#the children who grew up loving and watching the original scooby doo---the children in those pictures above us---they're teenagers now.

[broke-on-books]

I just ran out of tags... give me a second

I've been seeing posts about Scooby Doo popping up, so I thought I'd share this:

(Source: The Scots Magazine, Feb 2023) Full text below.

This actually happened. I am obsessed!

The passion! The energy!

Amazing!

Such signage!

(Images: Daily Record)

A brilliant effort all round! The children of Scotland saved a pop culture powerhouse the world would be poorer without. I can't believe this. I love this so much.

Text of the article:

FROM THE VAULT

Strange tales from the archives. This month – How furious fans of cancelled cartoon rose up in protest.

By CHRIS Ferguson, Jan 12, 2023 (The Scots Magazine)

THROUGHOUT the ages, principled protest has been a hallmark of youth – a rite of passage for many. Today it is Greta Thunberg and her army of teen climate activists, or Extinction Rebellion protesters, who make headlines.

In the 1960s it was the Vietnam War objectors and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament believers who set out their political agendas.

In later decades young people swelled the ranks of those demanding an end to apartheid in South Africa.

They were at the barricades as then-pm Margaret Thatcher introduced the poll tax and back out again to try to stop the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Another generation, too, had the courage of its convictions. In 1971, youngsters rose in anger at a threat to remove cowardly canine Scooby-doo from their television screens.

This was in February after the cartoon had been running for two years. Although the decision not to commission another series had been taken in the US, the BBC was the target of fans’ fury because it had to pass on the bad news to young viewers.

Within days of the announcement, an army of parka-wearing children sporting knitted jumpers and questionable hairstyles was formed.

Across Scotland children grouped together with placards, just like so many other worthy protesters before them. In Glasgow, the massed kids marched on the BBC Scotland headquarters and, in Dundee, they gathered in outrage in City Square.

Petitions were raised and demonstrations took place across the country and, by April, the BBC announced a further series had been commissioned in the US.

Legend has it these Scots Scooby fans had persuaded the American television executives to reconsider.

Hanna-barbera, the animation company behind Scooby-doo, never forgot the Scottish reaction.

A spokesman for the company said, “We’d never had a response like that before, it was very exciting.”

Beneath the main text of the article is an illustration of Scooby Doo and the gang accompanied by the pull quote: “An army of parka-wearing children was formed”

The title and byline of the article are also accompanied by a black and white photo of a boy in school uniform sitting with a little black dog in his lap, grinning and holding a sign reading "We've saved Scooby Doo" with an illustration of Scooby. The caption reads: Jimmy Brown fought to save the cartoon."]

[itsclydebitches]

I don't think agree with that though. You can use a older franchise without it being made for the audience that grew up on it. The new pokemon series doesn't need Ash to be a adult in a "mature" pokemon story. A new teen titans doesn't need to be like the original or care at all about those who grew up on the originals. It's just a kids show using characters new to them in the same way the OG titans were new to us, even though even older fans grew up on the comics.

You absolutely can change up old stories — and creators obviously do — I'm just saying no one should be surprised if adults are disappointed in the creation when it airs. And I think that disappointment is valid. Really, I think we're talking about two very different things here. There's a massive difference between adults becoming so obsessed with children's media that they try to cut the kids out of it completely and adults who say, "Hey, you made a really bad cartoon and I wish you hadn't because the original means a lot to me." What this conversation hasn't considered thus far are the good reboots that please both adults and kids (and getting enjoyment doesn't have to be because it's "made for" the adults in terms of grittiness. Adults enjoy standard cartoons too): Scooby Doo, Batman, and She-Ra to name just three. In most cases it's not really about the adults feeling like the cartoon isn't allowed to change, it's about the adults recognizing that the creators were trying to get by on nostalgia and nostalgia alone. They didn't handle the material respectfully and they didn't create a new story that could stand on its own. To be blunt, it's just bad, and both kids and adults recognize that. There are, as said, absolutely outliers here who take their nostalgia way, way, WAY too far, but they are actually outliers. Most adults love getting new content for a beloved series, whether it's updated for adults or still aimed at kids... provided that story is treated well. If you're not going to treat it well, why did you mess with something an entire generation loved rather than just creating something new?

Take Cruella, for example. Who is this movie for? By all surface logic it's for kids. It's a Disney film based on another, beloved Disney film. Anyone who hears the most basic premise for this prequel would go, "It's about Cruella from 101 Dalmatians? Yeah, that's obviously for children. Who else would it be for? Why are all these adults up-in-arms over a kid's movie? Get a life!" But, well, it's not a kid's movie. Not really. The live action aside, it's now PG-13 (as opposed to G) and it's 2 hours 14 minutes (as opposed to 1 h 19). Take a look at the official trailer:

Are there reboots, prequels, and sequels designed to breathe new life into an old story and update it for the kids of today? Absolutely and often those stories are great. But there's also a trend of taking what was previously kid's media and not updating it for just adults, but actively trying to appeal to both. Which is when we run into trouble. This trailer doesn't look anything like a kid's movie. From the cinematography to lines like "I guess they were always scared I'd be a psycho!" it's very much aimed at adults, but the subject itself, this character, is supposed to be for kids. It's a Disney movie, but Disney is no longer synonymous with children. Perhaps most importantly, Cruella is getting... mixed responses, to be generous. As said, a lot of adults' reactions come down to whether these beloved stories are treated well and when they're not, people are rightfully frustrated. We can't use "It's not meant for you" as an excuse here because who else is a trailer like this meant for except adults? It's less "I don't want kids to have anything. This is my story. Hands off. It needs to appeal to me and me alone!" and much more, "The creators clearly want me to be a part of this audience, I am arguably their actual target audience as opposed to the kids, and now that I've watched this I'm... I'm extremely disappointed. You took something I loved and did it dirty. I don't like it, I'm not sure if kids can even watch this... so who is this story for? It was pretty clearly for me, but now I'm being told my opinion doesn't matter because it's actually just for kids."

At the end of the day yeah, any creator has the right to change up old franchises to their heart's content — and often times those changes do exceedingly well. Personally, I'm very glad they exist. But if they do badly, if the original spark is discarded, if there's no new and epic spark to replace it, if there's confusion about who is even allowed to criticize the story (is it really for kids?) then those creators shouldn't be surprised when there's pushback. They knew what they were signing up for. They deliberately picked those beloved franchises because of the nostalgia. The flipside of that is, if they get it wrong, adults will criticize the show rather than praising it like they'd hoped.

[nealiios]

The Supernatural 70s: Part I - Corruption of An Innocent

"We're mutants. There's something wrong with us, something very, very wrong with us. Something seriously wrong with us - we're soldiers writers."

-- with apologies to the screenwriter of "Stripes"

Dear reader, I have the darkest of revelations to make to you, a truth when fully and wholly disclosed shall most assuredly chill you to the bone, a tale that shall make you question all that you hold to be true and good and holy about my personal history. While you may have come in search of that narrative designer best known for his works of interactive high fantasy, you should know that he is also a crafter of a darker art, a scribbler of twisted tales filled with ghosts, and ghouls, and gargoyles. I am, dear innocent, a devotee of horrors! Mwahahahaha!

[cue thunderclap, lightning, pipe organ music]

Given the genre of writing for which most of you know me, I forgive you if you think of me principally as a fantasy writer. I don't object to that classification because I do enjoy mucking about with magic and dark woods and mysterious ancient civilizations. But if you are to truly know who I am as a writer, you must realize that the image I hold of myself is principally as a creator of weird tales.

To understand how and why I came to be drawn to this sub-genre of fantastic fiction, you first must understand that I come from peculiar folks. Maybe I don't have the Ipswich look, or I didn't grow up in a castle, but my pedigree for oddity has been there from the start. My mother was declared dead at birth by her doctor, and often heard voices calling to her in the dead of night that no one else could hear. Her mother would periodically ring us up to discuss events in our lives about which she couldn't possibly have known. My father's people still share ghost stories about a family homestead that burned down mysteriously in the 1960s. Even my older brother has outré memories about events he says cannot possibly be true, and as a kid was kicked off the Tulsa city bookmobile for attempting to check out books about UFOs, bigfoot, and ESP. It's fair to say I was doomed - or destined - for weirdness from the start.

If the above listed circumstances had not been enough, I grew up in an area where neighbors whispered stories about a horrifically deformed Bulldog Man who stalked kids who "parked" on the Old North Road near my house. The state in which I was raised was rife with legends of bigfoots, deer women, and devil men. Even in my childhood household there existed a pantheon of mythological entities invented explicitly to keep me in line. If I was a good boy, The Repairman would leave me little gifts of Hot Wheels cars or candy. If I was being terrible, however, my father would dress in a skeleton costume, rise from the basement and threaten to drag me down into everlasting hellfire (evidently there was a secret portal in our basement.) There were monsters, monsters EVERYWHERE I looked in my childhood world. Given that I was told as a fledgling writer to write what I knew, how could anyone have been surprised that the first stories I wrote were filled with the supernatural?

