Cartoon Night in Canada

On this week's episode, Chris and Sylvie answer the call of neglected kids in distress and save the day with cheap novelty toys with Captain Flamingo. While reminiscing and lamenting the bygone era of superhero media that was not under the conglomerate thumb of Marvel and DC, we chat about this utterly charming cartoon about forsaken kids in a world of uncaring, absent adults and the reality-w...

Happy 2024 everybody!!! What better way to ring in the new year than with some unfinished programming from last December and a show that is the most technically Canadian thing we have ever covered. Heavily inspired by Japanese pop culture, based on a Canadian manga series and a 2010 film by a cult British director, and animated by one of the most critically acclaimed Japanese studios in the past 1...

On this week's episode of Cartoon Night in Canada's tribute series where we celebrate the anime co-productions this country tried to get off the ground in the 2000s, we return to an old favourite in the TMS produced Cybersix to really ponder whether or not we oversold or undersold how inexplicably horny it was last time we covered it. A lycanthropy love triangle, the best cape animation yo...

It's heavy hitter time here on CanaDUBcember! On this week's podcast, Chris and Sylvie let 'er rip against roaming gangs of pre-teens with devastating spinning tops containing the trapped souls of demigods. It's Beyblade! Is it a toy commercial? Kind of? Is it a gag dub? Kind of? Does it hold up? You better believe it! Episode covered for the podcast is Episode 1 "The Blade Ra...

On this week's journey into Canada's mid-2000s flirtation with that mysterious entity known as anime, a YA novel series about mounting giant arachnids in the hollow earth becomes nothing more than a blip in the storied careers of two titans of the industry. Brought to you in part by PA Works and Bee Train, it's another slapped together mélange of anime tropes and obvious inspirations t...

Throughout the entire month of December, we are in the spirit of celebrating with an entire month dedicated to covering what everybody associates with the holidays...ANIME!!!! Specifically, CanaDUBcember is an entire month spotlighting the exciting cross-cultural exchange of the anime boom in the early-to-late 2000s and the still felt effects it had on the media landscape. Not just officially lice...

The following podcast is a true story. It happened to a friend of a friend of mine. Rounding out our extensive 2023 Spooktober Celebration, we pull up a stool at Ted's Diner to talk about Freaky Stories: spooky anthology of pseudo-urban legends hosted by two gross puppet bois that teach us valuable moral lessons about how to function in society. For example, if you are a doctor, always make su...

Our 2023 Spooktober Celebration may be winding down and both your hosts may be tired beyond belief, but we still cobbled together an NFB Showcase...sort of? In reality, we just wanted to talk about labour unions in the animation industry and slapped together a quickie double feature of short films that have literally nothing to do with each other. But when the shorts are this good, who is going to...

Happy October 35th! Our Spooktober Celebration rolls on for a whole extra month because Halloween is a state of mind. In our tradition of returning Canadian horror icons to this program, we are taking a trip back to Ouija Falls to listen to our favourite short-king, gremlin child exploring the ooky-spooky goings ons of his hometown with Moville Mystery. On this trek through the weird and creepy, a...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Our Spooktober Celebration reaches its high-water mark for 2023 with the return of a Canadian Halloween icon and her queer Monster Mash friend group. It's the hotly anticipated sequel to Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktacular that should have led to a television series, but apparently we just live in a cruel, unfair world. Film covered for this episode is "Scary Godmot...

IT'S SHOWTIME!!! On this week's installment of our Spooktober Celebration, we finally take on a Saturday morning staple born from the bizarre trend of turning 80s films for adults into cartoons. It also happens to be technically Canadian. A Tim Burton classic by way of Nelvana Animation, it's Beetlejuice, and it's delightful. Episode covered for the podcast is episode 51 "&quo...

It's finally time to tackle a Halloween icon for the ages. The geometric symbol of adversity that inspired a generation to embrace their squareness. The personified spirit of the holiday itself - that's right, it's Spookley the Square Pumpkin. Never heard of him? Well, sounds like a you problem... Film covered is "Spookley the Square Pumpkin." Directed by Bernie Denk and writ...

