How's It Hold Up?

(Spoiler Section Length - 2min 14sec)Many films from the 2000s are blamed for 'killing' 2D animation in the west (at least for movies), such as Disney's Treasure Planet or Dreamworks' Sinbad. But at least for a few years, only one film had the ignominious honor of being the final 2D Disney film: Home on the Range. While Treasure Planet and Sinbad have their fans, Home on the Range not only doesn't seem to have any, but in fact seems to be one of the least remembered animated films Disney ever put out, especially since the Renaissance. Does it deserve to be forgotten, or is this a hidden gem? Listen to find out!The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Kool Kats Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Sometimes two cartoons with similar subject matter appear in the same year. In this case, we get two cartoons that are both focused on matador bull fighting, with both cartoons seemingly taking that stance that it's a bad thing. One does so directly, with its protagonist constantly talking about violence against animals being bad, while the other has a protagonist that IS the bull in a fight, but is completely uninterested in doing any fighting. Does either short still hold up in the modern day? Listen to find out!The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Kool Kats Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

(Spoiler Section Length - 20min 24sec)Last year for Spookaboo we watched The Nightmare Before Christmas film, often hailed as a Tim Burton-directed film, despite him being a producer. Corpse Bride shows us what an actual Burton-directed feature film looks like, for better and worse. It's got a fun supernatural world too, but also a significant portion of the film features a drab 'real' world, and towards the end the two worlds collide. It's also got a stronger focus on romance, with a love triangle formed between Victor, his arranged marriage partner Victoria, and his accidental fiancée Emily. These elements sound promising, but do they come together in the end? Listen to find out!

By the late 30s, Warner Bros finally managed to develop some cartoon stars that would end up standing the test of time, like Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. But their biggest star still hadn't arrived, until this short! Sort of! Tho the rabbit in this short is a far cry from Bugs Bunny as we know him today, it's still an important stepping stone on the way to Bugs' eventual actual debut in 1940. But historical importance aside, is the cartoon any good, so many years later? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 7min 5sec)Anime movies attached to shows can be a mixed bag, often struggling to stretch characters and concepts out into a feature-length format, and struggling even further to work as stand-alone films. While many anime movies struggle because the anime they're spun off from are adaptations of manga, and thus they cannot contradict canon, the Cowboy Bebop movie doesn't have that particular problem. All it has to do is slot into its parent series, which was already very episodic in nature. The result is a movie that, to fans of the series, just feels like an extra-long episode (complimentary), but with a much higher budget. Does it still hold up today, if your memories of the original series are hazy at best? Listen to find out!

It's well known that Fantasia could only happen because of the success of Walt Disney's first big feature-length gamble, Snow White. What's less well known are these two shorts that preceeded Fantasia's release, one featuring an important Fantasia collaborator and the other being a bit of a test for a more 'Symphonic' take on a cartoon than the Silly Symphonies often actually exhibited. Are either of these cartoons worth watching on their own merits, though? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 6min 49sec)You don't need us to tell you that the Pokemon franchise is a phenomenon. And while the games are the biggest, most important part of that phenomenon, the anime was no slouch either, especially back in the late 90s. So when they made the very first Pokemon MOVIE? Kids went wild! Two of the three of us were kids back then, and you better believe we went wild too! But all these years later, does the English dub of the original Pokemon movie still hold water? Listen to find out!

Are you a groovy kat? Have you got rhythm? Can you move to the beat? What if your answers to all those questions were 'no', but everyone else at your kollege said 'yes' and they're judging you for it? That's more or less the plot of this weird little kartoon. But is it worth watching? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 8min 20sec)We reach the end of our Looney Tunes movie marathon with the film that inspired the marathon in the first place! This movie came out very recently, but you'd be forgiven for not knowing about it, given how little it was advertised. It's a cartoon 50's sci-fi B-movie starring Porky, Daffy and Petunia, involving a space invader and a copious amount of bubblegum. It's also a premiere example of how little Warner Bros-Discovery values animation in this day and age. But company mismanagement aside, is the film actually... good? Listen to find out!

