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Saturday, December 17, 2011

Saturday Morning: Rugrats

Those of you who have been regular followers of A Pop Culture Addict's Guide To Life know that in most cases, I start off with a little bit of an anecdote in regards to my personal life, tie it to some sort of pop culture reference, and try to teach everyone what sort of lesson I've learned about myself that I can take with me to my grave.

Today, I'm going to do things a little bit differently. Today, I'm just going to launch into today's blog topic, and use this blog topic to talk about something that really has become a pet peeve of mine. Especially around this time of year.

But enough with the small talk. Let's begin.

Today's blog topic is about a television program that initially aired on the Nickelodeon cable channel.



Rugrats.

Now, Rugrats aired here in Canada on YTV, and that was the channel where I first started watching the show. And it was a great show. It was a show that showed the world through the eyes of a group of toddlers. What I found cool about it was that the show seemed to poke fun at those 1980s sitcoms that always portrayed the family unit as being wholesome and laced with perfection.  By seeing the world through the eyes of babes, we, the viewer, could see that perfection is a level never quite achieved.



Let's talk a bit about the staying power of Rugrats. The show debuted on Nickelodeon on August 11, 1991, and ran for thirteen years! A spin-off program, Rugrats: All Grown Up (which shows the Rugrats gang as teenagers), lasted an additional few years, wrapping up in 2008. That's a total of seventeen years, currently the longest running animated show that has aired on Nickelodeon. Only Spongebob Squarepants shows signs of lasting longer in the world of Nickelodeon. The show also had two feature films, stemming from the massive popularity of the show.

The show was created by the former husband-wife team of Arlene Klasky and Gábor Czupó, who had done animation work for The Simpsons. Together, along with animator Paul Germain, came up with the basic foundation for Rugrats. The characters were all based on the children of all three animators, and were designed and named after these characters.

And just who are the Rugrats? Let's see a picture of the main characters, shall we?



Okay...in the foreground of the picture, the bald kid in front is Tommy Pickles (E.G. Daily), son of Stu and Didi Pickles. Going clockwise, with the red-haired kid with glasses, we have Chuckie Finster (Christine Cavanaugh/Nancy Cartwright), son of single father Charles Finster. In the back row, you have fraternal twins Phil and Lil DeVille (Kath Soucie), who are the son and daughter of Howard and Betty DeVille. Finally, the little girl on the right with the pigtails is Angelica Pickles (Cheryl Chase), the spoiled daughter of Stu's brother Drew, and his wife, Charlotte.

Other characters that would be introduced later in the series are Susie Carmichael (Cree Summer), Tommy's little brother, Dil (Tara Strong), and Chuckie's stepsister Kimi (Dionne Quan). We also see a lot of Grandpa Pickles in the show as well as the Pickles family dog, Spike.

On the program, each of the main cast of Rugrats have their own distinct personalities. Tommy is the fearless leader of the group, and is most often the one who leads the group on the many adventures they have. Chuckie couldn't be further from Tommy in personality, with him being afraid of everything from green Jell-O to the man on the oatmeal box! Nevertheless, Chuckie and Tommy end up becoming best friends. Phil and Lil are typical twins, with lots of infighting between the two of them, but they end up having more Tommy-like qualities than Chuckie. And Angelica is such a complex character that I would need to devote a whole blog entry to her alone!

So, why would I decide to bring up the Rugrats in today's blog entry, and how does it relate to my pet peeve?

Well, it's like this.

Those of you who follow my blog on a regular basis have probably guessed by the theme of the entries this month that I celebrate Christmas. It's what I grew up with. It's what I know to be the holiday that my family and I celebrate. It's all I really know.

But there's lots of other holidays that are being celebrated as well this month that really shouldn't be overlooked.

One of those holidays is Hanukkah (or Chanukah in an alternate spelling).



Hanukkah (which is also known as the 'Festival Of Lights') is a holiday that people of the Jewish faith celebrate right around the same time that the Christian community celebrates Christmas (though the actual period can vary between late November and late December). Hanukkah lasts a total of eight days in length, and each day that passes, a candle is lit on the nine-branched candlestick known as a menorah. The final night of Hanukkah will show all the candles lit on the menorah.

The reason behind why Hanukkah is celebrated stems from religious faith, much the same way that Christians celebrate Christmas. Unfortunately, I don't know too much about the traditions and customs of Hanukkah, because I've never witnessed such a celebration to really go into it in detail. And because the last thing I want to do is provide erroneous information in this blog, I figure it's best if I post a link about the story of Hanukkah, so that those of you who are interested in the story behind it can read it if you wish.


I will say though that after reading that link that I posted up above, I was always fascinated by the celebration of Hanukkah. Reading about it in that article makes me want to experience Hanukkah festivities, even if it's just to sit in on one of the eight days of the celebration. I've always celebrated Christmas myself, but I wouldn't mind seeing how other cultures and religions celebrate their holidays. I think it would probably open my eyes up more to the world, and see bliss, peace, and joy in all holiday celebrations.

And, this leads to my pet peeve.

As some of you may know, I promote this blog in a variety of ways. Word of mouth, posting links on various forums I belong to (with permission from the moderators, of course)...

...and yes, I do use social networking sites such as Facebook to promote this blog. Everyone else does it, so why not me, right?

Now, as all of you know, on Facebook you can see a lot of things posted by a lot of people. You can see people sending out game requests, posting funny statuses, pasting hilarious pictures on people's walls, and other activities that the procrastinator in all of us take part in.

Fortunately, it takes a lot to offend me in real life, and I can pretty much ignore most of the really offensive things that some of the people post. I guess I could maybe attribute that to the thick skin that I have developed over the years.