"The Nightmare" by John Henry Fuseli (1781)

My formative years during the late sixties and early seventies took place at a strange juncture in our American cultural history. At the same time that we were loudly proclaiming the supremacy of scientific thought because we'd landed men on the moon, we were also in the midst of a counter cultural explosion of interest in astrology, witchcraft, ghosts, extra sensory perception, and flying saucers. Occult-related books were flying off the shelves as sales surged by more than 100% between 1966 and 1969. Cultural historians would come to refer to this is as the "occult boom," and its aftershocks would impact popular cultural for decades to come.

My first contact with tales of the supernatural were innocuous, largely sanitized for consumption by children. I vividly remember watching Casper the Friendly Ghost and the Disney version of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I read to shreds numerous copies of both Where the Wild Things Are and Gus the Ghost. Likely the most important exposure for me was to the original Scooby Doo, Where Are You? cartoon which attempted to inoculate us from our fears of ghosts and aliens by convincing us that ultimately the monster was always just a bad man in a mask. (It's fascinating to me that modern incarnations of Scooby Doo seem to have completely lost this point and instead make all the monsters real.)

ABOVE: Although the original cartoon Scooby Doo, Where Are You? ran only for one season from 1969 to 1970, it remained in heavy reruns and syndication for decades. It is notable for having been a program that perfectly embodied the conflict between reason and superstition in popular culture, and was originally intended to provide children with critical thinking skills so they would reject the idea of monsters, ghosts, and the like. Ironically, modern takes on Scooby Doo have almost entirely subverted this idea and usually present the culprits of their mysteries as real monsters.

During that same time, television also introduced me to my first onscreen crush in the form of the beautiful and charming Samantha Stevens, a witch who struggles to not to use her powers while married to a frequently intolerant mortal advertising executive in Bewitched. The Munsters and The Addams Family gave me my first taste for "goth" living even before it would become all the rage in the dance clubs of the 1980s. Late night movies on TV would bring all the important horror classics of the past in my living room as Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, the Invisible Man, the Phantom of the Opera, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Godzilla all became childhood friends. Over time the darkened castles, creaking doors, foggy graveyards, howling wolves, and ever present witches and vampires became so engrained in my psyche that today they remain the "comfort viewing" to which I retreat when I'm sick or in need of other distractions from modern life.

ABOVE: Elizabeth Montgomery starred in Bewitched (1964 - 1972) as Samantha Stephens, a witch who married "mortal" advertising executive Darren Stephens (played for the first five seasons by actor Dick York). Inspired by movies like I Married a Witch (1942) and Bell, Book and Candle (1958), it was a long running series that explored the complex relationship dynamics between those who possess magic and those who don't. Social commentators have referred to it as an allegory both for mixed marriages and also about the challenges faced by minorities, homosexuals, cultural deviants, or generally creative folks in a non heterogeneous community. It was also one of the first American television programs to portray witches not as worshippers of Satan, but simply as a group of people ostracized for their culture and their supernatural skills.

Even before I began elementary school, there was one piece of must-see gothic horror programming that I went out of my way to catch every day. Dark Shadows aired at 3:30 p.m. on our local ABC affiliate in Tulsa, Oklahoma which usually allowed me to catch most of it if I ran home from school (or even more if my mom or brother picked me up.) In theory it was a soap opera, but the show featured a regular parade of supernatural characters and themes. The lead was a 175 year old vampire named Barnabas Collins (played by Johnathan Frid), and the show revolved around his timeless pursuit of his lost love, Josette. It was also a program that regularly dealt with reincarnation, precognition, werewolves, time travel, witchcraft, and other occult themes. Though it regularly provoked criticism from religious groups about its content, it ran from June of 1966 until it's final cancellation in April of 1971. (I would discover it in the early 1970s as it ran in syndication.) Dark Shadows would spin off two feature-length movies based on the original, a series of tie-in novels, an excellent reboot series in 1991 (starring Ben Cross as Barnabas), and a positively embarrassingly awful movie directed by Tim Burton in 1991.

ABOVE: Johnathan Frid starred as Barnabas Collins, one of the leading characters of the original Dark Shadows television series. The influence of the series cannot be understated. In many ways Dark Shadows paved the way for the inclusion of supernatural elements in other soap operas of the 1970s and the 1980s, and was largely responsible for the explosion of romance novels featuring supernatural themes over the same time period.

While Dark Shadows was a favorite early television program for me, another show would prove not only to be a borderline obsession, but also a major influence on my career as a storyteller. Night Gallery (1969-1973) was a weekly anthology television show from Rod Serling, better known as the creator and host of the original Twilight Zone. Like Twilight Zone before it, Night Gallery was a deep and complex commentary on the human condition, but unlike its predecessor the outcomes for the characters almost always skewed towards the horrific and the truly outré. In "The Painted Mirror," an antiques dealer uses a magic painting to trap an enemy in the prehistoric past. Jack Cassidy plots to use astral projection to kill his romantic rival in "The Last Laurel" but accidentally ends up killing himself. In "Eyes" a young Stephen Spielberg directs Joan Crawford in a story about an entitled rich woman who plots to take the sight of a poor man. Week after week it delivered some of the best-written horror television of the early 1970s.

In retrospect I find it surprising that I was allowed to watch Night Gallery at all. I was very young while it was airing, and some of the content was dark and often quite shocking for its time. Nevertheless, I was so attached to the show that I'd throw a literal temper tantrum if I missed a single, solitary episode. If our family needed to go somewhere on an evening that Night Gallery was scheduled, either my parents would either have to wait until after it had aired before we left, or they'd make arrangements in advance with whomever we were visiting to make sure it was okay that I could watch Night Gallery there. I was, in a word, a fanatic.

ABOVE: Every segment of Night Gallery was introduced by series creator Rod Serling standing before a painting created explicitly for the series. Director Guillermo del Toro credits Serling's series as being the most important and influential show on his own work, even more so than the more famous Twilight Zone.

[marnivanross]

★ have you seen [ MARNI VANROSS ] since the storm? some say they look like [ zoey deutch ] but they’re [ 21 ]  & go by [ THE SKEPTIC ]. [ she’s ] lived in halloway for [ 12 years ] & they are originally from [ LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA]. before the town vanished they were studying [ astronomy ] and lived at [ UNI BLVD ]. most people knew the [ CISFEMALE ] as [ + INTELLIGENT ] but i’ve heard they can also be [ - COLD ]. for some reason, they feel [ uneasy ] about the town’s disappearance. ( pepper, twenty three, s he/her, est )

ABOUT THE MUN.  what is that? that freaky thing? yes, that’s right, it’s a naked mole rat.

hello all, my name is pepper and what you’re about to see is about to be peak mediocrity. i am usually pretty decent at intros but i really have spent most of today watching love island, and i just spent the past two hours watching pilot pete make horrible decisions, so my brain is officially mush. that said i am going to do my best to make this coherent. to start, a bit about me, i am a taurus. i like trash tv. i’m really craving chicken fingers. i have never met a plate of nachos i didn’t like, and if i could be anything other than a human person i’d be a cloud i think. alright onto the good stuff. 

