"The Island of Misfit Christmas Specials" Talkback - Page 9

veemonjosh · #**161** 12-17-2009, 05:02 PM

I have another suggestion for the Misfit page: Santa and the Three Bears.

I was watching this special (on an EXTREMELY old VHS tape) with my sister the other day. It's so cheaply produced and poorly written that it'd fit right in.

IIRC, it actually is included in some of the more recent dollar-DVD compilations, which also speaks greatly of its quality.

**nakak** · #**162** 12-17-2009, 05:11 PM

You can also watch it on Hulu

http://www.hulu.com/santa-and-the-three-bears

There were many versions over the years. Some prints remove the live-action sequences.

Even more appalling is that this was theatrically released, despite looking like a cookie-cutter TV affair.

Oh, and have you seen the Ziggy Christmas special? Yeah, there was one that aired back in the '80s. Richard Williams was the director, believe it or not.

Oh, and Ziggy doesn't speak at all, so in case you're wondering what his voice sounds like...

It's in three parts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2L9LbfA-MI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3OiHaYm0to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuT4o6FPNxs

**Martianinvader** · #**163** 12-17-2009, 07:46 PM

Nakak: I have both of those in DVD form and they'll both appear someday. Ziggy I am saving for a possible "Comic Strip Week," but that's too late to pull off this time. Except for Opus -- if I do indeed get Hammer's DVD on Saturday, I'll make a review for it.

Theatrically released? Wow. How many people showed up?

**nakak** · #**164** 12-17-2009, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martianinvader

Theatrically released? Wow. How many people showed up?

It was released as part of the kiddie matinee thing that many theaters used to do back then, so I'm guessing parents took their kids there.

Believe it or not, it was distributed by Warner Bros. While they didn't actually produce it (it was done at an outside company), much of the artists credited in the film were involved in those final batch of "Looney Tunes" shorts.

DarthGonzo · #**165** 12-20-2009, 03:58 PM

I saw it posted on the Misce-Looney-ous blog, but maybe next year you can find some room for that Raggedy Ann and Andy "Great Santa Claus Caper" special.

Blankments · #**166** 12-20-2009, 06:07 PM

Have you ever seen Arthur's Perfect Christmas? I think it needs more attention for such a great special.

**Martianinvader** · #**167** 12-21-2009, 09:42 PM

The next update will be a day late. There's nothing I can do about it.

TenPoundHammer · #**168** 12-21-2009, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martianinvader

The next update will be a day late. There's nothing I can do about it.

Let me guess: You didn't get my DVD until today.

**Martianinvader** · #**169** 12-21-2009, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TenPoundHammer

Let me guess: You didn't get my DVD until today.

Guess again. I want to put three up at once.

YogiBR123 · #**170** 12-21-2009, 11:19 PM

Don't strain yourself.

Just joking.

MOVE FASTER!

(See what I did there?)

**Martianinvader** · #**171** 12-22-2009, 11:01 PM

Finally!
http://www.platypuscomix.net/hollywood/misfit25.html
http://www.platypuscomix.net/hollywood/misfit26.html
http://www.platypuscomix.net/hollywood/misfit27.html

Enjoy them!

J. B. Warner · #**172** 12-22-2009, 11:45 PM

You mention in the "Wings" article that you don't know who voiced Bill the Cat, only that you know it wasn't Frank Welker. And you're right, it's not him - it was comedian John Byner. (Yeah, I went "WTF?" too.)

Hmm, kind of a run-of-the-mill 3,000th post. Oh well.

**Super Leviathan** · #**173** 12-23-2009, 12:51 AM

I couldn't help but fell a little sorry for you while reading the the Opus review. That sucks that you were forbidden from watching it for almost 20 years because of a misleading newspaper article.

Very solid reviews. I think I will check out that Powerpuff special.

HomeMoviesFan · #**174** 12-23-2009, 01:54 AM

Just a clarification: Fred Savage is actually making a very nice living nowadays by directing most of the episodes of the FX show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia".

I looked up that Opus special on YouTube. God, the animation looks gorgeous, if that counts for anything. Also, Opus sounds exactly like Chuckie's dad from Rugrats. Who knew?

Chris · #**175** 12-23-2009, 03:33 AM

I want to see your take on Ziggy and Santa and the Three Bears. I have Santa and the Three Bears, and one of the commercial breaks features a young Ricky Schroeder telling parents how to make gardens for kids. That topic seems kind of out of place in December, but, oh well.