But lately I've been seeing so many references to the so-called 'War Against Christmas' that I had no idea was even going on that I'm afraid that I can't let my feelings go blowing off in the wind.

I think the statuses that I've read that really got to me were those ones that state that they don't want to wish people Happy Holidays, they want to have a Merry Christmas, and that those who don't like it “can go back to the country they came from.”

Ain't that a way to kick off the old Christmas cheer. And yes, this is my best sarcastic voice talking here.

Are you kidding me here?  Seriously, go back to your own country if you don't like Christmas? What the hell is that? I'll tell you what it's not. It's not very Christmas like behaviour. That much I know. There isn't anything holly jolly about having those thoughts, and if you do feel that way, shame, shame, double shame!



I'll tell you something else. I don't agree that there even IS a war against Christmas. There's lots of people still around that say Merry Christmas. Heck, most of the cards I mailed out to people had 'Merry Christmas' on the front of it in big bold letters (and to those of you who didn't get that card, it's because I ran out...I only had ten). If there really was a war against Christmas, you'd think that cards that even said Merry Christmas on them would be banned from store shelves in favour of the more generic 'Happy Holidays'. But they aren't.  

I think what probably started this public outcry is that people see all these news stories about schools canceling Christmas celebrations, and school bus drivers being forced to remove Santa hats, and how stores are forced to put up Holiday signage instead of Christmas signage, or how Lowe's Hardware Stores offered up Holiday Trees for sale instead of Christmas trees.

That part I don't agree with. I don't like the idea of schools being forced to cancel their Christmas celebrations out of fear that someone who doesn't celebrate Christmas might get offended or feel left out. Some of my most favourite memories of Christmas stems from the holiday parties and Secret Santa exchanges we had in our school growing up. We'd go down to the school gym, sing a few Christmas carols, and I remember very fondly our old school janitor, Mr. McMillan playing the piano...and he was quite the piano player too, and such a nice guy. I actually shed a tear when I found out he passed away during my grade nine year.

But you know, instead of canceling Christmas celebrations out of fear of offending students or making them feel left out, why don't schools find a way to celebrate all the holidays?  Let schools have the option to learn about other holidays and traditions for other religious celebrations!

As much as I've ragged about elementary school, I remember one year in which we did something fairly cool. If memory serves me, it was grade five, and that was the year in which we had Christmas parties...but we also learned more about other holidays in the world, and I distinctly have this memory of making potato pancakes in class.  It almost kind of fit with the Hanukkah tradition, as they were one of the foods that people who celebrated Hanukkah would eat.  


(In fact, in the celebration of Hanukkah, these pancakes were given a special name.  Latkes.)


Now in retrospect I don't actually think that this was done to teach us about Hanukkah, as lots of people eat potato pancakes in various parts of the world around the holiday season.  But we didn't know that.  


To be honest, I actually would have appreciated knowing how Hanukkah celebrations worked in school so that I could have a better idea as to what went into the holiday preparations for a traditional Hanukkah celebration.  I bet I'd have even found it to have been a cool experience back then.  

Why can't we embrace each others holiday traditions?  Or at the very least, accept the fact that maybe we all celebrate in a variety of ways, and that we should all be left to our own devices as to what holiday we want to celebrate.  The world is made up of all kinds of people, and I believe that everyone deserves to be treated with respect.  And, some of these Facebook posts that I'm reading are anything but respectful, sorry to say.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I appreciate what is said about wanting to have the right to have whatever holiday celebrations you want to enjoy, and I'm very much on board with people who say that they don't want to be forced to downplay their celebrations because of the fear of offending someone.  


At the same time, is attacking other people's religious beliefs and telling them to leave the country if they don't like it really getting your point across in a healthy and joyous way?  I don't think so.  In fact, if anything, it's only intensifying the problem.  It's almost as if it's a huge slap in the face to the spirit of whatever holiday is being celebrated by having attitudes of that nature.


And this works BOTH ways, just so all of you know.

But I see what you're saying now. Why should we listen to you? It's impossible to celebrate both Christmas AND Hanukkah, so why should we even care?

I say try telling that to the Pickles family in Rugrats.

The Pickles family where Stu Pickles is Christian and Didi Pickles is Jewish.

The Pickles family that celebrates both Christmas AND Hanukkah!



Prior to 1995, the Rugrats show only celebrated Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter, and the 1992 episode 'The Santa Experience' is one of my all-time favourite Christmas themed cartoon specials of all time. Now, due to copyright laws, I have been unable to find a real copy of the special to post, but here's an altered one which you can watch here and here.

But, right around the time that 'The Santa Experience' was being developed, the production staff batted around the idea of filming a Jewish holiday special. After all, Tommy's maternal grandparents, Boris and Minka, were Jewish, and spoke in Yiddish accents to boot. In fact, Arlene Klasky herself was the product of a Jewish mother and non-Jewish father, much like Tommy Pickles himself.



Although the staff was given the greenlight to go ahead with the special, the first special wasn't on Hanukkah. Paul Germain came up with the idea to release a special on Passover instead, stating that doing a Passover special would provide more humour while preserving the historical interest behind the holiday. Mind you, because the program had a target audience of young children, some aspects of the show had to make some aspects of the show suitable for children (especially regarding the part showing the portrayal of the Ten Plagues). I think also, the special was used as a testing ground so that when the time came to do a Hanukkah special, the staff could do it right.


After all, while Christmas specials had aired on television since the 1950s, television specials on Jewish holidays were hard to find.  Truth be told, the Rugrats Passover special was probably one of the first and only ones that I can remember that solely focused on a Jewish holiday.

