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"Buffy, this isn't just about looking at a bunch of animals. This is about not being in class."

September 21, 2008-No, no reviews today. (I'm totally screwed in this regard.) However, a new editorial is up, and it's a scorcher. Hell, if anyone (except Bart, who is still awesome) reads this website, I'll likely find out here and now. (One hopes things don't get as insane as when I ripped the Devil's Due G.I. Joe comic to shreds-I was kind of, sort of gaining some actual experience running a news page under Rod's auspices before that last version of ZD got nuked off the web.) Though, truth be told, I do sort of come off the ledge at the end.

September 8, 2008-Late, again. Oy. The review for "Teela's Quest" is now up, though two days late (and then closer to three, when you get down to it). I hope to catch up by the 11th, but don't hold your breath. I am experimenting with something with the review to "Colossor Awakes", which may improve the time factor thingy in completing the reviews. If it works, I'll be rather happy.

September 5, 2008-The celebration kida, sorta, maybe, begins, with the review of "Diamond Ray of Disappearance" on its 25th Anniversary. Also, I fixed the "Cartoons" page a bit, removing the ugly (I still need to do some more serious changes there, though). That's pretty much it, for today. Hopefully, I can get the reviews up and running for the first week's worth of He-Man on time. Yeah, right.

Also, in other matters, Bill Melendez, the mastermind behind the Peanuts cartoons, and the last prominent living Warner Bros. animator, died this week. :( Suffice it to say, this year has been extremely awful for celebrity deaths, and particularly in the world of animation, where many, less familiar, artists have sadly passed on. Also dying this week was Don LaFontaine, the world's pre-eminent voice actor for movie trailers. However, in happier news, I received an e-mail regarding my "Steamboat Willie" review (to which I haven't personally replied, because I expected to the "Cobra Stops the World" review done ages ago) from Bart Massey. Anyways, he solves the mystery regarding the FOB tag in the short:

"Actually, it *is* an acronym, and one that would have been much more familiar to audiences 75 years ago than it is today.  In this context FOB stands for "Free On Board" or "Freight On Board".  The USDA glossary defines it as "A pricing term indicating that the quoted price includes the cost of loading the goods into transport vessels at the specified place."  The FOB tag attached to the cow presumably indicates that transport for the cow has already been paid for by the seller."

And if you're curious as to how Bart know this, well check out his site/blog, named FOB (Friends of Bart): http://fob.po8.org/. (Or just look at the title.)

Thanks, Bart!

February 21, 2008-The long slumber reaches an end, albeit prematurely. Many pages reflect the new, less messy style I've been toying with, though much of it is still either untouched, or simply incomplete (such as the layout of the reviews-the whole table format is going the way of the dinosaur, and may eventually lead to more interesting layouts re: the screengrabs). This, of course, is due to the (mildly delayed) tribute to Steve Gerber in the Editorials section.

May 24, 2004-The slacking ends. While I'm still woefully behind on watching DVDs (I can't drum up the courage to watch The Black Cauldron, for one thing) and listening to CDs, my desire to not be a slacker in regards to this website has kicked in. So, here's the much-delayed review for "Steamboat Willie".

February 23, 2004-Well, so much for the plans I had for November. And December. And January. And this month. Sheesh. When I slack off, boy do I slack off. Anyways, as I complained, not much came about on Mickey's 75th. Disney unveiled some really nice statues (designed by everyone from Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor to Ben Affleck) and announced their Mickey-related plans for this year. Not only will we get the delayed Disney Treasures wave (which includes Mickey Mouse in Living Color Vol. 2), but December's regularly scheduled wave will feature Mickey Mouse in Black and White Vol. 2, which will mean that every classic Mickey ever made is going to be on DVD by the end of the year! Woo hoo, baby. Thank you, Mr. Maltin. Also, a direct-to-video movie of The Three Musketeers starring Mickey, Donald, and Goofy is going to hit in the summer, which is all fine and good, but why couldn't that have been treated as a true Disney feature? I like Fun and Fancy Free, but I'd like a full-length Mickey cartoon, especially since the MouseWorks and House of Mouse people deserve the chance to do something really ni.....Oh, wait. That moron Eisner fired all of those people.

