The cartoon party was hours of sugar-high fun, as usual. I think this was the lowest turnout for a cartoon party but on the other hand that meant everyone had a good seat. As usual, people came and went throughout the morning and afternoon so that as someone left their seat, another came to fill it. We had 21 boxes of cereal and only a few diabetic comas.
My secret plan was to schedule the first cartoon at 8:45 that nobody would come for it and I could sleep in until nine. But Mike Demers foiled that as he showed up no later than 8:35, the madman! The Hulk was ridiculous as usual, full of ostentatious costumes and sexual repression. My favourite part was how the hulk turned from announcing “THE HULK NEEDS NO ONE” to “The Hulk needs Rick Jones!”
Next on the menu was Justice League with the ever-popular cowboys riding big robot dinosaurs followed by the always-agonizing but mandatory episode of Rocket Robin Hood.
Thundarr was full of Jack Kirby goodness and LRTs-transformed-by-wizard-into-deadly-snake-monster action.
The Herculoids was a cacophony of the finest voiceover actors that 1967 had to offer. I think I know what I’m going to get Mike for Christmas – a Zok action figure which I will run around the house with screaming “RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
The Dungeons and Dragons episode had the singular distinction of having a frame with a nazi holding a unicorn, while The Ripping Friends was redolent with hilarious weiner jokes and teleporting poop thanks to Future Cat.
It was revealed that Superman is the greatest mass-murderer that the universe has ever known in the episode “The Krypton Syndrome” where he saves and then subsequently unsaves the past Krypton from exploding, and everyone rightfully enjoyed the Bob Clampett classic Looney Tunes episode where we find Bugs burying Elmer alive in the year 2000. I had set up the Treehouse of Horror episode “Time & Punishment” expertly by showing an episode of Peabody & Sherman earlier in the morning (“Quiet, you!”) and then we visited one of my favourite Duckman episodes.
The mandatory The Tick episode fit in nicely and then we watched one of my favourite episodes of Samurai Jack, where Jack protects a city of robots by possessing an ancient stone samurai warrior and fighting a giant robot – beautiful direction and sound design on this episode.
The Powerpuff Girls had a cool sequence where the animation style changed dramatically while they were inside the time machine, and also a hilarious sendup of the old “public service” films of the 50’s.
Deanna and Sam both got to see their very first episode of The Venture Brothers. I had been grooming Deanna towards it by showing her some Jonny Quest episodes. Now Deanna at least is hooked – another cunning plan come to fruition!
I love Freakazoid! but nobody here has seen it outside of my cartoon parties because it was never broadcast in Canada.
Finally we ended with Futurama and the second parts to the two 2-part episodes that I played earlier in the morning of JL and Ripping Friends. Normally I would never do two-part episodes but since the theme of the party was time it seemed appropriate somehow.
Holy crap! I am now going to download every episode of The Venture Bros.
hehheh…I’ve just packaged up a bunch of Venture Bros. to send to some friends in belgium, ireland, and portugal.
“I love Freakazoid! but nobody here has seen it outside of my cartoon parties because it was never broadcast in Canada.”
Not quite true…back when it was on the air a friend of mine in Winnipeg was somehow getting episodes, which he sent to me on VHS. Don’t know what happened to those tapes. I even made him a Freakazoid shirt for his bday…the old-fashioned way with fabric paint and a brush!
There’s a way to create a YouTube play list, where several clips can play in a single embedded player. I will show you, if you like. If not, carry on.