May the Force be with Felix

Source of image from: Wikipedia

In 1989, Otto Messmer's creation, Felix the Cat, became the star of his own animated film. Felix the Cat: The Movie, has a trippy plot involving Felix and his magic bag transporting him to another dimension in order to save a princess named Oriana and her kingdom from her uncle, the Duke of Zel.

• The story is a lot like Star Wars mixed with Super Mario World on a huge acid trip
• Since the film was made in Europe, the lipsync is way off.
• The only other characters from the Felix cartoons to appear are The Professor and Poindexter.
• The Duke reminds me of the villain Mysterio from Spider-Man.

For some reason, this film really grows on me. The way Felix is portrayed is similar to how Disney makes Mickey a hero with a heart of gold.

Felix the Cat: The Movie belongs to Felix the Cat Creations.

Screwy, ain't it?

Source of image from: Wikipedia

We're Back! A Dinosaur Story is an animated that was released in 1993 based on a children's book by Hudson Talbott. The film is about four dinosaurs who are given human intelligence and are taken to the future by a good-hearted inventor named Captain Neweyes. Their goal is to fulfill the dreams of children who want to meet real dinosaurs. In other words, it's The Land Before Time set in New York City.

The movie has an excellent set of cast members such as John Goodman, Walter Cronkite and Jay Leno. It received mix reviews.

Source of image from: Fanpop

At the end of the film, when our heroes return home, the evil Professor Screweyes is left behind and gets devoured by crows. Kind of random, huh? It would have made sense if the animators didn't remove clip:

Infamous Cut "Cage" scene (1:20 to 2:13)

This removed footage provides Screweyes an origin that explains his obsession over fear and why he's evil. Then again, it would probably be too dark to have in a family film.


We're Back! A Dinosaur Story belongs to Amblimation.

Chimney Sweeper gone Bad

In Disney's Alice in Wonderland, there are a variety of recognizable characters that have become memorable to fans. However one particular chap ended up being forgotten.

A lizard named Bill was a chimney sweeper who appeared after Alice grew big from eating a cookie and then got stuck in the White Rabbit's house.

Believing Alice was a monster, Dodo and the White Rabbit asked Bill to pull her out from the chimney.

Once Bill got shoved through by force, the smoke and ashes caused Alice to sneeze, shooting Bill into the sky like a rocket. Poor Bill's fate was unknown. He wasn't even seen at the end of the film when the Queen lead the angry mob of the Wonderland residents.

Source of image form: Disney Wiki

It wasn't the end of Bill yet however. It seems he ended up in the streets of London under the new employment of the nefarious Professor Ratigan from The Great Mouse Detective.

Alice in Wonderland and The Great Mouse Detective belong to Disney.

The Headless Horseman

Source of image from: Prudence Pennywise

In Disney's version of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the short film is narrated by Bing Crosby. The first half of the story introduces Ichabod Crane and the town.

Source of image form: Animated Life Forums

From there, Ichabod competes with the town bully, Brom Bones, over the hand of the beautiful and wealthy Katrina (who is a prototype of Cinderella).

Source of image from: Disney's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

The real excitement begins when Bones terrifies the hell out of Ichabod with his song about "The Headless Horseman". That's when the best scene of the film is shown where Ichabod tries to escape the Headless Horseman. A lot of drama builds up causing much excitement for the audience.

Unlike most Disney films, this one ends in a more darker and ominous note where the main character is supposedly "spirited away" by the phantom of Halloween Night.


The Legend of Sleepy Hollow belongs to Disney.

Gone with the Wind and the Willows

In 1941, after the release of Bambi, Disney had plans on adapting three British novels into animated films. They were Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and Wind in the Willows. The first two were accomplished in the early 50's. Sadly the same wouldn't be said for the last one.

Because of the war, Walt decided to add the idea of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow forming the package film: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949). This forced a lot of changes in some of the storyboard in order to shorten it.

The result forced little time to provide the characters personality such as Mole, Rat and Mac Badger.

The same would be said for it's primary star, Mr. Toad; however he became more iconic with his constant thrill-seeking and mania over vehicles which developed into a running-gag.

