How's It Hold Up?

Yep, we've still got more Jungle Book! But this particular version came out the same year as the original Disney movie... or at least the first part of it did. That's right, this is actually a series of shorts that can be viewed together for a movie experience, and in some cases is actually edited together that way. This is a wildly different take on the world and characters than what we&#...

The Happy Harmonies series is an oft-forgotten series of shorts that largely serve as a vehicle for the increasingly racist depictions of former Looney Tunes star Bosko, and also a bunch of cartoons that ape the sensibilities of Disney's Silly Symphonies series. Which is to say, it's oft-forgotten because there is not much there of quality to remember. That said, the series did, through th...

(Spoiler Section Length - 22min 50sec) Mamoru Hosoda is back, and this time, like his previous Digimon films, he's working on a previously existing series, rather than his own original work. One Piece is a long-running series with many, many movies under its belt, both before and after this, and a legacy stretching over 25 years. Its creator is of course the inimitable Eiichiro Oda, whose sens...

Tex Avery is at it again over at Warner Bros, and this time Porky Pig isn't just a side character, but the star! This little pig just wants some soda, but also there's a serial bomber on the loose, and of course the two end up meeting. Does this reach the heights of Avery's last Looney Tune, and perhaps more importantly, does it avoid the racist lows? Listen to find out! The Curtain Ri...

(Spoiler Section Length - 5min 6sec) Can a pig and a spider be friends? And can a pig and a goose be brothers? Can a little girl understand what animals are saying when they talk to each other? All these questions and more have answers in this classic movie that all three of our hosts have great nostalgia for. But nostalgia can be dangerous... not everything holds up when you go back to it. Does t...

Popeye starts off our look at cartoon shorts in the year 1936, with him, Bluto and Olive Oyl heading up to the snowy mountains for shenanigans! The Popeye shorts are increasingly becoming the Fleischer Brother's premier series, eclipsing the still-ongoing Betty Boop series by this point. Does this short show why the series gained such dominance, or does it make Popeye's success all the mor...

We reach the end of our Disney Jungle Book journey, and who better to join us for that end, but the person who was there at the beginning? Marie is back! Unlike the 90s films, this one is part of the current slew of Disney 'live action' remakes, though like The Lion King's remake, this one is often more animated than not. The main live action performance to be had is Mowgli, while almo...

The Jungle Book train rolls on! This time we take a look at the two live-action 90's efforts, both of which seem to be largely forgotten nowadays. While one was released in theaters and with a big budget, not unlike the more recent 2016 remake, the other was a direct-to-video endeavor, closer to a Disney channel original movie in terms of money spent. The vibes of the two films could not be mo...

Betty Boop's future boyfriend Bimbo has committed a crime: chicken theft. For this, a singing band of ghost and ghouls will force him to repent, or kill him trying. This is a wild cartoon from 1930 that was missed before, but felt worth going back to, in order to see the genesis of shorts like Minnie the Moocher. Is this ancient cartoon still any good, though? Listen to find out! The Curtain R...

(Spoiler Section Length - 6min 2sec) Oh, low-budget Disney animated sequels, we meet again! To say the Disney sequel craze of the mid-90s to mid-2000s was a mixed bag is... actually surprisingly controversial. Most people seem to just think they're all trash. But we here at "How's It Hold Up?" know better than that. Return of Jafar slaps. So with every single one of these sequels...

It's time for Mickey Mouse and all his friends to have some fun on the ice! Everyone's here: Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Goofy (and even Clarabelle and Horace, in a cameo), and almost all of them are up to their own thing. The short is somewhat divided up into multiple smaller parts, including Mickey teaching Minnie to skate, Goofy trying to fish and Donald harassing Pluto. While the short i...

(Spoiler Section Length - 6min 2sec) Our friend Marie joins us for a movie for which we've all got nostalgia! Featuring a jazzy soundtrack, xerox animation and a Kipling-penned story, this movie has all the makings of a classic. But do all these things come together to form a quality whole, or has our nostalgia let us down again? Listen to find out! The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech...

