How's It Hold Up?

It's time for another Scooby-Doo movie! This one has the dubious honor of being the first Scooby movie created after the fan-favorite Zombie Island. Rather than focusing on horror like that one, this returns to the regular Scooby forumla, but with a little Zombie Island-inspired twist. Does it still hold up today among the many, many Scooby-Doo movies? Listen to find out! The Curtain Rises Kev...

We've seen how Mickey Mouse got his start, and even earlier in the Disney catalogue, too. But there's another major name that comes to mind when thinking of classic cartoon shorts: Warner Bros and their Looney Tunes. How did this series get its start, and who was their first cartoon star to compete against the Disney Mouse? It's not Bugs, or Daffy, or even Porky... no, it's Bosko,...

For our first 2021 Halloween Spookaboo episode, we check out the black sheep of the Disney animated film library. This movie is infamous for the scary imagery within, the cuts made to it, and for becoming something of a cult classic. Revisiting it 36 years later, does it deserve that cult classic status, or is this one best left in the Disney Dark Ages? Listen to find out! The Curtain Rises Kevin...

This short is the first Mickey Cartoon made after his public debut! In this one, we see Pete used as a romantic rival rather than a straight-up villain, and a Minnie who doesn't find everything Mickey does charming. Will Mickey win Minnie over? And more importantly, is this short any fun to actually watch? Listen to find out! The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Cre...

Today we watch the movie that traumatized a generation. It's a movie that's overall very silly and lighthearted in tone but that makes some decisions that bring death to a world previously bereft of it. But in the end, is it any good? Do you have to be a Transformers fan to enjoy it? Listen to find out! The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By A...

The Mouse is finally here! And while the world thinks of Steamboat Willie as his first cartoon, the truth is two others were made before it, but not officially released until after! Though Steamboat Willie ended up being Mickey's public debut, it's interesting to consider how the drastically different portrayals in Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho would have potentially changed the...

Today we cover what is perhaps Dreamworks' most infamous film. This one almost sunk the company before it could give us classics like Shrek 2, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, or Megamind. It's also one of the death knells for major releases of traditionally animated films. But all that said... how is the movie? Is this tale of pirates and chaos goddesses any good, or is it best le...

Today we look at the final Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon Walt Disney had a hand in, though it would prove to be far from the last short to use the character. Ortensia and Pete are back for this one, but instead of a fantasy setting, this short goes for a then-contemporary construction workplace setting. As the final Disney short before the start of the Mickey Mouse series, does this finale of so...

Though this live action Steven Spielberg film is not officially a live-action sequel to Disney's Peter Pan, it can be interpreted as one, and it was an indelible part of many a 90's kid's childhood. Considered a failure, the film has recently undergone something of a cultural reevaluation as those who grew up with it analyze it as adults. So now it's time for us to do that! Is this...

After the Alice Comedies, it was time for Walt to create a new star, one that didn't rely on a live actor being inserted into the animation. But this star was not yet Mickey Mouse, but instead Oswald the Lucky Rabbit! Today we look at perhaps the most iconic Oswald short, while talking about the character's origins. The short might be iconic, but is it any good? Listen to find out! The Cur...

In the early 2000s, Peter Pan was one of many Disney movies that was given a sequel, and was also far from the first to focus on the child of one of the protagonists from the original film. This one stars Wendy's daughter Jane, who gets to go on her own Neverland adventure. Disney sequels have a bad reputation, but this podcast's opinions on them have been mixed rather than only bad. Is th...

The final Alice Comedy we'll be covering, this one is indicative of the trend with this series of Alice as a character being minimized so the short can focus on the cartoons. Also Pete's here and he's got a hat! Is this the best of the bunch, or was this series ready to be thrown out? Listen to find out! The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons:...

This movie is something of a double-edged sword for Disney, in that it's generally considered one of their most iconic and loved works, while also being one of their most infamously racist. Everyone knows the depiction of Native Americans in this movie hasn't held up, but how much does that affect the overall product? And how's the story around that? Is the good in this one worth sitti...

Today's Alice Comedy is the very first appearance of a Disney character that's still around and in use today! And I don't mean Mickey Mouse! No, I mean Mickey's eventual main villain - Pete! Yes, it's true, Pete, sometimes known as Peg-Leg Pete and in this cartoon known as Bootleg Pete, is older than Mickey or even Mickey's 'cousin' Oswald the Lucky Rabbit! But sure...

Did you know that Disney's animated Winnie the Pooh adventures are not the only ones? There's at least one other - a very different version based on the same stories and made in Russia by studio Soyuzmulfilm! This episode is actually not reviewing a movie, but three shorts that total around 40 minutes in total. Each is based on one single chapter from Winnie the Pooh, and none involve Chri...

Another week another Alice Comedies short! This one has a lot of live action in it and a lot of child actors! It was also released in theatres, unlike the first Alice Comedies short we watched. Did it deserve to be? How's this thing hold up? The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/...

This is our first CoMix Wave film, and is also likely the most well-known of the lot. To say this movie is popular in Japan would be an understatement. Needless to say, we were excited to watch it. But does this story of a boy and girl switching bodies with each other hold up five years later? Or is this one not worth the hype? Listen to find out! The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)...

Most people might think of the old black and white Mickey Mouse cartoons as Disney's first main cartoon shorts series, and some might even recall that a certain Lucky Rabbit had a series before Mickey. But Walt's first long-running series of cartoon shorts were actually the Alice Comedies - a series of live-action/animation hybrids featuring a little girl named Alice interacting with an an...

A boy who's scared of trees in the night, a dad who refuses to try to understand his son, and an animated adventure through different book genres - The Pagemaster has got a lot going on. And that's before getting to the fact that it's got live action segments, traditionally animated segments, and even a bit of computer animation. And the cast! Ed Begley Jr, Patrick Stewart, and Whoopi...

It's time for another Out of the Inkwell cartoon, and as you might surmise there's a puzzle in this one! There's also a high-speed makeshift car adventure, a wacky land of mazes and mischief, and a cartoon tunnel big enough for a live-action man to crawl into. Is the short any good? Listen to find out! The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: B...

It's time for another Disney live-action remake! Or, perhaps more accurately, a Disney live-action pseudo-franchise-sequel? Christopher Robin is a movie that takes the titular character, always a boy in Winnie the Pooh media, and asks 'what happens when he grows up?' The concept, at least, is more interesting than a straight-up remake... but still, is it any fun to actually watch? List...

It's time to finally watch a Felix the Cat cartoon! This one involves our mischievous feline getting dropped into the ocean and winding up in the far north, where he has various adventures before, well... the title might give you a clue. This is far from Felix's first short, but it's the first all three of us watched together... what did we think of it? Are we looking forward to more F...

This time we go to the original four Winnie the Pooh Disney half-hour shorts, the first three of which are typically packaged together into a film. This is where the long-running Disney franchise begins! But how do these four shorts hold up individually, and how do the first three hold up as a movie? Listen to find out! The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Comm...

Another 1920's silent short, and another Out of the Inkwell short, Jumping Beans nevertheless comes with some interesting surprises. It's difficult to predict where this short will go, and it's a wild ride the whole way. But is it any good? Listen to find out! The Curtain Rises Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativeco...

Sometimes you watch a film when you're a young adult that leaves an impression on you, that feels 'important', that comes back to your mind every now and then. For Valerie and Danika, Persepolis is such a film. It's a film with emotional highs and lows and a salient message to get across. It also came out 14 years ago. How well does its message hold up now? Listen to find out! The...