Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997) Movie Review

 The Direct-to-Video sequels that Disney put out in the '90s and early 2000s are a bit of a mixed bag for me. My favourites are The Return of Jafar, The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, and The Lion King 1 1/2. Then there's Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas. It's good, but not only is it not as good as Beauty and the Beast, it's also not as good as the three movies that I just mentioned. It's also not really a sequel either. It sort of is, but the primary story is a midquel. Let me explain.

So a midquel is a movie that's made after a particular movie, in this case Beauty and the Beast, but takes place during the movie that came before it. The Lion King 1 1/2 is a midquel because it takes place during the time of the original film. The Enchanted Christmas takes place during those months in Beauty and the Beast that we gloss over in both the 1991 film and the 2017 remake. They were glossed over because we didn't need to know what was happening during those months. They weren't necessary for the audience to follow the plot of the movie.

The problem with midquels is that, because they take place during the events of the movie that preceded it, you can't really progress the characters very far, especially if the midquel is set before the part of the original movie where a character has a big change, for better or for worse. The Beast is a good example of this because The Enchanted Christmas takes place between the scene where Belle and the Beast reconcile after Beast saves her from the Wolf pack after she runs away from the castle and the scene where Beast decides to get Belle a gift to show that he cares about her, and decides on giving her the library just before they go into the song "Something There". Because of this, the Beast can't change too much in this movie, because he hasn't fully realized how much he cares for Belle yet, and even Belle has only just started to soften towards the Beast. And because they're the protagonists for both movies, there isn't any growth in the characters, except for Beast coming around on the idea of Christmas.

Forte, the villainous pipe organ in this movie, has to fail in killing Belle and the Beast because they still need to get on with the plot of the original movie. Which he's not in. At all. You don't even see a hint of him in the West Wing in the point of the original movie that happens before this movie, since he was destroyed at the end of this movie and therefore, is absent from the rest of the original movie. I didn't realize this, but Forte is voiced by Tim Curry, which is fascinating since Curry also played Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island, which came out almost two years before this movie was released. He also did alot of other acting work at Disney in the '90s, which is interesting.

What this movie does well is maintain the relationships between all of the characters from the original movie. Lumiere and Cogsworth are still at each other's throats, Chip and Belle still get along very well, Mrs. Potts is still a mother figure to all of the characters, including Belle, and of course Belle and the Beast's relationship is still cool though it's getting warmer as the film goes on, just in time for the final act of the original film. It also does a good job of shedding more light on the circumstances that led to the Prince's transformation into the Beast by the Enchantress who visited the castle as an old beggar woman. While it wasn't necessary to go more in depth in those events in order to enjoy the original movie, as it was quite successfully conveyed to us in the film's prologue, it was cool to see it, albeit in a flashback. They used this scene in the 2017 remake though they changed the events from Christmas to just a formal ball, as was common in those days. But still, this is the first place we actually saw those events play out. The animation in this movie's version is pretty good and I like how the Prince's transformation into the Beast isn't as drawn out as his transformation at the end of the original movie is.

Because this movie was produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, rather than Walt Disney Feature Animation, visually it doesn't look as good as Beauty and the Beast does. The CG used to bring Forte to life isn't as bad as it is in other movies at the time, but it does clash with the traditional 2-D animation style the rest of the movie was done in. It also definitely isn't up to par with what Walt Disney Feature Animation had done in the Disney Renaissance films of the late '80s and early '90s, nor is it as good as what Pixar had done in Toy Story in 1995 or what they were doing in A Bug's Life, which was in production at the time this movie was released at.

The acting in this movie is very strong though. Aside from Tim Curry and the entire cast from the original movie, aside from Richard White as Gaston, Jesse Corti as LeFou, and Rex Everhart as Maurice, you have Paul Reubens as Fife, the Piccolo servant to Forte, and Bernadette Peters as Angelique, the Christmas tree angel, who was originally the castle's decorator, who also doesn't appear in the original movie. Despite it having been several years since they were together, the cast from the original movie, including Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Potts, feels like they hadn't been apart very long. Though Haley Joel Osment replaced Bradley Michael Pierce as Chip so the voice isn't quite the same though similar enough that you can hardly tell the difference. It's like how James Arnold Taylor sounds enough like Ewan MacGregor in Star Wars: The Clone Wars that if you don't know his voice, you might think that it is Ewan MacGregor reprising his role from the prequels. It's kinda like that with Chip in this movie.

If you've read this far into this review, then you may have noticed that outside of which studio produced this movie, I haven't talked about this movie like it's an animated movie. That's because it doesn't matter. Whether it's made in an animation studio or on a sound stage with physical sets, props and actors, a movie is a movie, the medium doesn't matter. And I think there's too much stigma towards animation, despite the fact that for years we've movies and TV shows made in Animation that are aimed at adults. The Simpsons, Family Guy, Archer, Akira and Star Trek: Lower Decks are all examples of movies and shows that are done in Animation but are aimed specifically at adults. Despite that, there are many adults who still think that Animation is for children only. If you're one of those people, then obviously you've never seen Warner Bros.'s direct-to-DVD DC Comics based animated movies. Those are definitely not "kids stuff". 

