#I'm a 90s kid we had weird cartoons

[arainmorn-art]

Guys, I just had right now a weird memory unlocked. Does anyone of you remember an animated show about little amphibian kids (they were anthopomorphic, I remember one of them, a boy, having blond hair with bangs) travelling through the swamp and being stalked by some evil force that might turn them into toadstool fungi? And in some episodes they met their old friend, and a little girl was screaming: "Oh no! He turned into a toadstool!" - looking at the mushroom. It felt really dark. It wasn't a dream, I know it, because there were couple of times when I've seen it on TV, but never could catch up the schedule to watch it fully. I was in the kindergarten, but I swear it wasn't a dream!

I'm currently watching a video about fungus for my comic and my brain is telling me weird stories from the past.

[fuck-customers]

I guess I didn't get the memo about today being Raging Bitch day because holy fuck these people were intense.

First, a Karen comes to my register and announces that she has a return.

As per store policy, I ask if she has her receipt, she does not. I tel her that without a receipt, we can only give her the lowest price in the last 90 days, as per store policy. But she is welcome to take her items and come back another time with her receipt.

Her: So how much would I get back from the lowest price?

I scan her items and tell her the price. I forgot the actual dollar amounts, but you get the idea.

Me: So the lowest price for this item is $19.99 and this one is $21.99 so you'll get $45.36 for your entire return.

Her: That's UNACCEPTABLE! I paid $75 for that! You're STEALING from me!

Me: I'm sorry, but since you don't have your receipt, I have no way of verifying what you paid, and store policy says that without a receipt, you can only get back the lowest price in the last 90 days. But again, there is no time limit, so you're more than welcome to do the return later when you find your receipt.

Her, going Karen mode: NO! You're going to give me back what I paid. You're STEALING FROM ME!

Me: Ma'am, when you purchase something from a store, it does not go directly to the employee. I couldn't steal it from you if I wanted to.

This goes on for a minute or so of me telling a grown woman no and her throwing a temper tantrum, then I call up a manager and a lead arrives. The lead tells her nearly word-for-word what I told her and ends up in the same argument loop for 10 minutes or so, during which I ring up other customers. Lead eventually calls up store manager, who, shocker, tells the woman the exact same thing that I and the lead before her told her.

Eventually, after a combined total of around 30 minutes, she gets it through her stupid head that she's not going to get her way and leaves without doing the return, yelling weird vague threats that sound like a cartoon villain. She didn't say "you'll rue the day!" but it would fit better in the story if she did.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!

About 5-10 minutes later, she comes slinking back into the store. Guess who found her receipt? You'll never guess. Of course not a single apology was uttered or even an acknowledgement of how ridiculous she was acting was made. I processed her return with receipt and she was on her way. She didn't utter a single word the entire time. Just to make her feel like the asshole that she is, I was sickly sweet in my tone of voice and overly friendly just to emphasize what a bitch she was being. I felt bad for the kid that was with her, I'm not sure if he was her son, grandson, nephew, etc, but he seemed all too used to her being a Karen in stores. I sort of wish he had the guts to stand up to her and tell her to knock it off, but I can understand why he didn't.

Then I had several other smaller interactions that basically amounted to: stupid customer can't read ->customer is already in a bad mood ->takes it out on me->I'm not a pushover and I'm one of the best and most knowledgeable workers at this store and everyone knows it so I am unlikely to get fired unless I do something extreme, so I push back-> customer argues for several minutes and eventually either gives up or demands manager->manager can't do thing for them->argue->eventually accept fate and leave.

Posted by admin Rodney

[night-lie]

so while i was making this gif for my deathnotetober entry for "chess" i noticed something... weird. i mentioned it in the tags but i can't not elaborate.

do you see it too? the side closest to us has TWELVE squares. that's not a standard grid size. there are EIGHT squares going in the other direction, which IS standard.

"surely that can't be right," i said.

well. buckle up.

here’s a quick edit with a neon green outline for the edge of the board and the vertical row that's easiest to count. it really is that size. can this be anything but an error?

EDIT: just for clarity, here's another sc with brightened colors so you can see that the surface in the gap between his face and shoulders is the floor, not the board.

what if the animators were just copying what obata drew? i went to find the corresponding scene in the manga. volume 11, chapter 90.

6x6. not a chessboard size, but heaps more normal than the anime one, even without half of the squares colored in. (they are colored in the color version of the manga.)

the board has some... noneuclidean properties, though.

these are from the same page. on the right it still looks like 6x6 at least from the horizontal row i can see, but the left seems much bigger to me. or maybe i'm starting to lose it?

the board makes another appearance in chapter 93 with this being the best angle of it. unfortunately it's impossible to say how far behind the speech bubble the grid extends.

it's also difficult to count how many squares the rows we do see are. the third row from the left with misa looks like it 7 squares? because why the hell not.

it shows up one last time in chapter 94, after which near stops using it. probably got tired of it changing sizes.

let's check for more apperances in the anime, since we've looked at episode 33 already.

episode 34 and it's. it's freaking 6x6 like in the manga!

the noneuclidean properties strike again. peep the blue arrow pointing to another white square. the row is at least 7 squares.

LUCKILY the board makes no futher appeances after this. the 12x8 scene has not been fixed in ReLight 2.

*deep breath*

so. we've established it's not a chess board, or if it is, there's an error with it. (i'm not gonna blame animators who probably had someone breathing down their neck to work faster. errors happen. obata drew it wrong originally, too, if it's supposed to be a chess board).

but i'm still not fully satisfied. is there anything this could be, diagetically?

my best guess, a checkers board (though i suppose the wammy's kids would call it a draughts board). i have a reason for that, other than the 8x8 boards being interchangeable between the two games.

this quick moment of near knocking down the kira legos with a cork gun.

both in the in the manga and anime he fires two shots BUT it looks like the cork bounces from kira to x-kira, knocking them over. with one move, near knocks over two figurines.

this is called jumping. you've probably seen a cartoon where someone comically jumps over all of someone else's pieces and cinches the win. i would have put a gif of that here but i couldn't remember any.

checkers is often seen as a more juvenile version of chess, like how near is younger than L. L plays chess, near plays checkers. checkers is the "easier" game. it's not a fair comparison, though. they use the same base concept, they have pawns and a king (/queen, depending on language), but the differences are too big to really claim they're the same.

just like L and near.

checkers is, in fact, older than chess. they played a variation of checkers in ur. freaking UR. ancient mesopotamia. 3000 BC. a variation of chess can be tracked back to only the seventh century. that's AD. did you know that?? i wouldn't have if i didn't look it up.

so, now i just need to find a variation of checkers with a 12x8 grid on the board from the wikipedia list. be right back. shouldn't take long.

