How's It Hold Up?

(Spoiler Section Length - 6min 41sec) The second of the two Don Bluth and Steven Spielberg collaborations, The Land Before Time would also go on to become the premier children series about dinosaurs for the better part of two decades. While those later films (and tv series!) have a reputation all their own, this first one is the only film in the series to have Bluth and Spielberg's touch, and...

Another Betty Boop cartoon, here in the era where her shorts are mostly not her own, but rather a vehicle for her dog, Grampy, or some other even less interesting character! This time Betty wants to take some kid to the carnival, but the weather isn't permitting. But good ol' Grampy cooks up an indoor carnival, with an impressive finale flourish! It might be one of the best Betty Boop cart...

(Spoiler Section Length - 5min 33sec) Disney films are often retroactively classified into various 'eras', with the period between Walt Disney's death and the start of the Renaissance often referred to as 'the Dark Ages'. Despite this ominous moniker, many fan-favorite films exist in this time period, including this very film! But this film is also infamous for its cheap nature...

Walt Disney famously hated sequels, though this wasn't an opinion he always held. At one point in time he was all for creating sequels to the hit cartoon Three Little Pigs, but when each short proved to be diminishing returns (at least financially), it contributed to his dislike of the concept of sequels. But looking back at this, the 2nd sequel in the series, were audiences right to dismiss i...

(Spoiler Section Length - 5min 42sec) Today we cover another movie from Cartoon Saloon, creators of The Secret of Kells and also a lot of other things, some of which - like a short for the Star Wars anthology series Visions - have come out since we covered their first film. Their studio only continues to put interesting and beautiful works out, only continues to become more and more prominent, and...

Some pieces of media — be they cartoon shorts, feature length films, or even whole seasons of television — are worth watching a particular moment. That moment could be as short as a single seconds-long scene or as long as an entire episode, but something about it manages to massively exceed the quality level of the media it's a part of. Today, we have a cartoon that fits this bill... but is th...

(Spoiler Section Length - 16min 35sec) Some movies are known for being massively successful, massively influential, and pillars of their respective genre... and yet also get watched less and less as the years go by, as though knowledge of their reputation is enough and watching the actual film is no longer needed. In many ways, it feels like Akira is one of these movies - frequently mentioned when...

Though Tex Avery tends to be known for his more violent, slapstick and sometimes horny cartoons, the man was also capable of making cartoons that were strangely sweet. This is perhaps the most well-known example, though don't let the 'sweet' description fool you into thinking the short is devoid of laughs. Featuring a jazz-singing owl, disappointed parents, and a talent competition, th...

(Spoiler Section Length - 12min 34sec) Like Ranma 1/2 before, this time we're covering another animated film that's tied to a long-running animated series! Unlike that movie, which was fairly standalone, this film is actually a direct continuation of Steven Universe, taking place after that series' finale. Like the show that spawned it, there's lots of fighting, lots of singing, an...

Popeye is back, and he's got a baby this time! Trying to be a pal to Olive Oyl, Popeye takes little Swee'Pea to the zoo, but this baby has a habit of running loose and causing problems that it's up to Popeye to fix. This is one of those cartoons that's alright overall but has one particular moment that makes you laugh out loud. Does that moment make the cartoon worth watching? List...

(Spoiler Section Length - 3min 24sec) We've watched several half-hour shorts for Mickey and his friends before, but we've never seen the mouse feature in a full-length film... until today! That's right, Mickey and his pals are Musketeers, on a feature-length adventure of daring-do and classical music. The gang's all here - Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Minnie, Daisy, Pete, Pluto, the Beag...

Mickey's pals Donald and Goofy might be swiftly gaining in popularity, but at least in 1936, Mickey himself wasn't down for the count yet! This time we have a Through the Looking Glass inspired romp in store for Disney's favorite mouse, with Mickey dancing, playing and fighting over the course of the short. It's all a dream and Mickey knows it, so he might as well have some fun whi...

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...