How's It Hold Up?

(Spoiler Section Length - 16min 5sec) After around a decade of creating musicals, Disney started to branch out in the early 2000's, creating several films that weren't as financially successful as the 'Renaissance Era' movies, but many of which ended up being cult favorites over time. Atlantis is one such film - eschewing the musical format for a straight-up adventure film inspired by the like of Indiana Jones. Disney hoped the movie would be the next big thing, and planned to make theme park updates, a sequel and even a spin-off television series under the assumption it would be. But that's not how things worked out... the film disappointed financially, enough so that all the aforementioned tie-ins were cancelled. But financial success is far from a measure of true quality... was this movie actually any good? Listen to find out!

The Digimon movie isn't just the beginning of the Digimon series, it's the directoral debut of Mamoru Hosoda, who would go on to direct several episodes of the series, a second Digimon movie, and, eventually, many classic movies of his own. How do these first two movie efforts of his hold up? And are they enjoyable even if you're not familiar with the series? Listen to find out!The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Kool Kats Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

All of Disney's early film output was experimental, but besides perhaps Snow White itself, none were more so than Fantasia. Designed as an experience unto itself, with a road show and everything, Fantasia was a huge passion project for Walt, one he intended to last for years with new versions and all sorts of exciting things... but then, it bombed at the box office, not making an actual profit until decades later. Since then it's become much more revered, but even so, does this film with such a tumultuous history, one that some critics find condescending and pretentious, still hold up close to a century later? Listen to find out!

There's a movie by Studio Ghibli that came out between the two icons that are Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, and it's a movie that few people seem to talk about. It's another Isao Takahata feature, and another one of his that's based on a Japanese comic strip. Featuring a watercolor aesthetic way before his eventual Princess Kaguya film, this movie looks like virtually nothing else in the Ghibli catalogue. Does this quirky little film deserve to be forgotten amid the titans released on either side of it, or is it just as worthy of esteem as they are? Listen to find out!

It's Porky's birthday, and who's showing up to celebrate? Is it his friends Gabby and Petunia, or perhaps rising co-star Daffy Duck? No! It's... it's a penguin and goose we've never seen before. Oh, okay, well, this is also one of the last Bob Clampett cartoons that Chuck Jones did animation for, so is it a good sendoff? Listen to find out!

The late 1930s were the golden age of Mickey, Donald and Goofy cartoons, though 1938 was the last year we got several of them a year. Of them, these two have been picked for review, featuring the boys building what equates to an Ikea boat, and the boys living in a trailer, driven around by Goofy. How do these two hold up to the likes of Clock Cleaners and Lonesome Ghosts? Listen to find out!

To wrap up our Holliganza this year, we take a look at a non-Rankin/Bass Rudolph short film that does its best to harken back to that original special and the way it was animated. Intended to be experienced with 4D effects, we didn't get to experience quite everything this short was intended to offer, but even still, was this a pleasant way to end the year? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 2min 45sec)The last attempt at a non-Rankin/Bass Rudolph movie went over poorly, at least financially, so this time around the rights-holders are doing a direct sequel to Rankin/Bass' efforts. They're also not putting this thing in theatres, which was probably financially a smart move. With CGI animation and character designs harkening back to the original, does this movie prove even a little more worth watching than its direct predecessor? Listen to find out!

Our first Rudolph film post-Rankin/Bass has virtually nothing to do with the Rudolph special we all know, and instead is a retelling of the story with a lot of added aspects like fairies, an ice witch and a sly arctic fox. It's also got a lot of well-known actors lending their voices to the project, such as Whoopi Goldberg and John Goodman. The creators of the film were so confident in their work that they even decided to put it in theatres! Was the result as good as the original Rudolph, or perhaps even better? Listen to find out!

We've been through all of the Rankin/Bass adventures of Rudolph and Frosty, so why not check out their adventures as handled by their later rights-holders? First up is Frosty, who, well, Returns in this eco-focused special from the 90s starring John Goodman and various improv talents. It might be nostalgic for some, but looking at it all these years later, does it hold a candle to the original special? And regardless, is it good in its own right? Listen to find out!

