making some kids NOW!

Similar to what we did last year with the Top 25 Cartoon Christmas Trees, A Cartoon Christmas is letting you (AND ME!) skip the usual 1000+ words of grammatically defiant babble on this day of days, while still giving you the opportunity to look at some gorgeous animated imagery.

REAL SANTAS

1. “Classic Santa” from A Disney Christmas Gift

I forget who issued me the challenge, but it was this: Can you find 50 different pictures from cartoon Santas? Well, two years + one post a day, every day in December until Christmas = 50 posts… yeah, sounds easy enough.

2. “Party Santa” from The Snowman (buy it here)

But wait?! There ain’t no Santy Claws in Mickey’s Christmas Carol or A Charlie Brown Christmas! And a few days on the animated advent calendar over there on left are, debatebly, cop out entries… You know, I could do it if I can do cartoon approximations of Saint Nick (i.e. cartoons characters posing as Santa) in addition to the Real McDeal! And that’s how we’re going to break these down: Real and Fake Santas.

3. “Slow Santa” from Sonic’s Christmas Blast (buy it here)

Both are just as fun to look at anyway, right? Oh, and keep an eye out for a third SUPER SECRET category if I can’t meet the numeric criteria.

4. “Magician Santa” from Frosty the Snowman (buy it here)

Please enjoy our last post on the 2010’s Animated Advent Calendar, and feel free to click on image/link to read more on about the special showcase.

5. “Stranded Santa” from A Wish for Wings That Work (buy it here)

And if you feel like buying the DVD, please do it through the Amazon link provided. Doing so costs you nothing, but kicks a small percentage back to us, which helps keep the site up. Or at least we hope it will someday!

6. “Useless Santa” from The Great Santa Caper starring Raggedy Ann

7. “Second Banana Santa” from A Chipmunks Christmas (buy it here)

8. “Sickly Santa” from Christmas Comes to PacLand

9. “Recipient Santa” from A Johnny Bravo Christmas (buy it here)

10. “Shouldn’t Count Santa” from Mystery Science Theater 3000: Santa Claus (buy it here)

11. “Skinny Santa” from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (buy it here)

12. “Donkey-Worshiping Santa” from Nestor the Long-Eared Donkey (buy it here)

13. “Massive Santa” from Robbie the Reindeer in Hooves on Fire (buy it here)

14. “Writer Santa” from A Spongebob Squarepants Christmas (buy it here)

15. “Stupid Santa” from Super Mario Bros. Super Show: Koopa Klaus (buy it here)

16. “Smokin’ Claus” from ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (buy it here)

17. “Blink and you’ll miss ‘em Santa” from Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas (buy it here)

18. “Captive Santa” from Invader Zim: The Most Horrible Xmas Ever (buy it here)

19. “Young Ginger Santa” from Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (buy it here)

20. “Interstellar Santa” from George and the Christmas Star (buy it here)

21. “Sleepy Santa” from A Claymation Christmas Celebration (buy it here)

22. “Stinky Santa” from Ren & Stimpy: Stimpy’s First Fart (buy it here)

FAKE SANTAS

23. “Robotnik Claus” from Sonic’s Christmas Blast (buy it here)

24. “Opus Claus” from A Wish for Wings That Work (buy it here)

25. “Kermit Claus” (no longer) from The Christmas Toy (buy it here)

26. “Funky Claus” from TaleSpin: A Molly Jolly Christmas (buy it here)

27. “Robot Holocaust Claus” from Batman: Christmas with The Joker (buy it here)

28. “Snoopy Claus” from It’s ChristmasTime Again, Charlie Brown (buy it here)

29. “Donald Claus” from Toy Tinkers (buy it here)

30. “Racist Claus” from Mickey’s Good Deed (buy it here)

31. “Claus of Doom” from Invader Zim: The Most Horrible Xmas Ever (buy it here)

32. “Samson Claus” from A Very Venture Christmas (buy it here)

33. “Squidward Claus” from A Spongebob Squarepants Christmas (buy it here)

34. “Taz Clauz” from Bugs Bunny Looney Christmas Tales (buy it here)