So, A Rugrats Passover debuted on Nickelodeon on April 13, 1995, and when it first aired, the episode was given much praise by the Jewish community. Here's a link of the special, courtesy of Nickelodeon's website.

http://www.nick.com/videos/clip/NTV_rug_passover_full.html

The special ranked sixth in the listing of most watched American television programs the week it aired, scoring a Nielsen rating of 3.1. And actress Melanie Chartoff (who did the voice of Didi and Minka on the special) received dozens of fan letters praising the special for detailing Judaism in a sensitive fashion.



And on December 4, 1996, the Rugrats Chanukah special aired, and received an even larger audience than the Passover special. And once again, the episode can be viewed on Nickelodeon's site by clicking below.


So, now that you've watched all three holiday specials that the Rugrats produced, what do you think?

Do you now see that it's entirely possible for everyone to come together and celebrate holidays of different religions and faiths? I mean, the Pickles family is a prime example of this. Not everyone in the family celebrated Christmas, and not everyone in the family celebrated Hanukkah. But they attempted to enjoy the festivities anyway, and really were supportive of both celebrations. Why? Because they wanted Tommy (and later Dil) to be proud of his heritage...on both sides of the family.

And you know, I think Tommy ended up lucking out in this case. Not only did he get to enjoy the best part of both holidays, but he'll probably grow up having a keen understanding of both cultures, and it would be easy to picture a grown up Tommy sharing those same values with his own Rugrats one day.

And really, isn't that what we should be like during the holiday season? More understanding and tolerance of each other and our beliefs.

That's one thing that I noticed watching the Christmas and Hanukkah specials that Rugrats did. Each holiday had their own traditions and customs, but the message was all the same. It's about spending time with loved ones, friends, family, and having fun all at the same time.

So, I say, hang up your Christmas wreaths and light up your Christmas trees. Light your menorahs and dine on latkes proudly.

Don't become a casualty of a war that only exists in the minds of people who let it fester. Celebrate your holiday spirit and let it shine! And even better, share that spirit with everyone around you. You might be surprised at how far that cheer spreads...so to all of you, Merry Christmas...


...and Happy Hanukkah...



...and to everyone else who celebrates another holiday during this special time of year, I hope you celebrate it loud and proud.  

Friday, December 16, 2011

TGIF: Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

I've always had some sort of soft spot for underdogs and misfits.

People who are expected to be a certain way, act a certain way, conform to a certain standard of living. And when they don't meet those expectations, they're deemed unworthy. A misfit.

Believe me when I tell you that I've been there. Many times.

It really bothered me when I was in school, and I couldn't seem to find anywhere where I could fit in. I certainly wasn't any good at sports, so that basically eliminated any chance I had with hanging around with the kids who were on the sports teams. I wasn't exactly the most fashion forward person at school, so I was deemed unworthy by those who were. I couldn't sing or dance, so it made it hard to form any sorts of bonds with the people who did acting and singing at school. And don't even get me started on high school, because we won't even go there.

It's hard enough being a kid who has difficulties finding their way through a crazy and confusing world. It's even worse when a kid has to do that feeling as though they don't have a place in the world to feel like they belong anywhere because everyone else seems to have judged them before they got to know them.

I guess because I've been in those shoes before, I know what it feels like to feel alone in the world. And, because I've been in those shoes before, I tend to have a lot of sympathy for these people who feel lost and alone and have trouble finding out what their purpose in life is.

And for what? Because they look differently? Because they have different interests? Because they believe certain things? Because they eat different things? Because they speak a different language?

Today's entry is a Christmas special that is filled with creatures much like the ones I described up above. Misfits. In fact, I think it's a safe bet to say that almost the entire cast of the special could easily be considered a misfit.

The beautiful part about this special is that these 'misfits' actually had a lot in common with each other. Even more beautiful? The misfits would eventually discover that they weren't really misfits after all.



Today's blog topic is the Rankin-Bass Christmas special, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Debuting on NBC on December 6, 1964 (or, 1164, if you translate the incorrect Roman Numeral date stamp) and airing on that channel until it was picked up by CBS eight years later (where it has aired ever since), Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer was based on a creation by department store Montgomery Ward. In 1939, Robert L. May, a staff copywriter for Montgomery Ward, created a booklet for the store as part of Christmas promotion that year for the chain. Initially, May had contemplated using several names for the reindeer, including Rollo and Reginald before settling on Rudolph. The idea came about as a way to save money. Prior to 1939, the retailer would buy a whole bunch of colouring books and give them out free to children, but considering that the 1930s was the period of 'The Great Depression', it soon became costly for the company to continue doing this. By creating their own book, the company saved money, and still had something unique and beautiful to give the children as free Christmas gifts, compliments of Montgomery Ward.

The promotion was a huge hit for the store, distributing over two million copies through the Montgomery Ward stores its first year. The character of Rudolph became so popular that May's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, took the story and turned it into a song. Ten years after the creation of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, the song was released to the public. Although singer Harry Brannon was the first singer to sing the song, it wasn't until Gene Autry released the song in November 1949 that the song began to find a place in Christmas carol songbooks.

So, given the background information behind the song (with background information provided by snopes.com, which also includes a rather interesting urban legend surrounding this song), it's apparent that the creation of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer was a popular one.



So, why is it that in the 1964 television special, Rudolph was treated as a misfit?

That was part of the storyline. In the special, a talking snowman named Sam (voiced by legendary singer Burl Ives) narrates the tale, which begins with Rudolph's birth. The son of one of Santa's head reindeer, Donner, Rudolph (voiced by Billie Mae Richards), is just as cute and alert as any other newly-born reindeer.



