Month: December 2011

Poe’s Point > Top Five Saturday Morning Cartoons

A version of this article was originally posted on my old website, Biggerboat, on 1/31/2007.

I’ve often declared my life’s goal to make every day feel like Saturday morning. If there’s anything that makes me regret the linear direction of space-time and ache for the past as all mortals do, it’s that I can never truly recapture what it feels like to be a young kid on a Saturday morning.

Growing up in the 1980s following the FCC’s deregulation of children’s programming, Saturday morning offered a bevy of options for the child who, having woken at six a.m. to enjoy as much of his school-free day as possible, would wolf down three bowls of sugar-loaded cereal while watching colorful talking animals and consequence-free cartoon violence. True, many of the shows were little more than half-hour advertisements for toys, or candy, or Mr. T. But what Saturday morning cartoons really offered children was a time when television catered just to them. No boring adult dramas or shows they weren’t allowed to watch. Saturday morning TV belonged to kids. Continue reading “Poe’s Point > Top Five Saturday Morning Cartoons”

Odds ‘n Ends > DCAS Series 2, Muppets

  • The big news this week was the reveal of DC All Star Series 2–showing up on Comic Book Resources, interestingly. (Click here to go straight to the pics.) The series includes New 52 Superman and Flash, dark Supergirl from the Superman/Batman storyline, and, at long last, the Red Robin I’ve been waiting for since 2009. There’s been some discussion on Twitter as to “which” Red Robin it is (Dick Grayson from Kingdom Come, Jason Todd from 52, or Tim Drake from the recent eponymous series); personally I don’t think it matters. It’s just Red Robin. And awesome.
  • DMG and I saw The Muppets this weekend. I enjoyed it; I think it was very respectful of the original characters without being too mired in nostalgia, and it had both funny and touching moments. But there were a lot of missed opportunities in the story, and I think it focused too much on the cypher Walter without a real payoff for it. It seemed like the Muppets weren’t the stars of the movie. But hopefully this film was just setting the stage for the next one.

Review > Nordic Alien (Alien Series, Shadowbox Collectibles)

Dr. Mrs. Ghostal and I have been living in Salem since August and visiting the Liberty Tree Mall fairly frequently since our arrival. However, we usually only visited the large storefronts like Target and Kohl’s, and scarcely realized there was an entire indoor mall behind them. We finally went in yesterday and, in the course of my wanderings, I came across a store called “Little Shop of Treasures.” Continue reading “Review > Nordic Alien (Alien Series, Shadowbox Collectibles)”

Guest Review > Holiday Spud

Mr. Potato Head is spruced up for the holidays with all new mix ‘n match parts for some Christmas fun!

Whenever a new Mr. Potato Head arrives, I am driven by some bizarre compulsion to go out and get him. Of course you might wonder why Hasbro is releasing Mr. Potato Head dressed up as a fir Christmas tree. Mr. Potato Head is no stranger to special Holiday editions. Hasbro has already covered Christmas with Santa Spud — a MPH dressed as Santa Claus, but rather than just release the same old potato they opted for a new idea! Continue reading “Guest Review > Holiday Spud”