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animalxingluvr
Reviews
Barney & Friends (1992)
I thought it sucked when I got older but I actually still like the episodes that first aired when I was little...
Now, the first thing I should tell the readers - I'm on the autism spectrum so it's okay for me to sometimes watch kids shows when I'm 21 and childless. That will help you refrain from yelling at your device screen that I must be out of my mind (or at least I hope it will). A few years ago my sister's children were watching a recent episode of Barney, and my reaction was like that of many people: "God this is so DUMB." But I fondly remember watching Barney as a child, and even on my eighth birthday there was a miniature Barney toy in/on the cake, and I got a BJ doll that year too:) But I eventually grew up just like everyone does and by the time my sister's tots were around my enjoyment of Barney was years behind me. But a little while ago I found some 1995 episodes on YouTube, and yesterday when I watched one of them, instantly I felt like the 4-year-old I was at that time, a very pleasant nostalgic feeling indeed. I'm going to watch that episode again now. I give this show a 6 out of 10 because the newer episodes don't compare to the ones I watched when I was young...Goodbye now.
Sunday Go to Meetin' Time (1936)
I only watch it for its historical value. In this day and age, historical value is the only value this cartoon even has!
I am 19 years old, white, Canadian, female and I suffer from mild autism and Asperger's. Many people know I am a WB cartoon fan. Personally I call myself something a bit more than that but that's beside the point. This cartoon, featuring a black man who would rather steal chickens than go to church, reminds the viewer how important it is not to get on the bad side of the one thing Christians (notice I said Christians, as I am well aware it isn't the only religion in the world) respect most: God. You want to end up in the place you deserve to be part of, and for most people that's heaven. Not Nicodemus, at first. His sins, as read out by the demon judge, are "Shootin' craps, stealin' chickens, missin' church, raisin' dickens," although he doesn't mention that Nicodemus also steals watermelons. Nicodemus then meets the devil and gets beat up by demons using pitchforks, before waking up and realizing he's actually in a yard with the chickens he had tried to steal. By now he has learned this valuable lesson and runs for the church.
This cartoon is part of the Censored Eleven and, like the rest of the cartoons, it has historical value but it is obvious why these cartoons are banned from television. For Pete's sake, even the demons are in blackface. It's a good thing America eventually got tired of black stereotypes!!! They're not looked kindly upon today, that's for sure.
This cartoon is not enjoyable as most WB cartoons are, and in my opinion the only reason the Censored Eleven, including Sunday Go to Meetin' Time, are not completely forgotten today is because they teach us how stupidly cruel and disrespectful society was back in the day.
I give this cartoon a 6 out of 10 because the only people who should watch this are the people who have a lot of interest in history, animation, or both.
Baby Bottleneck (1946)
Another Clampett classic (Gosh I love that director....)
Now, Mr. Robert Clampett is my favourite Warner Brothers director. The work he did while with Leon Schlesinger and Warner's cannot be beat, in my opinion. I found the scene with the baby hippo and Scotty Dog really funny, with Scotty singing "Rockabye Baby," but having to suddenly change the words to fit the situation - the baby hippo is too heavy, so the rocking chair breaks and Scotty says, "...the cradle will flop." I also really liked the "baby kitten delivered to a mother duck" scene, which was funny because (most) cats are afraid of water (which is evident with the little kitten screaming) and another baby kitten delivered to a father mouse (the father is terrified but the kitty is playful). I also found what was left of the baby alligator delivered to the mother pig scene laughable, with the alligator stretching his body out to make room for himself, as he pushes the little piglets away. I find it odd that I liked Daffy's line of "No. Ohhh, no. Sitting on eggs is out, O-W-T, out!" so much considering The Henpecked Duck, another Clampett classic (and also my favourite Looney Tune of all time) also involves Daffy being instructed to sit on an egg. But the end is funny with the mother gorilla realizing she basically has a mutant baby with a duck (Daffy) as the upper body and a pig (Porky) as the lower body. Although I was not originally familiar with the last line, I did feel sorry for that mama. All in all, my favourite director has scored another point for himself, by a long shot. 8/10
Duck Hunt (1984)
Loved it as a child, still find it horribly addictive as an adult!
This game was a favourite of mine on the NES when I was little. It has a gun for a controller but it really isn't violent at all, especially next to some of these more recent games rated M for Mature on the newer consoles like the PS2 or 3 and Wii. I think I wanted to play Duck Hunt almost as much as I wanted to visit my nana (It was my brother's system when he was a kid but when he got the Super Nintendo the original NES got left at my nana's house for what she might call "newfangled entertainment for the grandkids"...) I also remember that this game was in the 3-in-1 cartridge with Mario and World Class Track Meet and by the time I was old enough to remember, World Class Track Meet was useless as we had permanently misplaced the necessary Power Pad, so we might as well have just had the original 2-in-1 cartridge (Whether I was playing Mario or Duck Hunt I remember I used to punch an entirely random code into the Game Genie, and I'd have been surprised if I ever came up with a real code, though it's impossible to remember).