There's just one little thing that stands out on poor little Rudolph. His nose.

Rudolph's nose was something special. It was bright red in colour. Sometimes, it even glowed. As Donner would say, his beak blinked like a blinking beacon.

Now, Rudolph's mother loved her son, no matter what, and she had the attitude that they would find a way to get around it. But Donner somehow seemed a little more obsessed over it, and not in a good way. It almost seemed like he was ashamed that his own child could have some sort of deformity with a different coloured nose that would stand out amidst the sea of neon lights on the Las Vegas Strip. Donner was so ashamed by Rudolph's nose that for the first few months of his life forced him to wear a black nose cap to hide the eye...ahem...nosesore on Rudolph's face. It wasn't something that Rudolph liked wearing, but believing that it made his father happy, he begrudingly went along with it.

Some time later, Donner takes Rudolph to a take-off practice session. There's a couple of reasons why this was done. One, Donner wanted Rudolph to interact with other reindeer who were his age. Secondly, Donner wanted Rudolph to learn how to fly so that one day, Rudolph could end up pulling Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve.



And Rudolph's personality was charming enough for him to make friends with a couple of the others, despite his fake nose. One was a young buck named Fireball, the other a beautiful doe named Clarice. Clarice and Rudolph really seem to hit it off, and when Clarice tells Rudolph that she thinks he's cute, he reaches a new high.

No, seriously, he jumps higher than any other reindeer at the practice session, earning him the respect of Clarice, Fireball, and Coach Comet.

That is, until Fireball accidentally knocks off Rudolph's fake nose, revealling the scarlet-hued glow beneath.

And boy did the other reindeer laugh and call him names. It was really horrible to witness. I actually remember watching Rudolph when I was a young boy and feeling so bad for him...mainly because I've been where he was in the school playground. It became even worse when Comet declared that Rudolph was unfit to play in any reindeer games just because he had a red nose. Even Santa was upset...but not at Rudolph. No, his dagger eyes went towards the face of the clearly ashamed Donner, who was appalled that he would go to such lengths.

But Rudolph was the big loser here. He lost all his fair-weather friends, was banned from competing in the Reindeer Games, and he was more or less the victim of discrimination.

Ah, but one friend managed to stand by his side. Enter Clarice with one of the most beautiful songs in the whole show.



Wasn't that a sweet moment? And for one brief, shining moment, Rudolph didn't feel like he was such a misfit. Well, until Clarice's father comes around, yells at Clarice, and cruelly tells Rudolph that no doe of his is going to hang out with a red-nosed reindeer. Rudolph is so hurt by this that he decides to run away from Christmas Town.

Can't Rudolph just catch a break?



Somewhere else in Christmas Town though, someone else was feeling Rudolph's pain. Hermey, an elf who worked at the North Pole painting and building toys has a rather different dream in mind. While all the other elves were content to making toys, singing Christmas songs, and being jolly about doing both, Hermey just wanted to be a dentist. He wanted to fill cavities, put veneers on people, clean teeth, freshen breath, give young children toothbrushes instead of tricycles.

Unfortunately, Hermey was the only elf who didn't like to make toys. And once the word got out, the other elves made Hermey miserable by chastising him and making him feel guilty for even feeling this way. Having a tyrannical boss like the head elf didn't help Hermey either, and after a confrontation with the head elf over his dream, Hermey decides to walk off the job and find fame and fortune somewhere else, away from Christmas Town.

But then, Hermey and Rudolph happen to cross paths, and after hearing each others stories, they decide that the best thing for misfits to do is stick together.



(Here's a bit of trivia for you in regards to the above scene. This scene features the song 'We're A Couple Of Misfits', but between 1965 and 1998, this scene instead featured the song 'Fame And Fortune'. Both versions of the special have aired on various cable channels since 1998 though.)



Sometime after Hermey and Rudolph become friends, they bump into another character who could also be described as a bit of a loner. Yukon Cornelius, a prospector who has dreams of silver and gold (and who attempts to find both by throwing his pick onto the ground and licking the end that falls in the snow), and who happens to tag along with Rudolph and Hermey on their journey.

(TRIVIA: There's actually a deleted scene that has never aired on the CBS network showings of the special which explains why Yukon looked for gold and silver the way he did. Turns out that he wasn't looking for silver and gold after all...instead, he was looking for peppermint! There was a scene at the end of the original airing of the special that goes into more detail. I tried looking for this scene on YouTube, but came up empty, so I'll have to go by what this link tells me.)



Not everyone that the trio happens to meet is a friend. For there is a scary, frightening beast that lurks near Christmas Town. A gigantic, mean-looking beast. A beast known as The Abominable Snow Monster (or 'Bumble', as Yukon Cornelius calls it). The Bumble hates everything associated with Christmas, and with his gigantic molars and bicuspids, he has a healthy appetite for anything alive. Luckily with quick thinking by Yukon Cornelius, the three manage to escape the clutches of the Bumble, but soon they find themselves floating aimlessly on an island of ice in the middle of a huge body of water.

Somehow, the three end up landing on an island in the middle of nowhere. Strangely enough, the group finds that the island is the home of several toys. One toy, a 'Charlie-In-The-Box', explains that they landed on the Island of Misfit Toys, a desolate place where all the unwanted toys with various flaws are sent to live out their lives.



Might I add that this song is probably my favourite song in the whole show.



Among the group of misfit toys are a cowboy riding an ostrich, a polka-dotted elephant, a bird that swims like a fish, and a 'Dolly For Sue'.

