CN Holiday Special Talkbacks

[Duke]

Since there doesn't seem to be one for some odd reason, I guess I'll make one...a day late. This is basically the talkback for any and all holiday programming that is airing on Cartoon Network in 2003, which includes the Christmas Show marathon and the Cartoon Theater marathon.

I missed most of the X-Mas marathon due to either a) no interest or b) was doing something else or c) watching Love Hina: Christmas Movie and Big O: Season 1. The only part I saw was the Johnny Bravo X-Mas which, while a bit too hyper, was classic Johnny. No Carl & Pops=Yay from me. All the scenes with Donnie and Santa were gold, and I liked the little nods to previous episodes from Season 1. Do wish there was a Jungle Boy cameo, though, not just the animal friends.

As for the movie marathon, the only one I really want to see is An American Tail: Fivel Goes West, as it was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid. I still love it to this day.

[DianaGohan]

Most of the holiday specials were "meh". Not that I don't appreciate the classics, but they could of tagged out some of them and ran these specials as well.

-Hamtaro Christmas Special
-Pokemon Christmas Special
- Jackie Chan Adventures Christmas Special
- X-Men Evolution Christmas Special
- the 2 Aqua Teen Hunger Force Christmas Specials
- Space Ghost Coast To Coast Christmas Special
- Big O Christmas Episode
- Lupin The Third Christmas Episode

Then again, that's just my opinion, but it would of added a little diversity and freshness to the holiday party.

[Corrado]

While not a fan of the Smurfs Christmas special, it is good to see them on CN again.

[PaQ]

How could anyone not love:

Christmas come to PacLand - The PacMan Christmas Special...http://forums.toonzone.net/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

OK. But I did like what came after:

The Flinstones Christmas Carol. That's my favorite of the Flinstones Christmas episodes.

[DianaGohan]

I always liked that hour long Christmas special of the Flintstones where Fred and Barney fill in for Santa. It does beg the question of why is Santa the only one modern in the prehistoric age. Shouldn't he be like the other cavemen or something?

Food for thought.

[Nin-Nin69]

Well since this is also the Cartoon Theater Marathon talkback, I just wanted everyone to know that they aired that one by the German company again and I still don't see how kids could enjoy it or anyone understand the random plot jumps.

[DianaGohan]

You mean Millionaire Dogs?

You mean that it was actually suppose to be enjoyable to anyone?

Well that's news to me.

[PaQ]

I always liked that hour long Christmas special of the Flintstones where Fred and Barney fill in for Santa. It does beg the question of why is Santa the only one modern in the prehistoric age. Shouldn't he be like the other cavemen or something?

Food for thought.
I haven't seen all of that episode, just saw some of it yesterday. That's actually a really good point. Knux pointed out something similar to me the other day. That puzzles me.

Question to anybody: Was there ever a Jetsons Christmas episode? I'd love to see what that time's Santa looked like.

[Duke]

Question to anybody: Was there ever a Jetsons Christmas episode? I'd love to see what that time's Santa looked like.

The closest thing was the Jetsons Christmas Carol.

Oh, and Diana, do you mean the Pokémon episodes "Holiday Hi-Jynx" and "Snow Way Out"? Or do you mean the two rare, VHS-only Pikachu's Winter Vacation 1 & 2? I kinda doubt "Holiday Hi-Jynx" will EVER air on TV again after all that ruckus about Jynx being an African stereotype. That's the reason the Jynx Johto episode was skipped in the U.S.

[Nin-Nin69]

You mean Millionaire Dogs?

You mean that it was actually suppose to be enjoyable to anyone?

Well that's news to me.

Well someone though it was a good idea to replay that one on CN, unlike that other one with the cut out inked animation about the smog that was taking over the world. People didn't want to see that trainwreck again, but it's uses as an evil reminder in some of the Cartoon Theater commercials.

[Corrado]

Come to think of it, they should've played "Comfort and Joy" and "Holiday Knights" too.

Can't get enough of Green Lantern making a snow angel, and Harley.

