Animated Christmas Specials

Okay, so I know it has been months since I have posted anything here, but I'm back because I have something to discuss. It is no secret that I am a huge fan of Christmas time, and some of my favorite parts of this season are the holiday specials featuring beloved cartoon characters. There's the Garfield Christmas, Charlie Brown Christmas, even Christmas in Pac-Land. However, one of the staples of the holiday season is the retelling of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

I love adaptations of A Christmas Carol. I love seeing how cartoon shows shove the contructs of their universes into the formula of the Dickens story. Some of them are awesome. Mickey's Christmas Carol and The Muppet Christmas Carol are among the best adaptations of the story. Then there are ones like The Jetsons Christmas Carol, The Flintstones Christmas Carol, and the mother of them all Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol.

Now, I know there are animation historians who will argue with me on this, but Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol stinks. There is a lot to be said for Magoo. It was the first animated Christmas special. But being the first doesn't always mean being great by today's standards. It also has some funny moments. But there is one thing about the Magoo Christmas Carol that has me yelling at the TV screen every year: the major conceit of the Mr. Magoo Christmas Carol is that Mr. Magoo is in a stage production of A Christmas Carol, and what we are watching is tantamount to a recording of a live production.

I'm going to let that sink in for a moment.

Animation is a medium that is so limitless, its only boundaries are that of the artists' imaginations. Theatre is a medium that is so limiTED that one of its major tenants is "the willing suspension of disbelief." Why would you take a cartoon version of A Christmas Carol, and give it the same restrictions that a stage production would have?! Why would...? You could just... Why not...?

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

Why not just bind all cartoons with the limitations of the stage. Tweety Todd: the Deamon Birdie of Tweet Street. What about A Huckleberry Hamlet? "Ta be er not ta be, y'all. That's a dang good question." Or maybe Scooby Doo meets the cast of Rent. "Reasons of ru-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uv! Reasons of ru-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uv!"

Stupid. Magoo's Christmas Carol is really the only one that makes me angry, yet every year I watch it. Oh well. It's over now and I have the rest of Christmas to find solace in Yogi's First Christmas.

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The Return

So I am back from my hiatus and raring to go. I start off with a return to the Duckiverse, which I left you with before my departure. Remember when I had such nice things to say about Kaboom Studios and their new Darkwing Duck Comics? Well, for all the nice things I had to say about the Darkwing Duck Comics, the new Ducktales Comics are awful.

First of all, the artwork is terrible. I don't know much about comics or comic artists. I don't know how hard it is to put a comic together. So that should mean that I shouldn't look at a comic and go, "We'll hell I could have made that." The continuity of character design is off, not only from the usual design of the character, but from panel to panel in cases. Also the backgrounds look like they were made in Microsoft Paint by a fifth grader. And that's insulting to fifth graders.

And the comedy is just lackluster at best. The thing about the Ducktales TV show, and Darkwing Duck, and hell even the old Duck comics, is that they weren't thought of as "for kids." They were funny, well written pieces, that kids happen to also enjoy. But the writing was sharp and original. Making cheap jokes and convoluted stories just because the comic is supposed to be a "kid's comic," is not true to the spirit at all.

I don't know maybe the thing will pick up, but for right now, I am thoroughly disappointed, and I'll stick to my Darwking Ducks for now, thank you, Kaboom Studios.

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Hiatus

The Cartoon Guru is taking a summer hiatus to work on other things. I'll be back on August 1, once again posting inane stuff about cartoons.

See you soon.

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Duck Man Part 5 - Voice Actor Vridays Edition

For today's Voice Actor Vriday, we salute one of my very favorite voice actors of all time Paul Frees. There is no chance that you have never heard Paul Frees' voice. In a career of over 40 years, Frees worked on more than 250 projects providing voices for some of the most memorable characters of all time. As film historian Hal Erickson says, "The voice of actor Paul Frees was not so much ubiquitous as inescapable. It was literally impossible during the 1960's and most of the 1970's to turn on the TV on any given night and not hear the ineluctable Mr. Frees." You would remember him as from characters as widely diverse as Bullwinkle and Rocky's nemesis Boris Badenov to the Little Green Sprout on the Jolly Green Giant commercials. Visitors to Disneyland know him as a third of the pirates on Pirates of the Caribbean, the narrator on Adventures Through Inner Space, and most notably as the ominous Ghost Host on the Haunted Mansion.