*genuenly, a two hour long rabbit hole later*

so. bad news.

there's no 12x8 board. there's ARE 12x12 boards which is great, but not what i was after. there's only ONE variant with an uneven grid, a 6x4, in a game called tobit. it looks like this.

...i give up.

post cancelled. thanks for reading.

i'm gonna go mahjong.

[gothicprep]

i'm currently reading a book called "you are what you watch" by walt hickey. the chapter i'm on right now is called "commerce and culture and commence", and what hickey is describing in this chapter is something similar to a flywheel – the idea of a book or movie or tv show leading to people buying merchandise, which in turn leads to them going to amusement parks. he's zeroing in on a very specific part of pop history that i had completely forgotten about, the warner brothers' studio store. it's discussed as the missing link between the entire history of pop culture before the 90s and everything that's followed since then.

hickey explains that, before the wb store was innovated, pop culture merch was for children. tv shows about batman, for example, didn't lead to adults wearing shirts about batman. it was all targets to kids. disney locked in on this idea of connecting merchandise to films very, very early. the empire strikes back was the one that really capitalized on this in particular, but star wars in general realized again that you can sell toys to children based on the thing they'd seen. but the thing that warner bros studio store did is that they tapped into the aging boomer audience that had money and were nostalgic. bear in mind, this is 1991, so boomers at the time would have been in their 30s and 40s.

after batman came out in 1989, it was the biggest movie of the year, so wb produced a little bit of adult merch for it, and it sold out almost immediately. then they quickly realized that there was a big demand for batman pins and memorabilia from those boomers. this wasn't just nerds in fandom spaces, these were genuinely mainstream individuals. again, this was the biggest movie of the year.

if you look at the warner brother's library, it's not the cuddly mickey mouse stuff. it's the snarky looney tunes stuff. so wb thinks to themselves, "hey, we're in the 90s. this could work." hearing the people interviewed in the book talk about the development of the store is so interesting because they immediately realized where their strengths were – ignore kids entirely, try to poach people from department stores and design studios instead, and make the kinds of things that people will want to actually buy, except it has daffy duck on it.

what really jumped out to me was that the pop culture artifacts became representations of identity, and wb basically discovered this accidentally. there's a moment in the book about the specific looney tunes characters being targeted to specific groups of people. the consumers didn't want all the looney tunes on their shirt, they wanted one specific character. they had no idea this identity component even existed until they started selling stuff.

the architect of this was a woman named linda postell, who's interviewed in the book. she mentions that, early on in development, all the men who would buy foghorn leghorn stuff would all basically look the same. if they bought harley davidson, they were a taz guy. etc.

there are a lot of looney tunes characters, and wb mined their archives to appeal to more people. before the store concept, marvin the martin was only in about 20 minutes of the cartoon in the aggregate. they slap him on merch, and suddenly, the IT guy has him on his mug because he's persnickety. within a few years, marvin is refereeing space jam. the people who pulled this off were fucking geniuses. you're not only evoking memories of someone's childhood, you're doing it in a way that articulates something about that person in the process.

i'm a millennial, and my generation sorted itself into one of four hogwarts houses. we had that burst of post-apocalyptic fiction that required people to sort themselves into one of five classes. there was star wars and their weird "are you the light side, or the dark side?" campaign. this strategy has been employed by people in the entertainment industry where content design is all a downstream of this.

this next bit isn't in the book at all. it's just my hot take. but i feel like this has been actively destructive to the world of culture criticism, consumption, and enjoyment in very real and specific ways. in what we see in so many of the arguments over things like star wars, there's this thing that's like "star wars is my identity, so i have to defend what i believe to be the correct version of star wars". or, "marvel is my identity, and i can't stand dc people". or vice versa, "dc is my identity. i love zack snyder movies. these marvel movies are trash. put them on the curb". the adaptation of culture around this tribal behavior, imo, has made it very difficult to actually make culture that's resonant while also not allowing itself to give in to that competitive nature.

if you were to consider the release pattern and the mentality around the snyder cut, it becomes difficult to disentangle it from this. there was an underdog perception around it, despite the fact that these are fans of one of the two biggest comic book universes in the world. "i have been wronged. i have ought to be compensated for this in the form of a film made to my specifications."

there are elements of it that, ugh, good isn't the word... i guess allowed us to understand a deeper reason why some things resonate with us and others don't. with sitcoms and relating to a specific character, rather than the entire ensemble cast, is sometimes how people get clued in on a specific show. that was the case with friends and cheers. having on-ramps into pop culture for different people isn't the worst thing in the world. and understanding that people do take this seriously enough that they can articulate an element of their identity through it is not bad.

that being said, these are publicly traded corporations that have a fiduciary obligation to shareholders to maximize value. as a result, sometimes we're gonna get things that play off this instinct in a way that are unhealthy for pop culture and culture as a whole.

so, impressive as the development process was was, they were cracking something open there in the desert that cannot be put back.

[tmnt-tychou]

Hello again!!

I have another character for you!! How about Splinter?? 😄

Thanks as always!! 😊

Sorry this took me a while to get to, it's been a busy week. But I am LOVING these and thank you to everyone who submitted asks. This is the most asks I've ever received and I have greatly enjoyed this. A Tier: 90's movie Splinter: This is a rat Splinter. He is a good dad and tries his best. This man loves his sons. Also, easily the most frail of all the Splinters, but still manages to toss Shredder off a building.