[DianaGohan]

Oh, and Diana, do you mean the Pokémon episodes "Holiday Hi-Jynx" and "Snow Way Out"? Or do you mean the two rare, VHS-only Pikachu's Winter Vacation 1 & 2? I kinda doubt "Holiday Hi-Jynx" will EVER air on TV again after all that ruckus about Jynx being an African stereotype. That's the reason the Jynx Johto episode was skipped in the U.S.

I was kind of thinking of "Holiday Hi-Jynx" but I had no idea about that B.S about Jynx. The average sensitive is getting far too senstive about these things.

[Brainatra]

I haven't seen all of that episode, just saw some of it yesterday. That's actually a really good point. Knux pointed out something similar to me the other day. That puzzles me.

Question to anybody: Was there ever a Jetsons Christmas episode? I'd love to see what that time's Santa looked like.

I pointed that out once already--- Santa should've looked the way he did in the original series special (i.e. Stone Aged) or somesuch; seeing him, the Mrs., and the workshop look modern (yet they made Stone Age-style toys) was kinda jarring...

The songs were entertaining, though (more than when they were recycled in Yogi's First Christmas/Casper's First CHristmas/etc. etc.)...

No Santa shown on the Jetsons' Christmas special (which paled in comparison to all the Flintstones' ones IMO)...

To answer the above question, ones I've seen (amongst others):

- Christmas Comes to Pac-Land (aka the Pac-Man Christmas special):
Saw this one as a kid, and off-and-on since then. Pure 80's cheese: Santa needs Pac-Man's help to "save Christmas". Apparently involving the use of doping up the reindeer on power pellets ("say kids, just say no to drugs!")...

- Smurf Christmas episodes:
Sister digs/dug the Smurfs more than I did, but saw these anyway. Apparently its possible to defeat your enemies by singing them to oblivion.

- Original Series Flintstones Christmas episode:
Very entertaining. Liked the bit with Fred dumping out the gifts and calling out "Merry Christmas" in multiple languages. Places he passed over: London (looked like a prehistoric version of its Parliament building or Big Ben); Paris (with its all-wood Eiffel tower; the wooden Eiffel tower is seen again in the one-hour Christmas episode); a German town; the South Pacific; China; Egypt (with the pyramids and Sphinx apparently already built).

- the one-hour Flintstones Christmas special:
Weaker than the above (see comments above), but has its moments. Besides what I said above, thought it odd that Fred and Santa don't recall meeting each other before (from the original series special). ;-)

Places Fred passes over: China, Switzerland(?), the South Pacific, Egypt, Paris, the Netherlands, Mexico.

Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm are grade-schoolers in this one (chronologically, their next appearance would probably be the only other special/series to show them as grade schoolers, "Little Big League").

- PPGs "Fight Before Christmas"
Still amusing. :-)

- That "we three girls of Townsville are"/"We Three Kings" song they ran during all the commercial breaks. "Kicking Mojo, punching Him...knocking Fuzzy on the chin"... heh.

-B.
Wished they'd reran "Flintstone Family Christmas"...

[Corrado]

"Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm are grade-schoolers in this one (chronologically, their next appearance would probably be the only other special/series to show them as grade schoolers, "Little Big League")."

I mentioned it in another thread about the mulitple Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm's running. (shakes head.)

"Wished they'd reran "Flintstone Family Christmas"..."

Was that the one in which Bamm-Bamm had an earring and was a teen-ager, or was that one of Fred's nephews?

[Duke]

I was kind of thinking of "Holiday Hi-Jynx" but I had no idea about that B.S about Jynx. The average sensitive is getting far too senstive about these things.

Yea, this woman saw "Holiday Hi-Jynx" premiere on Kids' WB!, then 3 weeks later published this huge essay on how Jynx and Mr. Popo from Dragonball Z were mocking African culture. The Pokémon part is available at Dogasu's website. Also, since that essay, every promotional art of Jynx has her skin a dark purple rather than jet black.