BIO. *has my feelings surgically removed*

first of all here is her pinterest board (keep in mind marni was kind of the skully inspired muse in a scooby doo rp so that’s why stuff looks a bit spooky)

marni was brought into the world into a weird situation by anyone’s standards, but especially by hers. to start, both her parents were hippies. yes, weed smoking, chakra cleansing, organic grown kale that they got from the farmer’s market where the only store clerk walked around with her tits proudly out, hippies. but they weren’t just any hippies, they were rich hippies. and that somehow made it worse. 

clint ‘storm’ vanross and clementine vanross were the proud owners and entrepreneurs of a whole food organic grocery store (think whole foods or trader joe’s), and clemetine later went on to ride the success of their company to create her own website and brand (think goop basically. yes, marni’s mother has sold a candle that smells like her vagina, and yes marni is deeply ashamed of it). both businesses were wildly successful, and so clem and storm quickly went from living and travelling the world in their van to having about six mansions across the world. marni came into their life as their first child around the time they bought mansion two. she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but that spoon’s handle was made of moon quartz and the silver was organically sourced. 

from there on out marni was raised in a weird way. you’d think because hippies were all about free love, that marni would be raised with an abundance of it but that wasn’t exactly the case. her parents were all about giving marni her aunotomy fairly early in life, which sounds good, but really means that marni was simply treated as an adult from the moment she could walk by herself. and she was the adult really. after all, marni was the one who had to convince her parents to enroll her in school (they were determined to let the world be her teacher, and marni simply wasn’t having any of it), the one who had to fix her own meals when all that was left in their fridge was raw tofu, the one who had to clean up her mother’s vomit whenever she went a bit to hard on the moonshine. yes, marni had parents, but she also had forty-something year old children in boho chic attire.

and marni’s parents never understood it. after all, with the way they were they could never understand how their genetics combined to make such a serious girl. one who would look at the moon and not just admire it, but ask how it stayed up there in the first place. how far away was it? how could she get there? and when told to simply enjoy and love it for what it was, would instead march herself to the library and find out the answers herself. marni’s parents and her truly never saw eye to eye, and at a certain point marni stopped trying to. she wasn’t expecting her parents to follow suit, but follow suit they did. marni’s parents gave up on trying to understand her her around the time she was nine. that’s when she moved to halloway, or rather, that’s when they moved her to halloway. 

they said it was because of business. the fact was, marni’s parents had been marching her around the world, from state to state and country to country whenver they wanted to start up a new store or run down a new story. yes, sometimes they would leave her (alone, in an empty house, with only the occasional eccentric ‘aunt’ or ‘uncle’ to come by and make sure marni wasn’t dead) for a while for short business trips (the longest being about two weeks) but they always came back eventually. but this was different. her parents set her up in halloway with a nanny named paola, and then they left for the foreseeable future. her mother, to go down to africa to chase a story. her father, to go down to europe and expand the business. they both promised to be back within a month, and they were. but then they left again. and again. and again. 

but it was fine. marni and paola got along great. she learned very quickly how to forge her parents signature on school forms. she didn’t need them. she didn’t miss them. but she did desperately want them to want her, and it took marni a long time to realize they just didn’t. 

marni was the new girl for a while. she struggled a bit to make friends as the little girl who got more excited by science experiments than barbies. the one who was always the first to raise her hand in class, and the one with the famous parents. most of the kids didn’t know who the vanross’ were but the parents did. and having the occassion adult come up to marni and tell her how they just loved her mother’s zuchini bread recipe, or the all organic popcorn they sold at her father’s store was just... weird. and other kids found it weird too. marni struggled for a while, and was picked on quite a lot but what was she to do other than accept it? all that marni had in her arsenal were facts and scathing words, and mean kids didn’t usually tend to let those stop them. 

eventually marni grew up. she went to high school. skipped prom. remained fairly anonymous other than becoming president of the chemistry club, valedictorian and being known as the girl known for making friends with her teachers. she got accepted to harvard and yale for university, but not knowing if it was because of her own accomplishments (which were countless) or because of her parents, she refused them both and decided to stay in halloway. to go to university here. to try and make her own way. 

honestly in university marni’s life was similarly uneventful because for the most part she was the quiet type that went to class, went home, and back. she didn’t cause any stir unless you could hear the occasional scathing comment murmured under her breath, or you were a neighbour who marni was screaming at to keep it down. she didn’t even attend a single party unless coerced. she was nobody, and honestly that was how marni liked it. she had never been one for the spotlight. she genuinely preferred to be more behind the scenes, unless there was a need to rise to the occasion. 

and then all of this happened y’all. it really went to shit huh. marni is terrified honestly and she just wants to know what’s going on. a lot of people who barely know who she is have probably seen her speaking up and asking questions and getting almost frenzied in her attempt to find the truth because the mystery of all this is driving her insane. no she doesn’t miss her parents particularly, but she does miss what the world used to be and she wants to go back to that, desperately, but she also really just wants to know. like if marni understood what was happening here or even just played a part in future generations understanding, and she was literally still never able to get back... honestly she could still die pretty happy i’m ngl.

PERSONALITY. *eyes snap open at 3:52am* nobody likes me

blunt. painfully painfully blunt, god. if marni thinks you’re an idiot she will tell you to your face, she really does not care and that absolutely will get her into trouble one day

painfully curious! wants to know what’s happening with this whole situation, god desperately wants to know the truth and mechanics behind it. 

cold honestly?? like marni doesn’t know how to comfort people really, she was never really taught how. she isn’t very compassionate, she’s genuinely more on the logical side. will give you the most rational answer even if it does sound kinda of cruel

the voice of reason! the person in your friend group who is the designated driver. also the person in your friend group who would say ‘i told you so’

an overachiever. lives for academic acknowledgement, like those little gold stars on your papers in elementary school are what kept marni going man. huge ass nerd. huge ass bookwarm. 

super stubborn. refuses to even entertain the idea of anything magical happening here, and is honestly kind of judgmental of people who think that way because of her parents like marni has very little respect for any hippies i’m not gonna lie 

skeptical as hell but we been knew 

a know it all! think she’s right about everything !! she usually is but still !!

does not know what to do with emotion. has had a couple, and does not recommend it. would rather die than admit to a feeling. 

trust issues galore! does not trust literally anyone ever. if marni trusts you than you’re truly special

HEADCANNONS. it takes me 3-7 business days to process my feelings

has never learnt to ride a bike cause her parents never taught her rip

loves the smell of books

laughs at horror movies generally. the kind of person who is really hard to scare. 

was raised a vegan but loves eating meat. stress eats meat when she’s truly like anxious, and so is really bummed about the dwindling meat supply for more reasons than one. 

needs coffee to survive, so the rationing has got her going a bit crazy even though she knows it’s necessary. 

has never really gotten truly drunk. 

keeps a detailed journal about all of her thoughts about all of this and takes meticulous notes. 

is left handed. 

can shoot a gun and does have one on her person pretty much at all times. i headcannon that her nanny paola taught her to shoot, and marni isn’t strong at all but she’s a pretty good shot. it’s the only way she has to defend herself honestly. 

is redheaded/strawberry blonde zoey and redheaded/strawberry blonde zoey ONLY

bi as hell!

WANTED CONNECTIONS. baby’s first words are ‘i’m not here to make friends’

i really am too lazy to make a whole ass sexy list rn and i apologize sjsdjjdf but !!! best friends, friends, confidantes, someone who used to drag her to parties, someone who used to pick on her, someone who used to defend her, flings, exes (marni is a horrible gf and she probably DIPPED the moment she started to feel something so give it to me folks), crushes she used to have in high school or middle school or elementary school, people who had crushes on her in high school or middle school or elementary school, current crushes on either end, enemy (just someone she butts heads with man!), old academic rivals, partner in crime in trying to figure this shit out, someone who hates her man, sibling like relationship, a girl squad, someone who tries to get her to loosen up, someone who is really chill and okay with the current situation who marni just wants to strangle with her bare hands!!! and anything else your heart desires okay, thank you for listening to me ramble ilu already. 

[distractedhistotech]

Before MSA + 1: Finally Together

Vivi ran up and rang the doorbell.  Arthur and Ben had just caught up when Lewis opened the door.  “Hi Arthur.”  His gaze averted towards Vivi.  “And you must be Vivi.”  His eyes dropped to Ben.  “Ah. You didn’t mention anything about a dog.”

Arthur facepalmed. He knew he was forgetting something.

���Don’t worry. Ben’s very well behaved,” said Vivi. “Plus, he’ll let us know if any ghosts show up!”

“We’re not gonna see any ghosts while Sydney’s around,” Lewis said matter-of-factly.  He still moved aside so they could come in. “We’re watching anime in the living room.  Don’t get too loud.  Belle’s not sleeping, but I don’t wanna startle her.”

The walked a few feet to the living room.  Sydney was playing peek-a-boo with a giggling baby while an anime with girls running around in indecently short skirts were fighting a monster.  Arthur quickly averted his eyes.

“Fluffy doggy!” And Sydney was suddenly dashing towards them.

Lewis intercepted her, grabbed her, spun them in a circle, and flung her over his should as she giggled.  “C’mon, you know you shouldn’t surprise dogs like that.”

Sydney pouted and made grabby motions towards Ben.  “But the fluffy…”

Arthur glanced towards Ben and was surprised to find the dog had recoiled and looked like he was trying to make himself look smaller and…was he scared?

Vivi gave Ben a confused look too.  “Ben? You okay?”

Sydney winced. “Oh shit.  Did I scare him?  I’m sorry doggy!”

Lewis set Sydney on the ground.  Ben inched forward a bit.  “Hold your hand out,” suggested Vivi.  Sydney listened.  Ben sniffed cautiously at her hand.  After a moment, he licked at her hand.  Then he pushed pressed his head into the palm of her hand.  Sydney giggled and pet him.  Vivi smiled.  “That’s better.  He usually doesn’t startle very easily…”

Lewis grabbed Arthur’s hand.  “Come meet Belle.”

