December in the 80's was a magical time of year to be a kid. Not only did we get all the fantastic toys for Christmas, but every year, throughout the holiday season, the television would segue from regularly scheduled programing to air animated holiday specials. They'd come on just late enough that it could be a family event, but early enough that we'd get to enjoy it just before bedtime.
Each half hour block was special. Perfectly crafted with just the right number of advertisements to remind us of all the toys on store shelves, the treats to be had from local restaurants and grocery stores, and all other manners of consumption in between. But at the heart of it was that cartoon which would come out of hiding just once a year, fill your eyes with wonder, bringing smiles, laughter, action, adventure, drama, but at the root of it, a classic holiday message of peace, giving, love, and joy.
It's become my own personal tradition each year to pull a holiday special off the DVD shelf each day to enjoy. It's a ritual which not only has become my way of counting down the twenty-four days of December leading up to my favorite holiday, but my way of reminding myself that no matter what's happening in the world, my day-to-day grind of work, life, health, trials, and tribulations, that for a moment, all of that can be put a side, and I can simply become a kid again, even if it's just at heart.
While I wish I could share the actual special with all of you, be it by inviting you all to my home to join me in front of the fireplace with a bowl of popcorn, sadly, that's just not feasible. However, between sites such as Youtube, Arhcive.org, Dailymotion, and Vimeo, you can probably find them to watch. Of course, for those of you so bold, you could also pick them up on DVD yourself, something I would highly recommend. If not for yourself, for your children.
Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales is a half-hour Christmas television special, starring the Looney Tunes characters, in which Bugs Bunny presents three separate Christmas stories.
- Bug's Bunny's Christmas Carol
Scrooge (Yosemite Sam) is counting money in the counting house of his firm when Bob Cratchit (Porky) comes in, wanting to borrow a lump of coal as he is freezing. Scrooge refuses, and just after this Bugs comes in with Christmas decorations and mistletoe. He is tossed out, and decides that "somebody oughta teach that little humbug some Christmas spirit". Bugs then borrows a piece of coal and places it in the office of Cratchit, who graciously thanks him. However, Sylvester, Scrooge's cat, notices this and warns him, causing him to take back the coal and fire Cratchit, also throwing out some carolers (Elmer Fudd, Pepé Le Pew and Foghorn Leghorn) that Bugs let into his office. Cratchit invites Bugs to dinner, introducing him to his youngest son, Tiny Tim (Tweety). "Kinda puny, isn't he?" Bugs notes. "If you had to live on birdseed, you'd be puny too!" Tim retorts. Scrooge sends the light company to take the last candle (as Cratchit is past due) and a notice that the house is being foreclosed, forcing Cratchit to move out by midnight. Bugs decides this is the last straw.
First, Bugs annoys Scrooge with carolers, causing him to go out to deal with him, and he slips. Next, he puts snow into Scrooge's hot bath. He then acts like a ghost dragging around chains and beating a drum, which causes Scrooge to investigate. He does so, and accidentally slips down the stairs and into the cold, along with Sylvester. They go back to bed, but Bugs appears acting like a ghost. Sylvester quickly flees, but Scrooge is stopped by the door closing. As the ghost, Bugs threatens to take Scrooge to see "the man in the red suit" (the Devil, though Scrooge first guesses Santa Claus). Scrooge quickly promises to change.
He immediately makes good on his promise, giving money to the poor and making Bob Cratchit a partner in his firm. Tweety raises a toast to him, and Bugs kisses him. Scrooge (now going by the name of Sam) still hates kissing, though.
- Freeze Frame
Wile E. (Grotesques appetitus) chases Road Runner (Semper food-ellus) through the desert for a while before looking in a book about roadrunners to find out the bird's weakness and is flabbergasted to learn that roadrunners hate cold and snow and can be easily caught in snow drifts. He orders an ACME Little Giant Snow-Cloud Seeder, which is supposed to make instant snow. However, every time he uses the machine, it causes a large pile of snow to drop on him no matter where he stands, and he eventually discards the useless device. The device does get in one final shot, causing another pile to fall on the edge of the outcropping. This added weight becomes too much to handle, as the edge breaks off and, with the Coyote trapped inside, falls.
Wile E. paces around, trying to figure out another way to use Road Runner's hatred of snow to his advantage. He then gets the idea to switch around two signs reading "Snow Summit" and "Desert Crossing" so that Road Runner will instead take the path to the snowy mountains.