Now I don't have as much nostalgia for this movie as my sister does. Of course, we owned it on VHS when we were kids, but being that it's a Christmas movie, we didn't watch it nearly as often as we did The Lion King II: Simba's Pride or A Goofy Movie. We also didn't watch it on repeat during the Christmas holidays like we did Frosty the Snowman, Barney & The Backyard Gang: Waiting for Santa, or The Muppet Christmas Carol. At least I don't remember watching it as often as those other movies and specials. What I do remember is that I didn't like this movie as much as I liked, and still like, Beauty and the Beast and Simba's Pride. I just felt like the Lion King story lent itself to sequels and midquels better than Beauty and the Beast does. And I still feel the same way about it now, watching it as an adult, as I did watching it when I was 11 years old. In fact I'm pretty sure we got this movie for Christmas in 1997, so it was pretty early on. It's a good movie, I just don't like it as much as I do the original movie, or Simba's Pride. 

Overall Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas is a decent movie. It's just not my favourite of the direct-to-video sequels/midquels/prequels Disney put out in the '90s and early 2000s. I'm probably not going to be buying it on DVD or VHS any time soon, but I'm glad I'm able to watch it on Disney+. It brought back memories of the few times I watched it with my brother and sister when we were kids and VHS was still the primary home video format.

Thoughts on the Disney Investors' Day Announcements

Last night was insane! Disney announced so many projects from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios and 20th Century Fox that I couldn't keep up with all of it. I'm not going to do a complete breakdown of all of these projects that were announced because there's just too many of them. What I am going to do is talk about the overall announcements and then talk about the ones I am excited for the most.

I think Disney did a much better job with the amount of shows and movies they announced from Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. It was small and digestible. However, the Lucasfilm stuff, particularly the Star Wars aspect, and the Marvel Studios stuff was way too much. I've loved the MCU since I saw The Avengers in the summer of 2012, but last year, when Avengers: Endgame came out and I was getting ready for Spider-Man: Far From Home, I felt like Endgame was the end of the MCU for me and Far From Home was a nice little epilogue to eleven years of story. As a matter of course I have never been a huge Marvel fan. In fact outside of Spider-Man and the X-Men, the only thing I've really gotten into from Marvel is The Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan, though I can appreciate Captain America and the Fantastic Four. Because of this there's only three things I am looking forward to and two of them are Disney+ series and the third is a movie.

Same thing with the Star Wars stuff that Lucasfilm announced. There's only a few things that I'm looking forward to in the batch of announcements made last night. Part of the problem is that there's too much on the streaming services, on traditional TV still, and in theatres and the audience is expected to watch ALL of it because the genre and franchise shows and movies are all connected to each other. Which makes it impossible to keep up with everything. Especially for someone like me who wants to watch the older shows and movies and watch some of the newer shows and movies. Even with this blog being my primary focus, I don't have the time to watch everything that Disney puts out. And in some cases I don't have interest in the things they put out. Primarily much of the Marvel and Star Wars stuff.

Of all the shows and movies announced by Marvel last night there are only three that I'm looking forward to and am excited for. Hawkeye, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Fantastic Four. I mean I'm also looking forward to Black Panther II and Spider-Man 3 (untitled sequel to Far From Home) but they weren't talked about aside from Marvel stating they won't recast the role of T'Challa/the Black Panther in light of Chadwick Bosman's death earlier this year. I wanted to be excited for WandaVision but between that horrible title and the fact that I don't care enough about Scarlet Witch or Vision for the show to have any impact on me, I'm probably not going to watch much more than the pilot episode if I even watch that because it just doesn't interest me. The same goes with Loki, WHAT IF...?, and much of the movies announced or that we got trailers for. 

We got a trailer for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and it looks just as awesome as the three Captain America movies that we got in the MCU over the past nine years. Plus the chemistry between Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan is pretty great and not something we actually got to see in the MCU movies since Bucky was a bad guy or not right in the head for most of his post-Captain America: The First Avenger appearances and didn't get much screen time with Sam. 

The second thing I'm excited for is Hawkeye starring Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton and Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop. While I didn't really care for the first trade paperback volume of Matt Fraction's run on Hawkeye, Kate Bishop was my absolute favourite part in that volume and have wanted to read more of her adventures ever since, but haven't had the opportunity to do so. So knowing that she's going to be starring alongside Barton in this series has me REALLY excited.

The last thing that I'm excited for that Marvel announced last night is the upcoming Fantastic Four film. To be clear I have not read a whole lot of Fantastic Four. What I have read is mostly Free Comic Book Day stuff or stuff related to Spider-Man. However I saw the 2005 Fantastic Four movie, Fantastic Four shortly after it had come out on VHS and DVD in early 2006. I don't remember exactly whether we rented the DVD or the VHS, but my mom was out one night and it was just my dad, brother, sister and I home, so we rented the movie and had a family (minus one) movie night together. And after the stupidity of the 2015 Fantastic Four movie, I'm excited to see what the MCU does with those iconic characters. The rest of it looks and sounds cool, but I don't have any interest in what's coming up for the MCU aside from the three things I mentioned. I mean, I suppose I'm looking forward to Black Widow whenever that ends up coming out, but honestly, aside from the fact that I still believe that Black Widow should've gotten her own movie right after The Avengers in 2012 and 2021 just feels too late, the movie and Black Widow's backstory, just doesn't interest me that much. I love the character, but I don't need to explore her origins to enjoy the character. Especially when they first set it up all the way back in season 1 of Agent Carter in 2015 and have done nothing with it since then is annoying. That's just how I feel about it though.