2003: Another rat Splinter. This man loves his sons and also loves his father, Hamato Yoshi. He is wise, caring, and very invested in in his sons' lives.

2012: A Hamato Yoshi Splinter. I love this Splinter so much. I think he is my favorite thing to come out of 2012. This man is Dad Vibes so much! He loves his kids and he wants them to have the best lives he can provide. I also love that we got this massive more human-sized Splinter. Just love him all around.

B Tier: 80's cartoon Splinter: A Hamato Yoshi Splinter, he has a great design and amazing voice actor. He is calm, he is zen and fatherly. He looses points because he never calls the turtles his sons. They are always "My turtles/pupils/students." The very first time I heard Splinter call the boys his sons was in the 90's movie and it blew my little mind. (Note, I'm not sure if maybe they changed it in the last seasons where they were trying to be more like the live action movies. It's been so long, I don't remember.)

2007 Splinter: I THINK this is a Hamato Yoshi Splinter? This is a hard one for me because everything in the movie is good. I love his design, I love his VA, I love his lines and how he interacts with the turtles. But there was just something OFF about the whole of the 2007 movie and I figured it out by reading the comics that take place before the movie. In which Splinter picks Leonardo ONLY to go on this world tour for vague reasons while the others are stuck at home. Raphael is immediately hurt and angry at the blatant favoritism. Don and Mikey look like they are so used to it, they don't even argue anymore. Leo is so much the golden child in this movie it hurts me in my soul. Splinter is a terrible father, but he was fine on screen if you take the movie at face value.

C Tier: Next Mutation Splinter: I don't recall if it was ever clear if he was a ran or Hamato Yoshi. He knew Venus' dad, so maybe Hamato Yoshi? He gives off these prancy, gay dad vibes which are kind of fun and fresh for a Splinter. (He plays chess out in the park late at night with his blind boyfriend.) He doesn't do too much to parent his extremely dumbass kids. Maybe since they're 18 he's decided they are their own problem now. And while the turtle suits are pretty nice for a TV production, the rat suit is BAAAAD.

Bayverse Splinter: This one makes no sense. Any Splinter that takes out Hamato Yoshi completely really throws off the universe. Why is he so Asian coded when he has no Asian influence in his life aside from finding a book on martial arts? It's weird. Other than that, he's fine in the movies.

Rise Splinter: A Hamato Yoshi Splinter. I like that we got a Splinter where you can really see the depression from being turned into a rat. And you can see how the turtles turned out to be different people: Leo and Raph especially, without Splinter there to be an influence on the group dynamic. But the characterization doesn't make sense. He says he loves his boys, but he doesn't always know their names? I know this was played for laughs, but the characterization wasn't there. Also minus points for the god-awful character design. Again, I know dad-bod Splinter was played for laughs, but...we had to look at it.

Mutant Mayhem Splinter: Again, another Splinter without Hamato Yoshi that makes no sense. However, he is a GOOD dad who loves his sons and does his best to keep his family together. I love this idea that he is a shut in because he is actually scared of the surface. I do have a hard time buying he is a martial arts master from merely watching kung fu movies. And also minus points for the god-awful character design.

[ilovescaredysquirrel2]

Nickelodeon owes the "fans" an apology...

I'm only saying this because apparently it's the 45th anniversary and Nickelodeon has been hiding some sneaky crap that they still haven't addressed, even after the documentary has come out. Dirty Dan gave a fake apology that sounded scripted, but that's not what we want. We want Nickelodeon, a well known CHILDREN'S network, to apologize for the most perverted, fetishy shows in existence, and also putting child actors at risk for over 20 years! Dirty Dan Schneider was working for that network since the 90s and he came out with a fake apology right after the documentary came out. We just want Dan Schneider to be IN PRISON, with John Kricfalusi, Chris Savino, James Charles, and Colleen Ballinger.

Nickelodeon needs to apologize by having a restriction against hiring children for live action shows, and also make a public announcement and apologize to all the kids who were involved in the shows, and also the fans. Apologize for putting the most fetishy, disgusting content in shows for a children's network, and also get rid of everything that isn't suitable. Not just the Dirty Dan shows, but also some of the cartoons (Like Ren & Stimpy and Loud House) should be banned as well. It's sickening that Nickelodeon even allowed that stuff in the first place. I think the Dan Schneider stuff is the worst, though. Also, inform people that you will no longer hire minors for live action shows, if you make any at all. I think Nickelodeon should have a restriction against being allowed to make live action shows after all they've done. Last of all, there are other changes that need to be made! Now that the perverted stuff is gone, it's time to bring back the shows that were more suitable for kids.

Early SpongeBob episodes were amazing, but there's others I hope Nickelodoen should bring back too;

CatDog (even though it had some subtle dirty jokes, and some episodes got a bit too heavy, it had some good messages. It was also ahead of its time)

Doug (It was made by Jim Jinkins, same guy who worked on Pinky Dinky Do so of course it's family friendly)

Rugrats (Some things didn't age well, but at least it was better than Dirty Dan's stuff)

Robot & Monster (It was weird at times but mostly family friendly)

Harvey Beaks (This show was literally so cute and the episode I watched had a decent mesage)

The Wild Thornberries (Extremely ahead of its time, I heard form someone on YouTube that they did a better job teaching about other cultures than Disney did).

Hey Arnold (I think some episodes get a bit too heavy, and the show can sometimes be straight up sad, but it's relatable and teaches serious issues)

Invader Zim (I know this one was dark and not the best for kids, but at least it's entertaining and not fetishy)

SpongeBob Squarepants, seasons 1 and 2 (it was way more family friendly back then)

So yeah, Nickelodeon! That's only 8 shows listed! You should be able to play them if you remove the Loud house, Ren & Stimpy, and EVERYTHING that has Dan Schneider's name credited. And like I said, NO MORE LIVE ACTION SHOWS PLEASE!

[whywhywhymoney]

Okay this is gonna be such a weird and niche post and maybe a sign I'm not neurotypical (idk never been tested lol) but like, DC comics have such a *vibe* around them that it's hard to explain?