Jon Cooke · #**176** 12-23-2009, 06:18 AM

I had never even heard of Holidaze before. I have to admit, that such blatant product placement in a kids' animated Christmas special feels pretty sleazy. I can just picture the idea getting pitched to the Campbell's and Wal-Mart people as "This show will get rerun for years! And your logos will be there!"

TenPoundHammer · #**177** 12-23-2009, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HomeMoviesFan

I looked up that Opus special on YouTube. God, the animation looks gorgeous, if that counts for anything. Also, Opus sounds exactly like Chuckie's dad from Rugrats. Who knew?

I thought the voice acting was a strange mix. You had traditional VAs like Joe Alaskey, Tress MacNeille, etc., but then you also had Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman cameos, and some nobody doing Ronald-Ann's voice. That hen sounds nothing like Tress. Actually, Michael Bell was exactly the voice I imagined for Opus.

Unlike Peter, I didn't really notice the true lack of humor in this special, but I did notice the whole bird scene being a near word-for-word copy from an Outland strip. I also have the book somewhere, but I can't find it.

Peter, you'd know. Why didn't Berke like this special?

J. B. Warner · #**178** 12-23-2009, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TenPoundHammer

Why didn't Berke like this special?

I know Berke mentioned in one interview that he thought the special was an abomination, but he seemed to be giving joke answers to every question in that particular interview (it's the same one where he claims to draw "The Far Side"), so I don't know how trustworthy it is.

Still, I can't blame him if he doesn't care for the special. It's kinda slow, it's very light on Breathed's trademark pop-culture-skewering sense of humor aside from the Lost Horizon gag, and it seems to be going for heartfelt sentimentality a lot of the time. One of the underlying themes is the friendship between Opus and Bill, which was almost never touched upon in the strip (usually, the only time you saw 'em together was when they were in Deathtongue or running for President). It almost feels like Breathed had to water down his characters for an audience that might have never seen them before.

And that, I think, is one of the special's big failings - animated specials based on comic strips usually achieve much of their success based on what the audience already knows about the characters. "A Charlie Brown Christmas" didn't have to reintroduce the entire Peanuts gang to TV viewers, because anybody who's read the strip knows all about the characters, so the whole thing could be devoted to writing a strong story around them. "A Wish for Wings That Work" spends most of its time saying "Here's Opus, he's a nerdy flightless waterfowl who aspires to greatness; here's Bill, he's a brain-dead cat who doesn't talk much", etc., and there's not much time left for a story. Why they felt compelled to act like the audience had never read "Bloom County" or "Outland" before, I'll never know.

YogiBR123 · #**179** 12-23-2009, 08:39 PM

Your article/review on the Powerpuff Girls Christmas special makes me want to see it a 358th time! And yes, I have been keeping track.

Are those Holidaze dvd's still in print? Because I might want to get one off the 'net, and see it for myself.

mobo85 · #**180** 12-23-2009, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HomeMoviesFan

Just a clarification: Fred Savage is actually making a very nice living nowadays by directing most of the episodes of the FX show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia".

And a bunch of kids shows and the feature film Daddy Day Camp. Yeah, you can't win them all. Although I'm sure that Director's Guild of America Awards nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programming for the first episode of Wizards of Waverly Place is technically a higher achievement than actually winning a Grammy, which hardly counts as an award at all. (But then again, his Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Daddy Day Camp probably is too.)

Berke Breathed is, not surprisingly, very protective of his characters- but not Watterson level. In the recent book Looking for Calvin and Hobbes, Breathed comments on the fact that he appreciates Watterson's stances, but even he merchandised his characters a little. He comments about the fact that people are proud to have Opus toys and proudly have him sign them, and that he spent years working on an Opus movie project which eventually failed due to creative differences. (Besides that stuff and the special, I recall there was also an Opus screen saver which got into legal trouble since one of the screen savers featured Opus opening fire on flying toasters, in a reference to one of the most popular screen savers at the time. The toasters had to be redesigned to have helicopter propellers instead of wings to avoid infringing on the trademark, even though it was a parody.)

The fact that Adolph Schickelgruber is one of the names on the permanent naughty list in the Powerpuff Girls special is both one of the most surprising-they-got-away-with-it and most appropriate jokes of all time. (Although it is often believed that Mister Mustache's real last name was Schickelgruber, his father, whose last name at birth was indeed Schickelgruber, had his name changed to that of his stepfather before the big rat was born.)