Not only was Frees is one of the most gifted voice actors of all time, he also had quite an interesting life outside of his acting career. Many of those stories are chronicled in the book Welcome...Foolish Mortals. While the book is a little light on entertainment value, it certainly packs in a lot of info.


While Frees deserves to be saluted on a Voice Actors Vriday for numerous reasons, he is here today because he has a connection to the Duckiverse. Frees provided the voice of my second favorite Duckiverse Denizen--second only to Darkwing Duck--Professor Ludwig von Drake.

Until Darkwing came along in the early nineties, von Drake was my favorite cartoon character as a kid. I remember watching reruns of the Wonderful World of Disney, and every time it was a von Drake episode, I would record it. I loved the character of this daffy philosopher/scientist/world traveler. Von Drake always seems to know a little bit about everything, but also is easily distracted or mistaken, kind of an Il Dottore for those who know their Commedia. (If you don't think a Commedia dell'Arte in the Duckiverse post is coming soon, you don't know me very well.)

Von Drake--oh, who am I kidding, Ludwig--appeared first in Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color in 1961 performing the Spectrum Song, but would eventually go on to be a popular character and often host of the show.



He became so popular that he moved into the Donald Duck Comics, where it was discovered that he was an uncle of Donald's. According To Don Rosa, he married a sister of Scrooge McDuck's. Ludwig even went on to have his own--very short lived--comic book. Recently, Ludwig has received a resurgence having made many appearances on Disney's House of Mouse and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, where his voice is now performed--as many of Frees' characters are--by brilliant voice actor Corey Burton, who is due his own Voice Actor Vriday soon.

So we wrap up this week-long introduction to the Duckiverse by saluting Paul Frees an Ludwig von Drake, two of it's most funny and charming citizens. Now that I have this intro out here I look forward to more discussions of Duckburg, St. Canard, and and the crazy characters of Disney's Duckiverse.

Duck Man Part 4 - When there's trouble you call DW!

Okay, today is a post I have been saving for some time. This is the post about my favorite Duckiverse character and my favorite animated TV series of all time: Darkwing Duck. What can I say about Darkwing Duck, one of the wittiest, smartest written cartoon shows of all time. As I rewatch episodes as an adult, I constantly find myself asking the question, “This show was supposed to be for kids?” The comedy is so sharp and the storytelling so great that much of it must have been lost on me as a kid. Although I loved it even then. The broad characters and imaginative storylines kept me engrossed then. The obscure references and fast-pace dialogue keeps me laughing now.

For those that don’t know, Darkwing Duck was a show that came on Saturday mornings and as a part of the famed weekday afternoon programming block known as The Disney Afternoon. The show was created by brilliant animation writer and director Tad Stones, and stared one of my favorite voice actors Jim Cummings as the title character. While the show did feature crossover characters like Gizmo Duck and Launchpad McQuack, Tad Stones is adamant that the show was not a spin off. It was a totally separate show in the same universe.

The show is at the same time parody of and an homage to campy comic book characters from the sixties and seventies as well as the fabulous radio dramas of the forties and fifties. Darkwing’s famous catchphrase, “I am the terror that flaps in the night; I am the winged scourge that pecks at your nightmares; I am Darkwing Duck,” is a play on the catchphrases of characters like The Shadow’s “Who knows what evil lurks I the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.” And so entrenched in comic book conventions was the show, that Tad Stones would often say in story meetings when discussing episodes, “Pitch me the comic book cover.”

The thing that appeals to me is that Darkwing is a “super hero” who isn’t terribly good at it, but has made this his calling in life, so is really passionate about it. He also has kind of a snarky, sarcastic sense of humor about him. He will never go after a bad guy without a quippy one liner. He such an endearing and funny anti-hero.

It doesn’t get much funnier or more original in the Duckiverse for me than Darkwing Duck. And it holds up too. So much so in fact that I now carry around literally every episode on my phone. I can watch DW and his cohorts anywhere anytime.

And just to bring it full circle, Boom Studios began running a Darkwing Duck comic book last year, which began as a four part run, but then was so popular it became an ongoing series. Ian Brill who writes the comic does Darkwing’s fans proud in my opinion. He’s captured the sense of humor and style very well. And just like with the TV series, though it is considered to be “for kids,” it’s definitely got an edge to it that I think adults can appreciate. Really great, great stuff.