Star Wars is about the same for me. There's very little that I am excited for in this batch of announcements that Lucasfilm released last night. However the #1 thing that I am over the moon excited for is Rogue Squadron a movie directed by Patty Jenkins, who directed both Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984 (which isn't being released until later this month). It's also going to star the elite Rebel starfighter squadron made popular by the Star Wars: X-Wing novels written by Michael A. Stackpole and the late Aaron Allston, and the Star Wars: X-Wing Rogue Squadron comics written by Stackpole. Those are some of my favourite Star Wars novels and I am thrilled that there's finally going to be a movie starring the unit. I don't even care if they bring characters like Corran Horn or Ysanne Isard or Mirax Terrik back into Canon, from Legends, or not for this movie. Just seeing Patty Jenkins's name attached to not only a Star Wars movie, but a movie that's going to be called Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is enough for me to say, "Here Disney, take my money!" because I WILL go see that movie when it comes out at Christmas time in 2023. 

Aside from that monster of an announcement, the only other things I am absolutely excited for that's coming out of the Star Wars Universe is Obi-Wan Kenobi and a series that was just announced last night, Lando. I was already excited for Obi-Wan Kenobi because Ewan MacGregor is returning to reprise the role from the prequels, and his Obi-Wan was my favourite part of that trilogy. However, last night the official title, Obi-Wan Kenobi, was announced. It was also announced that Hayden Christensen who played Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith is returning to play Vader in the series. Which is super cool because I liked Hayden as Anakin and I felt he did a great job with what he was given by George Lucas during filming of the prequels. 

Nothing has been said about Lando apart that it's in development. Most of the speculation online is that the show is going to be similar to The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and Young Sheldon where Billy Dee Williams is going to narrate episodes of the series as the older Lando, while Donald Glover is going to return as the younger Lando from Solo: A Star Wars Story in the episodes themselves. Which would be cool, but they didn't say that Glover is involved in the show in any way, so it's always possible that they'll recast the role for this series and have it be separate from Solo. I hope Glover returns because his Lando was my favourite part of Solo and I don't think I'd care as much about this show if he wasn't playing Lando in it. Especially now that Billy Dee Williams is old enough that playing Lando on a TV show probably wouldn't work as well as it did when he returned in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker last year. But we'll see what happens when the show comes out. There's no start date for filming or airing yet.

Despite my lack of interest in the movies coming out from Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios in the last couple of years, with Zootopia and Incredibles 2 being the last movies I saw from either studio, I actually find myself drawn to the slate of movies that they have planned for 2021 and 2022. Which is surprising because I've been rather neutral on the output from both studios in recent years, so for me to be excited for all of these movies, not just one or two, based on a premise alone, no trailer, no concept art, nothing, is impressive. So now I want to talk about the movies, which are fewer than everything being put out by Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios combined.

The first movie coming up for Walt Disney Animation Studios is Raya and the Last Dragon. I finally saw the trailer for it, and it looks amazing! Like absolutely, positively, AMAZING!!! I mean I thought the movie poster looked pretty good when it was released earlier this year, but, as you can see from the poster above, it does not do the animation justice, because just from viewing the trailer, the animation looks absolutely gorgeous. I am really excited for it to come out in March.

The next movie to come from Walt Disney Animation Studios is a film directed by Byron Howard, whose work at Disney goes all the way back to Pocahontas in the '90s, with his first directing job was on Bolt in 2008. That film is the 60th feature film to be released by Walt Disney Animation Studios and it's called Encanto. The premise of this movie actually sounds intriguing. It's about a young girl in Colombia who is the only non-magical member in her family. Which sounds pretty cool. Oh and the songs for the film are being written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, so that's pretty cool. Between Mary Poppins Returns and Hamilton Miranda has been really killing it at Disney in the last few years. Which is cool to see.

First up from Pixar is Soul. That looks really good too. It's streaming on Disney+ on Christmas Day, and it's a general Disney+ release rather than a Premiere Access release like Mulan was earlier this year. So I'll definitely be watching it when it comes out, because I wanna see it. 

The next film coming from Pixar after that is Luca. It's a coming-of-age story set in Italy, with a little bit of a twist to it. That sounds really cool. We're probably not going to get a trailer for a while yet since the movie isn't coming out until June, but I'll be keeping an eye out for it when we finally do get one. 

The next two Pixar films are the ones I am really looking forward to. The first is called Turning Red. From what I saw in the announcement the movie is about a girl who turns into a giant red Panda Bear every time she gets anxious or scared or angry. I don't remember exactly which one it is, but that sounds like a really cool premise. Also, it's a really weird premise, but hey it's a cool weird one. The second is Lightyear. As in Buzz Lightyear. But not the toy from the Toy Story franchise. It's about the actual Buzz Lightyear character that the toy is based on, kind of like what the series, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command was in the early 2000s. And according to the announcement, Chris Evans, Captain America himself, is voicing Buzz. Which is so cool. I like the idea that Pixar is doing something with Buzz again because I really enjoyed Buzz Lightyear of Star Command when that was on twenty years ago and I always wished it could've gone on farther than just the direct-to-video film and the 65 episode series.

In addition to the films, Walt Disney Animation Studios announced they were doing TV shows in animation for Disney+ based on several different Disney films from the last eleven years. The first is Tiana, based on the 2009 film, The Princess and the Frog (great film by the way). Which is weird since nothing has really been done with that movie since 2009. Princess Tiana appeared in Ralph Breaks the Internet in 2018, the characters appeared on Once Upon a Time, and Dr. Facilier also appeared in Descendents 3, but nothing's been done with continuing the storyline of the movie in the eleven years since the movie came out. So that'll be interesting to see what they do with it.

The next one to come up, in the order the movies released in, is Baymax!, which is about Baymax from Big Hero 6 and apparently it's about him working as a nurse in San Fransokyo. So that will be interesting and yet also disturbing at the same time. Interesting though. The third one is called Zootopia+, based on the 2016 film, Zootopia. It's an anthology series focusing on three different groups of characters from the film. And the final one is Moana, based on the movie of that name. 

