Happy Decemberween! ...finally!

After waiting half a year, Homestar Runner's website has finally updated! For reals this time and not just for the online store. If you've been following the site as I have, you'll notice there's a new 'toon up, just in time for Decemberween (Free Country USA's version of Christmas)! On top of that Telltale Games released "Poker Night at the Inventory" earlier last month which, as you know, features Strong Bad as one of the card sharks you'll be playing against. (I mentioned the game on my Labor Day post here.)

While on the subject of Holiday cheer, check out the December Fan Favorite 'toon on FredtheMonkey.com: "Santa Sceb is Coming to Town"! I'm not the only one who voted for this 'toon and it still shines as bright as a star on top of a Christmas tree. (You'll see my name, Marci Cameron, and comment on the page. Bonus props to JKR for including that.) In this 'toon, Sceb (short for Space Chicken's Evil Brother) attempts to cage St. Nick himself so that he can give Sceb what he wants: A red and black DS lite, a new PC, world domination (of course), and a "My Little Pony" playset, which seems too sugary sweet for Sceb and he tries to hide that by claiming that Pip (the sickly blue space chicken) wanted that. Will Sceb succeed in his plan to capture the jolly old elf? See for yourself and find out.

I've been busy with Halloween and Thanksgiving to post up to now, I have a real life, too, you know. I'll also be plenty busy with Christmas coming up, so, there may not be many posts on this blog after this one, just to give you a heads up. So, in case I don't post any more this year, I wish all of you who read this blog (if anyone is reading this): Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

7 Years of the Monkey

If you haven't caught the reference in this post's title, then, you haven't been to FredtheMonkey.com. It's been seven years since this fun little website launched and now, the entire site just got a facelift. It's not that this hasn't happened before as seen in the "3, 2, 1... RELAUNCH!" parts 1, 2, and 4 (note that part 3 is missing) in addition to this brief 'toon before part 4, "Closed for Repairs", but this recent upgrade has got me excited. How about you? In fact, I just updated my previous post on the site so that future readers don't go to dead links. I even saw the 'toon to mark the seventh anniversary of the site and both Fred and S.C. have never looked better! But don't take my word for it, go see the site for yourself!

The Golden Stone Age Family

Thank you, Google, for reminding me of an important cartoon occasion: The 50th anniversary of the Flintstones TV show!

The Flintstones and their neighbors, the Rubbles, brought their modern Stone Age lives onto our TV screens on this day in 1960. The late William Hanna said that "The Honeymooners" was the concept for TV's first ever prime time animated series. And cartoon voice legends Alan Reed and Mel Blanc (most famous as the voice of most of the male Looney Tunes like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig) voiced Fred and Barney, respectfully. And here's an article from Cartoon Brew, marking the occasion. 50 years and looking fabulous! Now, that's a modern Stone Age turned Golden Age!

You're Invited... Again

Last year, Tokyo DisneySea held their first ever Halloween theme, a Masquerade party, if you will. (I even remarked on the event as seen here.) And guess what? They're doing it again! Yay! Though I can't be there myself (since my mom and/or I couldn't afford to go to Japan which was the case last year, too), I'm so glad TDS decided to bring back this fun Halloween theme. This year, they added a Mexican Fiesta hosted by Chip, Dale, and Clarice, the chipmunk singer who caught Chip and Dale's eye in the classic cartoon "Two Chips and a Miss".

The "MOUSEquerade" is back and Daisy joins the fun this year. (Last year, it was just Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Chip, and Dale.) And another thing you'll notice is that the main gang are wearing masks throughout the entire dance. Other than that, it's pretty much the same as last year.

...so is the "Mysterious Masquerade" stage show at the Tower of Terror. Most of the show is left unchanged, but at the happy ending, the whole gang has masks on instead of just Mickey. I once explained my vision of the show should it be brought to the U.S., however, there's another version reeling in my head. It goes like this: Most of the cast is the same, but I've also included Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow, and the aforementioned Clarice. Like in my original vision, Goofy doesn't turn into an evil pirate and Minnie doesn't become a possessed Egyptian queen. Instead, Horace is the pirate and Clarabelle is the Egyptian queen. This leaves Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy left to save the day by getting eveyone to dance with them, even the unsure Clarice. Vidia, the fast-flying fairy rival of Tinker Bell, would teach the audience the dance. Another variation has Goofy's son, Max, in Clarice's place. What do you think of my recent idea?

You can see vids of both shows (from both this year and last year) on YouTube by searching "MOUSEquerade" and/or "Mysterious Masquerade". Hope they do all this again next year, too, 'cause it might still be a while for the U.S. Disney Parks to get this Halloween theme.