Source of storyboards from: Michael Sporn Animation

It would have been interesting to see how the story of Mr. Toad became a full-length movie.


Ichabod and Mr. Toad belong to Disney

Starscream

Out of all of the animated villains in history, there has been one who continuously relies on deceit and treachery to attain the throne. That "scheming snake in the grass" is Starscream. He is best remembered for always attempting to overthrow Megatron in the original Transformers series.

His greatest triumph (and probably the only best part in the Transformers Movie) was when he took advantage of Megatron's damaged state and threw him out into cold space. It seemed like Starscream would finally become the new leader of Decepticons.

Source of all images above: Starscream (G1)

Unfortunately for him, Megatron (resurrected as Galvatron) came back and killed him.

Source of image from: Possession - Transformers Wiki

Amazingly, he came back from the dead possessing the body of that twitchy insect, Waspinator from Beast Wars. In an episode called Possession, he makes up a story about his death and that he died a hero only to come back and serve the new Megatron.

Everything was going according to plan, until he was betrayed for the first time by Blackarachnia who saw through his little deception. Instant karma.


Transformers and Beast Wars belong to Hasbro.

Double the Trouble

Source of image from: DCAU Wiki

In Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker, six new teenage rogues work for the clown prince of crime. The most popular of the group are twin sisters both sharing the name Dee Dee. Both have Raggedy Ann-like faces while dressed in a certain manga fangirl look.

Source of image from: The World's Finest

At the end of the film Harley Quinn is revealed to be their grandmother. Not too surprising. But it makes you wonder, if Harley is their granny, then does that make Joker the lucky grandpa?

Dee Dee may take on Harley's looks, but they can't compete with her cute charming personality. They are more brutal, thrill-seeking and are so disrespectful of their "poor grandmother's heart." Kind of similar to how Joker puts up with everyone.


Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker belongs to DC Comics/Warner Bros.

Cute but Troublesome Eyes

Usually characters with dotted eyes like in Charlie Brown or Winnie the Pooh are displayed as being cute and adorable. However, they are also used for designing mischievous and sadistic characters.

Barney Rubble from The Flintstones usually likes to pull Fred's leg to lighten the mood which always gets on Fred's nerves.

Source of image: juniebug.net/

Winslow enjoys harassing CatDog in every episode.


The host in all the Total Drama series, Chris, loves his job of tormenting his contestants through different games.


Yakko, Wakko and Dot from Animaniacs manage to be both cute and troublesome.

The Flintstones belong to Hanna Barbera.
CatDog belongs to Nickelodeon.
Total Drama series belongs to Teletoon.
Animaniacs belong to Warner Bros.

Purple Tyrants

When you think of the color purple you might think of something like Barney who's a lovable dinosaur. However, I've noticed a couple of characters who are controlling, vain, power-hungry and evil and are dressed or colored with a touch of purple.

• Lotso from Toy Story 3
• Megatron from Beast Wars
• Freeza from Dragon Ball Z
• Randall from Monsters Inc.
  
• Parasite and Brainiac from Superman: The Animated Series
• Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• Ursula from The Little Mermaid
  
• The Joker from Batman: The Animated Series
  

Back from the Moon

Remember when Sailor Moon first hit North America in the late 90's? It was the first Japanese cartoon I laid eyes on as a kid. It is a series about a sensitive teenage girl who becomes a superhero by fighting dark forces along with a talking cat.

Like The Powerpuff Girls, Sailor Moon was a huge hit that grabbed the attention of both girls and boys. The series inspired a trend that became known as "Magical Girl."

Source of all images from: minitokyo.net/

Four out of five arcs aired in America while the final remained in Japan due to suggestive themes for younger viewers. Since the series stopped airing on Cartoon Network, it seemed like it would never return to America or any parts of the globe.

Thanks to fans all over the world, hope may come through. Recently, Toei Animation is considering of bringing Sailor Moon back. A remastered version of it is being tested in Italy. If it does well there, Sailor Moon will air worldwide. Funimation Entertainment is thinking of doing a re-dubbing of the anime if it returns to North America.

Sailor Moon belongs to Toei Animation.