I can’t really think an ending that segues nicely into a DW catchphrase, so I’ll just end with:

Let’s get dangerous.

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Duck Man Part 3 - Television Animation

Today let’s talk about the animated series that take place in the Duckiverse. First is the DuckTales, which chronicles the adventures of Scrooge McDuck, popular character from the comics, as he is put in charge of his great-nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie after their Uncle Donald joins the Navy.

For some reason, though Scrooge is the richest duck in the world, he is constantly going on adventures to gain even more riches. What a prophetic vision of capitalism of the 2000s. The riches usually come in the form of ancient or historical and sometimes mystical treasures. It’s kind of like Indiana Jones with tail feathers.

There is a lot of great comedy in the show and it’s a really fun spin on the adventure story genre, which has always been one of my favorites. The show saw the addition of new characters like Fenton Crackshell/Gizmo Duck and Launchpad McQuack, it also saw the return of some of the favorite Barks characters like Gladstone Gander, Gyro Gearloose, and the nephews. Although, the kids have way less supervision than they probably should in dangerous old mines or Egyptian tombs.

The show is tons of fun, and one that holds up in my book. The jokes are great and silly, and the storytelling pretty impressive for a kid’s show. It even spun off it's own feature length theatrically released movie: DuckTales The Movie - Treasure of the Lost Lamp.

The second animated series, I will discuss in tomorrow’s post. There's just to much to say about it for just one post.

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Duck Man Part 2 - Barks and Rosa

Two names we could not continue this discussion without mentioning are Carl Barks and Don Rosa, two names synonymous with the Disney Ducks. Barks is the Father of the Duckiverse. He began as an in-betweener at the Disney Studio in 1935, whose unit was responsible for cartoon shorts starring Disney's latest popular character Donald Duck and worked on several cartoons for the studio before he quit to work as a comic artist. In 1943, Barks would be asked back to work on a new comic book line starring Donald Duck. The first story was called The Victory Garden, and would be the first of over five hundred stories that Barks would create over the course of three decades. Barks would give Donald his Uncle Scrooge, his nephews, Magica De Spell, Flintheart Glomgold, Gyro Gearloose, and dozens more. The universe that Barks created would later go on to be the inspiration for the animated TV series Ducktales. While he worked for many years annonymously, as most did at Disney, after the 1960's word had gotten out that the man that fans referred to as "the Good Duck Artist" was in fact Carl Barks. Barks never officially retired, but his out put slowed down throughout the nineties, and he passed away in 2000 at the age of 99. But his legacy lives on through his wonderful and funny duck characters.

Ode to the Disney Ducks

They ride tall ships to the far away,
and see the long ago.
They walk where fabled people trod,

and Yetis trod the snow.

They meet the folks who live on stars,
and find them much like us,
With food and love and happiness
the things they most discuss.

The world is full of clans and cults
abuzz as angry bees,
And Junior Woodchucks snapping jeers
at Littlest Chickadees.

The ducks show us that part of life
is to forgive a slight.
That black eyes given in revenge
keep hatred burning bright.

So when our walks in sun or shade
pass graveyards filled by wars,
It's nice to stop and read of ducks
whose battles leave no scars.

To read of ducks who parody
our vain attempts at glory,
They don't exist, but somehow leave
us glad we bought their story.

-Carl Barks 1999

Don Rosa began work on the duck characters in the mid 1980's. Rosa, was actually not a trained artists, but rather actually has a degree in civil engineering which brought about his signature drawing style of the ducks. Rosa had been of fan of Barks and the Donald duck comics since he was a kid and was quite excited to work on the Scrooge McDuck stories. Rosa would go on to create elaborate adventures for Scrooge, partnering him with other characters from Carl Barks' Duckiverse. His most famous storyline is probably The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. The stories that Rosa created would later serve as inspiration for the Ducktales TV series as well as Darkwing Duck.

Though not quite household names in the world of comic book fandom, Carl Barks and Don Rosa are the Godfathers of the Disney Duckiverse, whose characters and stories have entertained million over the years.

