The Snowman

From 1933, this is quite scary.

And from WWII Germany Der Schneermann, AKA The Snowman In July.

This is the English dubbed version. I have always loved the animation and designs in this.

Santa’s A Dirty Old Man

I never though St Nick was into upskirting. Pervert!

The Awesome 80s

The 80s was a time of mullets and good music. Recently I was arguing with some Gen Y’ers that 80s music was better than the stuff that they listen to. Back then there was no such this as auto-tune or sampling, the artists actually had to be able to sing and play their instruments.

1. Aerosmith – Dude Looks Like A Lady
2. Whitesnake – Here I Go Again
3. Steve Perry – Oh Sherry
4. Def Leppard – Rocket
5. INXS – Never Tear Us Apart
6. Bad English – When I See You Smile
7. Bon Jovi – You Give Love A Bad Name
8. Joan Jett – I Love Rock N Roll
9. Michael Jackson – Thriller
10. Dire Straits – Money For Nothing
11. Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer
12. The Rolling Stones – The Harlem Shuffle
13. Madonna – Papa Don’t Preach
14. Cyndi Lauper – Girls Just Want To Have Fun
15. Bros – When Will I Be Famous

Sorry, the last couple of songs were a bit silly but they are still better than Justin Bieber. I think I will do another post on this topic a bit later and list such awesome acts as Flock Of Seagulls, Tiffany, Martika, Debbie Gibson, Roxette etc that are still better than the rubbish that Fox FM and Mix play on the radio.

Call The Boatphone

Lego Election Highlights that show the absurdity of the last five weeks.

Hey Ya! Charlie Brown

Here’s something really cute that has been hanging around the internet for a while.

Hulk Hogan Vitamins / Lord Alfred Hayes

I’m sure that back in the 80s kids thought Hogan was being sincere when he talked about his Powerful Protein Shake and the Powerful Python Pack vitamins but knowing what we know about Hogan now, this is just funny. I think this is from Tuesday Night Titans.

Also I must say how much I miss Lord Alfred Hayes. Sure he was the butt of everyone’s jokes and he was a terrible announcer, and most of the comedy skits he was in were cringingly awful, but I miss him all the same. Here Hogan calls him Awful Alfred, which I guess is the persona that Hayes used in the AWA when he was one of the top heel managers. Apparently he was as a good as a heel manager as he was as terrible an announcer. Most people I guess just remember him as the Coliseum Video guy.

Nosferatu

Vampires are not supposed to be vegetarians or sparkle in the daylight. They are not supposed to fall in love or drive an Aston Martin. Vampires are supposed to be scary blood sucking murderers that die if they are caught out in the sunlight. In 2009 lots of tweenage girls (and their mothers) are swooning over Edward Cullen from Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series, but these books and films have more in common with the works of Jane Austin and the Bronte sisters than they do with Bram Stoker.

Of course for the first film version of the greatest of all vampires, Count Dracula, we have to go back nearly 90 years to Germany, and F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu. Whilst this is perhaps the most honest of the Dracula films and the one that was most true to Stoker’s vision, the names of the characters had to be chagened due to copyright restrictions. This seems kind of ironic when you consider that the Dracula character is now public domain. At the time the Stoker Estate sued Murnau and all prints of this film were ordered to be destroyed but fortunately they weren’t.

The casting of Max Schreck as Count Orlok (Dracula) is superb and he is particularly frightening. Rumour has it that he sold his soul to the devil to perfect the role or that he was a real vampire.

Zorro

This years’ Walt Disney Treasures will feature two sets containing the three seasons of Zorro. I know lots of people are upset that there won’t be any animated releases this year but I am kinda looking forward to this. I have always wanted to watch the Disney version of Zorro.

Hopefully they will include Walt’s introduction as an extra.

And the time Zorro met the Mouseketeers.

(By the way… Susie The Little Blue Coupe really needs to be restored and put onto DVD!)

The Zorro theme song…

The Unmasking Of Zorro (Part 1)

The Unmasking Of Zorro (Part 2)

The Unmasking Of Zorro (Part 3)

Barney Bear – The Rookie Bear

Here’s a fun poster for Barney Bear‘s Oscar Nominated short The Rookie Bear. Reproductions of these and other posters can be easily found on Ebay and around the internet. They are relatively cheap and look pretty good.

It’s a shame that Barney Bear doesn’t have a DVD set devoted to his adventures. Some of his cartoons have been released as extras on some DVD releases, but many of these are now out of print and very hard to find. Nowdays the only choices that an animation devotee has are to either buy a DVD of unrestored cartoons from Jerry Beck‘s cartoon research garage sale or to hope to find 16mm films of the cartoons on Ebay. If you really want to see the cartoons you could just sit on your ass and wait for someone to upload the cartoon to Youtube.

Christian The Lion

My partner Priscilla saw this clip of Christian the Lion on Youtube recently and has become Christian crazy. She has started to read the book about Christian’s life story and watches anything Christian related.

It is a great clip and just shows that animals are not as stupid or as savage as we civilised humans tend to think!!!