The one I'm least excited for is Zootopia+, just because it's not focused on Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde. Instead it's focusing on the least interesting characters in the film, the Mice Gangsters, the Tiger Dancers and the Sloths. The Sloth in the movie is fine for comedic effect, but as a main character in a series, it just wouldn't work quite as well. I'm still going to watch it when it comes out, but I'm not as excited for it as I am the other ones. The one I'm most excited for is Baymax! just because Big Hero 6 is my favourite of the more recent Disney movies. 

Whether the show or movie interests me or not, all of this is really cool and exciting news from Disney. After going so long without hearing anything from Marvel Studios concerning their post-Avengers: Endgame output, it's nice they're finally giving us something. It's just a little too much all at once and it's pretty overwhelming. Same with the Star Wars stuff coming out of Lucasfilm. Like I said, I have the things I'm excited for and has my interest from both studios, it's just not much else from them interests me. 

I really feel like Disney is THE studio for a variety of entertainment, and that we're seeing some cool stuff coming from them in the next couple of years. They also seem to have their plan for nurturing Disney+ in the future, because their initial output on the platform in regards to current stuff has been rather weak though their classic library has been extremely extensive. All I can say is that I'm excited for what Disney has planned and I plan on enjoying as much of it that interests me. Nothing more. Nothing less. And that's how it should be.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) Christmas Special Review

Hey guys! Welcome back to another Christmas special review. Today I'm going to be talking about the 1964 NBC special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. However, I'm going to be looking at it a little differently than I normally would've had I reviewed this on my old blog. So let's get into it.

I have been watching Rudolph for about thirty years now. Every year, around this time, whether it's on TV or on DVD, I will watch Rudolph. Why? Because it's one of my favourite Christmas specials, besides Frosty the Snowman and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. But, I've never seen Rudolph in the same way that I saw it last night when I sat down to watch it on the The Original Christmas Classics Anniversary Collector's Edition DVD box set that used to be my grandfather's. In the past I've seen it as a simple tale about a Reindeer whose nose glows bright red, an Elf who wants to be a dentist, and Santa Claus. It's so much more than that though.

I am autistic and while I know that Rudolph and Hermey aren't autistic I can still relate to both characters because they're misfits, just like myself. One line that really resonated with me is when Hermey is in the workshop working on a doll, pretending she's a patient, needing work done on her teeth, and the Head Elf, who apparently has no name, says to him, "You'll never fit in!". Why does that resonate with me? Because when I was in high school, I wanted to fit in so badly, despite being the only kid in the school who was physically disabled and used a wheelchair. This was back when I thought I just had physical challenges to overcome, not knowing that I'm autistic. It wasn't until I got to college that I realized that not only would I never fit in, but that, maybe, just maybe, I didn't WANT to fit in. I wanted to be weird and unique and not care what anyone else thought.

That's what Rudolph is all about. Learning to accept the differences within yourself as well as in the people around you. Not only that, but it's about other people's inability to accept these two misfit characters just because they're different than everyone else. Which is so resonate in today's society as we struggle to be tolerant of other people's cultures, skin colour, and sexuality. Even disabled people are often forgotten about by society. And while I think the turnaround on the characters accepting Rudolph and Hermey was rather quick and out of nowhere, I think that's just because we didn't see the Head Elf or the other Reindeer while Rudolph, Hermey and Yukon Cornelius were on the Island of Misfit Toys and dealing with the Abominable Snow Monster, and they don't appear again until the end of the special. Which makes their acceptance a bit jarring. All except for Rudolph's father, Donner, as we see him realize that he was at fault for trying to hide Rudolph's nose in the first place.

I'm not a huge fan of stop motion animation, preferring either traditional 2-D animation, or 3-D/CG animation. Just because I find that stop motion animation is rather limiting in terms of facial expression and movement, though set design is very good. However, I feel that it works for Rudolph and for Santa Claus is Comin' to Town better than other stop motion animated movies and TV shows that I've seen over the course of my life. I can't imagine Rudolph being done in the 2-D style that Frosty or How the Grinch Stole Christmas are done in. The sets are gorgeous, the characters are well designed, even if their expressions are pretty limited. Especially the human characters like Santa and Cornelius and the form of animation used in this special make it what it is. 2-D animation is fine for the 1948 short cartoon, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and the 1998 feature film Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie, but for this, stop motion is perfect.

The songs in this special are awesome. My favourite songs are "There's Always Tomorrow", sung by Clarice to Rudolph, after the other Reindeer had made fun of him and Coach Comet expels him from the Reindeer Games, "A Holly Jolly Christmas" sung by Burl Ives as Sam the Snowman, who is the special's narrator, and of course the titular song, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" which is also sung by Burl Ives. In fact, I know that it is Christmas time when I hear the Burl Ives version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". I also have two new favourite songs. One being "The Most Wonderful Day of the Year" sung by the Misfit Toys. The other is "We're a Couple of Misfits" sung by Rudolph and Hermey at various points at the beginning of the special.

I don't have anything to dislike or outright hate in this special. However, if I had to pick something, it's that complete turnaround with the Elves and Reindeer suddenly accepting Hermey and Rudolph at the end. I know they only had so much time to tell the story in, but it's kind of a fast turn and a little jarring. I'm not going to knock it too much though since this is a fantasy, not real life, so it doesn't have to be realistic for me to enjoy it. 

That's my review of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I might be back tomorrow with another post, but I'm not entirely sure yet. Alot of news is coming out of Disney concerning Star Wars, Lucasfilm in general, Marvel, Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, so I might come on here and talk about all of that tomorrow. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Have a great evening guys and I'll talk to you all later.   

