Show #197: Mr Magoo's Christmas Carol

The year wanes, one that we'll gladly let pass into history, but such as it is the festive season is here and that means another animated spin on A Christmas Carol is summoned to scare the share into us! Classic cartoon coot Mr Magoo gives it a go this time around, and with his patented brand of poorly sighted mayhem this version of Chuck D's famous fable oughta be a barrel of laughs, right? RIGHT? We'll get to that, right after we gush about our fine friends in internet recording, look ahead to next year's SOTSM slate and stuff ourselves on a final festive feast of a Post Podcast Repaste. Magoo, you've done it again! And all in one night! Merry Christmas and a serene seasonal sojourn to all ye good folk out there!

Listen up!

Show #179: Toons 'N' Tunes - Robot Rock!

We can party longer, harder and faster; we have the technology! Toons 'N' Tunes once again explores the convergence of animation and music, this time with all the power and precision of a mighty robot!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

A surprisingly varied mixtape awaits our listening pleasure with the peculiar ubiquity of robots in music videos both past and present. The killer androids of the wasteland are on the hunt backed by Megadeth and Iron Maiden and inevitable synth-based dance tracks are forged by Equateur and Perturbator while the machines display their capacity to adapt and evolve with some singular singles by Bjork, Pete Miser and Caravan Palace. Why were we programmed to feel funky?

Show #169: FernGully - The Last Rainforest

After surviving a months long heatwave Niall and Dwayne display their green credentials and take their forebears to task with an environmental impact study on FernGully: The Last Rainforest!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

Conceived in an era when the welfare of the planet was the cause celebre of film stars, politicians and the general public alike, FernGully presents an idyllic vision of our natural world and the innumerable reasons for humanity to value and protect it. However does its message cut to the core of this massive problem? Do its contemporaries perform any better? When does saying "YES" repeatedly in a Tim Curry voice stop being fun? (Never) The answers to these hard hitting issues and more await your ears!

Show #168: Toons N' Tunes - Disney & Fleischer In The 1920s & 30s

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

It's the inaugural instalment of a new recurring feature, where we cast an eye and an ear over the many instances where music and animation collide and how they amplify the potency of both art & artist. Naturally we start at the nascent beginnings of this pairing, from Walt Disney's experimental efforts in Silly Symphonies to the many outings of the Fleischer Brothers' breakout star Betty Boop and on to even stranger sounds than those! Duck noises, censor baiting and depressingly relevant politics await for you to listen up!

Show #159: The Book Of Life

Times are tough but our undying spirit persists onward, eager to get our nose into the first chapter of The Book Of Life!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

Now where have we seen this before? A certain recent Pixar film may be parading this same aesthetic around but Jorge Gutiérrez and company had already taken us to an astonishing afterlife inspired by Dia de los Muertos some years back. However is this spectacular vision in danger of being superseded by more worldly concerns? Unfortunate family film requirements, moustache analysis and Niall's inability to read credits properly are a page away!

THE SHORT VERSION

A lavish world

An overload of ideas

A better main character

Show #157: Rock-A-Doodle

Rain delays play but now you finally get to hear us wade through the washed up mess that is Rock-A-Doodle!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)


Don Bluth, Donny old boy, we keep coming back to you despite our best interests and we're starting to wonder why. Rock-A-Doodle is expectedly the incoherent muddle that unfortunately has come to overshadow the bright spots in your career, but perhaps we're drawn back because of the infinitely more fascinating circumstances surrounding the inception and production of this film. Literary history, real life tragedy and obvious better story ideas that somehow got passed over are uncovered within!

THE SHORT VERSION

Horny animator strikes again

Evil owl fellas

Seamless interplay

Show #139: Romie-0 & Julie-8

While you may not agree with the tenets of a corporate holiday just remember that even robots have the capacity to love, as demonstrated in Romie-0 and Julie-8!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

Nelvana are probably best known for their oddball seasonal specials, so jumping off from that this adaptation of Shakespeare's ubiquitous play is a good fit for the supposed most romantic day in the calendar, right? The sweeping tale of young love, family feuds and tragic ends is compressed down into a family friendly half hour, workmanlike but nonetheless energetic, though it does raise some alarming questions about the far future society it depicts. Robot rights, sleazy spacemen and other animated versions of the Bard's work are just some of the topics of discussion we expend more thought on than expected!