Like, pre-crisis and post-crisis DC is still relatively on the same level in terms of how large the universe feels, especially endgame post-crisis DC. It feels like one long story, with post-crisis gradually becoming more serious and gritty and serialised (although comics were already doing this in the 70s and 80s).

90s and 00s DC universe feels so HUGE and lived in, its like hard to explain? Like any random issue from any run from that time, you kinda get the sense that there's so much else happening than just the story you're reading, it's like you can hear and feel that buzz of life. I know it's weird to think that way about an era of comic books but that's just how it feels. Also, the multiple DC Cartoons coming out at this time and "sharing" a universe in a very gentle way really helps with this feeling. It just feels like this is a really rich place where so much happens and every character means something.

I still remember pre new 52 Captain Marvel, with Billy, Mary and Freddie all turning 18 or 19 and thinking about college etc and dealing with the loss of their powers, plus what it meant for Billy to "grow up" for real. And it was heading in such an interesting direction, just like so many comics runs were! Heroes were having kids, they were growing up, they were working with one another.

Then the new 52 comes along, "simplifies" everything and says heroes have only been around for 5 years and it feels so.... quiet....

Everything feels uncanny, bizarro. There were some good stories for sure, but the good ones you feel like "we could have had this just fine without a reboot".

I think the worst part was that it reset everything to zero in a way DC thinks it needed to compete with manga but was COMPLETELY unnecessary. Everything you loved about these characters abd their decades long growth and history was either gone or compressed. Everyone felt like a shadow of themselves, like they were parodies.

It felt really unnatural when they finally did start making homages to post-crisis continuity, I think the best example are those 2 issues of Batgirl where Barbara teams up with Canary and Helena W Huntress, and it's supposed to be "look guys, remember Birds of Prey? We remember Birds of Prey! Look!"

Except it feels like children pretending to be their older siblings or something and absolutely nothing comes of it. Like yeah. Neat homage. Doesn't make a lick of sense.

I think only NOW are we finally getting back to that frame where the DC universe is so big and populated that anyone can meet anyone but frustratingly there's still some books and characters who just aren't hitting the highs they hit or even following on from where they left off.

I do wanna say I think it's all due to Lian Harper coming back. DC died when she died and came back when she came back and no this isn't self indulgent at all

[sidetable-drawer]

So there's actually only ONE Hallmark Christmas special that's legitimately pretty good and out of everything it's based off of those greeting cards 60-year-old coworkers buy each other:

I was scouring YouTube for some weird/bad Christmas movies and specials to riff on with friends this year when I stumbled upon it. It went direct-to-video in 1999 and IIRC hasn't been released since. I have no idea if this even aired on TV (most likely on Odyssey/Hallmark Channel in the early 2000s but IDK). Expecting a 30 minute ad for the Hallmark Store (seriously, Maxine and Floyd were inescapable there in the 90s), I was actually pleasantly surprised by it- for starters, Everett Peck, who created Duckman, was helming it (and I recognized some Klasky-Csupo names in the credits). Most importantly, Tress MacNeille voices the title character (using the Agnes Skinner voice no less)...and she does an AMAZING job. You can tell she was having a blast with this and now when I see these cards I can't unhear Tress. She's a legend.

Anyway it's a pretty standard Christmas Carol spoof so it's nothing TOO special but I really wasn't expecting to relate to the old lady on the boomer cards so much. They even gave her a "start of darkness" caused by her childhood friends being materialistic assholes which soured her view on people in general (I totally get it). They had to add a ton of new characters to this obviously (which makes me wonder if this was also a backdoor pilot for a primetime cartoon or more specials that ultimately never got picked up), and they gave Maxine a neighbor kid named Billy who's kind of close with her and he's all "my parents said I could invite anyone to the Christmas party so I'm gonna pick the old lady next door who hates everyone" and she even defends him when some kids are throwing snowballs at him (by proceeding to throw snowballs at the other kids) and honestly it's actually pretty adorable. They reminded me of Slappy and Skippy Squirrel and I'm sad we never got more of it. There's also a hilarious "spoof aesop" at the end which is basically "yeah, be nice on Christmas but you can be a miserable asshole every other day of the year!", so they're clearly not taking things too seriously here. I love it.

The main downsides are that for some reason Andy Dick has a voice role in this because IDK it was 1999 but at least he's not in the whole thing, and the only other real downside is that you can tell nobody seemed to know what the target audience for this was. The special itself is pretty PG rated; it's family friendly ENOUGH but there's one bit where Maxine threatens to flip Andy Dick's character off (which is a very appropriate reaction to him in general) and most of the humor is aimed at an older audience, meanwhile the greeting card franchise it was based off of are sold primarily towards the 50-and-up crowd and contain light swearing and innuendo (meaning nothing kids would be buying or receiving), and then this was released by a VHS company primarily for kids (Family Home Entertainment). So I can kiiiiinda see why this didn't take off since they seemed to have no idea who to aim it at (which I also blame on the "it's a cartoon so it MUST be for kids!"), but while nothing classic, is still pretty damn good. Maybe we need more of these (and PLEASE have Tress come back) and less of "successful white single career woman in the city goes back to her childhood home in the country and meets some white guy who convinces her to have more Christmas spirit and leave her successful high-paying job so she can be a housewife".

Also Floyd. Look at this dog. I love this dog.

[soleminisanction]

What do you think Stephanie does when she’s alone? Does she have any canon hobbies besides crime fighting and linking up with various vigilantes?

Not that I'm aware of, at least not canonically.

I mean, there's sewing of course -- unless you're Brian Q. Miller and that's too girly a skill for your special Not-Like-Other-Girls hero. And journaling, possibly including art/cartooning embellishments since she has been shown to draw or doodle on occasion, though it's been a very long time since we last got a "Dear Dairy" " caption from her. (Which really is a waste given how elaborate journaling as a hobby has gotten -- imagine the fun that could be had from like, filling the gutters with her bullet-journaling notes)

And there's been the occasional one-off hobby the only gets mentioned in passing. She's shown playing ping-pong in an issue of her Batgirl run and as a member of her high school gymnastics team in some special somewhere.

