Sketching from "Nature" - "Santa's Wild Home"

 Happy Christmas in July!  As you know, I enjoy sketching from nature documentaries and I have a big backlog of sketches from "Nature" episodes to share here.  Today, we're going to Lapland in these sketches from... last Christmas.  Yikes.

These and the next few batches of sketches are from a nice little handmade Sketchbook I got at a New Agey store ages ago.  I'd love to recommend it but I think it's one of a kind.  I liked it, though, and it was a lot of fun to draw in.

Jolly Thoughts on Recently Experienced Festive Media!

Happy Night Before the Night Before Christmas!  I know this holiday season is probably very different, but as if to make up for the whole... everything else, 2020 brought us a wealth of reasonably good to excellent new holiday movies and specials.  And I caught up on a few specials that are new to me.  And so, some (mostly) jolly thoughts:

"Mariah Carey's Magical Christmas" - Whatever you're imagining from a Mariah Carey Christmas Special, I can assure you this isn't going to have any shocking surprises. 
But I liked it!  The Peanuts animation in the middle is so cute and the songs are, of course, terrific.  I'm just surprised that this didn't happen back in the 90's.

"My Gift: A Christmas Special from Carrie Underwood" - Carrie sings a bunch of Christmas songs and, well, that's about it.  Singing kids, sparkles, and a general "We're trying to make the best of what we can control" feeling.  It's nice.

"A Holly Dolly Christmas" - Dolly Parton sings and tells stories and generally is awesome both here and in real life.  We respect a Queen.

"Jingle Jangle" - I love this so much!  The colorful steampunk aesthetic, the music, the magic; so far this is my favorite live-action Netflix Christmas movie.
It's also a movie where a guy creates a self-aware A.I. and immediately starts planning on making more to sell as toys for children.  For some reason, they don't really dwell on that part.

"Happiest Season" - I know there is a lot of Discourse over this one but I'm not going to go too crazy here.  It is a romantic comedy -a Christmas romantic comedy no less- and I enjoyed it!  If you know me at all, you know this is huge.

"It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie" - "Oh hey," I thought, "I haven't seen this Muppet holiday special!  I wonder why Freeform aired it only two times very early in the morning in between their mandated '700 Club' broadcasts?"
And then, dear readers, I watched it.
"Oh.  Oh no... 😰
"This is, at least the second-strangest movie I've ever seen where a supernatural being played by Woopie Goldberg helps a little guy get their life in order.  That club scene though, yiiiiikes..."

"Anna and the Apocalypse" - Like many zombie comedies, this is a lot of fun until it isn't.  It's also a holiday musical, and I kind of want to add some of the songs to my Weird Christmas Playlist.  Kind of.  Seems a little on the nose for this year.

"Hilda" - The brand new second season has an episode about the Yule Lads, so it counts.  Plus the whole series is basically Weird And/Or Obscure Nordic Folklore and is so beautiful and lovely and cozy!  I don't think we've had a good cozy animated series since "David the Gnome" back in the day.  It is, I believe the term is, Hygge as heck.
(But darn the cliffhanger ending... )

"Ziggy's Gift" - You can find this in the good old Thief Archive, which is appropriate because it is very obviously a Richard Williams joint.  It's nice; worth watching for the scene with the turkeys.

"Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special" - Maybe this is a bold proclamation but this is, I think, the best live-action Christmas special of my generation that does not contain Fraggles or John Legend.  Halfway through this rewatch I was ten times happier than I was when I started it.  (Not sure why Netflix is dropping it right before Christmas though.)

"Twelve-Hundred Ghosts" - You ever notice how many "Christmas Carol" parodies and straight adaptations there are?  It was almost inevitable that some mad genius would edit every one they could find into one coherent "megamix".  That genius is Heath Waterman and if you only have time for one Christmas movie off this list, make it this one.  On the one hand, it's genuinely moving.  On the other, it's hilarious (I'll never get over Mystical Buffalo Marley).  

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Art of the Day!  Happy Holidays everyone!

A Happy Holiday To All!

Here at the Blog, we've explored all kinds of holiday specials, the good, the bad, and the weird.  In all those years, one special evaded me.  It was a Christmas special I only saw once ever and remembered... not fondly.  Not fondly at all really.  In fact, I remember it being pretty bad.  The thing is, how bad was it, really?  It seemed this would forever remain a mystery.

Until this year.  The YouTube search finally came through.  Some wonderful crazy person (screennamed Ram Jam) finally uploaded it.  Cue the jingle bells and popcorn drum machine and sparkly synths, and journey back to 1990 with me, cause it's time for "Merry Merry Christmas".  It's time for the New Kids on the Block cartoon Christmas Episode!