Archie Comics Digests Overview

Hey guys! Today I wanted to talk about something that has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember: the Archie Comics Digests now known as Jumbo Comics. Don't worry, I'll be watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer tonight to have that review up tomorrow. I just wanted to do something a little bit different. So let's get into it.

I don't remember what my first Archie Digest was. In fact I don't remember what year I read my first one in. They've just always been part of my life. They were everywhere. I even remember reading some in the waiting room of one of the clinics at CHEO. But, if there was one year that I began collecting the various Archie Digest titles it would have to be 2001 when I had an operation to try to fix my left foot enough so I could walk without any assistance. However, my earliest encounter with an Archie digest was back in 1993 when my mom bought me the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classics Digest, from the CHEO gift shop. I don't even remember why I was even at CHEO that time. I think it was just for an appointment, but it could've been a full day of appointments or for day surgery. Regardless, I was with her when she bought the digest for me, so I know I hadn't been admitted to the hospital for any reason. 

However, in 2001, my mom had been at the grocery store and happened to see Jughead's Double Digest #80 while she was at the cash and thought I might like it. At this point we had maybe two or three Archie digests in the house at the time, but they were for my siblings and I and so they were on a bookshelf in our basement, where our communal "Kids Area" was located. This is where we would watch TV or play one of our Nintendo consoles, be it the NES, the Super Nintendo, or the N64. My Teddy Ruxpin books were down there, as were several of our other children's books that we still had that had been bought for all of us. This Jughead comic though was the first Archie digest that I kept in my bedroom and was just for me. However it would be another year before my collection began in earnest. In 2002 I got Jughead with Archie #176. But it would still be a few months before I got another Digest.

Then in February 2003 I went into kidney failure and ended up in the hospital over the March Break. This is where my Archie digest collection really began. I've been collecting ever since. And like I said, my mom didn't discriminate. It didn't matter if the book was Archie, Jughead, or Betty & Veronica. If there were Archie characters on the cover, she bought it for me, no questions asked. Not because she was treating me like a child despite me being in my teens (she wasn't). Not because I was in the hospital quite a lot in 2003 between kidney failure, esophagial surgery and appointments relating to those. She bought them for me because I genuinely loved reading Archie comics. I didn't have access to a comic book store because I still lived out in the country back then and the nearest comic book stores were 20 to 30 minutes away and gas was just starting to become expensive. So regular trips into the city were less frequent and limited to the occasional trip to Chapters, the movies and hospital visits for appointments. However the digests were sold at pretty much every grocery store in our area, so they were easier to get than the regular Archie comics, or any DC or Marvel book, were at the time. And like I said, I loved reading them.

When I was a teenager, reading the Archie digests were an escape from the insanity of life as a high school student. A reminder that there was at least one high school where the problems I was facing as a physically handicapped boy, and as it turns out a boy who is on the Autism spectrum, who was in high school, didn't exist. A high school where Archie's only real problem was double booking when it came to dates with Betty and Veronica. As an adult the Archie digests hold a different significance to me though.

For the last three or four years of his life, I shared these digests with my grandfather. My mom would buy one for him and when he was finished with it, he'd pass it along to me. Or I'd buy one for myself and when I was finished with it, I'd pass it along to him. I didn't get the chance to talk to him about them, but I'd hear from Nana how much he enjoyed reading them. We got him a book of Peanuts comic strips to try, but he didn't take to them the same way he took to Archie and the gang. I love Peanuts so I inherited that book from him. But we bonded through Archie.

The thing I like most about the Archie digests, with the regular sized ones having been discontinued in 2010 and the Double Digests becoming Jumbo Comics in 2016, is that even though the series changed with Mark Waid's run on Archie in 2015, the digests kept the traditional Archie art style that has been a staple of the series since the '50s. Granted the majority of the stories are republished from the regular Archie comics from decades passed, but the first story is always a new story and that story is always in the traditional art style. Even the writing is your traditional Archie storytelling without all the CW level teen drama introduced in Waid's run.

Not to knock Waid's run because it's one of my favourite runs of modern day comic books, even over many of the runs that DC has produced in the last ten years. But, there's just something fun and timeless about the classic Archie stories and the art style. In my case it's more than just simple nostalgia, because like I said, I like Waid's run as much as I do the classic stories. It's just Archie represents a timelessness that is missing in most modern entertainment mediums these days. But the classic Archie comics can be enjoyed by someone in 2020 as much as they were enjoyed by someone in 1950. That's what the Archie digest titles represent.

Another thing that I love about the digests is that they contain stories about all aspects of the Archie comics. Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Little Archie, Bingo Wilkins, Josie and the Pussycats, Archie 3000, and Archie 1 (prehistoric version of the Archie characters) all have stories in them, no matter what the title of the book is. This was my first exposure to Sabrina in the comics. I knew the character as played by Melissa Joan Hart on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but I'd never read her comics before. Until I got the digests. Strangely enough there was a period in the comics where they were more following the TV show than they were the classic Sabrina comics. 

The one downside of the digests is that if you had a lot of them, you might've found that you had several copies of the same story. I found that in several of mine because I had such a big collection once upon a time. In fact there's a Little Archie Christmas story in the one I got this week, World of Archie Jumbo Comics Digest #104 that I remember reading a long time ago in an issue I had sometime in the mid 2000s, probably around 2004 or 2005. I don't even remember which issue I originally read the story in, I just remember the story from the past. 

