Cartoon a Day: Here Today, Gone Tamale

Here Today, Gone Tamale

1959

Directed by Friz Freleng

Available on: Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 4

For a long time, Speedy Gonzales was a victim of political correctness taken to the extreme. Some claimed that he was a negative stereotype of Mexicans. Yet when he was pulled from the air by Cartoon Network, who had exclusive broadcast rights to his cartoons beginning in 1999, the fans cried out. They learned that Speedy is a hero to many Latin Americans. He's certainly always been a favorite of mine.

"Here Today, Gone Tamale" features a group of Mexican mice starving due to a cheese famine when a boat full of cheese rolls into port. Sylvester the cat guards the ship, so Speedy is called in to get the cheese. There are plenty of great gags here, though the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" ending is a bit disappointing and abrupt.

This is also another great example of beautiful Looney Tunes background art. Both the scenery of the port and layout of the ship use some very creative elements. Just check out the interesting depth of field used in the background of the above shot.

Though I've never thought that Sylvester quite gelled as a great nemesis for Speedy like he did with Tweety, this is still a fun offering from the fastest mouse in all Mexico.

Cartoon a Day: Water Babies

Water Babies
1935
Directed by Wilfred Jackson
Available on: Walt Disney Treasures - Silly Symphonies


And the award for most bare butts in a Disney movie goes to...you guessed it, the 1935 Silly Symphony "Water Babies."

"Water Babies" is a beautiful color cartoon that still shows some hints of the repetitious, looped style of early animation. However, there are some real advances on display here too, especially in some of the designs used in the boat sequence.


Like many of the Silly Symphonies, this isn't laugh-out-loud funny. It's more cutesy, Anne Geddes has nothing on Walt. A few of the sequences get a little busy, but that doesn't detract from enjoying some beautiful animation.

Cartoon a Day: Stop! Look! And Hasten!

Stop! Look! And Hasten!
1953
Directed by Chuck Jones
Available on: Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 2



My first selection for "A Cartoon a Day" is a classic Road Runner short, "Stop! Look! and Hasten!" This short definitely has a progression to it. Starting slowly with several long takes from the coyote and building to a quick succession of gags.

Of all the bits I think my favorite is the one where the Coyote uses a book called How to Build a Burmese Tiger Trap. Also great is a gag involving a retractable wall that doesn't work early in the film, but that pays off later as the film's closing gag.

Like many of the Road Runner series, this one features some beautiful background paintings and you can start to see hints of some of the unique design styles that would be used for elements such as rocks and bushes that would be taken to greater extremes later in the series.

It's hard to go wrong with a Road Runner short. This one is a favorite!

A Cartoon a Day

I realized recently that I don't laugh enough. It's not like I'm this terribly serious person all the time, but I sure could laugh more. And it's far too easy for me to let little things steal my joy. So, I'm setting out on a mission, hopefully I will be successful. Something that brings me joy and makes me laugh are classic animated shorts. I've got quite a collection of classic shorts now, thanks to the miracle of DVD, so I'm going to try to watch at least one animated film a day. And to try and keep up with it I'm going to blog the results. It'll be sort of like setting time aside each day for prayer and scripture reading, only those don't generally involve talking animals, explosions, or mail-order products from ACME.

Kidology U

This weekend I got to back to my "sweet home Chicago," to be a part of the 10th anniversary Kidology U conference. It was fun to be a part of this event for the first time, and to get to visit some family in the process. Karl Bastian and the gang and Kidology have a great passion for kids ministry and for equipping other children's pastors. Here's a few photo highlights.

My friend Alan Root took care of the praise and worship duties. You know that part in the Bible where it says to "always be joyful," Alan's got that verse nailed. He's one of the happiest guys I know.

Karl Bastian is the brain trust behind Kidology.org. Here he is during the opening session. His workshop that was to follow had a cooking theme, thus the outfit.

The first two days of the conference featured some intensive leadership labs. I can't think of anyone better suited for teaching those kind of classes than the man you see pictured above... Bro Jim Wideman!

A highlight of the conference for me was finally getting to see a Kidz Blitz event in person. It was slightly different than the real thing since it was pretty much an all adult Kidz Blitz, but it was still pretty wild. Above is Roger Fields, the man behind Kidz Blitz.

Here's Karl Bastian competing against his sister in the donut eating challenge at Kidz Blitz. You're supposed to eat the donut off the hook while blindfolded without it falling off. But, after starting, Roger Fields had Karl's sister remove her blindfold and take the donut off the hook...unknown to Karl.

Atlanta Puppet Festival...a few weeks late

I'm a few weeks behind on posting some pictures from my trip to Atlanta for the Puppet Ministry Festival there. Sorry on being late, here's a few pics...

One of my favorite clowns, Brenda Marshall (aka Flower) was one of our guests. Speaking of favorites, here she is doing one of my favorite ways to present a simple salvation message, the good ole Salvation Flash Cards.