Which brings me to my next point. While I was being a slacker, Roy E. Disney (Walt's nephew and son of Disney co-founder Roy. O. Disney) resigned from the Disney board of directors. With Stanley Gold (who also quite the same day as Roy), he's been campaigning for shareholders to dump Michael Eisner and his cronies on the board on their collective asses. I could go on for ages, but visiting Jim Hill Media and Save Disney (the latter being Roy and Stanley's website) will fill you in on the dire situation of The Walt Disney Company. Suffice to say, I pray that changes are made on March 2nd, just like I pray the Comcast doesn't buy Disney.

Finally, on to the update. No new reviews, but a new section: Videos. It's still under construction and all that, but what's there is fairly spiffy, in my opinion. Plus, it's got some videos!

November 14, 2003-Four days late, here is the next Mickey-centric review, "Plane Crazy". As much as it makes me want to hurl, I'm probably not going to get through all of the shorts I picked this month. *bangs head against wall*

In other news, Sunday marks the single Mickey (and Minnie, of course) birthday celebration that I've been able to locate-a marathon on Toon Disney and The Disney that starts at 10 AM, comprised, it seems, solely of 13 hours of episodes of Disney's House of Mouse. While the series is nothing short of excellent, I can't help but feel underwhelmed. There doesn't seem to be any classic Mickey shorts, not even the 40-odd black and whites that Disney colorized in the '90s. You'd think that there'd be a big prime time special or even an episode of Biography. Instead, Biography is doing an ep on Jimmy Hoffa and ABC is showing its standard prime time lineup on Tuesday. Given how quickly ABC slapped together its well-deserved tribute to the late John Ritter, you'd think that they would have a Mickey special planned, or even a special episode of The Wonderful World of Disney. Instead, we get next to nothing. Am I the only one sensing something wrong in the world of pop culture?

Also, the Disney Treasures scheduled for December 2nd have been pushed back to May, but not because Disney is having second thoughts about the On the Front Lines set (which will have all of Disney's war films). It seems that Disney needs the extra production facilities in order to meet demand for the DVDs of The Lion King (which has been out since October 7th), Finding Nemo (which was released on the 4th, and is reportedly shattering DVD sales records), and Pirates of the Caribbean. I shouldn't be surprised, or even mad (seeing as how I'm all for the continued success of quality DVD releases), but dammit, I want those sets!

November 7, 2003-Yet another review, this time of "Pluto's Judgement Day", plus some minor fixes here and there. Plus, anyone got a really cheap, Mac-compatible, scanner for sale?

November 4, 2003-The second Mickey-themed updated brings a review of 1929's "Haunted House", the first short featuring Walt Disney as the voice of Mickey.

November 1, 2003-The long hiatus is over, and the frantic updates begin! As the first phase of the site's celebration of Mickey Mouse, a review has been put up, for the classic 1935 short, "The Band Concert". Additionally, the main site background has been changed permanently to a more Mouse-like design, and the Mickey Mouse section has been set up.

September 24, 2003-An update! Finally! As I was supposed to deliver in, oh, July, the review for "Roll For It" is up. Now, here's the site's status: still no video capture device, in part because the one I did buy turned out to be a piece of junk. The new one is getting ordered next payday (which is Oct. 3rd), and there will be reviewage once I get it in the mail.

I've acquired the videos I asked for last month, so all I need is to receive them and get started on my evil plans. Also, on the cartoon front, the G.I. Joe box set hasn't come to fruition. However, we'll be getting Jem on DVD next year, a set supervised by Christy Marx herself! Also, the first half of The Transformers Season 3 hits on October 14. It seems like all of the good shows (except for a certain Filmation show that I've reviewed an episode of) are getting their day on DVD.....