UPDATE 10/28/10: The Disney Parks Blog just posted a look at not only Tokyo DisneySea's Halloween celebration, but also Tokyo Disneyland's Halloween theme this year. Check it out here and let them know how much we want this in the American Disney Parks.

Todaybor Day is a Labor Day!

...and Strong Bad won't be checking emails on this day (as seen in sbemail #83). Homestar leads his "Homestarmy" makes sure nobody or their brother does any work at all today (as he reminds The Cheat, seen here). While the main site itself is still non-updated, you can still peruse the site for past cartoons to watch again (unless you're watching some of them for the first time). Doesn't mean Strong Bad's not active though: Earlier this month, Telltale Games annouced "Poker Night at the Inventory" which has Strong Bad playing, obviously, poker with Tycho from the "Penny Arcade" webcomic, Max (the rabbit) from "Sam & Max: Freelance Pollice", and the Heavy from the video game "Team Fortress 2". Telltale has worked with Strong Bad before to create the ever popular, super fun "Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People" (or, if you wanna get in on the ground floor of abbriviations, SBCG4AP), but hey, I'm just psyched Strong Bad's still around. How about you? Are you excited about this game as I am? Hopefully, this will be a sign that the Homestar Runner website will be updated soon. Please, oh, please, oh, please!

Still Cool for Five Years

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the Cool Tapes, a band formed by Marzipan, Strong Mad, and The Cheat. In honor of the occasion, I posted a new fanfic on Fanfiction.net. Check it out here. So, let's all raise our bags of four grapes (if you have any, I sure don't) and toast the Cool Tapes' five years of non-breaking up! See the 'toon where the Cool Tapes got their start here.

A Monkey Helps Me Cope

While waiting for updates to the Homestar Runner website, I figured I might as well watch the cartoons on another website: FredtheMonkey.com. Created by JKR (yeah, that's his name), this site has fun cartoons featuring Fred the Monkey (of course), Space Chicken (mostly known as S.C.), and Sceb (short for Space Chicken's Evil Brother), among others. I even watch the mailbags which has Sceb answering E-Mails from viewers (usually against his will). It resembles sbemails (Strong Bad Emails), but unlike Strong Bad, Sceb talks directly to the viewers instead of typing a response. And some of the cartoons feature music videos by and starring JKR revolving around video games. The most recent one is about E3 2010. But this site also has comics. Those are funny, too. Although the cartoons aren't updated on that site either, JKR does have a blog there that is updated as a way of letting us know he's still around. So, give FredtheMonkey.com a look-see for yourself. At least until Homestar Runner's website is updated. ...eventually.

Belated Birthday Greetings

Man! Have I been neglecting toons' birthdays or what? It's not that I forgot their b-days, it's just that I never bothered to post them on the blog here. So, to make up for it, I'm listing all the birthdays I missed these past couple of months.

June 9, 2010: Donald Duck turns 76 this day. Not as big as his 75th last year, but Disney didn't make that big a deal about it then either. Sorry I took so long to mention it, Donald, but please, don't be too angry with me about it. ...again. (See my posts on his 74th and 75th.)

June 23, 2010: Sonic the Hedgehog keeps running in his 19th year in existence. I neglected his birthday last year, but this year, I'm really a heal with Sega of America's contest in honor of Sonic's 19th b-day which offered a trip to Sega of Japan as the grand prize. Needless to say that Needlemouse: the Musical (courtesy of FierceDeityYS) won for the U.S. while Blue Sky Dreams (courtesy of Purplespikeyjoe) got the grand prize on the U.K. side of the world. I wouldv'e entered, but didn't because 1. I don't have a YouTube account and 2. even if I did, I missed the deadline to enter. I did like Needlemouse: the Musical though. I even downloaded the mp3 provided in the vid's description. Congrats, guys! You deserve it. (See my post on Sonic's 17th birthday here.)

July 27, 2010: Bugs Bunny reaches the big 7-0 on this day. However, I spent the day celebrating my mom's birthday since she shares the day with Bugs although she was born years later. That, and it's kinda hard to celebrate the wabbit's milestone knowing that soon, Cartoon Network would be showing this. (Courtesy of Cartoon Brew.) Man! That pic is hard to digest. And don't get me started on that promo vid. (Another link from Cartoon Brew.) Yikes! Hearing Daffy's voice makes me upset that Joe Alaskey isn't doing the voice for this series. And seeing what the characters look like in motion... Forget it! I prefer my Looney Tunes looking classic like they did in the late 90's-early 2000's, thank you very much. (See my posts on Bugs' 68th birthday and belated 69th.)