THE SHORT VERSION

Robot romance

Odd couples

Android admirers

Show #129: Rock and Rule

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

An obscure B-side from the early days of Nelvana Animation, Rock and Rule lives up to about thirty percent of its title. Not rocking like one would expect from a post-apocalytic movie involving demon summoning, neither does it rule in the characterisation or plotting areas. The design, animation and atmosphere all make a good showing but feel like they would be better employed in service of a more consistent movie that had a firmer idea of the audience it wished to court.

THE SHORT VERSION

Super rockers

Super slackers

Super heroes

Show #94: Moses Must Defeat These Two Enemy Stand Users

Happy Easter! Or Happy Passover! Whatever your denomination it's the right time of year for The Prince of Egypt!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

The first traditionally animated feature from Dreamworks sought to challenge the might of Disney with a biblical epic full of fantastic scenery, musical interludes and a classic tale of brother against brother. Being an Old Testament adaptation the film is compelled to hit on all the familiar points from the original story with varying degrees of success, but the more personal struggle of two siblings on opposite sides of a divide enhances it and provides a much greater level of emotional investment.

THE SHORT VERSION

Sweeping scale

Best of bros, best of enemies

Baby murder

Show #87: My Spoons! They're Still Here!

It's the start of a wonderful new holiday tradition here at SOTSM, with this year's stocking stuffer-sized entry being 1997's adaptation of A Christmas Carol!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

How many animated versions of A Christmas Carol are there? A lot, so we should be in fine standing for the next couple of years at least. This does mean we have to wade through a couple of the more dubious versions such as this example from DiC Entertainment. Don't let the cast list fool you, although Tim Curry is a wonderfully sassy Ebenezer Scrooge, it's a real slog to get through and not just because of the awful songs. It does feature a Frank Welker dog however, and isn't that reason enough to watch? (Nope.)

THE SHORT VERSION

Terrifying apparitions

Bad accents

Remember Scrooge? He's back! In dog form!

Show #86: Oh No! A Lovely Garden!

It's the most wonderful time of the year; another Hobbit movie means another Hobbit cartoon movie, The Return of the King!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

The live action Hobbit trilogy has finally come to a close and with it we must also round out our experiences with the animated J.R.R. Tolkien works, which we have covered previously. This final chapter brings back Rankin Bass and Topcraft who brought us the quite enjoyable 1977 Hobbit, taking a similar approach from that film which doesn't quite gel with the scale of this saga of war between good and evil. An imbalance of focus, difficulties with compressing the narrative and some non sequitur musical interludes make for a bizarre and frustrating viewing experience.

THE SHORT VERSION

You're late pal.

Skeletor?

"THIS IS THE SONG OF THE THIRD BLOGPOST PICTURE"

Show #85: The Fatue of Liberty

It's a flurry of freaky French film fun with director Sylvain Chomet's acclaimed feature The Triplets of Belleville!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

Monsieur Chomet is a man after our own hearts, a real old style director who does things his way or the highway even if it can get him into a spot of bother occasionally. When he does get a film out it's something to savour, as is the case with the Triplets of Belleville. Where else can one find a story of a bunch of old ladies and a dog embarking on a rescue mission to save a professional cyclist from the wine mafia, not to mention to have it be so visually bizarre and with barely a word of dialogue, and have a finished piece so engaging and full of love for the medium of animation. They don't make 'em like they used to but some folks still remember.

THE SHORT VERSION

Determined women

Corporate goons

Sweet jams

Show #68: Les Pamplemousse Est Dans La Fenetre

As storms ravage the country and the flood waters rise we're reminded of historical precedents as documented by A Monster In Paris.

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

Courtesy of Bibo Bergeron of The Road To El Dorado and Shark Tale fame comes this whimsical tale of how a mutated flea invented rock and roll. While boasting some sharp design work and catchy tunes it's let down by its pacing along with some jarring visual hiccups but more than makes up for these with sheer heart.

THE SHORT VERSION

Avant Garde

Chic

Le petit pistolet