By the late 30s, Disney had accrued multiple big cartoon stars, but Warner Bros still really just had the one: Porky Pig. Then Porky went on a duck hunt and the studio started to think... maybe we've got the makings for a second star. 1938 is the year they would try to make Daffy Duck a star, and what better way to start than by having him co-star with Porky? In these two shorts we explore Daffy's earliest cartoons where he's a headliner star, and ask ourselves... do these still hold up?

(Spoiler Section Length - 2min 8sec)Looney Tunes Back in Action started life as a Space Jam sequel, but ultimately evolved into its own thing. The true sequel wouldn't come for another decade or two, and rather than switching genres, it shows the Looney Tunes playing basketball yet again, just with a different star athlete this time around: LeBron James. But the Looney Tunes aren't the only Warner Bros properties appearing this time around... no, this time there's a few more. Do they improve the movie? Worsen it? And how's the whole thing hold up, only a few years later? Listen to find out!

While both Disney and Warner Bros created duck characters who would go on to be popular to this day, they weren't the only studios trying to use waterfowl to create memorable characters. Enter Terrytoons, covered on this podcast for the first time! Their creation, Gandy the Goose, isn't exactly a household name these days, but is that because his cartoons are bad? Let's watch and find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 13min 6sec)After Space Jam's success, attempts were immediately made to create a sequel. None of that really panned out until close to 30 years later, but back in the early 2000s a new Looney Tunes live-action hybrid film WAS made... to much less success than Space Jam. But success, critical or financial, does not actually tell one whether a movie is good or not, and the extra screen time for the toons, casting of Brendan Fraser and world-tour vibe of the film certainly all seem promising, so... does this film hold up?

It's time for ducks! And maybe some other forms of foul. But today specifically, it's a lot of ducks, with Disney's very own Donald and his three new co-stars: Huey, Dewey & Louie! These two shorts, the first two released starring the trio, show two very different ways of incorporating them into a Donald Duck short. I think it's ultimately a mix of the two styles that ends up sticking, but listen to find out if either of the two are still worth watching!

(Spoiler Section Length - 6min 14sec)Come on and slam, if you want to jam. And Jam we must, because we're warping back to the 90s when Looney Tunes and Michael Jordan were at peak cultural relevance. Space Jam is a movie that was hugely popular at the time, but in more modern evaluations has often been found lacking. Given how cynically corporate the film's origins are, one would hardly be surprised if it fell short. But... does it? Is this film best left in the 90s, or does it still hold merit so many years later? Listen to find out!

Frank Tashlin is a fascinating character, in and out of the Warner Bros animation studio multiple times throughout its lifetime. On the podcast, we've only watched his Porky shorts thus far, and so, when given free range to make a color short, with original characters, one of the last shorts he worked on before another exodus and eventual return, is the product still worthwhile? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 7min 37sec)Though Rankin/Bass was well-known for their holiday specials featuring the likes of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman, the amount of specials that the company actually produced might be surprising to many casual viewers. But the fact of the matter is, they made enough holiday specials with enough of a shared universe that they were eventually able to make a feature-length film using characters from at least six other specials. But then, why have most people not actually heard of this film? Is it because it doesn't hold up? Listen to find out!

This holiday cartoon, released at the beginning of 1938, turns many Popeye conventions on their ear: Popeye and Bluto are pals and don't fight each other. Popeye is more focused on Olive Oyl's grandmother than Olive Oyl herself. And no real violence of any sort actually occurs! This might make it sound like a boring Popeye cartoon, but is that truly the case? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 10min 48sec)When you're passionate about animation, you end up knowing about a lot of movies by proxy, without having actually seen them. The French film with the giant blue people is one such film for Danika, and now it's finally time to watch the thing! It is significantly weirder than any of this podcast's cohosts could have imagined. But does it hold up? Listen to find out!

Though traditional, 2D animation was the norm for animated shorts in the 1930s, they weren't the ONLY things being made. George Pal was also out there, creating shorts using a fascinating form of stop-motion which involved a great many carved wooden figures. His 1930s work was primarily comprised of advertisments, but they're fascinating nonetheless. Do these old works still hold up, even if the things they advertise are no longer relevant? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 9min 3sec)Like Akira, Ghost in the Shell is one of those anime movies that is often brought up to represent the value and 'adult' appeal that anime has, as compared to western animated movies which are often following in Disney's footsteps. Like Akira, it's also very influential, both in its home country and overseas. But is it worthy of this reputation? Does a 1995 film focused on the idea of near-future technology still hold up so many decades later? Listen to find out!