35. “Dale Claus” from Pluto’s Christmas Tree (buy it here)

36. “Goofy Santa” from Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas (buy it here)

37. “An Extremely Goofy Santa” Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas (buy it here)

38. “Prince Adam Claus” from He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special (buy it here)

39. “BBB Claus” from A Fat Albert Christmas (buy it here)

40. “Sad, Drunk Claus” from Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire (buy it here)

41. “Extinct Claus” from A Claymation Christmas Celebration (buy it here)

42. “Dried Fruit Claus” from A Claymation Christmas Celebration (buy it here)

43. ” Doc Claus” from A Muppet Family Christmas

44. “Redemption Claus” from How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (buy it here)

YET TO BE COVERED SANTAS

45. “Pink Santa” from A Pink Christmas (buy it here)

46. “Worst 2010 Movie Star Santa” from Yogi’s First Christmas (buy it here)

47. “Nothing to Apologize for Santa” from Pee-Wee Herman’s Christmas Special (buy it here)

48. “Warner Santa” from Anamaniacs’ ‘Twas the Day Before Christmas

49. “Ruckus Claus” from A Huey Freeman Christmas (buy it here)

50. “Robot Santa” from Futurama’s Xmas Story (buy it here)

Seriously, thanks to everyone for reading this stuff. Really means a lot. (Now go have a great Christmas!)

A JOHNNY BRAVO CHRISTMAS
Original Air Date: December 21, 2001

Johnny must embark on a last minute road trip to the North Pole after forgetting to mail his Christmas list to Santa…

BACKSTORY:

Johnny Bravo debuted on Cartoon Network’s short-form animation platform, World Premiere Toons, in 1995. Though it was later re-titled as the What a Cartoon Show! and then The Cartoon Cartoon Show, the format was the same, and Hanna-Barbera’s half-hour showcase for 7-minute cartoons by new artists also launched The Powerpuff Girls, Cow & Chicken, Dexter’s Laboratory, and Courage the Cowardly Dog, as well as the careers of people like Family Guy‘s Seth McFarlane and The Fairly OddParents‘ Butch Hartman.

Van Partible’s Johnny Bravo short – which saw the James Dean-inspired hero chase down an escaped zoo gorilla to win the heart of a lady – was among the first set of shorts to air, and its success also made it one of the first to be signed to a full order of TV shows.

However, it took two years to turn the promising short into a series, and it suffered extended breaks and significant character retooling between its four seaons. Unfortunately, the show now stands in the shadows of its aforementioned peers, but episodes continue to air on Boomerang, and Cartoon Network inducted Johnny into their “Hall of Fame” in 2010 with a Complete Season 1 DVD release.

BREAKDOWN:

Wanna know what pisses me off most about that new Yogi Bear movie? I could do a better Yogi Bear than whatever the hell Dan Akyroyd’s doing! No, I’m not saying I have any sort of career in voice-over work, I’m saying that almost everybody – yes, even you – does a better Yogi Bear than the one I’ve seen in those insipid trailers.

The Christmas decor at the Bravo’s house seriously kicks ass

That’s a pretty goddamned tragic predicament given Akyroyd’s elongated history with brilliant character work, and it’s made infinitely more bizarre once you see how fucking Justin Timberlake has virtually disappeared into an almost flawless Boo Boo?!

Johnny and Bunny Bravo are clearly taken with the spirit

I guess what I’m wondering is… if kids aren’t going to recognize Akyroyd’s name on the marquee anyway, or appreciate an accurate Yogi voice, then why bother with the half-assed Art Carney impression at all? Honestly, do they know about Ed Norton or care about The Honeymooners?

Alas, Johny’s forgotten to mail he and his mother’s Xmas letter to Santa

I’m not even really sure why I have a frame of reference for either since both Yogi Bear and The Honeymooners premiered long before I was born. And yet somehow I do…

The post office mocks any prospect of getting the letters to Santa on Dec. 24th

Strangely enough, both shows aired almost regularly during my childhood, and yeah, I watched both a fair bit. (Although, I do feel like it was MST3K that gave me more of an appreciation for the pop culture of their day, because both shows probably wouldn’t have been all that important to me without their say so.)