Road Runner, sure enough, takes the wrong path and ends up getting himself stuck on a frozen lake. Wile E. puts on some ice skates and skates a circle around the bird, but it causes the entire lake around the circle to break apart, dropping Wile E. into the water below. As Road Runner revs up his ice floe like a boat, the now-frozen Wile E. walks out of the water.
The Coyote purchases a pair of Acme Jet-Propelled Skis and uses them to chase Road Runner, but he ends up hitting a tree. He then buys a dog sled and a dozen sled dogs to pull it, but when he tries to open the crate containing the dogs, they mercilessly attack him. After managing to shut them back in the crate, Wile E. looks at the camera with a terrified face zooming it in on him a couple times before he faints. He looks at the invoice and reads an important note at the bottom: "Sled dogs love coyotes - especially for supper!" He breaks into a fit of laughter before passing out. He next buys an Acme Rocking Horse to sled downhill while twirling an Acme Road Runner Lasso, but he ends up getting himself tied up in the lasso and stuck on some railroad tracks; the rocking horse comes to life and gallops away before the train can hit him. Wile E. weakly holds up a sign with one word, "Mommy", just before he's hit. Finally, Wile E. tries rolling a giant snowball in hopes of dropping it on Road Runner from a cliff, but as expected, he falls off the cliff himself, with the giant snowball coming down after him. Wile E. climbs out from under the snowball, unharmed, but now wearing a Santa-like snow beard and a red umbrella like a hat, and rings a bell while holding up a sign that reads "Merry Xmas" and "Happy New Year".
- Fright Before Christmas
At the North Pole, as Santa Claus is preparing for his Christmas Eve flight, a cargo plane is flying the Tasmanian Devil overhead. Taz escapes from his confinement and ends up parachuting out and landing near Santa's workshop, where he accidentally gets himself into Santa's suit, which was hanging out to dry, and inadvertently takes control of Santa's flying sleigh when he spooks the reindeer.
At Bugs's house, Bugs is reading A Visit from St. Nicholas to his nephew Clyde. Speedy Gonzales begs to differ when Bugs reads that there wasn't a mouse stirring. They suddenly hear a noise on the roof, and Clyde thinks that it is Santa, so Bugs sends him to bed. Taz, who landed the sleigh on the roof, then drops down Bugs' chimney, and Bugs, despite noticing that this Santa is in fact "an unreasonable facsimile", gives him a warm welcome. He goes to the kitchen to make a snack for Taz and brings him a plate of milk and cookies; Taz responds by eating the whole table.
Bugs reads his nephew's "brief" Christmas list to Taz, during which Taz starts eating some of the ornaments and lights on Bugs' tree, uncharacteristically giving himself indigestion upon eating a green bauble and then electrocuting himself after eating the lights like spaghetti, before eating Clyde's wish list. Bugs then says he'll make some popcorn and hands a can of it to Taz, who promptly swallows it before Bugs can get the popper, and since he is standing next to the fireplace, the popcorn starts popping inside his body. After then spinning through a piano, Taz then takes a look at one of the presents under the tree, at which point Bugs sets up a fake gift exchange desk and asks Taz if he'd like to exchange it for a bigger one. Taz takes the bigger present and tries to open it, but Bugs advises him to wait until he's outside to do so, so as not to ruin the surprise. Taz spins outside with the present and opens it up; it is a self-inflating rubber raft. He eats the whole raft, which then expands inside his body and sends him floating like a UFO starship into the sky ("I'm glad he liked the self-inflating rubber life raft. Tasmanian devils are awfully hard to buy for.").
Clyde returns and tells his uncle Bugs that Santa didn't put anything in his stocking and also left his sleigh and reindeer behind. Bugs, however, tells him that they just need to return the sleigh to the real Santa. With that, they take control of Santa's sleigh and take off for the North Pole. Bugs wishes everyone happy holidays.
This is another new one for me. While I've owned the Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Volume 5, I wasn't aware that this was on there until deep diving for "new" holiday specials to add to my seasonal watch list.
Originally released in 1979, it benefits from the voice acting of Mel Blanc on every single character, with exception of the two females, played by Looney Tunes alum, June Foray. It's a blast to watch, and this one will definitely be a reoccurring one for me moving forward. I just wish I had found it sooner.
Wanting to get a little more holiday joy, I pulled out a couple more DVD's and enjoyed some random Christmas themed episodes. Today's picks were:
- A Springfield Summer Christmas for Christmas, Bobby, It's Cold Outside, Gone Boy, Grift of the Magi, Holidays of Futures Passed, I Won't Be Home for Christmas, Kill Gil, Volume I & II, Manger Things, Marge Be Not Proud, and Miracle on Evergreen Terrace from the Simpsons
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