So.  It's not just that this is as bad and weird as I remember from the one ever time I saw this during the one ever time it aired.  It's worse and weirder.  It's like they purposefully went out of there way to make a "Star Wars Holiday Special" for boy bands.  My favorite WTF moment is that moving "Biscuit in a Santa Claus suit stares out the car window contemplating the magic of a Christmas night in New York City as Jordan Knight falsettos the sh*t out of a sad/inanely cheesy Christmas song" scene.  All the songs are from the "Merry Merry Christmas" album which... is a Christmas album that exists.

I also think we can all agree that this is a (very very distant) second-best ever production involving Donnie Wahlberg where there is a sad weird kid and mystery everywhere and a character who turns out to be a ghost in the end.

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Since I know maybe three of you here are as thrilled about this crappy decades-old cartoon as I am, here is another present.  Over the summer my aunt, cousins, and friends all got puppies.  One day the three little sweeties all came over for a puppy party, and how could I resist?  So here are cute drawings of cute dogs!  Happy, merry, holly, jolly season's greetings here!

The New and Improved Christmas Movie/Special Bingo!

Happy Night Before the Night Before Christmas everyone!  I have a very special present for you: an actually usable version of my old Christmas Movie/Special Bingo game!

 Click here to play right in your browser!  Happy Holidays to all!

Let's See What "Toy Wishes" Thought Millenial Kids Wanted for Christmas!

A Christmas post!  In May!  How timely!  My reasoning is twofold: 1) Going through these old magazines in roughly reverse-chronological order seems like the most fun way to go, especially since I want to save one of the oldest for last.  2) It snowed up here last week.


So today our journey through the '90's starts in the year 2000.  Decades do tend to leak into one-another at the edges.  We'll go over strange ads I found in other, older magazines at the end. Before we go past the cover, though, I'd like to point out that Harry Potter always looked higher than the moon in that particular illustration, and I really don't think anyone can be said to "win" when the prize is live-action "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" merchandise. On that subject...

Every single one of the things in the picture above is terrible.  But especially that ghastly RC car.  And the bath scrubbies.  And those gift boxes that look to be covered in the Grinch and Max's pelts...

On top of that, gifting a movie tie-in book rather than, you know, the original Dr. Seuss book to a child is in every way a nastier, grinchier trick than anything any version of the Grinch has ever done.  You know what, let's stuff all this Grinch movie crap in a box, shoot it into space, and direct our attention instead to Harry Potter merchandise.

Or... maybe let's not.  I do still find it hilarious that anyone ever thought it was a good idea to market mucus and fish flavored candy, when it's clearly meant as a joke in the books.  But basically, this is what you had for Harry Potter inspired food before officially licensed butterbeer.

Honestly, the merchandising of Harry Potter in these days was weird all around.  These limited edition figures aren't pictured but pictures are pretty easy to find on eBay.  I'm just not sure how appealing a ceramic statue of Hagrid about to be mauled by Norbert is to a kid, especially when the damn thing originally retailed at eighty dollars.

Also, LOL forever at that singing fish.  Yeah, we all still have one of those hanging around somewhere.

Man, I don't even know what I could add to these "Disney Dinosaur" toys that would make them funnier.  It is a good reminder of how garish and ugly the advertising campaign was. 

(You'd also think they'd advertise even just one toy of the supposedly highly marketable cute furry things some jackasses insisted this movie about dinosaurs had to have but oh well.)

How about some random ads then?

And I just made us all sad.

The live-action "101 Dalmatians" movies were God-damn inescapable for a few years.  For a reminder of that, stare into these dogs' unnerving people-eyes in despair.

I can say with all certainty that if I did not already know what they were like, this image would have made me never want to play a "Rayman" game ever.  Mother of God...

Aw, but that's why I like TV!  Oh, '90's Enjoying-Violent-Media-Shaming.

Note also that Constable Odo is hip and up with the young people.

I already know that Kiddified versions of Beach Boys songs sung by animals is kind of a Thing, but since I just recently watched "Love and Mercy", this strikes me as... awkward...

And finally, let's have a concert in a place that is currently being plowed over to make room for Star Wars.  Love that Walt Disney Records logo, though.

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Drawing of the Day

Hey, you know what's strange?  I didn't find any interesting "Pokemon" toys in Toy Wishes.