TRIVIA: Although I was left confused over why 'Dolly For Sue' was even considered a misfit toy in the first place, Arthur Rankin Jr. later explained that Dolly's problem was a psychological problem, likely triggered by being abandoned by her previous owner.

Surprisingly enough, for being misfit toys, the group seems really tight-knit, where everyone treats each other with respect for who they are, not what flaws they had. It would have made me feel right at home, even though I wasn't a toy.  Apparently, Rudolph and Hermey had the same idea as I, and they asked Charlie-In-The-Box if they could live on the island too. Unfortunately, it wasn't up to him. It was up to the ruler of the island, a winged lion named King Moonracer, to determine whether they were suitable enough to be able to set up a home there.

Sadly, it appears that even Moonracer has standards of his own. Because Rudolph and Hermey weren't toys, they weren't allowed to live there. However, as a consolation prize, Moonracer agreed to let them stay the night. Meanwhile, Rudolph and the others try to come up with a way to find homes for all the unwanted toys on the island.

But Rudolph knows that he can't stay with the others. Having a rather prominent nose that would alert the Bumble to their location like a state-of-the-art GPS device, the last thing he wanted to do was put his friends in harm's way.  So, Rudolph decides to leave his friends behind and set out on his own.

Over the next few months, Rudolph grows a little bit older and wiser, and comes to the conclusion (and blink-if-you-miss-it life lesson for today) that he can't run away from his problems. Instead, he needed to face them head on. Though when Rudolph finally arrives home, he finds that nobody is there with hugs, balloons, or even a welcome home cake. Santa explains that his mother and Clarice have been on a search party for months looking for him since he disappeared.

Rudolph sets out to locate his family and Clarice, and searches high and low in hopes of reuniting with them. But when Rudolph discovers that his family is being held captive by the Bumble, Rudolph knows that he has the fight of his life. Sure enough, when Rudolph stands up against the Bumble, the Bumble knocks him out cold. He fortunately isn't hurt too badly, but he's unable to take on the beast by himself.

But then Yukon Cornelius and Hermey come to the rescue. While Yukon lures the beast out of the cave, Hermey knocks the Bumble out with an avalanche, and while he's in a daze, puts his dentist skills to work by removing each and every one of his teeth! Though in one final twist, Yukon Cornelius seemingly sacrifices himself and his team of dogs as he sails off a cliff with the Bumble. But, don't worry...he and the Bumble both survive. The Bumble actually becomes a nice beast in the end.



And Rudolph and Hermey arrive home to a sea of applause and joy, as all the residents of Christmas Town realize that maybe they treated both of them unfairly. Fortunately, with it being Christmas Eve, and being a day which is all about love and being with your friends and family, Rudolph and Hermey forgive and forget. Rudolph is accepted back into the reindeer games, and the head elf allows Hermey to open up a dentist practice once Christmas is over.

But with the horrible weather and heavy snowfall putting all transportation at a standstill, there might not even BE a Christmas. Santa makes the terrible decsion to cancel Christmas as there was no way that he could make his way through the thick snowfall.

And then the glow of the red light coming from Rudolph's nose made Santa a bit annoyed at first, but then made him smile with glee. What if Rudolph lead his sleigh through the snow to deliver gifts for the good girls and boys of the world?  Oh, but with the way that Christmas Town treated him, Rudolph was sure to say no. Wouldn't he?

Actually, Rudolph was honoured to guide the sleigh. On one condition...



TRIVIA: Believe it or not, the ending that we associate with Rudolph now wasn't the original ending. The original ending just showed the elves delivering presents. And the viewing public did NOT like it. They didn't like the fact that after seeing Santa promise Rudolph that he would find homes for all the misfit toys, their fate in the original airing in 1964 was STILL unresolved. A second ending was filmed for air the following year, and that ending is the one that is still played.

My thoughts? I'm glad they changed it. Because as much of a unit the misfit toys seemed to be together, this way, they had their dreams of being loved again by children accomplished. And that way, everyone in the special got their happy ending. Rudolph was accepted by everyone and got a new girlfriend. Hermey got his dentist office. Yukon found what he was looking for (even though we viewers never saw it). The Bumble found himself being an ally instead of an enemy.

In short...all the misfits ended up finding a place where they belonged...because they all believed in each other enough to make that happen.

So you see, that's a life lesson that we all can take with us. Nobody in this world is a misfit. If you give them a fair shake, and really get to know them, you may find that they're a lot like you. More than you even know.


Thursday, December 15, 2011

Thursday Night At The Arcade - Donkey Kong

Today's blog topic is about a gigantic buffoon of a character...one would even say that he's nothing more than a huge ape who has one hell of a temper, and is not above throwing things at people just to get his way.

I'll talk about that for a second, but first, I want to talk about a particular Christmas memory that is associated with this blog post.

I guess in some instance, this kind of leads to a rather interesting point about patience...and how that one particular Christmas was one where I had to go and learn the value of patience.

It was Christmas 1991, and it was already a year that started off tough. It was the first Christmas since my grandmother passed away, and it was really rough on my mom. In fact, there were presents wrapped up underneath the tree from my grandmother, as she had started her Christmas shopping just four days before she died. So, to see presents under the tree from her knowing that she was not able to see us unwrap them was a bit of a sad reminder. At the same time though, it was nice to see them, as in a way, she was there with us in spirit...and I think I wore that sweatshirt that she gave me until I outgrew it!

And Christmas 1991 was the year that I got the StarTropics video game, which I blogged about exactly two weeks ago, so that was a nice surprise.