Ending our look at 1937, we come to Lonesome Ghosts, a short where Mickey, Donald and Goofy are ghostbusters, decades before the 80s film. But the twist is that they ones asking for their help are... the ghosts themselves!! Since the ghosts are so lonesome they want to terrorize our main trio, and they do so in many weird and wacky ways. Is it a good cartoon? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 7min 16sec)The last time all three co-hosts watched an Adult animated film, Eight Crazy Nights, none of them enjoyed it. But does that mean no such films have merit? Releasing in the late 90's, the South Park film released during the series' early years when they were considered especially controversial. It's a musical, just like ECN, and it's certainly no slouch in the crassness department. But is it still worthwhile, over two decades later? Listen to find out!

With Ub Iwerks gone, Bob Clampett was left to take over the cartooning unit, and his own sensibilities started to quickly become apparent, even if they weren't allowed completely free reign with Chuck Jones still there. In this short, we see some Clampett start to stretch his wings with evil cute characters while Jones has fun giving detailed animation to an ancient dog. Is the cartoon any good? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 6min 39sec)This podcast has made no secret of the fact that it's not exactly on board with the Disney remake trend, and perhaps no remake has been more dreaded by at least one of these co-hosts than The Lion King. Though it's often referred to as live action, this movie is basically entirely animated just like the original, just in a hyper-realistic style whose purpose seems to be giving the story more gravitas. It doesn't. But just how bad (or maybe good?) is the remake? And more interestingly, how is the sequel, that evolves the art style and tells a brand-new story with new songs? Listen to find out!

Many Popeye cartoons return to the well of Popeye vs Bluto, and that well typically involves trying to best one another at something until it comes to fisticuffs. But what if the thing they were trying to best each other at was... getting injured??

(Spoiler Section Length - 6min 41sec)The reputation of Disney sequels is generally not great, but among them the Lion King sequel and... interquel(?) tend to be favored. They're pretty wildly different in tone, with Simba's Pride maintaining a similar tone to the first movie, going for a Romeo and Juliet thing rather than Macbeth. Lion King 1½, meanwhile, is a purposeful farce, with a MST3K style 4th-wall-breaking setup and a story that takes place in the margins of the original film. Are these two films really the best that the direct-to-DVD era of Disney sequels has to offer, and more than that, are they still worth watching today? Listen to find out!

Tex Avery was the Warner Bros director that really shook up what it meant to be a WB cartoon short, and one of the ways in which he did that was an increasing focus on subverting expectations and breaking the 4th wall. He also introduced several characters to the Looney Tunes lineup, such as Egghead and Elmer Fudd. These two characters in particular have a strange history, one that's become so intertwined that modern depictions of Egghead reference Elmer Fudd's original design rather than his own. All that is fascinating, but the question remains... do the debut cartoons for these two characters still hold up so many decades later? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 8min 58sec)Generally speaking, people consider the Disney Renaissance of the (mostly) 90s to be the height of the studio's output, thanks in no small part to critical and commercial titans like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. But there is one film above all others that gripped the cultural zeitgeist and never fully let go, one film that could be considered the champion of the era, its unofficial ruler. Its... king. Today we discuss that film, and whether its quality warrants that majestic reputation.

There are only a handful of shorts whose fame at least partially comes from their technical achievements. Steamboat Willie and its sychronized sound is one, while The Old Mill's claim to fame is the multiplane camera. While we take what it does for granted now in the digital age, back then it was a big step-up in cinematography for animated shorts. But does it really add that much to this short? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 14min 41sec)From the creator of The Triplets of Bellville comes a film about an old magician living in a time where his talents are valued less and less by the day. While Triplets had sparse dialogue, this film goes even further than that while maintaining a less exaggerated style, both visually and in what few vocalizations do occur. This lends it even more of an 'artsy' flair, making it unsurprising that it was nominated for an academy award but also equally unsurprising that it never truly had a chance. A decade and a half later, does it still retain the flair that got it nominated? Listen to find out!