The 25 Weird Days of Christmas Day 24: "The Snowman and the Snowdog"

"The Snowman", the nearly wordless and gorgeous animated short based upon Raymond Briggs' entirely wordless picture book (graphic novel?  Sure, why not), is such a strange, melancholy Christmas special, isn't it?  It captures the weirdly bleak and lonely aspects of winter and the Christmas season in such a beautiful, haunting way.  It is a sad, lonely sort of Christmas special for sad, lonely children.

That's precisely why I love it; it's one of the many beautiful and slightly unsettling animated films that affected me deeply as a child and hit many of those exact same buttons as an adult. "Snowman" honestly stands with "Watership Down", "Brave Little Toaster", "The Mouse and his Child", "The Secret of NIMH" and "The Last Unicorn" as Animation That Knocked Me Right On My Ass And Permanently Changed My Entire Philosophy Of Life When I Was, Like, Five.  (Anyone who has been following my Internet shenanigans for a while is probably nodding sagely and thinking, "Yeah.  Yeah, Trish seeing those particular animations at a young age explains a lot.")

I had every reason in the world to assume that "The Snowman and the Snowdog", a new sequel short created for the 30'th anniversary of "The Snowman", would be, in so many words, not that.  I've never been so happy to be so very wrong.



It's so damn sad, but it's a worthy successor to the original.  You can find it and the original "Snowman" on Hulu.  Merry Christmas, everyone!

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Art of the Day

Ah, my feels!

The 25 Weird Days of Christmas Day 23: "Mumfie's White Christmas"

Oh goodness, you can't understand how happy I am to have found this.  It's available on, last time I checked, every streaming service their is.  Have a little clip:



"The Magic Adventures of Mumfie" was one of my very few "Are you *sure* I didn't dream that?" shows.  I discovered it in college during that strange era when FOX Kids snapped up the rights to a... unique... variety of international animated series, ranging from this, to "Vision of Escaflowne" and "Cyber-Six".  It's very much as I remember, very sweet and soothing, kind of similar to "David the Gnome" with the weirdness of "Dr. Snuggles".  That's a combination I can get behind.

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Art of the Day

The Snowbird is totally Mini-Articuno, isn't she?

The 25 Weird Days of Christmas Day 16: "Santa and the Fairy Snow Queen"

I think I may have to go back and update my old list of Weird "Nutcracker" Adaptations...



Oh wow...

* - It's Mr. B-Sharp!?
* - Most of these costumes are pretty cool.  The Lion and Raggedy Anne, on the other hand, are tragedies.
* - Santa begs for the Fairy to change the characters back into toys because they might get broken or fall in love.  "You weren't made for living!"  Have some existential horror for Christmas!
* -  So.  Turns out the idea of having a magical toy spy on your kids for Santa to make sure they're being good around Christmas isn't a new thing.  (This does not make it okay.)

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Art of the Day!

An oldie, but a goodie. Consider it a "stay tuned"...

The 25 Weird Days of Christmas Day 15: "The Christmas Dinosaur"

I feel like these horrible children shouldn't be allowed to have pet Sea Monkeys, never mind the probably last baby pterosaur ever.



And yes, let's get the fact that this is really "The Christmas Pterosaur" out of the way, though that isn't the reason why this special is hot garbage.  It is one reason, but there are more and bigger ones.  To wit:

* - I hate, hate, hate these kids.  The last thing I want to experience during anything titled "The Christmas Dinosaur" is siblings whining and fighting.  That sh*t's too real.
* - I hate, hate, hate their parents too.  Crimony, nothing resolves a conflict between your two children like sarcasm and smug-facing.
* - Come to mention it, if nobody reading the script of this thing looked at the writer with concern and asked, "Dude... do you need to talk?" I'll eat one of my festive Santa hats.
* - "Hey, guys, give me some dinosaur names, quick!"
* - You really don't know anything about Quetzalcoatlus, do you?
* - Between the nosy neighbor, the kids having to keep a secret from their mom through increasingly elaborate means, and weird things happening in an ordinary house, this is like a season's worth of a God-awful syndicated afternoon sitcom crammed into about 45 minutes.  (Note: Dear reader, you are either thinking of "Small Wonder" or "Out of This World" right now.)

* - It's damn near the end of the special and we're finally seeing dinosaurs.  Wee.
* - Really, all the humans in this special are awful people.  Especially since they are only mildly interested in the fact that their town borders the freakin' Lost World.

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Art of the Day!
A leathery-winged friend for Christmas, this time without insufferable children accompaniment.