Another downside to the digests is that there isn't really a record of what stories are from what issues from the regular Archie comics titles. In most collected editions there's usually a list of what issues are collected in the book, whether it's a table of contents like in The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, or a section on the back cover or on the publication information page after the main title page like most collected editions, be it hardcover or trade paperback. The Best of Archie collected editions have the title and the issue number at the top of the first page of a story, or on a specific page with memories of a story from an Archie fan, mainly comic book writers, journalists, and novelists. But the digests have never had anything like that and there's little to no information on them online either. In fact I did some digging, but came up short, because even on My Comic Shop, there's no information on what issues are collected in the digests, just titles for the stories. I guess when you pick up a digest you don't need to worry about what issue a story originally came from. It would just be nice if there was something to tell the reader what the original issue was so they could track it down if they so choose. That's just me though.

As I said, the Archie digests have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Sure there might be periods where I don't buy them as often, and I don't have my entire collection of nearly 20 years worth of Archie comics, which span nearly 80 years of stories. But they're still being sold. And because they're still being sold, I'm still buying them whenever I feel like picking up a classic Archie story that I maybe have never read before, or revisiting one I read many years ago like that Little Archie story in World of Archie Jumbo Comics Digest I mentioned earlier. 

And that's my look at the Archie digests and my history with them that continues to unfold today. I don't get them as frequently anymore, especially since I don't have my grandfather to share them with anymore, but every once in a while, I'll pick one up and read it because even all these years later, I love the Archie Classics. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer so I can get that review out sometime tomorrow. Later.

*cover images were taken from the Archie Comics Digest and Jughead's Double Digest pages on My Comic Shop.

mycomicshop.com 

The Santa Clause (1994) Movie Review

Hey guys! Welcome to another Disney Christmas movie review. Before I get to today's review, I just wanted to talk about the review that was supposed to happen over the weekend. So season 1 of The Hardy Boys dropped on Friday...in the U.S. However, on Thursday night I found out that it won't be airing it here in Canada until sometime in 2021. I was going to review the pilot episode on Saturday morning, but I couldn't watch it obviously, so that's why you didn't get a review this weekend. Now, onto today's review, where I'll be talking about the 1994 Tim Allen Christmas classic, The Santa Clause.

The Santa Clause is one of those movies that my family and I watched on VHS when it first came out on home video in 1995. We've never actually owned it though. I don't think. We had/have the second and third movies in the trilogy on DVD, but I don't think we've ever owned this one on any home video format. We just rented it on VHS way back in the day.

This movie is the very definition of '90s cheesy goodness. Sometimes that can be a bad thing. For example, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and it's 1995 theatrical feature film, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, are also the definition of '90s cheesy goodness. Except that show and it's movie fit into the "it's so bad that it's good" category. The Santa Clause is legitimately good. And dare I say that it's a much better movie than the 1998 Jonathan Taylor Thomas Christmas film, I'll Be Home for Christmas? It's not just a better movie, but I also like it a lot better too. 

Normally when I watch these movies for my reviews, I watch them by myself. Even before the pandemic I tended to watch movies by myself if I was going to review them. However it was my birthday on Friday and I had virtual plans with friends on Friday and Saturday night, so last night I celebrated with my brother and sister. We had chosen The Santa Clause because it was one of our favourites growing up (we watched it on TV any time it aired) and we thought it'd be fun to watch for a virtual watch party. So, we each had headphones on while we chatted on FaceTime and watched the movie together, and it amazingly stayed synced up fairly nicely. 

One of the things that I noticed during this viewing that I didn't notice when I watched it as a kid or as a teenager is that Tim Allen's character, Scott Calvin, is very conflicted throughout the movie. At first he's conflicted with the idea that his ex-wife, Laura (played by Wendy Crewson) has married a psychiatrist named Neil (played by Judge Reinhold). He's also conflicted whether or not to believe that he is becoming Santa Claus, both physically and mentally, while trying to help Laura and Neil deal with Charlie, attempting several times during the movie to convince Charlie that they didn't really go to the North Pole and that he (Scott) isn't really Santa. It's not until Charlie's passionate pleas for Scott to remember, that Scott fully becomes Santa Claus and loses the conflict within himself.

Something else that I noticed with this viewing is that all the adults are trying their best to dissuade Charlie, and each other, that Santa isn't real and that Scott is just a crazy man, who's a bad influence on his son. Which is interesting as this is something that tends to be in a lot of Christmas movies and TV shows in the '80s and '90s. The adults are portrayed as stuffy people whose creativity and imagination are things they "grew out of" while the child characters represent the imagination and creativity that the adults lost. It's no different here. And just like other Christmas movies, it takes Laura and Neil seeing Scott as Santa to finally believe in Santa Claus again. 

I love the cast in this movie. Tim Allen is one of my favourite actors from the '90s as is David Krumholtz, who I've seen in other things like Serenity, the movie continuation of the short-lived 2003 Sci-Fi series Firefly, and the short-lived 2012 sitcom, Partners, which also starred Sophia Bush (One Tree Hill) and Brandon Routh (Superman Returns, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, DC's Legends of Tomorrow). Also, Peter Boyle, who played Frank Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond appears as Scott's boss. Aside from Boyle, Krumholtz and Allen, the only actor I'm even remotely familiar with is Judge Reinhold because of his role in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which I have not seen, but I own it on DVD, and I know of it. Wendy Crewson, who plays Laura in this movie, is also vaguely familiar because she was in the 1998 film, Bicentennial Man, which I watched on VHS up at the cottage once when I was a teenager. I do wish they kind of had more of a reason for Scott and Neil to be at odds with each other, but what we got here was good enough. Not something that really needed to be focused on in a children's movie. Oh, and Mary Gross, who played Sabrina's teacher, Mrs. Quick in seasons 2 through 7, shows up as Charlie's teacher in this movie as well.