Aaaand at least once in the 90s she was shown hanging out at the mall. Which I file in a similar vein as the two or three times recently writers have sent her and Cass (plus or minus a random assortment of Babs, Tim, Bernard, Harper, etc.) to "the club" for some nondescript dancing -- less of a hobby that says anything about Steph herself and more of a Generic Thing that Cool Kids These Days Do, so Steph does it because She's Cool.

And... That's it. So far as I know. Like I've said in the past, they don't really put much focus on who Steph is and what she wants outside of the caped life, and after 30 years, a solo series and a series where she was functionally the deurotagonist, it's a little weird.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Another IP-based picture to add to the Warner Bros. Pictures Animation pile.

A new Tom & Jerry movie scripted by Will McCormack, Rashida Jones, and Michael Govier... A film, whether it's animated or another hybrid, that might end in the two parting ways... After 84+ years of being onscreen together. Get it? Because McCormack and Jones blueprinted much of TOY STORY 4, the movie where Woody leaves the Bonnie's room gang for a nomadic life with Bo Peep. (Though he appears to pay visits to his old pals, if the TOY STORY 5 concept art is anything to go by.)

Anyways... We've had two theatrical Tom & Jerry movies, and there were some live-action pictures where at least one character from the long-running franchise made an appearance. Like those MGM musicals, ANCHORS AWEIGH and such.

And it appears none of the Tom & Jerry movies never really got it right in the eyes of critics and observers. I never saw the 2021 hybrid movie, but I did see the 1992 film. I distinctly remember, at age 9-ish... Approx 2001/02... I was going through a Tom & Jerry phase. Cartoon Network aired hour-long blocks of the theatrical shorts (from the MGM/Hanna-Barbera classics all the way up to the end of Chuck Jones' run in the late '60s) daily, and being a classic animation enthusiast already, I was hooked. I was completely unaware back then that there was a MOVIE. To my knowledge, Cartoon Network never aired it back then. At least, whenever I was able to watch some tube.

One day at the video store, looking for Tom and Jerry VHSes to rent... There it was. I was pumped! There was a Tom and Jerry MOVIE??? That wasn't that new-ish MAGIC RING thing? And it came out back in 1992? (There was a copyright on the tape label) I rented it ASAP... Watched it... And was less caught off guard by the two of them talking, and more caught off guard by how similar it was to THE RESCUERS in its storyline. I remember feeling kinda "nothing" when finishing it. And then the next night of my weekend, I gave it one more whirl... And, yeah, it didn't leave much of an impression. It was basically Discount RESCUERS with Tom and Jerry in it, to me.

Looking at it now, especially since we're well past the late '00s Nostalgia Critic review of it that kinda put it back into "what the hell IS this movie?" spotlight, yeah... TOM & JERRY: THE MOVIE 1992 is a rather unhinged and weird little movie, but I guess in 2001/02, it was par for the course for kid-aged me. We just grew up on weird-ass animated movies, cartoons, and other assorted family entertainment. If not for the internet and reviewers, it might've just faded into obscurity. "Oh, there was a Tom & Jerry movie in the early '90s that kinda stunk? Heh."

All I know about the hybrid movie is that the animation stuff is supposedly the highlight, and it's closer to the classic duo's best work, but falls apart elsewhere.

I honestly don't want for the new one to be a hybrid. There's no reason, IMO, to it. The fun of Tom and Jerry, from the word-go, is that they inhabit a cartoon universe where such slapstick and violence work. That's not to say a hybrid absolutely can't work, because COYOTE VS. ACME is said to be a really good film and the inverse of 2021 T&J, SPACE JAM, etc. More ROGER RABBIT than not. Figures it's the one we don't get to see, because Zaslav is a bum. But unless you've got a really solid premise for the live-action portion, I'm not necessarily game for it. You'll just have another CHIPMUNKS/YOGI BEAR/SMURFS thing.

So, I'm hoping this new Tom & Jerry movie is entirely animated. Stylized, if you will. A CG picture that's very 2D-like and painterly, that looks like a 3D version of the banger MGM cartoons made circa 1943-1950. Otherwise, I have nothing else to say until I hear more about it. But it goes to show, that cat and mouse are an everlasting flavor.

[jupitercl0uds]

im in a 'screw you tails i love you so much mood' so heres a random thought i had about his name. maybe it strives from canon cause theres always more sonic lore i dont know but i dont care. id imagine tails has backstories i dont know/cant think of right now but most of those probably arent canon anymore, due to being from additional media (comics, cartoons etc) from the 90s. anyway, here's my take:

mildly linked to my weird sonic timeline theory. you dont have to read the whole thing, but you'll need to know that i like to think that sonic is 11 and tails is 5 in the classic games

obviously his name, miles prower, doesn't fit the typical mobian naming structure. he should be miles the fox. so maybe he wasnt raised by mobians.

i'm going to abuse this.

his mother, miss prower, whatever her name was, was a single mother. she adopted him as a baby and named him miles. she mostly overlooked her son's birth defect because he loved her so much and thought the world of her. she tried to as well, but in the back of her mind, her son was a freak

when her son grew a little older, she noticed more oddities about him. he didn't understand the world. perhaps that was just him being young. he couldn't stand half the food she fed him. probably just a picky eater. he couldn't speak as well as his peers. that could happen sometimes. he would fidget all the time. he could just be hyperactive. he had an obsessive fascination with engineering - he would rant to her for hours at a time (if she let him) and could build so many little... things. things a 4 year old shouldn't be able to build.

it was too obvious to ignore by this point. he was definitely autistic. she tried to love him - after all, he loved her. but she couldn't. he was a freak. so, one day in november, she went out with tails and came back home alone.

eventually, tails was found by sonic, aged 5. sonic protected him from bullies. you know the story from there.

occasionally, tails talks of his mother. it's always loving. one day, aged 13, sonic decided to find 'prower' in the phone book and called his mother. surely, if her son loved her so much, she did too! he didn't want to say goodbye to his brother, but it would be for the benefit of tails and his mother.

tails was fast asleep in another room. after all, he wanted to surprise his brother. sonic dialled the number.