Arthur let himself get dragged over to where the baby was starting to make crying sounds.  She calmed down as Lewis came into sight. “Arthur, Belle.  Belle, Arthur.”

Belle held her hands up towards Lewis, seemingly not caring about Arthur.  Lewis carefully picked her up, holding her like she was the most precious and fragile thing in the world.

Arthur guessed that’s what she was to Lewis.  “She’s…small.”

Lewis chuckled. “You should have seen her when she was a newborn.”

Right she would have been even smaller then, wouldn’t she?

“Would you like to hold her?”

Arthur blinked and studied Belle, who was rapidly falling asleep.  He’d never been around a baby before, not even his younger siblings. He wasn’t entirely sure how to act around them outside of being careful and quiet.

Belle was…new.  And helpless.  She had to depend on others whether she wanted to or not, and honestly she probably didn’t know any better.  She had pretty much no experience when it came to life. Innocent and blissful.

And his hands were covered in blood.

“No!”

Lewis gave him a startled look, and Arthur realized that definitely wasn’t a normal reaction. Thankfully, Vivi came to his rescue. “He’s got some weird phobias,” said Vivi, which was technically true.  “Very personal.  He probably still hasn’t told me all of them.”

Arthur nodded. “I’m a mess.”

“So, Arthur’s odd fear of infants aside…”  Vivi pulled out a ouija board and a camera.  “We can do ghost photos, watch tv, or play videogames.”

Lewis narrowed his eye.  “You are not using a ouija board in here.”

Sydney shrugged. “It probably wouldn’t work anyway.”

“Please don’t summon any angry ghosts,” added Arthur.

“I’d put up protections,” protested Vivi, but she put away her ‘supplies’.  “So…I guess that leaves tv and videogames.”

“Do you mind if we stick to tv?” asked Lewis.  “I kind of want to keep my hands free.”  He shifted Belle in his arms a bit.

Arthur glanced towards the TV and winced.  “Can we watch something else?  Their clothing seems…improper.”

Sydney snorted. Lewis gave her a deadpan look.  “I didn’t say anything.”  Sydney grinned and pulled out several DVDs and videos from somewhere.  “I got all sorts of awesome shows!”

Arthur stared at the various children shows in Sydney’s hands.  “Um…”  He glanced toward Lewis, who wasn’t making a move.  He glanced toward Vivi, who was looking at him expectantly.  He looked at Sydney, who was still grinning.  He pointed at a random cover.  “That one.”

Sydney turned it around to see what he’d chosen.  “Ooh. Batman.  Good choice.”

Batman?  “That’s a comic, right?”

“They can turn comics into cartoons,” Sydney said nonchalantly.  “I got Spider-man, the X-Men, and Superman too,” she said nonchalantly as she ejected a video and put in the Batman video.  She then dragged him onto the couch as they all sat down.

Arthur…wasn’t sure how he felt about Batman.  The man was obviously meant to be highly trained, even if he didn’t move quite right (Animation limits?).  Vivi, Lewis, and Sydney made a bunch of ninja comments.  He fought mostly normal people, a few super powered people.

It reminded Arthur a little too much of what he’d been trained to do before…before Tempo.

Arthur suspected he was going to be splitting his life into Before Tempo and After Tempo.

“I’m not sure I like Batman,” Arthur decided.  The man used fear as a weapon.  That was only possible because of his implied training.

Sydney pointed to her shows.  “We can watch something else.”

“How ‘bout Scooby-Doo? I love that show,” said Vivi.

The videos were switched and they watched the old cartoon instead.  Arthur decided it was much preferable.  It had scary monsters, but they were all men (or women) in masks. Not real.  Just a bunch of teenagers running around and solving mysteries that Arthur felt were needlessly complicated.  “Why do they bother pretending to be monster?  Most of these guys could get away with whatever they’re trying to do if they would just lay low.”

“That would make more sense,” agreed Vivi.  “I’m honestly not sure why the police don’t investigate them more.  Play some ghost noises to keep away anyone paranoid and that ought to be enough for most people.”

“Maybe ghosts are a fact of life in this universe,” said Sydney.  “So when they see the monsters, they just go ‘Oh, looks like we’ve got a monster.  Better stay away so we don’t get eaten.’  Oh!  Or maybe people have been pulling this sort of stunt for so long that it’s just become a fact of life, and people are only just now are figuring out that most of these are guys in masks, and the Scooby gang is one of the inadvertent forerunners in the start of this new age!”

Everyone stared at Sydney as she finished coming up with her impromptu theory.  “Welp, that’s another fanfiction idea,” commented Lewis.

“I’d go with the first one,” said Vivi.  “There are some movies that actually have ghosts and monsters.”

“Oh yeah…”  Sydney pulled out another video with Shaggy and Scooby in a cauldron with Frankenstein’s bride and a little mummy girl standing next to it.  “The Ghoul School!”

“Do you have Boo Brothers and the Reluctant Werewolf?” asked Vivi.

Lewis nodded.  “Those were fun.”

“I’d have to ask Dad, but I think so,” said Sydney.  “They show on Cartoon Network all the time though so I might be mixing ‘em up.”

“Wait.  These are movies?”  Arthur glanced between the Ghoul School cover and the tv.  “This show has movies?”

“Yep, several,” answered Vivi.  “They still release new movies and episodes regularly, although the setting is adjusted for modern times and I think they might be doing reboots.”

“It’s a well loved show, and the people who watched it as kids grew up and still loved it and wanted to be a part of it,” added Lewis.  “I’m sure we’d all do the same with the shows we love if we had the chance.”

Sydney cackled. “Oh fu-dge yeah!”  She pulled a small notebook out from her back pocket. “I have ideas!”  She opened it to a random point and Arthur could see a picture of Spider-man kissing some lady in a black suit.  “Spider-man and Black Widow!  They don’t have anything in common yet, but you could have them run into each other and then start hanging out and then start dating!”

Arthur had no idea what Sydney was talking about.  Who was Black Widow?

“I don’t think it’s quite the same thing,” said Lewis.  “Scooby Doo doesn’t have a lot of background information so you can do a lot of original stuff with it.  Spider-man and the other Marvel comics have a lot of backstory, so it would be tricky to make something like your idea work without radically changing things.”  He grinned.  “Plus, I like him and Mary Jane as a couple.”

Sydney paused and nodded.  “True. Peter and Mary Jane are a tried and true couple.  Spider-man/Black widow can be a What-If issue.”  Sydney paused and then grinned.  “Or…Mary Jane can be Black Widow.”

Arthur was so lost. Lewis glanced at him before turning to the TV.  “Maybe we can watch Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School after this,” suggested Lewis.

“Sounds good to me,” said Sydney.  “Oh! Don’t say anything.  We don’t wanna spoil anything for Arthur.”  She giggled.  “Plus, I kinda wanna see your face.”

Arthur blinked at everyone else’s grins and wondered if he should be worried.

In the middle of the next episode, Belle started whining.  Lewis took a moment to try and calm her and check her over.  “I’m pretty sure she’s hungry,” he concluded.

Sydney jumped off the couch.  “I’ll get it.”  She ran to the kitchen.

Arthur watched with fascination as Lewis worked on calming Belle.  From what he remembered of his family, his younger siblings had mostly been left on their own when they cried unless they needed to be changed or fed.

…Lewis was probably doing a better job than Arthur’s parents.

Sydney came back in with a bottle of formula that she handed to Lewis.  Lewis started feeding Belle.

…Lewis and Sydney were probably doing a better job than Arthur’s parents, and Sydney was…Sydney.

How could two adults be worse at taking care of a child than two middle school students?

It made Arthur feel just a bit bitter.  And then Ben decided to plop his head onto Arthur’s lap.  Arthur took advantage of it to pet Ben until he felt better.

“Time for Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School!” proclaimed Vivi as the episode they were watching ended. She shot up, switched the videos, and sat back down with a grin directed towards Arthur that made him feel very nervous.

The movie started innocently enough.  “Where are Fred, Daphne, and Velma?”

Vivi shrugged. “College, I guess.”

“Or getting started on their own careers,” added Sydney.

Something about this made Arthur uncomfortable.  He ignored it.  “Who’s the talking puppy?”

“Scrappy Doo, Scooby’s nephew,” explained Lewis.

“How come he can talk more clearly than Scooby?” asked Arthur.

“Maybe Scooby just has a bad lisp?” suggested Sydney.

“And how come he’s walking around on his hind legs?” continued Arthur.

“I think Scooby’s too top heavy to do that for more than a few moments,” reasoned Vivi.  “I wouldn’t be surprised if Scrappy lost the ability when he got older.”