The one downer for me with this movie is the horrible CGI effects that are in it. Early to mid '90s CGI was absolutely atrocious in most movies. Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Jurassic Park seem to be the exceptions, outside of the few shots used in animated movies like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. And obviously CG animated movies like Toy Story were pretty great too. Live action movies however, especially those made for families and children, were pretty terrible when it came to CGI in the early to mid-'90s, around 1996 or 1997.

Something this movie does well that I think started here, was the way Santa's Workshop is portrayed in most movies and TV shows. In earlier Christmas movies and specials, Santa's workshop was portrayed as this small, single room cabin or as a small room inside of Santa's castle in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. But, sometime in the mid '90s, probably with this movie, Santa's Workshop became more like an industrial factory with multiple levels, rooms and a larger Elf work force than before. Like I said, I'm not quite sure whether this was the first movie/special to do it in, since the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 3 episode, "I'm Dreaming of a White Ranger" still shows Santa's Workshop as a small single room cabin and that aired in November 1995, and so did a few cartoons around this time too. But I'm pretty sure this was the first movie to show the workshop as being bigger than it's normally portrayed as being. Of course that could just be the difference between a live action movie with a budget and a live action movie or special with little to no budget. 

Of course The Santa Clause was first released on VHS in 1995, but was first released on DVD in 1998. It had another DVD release in 2002 as well. I don't think we had any of the DVD releases of the movie, but if we did, then the 2002 "Special Edition" release would've been the one we would've owned rather than the earliest 1998 release (cover shown above). It's also currently streaming on Disney+.

Overall The Santa Clause is an awesome Christmas movie and an awesome Disney live-action film. Disney didn't have a lot of great live action movies in the '90s except for The Santa Clause, The Rocketeer, The Parent Trap, and Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. I'm giving The Santa Clause 8.5/10. It's funny, it's charming, it's slightly thought provoking. But the CGI is terrible even though it's used sparingly.

That's it for this week's Disney Christmas movie review. Next week I'll be taking a look at Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas and then on Christmas week I'll be reviewing I'll Be Home for Christmas. I'll be back on Wednesday for my review of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Have a wonderful evening everyone and I'll see you on Wednesday. Bye for now.

Links

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111070/ 

Disney Wiki: https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/The_Santa_Clause

https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/The_Santa_Clause_(video) 

Batman (1940) #348 Comic Book Review

Batman #348 is the end of an era for the Batman group of comics being published by DC Comics in the '70s and early '80s. It was also the beginning of a new era. Let me give you some background information on this period of Batman's publication history in case any of you don't know.

In 1969 sales for the Batman comics had begun to drop. Mostly because the 1966 TV show was done, and people were sick of the campy nature of the comics at the time. So, editor, Julius Schwartz, who had revitalized the Flash and Green Lantern in the '50s and Batman in 1964, two years prior to the start of the TV show, went about the task of revamping the character yet again. In Batman #217, cover date December 1969, Dick Grayson went off to college and Bruce Wayne and Alfred moved out of Wayne Manor and into the penthouse apartment of the Wayne Foundation building. Bruce decided that being in the heart of Gotham City meant he could get to crime scenes much quicker as Batman, so he set up a smaller but still effective, version of the Batcave. With Robin no longer with him every night, though he still showed up from time to time, Batman returned to the lone figure of the night that he had been in 1939. While Frank Robbins was the writer and Irv Novick was the artist on Batman #217, this new era would be kicked into high gear with Neal Adams, Dennis O'Neil, Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers.

Marvel Comics seemed to have an influence as well, at least in the way stories were told. While DC rarely had stories than ran for more than an issue, two at the most, most, if not all, of Marvel's books had a continuing storyline where events in one issue would have consequences in an issue further down the line, as we had been seeing in books like The Amazing Spider-Man, Uncanny X-Men and Fantastic Four. For a while in 1969 and in the early '70s, there'd be a continuing storyline that weaved it's way through both Batman and Detective Comics, then eventually they would split off into separate storylines until the '80s when they would be interwoven again pretty much until right before Crisis On Infinite Earths started in 1985, with side stories in books like The Brave and the Bold and Justice League of America. This allowed for better management of the stories, because the events in one book could have consequences in the other book and it forced the writers of each book to work together and really coordinate on the story they're telling. Something that modern comic book writers don't do anymore. 

The '70s is a great decade for Batman, because it gave us the stories that would inspire the tone of Batman: The Animated Series, with many of the characters who appeared on that show making their first appearances in the Batman comics of the 1970s and early 1980s. Harvey Bullock, Hamilton Hill, Lucius Fox, and Rupert Thorne are all characters who were created for the comics of this era that would later make their on screen debut on Batman: The Animated Series in the 1990s. Which brings us to this issue.

1982 was the year where transitions were about to happen in the Batman books, with Dick Grayson nearing the end of his time as Robin with the introduction of Jason Todd, his successor in only nine issues after this one. And with Dick Giordano having replaced Julius Schwartz as the editor of the Batman comics in 1979, it was time for Batman to return to his roots with him and Alfred returning to Wayne Manor and the original Batcave in this issue.

This issue feels really small, which is what I like about the Batman comics of the '70s and the early '80s. Unlike today, where anybody from the DC Universe can show up and the stakes are extremely high, the Batman stories of the '70s and early '80s felt smaller, more intimate. Which I appreciate because the smaller stories are what I grew up on with the reruns of the '60s TV show, as well as Batman: The Animated Series. So I tend to prefer these smaller stories rather than the giant universe threatening ones of modern day. Mainly because the smaller stories tend to be about the characters, whereas the bigger ones tend to be more about the plot than they are about the characters. 