When I first met Jason Bonilla he lived in Florida. When I first met Gene Cordova (above) he lived in Seattle. Both have taught at festival for us for many years, and now they are both apart of the same church in Tennessee. So they drove down to Atlanta together to teach at the festival. This is Gene with his vent buddy, Puppy.

Here's one of the most creative people I know, Ferrel Marr, teaching a class on blacklight puppetry.

Our host team, The M&M Puppeteers did a wonderful presentation that combined some flag choreography along with something cool that's been making the YouTube rounds lately called "Cardboard Testimonies." Like "Edward Scissorhands" they made me cry.

Go Animate!

I just came across a new website where you can make your own animated films. Goanimate.com has backgrounds, effects, and characters to choose from. The characters have very actions they can do. It's pretty cool.

This test is just what I was able to put together from the stuff that was available on the site, including "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred. Hey I had to have something to work with...

Eat-Mor-Chikin

Brothers and sisters, if you don't love Chick-Fil-A...well, God will deal with you on that someday. Hat tip to the Kidologist for pointing me to this fun little video about the joys of Chick-Fil-A. I actually made a hajj to the original Chick-Fil-A store in Atlanta a few years ago. It's called "The Dwarf House" and to the dismay of the cows you can actually get a hamburger there. I'm going to Atlanta later this week, maybe we'll have to do that again.

The National Association of W Haters

I just watched the movie "Vantage Point" tonight. No, I don't have a biblical application this time around. The movie was alright. Clearly it was trying to be a 90 minute version of "24." It's about a terrorist plot that involves an assassination attempt on the President, as seen from several different points of view. The President is played by William Hurt, and he's not playing George W. Bush. So I found it really weird that at the beginning of the film we see a group of protesters, one of which is holding a sign featuring a letter W in a circle with a slash across it. Now if the President in this movie has middle name that begins with W it's certainly not made known to the audience. So what does the letter W have to do with anything here?

This could be viewed as a goof, but I'm not so sure. It seems like it may be another example of the filmmakers injecting their own political views into the background of the film. It's not uncommon. Richard Donner, who is a fine director, does it all the time. His police stations wallpapered with anti-NRA posters in the Lethal Weapon films is especially notable.

You know, on "Sesame Street," way back when I was a kid, there was a segment that featured Bert as the leader of a club called The National Association of W Lovers. Perhaps this person in the movie is really from a rival group.

Mothra Song

Remember the other day I said how I love Asian cinema? Well I couldn't resist sharing the theme song of one of my favorite Asian cinema stars...Mothra (or Mosura as he's known in his native land). You gotta love Mothra, he's got his own groupies!

Psalm 133

Last night I write a post about unity in the body of Christ. This morning God leads me to Psalm 133:1 in my morning scripture reading...

How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!

God Speaks through a Kung Fu Movie

I love the cinema of the Asian world. Whether from China, Hong Kong, Japan…their animation, their giant monsters, and especially their martial arts films intrigue me. The other night I was finishing watching the movie "Fearless" staring Jet Li. I was just sitting back enjoying this beautifully photographed and skillfully choreographed martial arts epic when suddenly God snuck up on me. As a big movie fan, I love it when God brings something to my heart through a movie.

In the film, we see Li's character as a child growing up in the home of his father, a wushu master. In once scene we see the father battle with the head of another household who argue that their style of wushu is superior. Even as the boy becomes an adult these battles over who is the greatest master continue, escalating until Li's character kills another master during a battle motivated by revenge. The circle of revenge then continues, and members of Li's family are also killed.

To make a long story short, our hero goes away for many years and eventually returns with a new outlook on life. It was during a scene where he is meeting with an old friend after being away that God spoke. He says to his friend (at least according to the subtitles):

"We have to be very strong for us and for our people. The reason foreigners look down on us is because we are not united. For several years now, we surely were our own worst enemies."

Immediately my brain went to one of the things that has troubled me the most in my spiritual journey of the last year or so…the subject of the lack of unity in the body of Christ. I seem to encounter people, fellow believers, who spend way too much time looking for things to complain about concerning other churches way too often. Everything from style of worship music to how a pastor dresses to whether or not someone ended a prayer with "in Jesus name…" seems to be fair game. In all honesty, it's making me sick.

Pastor Craig Groeschel from Lifechurch.tv said well it when in one of his messages he pointed out that Christians are known more for what we are against than what we are for, and unfortunately, what we against the most is each other. We are our own worst enemies. Why do so many have no interest in the Gospel ? Why do so many look down on it? We are not united.

Groeschel preached a sermon earlier this summer called "Lord Make Us One." The whole sermon is great (check it out here), but one thing he pointed out really hit me. Every Christian needs to hear this. We need to remember that as believers we have just one enemy. It's not the church that likes their music a bit louder than you like. It's not the church where they use King James only. It's not even the church down the road that has triple your attendance. His name is Lucifer, and I'll be he likes nothing more than seeing Christians arguing with each other over the stupidest things.

"Lord Make Us One," what a great prayer. Add to that the name of the movie that in a strange way brought this all to mind for me again…"Lord Make Us Fearless."