The 25 Weird Days of Christmas Day 14: "Christmas in the Stars"

Something I hope we can all remember for everyone's mental health this week is that "Star Wars" has always been weird and kind of goofy.  That's a big part of why I like it.  Maybe that's why I genuinely enjoyed at least half of the songs on this... not terrible?!... collection of "Star Wars" themed Christmas songs where droids make toys for Santa Claus' son, who delivers gifts to everyone in the Galaxy.

(Guys, I don't know if this is canon or not.)



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Art of the Day



Shameless repost, yes, but dammit, it's still funny.

25 Weird Days of Christmas Bonus Feature: Holiday Special BINGO!

UPDATE: Go use this instead.

The 25 Weird Days of Christmas Day 10: "The Christmas Tree Train"

Gahhhh, Buttons and Rusty again!?



I guess this makes for an interesting companion piece with yesterday's special; you've got trees and an owl and little animals lost in the city.  There are also humans who can't tell the difference whether they're holding a living animal or a toy one and the real live Santa Claus.  And we have the exact same plot as "The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn't" except this time Christmas is almost ruined by two annoying animals who get lost.

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Art of the Day!
I can't stop drawing Winter Critters!

The 25 Weird Days of Christmas Day 9: "Christopher the Christmas Tree"

Oh man, this one's a doozie:



* - There's about five minutes of commercials before the special starts, so it's a good opportunity to play "Alternate Universe or Canada".
* - Everybody in this special who isn't Christopher or one of his, uh, residents is a garbage person with a heart full of lies and doo-doo on their soul.
* - Oh my God, this is going to turn into a religious thing, isn't it?
* - We just flash-forwarded a decade?!
* - Welp, good for the kids and Christopher but it sucks to be one of the little animals living in Christopher during the winter because he was the only tree for *miles*.
* - The announcer guy's reason for naming Christopher Christopher... O_o

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Art of the Day

I cannot outdo the greatest fanart for this special, but I can try.

The 25 Weird Days of Christmas Day 8: "A Miser Brothers Christmas"

Does anyone seriously remember a time when the 1974 Rankin Bass special "The Year Without a Santa Claus" was obscure?  Trust me when I say it used to be.  Now it's practically a standard with a sequel and everything: 



* - Props to Cuppa Coffee studios for emulating the Rankin-Bass style reasonably well.
* - Except for Mrs. Claus' design in this special which is upsetting to me:


* - "The Year Jay Leno Became a Wind Elemental and Almost Ruined Christmas".
* - The reason this special exists is because the "Heatmiser" and "Snowmiser" songs were so damn catchy, and they do sing them here.  The other songs are... not good.
* - They need to deliver toys all over the world.  There's a hot weather guy and a cold weather guy.  They have two sleighs.  I can think of a solution to this problem and if you're better at geography then the writers of this special, you probably can too.
* - The Miser Brothers finally made the Nice List this year!  And all they had to do was save Christmas!

The 25 Weird Days of Christmas Day...7?: "I Want a Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown!"

OK, so it's really The 19 Weird Days of Christmas since I'm skipping weekends but who's counting?

In today's case, make that "The 19 Adorable Days of Christmas".  Because although "I Want a Dog for Christmas" is never going to stand with the truly timeless and beloved Peanuts specials like "It's the Great Pumpkin" or "A Charlie Brown Christmas" or "Flashbeagle", it is, more than any of the other forgotten Peanuts specials I've ever seen, just cuteness overload.

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Drawing of the Day!

Speaking of adorable:



(Robotic cough...)

The 25 Weird Days of Christmas Day 4: Disney's Christmas Fantasy on Ice!

WHERE HAS THIS SPECIAL BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!?



The teenager in me is hyperventilating right now, so here are adult-me's notes:

* - This is from 1992 and has the very a rare version of the Wonderful World of Disney opening.  Trigger Warning for the cereal scene in "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" (though note at least we are not alone).
* - Eisner on Rollerblades...
* - I believe I must recommend the outstanding "30 for 30" episode about Skategate, "The Price of Gold" (available on Netflix Instant), as it'd be hard to explain here.
* - That Dopey mask...
* - "Oh, here's a fun ride; a BENCH!"
* - I want to see fangirls fawning over *this* Jack Frost.
* -  Did you know that Olympic champion ice skaters are the guardians of portions of a magical snowflake and are essentially Ice-type Pokemon?  Well they are, apparently.
* - Roger Rabbit!
* - I can't believe Disney is using their special holiday event to shove their most popular recent movie down our throats you guys.
* - I am a sucker for figure skating and pretty much everything else in this special.

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Art of the Day:

Have a cute snowman!