That's pretty much all the birthdays I forgot to post. Mostly because I'm lazy. Sorry 'bout that. Hope I can be able to overcome my laziness and post the birthdays for next year as they come up.

Sweet Soundsation

The Disney Parks Blog just announced that a new parade is coming to Disneyland USA next year. It's called "Mickey's Soundsational Parade"!

I've seen the concept art they posted (displayed above) and I couldn't be more excited. Floats based on "The Little Mermaid", "Aladdin", "The Princess and the Frog", and the upcoming "Tangled" featuring Rapunzel? You know I can hardly wait. 2011 can't come soon enough! More info here.

UPDATE 2/26/11: The Disney Parks Blog gave an opening date for "Mickey's Soundsational Parade" - May 27th! Proof is here along with the opening dates for Ariel's Undersea Adventure at DCA and Star Tours at Disneyland U.S.A. Mark your calendars because it won't be long before the streets of Main Street U.S.A. start sounding like music to your ears... and eyes!

Homestar Runs Low on Updates

Everyone loves the Homestar Runner. He is a terrific athlete. But since April 12th of this year, he's not good keeping his website up to date. The last update the site has seen was of a new main page based on Xeriouxly Forxe, an April Fools toon that appeared earlier in the month. And I'm getting worried. June is almost over and there's still no new updates. I need my fix of Homestar, Strong Bad, The Cheat, and the rest. I'd wouldn't even mind seeing Homsar at this point. Anything to let me know the cast is not dead. I so hope The Cheat (and everybody else) are not dead. (Bonus points if you've guessed the references I put in this post.)

UPDATE 7/7/10: According to this post on the forum of the Homestar Runner Wikipedia, one of the moderators contacted the creators of the Homestar Runner website (Matt and Mike Chapman) and the brothers said Homestar isn't ending, not even without adding Level 10 to the Stinkoman game. That's good news at least. Now, all we have to do is wait until they update. ...however long that may be. While waiting for that to happen, members at the Homestar Wiki forum are planning a fan flash explaining the hiatis. Even if you're not a member of the forum, you're welcome to sign up for this collaboration at Google groups. Just go here to either join in or see the progress.

A Goof of My Own

Man! End of the month already and I forgot to post about Goofy's birthday almost a week ago. Sorry, Goofy, I guess I was too busy surfin' the web to post the occasion, but that doesn't mean I didn't forget your birthday entirely. Since I'm low on material, here's a link to my previous post on the Goof's 76th b-day. Again, I apologize for not posting his big day this year. Happy Belated Birthday, Goofy!

Mickey Speaks! (at Disneyland)

There are a couple of videos posted on YouTube that I found simply amazing. Both courtesy of lrharrisjr, they feature Mickey Mouse at a meet and greet at his house in Disneyland USA, but get this: Mickey is actually talking! Yes, you read right, Mickey actually talks! I haven't been to Disneyland recently, but I've seen the vids and I'm still in awe! The first video has Mickey welcoming everyone and inviting them to have their picture taken with him as seen here. In the second video, Mickey talks to a little girl and her aunt and calls them by name here. That's right, he says their names. Proof positive that the audio of Mickey talking wasn't prerecorded. Can you say "wow"? According to lrharrisjr (who, as I mentioned, posted these videos), this is a test run by Disney, but I wouldn't mind if they made this feature permament, not just in Disneyland, but in Walt Disney World, too. And who knows? Maybe, just maybe, they'll do the same for Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and maybe even Goofy. (Please, please, please, Disney, do Goofy next!) Let's hope Disney can make this happen.

UPDATE 5/7/10: The Disney Parks Blog posted their own video of talking Mickey here.

Disney Goes Steampunk

I never imagined this could happen. And you know what? I love it! The Disney Parks Blog has announced the arrival of the new pin set called "The Mechanical Kingdom", slated to be released this April. The pin set features Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, Pete, and Professor Ludwig von Drake in steampunk outfits.(Above pic from the Disney Parks Blog.)

So, what is steampunk, you ask? Well, basically, it's a fictional universe where modern technology exists in the Victorian era, a.k.a., the 19th century. I'm not into steampunk myself, but it does look good on Mickey and the gang, especially Goofy. I wish this pin set came out while I was in Walt Disney World a few weeks ago, I'm not planning a return visit so soon just for the release of these pins. But don't let me stop you, you can get the pins yourself, although only Mickey and Pete are included in the pin set only while Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, and Ludwig von Drake can be purchased separately. Better hurry though, they're limited edition, which means that they won't be sold at the parks for long.