In the late 1930s, Friz Freleng decided to leave Warner Bros to seek greener pastures, and ended up over at MGM, working on their new in-house series The Captain and the Kids. Unfortuantely for Freleng, his time at the studio would be short, and unfortunately for MGM, so would this particular series of shorts. But does that mean there's nothing to offer from Freleng's short-lived tenure at the studio? Let's find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 5min 58sec)The original Ernest & Celestine was a great movie that we watched way back in our first season, and when we heard a sequel had released, it was only a matter of time before we covered it. And that time is now! Does this sequel, which features the bear and mouse duo visiting a new land, compare favorably to the original? And does it hold up in its own right? Listen to find out!

Early Elmer Fudd was a very different beast than the one we all know today, and last time we saw him on this podcast, he was a small part of a spin on a classic fairy tale. Well this time he's an ever bigger part of a spin on another classic fairy tale, but does the increased size of the role do him, or the cartoon, any favors? Is this a step closer to the Elmer we know? Is it even worth watching? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 2min 14sec)Many films from the 2000s are blamed for 'killing' 2D animation in the west (at least for movies), such as Disney's Treasure Planet or Dreamworks' Sinbad. But at least for a few years, only one film had the ignominious honor of being the final 2D Disney film: Home on the Range. While Treasure Planet and Sinbad have their fans, Home on the Range not only doesn't seem to have any, but in fact seems to be one of the least remembered animated films Disney ever put out, especially since the Renaissance. Does it deserve to be forgotten, or is this a hidden gem? Listen to find out!The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Kool Kats Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Sometimes two cartoons with similar subject matter appear in the same year. In this case, we get two cartoons that are both focused on matador bull fighting, with both cartoons seemingly taking that stance that it's a bad thing. One does so directly, with its protagonist constantly talking about violence against animals being bad, while the other has a protagonist that IS the bull in a fight, but is completely uninterested in doing any fighting. Does either short still hold up in the modern day? Listen to find out!The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Kool Kats Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

(Spoiler Section Length - 20min 24sec)Last year for Spookaboo we watched The Nightmare Before Christmas film, often hailed as a Tim Burton-directed film, despite him being a producer. Corpse Bride shows us what an actual Burton-directed feature film looks like, for better and worse. It's got a fun supernatural world too, but also a significant portion of the film features a drab 'real' world, and towards the end the two worlds collide. It's also got a stronger focus on romance, with a love triangle formed between Victor, his arranged marriage partner Victoria, and his accidental fiancée Emily. These elements sound promising, but do they come together in the end? Listen to find out!

By the late 30s, Warner Bros finally managed to develop some cartoon stars that would end up standing the test of time, like Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. But their biggest star still hadn't arrived, until this short! Sort of! Tho the rabbit in this short is a far cry from Bugs Bunny as we know him today, it's still an important stepping stone on the way to Bugs' eventual actual debut in 1940. But historical importance aside, is the cartoon any good, so many years later? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 7min 5sec)Anime movies attached to shows can be a mixed bag, often struggling to stretch characters and concepts out into a feature-length format, and struggling even further to work as stand-alone films. While many anime movies struggle because the anime they're spun off from are adaptations of manga, and thus they cannot contradict canon, the Cowboy Bebop movie doesn't have that particular problem. All it has to do is slot into its parent series, which was already very episodic in nature. The result is a movie that, to fans of the series, just feels like an extra-long episode (complimentary), but with a much higher budget. Does it still hold up today, if your memories of the original series are hazy at best? Listen to find out!

It's well known that Fantasia could only happen because of the success of Walt Disney's first big feature-length gamble, Snow White. What's less well known are these two shorts that preceeded Fantasia's release, one featuring an important Fantasia collaborator and the other being a bit of a test for a more 'Symphonic' take on a cartoon than the Silly Symphonies often actually exhibited. Are either of these cartoons worth watching on their own merits, though? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 6min 49sec)You don't need us to tell you that the Pokemon franchise is a phenomenon. And while the games are the biggest, most important part of that phenomenon, the anime was no slouch either, especially back in the late 90s. So when they made the very first Pokemon MOVIE? Kids went wild! Two of the three of us were kids back then, and you better believe we went wild too! But all these years later, does the English dub of the original Pokemon movie still hold water? Listen to find out!