AVAHS – Yogi’s First Christmas Review

Plot: Yogi bear and Boo-Boo always miss Christmas because they’re hibernating all winter, but this year they awaken just in time to catch some Christmas fun.

Breakdown: You don’t hear a lot of people talk about ol’ Yogi Bear anymore. Last I heard anyone mention him was when that live action Yogi movie came out several years ago and uh….we don’t talk about that either.

Being fair, they did just release that new Jellystone! cartoon. I’ve heard okay things about that, but I haven’t really felt compelled to watch it yet.

I used to really love Yogi Bear. I had a Boo-Boo beanie baby, and, as a child, I spent a few weeks in a Jellystone Park camp and had quite a nice time.

That being said, I can’t remember ever watching this movie as a kid. It’s a nice enough Christmas movie with a lot of heart and some genuinely funny moments. I think its one weak spot, however, is its length. It just can’t justify having a nearly hour and forty minute runtime. It only barely (BEARLY hahaha) has a story, and in order to fill the runtime, they repeat the same shtick over and over.

The plot is that the ranger, Snagglepuss, Huckleberry Hound, Doggie Daddy and Augie are enjoying their Christmas up at the Jellystone lodge, but because of the mysterious and frightening events that plagued the previous Christmas parties, this might be their last Christmas at the lodge. Mrs. Throckmorton, the owner, intends on selling the lodge after this year’s Christmas party, so everyone tries their best to butter her up to change her mind.

Yogi and Boo-Boo are suddenly woken up out of hibernation by the festivities and join the fun, celebrating their first ever Christmas since they usually miss every Christmas while they’re sleeping.

Accompanying Mrs. Throckmorton is her miserable little shit of a nephew, Shively, who despises Christmas. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a kid, especially a spoiled rich kid, just hate Christmas in a classic cartoon. I mean, it’s common for little kids to be obsessed with presents on Christmas, but this kid flatout hates everything about Christmas and wants nothing to do with it, which just makes me wonder why he’s even on this Christmas trip with his aunt.

Shively is a horrible little gremlin to everyone. He’s so terrible that he even attempts murder on more than one occasion. When Doggie Daddy is in the ice fishing shanty, Shively tries to push it into a open spot of water so he’ll drown all because Doggie Daddy caught a bigger fish than he did. Later, he tries to kill Cindy and Boo-Boo by pushing their snowmachine onto a powerful geyser while they’re sleeping. He also unhooks Yogi’s skis from his feet right as he’s about to do a ski jump. The little kid’s a demon.

There’s a second antagonist named Herman the Hermit. He lives on Jellystone Park grounds, somehow (that can’t be legal, can it?) and he also hates Christmas because the ruckus caused by the Christmas party at the lodge bothers him. He’s been playing pranks on the partygoers every year, pretending to be monsters and other supernatural creatures, in an effort to Scooby-Doo them away.

You’d think he’d be the main antagonist, but he mostly takes a backseat to Shively and his bratty shenanigans. Although, they do end up teaming up in the end, they don’t really do much. They go to ridiculous lengths all to steal a box of decorations. There’s a helicopter crash involved.

Although I did find it funny when Shively fell into the frozen lake when Yogi saved Doggie Daddy from being pushed into the open water. Shively ran to his aunt to blame Yogi for it and get him in trouble, Yogi shows up, admits he did it, says he’s not sorry because Shively’s a brat, doesn’t give a reason for doing it and Mrs. Throckmorton is like “Well, thank you, Yogi. Yes, the little brat did deserve it. Maybe this will teach him a lesson.” I agree he needs to be taken down a peg, but that’s pretty cold (pun intended) to act like a little kid deserves to be plunged into a freezing cold lake.

Mrs. Throckmorton is intent on selling the lodge, but, through wacky circumstances, she’s continuously impressed by Yogi as he randomly and accidentally keeps saving her life. To the ranger and lodge manager’s annoyance, Yogi keeps getting promoted with better jobs in the lodge in an effort to kiss up to Mrs. Throckmorton so she won’t sell the lodge. Spoiler alert, she doesn’t sell the lodge. She donates it to an orphanage for use as a vacation spot for them, which is extremely nice, but, like, I’m pretty sure a better option would have been to sell the lodge and just give the money to the orphanage. Orphans need a lot of things, and I’m pretty certain a vacation home isn’t one of them.

Meanwhile, Cindy Bear is overall just being very horny for Yogi. The only reason she decides to wake up from her own hibernation and help out at the lodge is because Yogi needs her, and she spends an inordinate amount of time trying to get him to kiss her under the mistletoe. She gets TWO songs where she’s singing about Yogi kissing her. They’re good songs, but calm down, Cindy.

Speaking of songs, there are several, and they’re overall quite good, but none are terribly memorable. Sad to say, but I’ll probably forget most of these songs by the end of the week, and it’s Friday.