Suzy’s got a plan…

That said, what I love about cartoons, both old and new, is that they can re-caricature prolific celebrities well after their popularity is over. For instance, most of what I know about Abbott & Costello came from Looney Tunes, and eventually I tracked down some of their films based off of the inspiration they provided for something else I loved. So BAM: A rewarding discovery for me!

Unfortunately, it involves stowing away on an airplane. Can you tell this cartoon was probably made before Sept. 11th?

Which (FINALLY!) brings me to A Johnny Bravo Christmas. I don’t mean to sound curmudgeonly, but I honestly have no idea if kids at the turn of the century realized that Johnny was doing a wonderful impression of Elvis Presley.  And does that even matter? Yeah… I think it does.

Creator Van Partible makes no secret about being inspired by Hanna-Barbera

Elvis was obviously a city-clearing, giga-ton of a celebrity, yet he was gone long before I was born. I’ve never gone out and listened to his music, and I’ve never so much as watched a biography about the man. It was cartoons that gave me a ridiculous amount of Elvis context.  Even through parody I have a ridiculous amount of insight into his life and work.

You can see even more HB in the animals stowed in cargo

What I find so strange about this idea is that kids just ten years younger than me never had those cartoons. Did a child watching turn-of-the-century cartoons have any idea who Presley is?

Whoops, the gang deplanes a bit early

I honestly don’t know, but when I saw Jeff Bennet’s comedic characterization of Johnny Bravo – which took a fairly serious idol seemingly beyond reproach and turned him into a lovable, showboating narcissist – I thought it was brilliant!

And these animals ain’t sticking around for any Xmas carols

I suppose it doesn’t matter much, because Johnny’s a pretty great character regardless. He’s chock full of, ahem, bravado, and consistently motivated by naivety, which moves him at the speed of silly. I fell in love with the guy from the moment I first saw him in his premiere short on the World Premiere Toons show back in 1995, which you can see below (although mirrored backwards…to thwart the YouTube overlords, I suppose.)

That said, I never actually got to see too much of Johnny Bravo, since by the time the full series finally premiered it was nearly two years later and I was jettisoning into my late teens. (So, ya know…women, alcohol, drugs.)

Johnny and Suzy get aboard another plane

From what I read, Johnny Bravo fell upon numerous delays, which kept the series from running consistently in spite of its popularity.

Tragically, their directions are revealed to be by way of a cereal boxtop

And yeah, if you look at the show’s seven-year run, only four seasons were actually produced, often with a two year gap in between. I know it’s cable, but who do you think you are, Johnny? The Sopranos?!

Donny knows the way

I do appreciate the oddball celebrity cameo of Donny Osmond, whom I – and I’d assume most people watching the show at the time – knew only as a punchline. But Donny takes it all in stride, poking fun at himself, and dressed in his 70’s boy-band attire to boot.

Arrival by CRASH

Either way, it’s a pretty great half-hour as Johnny, Littile Suzy, and newcomers Donny Osmond and the wacky pilot make it to the North Pole in time to get the letter to Santa.

Oh thank The Good Lord Sears for flying reindeer

Unfortunately, it’s revealed that Johnny’s Mother’s wish list is essentially Johnny’s wish list. Worse still, Santa informs them that he’s already matched all gifts to their recipients and the elves are on leave until next Christmas. All that’s left? Two lumps of coal – boo hoo.

A year’s supply of hair gel, a pink Cadillac, these are a few of my favorite things

Johnny has no choice but to donate his lump of coal, all Santa has left to give at the final hour, to his mother… because what the hell else is he gonna do?

Sorry, mama

However, all is not lost! Suzy and the pilot are telling tales of Johnny’s selfless dilemma.

They tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and they tell two friends…

Word gets around town on the acts of this notorious womanizer and the entire Town of Aron City heads over to the Bravos’ to party down!

Partying down, Peanuts style! Click here to see the panorama greatly embiggened

Presents take a backseat to the women attending the shindig, and Johnny gets to do what he does best. Make women physically uncomfortable.