And that was good enough for the moment…and then they reached the premise of the movie.

“It’s a school for monsters?!” Arthur shouted, startling the others on the couch.  “Why is there a school for monsters?!”

“I guess their dads couldn’t homeschool them,” reasoned Sydney.

“But-but-aren’t they dangerous?!”  Belle started whining, and Lewis and Sydney hushed Arthur.

“Well, not necessarily,” said Vivi.  “Let’s take a look.  Vampires survive off of human blood.  Obviously, that would make them predators, but they don’t necessarily have to completely drain a person.  They can just take a small amount from several different people, and honestly, it’s not clear how much they need to survive.  They might not need all that much, and they could find willing donors. The only problem would be if the bite itself transforms someone into a vampire, but that’s a modern invention. Even if there were side effects from the bite, modern technology would let you remove blood without needing to bite someone.

“Frankenstein type monsters are actually pretty misunderstood.  In the original novel, the monster, he was named Adam by the way, was just as intelligent as a person, had emotions and empathy.  He tried to find human friends, but was rejected for how he looked.  Any violence he exhibited was mostly in self-defense with some violence towards his creator, who pretty much abandoned him, so I can’t blame him for being upset.

“Werewolves are a bit tricky since the transformation varies.  Some have to do with making a deal with the devil, which is obviously a bad thing, some with not attending mass for seven years, which seems unlikely considering the various religions in the world, and getting bitten by another werewolf, which would make it a disease.  You don’t shame someone for having a disease because that’s not something you have control over. The main problem is that they’re violent when they transform and can spread the disease, but most don’t want to be violent and isolate themselves to keep from hurting anyone.

“Mummies aren’t inherently evil.  In fact, mummies coming back to life is a recent idea thanks to movies, so I don’t think they’re an actual type of monster you’d run into.  However, I imagine that if you did, they would behave the same as they had when alive, and, well, I guess there might be some differences in morality due to culture, but they should still be decent.

“Ghosts are more often than not harmless but capable of affecting their environment and scaring people.  Not that they can’t harm the living.  That’s just pretty rare.  A lot of the time, they behave as they did in life, but some are influenced by how they died, which can make them angrier, sadder, or more frightened than they were when they were alive.

“Anyway, you got good monsters and bad monsters, just like you do humans,” finished Vivi.  It was at this moment she realized everyone was staring at her, including Ben and Belle.  “This is the sort of stuff I like.”

Sydney held up a hand. “I hear ya!”  Vivi returned the high five.

“You sure know a lot about monsters,” commented Lewis.  “Is that why you wanted to try and talk to the ghosts in the house?”

Vivi nodded.  “I’ve never actually seen a ghost or anything like that before, but I really want to!  I want to become a paranormal investigator so I can see all sorts of ghosts and monsters!”

“That would make an awesome comic book!” commented Sydney.

“But that’s dangerous!” said Arthur.  “What if you run into something awful?  And you get possessed?!  Or what if someone hurts you?!  What if you die?!”

“What if we’re in a car crash or fall down the stairs or get mugged or get bitten by a dog?” Sydney suddenly said.  She glanced towards Ben.  “No offense.”

Ben let out a huff.

“I think Sydney’s trying to say that all sorts of things could happen to you every day,” explained Lewis.  “If you worry and try to avoid everything, you won’t be living much of a life.” Sydney nodded.

Arthur thought about that.  If he wanted to avoid everything dangerous…Well, considering Sydney’s list he’d have to stay inside all the time.  That would drive him crazy.  “Okay, but…” Arthur turned towards Vivi.  “Don’t do anything really dangerous, okay?”

Vivi nodded.  “Yeah, Dad wouldn’t let me go on my own anyway. I’d need to get a few other people to go with me, preferably someone with experience.”  She grinned at Sydney and Lewis.  “You two interested?”

Lewis and Sydney stared at Vivi for a moment before exchanging looks.  They turned back to Vivi.  “Sure,” they both said.

“Whoa!  Really?” asked Vivi.  She hadn’t expected them to say yes.

“I’m kind of interested in ghosts too,” explained Lewis.  “But only ghosts.  I’ve never paid attention to the rest of that supernatural stuff.”

“I wanna learn magic!” proclaimed Sydney with stars in her eyes.

Arthur frowned. “I’m not sure how I feel about magic.”

“It’s science we don’t yet understand!” said Sydney.  “Or at least my dad said something like that while pretending to be The Doctor.”

Arthur frowned. “Doctor who?”

Sydney laughed. “Exactly!”

“Huh?”

“What about you Arthur?” asked Vivi.  “I know you and the supernatural don’t get along, but I wouldn’t want to leave you out.”

Sydney suddenly hugged Arthur, making him jump.  “I can keep the ghosts away!”

Lewis nodded.  “She’s really good at that for some reason.”

Vivi frowned in interest.  They’d made references to ghosts not liking Sydney a couple of times before.  “Do you have some sort of power that affects ghosts?”

Sydney and Lewis exchanged another couple of looks.  It was kind of amazing how they could have a conversation without actually saying anything.  “I scare ghosts for some reason,” admitted Sydney.  “I’ve punched a couple by accident since I can’t see ‘em.”

What.

“That…”  Vivi frowned in thought.  “Well, it would definitely be good for keeping people safe or getting rid of negative entities, but it might hinder the actual investigation. You won’t get any evidence of ghosts if the ghosts have all been scared off.”

“You…You scare ghosts away?”  Arthur was having trouble believing it, but when he thought about it…

Nothing strange ever happened when he was around Sydney and Lewis.  In fact, a lot less happened when he was at school with them.  He’d just been thankful that no one had found out about his tendency to attract ghosts and the like and hadn’t stopped to wonder if there was a reason for it.

“Y-You’ve been keeping away ghosts that hurt me this whole time.”

Sydney nodded.  “Yep!”

Vivi frowned.  “But how would you know about that in the first place?  You just said you have no sensing ability whatsoever.”

Sydney froze up. “Er…”  She gave Lewis a nervous look.  “Help?”

Lewis sighed in resignation.  “I’m a medium.”

Vivi gasped.  “Really?!  How strong is your sensory ability?  Which senses do you use?  Do you have any empathic abilities?  Is it connected to growing up in a haunted house?”

Lewis blinked at the assault of questions.  “Yes, I’m not sure how strong, I think all my senses, I don’t think I’m empathic, and I don’t think it has anything to do with this house.  I was a medium before the Peppers adopted me.”

“You’re adopted?” questioned Vivi.  “I guess you wouldn’t know if it runs in the family then.”

Sydney blinked in surprise.  “That can happen?”

Arthur finally got the nerve to talk.  “Did you see ghosts when you started sitting with me?”

Lewis winced and nodded.

“Is that the only reason you sat with me?” asked Arthur.

“Well, the first day, yeah,” admitted Sydney.  “But just the first day.  We liked hanging out with you.  I mean…We could’ve just sat on the other side of the table and not said anything to you.” She nervously started messing with her glasses.  “But, well, I’d understand if you were upset because that’s sort of an ulterior motive. Not that it’s a bad ulterior motive! At least I don’t think it is.”

“What Sydney means is that we’d like to think we’re friends now,” explained Lewis.  “You don’t always plan to become friends with someone, and I think that’s a good thing because that means you get along and like each other enough for it to just happen.”

“So…You planned to keep me safe and ended up becoming my friends?” questioned Arthur.  That…actually didn’t seem too bad.  The two hadn’t wanted to take advantage of him in any way. They’d just seen someone in trouble and decided to help.  He smiled. “Thank you.  I don’t think I would have made any friends otherwise.”

Sydney slapped his back.  “Hey, come on!  You’re a cool guy!”

Arthur’s heart twinged.  He considered correcting Sydney, but he didn’t think he was quite ready for that. Instead he shook his head.  “I attract ghosts and monsters.  Most people are scared away.”

Sydney frowned. “That sucks.”

Lewis frowned.  “Are you a medium too?  It sounds like ghosts are attracted to that sort of thing.”

Arthur shook his head. “I attracts ghosts, but I can’t detect them at all unless they’re visible to the general population.  That happens a lot more often around me though. I think I might be giving them power boosts, which is probably part of the reason they’re drawn to me in the first place.”

Vivi made a thinking sound and looked between Arthur and Sydney.  “You know…your powers are pretty much complete opposites.  They might cancel each other out.”

Arthur thought about not having to deal with ghosts anymore.  “That would be nice.”

“I don’t think it works quite like that,” argued Lewis.  “The nastier stuff stays away when Sydney’s around, but more normal ghosts still stick around.  They just usually keep their distance.”

Sydney nodded.  “You’re the expert.”

Vivi hummed.  “Have you seen any ghosts today?”