[PaQ]

The US is getting too PC. I remember when SW Episode 1 came out that some people felt Jar Jar was making fun of African Americans.. I didn't even think about that till they made all this news about it.

That's interesting to hear about that happening in Pokemon. Another thing i never would've thought of.

So no Santa shown in Jetsons.. That would've been an interesting to see what design he was.

Saw a bit of Fibel: Journey west or something. I forgot the title. Never was much into that set of movies.

[Brainatra]

>>>"Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm are grade-schoolers in this one (chronologically, their next appearance would probably be the only other special/series to show them as grade schoolers, "Little Big League")."

>>I mentioned it in another thread about the mulitple Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm's running. (shakes head.)


For those who aren't sure what he's referring to, watch the scene after Fred uses "Christmas Magic"(TM) to make the gifts magically fly out of the bag at the Christmas party; as we see the kids run over to the gifts, we see Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm run by no less than three or four times... *tsk, tsk* indeed. Guess maybe they got so excited they managed to pull off that "two places at once" space-time distortion gag the Warner siblings and Droopy used to do, or something... (shrug)

>>>>"Wished they'd reran "Flintstone Family Christmas"..."

>>Was that the one in which Bamm-Bamm had an earring and was a teen-ager, or was that one of Fred's nephews?[/QUOTE]

Very well, then...from memory:
Summary of "Flintsone Family Christmas":
Plot: Fred and Wilma take in a street-smart, "caveless" (homeless) kid named "Stony", while trying to show him the True Meaning of Christmas.

Comments:
"Stony" IIRC was a teenager (or a 12-year-old) with an earring, along with street hustling skills...along with being able to hack into Fred's cable TV to give him free cable.

Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm are grown adults (at least mid-20's by my guess), married, and with two twin infants, Chip and Roxy, in this one (following "Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby"). Chronologically, this special probably marks the "last" appearance for all the Flintstones characters, unless they make another special in this late-in-Fred's-life setting (Fred and the gang as grandparents)---said setting possibly being why this one doesn't get rerun too often. Not to fret, though: according to the original series (confirmed by several spinoffs), the city of Bedrock itself (and apparently Slate Rock and Gravel) continue to exist well past the Stone Age, apparently all the way up to the 25th century. IIRC, one of the spinoffs even showed a 20th century Bedrock once (in the Capt. Caveman "Futuro" episode in the early 80's Flintstones series, assuming my Spanish skills were up to snuff enough)... ;-)

Yet another variant version of what the Stone Age St. Nick should look like---this one's more faithful to the original series, but instead of dinosaur reindeer, he has pterodactyls with antlers.

This half-hour special was OK from what I recall, but the original series one was probably better...

-B.

[Corrado]

"For those who aren't sure what he's referring to, watch the scene after Fred uses "Christmas Magic"(TM) to make the gifts magically fly out of the bag at the Christmas party; as we see the kids run over to the gifts, we see Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm run by no less than three or four times... *tsk, tsk* indeed. Guess maybe they got so excited they managed to pull off that "two places at once" space-time distortion gag the Warner siblings and Droopy used to do, or something... (shrug)"

Those were on-purpose gags. The running around was a typical Hanna-Barbera mistake.

"Summary of "Flintsone Family Christmas":
Plot: Fred and Wilma take in a street-smart, "caveless" (homeless) kid named "Stony", while trying to show him the True Meaning of Christmas.

Comments:
"Stony" IIRC was a teenager (or a 12-year-old) with an earring, along with street hustling skills...along with being able to hack into Fred's cable TV to give him free cable."

(shudders at plot.)

Thanks for the info, Brainatra.

[DianaGohan]

Braintra: The informer with the information you can use.

Oh, and another thing. Looks like they're having a post-Christmas every day a movie party. Anyone care to comment on that thing?

[Corrado]

"Oh, and another thing. Looks like they're having a post-Christmas every day a movie party. Anyone care to comment on that thing?"

They're showing Legend of The Vampire again.

God, that scene with Velma singing at the end.