Yes! Upon rattling off several other “True Meanings of Christmas,” the very first from Lil’ Suzy’s lips is “the birth of the baby Jesus.” Religion had the most noticeable presence in A Charlie Brown Christmas and it’s diminished exponentially in mainstream Xmas television ever since, so I honestly feel like Johnny Bravo’s acknowledgment is more than a little ballsy.

Of course Santa’s here, as he’s the overreaching goal of the entire episode. Yet, as with most TV specials, he proves to be rather powerless, thus forcing Johnny to look within himself for a Christmas solution. However, Johnny Bravo’s chalk-arched depiction of the North Pole is among more unique I’ve ever seen.

Gorgeous Northern Lights

Basically, watching this special was like getting to see something I’d always wanted to find fifteen years ago. It’s a quick-paced, irreverent half hour, and the only reason it appeared even slightly dated to me is because, from what I hear, many episodes of the show were animated using traditional ink and paint instead of the digital tech employed today. It’s still fast, just not as fast as shows that air on the network today. (Adventure Time comes to mind.) For me it straddles the line between nostalgia for and the future potential of the animated medium as I saw it a decade ago. I wanted desperately to be a Johnny Bravo fan, but ultimately didn’t get the chance, due to odd production schedules and the rotten act of aging. As such, it was pretty great to see this special for the first time.; however, it’ll undoubtedly prove infinitely more awesome for those who are revisiting it.

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If this weren’t for the blog, I’d almost be pissed at myself… Okay, I walked into an empty TJ Maxx this Black Friday, saw Cartoon Network Christmas – Yuletide Follies on sale, and scooped it up without a second thought. Five bucks for Xmas specials from Johnny Bravo, Dexter’s Laboratory, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Ed, Edd, and Eddy, and several others? Why the hell not?! I take the cellophane off, look online… this thing is ridiculously out of print, and selling for around $100 used! Don’t pity me just yet, because there’s pretty much no other way for you to pick up A Johnny Bravo Christmas. Johnny Bravo: The Complete First Season is available on DVD, but the special didn’t air until the 3rd. And seeing as how the first season was released almost a year ago, with no follow-up since… I’m not sure what your chances are for ever obtaining it. Ummm, maybe try Dexter’s Lab? Sorry, guys – I got nothin’.

Yesterday’s Christmas Special
THE SOUNDS OF CHRISTMAS

2009′s Dec. 12th Christmas Special
TOY TINKERS

Yesterday we presented our favorites, now it’s time to make with last year’s very best bad!

5. Bugs Bunny’s Looney Christmas Tales

I always come off like a Disney fanboy, but the fact of the matter is that they’re just better with how they preserve and handle their animated characters. Bugs Bunny’s Looney Christmas Carol is the perfect example of that. Not only is it the victim of horrible 70’s animation done on the cheap, outside of the Chuck Jones Road Runner portion, the whole special is pretty much a disgrace to the Warner Bros. animated legacy. I desperately desire more Xmas-themed Looney Tunes, but they’re a bit hard to find. And come on… just look at these screenshots, and you tell me how this stacks up to something like Mickey’s Christmas Carol.

4. Christmas Comes to Pacland

I might’ve been too harsh on the Pac-Man cartoon. In all fairness, it’s no worse than just about everything else Hanna-Barbera put out in the 70s and 80s. It adheres to the same wacky, mystery-solving formula, using tired gags and lame jokes, while doing its best to animate as little as possible. That makes Christmas Comes to Pacland understandable, although no less terrible. What I can’t forgive are the giant leaps in logic the special takes in order to put a first draft script on television screens. Plus, I’ve always found the fact that Pac-Man sounds like a phlegmmy, alcoholic bluesman with a three-pack-a-day habit supremely disturbing.

3. The Super Mario Bros. Super Show: Koopa Klaus

As a lifelong gamer and fan of Mario, believe me when I say you’ll only be able to watch this special through the gapped fingers of a half-hour long face palm. The live action sequences are embarrassing enough, but the depths of idiocy found in the animated portions may send some into fits of violently primal nerd rage. Why is Mario dressed for a calypso vacation? Why is he using a whip? Why is the person who voiced Toad still allowed to walk amongst men? You’ll have to watch the special to find out, which I strongly advise against.