If you love Yogi and want some Christmasness with him, as well as some other classic Hanna-Barbera characters, this is a good movie to check out. While I stand by my criticism of the runtime (it could easily be 45 minutes) it has many moments that made me smile, and there were even some heartwarming moments in there. I enjoyed it for what it was, and I’m sure many others will too.

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥

Animating Halloween: Noctober | The Flintstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone (1979) Review

Plot: The Flintstones and the Rubbles win a trip to Count Rockula’s castle for a romantic weekend away and a great costume party. Things take a spooky turn when they discover that the real Rockula, and his cohort, Frankenstone, are living in the castle, and they’re none too happy to find their home filled with people.

Breakdown: This is about as close to a Halloween special as The Flintstones ever got, and as a Halloween special, I think it works pretty well. There are plenty of really funny moments and even some tense moments when the group is being chased by Rockula and Frankenstone.

I will say that, for what is seemingly a Halloween special, it is very weird that Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm never show up. For a while, I wondered if either of them even existed, but Wilma very briefly mentions Pebbles near the end of the movie, so I guess at least she does. What was she doing while they were gone that whole time?

Anyway, while I can’t say I’ll be rushing out to revisit this special every Halloween season, it was an enjoyable special that got me laughing and smiling numerous times. If you’re a fan of The Flintstones or even just Hanna-Barbera, you’d get a kick out of it.

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥

AVAHS – The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries: The Nutcracker Scoob Review

Plot: Shaggy, Scooby, Daphne and Fred are helping put on a Christmas pageant for a bunch of children. An old scrooge arrives named Mr. Nickelby, and he declares that he plans on kicking them out of the building immediately. They resist all of his attempts, but a meddlesome ghost appears who is seemingly on Nickelby’s side. Can the Scooby gang figure out who this ghost is and stop Mr. Nickelby or will the pageant, and Christmas, be ruined for the children?

Breakdown: There are several Christmas specials in Scooby-Doo’s long, long history and this….sure is one of them.

Look, I love Scooby-Doo, I do, but there’s no denying that they can produce some stinkers, and this one is quite ripe.

First things first, this special took place during the ‘Fred and Velma are inexplicably gone for five years’ period of Scooby-Doo. They each have a role in a couple of specials during this series, but it’s the only time they appear in that five year span. Fred appears here, for reasons not given, but Velma does not, which doesn’t bode well for me because Velma’s my favorite character.

Yes, lose Fred and Velma but keep Daphne and bring in Scrappy. Logic is fun.

As for why Fred and Velma were booted from the franchise for so long, I have no clue. It was stated in-universe that they supposedly got jobs outside of mystery solving, which makes some degree of sense, but as for why they were written off in a meta standpoint, I don’t know. Some people are theorizing it had something to do with the likability of the characters, others said it might have been trouble with their voice actors – who really knows?

Secondly, this set up is so ridiculously overly done, even for 1984. The little children (who may or may not be orphans, it’s never really made clear) are participating in a Christmas pageant in a ‘building’ (no idea what this building is either) and some literal scrooge (he even looks the part and says ‘humbug’) threatens to kick them out and ruin their Christmas.

I had to pause when they had the little girl react to this news because they actually put in that stock sad violin music to really drive the emotion home.

Third, the reasons behind him doing this make no sense. The only motivation he has for wanting this building, that his family previously owned, is because a huge emerald was left to him in a will (supposedly by a family member who owned the building) and it’s in the building somewhere.

Uhh….Just ask for it? If it was left to you in a will, then no one else can lay claim to it even if they own the building. Just ask ‘Hey, guys, can I look for this emerald my family member left me? Then I’ll be on my way and not ruin Christmas.’ They’d probably be cool with it.

Why does he not own this building by the way? Did the family member sell it before they died? Why leave this seemingly priceless emerald in the building if they did sell it?

The location of the emerald makes even less sense. His family member left behind a riddle to its location, because of course do that instead of doing what a sane person would do and just, ya know, be upfront about it. The riddle says;

“On Christmas eve, your goal’s not far.

You’ll find the emerald in the pageant’s star.”

….So….they wrote that riddle after they were already making plans to put on this pageant? Which was, what, one or two weeks, max? Is this family member even in the ground yet?

They assume this means the emerald is in the literal star decoration for the pageant’s tree, but it actually means its hidden in the taint of a nutcracker toy. See, the pageant is The Nutcracker Suite….but…it also isn’t because earlier they were rehearsing A Christmas Carol. Unless they’re planning on putting on numerous Christmas shows, in which case, The Nutcracker Suite still isn’t the main event. The toy wouldn’t be the star even if they were only putting on The Nutcracker Suite because it’s a TOY. The star would be the actor playing the Nutcracker.

So, by that logic, this probably-not-even-cold-yet family member’s last act should have been shoving an emerald up Freddy’s ass.

What would they have done if someone threw away this seemingly inconspicuous nutcracker toy?

The resolution is also lame. The ghost was Mr. Nickelby’s French maid, who somehow completely loses her heavy accent when she’s playing the ghost. Admittedly, she’s the funniest one here as she dusts literally everything and everyone with her feather duster, but her only motivation was ‘Ooh emerald valuable. I want it.’