But Christmas 1991 was also one that I remember as being incredibly frustrating as well. Partly because of my father's job.

For thirty-one years, my father worked for a major Canadian railway. He worked on repairing train tracks, fixing signal lights, clearing tracks of debris. He really worked hard, and he really came into his own during natural disasters, such as an ice storm that we experienced back in 1998.

Unfortunately, as part of my dad's job, he was expected to be on call for duty whenever he was asked. Because train safety was very important, and because the railway wanted to ensure that all the trains got to their final destination as efficiently as possible, the company made sure that response to potential problems was handled swiftly and quickly.

And as it turned out, at five in the morning on Christmas Day, 1991, my father was called into work. Turns out that one of the train tracks was blocked by some obstruction. And it wasn't a quick fix either.

So, you can imagine what happened next. Dad got called away to work on Christmas Day. And since my mom insisted on waiting until the whole family was there to open gifts, we couldn't open presents that Christmas until he came back home.

He didn't return home until almost ONE O'CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON!

That sucked. By one o'clock, everyone else must have been playing with their various toys and games for several hours. Instead we had to wait.

Surprisingly enough, I handled myself well. At least compared to my sister, who was kind of in a pouty mood over having to wait to open presents. But I think her anger was more directed at me because I woke her up early on purpose thinking that Dad would be home in an hour or so. Hey, I was 10, I had no concept of time back then.

Though, seeing the disappointment on our faces, my mom attempted to offer up a compromise. She allowed us free access to our stockings, as well as allowed us to open up one present to tide us over until Dad got back home. So, I ended up searching through the tree to find a gift that didn't resemble a clothing item (believe me, I was at the age where I could tell the difference between clothing and toys in wrapped packages), and found a small box that I thought would be perfect to unwrap.

What I found was this.



It was one of those electronic hand held games...the ones that we had before the Nintendo DS and the PSP. This one was a version of the popular video game classic Donkey Kong.

And to my surprise, that game did hold my attention for several hours. To my mom's delight, I would think, since she was probably getting annoyed with us asking when Dad was coming home.

Though, I also remember a couple of years ago when I got my Intellvision for Christmas (which you can read about here), one of the games that I played was the original Donkey Kong game, which again was enjoyable.



That's what this blog entry is about. Donkey Kong, and the many variations of the Donkey Kong video game series over the years.

And it may surprise you to know that Donkey Kong inspired one of the most popular video game series of all time.

The date was July 9, 1981. That was the date that Donkey Kong first appeared in video game format. Released by Nintendo four years before they struck pay-dirt with their home consoles, Donkey Kong was a game that could have been described as one of the first platform games ever made. Well, at least that's what MobyGames states, and I'm going to go with that as my main source of information for this blog entry.

The game featured Donkey Kong as a giant ape...and in this game, Donkey Kong was the main villain. He had kidnapped a damsel in distress who happened to be the love of the hero of our game, a jumping man named...Jumpman.

Not exactly the most original name out there, but fear not. He'll change his name, get a makeover, and become a super star in no time.



Anyway, the game mechanics of Donkey Kong are simple. You, Jumpman...you have to jump and bounce over various traps that the big galoot of an ape has placed. These traps include rolling barrels, fireballs, conveyor belts, elevators, and other scary things. Apparently, Donkey Kong doesn't like sharing his toys with others, and this includes Jumpman's girlfriend. And because of this, Donkey Kong wants to turn Jumpman into Deadman.

That isn't good.



Relax, though. Jumpman has many tools that he can use to put one over on Donkey Kong. With tools such as hammers that he can use to destroy obstacles, as well as his own jumping ability, Jumpman's quest to the top doesn't need to be as impossible as the ape thinks it is. The final level of the game takes place at the top of the massive tower where Donkey Kong is keeping Jumpman's girl prisoner. The only way to defeat him is to destroy the rivets holding up the platform that Donkey Kong is standing on. If you do, Donkey Kong will plummet to his doom, and Jumpman and his love are reunited...and it feels so good. At least until the game starts all over and you have to do it all over again.

Now here's how Donkey Kong ended up kicking off a major franchise. You may have noticed that Jumpman has somewhat of a physical resemblance to Super Mario. That's because in 1985, the character of Jumpman evolved into what would become the Super Mario character, which as you know became Nintendo's official mascot. I would assume that the lady love of Mario then was probably the inspiration behind Princess Peach. Hard to say though.

But lest you think that Mario overshadowed Donkey Kong in popularity, think again. Between 1981 and 1986, three Donkey Kong games were produced by Nintendo, one of which was a juniorization of the game known as Donkey Kong Jr.

Donkey Kong Jr. also appeared as one of the characters you could choose from in the 1992 Super Nintendo game, Super Mario Kart.

But then in 1994, Donkey Kong really took off in popularity as the series was revamped and redesigned for a newer audience.



On November 21, 1994, the video game Donkey Kong Country was released for the Super Nintendo. The game was definitely not your grandfather's Donkey Kong. Redesigned by video game company Rare, the game was designed to be more like a Super Mario game. Levels set in various backgrounds, locations, and difficulty. Some levels took place in a jungle. Others in a mine cart speeding down a track. Some were underwater. Some were even in a winter wonderland, such as this example below.



The main difference was that the artwork and graphics in the game were incredible. Definitely one of the best looking video games in all of the 1990s, and one of the first to use pre-rendered 3D graphics. The game was promoted in a rather revolutionary manner. Anyone who had a subscription to Nintendo Power magazine during 1994 received a video cassette previewing Donkey Kong Country, which showcased levels, as well as provided tips for reaching bonus worlds. The video was only fifteen minutes in length, but it was enough to create a largely positive buzz for the game. When the game was released, it sold very well, eventually selling eight million copies worldwide.

