Entries by e_xander

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Krampus Part 1: Christmas Monsters, Shadow of St. Nicholas, Orgins of Krampus and Rise on the Internet

“It’s Christmas. Nothing Bad is going to happen on Christmas!” Happy Halloween!! Before we go into the movie, learn of Krampus’ origin in Alpine Pagan Winter Traditions, how Christmas Cards gave him expansion, how the Austrian political climate may have stoped any further attention and how the Internet may have brought him to the public […]

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Who is Grandfather Frost? Let’s Explore Russian Santa Claus!

In this episode we kick off the Christmas season (the -ber months) first with a new feature! I’m giving a Christmas movie recommendation, a TV episode/special recommendation and a Christmas book recommendation at the start of each episode, please commend and email us with how you think the recommendation went! Next, we take a look […]

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Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Part 2: Beginning of Rankin Bass, Expanding the Song, Japanese Puppeteering, and TV Airing

“Rudolph, with your nose so bright, will you guide my sleigh tonight?” We get to the point where Arthur Rankin Jr. and songwriter Johnny Marks meet to discuss turning the classic song into an animated TV special. Time to learn how General Electric paid for the entire budget, which meant the elves were now selling […]

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Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Part 1: Stop Motion Animation, From a Department Store to the North Pole, Nazi-Hunting Songwriter and a Singing Cowboy

“Whats the matter with misfits, thats where we fit in!” Time to dive into the stop motion world of Rankin/Bass! Before we get into the special itself, it’s important to go into the history of the story and song…which explains why we never see Rudolph in Santa’s gang even though he’s famous Learn how the […]

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The Ref Part 2: Jerry Bruckhiemer, From an A$$H0!E to Actor, Alternate Ending and Almost Cult Status

“Hey! The only one who yells is me!” Film Producer Jerry Bruckhiemer was about to come on because of…NASCAR. Denis Leary wanted to go from a risqué standup comic to actor and MTV commercial director Ted Demme was ready to break into movies Learn how all these people got together, how the film’s ending would […]

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Mickey’s Christmas Carol Part 2: Team of Animators, Getting Donald Back, Beating the Smurfs and TV Airings

“One hundred gold pieces, and not a penny more!” Burny not only gathered his best crew, he assigned people to whichever character they wanted. So why did Disney not want them to hire back the original voice of Donald Duck? Learn about how characters from Pinocchio and Sword in the Stone were replaced, how they […]

Mickey’s Christmas Carol Part 1: Decline of Animation, Burny Mattinson’s Rise and the Return of Mickey

“If I give money to the poor, then they won’t be poor anymore” At a point when Disney was putting out fewer animated projects, a young animator Burny Mattinson pitched a retelling of a Christmas Carol with Mickey and the gang. It was the first new Mickey cartoon in over 30 years. Learn about why […]