While Warner Bros' output has been increasing in quality in the late 30s, largely thanks to new blood like Tex Avery and newly-impowered blood like Bob Clampett, one member of the old guard in particular is still around and has been a lot slower to change: Fritz Freleng. Much of his output has largely been echoing the stylings of the Harman-Ising era, a style that's more and more at odds with the rest of the studio. But Freleng DOES change, even if slowly, so how does this cartoon of his hold up? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 6min 20sec)It's time to go back to the past of Makoto Shinkai - the creator of Your Name - to see the man's directorial debut. Except... we're actually checking out two films, one a short film and the other a full-length one. What similarites lie between these two works, and how do they relate to his later films? And more importantly... how do they hold up? Listen to find out!The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Kool Kats Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Color Rhapsodies is a series that, at least up to this point, has mostly been a Silly Symphonies ripoff tonally, with overly cutesy aesthetics and little substance. There's been exceptions, but for the most part they've stayed away from more gag-focused fare or more dramatic storytelling. So today, we're going to look at two cartoons, one that's very gag-focused and one that's very dramatic! Do either of these cartoons succeed in what they attempt, and more importantly, do they hold up for the modern viewer? Listen to find out!The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Kool Kats Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

(Spoiler Section Length - 5min 22sec)When it comes to direct-to-video sequels of animated films, though Disney's efforts are often derided, due to their budgets they tend to be better than what other studios manage to do. We've seen various efforts already, such as with sequels to Don Bluth films, and they've run the gamut from 'okay' to 'very bad'. Does Ferngully's sequel fall in that range, or does it manage to break the mold? Listen to find out!

Mickey, Donald and Goofy are taking on a new job this time: cleaning a clock. And not just any clock, but a clock tower! But with a sleepy stork, a sassy coil and Goofy's poor level of awareness to contend with, they're going to have a heck of a time getting the job done. So many years later, does the short still hold up? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 7min 45sec)There are a lot of movies and shows aimed toward children that have a goal, primary or not, of advocating for protecting the natural environment from pollution. But if you're a 90s kid, chances are there's one in particular that comes to mind when the subject is brought up - Ferngully. Many pro-environment, anti-pollution pieces of media have a less-than-stellar reputation, often accused of being overly preachy... does Ferngully fall into that trap? And regardless, is it any good, all these years later? Listen to find out!

Betty Boop's back, and running a hotel! But when things go wrong, since it's late-era Betty Boop, there's only one man who can save the day: Grampy. Though he's no one's favorite character, Grampy being in a Betty Boop cartoon doesn't necessarily mean it will be terrible! So... is this one? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 3min 14sec)This time we cover yet another direct-to-dvd Disney sequel, and this one ALSO has the misfortune of being one of those 'three episode of a cancelled series'-type affairs. The series in question would have been titled Team Atlantis, but since the movie didn't do as well as Disney wanted, well... we got this. But as a final hurrah for a lovable cast of characters, is this thing worth a watch? Listen to find out!

In 1937 Looney Tunes continued to evolve more and more into what they're thought of today, and a big reason for that is the way the individual directors evolved, getting more and more leeway to find their own styles. In this episode we meet up with Frank Tashlin again and see how his style has changed and what aspects he's leaned into. Is either short worth watching today? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 16min 5sec) After around a decade of creating musicals, Disney started to branch out in the early 2000's, creating several films that weren't as financially successful as the 'Renaissance Era' movies, but many of which ended up being cult favorites over time. Atlantis is one such film - eschewing the musical format for a straight-up adventure film inspired by the like of Indiana Jones. Disney hoped the movie would be the next big thing, and planned to make theme park updates, a sequel and even a spin-off television series under the assumption it would be. But that's not how things worked out... the film disappointed financially, enough so that all the aforementioned tie-ins were cancelled. But financial success is far from a measure of true quality... was this movie actually any good? Listen to find out!

In 1937 Donald Duck broke out from the Mickey Mouse shorts into his own animated shorts series... but he wasn't the only one! Pluto also finally got his own series, though this would be the only entry in it for a few years. The character of Fifi and the concept of Pluto shepherding a group of rambunctious young animals returns in this first outing, as Pluto tries to take care of his kids while Fifi is out stealing food. He does a pretty lousy job, and things only get worse when Pluto and the pups end up in a nearby basement that has paint and alcohol in it. Does Pluto's first solo cartoon still hold up today, or is he best as a side-character? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 11min 3sec) Rankin-Bass' Rudolph continues his adventures, and this time he's saving New Years! Along for the ride are a colorful cast of characters, in search of a baby with big ears. They hunt for the child across an archipelago with islands that represent years past. But the wicked giant bird Eon also searches for the kid, to prevent his own demise. Does this all sound like a lot? It is!! But the real question is... does this special still hold up? Listen to find out!