'hello?' 'hi! this is sonic the hedgehog! are you mrs prower?' 'miss. i've never married.' 'sorry, miss. uh, your son, miles-' 'has he bitten someone at nursery again?' 'no miss, miles! the fox with the two tails? the one that went missing? he's alive and well!' 'he is?' 'yeah! he's asleep right now, cause i wanna surprise him. we can arrange a date, place, time, and get together, if you-' 'i abandoned him.'

this was the first time she had ever admitted it. she knew it was wrong. plagued with guilt. but admitting it felt good. that weight had been lifted off her shoulders. and placed onto sonic's.

'what?' 'i tried to love him - after all, he loved me. but nobody wanted to see me with a weird mobian fox baby. i hated that freakish second tail. and he was just so... weird. i have a different miles now. in my eyes, that other one is dead in the alley i "lost" him in.' 'but- mrs-' 'miss' 'miss prower... how could you even do that? he's not weird, or freakish, he's' 'goodbye'

sonic decided he wouldn't tell tails until he was old enough to realise kids don't get lost that easily. whenever that would be.

for now, he'd be blissfully unaware.

[veryimportantsparkles]

I had this idea in my head for months and never got around to it. From the Laserwing villain cast, Tina is the insufferably quirky memelord one. So of course her spotify playlist was going to have Caramelldansen on the cover. Of course.

Laserwing character playlists are ongoing works in progress that I add stuff to sporadically. Not everyone has theirs yet. Some don't have their covers yet. So far we have:

Tony: Anime and video game themes, Queen, and for some reason, ska. All the hallmarks of a nerd who isn't actually into music.

Matt: 70s and 80s rock, with a sci-fi theme whenever possible, with a few more modern things peppered in when they really speak to his personality.

Josh: Emo and goth and pop punk with a lean towards bad relationship songs.

Mistaire: Basic Becky 80s tunes you can dance to, with very little further depth to be found.

Clarisse: Chaste churchgirl 90s pop with a few anime and cartoon songs peppered in. The music you'd hear on the mall speakers when you went to buy your Neopets merch from Limited Too in the year 2001.

Marjolaine: Classic goth and a little metal, with modern goth and emo mixed in if they're 'sophisticated enough' (has piano in it). She likes to hear songs about how amazing a girl is and pretend she's that girl.

Contrabrigands: One song for each of the villain kids, this was their team playlist from before I split them up into their own individual playlists.

Lance: Cynical punk and ska, with some covers of 80s songs that would be on his mom's playlist...if she had one. Songs about questioning authority, and occasionally feeding Lance's messiah complex.

Renei: Any song you'd hear accompanying a rad action scene in an 80s move. Songs you can punch bricks to. Songs for overcoming opponents to. Songs with no emotional vulnerability or time for contemplation. Karate!!!

Eli: A complex blend of light, airy, new-age relaxation and dark, plummeting violent crisis. Songs about magic, the supernatural, and general paranoia are constant. The only light that cuts through the darkness is love.

Marina: The kind of playlist that serves as a warning, don't date this girl. Unstable, troubled, constantly oscillating between the victim and the abuser, and kind of pretentious on top of it all. As many nautically-themed songs as I could keep within that mood.

Heather: Songs about stardom, fame, and beauty punctuated by screaming feminist punk. Lyrics you can photoshop onto a grungy selfie after you let your mascara run.

Zack: A political edgelord in a fine tailored suit, with a historical hyperfixation on East Germany and the Cold War. Zack feels most comfortable when you aren't sure what he actually believes.

Draco: Metal, both regular and nu, with a little anime (also metal). Hits incredible synergy with Zack somehow, because a weird number of songs on the Zack playlist have nu-metal covers.

Tina: Upbeat danceable memelord jams. The kind of insufferable shit you'd put on blast before trotting onto the convention center floor in your best cosplay and/or fursuit. Peppered with some songs I actually think suit her, which are nigh-indistinguishable from the meme songs in most cases.

Characters without playlists yet who will definitely get them at some point: Pauline, Taylor, Jenny, Sylvette

Characters who should get playlists but I have NO idea what I'm gonna put on them because this character is hard to pick for: Trieg, Victoria

These genuinely help me focus on making Laserwing, most of the time. Sometimes. When I'm not doing other things, like picking songs for the playlists.

[patrickmdunn]

every simpsons ever: the simpsons christmas special, or, not quite episode one

If you’re a person of a certain age—cough 43—this was probably your initiation into the wild, wonderful world of Springfield. Everyone watched it. And by everyone, I mean my entire second-grade class. The day after it aired, we gathered like a council of cartoon critics in the school cafeteria during indoor recess. Because, naturally, in cold New England, that’s where we burned off our winter wiggles, and dissected this bizarre new show. Back then, we didn’t realize it was the start of a series; we all just assumed it was some weird one-off fever dream. I mean, I was way too young to even know what The Tracey Ullman Show was, so these wacky yellow characters were completely foreign to me.

But there was one thing we all agreed on: we all wanted to be Bart Simpson. This kid was the ultimate rebel—edgy, cool, and completely fearless. I mean, he got a tattoo at the mall and dropped the iconic line, "I'm Bart Simpson, who the hell are you?" It was like watching the '90s version of Dennis the Menace, only way more badass. And, mind you, the '90s were still a few weeks away. Bart was already ahead of the curve, showing us how to stick it to the man before we even knew who "the man" was.

The plot centered on the holiday struggles of the Simpson family—middle class, just like most of us. They relied on the classic financial strategy of saving up cash in a giant glass pickle jar to fuel the annual ritual of worshiping at the altar of commercialism on Jesus' birthday. You know, like any sensible family. But, in a twist that only Bart could pull off, he decided to get a tattoo. And, of course, Marge, the level-headed matriarch, had to drain the entire jar to get it laser removed.