“Kurt.  He’s a little boy.”  Lewis nodded towards the stairs.  “He’s watching us and the shows through the railing.”  He noticed that Arthur was looking nervous.  “Don’t worry.  Kurt’s harmless.  The most he’ll do is hang onto your clothes.”

Vivi squealed happily. “That’s amazing!”

“You’re okay with being able to see stuff like that?” asked Arthur.

Lewis shrugged. “I’ve never not been able to see them. This is normal for me.  It does get scary sometimes, but we’ve learned some tricks.”

Sydney shrugged. “I’ve never been scared of any of this stuff.”  Maybe if she could see these sorts of things…Then again knowing that she was effectively living ghost repellant seemed to dampen the impact of anything that might be considered scary, including ghost movies.  Like how bulletproof skin would make you less afraid of guns, but not completely fearless because other people can get shot.  Especially if bullets ricochet off your skin.

Hm…Would she need to worry about ricochet?  Ghosts and bullets were two very different things.

As Sydney mused on the nature of her odd ability, Belle started whining again.  Lewis started bouncing her and checked her.  “She needs a change.  I’ll be right back.”

“Um, so…What do you do when you’re looking for ghosts?” asked Arthur.  He didn’t really want to go hunting for ghosts, but they’d probably end up coming to him anyway.  Might as well get it over with.  Besides, he could probably stick close to Sydney.

Vivi smiled.  “Well, we take precautions, like holy water, protective talismans, warding, that sort of thing.  Then you set up cameras and microphones.  Someone might be watching and listening to those.  Then you wander around in an organized manner to see if you can come across anything unusual, possibly with camcorders.  It helps if you have a medium.  After you decide you’ve been there long enough, you head home and review the footage and recordings for anything unusual.  Then you take everything unusual that happens and try to explain it rationally, like wind, gas leak, vibrations, that sort of thing.  You’d be surprised what can make someone hallucinate. Then if you have something you can’t explain, you have a ghost!  Then you gotta figure out what to do about the ghost.  Some you can leave, some you can’t.  It varies.”

Sydney raised a hand. “Question!  Why can’t we just have Lewis look around and tell us if there are any ghosts hanging around?  I’d even give him space!”

“She has a point,” noted Arthur.  “Especially if…if I was near Lewis.”  He wouldn’t like it, but he’d had to put up with worse.

“Yeah, that would make things faster, but we’d need physical proof for whoever hired us so we’d need footage or audio,” explained Vivi.  “Plus, what if the ghost decided not to talk to Lewis?  Some are pretty crafty.”

“You sure know a lot about this stuff,” commented Sydney as she reached over to pet Ben.

Vivi puffed up proudly.  “I come from a very long line of paranormal investigators.”

“That explains so much,” deadpanned Arthur.  He’d been wondering why Vivi’s father was actually teaching her this sort of stuff and kept ghost photographs…and martial arts?  “Wait.  Why do you need to know how to fight if you’re dealing with ghosts?”

Vivi shrugged.  “Dad says that you run into something physical enough that it’s a good idea.”

“What’s a good idea?” asked Lewis as he sat back down with a much calmer Belle.

“We’re gonna be ninjas!” Sydney proclaimed happily.

Lewis blinked.  “Huh?”

“Vivi’s family does paranormal investigating, and they sometimes run into…actual monsters?” That made Arthur nervous.

Vivi nodded.  “Basically, and ninja is a good way to explain some of my ancestors.”

“Cool” squealed Sydney.

“That is pretty cool!” agreed Lewis before frowning.  “I don’t think I have the right body type for that though.”

The other three kids and Ben turned to look at Lewis.  Taller than some adults already, broad shouldered, starting to build up noticeable muscle.  The kind of guy you’d expect to see on the football or wrestling team.  Unless you were one of his friends, in which case you would expect to find him in the manga or cooking club.

“Well, I’m not very good at ninja stuff either,” admitted Vivi.  “Although if you’re interested maybe you guys can learn a bit of basic self-defense at least.”

“That would be awesome!” declared Sydney.

“We usually spend the day after school here so I can look after Belle,” said Lewis.  “I guess maybe one of my parents could take the afternoon off.”

“You could bring her with you,” suggested Arthur.  “Vivi’s grandmother lives with them and is retired, and Mrs. Yukino is there some days. They wouldn’t mind, right?” Arthur asked Vivi.

“Mom would love to take care of Belle for an afternoon,” said Vivi.

Lewis thought for another moment before turning to Arthur.  “What sort of teacher is Mr. Yukino?”

“He’s tough and pushes you so you’ll grow, but he’s fair,” said Arthur.  “I think learning a bit from him would be a good idea.  Even if you don’t need to fight a ghost, it could come in handy if you ever get into trouble with a living person.”  They wouldn’t be learning how to kill after all. All in all, pretty reasonable.

Lewis looked a bit thoughtful.  Sydney elbowed him.  “C’mon, this sounds fun.”

Lewis glanced at Sydney before nodding with a smile.  “Okay, we’ll give it a try.”

Vivi grinned.  “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

[existentialdreadlocks]

I’m Raising Them On The Classics: How Media Coddling Can Ruin Your Childrens Social Performance

Show of hands, how many of you have either said, or heard someone say, “I’m going to raise my kids on ‘the classics’”? The classic cartoons and movies and shows and books and games that you or someone you knew grew up on. You consumed this media growing up, it helped shape and define you into the person that you are today and you consider these things to be the absolute top tier of entertainment. Now, what if I were to tell you that this could have an enormous negative effect on your childs social performance, stunting them from connecting with their peers?

People, all people of all ages, are products of the things they consume, media especially, and for kids, especially. What is it that makes you be someones friend? A lot of times, its your hobbies that bring you together with someone. You enjoy similar things. This is most true for children. Because they’re young, they have no real experience with social situations like adults have, or even teenagers, they bond mostly over the things their peers enjoy. Oh, you have a Bob The Builder lunchbox? I like Bob The Builder! Clearly, we are meant to be best friends.

There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to introduce your children to the things you consider “classic”, or the things that helped make you who you are, or the things you loved. It’s an obvious thing that as a parent, you’d want to share the things you love with the person you love the most, your kid. However, far too often, a lot of parents do not allow their children to watch current cartoons or movies. They consider this newer entertainment crass, unappealing and, for lack of a better word, stupid. This is because you’re not the target audience for this entertainment. And besides, think about, unbiased if you can, the things you watched as a child and tell me some of that wasn’t pure unadulterated garbage.Let’s be real. We watched some CRAP.

By taking away this primary source of connection with their peers, you’re making it that much harder for your child to make friends. It isn’t that entertainment should be all that we base our relationships with one another around, but it’s, especially these days, a large part of it. So often have I heard the phrase “I’m not even really that into this show, but all my friends watch it, so...”. We want to connect with people, and the easiest way to do so is by finding entry via something you both like, or even pretend to like. Trust me, because while my parents didn’t coddle my media intake, it was the ONLY thing I had to connect with my peers on, and even then only so rarely as we liked vastly different things. I was a weird girl with weirder tastes.

We hatewatch shows so we can talk to our friends about them. We sit through movies we don’t care about because our partners enjoy them. We listen to music we don’t like because it’s important to those around us who’re playing it. Entertainment is connectivity, especially at that base level of life, and if you take that away, it’s only going to get harder. There’s nothing wrong with showing them The Classics. In fact, I highly encourage media heritage. Showing the the peaks, the highs, the top tier. I support that more than I can emphasize. But they need their own modern day entertainment too, because not every parent shows their kids “The Classics”. Not every kid is going to watch vintage Scooby Doo, original Spongebob or 70s Sesame Street. They need to watch the entertainment provided to them, so that they can then take that knowledge and use it to connect to the kids their age.

The Classics will always be there, but it gets harder to make friends as you get older, and we need to learn these social skills as early as possible, and this is coming from someone who had no friends growing up because I simply cannot connect with people. I know. You think modern day childrens entertainment is crap. I don’t necessarily disagree with you. There’s a lot of garbage out there. But for as much garbage, there is gold, just as there was for the entertainment you and I and our parents consumed. Media is the one of the last ways we have we can actually all sort of agree on. Don’t take that away too. So sure, show them The Classics.

But show them that they’re also allowed to like whatever it is they want, because without that, how will they ever know themselves, let alone anyone else.

[scrawnydutchman]

My Top 10 Favorite Cartoons

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Animation is the greatest art form in the world. It’s film making, painting, doodling, caricature, satire, illusion, literature and music all at the same time. Truly poetry in motion. It simply does not get enough credit for just how miraculous the form can really be. Being the innovation in our culture that it is, making this list was difficult; because every time I thought of a worthy candidate for the list another worthwhile one popped up in my memory. As such, expect an honorable mentions before we get to number one. Before we jump in though, some ground rules.