The 25 Weird Days of Christmas Day 3: The Old Magic of Christmas

Christmas has always been weird.  That's the unspoken message of The Old Magic of Christmas: Yuletide Traditions for the Darkest Days of the Year by Linda Raedisch, a book that I snagged during Amazon's Cyber-Monday sale and promptly read virtual-cover-to-virtual-cover.  It's still relatively inexpensive, so if you've ever wondered about the "There'll be scary ghost stories" line in "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year", this book has answers and then some.

But as for specific Christmas folklore, that brings us to the...

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Art of the Day!

So, snow fairies, ice queens, winter witches, and other female Anthropomorphic Personifications of cold weather are sometimes said to take flight in the form of geese, swans, and other large aquatic arctic birds. There's another bit of folklore that says if you see geese "skating" on the morning of St. Martin's Day (that is, if the water is already icy on November 11), the winter will be nice and calm.  If the ice hasn't formed yet and the birds are swimming, expect a rough winter.

Combine the two ideas while watching an old ice skating special (stay tuned) and voila:

The 25 Weird Days of Christmas Day 1: "The Adventures Of Candy Claus"

Happy Holidays, everyone!  This year, encouraged by my Inktober success at actually posting something, however brief, every day, I'm going to try and do an Advent Calendar of weird and/or forgotten Christmas specials.  Will I find 25 specials weird enough to make the cut?  Will I give myself the "you don't have to post on weekends" clause?  Will this Christmas marathon break for "Star Wars"?  (In order: I hope so, probably, and possibly.)

Most of the specials I have lined up are entirely new to me, but I could swear I've already seen our first entry at least once as a child.  It's "The Adventures of Candy Claus", it's directed by noted weird animator Yoram Gross, and it looks like this:



Candy Claus appeared in an ad for a 900 number, in which she's identified as "the Christmas Seal Child".  None of that matters as far as the special goes.  Instead, Candy is one of two dolls made by a family who just realized it isn't really fair that Santa never gets a present on Christmas.  (The special at least operates in a world where nobody questions whether Santa exists, which is honestly refreshing.)  Candy comes to life thanks to the power of love and she becomes Santa and Mrs. Claus' daughter because sure, why not.  Later, this young new character for the young persons to relate to gets her own sleigh pulled by baby reindeer, a robot buddy, and access to a time machine.  Really.

The other doll, meanwhile, is stolen and raised by Oh No, a wicked... nasty old man that's also a wind ghost...  This doll comes to life but only *partially*.  He is barely able to move and talk because Oh No doesn't love him.  Oh No gives the poor thing the name Hey You, treats him like crap, and makes him compare his wretched life to Candy's and reflect on the existential horror of his existence and hate himself.  If you're at all paying attention, you may have noticed that this is one hell of a subplot to a children's Christmas special.

With that in mind, as terrible as the songs are (and of course these hideous earworms are why I remember this special), they're nothing compared to that ending.  Merry Christmas, kids!😥

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Art of the Day!

Hey, if it's winter, Boston Yeti should be reappearing soon!

"We’re Snivelly, Snickety, Boppity, Snarl, Scoff… and Gloat!" - "The Great Santa Claus Switch"

By all accounts "The Great Santa Claus Switch" is one of if not the earliest Christmas special made by Jim Henson and the Muppet crew, and it does clearly look like an early effort. However, of all the Muppet specials I've watched during this week, this is the one must-see.

The Muppet designs are already all kinds of adorable. You can see the seeds of better-known, later Muppet productions and characters. (Thog and Gonzo look and act a little odd but they're already endearing.) And oh, how I love the central image of Muppet monsters gradually overtaking Santa's workshop. This special is the best and I'm so happy to have found it.

Happy Holidays everyone!

For a Given Definition of "Special"... - "A Special Sesame Street Christmas"

From all I've heard about it, I was expecting "A Special Sesame Street Christmas" to be the "Star Wars Holiday Special" of the Muppets. It isn't quite that bonkers (honestly, it's too boring), but it's close. Real close. It's weird in the very specific ways that 70's variety holiday specials are.

Also, it was apparently not *quite* authorized by the creators of "Sesame Street", who made the classic "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street" the very same year. There are few better demonstrable arguments why we need PBS then this.

Anyway, it's Christmas on Sesame Street and Oscar's trying to ruin it for everyone by being a jerk. Random people try to get him to stop, Michael Jackson shows up for about a minute (this is maybe the only reason people know this show even exists), and it's always nice to have people singing "Just One Person" to a Muppet (but this wasn't for the first time). Gets me every time, it does.

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Sketch of the Day!

More doggies!