I believe it's time for school holidays again. Do children ever actually go to school these days? It seems that they're always on holiday, and I know this because the films showing at the cinema cater entirely for them on their weeks and months off from the strenuous business of colouring in and sitting nicely on the mat.
As I haven't got children, I don't really watch children's films. The ones that I do see are either too mawkishly sentimental and obvious, or, even worse, they try to hard to also amuse the grown-ups with winks and nudges that go entirely over the young person's head. I think this is a bit patronising - adults have films of their own to enjoy, so in a children's film you would think they could at least focus entirely on their target audience. Having said that, Hugo was one of my favorite films of 2011, so feel free to ignore my not-so-well-structured argument.
Hugo
And Him Outdoors refuses to watch animation. He claims that nothing can beat Tom and Jerry so they might as well not try. I have seen Up, The Simpsons, South Park, and films from the Shrek,Toy Story and Wallace and Gromit franchises. Usually I watch these on the plane or with other friends when Him Outdoors is busy doing other more important things, or running up hills.
Naturally when I was a child I watched children's films and I wasn't so cynical that I had grown to sneer at Disney. Indeed, I liked Walt Disney films, especially the ones about animals. I wasn't particularly fussed about the princesses waiting for their princes to rescue them from wicked stepmothers or dwarves. It's not really any surprise that all my favourites are from more than forty years ago - when I was the right age to be the target audience.
And today's quick quintet is a request from Bad Fairy who suggested cartoon characters. This set off a huge train of thought - do cartoons include children's TV like Captain Pugwash, Camberwick Green, The Clangers, Roobarb and Custard, Henry's Cat and the sublimely ridiculous Ludwig? For the purposes of this post, I have decided that they don't.
I've never really liked the saccharine Disney characters - Mickey Mouse has a very annoying voice; Minnie is pathetic; Pluto is yellow (!), Donald Duck and his nephews spray spittle everywhere; and Goofy gives me the creeps. Although I like the Disney treatment of The Jungle Book, The Sword in the Stone, and Robin Hood, I can never forgive them for what they did to Winnie the Pooh.
Apparently the most popular and enduring cartoon character is Bugs Bunny, and I do like his calm self-assurance and carrot-chewing capers, but he's not my favourite. Similarly I like other Hanna-Barbera productions such as Yogi Bear and Scooby Doo (the originals - I can't stand the spin-offs with Scooby-Dum and Scrappy-Doo) but they're not my favourites either.
For some reason I have a soft spot for Mr Magoo - I think because he was so inept we reckoned his wife must have helped him through life by finding everything for him so if anyone asks an impossible question in our family (such as 'Where are my car keys?') the answer is invariably, 'How should I know? I'm not Mrs Magoo'. Yes, we're a slightly odd family.
And then there are the 'adult' cartoon with characters such as Stan, Kyle, Eric and Kenny from South Park, or Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa from The Simpsons, plus all their associates - I went through a spell of loving their dysfunctional adventures. But, once again, my favourites have to be for reasons of nostalgia.
5 Favourite Cartoon Characters:
Tom - not Jerry. I hated Jerry and always wanted Tom to smash him with the mallet
Wile E. Coyote - Similarly I wanted him to catch that beeping annoying Road Runner
Top Cat - the coolest cat in town
Hong Kong Phooey - the mild mannered police station janitor? Could be!
Dangermouse - he's the greatest, he's fantastic, wherever there is danger he'll be there...