Pleasant screams to all our ghouls out there. We are officially in Spooktober, and we promised old favourites making returns. What better than the spookiest cartoon Canada ever produced - the continuing Monster of the Week adventures of Martin Mystery. Add it in a blatant homage to one of the greatest horror films of all time, and you've got yourself a great Halloween watch. Episode covered is Sea...

It's the most wonderful time of the year. It's time for Cartoon Night in Canada's celebration of all things macabre, weird, and scary in Canadian animation - it's 2023's Spooktober Celebration. Kicking off our annual tradition of terror, we are back talking about the mainstreaming and cutesification of the goth aesthetic with a series about a child who lives in squalor and desp...

On this week's episode, Chris and Sylvie take a hard look in the mirror to see an exaggerated stereotype of Canadiana stare back at them when they head on down to Chilly Beach to see if they can unwind. A proudly flash-animated satire that revels in skewering all things typical small town Canada that both is and is not as clever as it thinks it is. Does it hold up? Does any "satire"...

Ah-choo! It's time for Chris and Sylvie to return to their favourite pseudo-genre - Horror 4 Kids. This time, it's the nasal misadventures of a young boy who transforms into a giant blue sasquatch whenever he sneezes which somehow is not a metaphor for puberty. It's Monster by Mistake, an early CGI animation series that has not aged particularly well in the visual department. But hey,...

On this week's episode, Sylvie and Chris mourn the inimitable talent of one Robin Williams by taking in a Nelvana series that desperately tried to copy his schtick. It's Ned's Newt, the motormouthed, lol so random, bit-heavy comedy that believed so long as the big obnoxious blue thing never stopped talking, the laughs come fast and furious. We found out that is pretty far from the trut...

Getting back into our anime groove, we tackle a (in our opinion) poorly-aged heavy-hitter which helped defined the pseudo-gothic aesthetics of the mid to late 2000s. It's Death Note, a generation-defining anime that's philosophy concerning morals, ethics, and a society's sense of judgement - all filtered through an edgy teenager's point-of-view - surprisingly does not hold up in th...

Hi Barbie. To do more of that sweet brand synergy and intentional programming we are famous for, Chris and Sylvie have taken a look at the cinema's first experience of Barbiemania - the direct-to-DVD CGI features that Mainframe Entertainment has been churning out consistently since the 2000s. Greta Gerwig's Barbie film may be making a billion dollars and shifting the culture, but have you...

We are back! After a sojourn into a parallel dimension of fragmented memories that left it impossible for us to record a podcast, Chris and Sylvie have returned for a CNIC Detour episode on one of the most mature and striking series we will ever cover. A complex, sci-fi, paranoia thriller about four twenty-something amnesiacs who hold the fate of all humanity in their blasé hands and another exist...

AUDIO WARNING - This podcast was recorded in a noisy public space. Coming at you live from a bar next to Concordia University, it's a special bonus episode of Cartoon Night in Canada that features movies that are neither Canadian and are not animated (except for one)! Chris attended the 26th annual Fantasia Film Festival in beautiful Montreal for a program of films that ran the gamut from esot...

On this week's episode, Sylvie and Chris take a trip down to Avonlea with a cheaply produced adaptation of a beloved coming of age novel that spawned a media franchise so large as to rival the works of Tolkien. As one Canadian media mogul attempted to wring every cent out of the rights to L.M. Montgomery's beloved children's novel, it was inevitable a slapdash and forgettable cartoon w...

On this week's episode, we brazenly extend our month of Pride programming with a certified queer cult classic about a leather-clad, gender-fluid, vampiric, super-soldier fighting against Nazis. A show so utterly perfect for our current era we needed to bring it back. And yes, we literally only programmed it for our 69th episode because it's the meme number and we are mature professionals....

On this week's episode, Sylvie and Chris return to the archive of moving images that is the NFB for an out and proud double bill of short, queer animation. A bittersweet, neon-soaked eulogy to a dingy gay bar in Edmonton where outcasts could find community, chased down with a stick-figure tribute to a beloved indie pop duo summarizing their career. They have a lot more in common than you would...

On this week's desperate attempt to program for Pride Month, we take a look at a series with a notable pedigree that was often bandied about as a stellar example of representation in children's television...after the first couple of seasons, that is. It's Netflix's The Dragon Prince, a series from one of the minds behind Avatar: The Last Airbender (with a fraction of the budget and...