I wonder what the writers of that were on when they thought of that.

[Duke]

Well, they're playing the Pokémon movies and Iron Giant, so it sounds good to me. Since it's technically a holiday event, I guess it would be covered in here.

[Brainatra]

The library had the Flintstones' "Christmas in Bedrock" tape available, complete with "Flintstone Family Christmas" on it, so I guess I can make more observations on it...

- Santa doesn't show up in this one, but various people dressed as St. Nick do (one of them behaving in a complaining-about-their-life manner a bit similar to the original series...). Santa's depicted in this one as having pterodactyls pulling his sleigh (with stupid rock-pun names like "Blitzenquartz") instead of "rein-dinos" (the original series Christmas episode) or real reindeer ("A Flintstone Christmas"). Didn't care much for this change---would've preferred the original series version of St. Nick and his gear...

- Fred again plays Santa for Mr. Slate (see: "A Flintstone Christmas", the previous time he plays Santa).

- Apparently, by Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm's adulthoods, Slate's changed the name of his company to "SlateCorp", which probably means it's grown larger, or at least expanded within its two main trades of construction and "rock & gravel" (hmm, a bald-headed guy running a major company with "Corp" in its name... could ol' Slate be the ancestor of a certain super-villain?! *Naaaah*...)

- Yes, Bedrock does have electricity (via electric eels). They also apparently have according to Barney, as part of its "neolithic 90's" setup, "drive-by stonings" (which was probably the most amusing line in the whole special...). Charles Manson apparently also has a prehistoric ancestor/counterpart, and there's also an adult "cavegirl" cable channel (which fulfills the "gags meant for adults instead of kids" department)...

- Weird moment: a procession of religious figures who've tried to make Stony sway over to being good include what looks like a Christian priest (complete with a Bible with a cross on it), along with a Jewish rabbi, an Eastern mystic, and what I assume is a prehistoric Pope. Dunno how to explain away the Christian priest (*besides* the "just a cartoon" cliche), unless the various churches they've shown going back to the original series happen to be monotheistic churches that just happen to coincidentially enough use symbols that'll eventually become known as Christian symbols---which keeps my theory that the Flintstones' "Christmas" is really celebrating the Winter Solstice on track... ;-)

- "O'Harestone airport" = "O'Hare airport", Chicago's famed airport (and the busiest in the country). Most likely, the Flintstones' version is in "Chipcago" (mentioned as existing in the "Flintstone Kids" once)...

- Wonder how Stony managed to drive Mr. Slate's limo, given he has to see over the wheel *and* peddle the thing with his feet... unless Slate's limo is one of the rare vehicles in the Flintstones' world that actually has an engine installed.

Nice limo Slate has---complete with actual wood/log tires ("Firewood Tires"??). Now *there's* the height of Stone Age luxury! ("The New Fred and Barney Show" once showed a limo/gangster's car with wood/log tires...). :-)

- No idea who Megan Mullally (Karen on "Will and Grace") was supposed to be voicing... Pebbles? The social worker? Betty?

- Chip and Roxy, the "grandkids", show up along with Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm (chronologically the "last" appearance for all the Flintstone characters, as stated before; next appearance of anything in/related to their world is probably the "Roman Holidays" series, since it seems to be in the same setting mode as the Flintstones/Jetsons. The city of Bedrock itself possibly shows up again in the 20th century [in a Capt. Caveman short involving time-travel, Betty and Wilma] and definitely again in the 25th century [along with Slate's company and a descendant of his]... </geeky continuity moment>)...

- the "rock" puns could've used some work. "Corleonestone"? Not "Coal-leone"? ;-)

-B.

[Katy1111_23]

SO, it's safe to guess I'm the only person who waits each year to watch the Plympton's "Twelve Christmas Stories" special?

[Duke]

SO, it's safe to guess I'm the only person who waits each year to watch the Plympton's "Twelve Christmas Stories" special?

Yea, basically. :p

I just watched the Iron Giant again. Warners, get that Special Edition DVD out NOW!