In this Popeye short, Swee'Pea gets into a dangerous factory and nearly dies many times! When people say things like 'you couldn't make this today' they usually seem to be referring to provocative content like Blazing Saddles, but the phrase could also be used for something like this: a cartoon where the central crux of most of the jokes is a baby in life-threatening danger. Modern audiences are not generally accustomed to seeing a baby almost get split in half by a buzz saw. But does that make this old cartoon bad? Not necessarily! Listen to find out our take on it!

(Spoiler Section Length - 9min 7sec) While Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer might have a tough time being labelled anyone's 'favorite' Christmas song, it certainly is one of the most well-known, and that's in part because of this iconic holiday special that virtually every generation since its creation is at least aware of, even if they haven't actually seen it. It's Rankin-Bass' first Christmas special, and easily their most iconic. They went on to make many more specials, many Christmas-themed, but if you mention their name it's this particular one that people are likely to remember. But being ubiquitous doesn't mean being good, or holding up well... so IS it good? DOES it hold up well? Listen to find out! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howsitholdup/support

When people consider all-time classic Christmas stories, Dr. Seuss' tale of the Grinch tends to be one of the most fondly remembered. While the original book has had multiple adaptations over the years, the first one had the biggest influence, if for no other reason than it cemented the idea that the Grinch should be colored green. But all these years later, does this Chuck Jones television special still prove to be worth a watch, or is it time to leave it in the past? Listen to find out! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howsitholdup/support

This time we take a look at Gabby's final two (of three) appearances in the original Looney Tunes shorts, each one increasingly directed by Bob Clampett (with Chuck Jones as assistant director!). Does Gabby's character improve over his first appearance? Does Bob Clampett's direction win out against Ub Iwerks in quality? Are either of these cartoons worth watching today? Listen to find out! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howsitholdup/support

(Spoiler Section Length - 12min 24sec) Making the sequel to your cult classic anthology film NOT an anthology is a strange choice out the gate, but not inherently a bad one, if the story and characters prove worth the time investment. Taking a few notes from the original film's Tarna segment, this sequel focuses on a butt-kicking woman taking on a great evil in order to avenge slaughtered innocents and save the universe. Given this setup and another reference or two to Tarna throughout the film, it makes the most sense to compare it to that original segment. Does it compare favorably? Does it stand up on its own? And most importantly, does it hold up? Listen to find out! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howsitholdup/support

Mickey's putting on a show - a magic show! Donald is also here, though unlike Orphan's Benefit he isn't part of the show - instead HE is the heckler! Though when Mickey easily puts him in his place, Donald is eager to charge onstage to fight about it. Throw in a little bit of Goofy, working behind the scenes, and you have an explosive mix with some wild results. But are they enjoyable results? Listen to find out! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howsitholdup/support

(Spoiler Section Length - 18min 51sec) We've got another Mamoru Hosoda film on our hands, and just like all his other movies, we definitely never cried while watching or discussing it. This one touches on some very modern concerns, such as identity and perception in the digital age, while also using trappings from an older tale, Beauty and the Beast. The film also uses multiple animation styles, most prominently traditional animation and CGI. Does it all work together to make another engrossing Hosoda classic? Or does this one end up less than the sum of its parts? Listen to find out! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howsitholdup/support

Ub Iwerks is a man who's come up multiple times already on this podcast, from his essential work on the earliest Mickey Mouse cartoons to his solo career after he left Disney. But he also had a very brief stint at Warner Bros, during a period of time where he was contracting out to various studios, including Columbia Pictures. So here we compare two of his 1937 cartoon, made at two different studios, along with beginning to chart the evolution of the Looney Tunes character Gabby Goat, who was the Warner Bros' attempt at an answer to Disney's Donald Duck. Are the cartoons good, and is Gabby a fun character? Listen to find out! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howsitholdup/support