Mr. Nickelby is also changed instantly because the little girl from earlier saves his cat. Yay, I guess. They still ruined the pageant, but he brought Christmas gifts for all the little boys and girls and tore up a condemnation order he had done on the building, which isn’t how that works, but everyone’s happy.

The end.

This special had a few good moments and some decent humor, but the story is bllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh and badly written blah at that. I don’t recall seeing other Scooby-Doo Christmas specials, but there have to be better ones that this.

At the very least, the theme song is really groovy…..until you realize that it sounds horribly dated for a mid 80s show. It sounds like it’s stuck in the 60s or 70s.

And somehow it really seems like the animation has only gotten worse since the first series, and that’s saying something.

Fun Fact: Despite what I just said, I have owned a battery-operated Christmas Scooby-Doo doll for about 15 years now. Still works, but it’s weaker than it was. It sings Christmas songs and wags its tail. It’s super cute.

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥

Thanksgiving Special Double Feature: The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn’t & A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn’t

Plot: As a family sits down for Thanksgiving dinner, a father squirrel tells his son about their ancestor, Jeremy Squirrel, and how he saved the first Thanksgiving.

Breakdown: I have never seen this special before today. There’s also not much information online about it.

Not surprised, really. It’s a nice little special courtesy of good ol’ Hanna-Barbera, but it’s dreadfully boring.

The story is actually pretty accurate to the history of the first Thanksgiving, surprisingly, (Barring practically everything they’re serving) with the twist that the first Thanksgiving nearly didn’t happen because two dumbass kids, a Native American boy and a pilgrim boy, ran off in the middle of the night to play and got lost. Jeremy Squirrel not only reunited them with their families, but he also saved them from a wolf and saved Thanksgiving.

In that order.

I say ‘in that order’ because he did indeed reunite them with their parents before the wolf incident…and their families/the settlers/natives were 100% useless in attempting to save them. The pilgrim boy’s father had a gun and was going to shoot the wolf, but the Native American dad was all ‘Don’t! You might hit the boys!’

Which I immediately followed up with ‘So let’s just stand here like idiots doing nothing while our sons are eaten alive by a wolf?’ Because that’s what they did. They stood there, probably planning out their sons funerals in their minds, while a squirrel, a goddamn squirrel, had to come up with and singlehandedly instigate a plan to save them.

No ‘Hey, what if I approach the wolf from the side, taking the boys entirely out of my line of fire and saving them from certain death?’ Just ‘Herpa derp RIP boys.’

And….that’s about it. The characters aren’t engaging, the story’s not interesting, and it’s animated by Hanna-Barbera, in the 70s no less, so there’s nothing great there. The music was kinda good, but got grating really quickly.

Since that was such a bust, I thought I’d give everyone a treat and review a second Thanksgiving special. Yup. This Thanksgiving….y’all are getting second helpings.

……I’m so sorry for that terrible joke.

A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving

Plot: Rabbit tries to plan a perfect Thanksgiving for everyone in the Hundred Acre Wood.

Breakdown: Would you hate me if I said I didn’t have much to say about this one, either?

I don’t even have a small point of ranting. There’s just not much to talk about.

I like Winnie the Pooh as much as the next person, but I was expecting this special to be predictable and kinda boring and that’s what it was. I got a few smiles out of it, and the songs were kinda nice, but that’s pretty much it.

Something hit me while watching this special, though. Thanksgiving specials tend to tell the same story over and over. Something goes awry with the dinner, everyone thinks its ruined, and then they come together with some simple feast and enjoy the holiday because Thanksgiving isn’t about food – it’s about family and friends and being thankful for what you have.

In a lot of ways, Christmas specials have a similar issues. They frequently parrot the ‘It’s not about presents, it’s about family and friends and giving’ moral, but the thing is that Christmas has enough mythos and potential to have a bunch of wildly varying stories come from it. Thanksgiving just…doesn’t.

Even though I now know my options for future specials are more than I thought I had (Wiki was a big help) I have a hard time remembering or getting excited for any of these. I’m not saying they’re all bad, but outside of a few ‘I watch this all the time at Thanksgiving because it’s tradition’ specials, how many Thanksgiving specials really stick with you?

Maybe the Friends specials, because they tended to make those their own thing, but I don’t even really remember much of those outside of Monica having a turkey on her head and that one time they played football together.

I don’t mean to be a Thanksgiving Grinch, I guess you’d say, but it’s true. The Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special is trending on Twitter right now, and that reminded me that, oh yeah, there’s a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special.

Maybe I’ll find some hidden Thanksgiving gems next year, but this one was kinda lackluster.

————————————-

Whether you’re in America or anywhere else, I hope you have a very nice holiday/weekend. I am eternally thankful for everyone who manages to tolerate my incoherent babble on this quaint little blog, and each new view, like and comment brings a bit more brightness into my day. You guys are the absolute best, and I can’t begin to thank you enough.

Happy Thanksgiving!

~Fiddletwix

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