Its bland zone-out-if-you’re-not-hyper-focused ugly-looking animated specials like Garfield’s Thanksgiving that make you long for a Rankin-Bass or Peanuts holiday classic or at the very least, the unhinged antics of the Family Circus. Based on a comic strip of unexplained popularity, it apparently revolves around a surly cat obsessed with food, his brain damaged dog pal and human owner (Jon) who can only be charitably described as a clueless loser. Continue reading “Garfield’s Thanksgiving (1989)”
Category: Thanksgiving
Intergalactic Thanksgiving or Please Don’t Eat the Planet (1979)
Cosmic farmers invade a planet inhabited by a civilization that prizes clowning around above all else! What sort of war of the worlds will occur when the humorless Spademinders spend all their waking hours planting crops while King Goochi desperately clings to power trying (and failing miserably) to freshen up his stand up act? Continue reading “Intergalactic Thanksgiving or Please Don’t Eat the Planet (1979)”
Thanksgiving Cartoons That Make You Thankful for Christmas Cartoons
Thanksgiving may dominate in the areas of meals and football, but it lags woefully far behind Christmas and Halloween when it comes to animated specials. It’s not that there aren’t any Thanksgiving-themed cartoons, it’s that there aren’t any that won’t make you want to heave your pumpkin pie all over the TV screen. Dull stories of Pilgrims and Native Americans compete with ill-advised weird Turkey Day entries in such well known franchises as the Berenstain Bears and the Wizard of Oz. What follows is a list of such specials you should only put on if your goal is to clear out those lingering in-laws and friends who don’t know when it’s time to call it a night. Continue reading “Thanksgiving Cartoons That Make You Thankful for Christmas Cartoons”
The Care Bears: Grams Bear’s Thanksgiving Surprise (1986)
Did you know Thanksgiving is even celebrated in far flung places like Carealot? The realm of the Care Bears turns out to be not much different than our own (except for the flying cars made out of clouds) as everyone is working hard to prepare for Grams Bear’s arrival. But like any first responder, the Care Bears are always on call, even on Thanksgiving! So it is that Share Bear heads to Earth to help a human brat figure out what he’s going to say in his big Thanksgiving speech to his home town! Continue reading “The Care Bears: Grams Bear’s Thanksgiving Surprise (1986)”
The Berenstain Bears Meet Bigpaw (1980)
A refreshingly nasty take on Thanksgiving from an unlikely source. The Berenstain Bears, best known for the sensible and long suffering Mama Bear who is saddled with a clumsy and clueless Papa Bear and a pair of cubs who don’t have any personality beyond their clothing, the books frequently beat the reader over the head with some lesson about positive values like honesty, manners and eating healthy. This time it’s the importance of being thankful and sharing your bounty, but with a bit of a twist. Like some lame horror movie attempting to cash in on a holiday, there’s a monster coming to destroy all of Bear Country this Thanksgiving to fulfill a prophecy! Continue reading “The Berenstain Bears Meet Bigpaw (1980)”
Dorothy in the Land of Oz (1980)
If you can watch Dorothy in the Land of Oz and watch Dorothy carrying around a talking pie and not snicker, I don’t want to know you. This marginally Thanksgiving-related special leaves you wondering if someone dosed your stuffing with LSD right from the beginning when the Wizard of Oz himself appears to steal said pie from Auntie Em’s window sill! (This was before the pie was transported with Dorothy and Toto to Oz and achieved sentience through the accidental application of a special powder.) Continue reading “Dorothy in the Land of Oz (1980)”
The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn’t (1972)
Hanna-Barbera’s The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn’t special from 1972 is a painlessly pleasant experience for fans of the company’s other efforts of the era, particularly Scooby Doo, Where Are You!
While there is no mystery to solve or monster to unmask, it feels similar with a wolf stalking a Pilgrim and Native American boy, while a squirrel helps rescue them a couple of times. There’s the chase through the woods we’ve seen a hundred times in various Scooby episodes, there’s the last minute trap the wolf is lured into and there’s even some of the same music used! Continue reading “The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn’t (1972)”