Duck Man Part 1

As promised, today begins a week long theme to the Cartoon Guru Blog. Some may know, but many do not, that not only am I your Cartoon Guru, I also happen to be one of the world’s foremost experts on a very specific niche of Cartoondom: The Disney Duck Universe, or as it is often affectionately called – The Duckiverse.

What am I talking about when I talk about the Duckiverse? I am talking about the fictional world inhabited by Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, Louie, Professor Ludwig von Drake, and on and on. Essentially, this is a world created by Carl Barks for the Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge Comics in the middle part of the 20th Century.

The stories usually take place in or around the fictional cities of St. Canard or Duckberg in the fictional US State of Calisota. Though adventures have been known to extend across the globe and even into space. There’s lots of fun history of Duckberg here on Wikipedia.

The Duckiverse includes stories from Donald Duck Comics, Uncle Scrooge Comics, the animated eeries DuckTales and Darkwing Duck as well as a host of spin-off comics and series. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who knows more about the Duckiverse than I, and so this week we will explore the Duck-billed Denizens of the Disney Duckiverse.

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Oops...

When I said a week-long theme of posts next week. I meant next week. I forgot this week I am traveling most of the time. In the meantime, here are some fun cartoons about travel:











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Voice Actor Vridays: Don Messick

Okay, I just realized that this blog could just be called "Voice Actor Vridays." I hadn't noticed that the last three posts are all Voice Actor Vridays posts. Meaning that I haven't posted anything else in weeks. I apologize. I know that you need your cartoon sage, and I feel I have let you down. So next week I promise a cool week-long theme once again, as people seem to like those.

But this week, we pay homage to another voice acting great, and this guy is truly one of the greats. Daws Butler did about half of the voices for Hanna-Barbera characters, and Daws gets a lot of credit. The other half were done by a fella who is often a little less credited: Don Messick.

Messick started out as a ventriloquist, and did pretty well at it for a while. Then one day, Bill Thompson became unavailable to do the voice of Droopy. Daws Butler, who did a lot of voices for MGM cartoons, suggested to Tex Avery that he try out his pal Don Messick. His work there led to his job with Daws on the Ruff and Reddy Show, and that was the beginning of a Messick and Butler's decades-long voice acting partnership.

Over the years Messick went on to voice some of the most memorable characters of all time like Scooby-Doo, Boo boo Bear, Ranger Smith, Mutley, Astro, and Papa Smurf.

In addition to being a great and talented voice actor, by all accounts he was also an all-around great guy. So here's to Don Messick on this Voice Actor Vriday.



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Voice Actor Vridays: Alan Reed

In honor of Seth MacFarlane's reboot of The Flintstones, today's saluted voice actor is Alan Reed, the voice of Fred Flintstone. A brilliant character actor, Reed got his start on stage in New York appearing in many Broadway productions. From there he moved into radio working as announcer and actor on such shows as Duffy's Tavern, Life of Reilly, and The Shadow.

Eventually, he moved to Los Angeles, where he could be seen as a regular guest star on practically every show. He was one of those character actors of the fifties and sixties that you'd see all the time and go, "Oh, it's that guy."

Nothing would make him more famous, though, than that burly-sounding, gravely voice coming out of Fred Flintstone. That was his shining moment; he even created the catch phrase "Yabba Dabba Doo" for Fred. He also provided the voice of Boris in Lady and the Tramp.

You can learn more about his life and career in his memoir Yabba Dabba Doo! The Alan Reed Story.

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Voice Actor Vridays: Walt Disney

I know. I know. As if I don't write enough about Walt Disney. But I have been working a lot on my book lately, so I have Walt on the brain at the moment. Walt Disney was certainly an innovator in many regards and contributed to the legacy of animation in innumerable ways, but one that really seems to go unmentioned often is that Walt was the first voice actor, at least in animation.

Cartoons didn't have sound before Mickey Mouse came along, and when Mickey started to talk, Walt himself provided the voice. Walt did Mickey's voice for almost twenty years, and was the first person to provide the voice for an animated character.

So this VAV is is a tribute to yet another feather in the cap of pioneering achievement of Walt Disney.



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The fate of the ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive is in jeopardy due to funding issues. Since I moved to Hollywood--before I even had any friends here--the Archive has been one of my favorite places to go. I have volunteered to help cataloging, and the blog has become as much a part of my daily routine as my coffee.