August 4, 2003-You know when you have something planned, and it gets completely screwed up? Well, I had been working on the review for "Roll For It" (after having to replace my Snappy), but I managed to get sidetracked downloading cartoons (i.e., Golden Age fare that's far less than PC) and episodes of Angel (a mission which eventually failed miserably, unlike the 'toon quest). Then, I downloaded Netscape 7.1, and all hell broke loose. Long story short, my old computer is dead (along with some miscellaneous files I didn't manage to save) and I now have a new one, which is a nice eMac. Good news: all my files for "Roll For It" are still alive and fully functional, so I can start in on that process at my leisure (i.e., immediately). Bad news: My Snappy is now nice and unusable, and I have yet to buy a new video capture device (although I'm definitely working on it). So, the next review after "Roll For It" will likely be delayed.

Now for some comments and a request: Apparently, Amazon is adding sales taxes to orders now, as I discovered while getting ready to order some old-style G.I. Joe and Transformers stuff. Grrrr.... Also, Wal-Mart and Target aren't carrying the newest volume of Batman: The Animated Series episodes. Double Grrr..... However, there is good stuff going on in the cartoon world: The first season of Rocky and Bullwinkle is currently out on DVD, and October 28th will (finally) see the first half of G.I. Joe's first season out on DVD (which will likely include the first-ever home video release of the classic Pyramid of Darkness miniseries). Also, I saw American Wedding today, which is most excellent indeed and therefore fulfilling my requirement to see Alyson Hannigan in something that doesn't colossally piss me off this year.

As for my request, I'm looking for VHS copies of two Disney videos, both of which were released in the '80s. One is the Mickey volume of the Limited Gold Collection (not to be confused with the current Gold Collection-these videos were collections of old Disney shorts in nice gold packaging), and the other is called Scary Tales, Volume 3 (another collection of Disney shorts). Any help will be appreciated.

Finally, what do you think of this site, anyways? Outside of some comments from my net friends, I've received but one e-mail about the CRW since it opened. Please, e-mail me, and tell me what you think!

June 18, 2003-OK, OK.....so I'm late by two days, no thanks to FrontPage crashing at 10:30 on Monday night (losing a huge chunk of the review, as well). Anyways, as promised, the review is of "Transport to Oblivion". Also, I've thrown up the generic bumpers for The Transformers, which are here and here. When I get to reviewing "Roll For It" (points at stack of unwatched DVDs), I'll put up the remastered versions from the Season 1 DVD set. (And no, I'm not interested in arguing the merits of Rhino's new TF sound mix.)

June 11, 2003-Another non-update. More of a mini-rant, really. Firstly, I'm just about through the second discs of Buffy Season 4 and Angel Season 1, so Monday looks like a good estimate for the "Transport to Oblivion" review. Secondly, the Snake Armor He-Man variant has been unveiled, and announced as the He-Man to be seen in the comic and Mike Young Productions' very non-stellar cartoon (once Season 2 starts). See it here. Now you'll understand why I won't be reviewing that suck-fest. :)

June 10, 2003-Today's more of a non-update, really. Reason being? Today marks the release of the 4th Season of Buffy on DVD, so you can figure out what I'll be watching for the next few days. I was hoping to get a new review up (for "Transport to Oblivion"), but I suck. Oh, well. Anyone visiting over the weekend may have noticed that the screen grabs for all three parts of "More Than Meets the Eye" have changed-I switched from grabs taken from the Rhino/Blockbuster Video exclusive VHS release to the Season 1 DVD set. And God smiled down upon Garrett as it suddenly became easy to create screen grabs of panning shots......

May 30, 2003-Everything's new! :) After, uh.....Jesus, I can't even remember how long it's been, but anyways, it took me awhile to finally finish the site, but it's done, and I'm a happy camper. For the record, there are two editorials (here and here), reviews for "The Dragon's Graveyard" (from Dungeons & Dragons); "Worlds Without End", Parts I and II (from G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero); and "More Than Meets the Eye", Parts I, II, and III; and "The Dragon Invasion" (from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe). Additionally, I've got character profiles for Duke, Scarlett, and Zartan (all from G.I. Joe).

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