And the game was fun to play as well. You could play as either Donkey Kong, or Donkey Kong's newly created nephew Diddy Kong (who might I add was no relation to Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, or whatever name Sean Combs goes by these days). The main plot? Donkey Kong's cache of bananas have been stolen by a group of bad guys called the Kremlings (who kind of resemble a breed that's half human/half crocodile. Luckily, Donkey and Diddy can follow the trail of bananas through each level to make their way to the head Kremling in charge...one King K. Rool, who roams the game on his pirate ship, the Gangplank Galleon.

Even more fortunate is that Donkey and Diddy have loads of friends to help them. Some of them come from the Kong family. Funky Kong can fly Donkey and Diddy to any world they desire. Cranky Kong may be cantankerous and stodgy, but has some valuable tips for making it through the game in one piece. And, the surprisingly seductive Candy Kong can help you save your game.



There's also animal buddies that can help you out as well. Enguarde the Swordfish, Expresso the Ostrich, Rambi the Rhino, Squawks the Parrot, and Winky the Frog are available for you to ride provided you can break open the right barrel to release them.

The game was so successful that two more sequels were released in 1995 and 1996 respectively, and a game was also released for the Nintendo 64. They too were enjoyable to play, and introduced a slew of new characters and animals (though they replaced Candy Kong with the more grandmotherly Wrinkly Kong, which wasn't a change I could get into).



And just recently, a version was released for the Nintendo Wii called Donkey Kong Returns. It's a game that I haven't played yet, as I don't own a Nintendo Wii, but I'm sure it's just as good as the ones that came before it.



Not bad success for a guy who initially started off as a villain.

And, you know, I guess I have to thank Donkey Kong for helping me understand the virtue known as patience. Eventually, Dad did come home, and we all got to unwrap our presents from Santa and everyone else...and I keep thinking to myself that Donkey Kong game made the waiting so much easier to deal with.

Of course, there's the whole issue of me needing something to keep me distracted to avoid boredom, but that's another issue for another day.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Across The Pond and Beyond - Boney M.

Sometimes your first experience with a band doesn't exactly start on a pleasant note.

Some of these experiences can include the following.

Supposing that your first experience with a band is at some sort of rock festival or concert and the band that is set to perform is a no-show. Or worse, they show up, perform a sub-par set, get into a fight with the crowd on stage, and end up cutting their set short about half an hour after they began. That wouldn't be such a great first impression, would it? I'm sure we've all seen some instances of this in our lives at some point.

Or maybe your first experience with a band came on the radio. Suppose you hear a song for the first time that initially you loved, and wanted to hear over and over again. And then by the time month number four on the charts rolls around, you'd do anything to escape the song because you've heard it way too much. Even worse, that song becomes a one-hit-wonder, so until the end of time, that group will become synonymous with that song that you never want to hear again. I imagine that would paint a rather dismal picture of that band for you.

Or suppose you've been interested in following a band or an artist by watching an interview on a talk show that they were guests on, and when you tune in, you find that the band members are so full of themselves and are quite rude in answering the interviewers questions that it totally turns you off to them forever. That was my experience with a certain female singer a few years back.  Who that singer is...I'll never tell. At least on this blog publicly.

And then there's my first experience with a group that I will be talking about in this blog today. There is a pleasant twist to this whole tale that before I'm finished with this entry will hopefully make you rethink your first impressions of the group the same way that I had.

Before I continue this story, keep in mind two things. One, I completely missed the whole disco phase in music that lasted between 1975 and 1980. I wasn't born until 1981, a year in which the heartbeat of disco had since flatlined. And two, although our subject had made their debut in the mid-70s, their material wasn't played a whole lot here in Canada, so that will explain why my first experience with this band happened a little over two decades since their first hit.

Our story begins in the year 2000. At that time, I was in my final year of high school, and one of the second semester classes I took was a course on world history. One of the main reasons why I took that class was mostly for the same reasons why I took almost every single history course my school had to offer. I was very good in those classes. I would often get high grades in those classes as opposed to math and science, in which I nearly failed.

I deal better with language than I do with numbers, which is probably why I'm blogging instead of developing computer programs.

Anyway, one of the units in my World History class was on Russian history. It was neat to learn about all the figures that were a part of that history, and I admit, I learned quite a bit.

One of the figures that we learned about was the Russian Orthodox Monk, Grigori Rasputin. And Rasputin's legacy on the world is very much hotly debated, with some feeling that he was a saintly visionary, and others feeling that he was nothing more than a controversial religious charlatan. But this blog entry isn't about THIS Rasputin, just because I think I would probably bore all of you to tears by making this a historical biography piece.

Here's where things got interesting. When we got into discussion about the figure of Rasputin, our teacher casually remarked that the Russian figure was the subject of a song that was released in the late 1970s. Naturally, most of us were in disbelief, as all of us who were in the room (with exception to our teacher) had missed the 1970s entirely, and didn't think it possible.

That is until the next day when our teacher (or maybe it was a student who had brought it in...my memory is a bit fuzzy in that regard) brought in a copy of the song in question, and played it on the tape player that we had in our classroom.



The name of the group singing 'Rasputin'? A group known as Boney M.



And boy oh boy did the kids in my class laugh at the song. I mean, forget the fact that it was a disco sensation that all of us had missed...the fact that a pop group chose to record a hit based on a historical figure that may or may not have been loved by the people? Talk about cheese!