Luckily for Marge, Homer still had his Christmas bonus to save the day—except, plot twist, he didn’t. Turns out, Mr. Burns decided to cancel that festive perk, leaving Homer scrambling to save their so-called "Best Christmas Ever." His solution? A part-time gig as a mall Santa, because nothing oozes "holiday spirit" like an underpaid dad in a rented beard. But after taxes, union dues, and whatever mysterious fees they slap on fake Santas, Homer walks away with a grand total of about thirteen bucks and some change. Naturally, the next logical step is to head straight to the dog track, hoping to turn that into a holiday jackpot. Spoiler alert: he doesn’t. Instead of cash, the family ends up with a scrappy, loveable greyhound named Santa’s Little Helper.

The structure is simple and linear, setting the tone for future episodes. Homer is portrayed as well-meaning but deeply flawed, overwhelmed by the weight of being the family’s breadwinner; but he hasn’t yet fully devolved into the bumbling fool we’d later know him as. Marge is competent and loving, the glue holding the family together. Lisa is already wise beyond her years, but still very much a kid. And Maggie? Well, she's just doing baby things, like sucking on her pacifier and occasionally making you wonder if she knows more than she lets on.

Ned Flanders makes his first appearance too, though he’s a much milder version of the religious zealot he’ll evolve into. Only one of his kids shows up—Rod or Todd, who knows? But Ned’s just the annoyingly perfect neighbor Homer struggles to keep up with, not yet the hyper-holy thorn in his side. And it works. Patty and Selma are also here in all their cynical glory, questioning, as they always will, why Marge chose Homer over literally any other man on the planet. 

The humor in this episode is gentler than what The Simpsons would later become known for, leaning on situational comedy to tell the story. The satire is toned down, but it does manage to poke fun at the rampant commercialism of Christmas. It’s simple yet elegant, reminding us that Christmas isn’t really about maxing out your credit cards—it’s about family and togetherness. And it manages to deliver that message without drowning in the sugary sentimentality that is seen on most holiday specials.

Homer’s journey from despair to redemption works because it’s relatable. There’s no magical windfall, no unexpected Christmas miracle. Instead, Homer just ends up with a dog no one wanted, and somehow, that brings the family joy. It’s the perfect mix of grounded realism and heartwarming charm. While it may not be the flashiest or most sophisticated episode in Simpsons history, it’s undeniably crucial in shaping the show’s identity and securing its place among holiday TV classics.

Four out of five squeaky porkchop dog toys

[90s-2000s-barbie]

Hello, Megan! How are you doing? I was wondering if you have any tips for someone wanting to start a 90s/2000s collection like yours.

Where do you shop? How long did it take to accumulate your collection?

Last question might be weird but do you sleep in the room in the photos? The reason I ask is because I want to make my room look like that but I'm a little worried about what people will think...

Hi! This is a great questions and literally anyone can do it and affordable! So I’ve been collecting my whole life but I started going super into it in 2009. Not only do I collect nostalgia, I collect about anything I would see and like, antiques, records vintage clothes, toys, ex. What started my interest is I just saw something a couple antiques i wanted at goodwill and passed it up and I would never live it down. I will forever remember is and kick myself in the ass for it. I said that’s it, I’m not regretting leaving something so cool behind in fear of being judged.

Even though I started in 2009, I will admit, no one has to break bank to start collecting. The best place to start is goodwill, local thrift stores, flea markets, garage sales. I don’t pay much for anything I own in my collection. One time I thrifted an entire huge box full of vintage McDonald’s toys for $2! It’s very simple to do. Some garage sales, people were so tired of selling, they would tell me to have things for free! Like I’m doing them a favor getting rid of the items. lol u really don’t need to spend much.

I started collecting by going to my local goodwill every week and I’d find a cart FULL of 90’s -2000’s finds and I’d spend like max, $50 for my entire cart and I’d find the coolest stuff, toys, clothes, books, ex.

I leave no stones unturned. Some people hid things at goodwill and wait for the color tag to go on sale so look everywhere! I would go by myself and look for a few hours and pick out everything old, and decide at the end what I LOVE and put back things that I just don’t. I’d find cool 2000’s clothes hidden in the kids clothes! I found a vintage adult sized Powerpuff girls sweater in the kids! People hide stuff everywhere and workers also put things in wrong spots just cause it’s got cartoons on them. lol

So the photos of my room is right before I moved into my own house but YES. I slept in that room for years and everyone that walked in thought it was cool! Now I have childhood friends sending me photos of it and asking why my room is all over the internet! lol 😂 I had 2 beds so I could have my best friends over and have cool sleep overs, all my friends, guys and girls loved it and even my boyfriend loved it when we first started dating. My mom loved it cause it reminded her of when me and my sister were kids. She would come up and hang out with me and we would watch Britney and Backstreet Boys videos. I say, do things FOR YOU. If people aren’t supportive, then that’s there problem. As long as ur responsible and not harming anyone or anything, then there is nothing wrong with u doing what makes u happy! ❤️ If u have anything ur really into, the fashion or toys, ask any questions u want, fill free to ask. Something I always do with everything, is pick something up, look for a year. Sometimes older stuff didn’t always have a year on it. Now they always have years.

Also I don’t make YouTube videos anymore but I do have one thrift haul on my YouTube channel Nostalgic Studioz. Can kinda see what I found going to one goodwill! One store is all it takes. lol

Thanks so much for the ask! I love talking about my hobbies and I hope this helps u too! ❤️❤️

Here is one flea market haul and there is that box I spent 2 dollars on to the right. lol I bought all of this in one place, one day at the local flea market. Ohio’s biggest flea market is like 30 mins away and it’s my FAVORITE place in the world. It’s opened all year around and it’s like a giant garage sale.

[themichigami]

Annoying Spoilers from people and thoughts on Gambit (aka Chanbit)

I've waited long enough, so here we go. Sooo, one of my friends calls me their resident hillbilly translator, any time someone has an american accent usually southern they can't figure out they send me a link and ask me to translate. TWO DAYS before the new deadpool movie is out in theaters here, they message me with a link to a thing all desperately "Miche, Miche, what is he saying?!?" and stupidly i clicked it not knowing... and THIS WAS HOW I FOUND OUT ABOUT GAMBIT BEFORE I WENT TO SEE THE MOVIE!