Leave it to Gopher

Source of image from: cornel1801.com/

In Lady and the Tramp (1954), there is a scene where the lovely dog couple enter the zoo to look for something to remove Lady's muzzle. There, they find a beaver trying to move a log who bites the muzzle off.

Source of image from: kingdomhearts.wiki.com/

That particular beaver later reincarnated into the hardworking Gopher who made an appearance in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1965). Like the beaver, Gopher has the same personality and "speech impediment" where he adds a whistling sound to his words.

Though not an actual character from the book, Gopher managed to fit in well as a resident of the 100 Acre Wood. He also invented a classic running gag where he falls into his own dug-up hole without looking.

Here is a link to a clip that shows Gopher falling down a hole: Gopher


Beaver and Gopher are characters that belong to Walt Disney Studios.

Grandpa and Grandma

Source of image from: blogodisea.com/

In Pixar's film Up, Carl Fredricksen's voice is played by Edward Asner. Mr. Fredricksen isn't the only animated character Asner has played.

• He voiced the goodhearted gruff cop Cosgrove from Freakazoid!
• The wise elder Hudson from Disney's Gargoyles.
• Peter Parker's boss, J. Jonah Jameson, from Spider-Man: The Animated Series.

Out of all the characters he's voiced, there has been one that I couldn't believe he did.

Source of image from: worldsfinestonline.com/

He voiced Granny Goodness, one of Darkseid's evil superiors from Superman: The Animated Series. When I first heard her voice I was confused and thought she was a guy. Surprisingly, Asner's performance works well with Granny. It brings out the sick twisted controlling witch that she is.


Up belongs to Pixar.
Granny Goodness belongs to Warner Bros./DC comics.

Down a Rabbit Hole and Up to Neverland

From the beginning, Walt Disney's studio has produced animated films based off fairy tales like Snow White, Pinocchio and Cinderella. Each one has heartwarming characters that make the audience fall in love with them. One film however was a living hell for Walt to make.

In 1991, Disney launched Alice in Wonderland. Walt considered the idea of using Alice during the making of Snow White, but didn't have the time. The real struggle with this project was that Walt had to make sure it followed Lewis Carol's story which meant he had no freedom like he had had in making the others.

The film did not do well in theaters eating away all the money he had earned form Cinderella. The problem with the film was that the characters seemed to be too robotic. The movie is a series of events where Alice meets nothing but madness and strife. This gave Walt no creative freedom which he really wanted to have.

For Snow White she had the Seven Dwarfs and the forest animals to comfort her. Cinderella had the birds and mice to give her company. But what did Alice get? Everywhere she went, no one bothered to help her. All the residents of Wonderland only cared about themselves and were always against Alice.

The only character in the movie who was willing to assist Alice was The Doorknob. When Alice wanted to find the White Rabbit or escape form the Queen of Hearts, the Doorknob was there to instruct her. Ironically, the Doorknob was never from the book, which may explain why he was more comforting than the rest of the characters!

Despite its criticism and failure, if it wasn't for Alice in Wonderland there may not have been a movie for Peter Pan.

Kathryn Beaumont was a young actress who played Alice and later did the voice of Wendy for Peter Pan. Amazingly, Alice and Wendy have a lot in common in that they have some of the same facial features and have the same personalities of being dreamers.

The opening song that Alice sings called "In my Own World" was originally going to be "The Second Star to the Right" that is now heard in the beginning of Peter Pan.

Alice in Wonderland lacks the heart which can be seen in the previous Disney films. But today, it is still considered to be an animated masterpiece cherished by Disney fans young and old.


All images above belong to: http://cayk.tripod.com/tour.html

Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan belong to the Walt Disney Company.

Under the Sea

The Little Mermaid (1989) is considered to be the savior of traditional 2-D animation that has inspired future films like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. Its beautiful animation and magnificent musical numbers such as "Part of Your World," "Under the Sea" and "Kiss the Girl" are what truly make this film a masterpiece.

What also deserves credit are its three grand stars.

• The adventurous and rebellious mermaid, Ariel.
  
• The musical Jamaican crab, Sebastian.
• The villainous sea witch, Ursula.

These three characters provide charm and appeal that capture the hearts of the audience.

Flounder is cute and is a character that gives someone for Ariel to talk to while Scuttle provides comic relief with his so-called knowledge of the human world.