There is no other resource in the entire world dedicated to the art and history of animation, illustration and cartooning like the Animation Archive. It saddens me that we may lose this institution.

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Voice Actor Vridays: Tom Kenny

This week, May 1 to be exact, Spongebob Squarepants celebrated his 12th year on the air. In honor of this anniversary I decided on today's Voice Actor Vridays to salute the voice of Sponegbob Squarepants: Tom Kenny.

Tom Kenny is the closest thing we have today working today to a Mel Blanc or Daws Butler. I personally think that Tom is the best voice actor working today. If you listen to Tom as Spongebob and Tom as the Ice King on Adventure Time and Tom as Heffer on Rocko's Modern Life you absolutely cannot even tell it's the same guy. He is tremendously versatile and talented. I remember back when I was a freshman in college, I was working at Nickelodeon, and he came in to a promo for Spongebob. I met him and told him that I wanted to be a voice actor. He invited me to lunch and answered questions and offered advice.

Tom has been a sketch performer, and had a memorable stint on the cult sketch show Mr. Show. He also had a successful career as a stand-up comedian, but he actually started out as a musician, and continues to be musically prolific. In fact, the song "The Best Day Ever" on Spongebob was written by Tom.

Since my first meeting with him as a college kid, I have had the chance to hang out with Tom many times, and not only is he extremely talented, he is also a really nice guy. So here's to this week's spotlight voice actor: Tom Kenny.



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Comic Books and Cartoons

Most people who know me know that while I am an encyclopedia of cartoon knowledge, I know precious little about comic books. I know that seems incongruous with who I am, but I never got on board with comics as a kid, I didn't know anyone who liked them, and so I just never read them.

The only two comic characters I know anything about are Spiderman and Batman because when I was a kid, there were cartoon shows starring them. Now, not only are many of my friends comic book nerds, but my wife may be chief among them. As they are quick to point out the cartoons are almost nothing like the books, so I have a lot to learn.

While I don't read comics, I do really enjoy learning the stories. I think the story-telling is fascinating and equatable to Greek mythology in its epicness (I'm 99% sure I made that word up). It makes me very happy to see now that there are many new cartoon series out that are bringing these great comic characters to life for me. I really enjoy watching these animated versions of the comics and then discussing the differences with my comic savvy pals. This one looks really cool: the new Green Lantern series. Here's the peek that the public was treated to at a recent comic convention:



Another one that I have been enjoying recently is The Spectacular Spider-man. I enjoy Spider-man quite a lot because above all he is funny. Stan Lee says Spider-man is the Groucho Marx of the comic world. Groucho Marx. Comic World. Done. And this show brings back a lot of the comedy and quipping that the movies seemed to forget. Also the theme song is pretty cool and is a nice nod to the old theme song from the sixties.



The Hellboy animated series is another one that is pretty fun. I enjoyed the movies directed by Guillermo Del Toro very much, and the series brings back the actors from the live action movie to be the voice cast. It is pretty spectacular. Plus any character whose main villain is supernatural Nazis is an automatic win.



Finally, my favorite relatively recent comic book based animated series is Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Batman is probably my favorite comic book character of all time, and this show is one of my favorite versions of Batman that I have ever seen. Now, I only know Batman from the animated series and the old Adam West TV show, so what I like about Batman is the fun campy silliness of it. The darker versions are nice also, don't get me wrong. I love Tim Burton's and Chris Nolan's versions, but the funny, ridiculous take is the tops for my money. Do yourself a favor and watch the first couple seasons of it. Diedrich Bader is great as Batman, and Jon Di Maggio as Aquaman is pretty fantastic. Here's a taste:



And just so you know this is probably the longest I will ever talk about comic books on this blog, ever. I have exhausted all of my knowledge.

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The Looney Tunes Show Review

I have to admit that my executions were not that high going into the premiere of the new Looney Tunes Show last night, but when I watched it I had several laugh-out-loud moments. Granted there are a couple of cheap jokes in there also, but there are several really cool, smart jokes in there. However, I still maintain my stance that it doesn't really feel like the Looney Tunes. It's a funny show with characters that happen to look like the Looney Tunes.

