For my Instagram account this year, I put together this little Countdown to Christmas with Grogu reaching for things. There's not really anything "Christmasey" about it at all, but it was a lot of fun to do. I suppose you can say it's Grogu opening an advent calendar filled with the most random stuff imaginable.
Yeah... Let's go with that.
Merry Christmas!
A candy cane | Fried okra | A VHS copy of Fievel Goes West
An old Nokia cell phone | A rubber chicken | An extended car warranty
An autographed headshot of Tom Bergeron | Camelot (only a model) | Chattermax
A dirty old boot | That grain of sand from The NeverEnding Story | B.B. King's Lucille
A pair of Air Force Ones | Harry Potter's birthday cake | A roll of duct tape
Green eggs & ham | A jazz cup | Sheet music for "The Final Countdown"
Patrick Begorra | Aldebaran whiskey | That carrot toy from Disney's Bolt
The Maltese Falcon | A black & white cookie | That Miss Piggy doll that McDonald's sold in the '80s
It's now been more than ten years since I suggested a reboot of Teddy Ruxpin and started on this little on-again/off-again fan art indulgence of mine. In my first post, I mentioned how I never owned the famous Teddy Ruxpin doll on which the whole franchise was based, but I did own the action figures... and played with them a lot! I, therefore, thought it'd be fun to conceptualize what the new action figures would look like if my reboot were actually a thing.
While I loved playing with the figures, they were severely lacking in terms of accessories, and since this whole thing is about creating the Teddy Ruxpin that I, personally, would want to see, I figured the toys should follow suit.
In other words... a Grundo-load of accessories!
This is just the first wave... which would be sold separately, of course, from Teddy and his friends' airship, The Patchwork.
On this day in 1978, the Star Wars Holiday Special aired. I, therefore, thought it appropriate to put my own artistic spin on Ackmena, the bartender from the infamous television special, who was played by the great Bea Arthur and (on a personal note) my wife bounded as when when we visited Oga's Cantina earlier this year.
I actually really like the Star Wars Holiday Special. Not because it's good, (it's definitely NOT GOOD) but because it helps me keep a little perspective. The original Star Wars was a surprise hit. No movie had ever been that big of a success and after it was over, everyone was clamoring to get more of it in any way they could. Thus the Holiday Special was born! The whole thing centered on an idea of George Lucas' to tell an entire story just about Wookiees and... it wasn't good. Not even a little bit. Two years later, however, we got The Empire Strikes Back which, in my opinion, is the greatest Star Wars film ever made!
You see, sometimes... a LOT of times, Star Wars is bad. It's been this way since the very beginning. For every A New Hope, we may get a Holiday Special. For every "Mortis Trilogy" we'll get... The One Where Jar Jar Has a Girlfriend? Sometimes Andor. Sometimes Lizzo. This is just the ebb and flow that is Star Wars. If there's one central theme to the entire franchise it's that no matter how bad things get, there's always hope, and the Holiday Special reminds me of that.
People didn't really have anything good to say about it back when it aired, but I doubt they lost their minds in a fit of rage and exclaimed, "Star Wars is dead!" They probably didn't worry about it and just tried to have fun. And to quote me some Dickens, "may that be truly said of us, and all of us!"
One thing I love coming back to, and will probably continue to come back to until someone else does it in a more official capacity, is conceptualizing a reboot of Teddy Ruxpin! You can scroll down here and see how long I've been goofing around with this thing, and I decided it was time to goof around some more. So here again is another pass at the main lineup from my Teddy Ruxpin reboot!
Maybe someone will actually do this someday and I'll lose all interest, but for now, I'm wide-eyed and full of hope.
I don't think there's a more iconic Star Wars character than R2-D2. Oh sure, there's plenty of characters who are just as iconic, but none more so! Sometimes I think we fail to appreciate the incredible feat of turning this faceless trashcan who communicates through beeps and whistles into such a beloved character. It's mind-boggling to me and a testament to many people, I'm sure, namely sound designer Ben Burtt, the late Kenny Baker obviously, and of course... George Lucas.
One thing that disappoints me is just how underused Artoo is in the sequel trilogy. It feels as if the filmmakers just didn't really know what to do with him. There'll be like one scene per movie where they plug him into a thing and then that's it! Take a bow, buddy. You're done. I don't get it.
I love BB-8 as much as the next guy, but I don't see why it has to be an either/or situation. They had an opportunity to turn one of the greatest sidekick duo's in movie history into a trio! It could've been great!
I'm ranting now... about droids. Don't get me started on D-0.
Here's Donald and Mickey sporting their fun costumes from the new Halloween special on Disney+. I've never really been a fan of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse versions of the characters, but I do love stop-motion animation, so I watched this new special and... while I'm still not a fan of these versions of the characters, I am still a fan of stop-motion animation!