Anyways, on to Duck Hunt. CLASSIC! Yes, it is repetitive. This may have actually been one reason for liking it as a child (I found out in my late teens that I was autistic, and we like routines and we like everything to be the same to the point where I have to order the same specific meal every time I go to a certain restaurant, but I digress). Also in my time as a young adult when I rediscovered Duck Hunt it didn't take me long to become utterly addicted (though I hate when that dog, who looks remarkably like Willoughby from the 1941 Bugs Bunny cartoon "The Heckling Hare", laughs at me for failing to shoot a duck).
Overall, I feel it is only necessary to say that this game will live on forever for those who remember playing it in its heyday. 10 stars out of 10.
Polka Dot Door (1971)
I STILL Absolutely LOVE This Show, And I'm Nearly 19 Years Old Nowadays!!!!
The people who dislike the Polkaroo (and/or the show in general) haven't a clue what they are talking about. I watched this show all the time as a child, and my unbelievable memory is even today still capable of pulling up a memory of seeing the Polkaroo on stage when I was only 1 or 2 years old. I was being extremely annoying that day, wanting to be moved CONSTANTLY, either because of restlessness or because the Polkaroo was constantly escaping my limited field of vision. But I digress. Even though I am having trouble finding reruns of it on TV, and I must resort to watching YouTube clips permanently downloaded on my computer, they are enough to drown me in childhood memories and also memories of that silly Polkaroo. I am 18 going on 19 in February 2010, and also I am autistic, but this show was the GREATEST kids' show EVER MADE. LONG LIVE POLKA DOT DOOR AND THE "POLKAROO!"
Machi e ikouyo: Doubutsu no mori (2008)
Love Animal Crossing, as my name says, and I LOVE (with caps) the latest release!
As you may guess from my name being animalxingluvr, I'm a huge fan of the Animal Crossing series. Although the GameCube version belonged to my brother and not me (in my family I had to SHARE systems until Christmas of 2007 when I got a PS2, and then a Wii for Christmas 2008), he let me have a character in his town, called Halmond. I own Animal Crossing: Wild World for DS, where my town is Larcomie (pronounced lar-coh-me), and I just bought City Folk two days ago (new without the Wii Speak microphone which I do not need) on September 29th 2009.
When you start up the game, you have a choice between "starting fresh" or moving characters from your DS game. I imported two of my DS characters onto my Wii.
My town in City Folk is called Kartown (it's like "cartoon" and "town" put together within the 8 character limit used by the game for naming towns and players - I believe the Able Sisters' shop has a 16 character limit, though I am not positive - but spelled with a K instead of a C). Yes, this time around in the Able Sisters' shop you can create "pro designs," which allow you to have s different design on the front, back, and left and right sleeves. This was a huge relief for me because when playing the previous games I got annoyed when I made a pattern that didn't look right when my character wore it.
Another detail that I know about is the function of the "Wii Speak" microphone when playing Wi-Fi. I don't have any use for the microphone so I didn't pay for the game to come with it.
Although my last note about this game was a little surprising: Although in the GameCube and DS versions, Mr. Resetti, the angry mole with health problems who paid you an unavoidable visit when you reset, used to only appear AFTER resetting for the first time, in City Folk he appears the second time you load your game, and this time it's because you REMEMBERED to save, as he says, "You and me chatting like this? It means you're doing something right." This first visit from Resetti allows him to tell your character to "keep up the good work" because AC veterans will remember Resetti hates digging through cement to visit you, because he gets too angry for his own good - literally. The visit from Resetti when I loaded the game for each of my characters was a bit of a surprise, but I would actually consider it a welcome change from the previous versions of the game.
After considering all the different aspects, I'd have to give Animal Crossing: City Folk a 10 out of 10.
Tottoko Hamutaro (2000)
Very very cute...Absolutely Adorable actually!
I remember watching this show for the first time when I was about 12 years old. I had been home from school that day for a forgotten reason (I didn't like school past age 11 but I had been allowed to watch TV that morning when normally if avoiding school I would have been trapped in my bedroom all day, so maybe I was just sick but I can't remember), and at about 7:30 AM my mom was channel surfing, she hit YTV and we were both like "huh? what's this?" and as we watched it we learned what the show was about: a group of domestic hamsters who hang out in the burrow of Boss, a wild hamster, while the domesticated hamsters' owners are at school. The hamster "club", called the Ham-Hams, have fun adventures with Boss and when the other hamsters' owners are almost home, they scurry home before the owners knew anything unusual. I still wonder why Laura, Hamtaro's owner, had the family name of Haruna even though her first name was American. That just plain confuses me about some anime characters. I've always preferred the ending song over the opening theme (the latter of which is so distant to me that I've actually forgotten how it goes!) Hamtaro is actually one of the few shows I know of that actually has a song at the end, instead of an instrumental version of the opening theme. Overall, very cute, and I don't care if it's for 4-10 year olds. I am autistic, so stuff from that age group interests me more often than not anyway!