Daffy Duck comes the closest. With his selfish, me-me-me take on everything, he really does come close to the mark. At least closest to the mark of the 60's-80's Daffy that I really love. They captured Daffy's voice and sense of humor pretty well. Even his voice is a fairly true to Mel Blanc's. I'm sure you're aware that this makes me very happy, as Daffy is one of my favorite cartoon--and even film-characters of all time.

For as much as Daffy is on the mark, however, Bugs is off the mark. They seemed to have turned him into an exasperated straight man for Daffy's antics. Where the old Bugs would egg Daffy on with a wink to the camera, this Bugs rolls his eyes in frustration like Liz Lemon with her co-workers.

All in all, though I enjoyed the show. If you're looking for classic Looney Tunes, this is not the show foir you, but if you are looking for a pretty damn funny cartoons show--a rarity in itself, these days--I say check out The Looney Tunes Show.

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Cartoon Guru Time Machine

Hello, everyone. As I have mentioned, I have been too busy to write anything recently, but that doesn't mean that things haven't been happening. So this week, I'm going to be doing what I call the Cartoon Guru Time Machine, so I can catch you up on some of the things that have happened over the last couple of weeks.

Review of Gnomeo and Juliet:

I saw Gnomeo and Juliet a few Saturdays ago, and it was about as good or bad as I expected it to be. The movie is obviously not for me. One of the things I hate is when reviewers write about a movie as if it is trying to be The Godfather and falling way short. This movie is not trying to do that. This is a dumb movie for kids, and I can see where little kids would like it a lot. There are plenty of slapstick gags and funny voices.

The one things that really irked me about this movie were the references. There were "pop" culture references to make the movie hip and edgy. Like references to Forrest Gump, Brokeback Mountain, and Lassie. You know all those things that are fresh in kids minds. There was even hip slang converted to gnome-ness, like "Who's your gnomey?" Who's your gnomey, for shit's sake! And the guy who was in charge of throwing in the "subtle" Shakespeare references--and in case you are as keen on subtlety as that guy is, there are quotes around "subtle"--must have been patting himself one the back up one side and down the other. So there were so many dumb forced Shakespeare puns, I literally said "Oh, come on!" out loud once.

Also the movie is an Elton John musical. Did you know that? I didn't, and I don't think Elton John did either because the lyric changes were crammed into the melody like present day Elton John wearing the 70's "Crocodile Rock" outfit.

I know it sounds like I hated it, but I didn't. It was absolutely fine for what it was. It neither exceeded nor fell short of my expectations. And Jim Cummings once again proves that a good voice actor and play well and have a good time with even a mediocre script.

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Animated NBC

30 Rock on NBC has created a web exclusive short cartoon series called Jack Donaghy Executive Superhero. You can learn more about it on the website here, and this is the first episode:



I always like it when Brian Williams acts silly, but over all, kind of a snooze.

This leaves me wondering why NBC keeps toying with animation. Between this and Community's recent animated tag:



Or Community's stop-motion Christmas special.



Could this means that NBC might be open to the idea of a prime time animated series? It would be nice to see a cartoon series on a network other than Fox. The Fox shows are pretty great, but cartoons in prime time on more than one channel would be awesome.

Thoughts?

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Voice Actor Vridays: June Foray

Chuck Jones once said, "A lot of people say June Foray is like a female Mel Blanc. I say Mel Blanc is a male June Foray." June Foray is probably the most prolific voice actor of all time with a career spanning over 65 years. At the age of 93 she still performs voices that she originated over a half a century ago. Voices like Looney Tunes' Granny and Witch Hazel, Rocky J. Squirrel and Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle. So a part of the legacy of animation is June Foray that he memoir is entitled Did You Grow Up with me Too?

Here is the trailer to a documentary about her:

Like with Daws and Mel Blanc, there's not much I can say about her that hasn't already been said. If you want to learn more about June, here's a really nice biography of her written for Animation World Network.

She's a brilliant voice actor and quite a pioneer in the industry I am always happy to be a part of. Here's to June Foray, this week's spotlight voice actor.

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Failed Cartoon Ideas

As your Cartoon Guru, not only do I write about Cartoon History and do voice over for cartoons, I also pitch cartoon series around town. Most of them--I like to think--are pretty good. Some of them are a great big fail.

One such idea that just went nowhere was this one: Abe Lincoln Trying to See a Magic Eye Picture.



No idea why that one didn't work.

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