Recently Disney did what they call a "play test" with some new droid characters walking around Disneyland's Galaxy's Edge. I love this sort of thing and hope we'll see more of these little guys in a more official capacity.
To me, they're basically the Huey, Dewey & Louie (or maybe even the Flora, Fauna, & Merryweather) of the Star Wars universe and although they were only in the park for one day, I still think they deserve some fan art.
Disney's Galactic Starcruiser sets off on its final voyage soon and, while I was never a passenger, the ship will always hold a special place in my heart. Here's a video where I talk about what the Halcyon, and specifically its crew, meant to me.
My oldest has really been getting into Harry Potter lately. It's a fun thing to watch happen and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't becoming a little re-obsessed myself.
My favorite part of the whole series has to be the rich and colorful characters that fill out the background.
I’ve been noticing a small resurgence of ALF in pop culture lately and I said to myself, “Self, you need to KablamaSlam this noise!”
The Premise: Everyone’s favorite sitcom alien puppet Gordon Shumway recounts his past adventures with family and friends on his home planet of Melmac.
It’s the ‘80s, and a guy named Paul Fusco annoys people at a party with his alien puppet that he apparently brought. Yeah. He’s that guy. Fusco pitches a concept for a sitcom based on the puppet to NBC president Brandon Tartikoff and it’s green-lit! Tartikoff is Mr. Must See TV and oversaw such hits as Golden Girls, Cheers, Seinfeld… so the guy apparently knew what he was doing. I mean, he obviously did because ALF was a hit and, like I said, we’re still talking about it to this day!
As with several things in the 1980s, ALF was quickly adapted into a Saturday morning cartoon show. Every episode of ALF: The Animated Series would have live-action puppet ALF (or Gordon) bookending each adventure. This meant less time spent animating and thus cheaper production. When I say “cheap” though, I certainly don’t mean in terms of quality! I personally thought the animation was incredible!
Again… this was the ‘80s, and just as animated spinoffs were commonplace, toy lines based on cartoons were even more so. Boy, did I love me some ALF toys! This is sort of a sidebar, I suppose, but we all have those “toys that made us” and for whatever reason, these were some of mine! Skip, Augie, Rick, Neep! I loved them all!
How bout a docuseries on these, Netflix?!
During the show’s final season, another spinoff was created. ALF Tales ran alongside ALF: The Animated Series and featured a very Gordonesque spin on classic stories in the public domain, such as Robin Hood and Cinderella, and would feature the Animated Series characters in different roles. I didn’t like this show as much and remember wondering how the people on Melmac had all of the exact same fairy tales as us on Earth. I was probably taking it a little too serious, I suppose. That was a thing I did.
That’s a thing I do!
The thing that made this show great was the same thing that worked for the original sitcom. This character is straight up timeless. When Fusco originally pitched ALF, producers scoffed at first. “Jim Henson corners the market on puppets. Why are we wasting our time with this guy?” I assume they said. Their minds changed almost instantly after seeing Fusco’s performance, however. ALF is brazened, yet lovable, with a sarcastic wit that I’ve revered ever since I was as a kid.
All of this to say: Be the guy who brings the annoying alien puppet to a party.
A couple of years ago, I wrote this post about our visit to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. Although we were able to go twice in one year, there was a pandemic going on and getting reservations to Oga's Cantina didn't work out.
This year, however, we went to Disneyland and were finally able to partake in some beverages from that beloved galaxy far, far away. And since this is Star Wars Day, what better time to issue an addendum to my previous post.
Oga's Cantina
You can't think of Star Wars and not think of the cantina. Different iterations have popped up in several of the Star Wars films and I wouldn't be surprised if, when conceptualizing a Star Wars themed land, the cantina was at the top of the list.
I ordered the Jabba Juice. When the waiter delivered it, he pointed to the worrt over the bar and implied that the boba pearls in my drink were actually its eggs, and that he wouldn't swallow them whole if he were me. I probably had the nerdiest grin that place had ever seen... and that's really saying something.
The drinks were great but the atmosphere, of course, is what it's all about! This might be the most immersive part of the full immersion experience that Galaxy Edge promises... in my opinion, at least. DJ Rex live on the ones and twos only a few feet away from me almost brought a tear to my eye. I love all of the clanking and hissing of Star Wars-esque junk. They even had the assassin droid heads as drink dispensers! That's just like in the movie!!!
Again. The nerdiest grin that place has ever seen!
The only thing I could think of to make it better would be if an alien character or two would stroll through from time-to-time. I mean... How cool would that be?! It is a pretty cramped space, though. Such close quarters might not seem very practical as far as theme parks go, but it does add to that dive bar on a remote outpost aesthetic and that's really what this is all about, right? I wasn't complaining.