1. If it’s animation, it counts. It doesn’t matter if it’s western animation or Anime, 2d or 3d, traditional or motion tweened, for children or for adults, for television or on the web. If it involves the cycling of drawn pictures to create the illusion of life then it qualifies.

2. This is not in order of objective quality and is strictly opinion based. Overall quality is a factor, but this list is mostly about how much of an impact it’s had on me as an individual.

enough ado, let’s get into it.

10. Being Ian

It’s more then Likely those of you readers who are American or anywhere besides Canada for that matter don’t know about this show, so in order to make sense of this entry let me provide a bit of information about myself. I am Canadian, and thus grew up with an entire library of Canadian produced shows intended for Canadian audiences. While I think the U.S.’s animation game is undeniably stronger then what we’ve got up north, we had some pretty solid entertainment like 6teen, What’s With Andy?, Total Drama Island, stuff like that. While it’s all well and good, the only thing I regret about our history as animators is that we rarely aim for more fantastical premises and almost always make shows about hijinks in mundane Canadian smalltown life. It’s nice every once in a while but we do it a little too often. I’d kill for a Canadian Adventure Time or Gumball. So why is Being Ian here? Well, the simple answer is this is the show that made me want to get into film making. Seeing as the premise is all about a nerdy kid with his camera trying to make an inspiring career out of his mundane life and constantly imagining scenarios that are treated as homages to famous movies like King Kong, Clockwork Orange, Jurassic Park and so on (many references I didn’t get as a kid) it makes sense that this would make me want to take on the same kind of lifestyle. It put me on live action for a while but as I found my talents are more in line with animation I moved onto it shortly after. Quite honestly, that’s it’s only real reason for being here. The animation is passable but nothing to write home about, it’s comedy got a chuckle out of me at times but isn’t really the most clever show ever (in fact sometimes it relies a little too much on grossout humor, as do most Canadian shows in fact), but the show undeniably played a major role in my development as a person. Also, it’s theme song is by Parry Gripp (the “Do You Like Waffles?” guy) so that’s a plus.

9. Wander Over Yonder

Alright, now that some of the country-based sentimentality is out of the way, let’s get into the really high quality stuff. The stuff with the bright colours, the wacky characters, the emotionally driven storylines and just everything great about cartoons. Craig McCracken is among my favorite animated show producers of all time (as previously stated in another article I wrote: Why Craig McCracken is a genius). This show is the perfect example of his talent and skill. Effectively just Road Runner on an intergalactic level with a touch of The Muppets, Wander Over Yonder is the cartoonist cartoon you will ever watch in your cartoon-filled life. It’s got a great sense of humor, intoxicatingly likable characters like the optimistic too-nice-for-his-own-good Wander, the spunky and adventure loving Sylvia and of course the abundantly evil yet adorable Lord Hater and his number one henchmen Commander Peepers, and it’s animation is miles upon miles in quality in comparison to what you may find on the air most of the time. I think objectively it is one of the finer shows on this list. So why only number 9? Well, the truth is . . . I haven’t watched very much of it. I watched the first season and pieces of the second. I intend to watch the rest once I get a bit more spending money but for now I gotta settle with what I bought, and for a show as high quality as this I refuse to pirate it. But this show left a great impact on me and came into my life when I needed somethin this cheery most. I discovered it when I was coming off of a really hard breakup that was way more difficult then it really needed to be and it bent me out of shape real bad, so putting this on felt like turning the lights in my brain back on. For that I’m really grateful.

8. Avatar: The Last Airbender

Ho man. Who knew Nickelodeon of all networks would make a move as artistic, risk-taking, original and highbrow as Avatar: The Last Airbender?? Oozing with eastern culture influence (so much so that there is an ongoing debate as to whether or not it counts as an anime), hours and hours of some of the most fantastic animation and fight choreography ever to hit the waves of television all done in glorious hand drawn frame by frame no less AND being the premiere of some of the most unforgettable characters in pop culture like the lovable Aang, the witty Sokka, The badass Katara and Toph and the honorable (haha) Zuko, this show is something you absolutely can’t miss out on for any reason at all. I would know as much, because I actually binged watched the whole thing as an adult instead of catching it while it was still on the air even though I was totally aware of it’s existence at the time. I was a stupid, stupid kid. It’s too bad Nickelodeon developed a history of terrible decision making that screwed over the follow-up series The Legend of Korra SUPER hard. All well. This show is fantastic and you need to watch it right now.

7. Venture Brothers

Alright, so at this point I feel an obligation to point out a certain bias I have when picking favorite shows. That bias being my love for superheroes. I. LOVE. Superheroes. They are a bigger chunk of my life then they realistically should be. So fair warning; a lot of these entries are superhero themed, this being one of them. But Venture Bros isn’t just that: it’s one giant satirical love letter to every kind of adventure show you can imagine. It homages everything from James Bond to Indiana Jones to Scooby Doo to Johnny Quest to Superfriends to Marvel Comics. It’s got fast witty dialogue that seamlessly alternates between high and lowbrow in seconds and has an ever expanding cast of great celebrity voices like Stephen Colbert, Clancy Brown, Seth Green and of course the manliest man who ever manned in the history of mankind, Patrick Warburton as Brock Sampson. Testosterone incarnate. The show has great appealing character design and so many memorably hammy characters that all comes together for a great slick style that’s every bit as badass as it is hilarious. You can totally get enraptured in the gut wrenching dialogue while still being invested in the plot full of conspiracy and espionage.

favorite line from this show: “If that were a woman, I’d marry it!” “Yeah, and then I’d jeopardize our friendship by bangin’ yer hot wife!”

6. Cowboy Bebop

Anime fans rejoice; I put the most cliché basic answer for favorite anime on my list! In all seriousness though, Cowboy Bebop is often regarded as the gateway anime for an American audience and rightfully so. It’s heavily influenced by American culture, it’s got a soundtrack comprised almost entirely of Jazz, Blues and Bebop as is it’s namesake, every episode homages some sort of American genre of film like Noir, Sci-fi horror and even Blacksploitation flicks and it’s American dubbing is considered one of the few on par with the original if not better, with Steve Blum giving a cool as ice raspy take on Spike as the lead character as well as the rough but fatherly Jet, the seductive but sensitive Faye and the optimistic child prodigy Edward (who is a girl, in case you don’t know). But none of that would matter if the anime wasn’t good . . . . so it’s a relief that this show KICKS SO MUCH FUCKING ASS THAT IT DOES OH MY GOD!! If I could sum this show up in one word, it’s “cool”. You will never find a show cooler then this. That is a challenge. It’s got great Bruce Lee inspired martial arts action as well as Reservoir Dogs esque shootouts, and most importantly it’s got a lot of heart and dripping emotional tension enraptured in mystery that insists the viewer keep watching to peel back the layers of every character. Through nuance storytelling choices, heavy atmosphere and carefully chosen dialogue this show has a style and edge that will never be known again. Let’s just hope the live action adaptation doesn’t fuck it all up (it’s got Sunrise Pictures backing it though so that’s reassuring).

5. The Simpsons

This gif is just the tiniest taste of the timeless wit behind the golden age of this show. What can I say about the Simpsons that hasn’t already been said before? It’s one of the most culture revolutionizing pieces of all time, let alone the 20th century. It perfected the archetype of the family sitcom, is the longest running American television show in history, was once so ahead of it’s time to predicted the future eerily frequently and has even had some of it’s original dialect like “D’oh!” make it into the dictionary. This show is no doubt one of the largest reasons for our cultures current sensibilities and outlook. Most importantly though, it was just something me and my whole family could watch and bond over. Some of my fondest memories as a kid was getting so excited whenever this show would come on because it was a time where me and all the siblings and our folks would huddle around the couch and all laugh together at some great slapstick, clever one liners and just straight up bizarre jokes at times where the only way you can logically respond is to laugh. It’s too bad this delicious fruit has rotted quite a bit and Fox won’t just send it to compost already. I already wrote up an entire article about why the current Simpsons sucks now so if you’re interested, go check it out. For now, I’m just going to look fondly on it’s golden age through clips, old episodes and internet shitposts.

“Don’t cry for me. I’m already dead.” - Barney.