Let me tell you, i have never been more in a state between utter rage and screeching glee and yet both at the same time in my life. The things they heard from me about it before being put on the "we're not speaking til i'm less mad at you" list have not left a miche's mouth in a long time. And yes, i could translate for em, but did i? no.

Did i secretly rewatch that clip to death til it got removed from twitter before going to the movie myself? mayyyyybe.

First off, I do not find Channing Tatum attractive, he looks like my dad, no really. If you find him attractive, good for you, you probably have the same taste in guys as my mom, which is awesome for you but not my thing. That said, i giggled like an idiot with a giant grin every time even in the theater because he actually managed to finally live his dream and get in the costume after a couple decades of trying, and do a decent job of it onscreen.

Also, yes, I'm annoyed about the eyes. Everything else, good, the eyes, minus fifty points, maybe more. Didn't even need full sclerals just some red lenses, full scleral contacts i'd forgive em not using because I've known enough cosplayers who have trouble with em after long hours, just... they used the Diable Blanc nickname but didn't give him his eyes which was the reason he had the nickname. adding the teeny tiny glow to em using the powers, okay you tried but no star sticker.

The accent, having known a couple people from down that way over the years, yeah not bad that's a damn hard accent to do and it varies all over the place so no one accent covers, could be worse. People are so used to the cartoon version's deliberately fake so that it's easier to understand accent that any attempt at the real thing which is hard as hell to understand already to other people sounds weird, and they were playing it up to be worse for the joke in the movie.

Also, for those who don't know the ancient lore, at one point during the original 90's cartoon casting, they GOT someone with an actual Cajun accent to read for Gambit in the beginning, then decided kids and casual viewers wouldn't be able to understand it so they had another actor IMITATE a watered-down easier-to-understand version of his accent for a test, and decided to go with that idea instead when they cast the final actor.

Buuut, long post is long, so I'll sum up by saying, he may not be the best but he did decent, and i'm slowly no longer ignoring the friend who was a dumbass and spoiled it for me. Also, no, I am not from the south, but get used as the weird accent translator because i am originally from so far deep in the mountains of Appalachia that i had to have several years of speech classes to get rid of the worst of the hillbilly noises i myself made. I still slip once in a while when tired or distracted, but the "city voice" has been in place for around 25/30 years now. One of my first college roommates actually called me Gambit because of it for a few months before i managed to get them to realize I considered it really rude since i was actively trying to hide my own accent at the time. (might also partially have been the fondness for wearing a brown trench coat and bike gloves for most of the late 90's at fault there too)

[felixcloud6288]

Fullmetal Alchemist Chapter 10

This chapter gives me the same vibes as the episode "Joker's Favor" from the 90s Batman cartoon.

2nd Lieutenant Maria Ross and Sergeant Danny Brosh are the real stars of this chapter. They are two very ordinary military officers with no connections to Alchemy, the Elrics, or anything for that matter. And we get to see how freaking weird these boys are through their reactions to everything going on.

Yes, it is weird that a guy walks around in a full suit of armor. It is quite wild to meet someone who can copy thousands of pages from memory. I'd be just as freaked out if a kid casually handed me a check for a life-changing amount of money. I'd be shocked if they had a casual conversation with someone I'd never dare speak to unless spoken to.

Over in the B plot, We learn Roy is not on the best terms with Major General Hakuro with the implications Hakuro thinks Mustang is out to take his position, which is true. Back in chapter 4, Roy casually said Hakuro should just die in the train hijacking. And we learn Roy wants to take over the entire military. The panel where he says this paints him in a more sinister light. His eyes are a different color.

Oh look! A map of East City. ...It's worthless. There aren't any discernible markers and we never go back to East City anyway.

Lust mentions not needing to tail Ed now that he's in Central most likely meaning someone else in her organization will take over from there. I wonder who this new tracker could be that Lust would withdraW RATHer than continue her assignment.

Scar gets into a fight with Gluttony and still has a small wound from when Hawkeye shot at him.

Back in the A plot, we learn State Alchemists hide their research notes in code. Ed's looks like a travel log and Roy's looks like a dating calendar. I have to wonder what part of Marcoh's recipe book corresponds to a human soul. I'm going to assume either love or cinnamon sugar.

As a side note, this chapter takes place over 15 days. It took Sheska 5 days to write down all of Marcoh's notes and another 10 days for Ed and Al to decode it. The scene with Scar happens before any of that in the chapter and we can assume it happened before that chronologically from some extra context clues.

We can assume the trip from Central to East City takes less than a day because Hughes and Armstrong managed to do that back in chapter 6. Meanwhile Pinako said she'd get Ed's arm made in 3 days and no one said she didn't pull that off.

Assuming the trip to East City and Resembool takes a day, even with the detour to meet Marcoh, here's a rough timeline of events since chapter 8 as far as I can tell:

Chapter 8: Ed, Al, and Armstrong head to Resembool. Along the way they meet Marcoh and get the location of his research. Lust later forces Marcoh to give her the same info.

1 day after chapter 8: Ed and company arrive in Resembool. Pinako and Winry begin working on making new automail for Ed.

4 days after chapter 8: Ed gets his new arm and leg.

5 days after chapter 8: Ed and company leave Resembool for Central City, likely with a layover in East City. Lust destroys the 1st Branch Library.

6 days after chapter 8: Ed arrives in Central City and meets Sheska. Sheska starts transcribing Marcoh's notes. Lust returns to East City. Gluttony attacks Scar.

11 days after chapter 8: Sheska finishes her work. Ed and Al begin decoding it.

21 days after chapter 8: Ed and Al finish decoding. End of chapter 10.

Anyway, I'll explain why I got so hung up on this next chapter cause it's more relevant there and this has gotten long enough already.

Hughes brought up Tucker.

Nina Trauma Count: 3

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