Even I admit to laughing along with the rest of the kids in my class as the song played. It was by far one of the most bizarre songs that I had heard. Of course the reason behind why our teacher played it in the first place was because if you really did listen to the song's lyrics, it did seem to jive with some of the stories associated with Rasputin during his life and times. It included references to his alleged healing of a hemophiliac, alleged that he was the paramour of Alexandra Fyodorovna, and how the song suggests that Rasputin's political power overshadowed the Tsar's. I've included a copy of the lyrics to the song in THIS LINK so you can check it out and compare it for yourselves.

So, there you have it. My first experience with Boney M. And the impression that they left me with at first was that they were a goofy disco band, and that they recorded some rather cheesy and cringe-worthy songs.

The end.

Or, is it?

Turns out that there's a lot more to the band than that.



The band started off as the brainstorm idea of German record producer Frank Farian. During December of 1974, he had dabbled as a singer-songwriter, and recorded a song entitled 'Baby Do You Wanna Bump?'

Not exactly the best title for a song, but it was 70s dance music, so it sort of fit.

Problem was that at the time, Farian didn't exactly have the right look to become a recording artist. Instead what he did was launch a search to form a quartet named Boney M. (the name was actually a pseudonym that Farian himself had used), and this quartet would perform in his place. So, basically what you have is a band lip-synching to someone else's voice.

I guess this is also a good time to admit that Frank Farian later worked with groups such as Black Box and Milli Vanilli...both groups having had lip-synching scandals themselves (especially with Milli Vanilli in particular).



After several instances of instability in regards to finding the perfect faces that would form the group Boney M, the group's final roster included Jamaicans Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett, Bobby Farrell from Aruba, and Maizie Williams from Montserrat.

But it's been widely reported that of these four, only Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett actually sang on the recordings. The others just lip-synched to Farian's pre-recordings. Though in this interview that Mitchell did with the BBC, she claimed that while she, Barrett, and Farian were responsible for the vast majority of the recorded vocals, Bobby Farrell and Maizie Williams had sang live in concert performances in the band's later reincarnations.



Boney M. managed to get their first big break in September 1976 when they appeared on the German television show Musikladen (think a German version of American Bandstand), and debuted their single 'Daddy Cool'...a single which immediately topped the German music charts. The song would also top the charts in Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, and Norway. It also managed to hit the top 10 in the UK, which is where most of the band's success would come from. Between 1976 and 1981, Boney M. had several top 40 hits in Europe, and despite the fact that it was public knowledge that only half the band sang on the recordings, still managed to have a huge following. But then when Farrell left the band in 1981 and was replaced by Reggie Tsiboe, their commercial success took a huge hit. By early 1986, Farian had lost interest in promoting the Boney M brand (evidenced by the fact that he would start grooming his new pet project Milli Vanilli just two years later).

The original line-up would reunite in late 1988 to record one final album together before tensions between band members would lead to another break-up.

Over the next few years, the individual members continued to perform as solo artists (which strangely enough, all four members used the Boney M. name, as a court ruling in 1990 stated that all four members had the right to use it).

Today, the three surviving members of Boney M. are still performing today. Barrett, Mitchell, and Williams are alive and well, and still sing under the Boney M. name. Sadly, Bobby Farrell passed away at the age of 61 on December 30, 2010.

So, now that you know what the band is all about (and coincidentally, you can also visit the band's official website at http://www.musiclange.dk/ for more information (which is where the bulk of the research for this blog topic came from), now we'll get to my change of opinion.

Initially, I thought that the band was nothing more than disco fluff and largely forgettable, and I didn't think that they were capable of releasing a decent song, especially given the fact that their founder was involved in the Milli Vanilli scandal of 1990.

But then I changed my mind.

It was during the Christmas season, and while I make a habit of making fun of Christmas songs, and openly being a fan of bastardizing the lyrics of said songs, there's a few songs that I really enjoy.

One of these songs was a song called Mary Boy Child. I'm far from being a religious man, but something about that song really seems to make me get into the Christmas spirit. As you may know, the original version of the song was recorded in the mid-1950s by calypso singer Harry Belafonte. But there was another version recorded by a group that had a mild disco beat and was predominately sung by women. I knew that I had liked it, but for whatever reason didn't know who had sang it.

Until a couple of years ago when I looked it up online after hearing it during Christmas 2009 at work. Imagine my surprise when I found out who sang it!



ARTIST: Boney M.
SONG: Mary Boy Child/Oh My Lord
ALBUM: Christmas Album
DATE RELEASED: November 27, 1978
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #85

I know. Shocker, wasn't it?



Had I known that Boney M. was responsible for this cover version, maybe I wouldn't have been so hard on them for Rasputin.

I suppose if anyone had said to you that they were going to record a disco version of a Christmas carol, they might have looked at you funny. And I would have been one of those people. There was no way that disco and Christmas could blend together in perfect harmony.

That is until Boney M proved me wrong.

I mean, yeah, the video's kind of corny to look at, but that was hardly the band's fault. It was 1978. All performers had a distinct look to them back then. But if you get the images of the video out of your mind, it really was a great renditions of what is now a Christmas classic. And while it didn't even hit the Top 40 here in North America, it's widely considered to be one of Boney M's most famous recordings.

And yeah, I'm not afraid or ashamed to admit that I love it.



I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that as important as first impressions can be to someone, sometimes the follow-up can be just as important...and had I continued to dismiss Boney M. as some novelty band that didn't even sing their own stuff, I may not have come across Mary Boy Child, which is what I would consider to be one of their best songs.

But my opinion of that female singer who I mentioned above in the opening of the blog still stands. I may reveal to you who she is...for a price. ;)