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/

Termite Terrace had a lot of directors come and go over the years, but perhaps its most well known has finally gotten to sit in the director's chair: Chuck Jones. While Jones' early work is often criticized for its Disney-esque sensibilities, do those criticisms apply to this first directorial effort? And regardless, is the short worth watching nowadays? Listen to find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 14min 50sec)What starts as a simple story about a group of schoolchildren learning to live together and communicate ends up being a galaxy-spanning adventure where those same kids go to the dark side of the moon, ride a lizard catbus, and stop a megalomaniacal villain from remaking the universe to suit his desires. But while that last thing is important, it's the visit to the moon and riding the catbus and visiting a planet of dog people that is the real heart of the movie. In short: it's about the journey, not the destination. Does that focus still make it worth watching, or does it make it a slog that's not worth sitting through? Listen to find out!

When it comes to star characters for media creators, fame can be a tricky thing. It can often result in the dulling down of a once vibrant character, a sanding of the edges so the character can conform to the role of company mascot. Perhaps no character is more indicative of this than Mickey Mouse, once an adventurous little rascal, now often considered synonymous with a lumbering behemoth of a company rather than a character in his own right. But when did that change happen? Well, it was gradual, but by the late 30s, it was definitely already happening, resulting in the famous Mouse appearing in fewer and fewer cartoons while his costars Donald, Goofy, and even his own dog Pluto took center stage. But before his own cartoon short series became, essentially, a second place to put Pluto cartoons, there was one last hurrah, one last big cartoon to put Mickey in the spotlight. But was it actually good? Let's find out!

(Spoiler Section Length - 4min 24sec)We've watched several Russian films on this podcast before, but most of them were fantasy in nature, rather than sci-fi. This is an off-beat sort of sci-fi, but nonetheless is full of aliens, spaceships, laser guns and robots! Debuting a few years after Star Wars, this film still seems more rooted in older depictions of spaceships and more groovy sensibilities, despite releasing in the 80s. At just under 50 minutes, is this odd little movie worth the time investment? Listen to find out!

Many decades after the original, Disney finally decided to make a sequel to the original Fantasia, and in so doing they found themselves repeating mistakes while also chasing new sensibilities, resulting in a film that is less lauded than its predecessor... but does that mean it's actually less good? Listen to find out!

When you see the title 'Porky in Egypt' and you hear it's a cartoon from the 1930s, your hopes for that short being good might immediately dwindle, as you imagine just how racist it probably is. And certainly this cartoon is not exempt from such issues, but they take up a surprisingly small portion of the runtime. So what is the rest of the cartoon about? Trust me when I say that it's better for you to find out yourself!

(Spoiler Section Length - 6min 4sec)Most animated musicals are original works, rather than adaptations of classic stage shows, but this one's an exception! Taking a classic Rogers and Hammerstein musical, this movie tries to bring it to an audience grown used to Disney Renaissance fare, and it makes a few changes in an attempt to appeal to that audience. Are these changes successful, and regardless, does the original work's quality shine through? Listen to find out!

Our time with Betty Boop is unfortunately coming to a close, as her theatrical shorts series would end in 1939. In her series later years, Boop's shorts have increasingly featured other characters as the focus instead of herself, and here we have two shorts that, frankly, aren't an exception in that regard. But they do both, at least, bring back some of that jazzy, swingy vibe that existed in older Boop shorts. Is it enough to make them worth watching? Listen to find out!

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!