We talk a lot about directors, when it comes to cartoon shorts. But they're far from the only important aspects that shape a cartoon. The studio, the budget, the time, the writers, the animators - all of it and more adds up to the finished product that we see on our screens. So what happens, then, if we take two shorts, both directed by the same man, but at different studios and with different...

Sequels to animated films have a generally bad reputation, which is probably mostly due to the wealth of cheap sequels made in the 90s and early 2000s, both for Disney and non-Disney properties. And while it's true that few if any of these sequels ever manage to surpass the original, certainly some of them prove to be worthwhile in their own right. Is this movie, made a decade-and-a-half after...

Sometimes a simple story with a fun execution is really all it takes to make something fun. That is, at least, what this short seems to be going for, with a standard Romeo/Juliet story of warring kingdoms and star-crossed lovers, but with an execution involving anthropomorphic instruments and artillery that shoots music notes. Does this all come together admirably, or does it end up falling apart?...

(Spoiler Section Length - 6min 44sec) We start our movies this year with one directed by Isao Takahata! This one's a comedic slice-of-life involving a young girl and her weird life of fighting cats, yakuza, and separated parents. It's a weird one to be sure, but in the end, is it any good? The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0...

We're back for 2024, starting off strong with a cartoon that a certain co-host watched SO MUCH as a child. It's a Mickey Mouse cartoon where he goes on a pesticide-fueled drug trip and gets terrorized (along with Pluto) by bugs. So many parts of it are stuck forever in Danika's head, but does that make it good? Does this cartoon from her youth hold up so many years later? Listen to fin...

We end our 2024 Holliganza with another nostalgic classic - a 1980's claymation christmas special starring talking dinosaurs and The California Raisins. Due to the latter, one could uncharitably call the special a glorified commercial, but given the relatively small amount of screentime they receive, we would hesitate to agree. Also their version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" i...

Sometimes when you dive into your nostalgic past, you find horrors lying in the deep. Media that you know you enjoyed and watched repeatedly, yet looking at it now you wonder how. Sometimes those piece of media are so bad that youtubers who make a career out of reviewing bad pieces of media cover it. Today, we watch The Christmas Tree. The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed und...

It's time for Holliganza 2023! We're starting off strong... in that this is a movie that one of our cohosts has very strong feelings toward. Are they good feelings? Is this Adam Sandler comedy combined with a Hannukah holiday tale enjoyable? Listen to find out! The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommo...

Popeye is back and he's leading his own band now! Unfortunately for him, so is Bluto... right in the neighboring room. This is another music-focused Popeye short, though it's not a musical like last time. Does it hold its own among the shorts we've watched from 1935? Listen to find out! The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3....

(Spoiler Section Length - 16min 34sec) Sometimes there's a movie from your childhood that you really loved, but you're worried about rewatching, because you know the general consensus on the film is that it's no good. And then you watch the film, and you find that the critics aren't exactly wrong, but you still like the messy movie anyway. And then you have to really examine that,...

One thing that hasn't been brought up much when we discuss old cartoon shorts is the music, especially by way of theme songs. They've existed, but we have yet to truly hear some of the most iconic, such as the Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies themes. Well today marks the first time we get to hear one of them, though not serving as a theme song yet. Instead it's sung by characters in the...

(Spoiler Section Length - 3min 30sec) Here we have another movie by Nelvana, and also another movie based on a licensed property. Said property is perhaps a little less well known than the Care Bears, but it has a more storied legacy, too. Babar the Movie is actually part of the Babar animated series that aired in the late 80s, but fortunately knowledge of the series is mostly not required to unde...

Disney cartoons generally stay within a certain range of tones, and 'dark comedy' does not fit within that range. And yet, this is what we are presented with in this cartoon - a dark comedy about a bird getting murdered and the farce of a trial that happens as a result. With celebrity bird caricatures, jokes about police brutality and maybe Disney's true First Gay Character, there'...