As strange as this may sound, Man-Bat is one of my favourite Batman villains. Trying to give a backstory to the Joker or the Penguin doesn't work, but Man-Bat is a villain who has a great background built into the character and I think it works wonderfully. Sure, it's similar to a lot of mad scientist characters, whose experiment goes wrong, transforming them into a grotesque monster, but they've always kept the Human side to the character and that fascinates me, since Kirk Langstrom isn't evil. When the serum takes over and transforms him into Man-Bat, he can't help but hurt people. Because of this, Batman isn't as harsh as he is on criminals like the Joker or Two-Face or even Mr. Freeze. Which absolutely fascinates me because Batman is usually strict on his war on crime, so for him to make an exception in Man-Bat's case is pretty cool.

The other thing I like about this issue is the subplots going on in the issue as well. The first one concerns Commissioner Gordon, who is no longer Commissioner anymore because Mayor Hill fired him. He's feeling depressed and Barbara Gordon, a.k.a. Batgirl is wanting to help him get back to his old self. This subplot is interesting, but we don't get more than a page of it because, again, it's part of the larger, ongoing, narrative but isn't super relevant to what's going on in the main plot with Batman and Man-Bat.

However, the secondary subplot is something that I am extremely interested in for some reason. So Vicki Vale has photographic evidence of Batman's secret identity, but won't give the evidence to her boss until she can confirm that the evidence is 100% accurate. However, her boss, Morton, is on the take with Rupert Thorne, and informs his boss of Vale's evidence, which Thorne is very interested in, given that Batman is his greatest enemy. This is the kind of drama that I love. It comes from external sources rather than infighting between the main characters. Something that is all too prevalent in the comic book based TV shows being produced today. But this? This is the kind of stuff that I love.

Gene Colan and Klaus Janson are the artists on this book. Though Janson only does the inks, while Colan is the primary artist. Their artwork combo is pretty good. Though it doesn't stand out from other Batman artists of the time such as Neal Adams or Marshall Rogers. It's still really good artwork though.

There's a backup story starring Catwoman in this issue, but I don't really have anything to say about it. It's not bad, but it isn't as interesting as the Catwoman comics from the '90s are. It's also the first part of a story too and I don't have that much experience with these backup features as they were an on and off thing throughout the '70s and '80s and most of the comics from the '80s that I have don't have the backup feature in them. 

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall this is a very good issue of Batman. The story is fantastic, the art is good, and there's real tension because back then you didn't know if any of the characters would be okay or not. Not like today where you know Batman isn't going to get killed or if he does, his death isn't going to be permanent. Which takes a lot of the tension out of the situations even if the rest of the stories are good. I'm giving Batman #348 9/10 stars. 

Links

DC Universe Wiki: https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Batman_Vol_1_348

*cover image taken from the DC Universe Wiki, DC Database.

Frosty the Snowman (1969) TV Special Review

Hey guys! Welcome to another family friendly review. I'm kicking off this segment's Christmas movie and special review series today with the 1969 TV special, Frosty the Snowman, based on the 1950 song written by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins. This is one of my personal favourites so let's dive in.

Frosty the Snowman is probably the Christmas special my siblings and I watched the most when we were kids. Mainly because it's the only TV Christmas special that we owned on VHS and so we didn't have to wait for it to air on TV to watch it every year. Though I'm pretty sure we did watch it on TV after Frosty Returns originally came out in 1992. Regardless, we watched this special alot.

The interesting thing about this special is that it was done in a traditional 2-D animation style rather than the stop motion animation that the other Rankin/Bass specials, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town in particular, are done in. Which gives it a unique look and feel to it than the other Rankin/Bass TV Christmas specials have. It's also shorter than some of the other ones as well. 25 minutes (30 with commercials) instead of 50 (60 with commercials). And the animation is pretty good for a 1969 TV special. 

There isn't much of a story in this special. It's basically Frosty needing to get to the North Pole so he doesn't melt and a greedy, failed, magician named Professor Hinkle trying to get the hat back, knowing that the hat is magic. Yeah of all the antagonists in children's movies and TV shows, this one isn't exactly evil. He's greedy for sure, but not evil. Even though he proclaims that he is. I mean the only evil thing he does is trap Frosty in a hot room so that he melts. Of course all it takes for Professor Hinkle to change his ways is Santa threatening to never bring him another Christmas present as long as the magician lives. That definitely would not have worked on Lord Zedd or Queen Beryl. 

I don't really have a whole lot to question about this, except for one thing. While I like the fact there was a kid with Frosty, who thought that would be a good idea? I mean obviously Frosty did, but as he had just come to life, he wouldn't stop to consider that going to the North Pole, especially in a freezer car, would be detrimental to Karen's health and overall well being. Also, how did Santa know to land in that exact forest? 

Overall, Frosty the Snowman is such a great TV Christmas special. Like I said, it was one of my favourites when I was a kid and it still holds up fairly well today. If you haven't seen Frosty I would recommend sitting down with the family, or by yourself and putting it on, because it's awesome. I'm giving Frosty the Snowman 8.5/10 stars.

That's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow with a comic book review. On Saturday I'll be reviewing the first episode of The Hardy Boys. Then on Sunday I'll have a Christmas movie review for you as well. Until then have a great evening. Bye!

Links

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064349/?ref_=ttrel_rel_tt