2. The Great Santa Caper starring Raggedy Ann and Andy

I love writing about obscure, forgotten Christmas specials featuring licensed characters of yore, but this was just depressing. To watch Chuck Jones, the mastermind behind How the Grinch Stole Christmas, derivatively breathe life into these utterly useless characters and come out with just under half a Christmas special will suck the soul from your body. As someone not born in the 1920s, maybe I just don’t care about these stupid dolls enough. But still… If Teddy Ruxpin were still clinging to a shred of relevance, and paid Ren & Stimpy’s John Kricfalusi enough to humiliate himself with a half-assed Christmas special starring plushy tape recorders, I’d be bitching up a storm too. Bleh…

1. He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special

It’s with great shame that I cop to being a diehard He-Man fan as a kid, yet it’s nothing compared to embarrassment everyone involved in this crossover Christmas special should feel. I’m not sure how Mattel got away with making daily commercials that were little more than an excuse to hurl new action figures at childrens’ eyeballs for 22 minutes… But having to watch a full hour of it, skinned in an idiotic Christmas shell brought about by two kids who get sucked into Eternia, should be sternly regulated by the FDA. I am sicker for having watched this

One of the stupidest Christmas specials ever made is finally arriving on DVD… just as the format is dying and more than two months after you’ve taken down the tree.

Apparently, Warner Brothers is prepping a DVD for Hanna-Barbera’s idiotically watchable Pac-Man TV series from 1982, in what could be one of the most ill-timed releases in the history of videogames, animation, shamefully nostalgic purchases and the Holidays in general.

The controversial “Rudolph catches cold” sequence

Not only will the DVD miss Christmas 2010 completely, it’ll only be available through the Warner Archive’s manufacture-on-demand service, meaning the studio burns DVDs as they’re ordered, slaps them into generic packaging, and generally includes a substandard transfer and no bonuses whatsoever. Not unlike, say, an ebay pirate!

Do you have any idea how hard it was to crop the Cartoon Network out of the screens I captured from the torrent I downloaded illegally?!

As irritating as I find the show, I’m like a consumer deer in headlights: Powerless to resist the idea owning it. But Christ, wouldn’t it have been kinda nice to cobble some kind of supplemental feature/retrospective doc together for one of gaming’s most prolific icons? Especially since fans have undoubtedly wanted to buy the show since the last episode aired in November of 1983!

A wonderful analogy! Complaining about the Pac-Man TV show: It’s like riding a tricycle in three feet of snow… Kid, you’re an idiot

So, why the wait? Well, Tvshowsondvd.com speculates that its Christmas-skipping, February/March 2011 release date is due to Namco’s desire to coincide with the launch of the Nintendo 3DS game, Pac-Man & Galaga. Okay… speaking from the perspective of someone who works in the “games industry,” I can assure you that Namco (re)releases Pac-Man games at a rate of about every seven seconds (HA, one even came out yesterday!)

“Hey guys, we’re finally getting some residuals!”

As someone who busts their ass to write a blog relevant to 1/12th of the year, clearly I’m no marketing strategist. However, I’m fairly certain that a far better time to release an ancient TV show starring Pac-Man that doesn’t hold up very well and should embarrass everyone involved, would’ve been during, I dunno, his 30th Anniversary! Which was in either May or October respectively, depending on whether you’re attributing his debut to Japan or North America, yet certainly doesn’t include March of 2011.

From iPhone to Xbox, every other platform in the world already tipped their hat to Pac earlier in the year, and the playable Google Pac-Man from last May was nothing short of a sensation, receiving full blown coverage from national, non-gaming news outlets, and capitalized on Pac-Man Fever in the most profound way since… well, you know.

Other no-frills Xmas specials available through Warner Archives

I love the Warner Archive program, and I imagine Pac-Man’s relegation to the made-to-order DVD format has more to do with the rights issues involved, yet I still feel Pac-Man deserves better. I dunno, what do you think? Click here to read all about Christmas Comes to Pacland.