4. Homestar Runner

Oh, Homestar Runner. Ye ancient relic of the early days of the Internet before youtube. A simpler time when Flash cartoons were all the rage and you can tune into the surreal misadventures of a star spangled armless oblivious dolt and his more popular counterpart, the boxing glove wearing e-mail answering Luchador Strong Bad. When I was very little I was obsessed . . . OBSESSED . . . with Homestar. I think the great appeal of Homestar was that while it was clearly popular enough for references to pop up here and there purely by word of mouth and for the series to eventually get a videogame developed by Telltales and for the creators Matt and Mike Chapman to eventually move on to working for Disney, it was JUST obscure and surreal enough to make its fans feel like they were in a unique and secret club where they could really bond over references to the show and not have it ruined by having the brand just pop up everywhere and anywhere. As hipstery as that sounds, my point is that Homestar felt like a Niche where problems were simple, everything was up for ridicule and old Atari and computer games were always cool. They went on a hiatus for a few years and only recently came back with a little cartoon every once in a while (nothing regularly scheduled though) but if you want to dabble in a little bit of early 2000s lighthearted weirdness then I highly suggest checking out their website. I’ll link to it down below.

http://www.homestarrunner.com/

3. Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends

When I first came up with the idea to do this list this was the first show to immediately pop in my head. I just get into a good mood whenever I think about this show. It’s colour scheme, it’s wildly imaginative characters, it’s silly yet offbeat sense of humor, it’s great pacing. Mostly it’s premise is just so ingenious you have to wonder how nobody ever thought of it before. This show is the sole reason why Craig McCracken is among my absolute favorite Animation Directors. Everytime I heard the intro to this show come on as a kid I had to immediately stop whatever it is I was doing and catch a hilarious episode. This was a show my sister really liked too, so much so she learned how to play the theme on the piano. Whether it was letting awkward tension build or immediately escalating to a high speed chase, this show would always keep me giggling the entire way through. Not to mention some of it’s episodes were really heart wrenching and actually made me choke up a bit. I know leave you with one of it’s funnier bits.

2. Teen Titans

That superhero bias I was talking about is coming back with a vengeance. This show is great for a lot of the reasons I really like previous entries in this list actually. It’s got a great art style that’s heavily anime influenced, a cast of diverse and unforgettable characters (with my childhood favorite being the quirky and wise cracking Beast Boy and my adulthood favorite being the hilarious, innocent and lovable Starfire), a hell of a lot of heart that makes me tear up in some of it’s most emotional moments, FANTASTICALLY fluid and suspenseful action (once again done in glorious classical animation), a great soundtrack with a hype as hell opening number that’s so good I have it on Spotify, all sorts of homages to action show tropes as well as nods to the larger DC universe and takes itself the right amount of seriously to let some of it’s sillier aspects shine. I distinctly remember seeing the first episode when it came on for the first time and getting instantly hooked. Every main character in this show is cast spot on and give some of the most memorable performances I’ve ever heard. Plus it’s a show that only gets better with time . . . especially in comparison to . . . that other show.

Before we get into number one, here are some honorable mentions: Rick and Morty, Disney’s Recess, One Piece, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Clone High, Samurai Jack, The Legend of Korra, The Amazing World of Gumball, Steven Universe, Fairly Odd Parents, Danny Phantom, Young Justice, Spectacular Spider-Man, 6teen.

1. Justice League Unlimited

Let’s take a moment to appreciate just how Amazing Bruce Timm’s take on the DC universe is, because . . . oh man . . . it is masterful. The stupendously likable characters, the intense action and suspense, the drama, the fast paced and impactful action and animation, the simple yet effective character design, the ever engrossing storylines. These are just some of the reasons why Bruce Timm is my favorite animated show developer of all time. There have been many great DC shows to come after this like Batman: Brave and the Bold or Young Justice, but none of them come close to the majesty of Justice League: Unlimited. When it comes to Bruce Timm shows most people would put Batman: The Animated Series higher up there, and while I without a doubt respect it’s legacy the fact that it’s Bruce Timm’s earliest show as director for the DC universe is pretty prominent in it’s pacing, action and to an extent it’s line delivery. The show moves rather sluggish and has more then a few issues in it’s animation, especially in it’s first season. I don’t hold that against the show in any way as it’s still very impressive for what it is, but you can tell Timm and his crew were just beginning to hone their style and would go through some growth pains further down the road. Justice League had some remnants of these problems here and there but they were beginning to shake these issues off. JLU is where Timm’s style got perfected. Perfect pacing, perfect line delivery, perfect animation, perfect action sequences where you can feel the impact of every punch and blow, perfect storytelling, and most impressively perfect juggling between the largest cast of characters Bruce Timm has tackled in his run. While Justice League would keep it between the original 7 in terms of juggling, JLU would take on characters like Green Arrow, Captain Marvel, Huntress, Black Canary, The Atom, Vigilante and so many more and make them all just as likable as the main cast if not more at times. And of course, there is the number one reason to watch the show . . . The Question.

God, do I love the Question. This show is the sole reason he is my second favorite DC character (first being the Flash). But anyway, to wrap it up, Bruce Timm once said in an interview that JLU was his favorite work because it was the only show he could keep going back to and continue to enjoy. I wholeheartedly agree.

So that’s my list. I hope you saw some of your favorites on there, and if not just enjoy what you enjoy and keep this medium alive dammit!

[ourdelicatestudentpost-blog]

Tom And Jerry Games

Their target: Tyke, that dog from the cartoon series who talks regardless that Tom and Jerry do not. Tom and Jerry's Seaside Membership Bar & Grill is a Rio Grande Valley Authentic! The image comes from the Tom and Jerry short Jerry's Cousin.” 1 2 Tom hires a group of goons to beat up Jerry's extremely sturdy cousin, and they fail. http://andraursuta.com/ and Jerry sequence received seven animation Oscars.

Tom & Jerry's Restaurant gives scrumptious selfmade catering! What was your favorite original programing at Cartoon community? Love cartoons then and nonetheless do now, just purchased the newest Alvin & the chipmunks movie LOL, I'm only a big child. I did get my daughter fascinated by scooby doo although, she cherished those older cartoons, however not as much as the authentic scooby doo. I bear in mind them all i just love d top cat n tom & jerry however nowadays all cartoons r not proven unhappy... very sad feelin very nad.. just want each cartoon again on tv each previous cartoons guys..... I which TBS TV station would bring these back on for Saturday Morning cartoon at 9:oopm Youngsters want good clear cartoons still to look at. I really like how persons are serving to every other out, I'm learning quite a bit about cartoons :) I see the cartoons on TELEVISION and wander, what happened to the traditional characters I grew up with. Mr. Magoo was created in 1949 and was originally proven as animated shorts in the film theatre.

Huckleberry Hound has at all times been one of my favorite cartoon characters. Favorite Cartoon: Journey Time Favorite TELEVISION show: Hawaii Five-0 Favorite Film: Deadpool or Hardcore Henry. Whats your favorite cartoon ( present or film - not youtube) of all time? So, I guess when I used to look at cartoon community, it would have to be adventure time. If you're young, cartoons and their lead characters stick by you. While Bugs is arguably one of the most extensively recognizable cartoon characters of all time, I've identified in my heart that many other characters are black. The collection initially aired on RTP in 2010, and you may get the full episodes proper from the supply. Let's check out three enjoyable cartoons created for language learners, followed by 4 Brazilian and Portuguese cartoons that may entertain and educate you. This will be much simpler than beginning out cold with authentic Portuguese cartoons, where you do not know anything about the plot, characters or context. Whereas it is natural for youths to be taught languages by watching cartoons, anybody, regardless of age, can benefit from this method. You're additionally studying language—picking up new words and funny phrases from the cartoon characters, and absorbing grammar, accents and pronunciations. If there's one thing the Web loves more than fake diagnosing itself with Asperger's, it's faux diagnosing its favorite characters with it.

And lastly, in the movie the word "toon" is treated like a racial slur that humans use to offend cartoon characters. I lately had a considered my favorite cartoon character, and how he relates to my life & music. My Favorite Cartoon Character, Life & Music. Like most children, Kevin grew up watching numerous cartoons, from gems like Spongebob to the extra underrated like Courage the Cowardly Canine. Obviously I watched each episode of ‘Fats Albert and the Cosby Children'.…I beloved him and now there's just an vacancy inside.” Many big names started as the voices behind your favorite animated characters of the '90s and '00s. To look at online cartoons is nothing however a moment of relaxation for the elderly and training for young individuals. Gone are those days when individuals use to sit with their breakfast to observe Saturday and Sunday morning cartoons. Become involved in the new adventures of your favorite cartoon characters and go to us often to remain updated about what occurs next in your favorite present. This web-site is the best place to observe your favorite cartoons on-line, at any time when and wherever, in your demand. We love this Peppa Pig impressed craft as a result of the youngsters can imagine play with different characters! My favorite cartoons right this moment could be like — I like SpongeBob SquarePants. Word: I was solely allowed to watch one hour of non-instructional television every day rising up, so my information of cartoons is limited.