Prince Eric, the human who stole Ariel's hearts, is a different story. Like the other princes in past Disney films, Eric's character is too dry. He falls in love with Ariel so fast that he immediately wants to get hitched without getting to know her enough.

King Triton happens to be more scary than Ursula. He always acts like a loose cannon whenever his daughter Ariel disobeys him. Although he gets mad at Ariel often, its only because he is being a caring parent. This however leads to the following flaw of the film.

Even though Ariel is constantly scolded by her father or Sebastian, she never learns a lesson in the story at all. You'd think she'd feel a bit more responsible for the stress and mayhem she puts her friends and family through. She got lucky that her dad somehow was able to use the same magic to turn her human again.

This may be because the original fairy tale had a grimmer ending. The Disney animation staff most likely wanted The Little Mermaid to have a happy ending. Thanks to this movie there are people who are still inspired by art of 2-D animation.

The Little Mermaid belongs to Disney.

Raiders of the Lost Duck

DuckTales The Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp (1990) is a spin-off movie on the DuckTales series as well as a giant satire of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It is not considered to be a classic like The Little Mermaid, but instead an extended episode. Despite that, this movie is a cherished memory from my childhood.

The story involves two brand new characters. One being a plot-device the other a villain.

The Genie from the magic lamp befriends Huey, Dewie and Louie. In contrast to the one in Aladdin, his dream is to be a real boy. Unlike the little wooden puppet, the Genie is a tad annoying and behaves more like an adult.

The evil wizard, Merlock, is the main villain of the film. With his green talisman he is capable of transforming into any beast such as a hawk, a bear, a rat... even a griffin. What I like about him is that he's very evil and serious like Jafar and is voiced by the same act who did Rasputin from Anastasia.

DuckTales the Movie: The Treasure of the Lost Lamp belongs to Disney.

The Greatest of Cybertron

Dinobot is a warrior continuously driven by his code of honor. His story began in Beast Wars where he was one of the Predacons under Megatron's leadership that stole the Golden Disk.

Once he escapes towards prehistoric Earth, Dinobot takes the form of a velociraptor. His arrival on the planet gives Dinobot doubts that he is on the right planet and makes him believe Megatron is too incompetent to lead the Predacons to victory. After unsuccessfully rebelling against Megatron, Dinobot confronts the Maximals and then sides with them.

Throughout the series, Dinobot at first has trouble cooperating with the Maximals. He always questions Optimus Prime's decisions and obsessively cares about taking down Megatron.

He develops a rivalry with Rattrap and they argue and call each other names like Chopper-face (for Dinobot) and Vermin ( for Rattrap).

Over the course of Beast Wars, Dinobot grows to respect each of his new comrades, but he would rather die than admit it. There are times he feels concerned about what his fate will be when the Maximals win since he is considered to be a criminal back home on Cybertron.

In the second season of the series, Dinobot realizes that Megatron was right and that the planet they were fighting on was in fact Earth. Afraid that Megatron's ideals could actually change the future, Dinobot returns to his former allegiance with the Predacons.

As a test of loyalty, Megatron orders Dinobot to extinguish Rattrap who arrives thinking Dinobot was captured by the Predacons. Unable to take out his former teammate, Dinobot turns against Megatron.

Despite Dinobot's betrayal, Optimus is willing to welcome him back. Rattrap, however, is not so forgiving. Willing to make amends, Dinobot decides to hunt down Megatron.

From a distance, Dinobot witnesses Megatron planning to launch an attack on a valley where the first early humans reside. Knowing there was little time to call for back up, Dinobot stands his ground to protect the existence of the human race.

Source of all images from: unicron.us/

Ignoring all the damage he took, Dinobot sacrifices himself to prevent Megatron from succeeding. Once the Maximals arrive, it is too late. His last words to his comrades are: "Tell my tale to those who ask. Tell it truly, the ill deeds along with the good, and let me be judged accordingly. The rest... is silence."

Here is a three part link to Code of Hero, the episode that shows Dinobot's heroic sacrifice:

Code of Hero part 1

Code of Hero part 2

Code of Hero part 3

Beast Wars belongs to both Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment.