Reviews

I rarely do reviews, but had to.make a comment on the narrator of this "documentary." He may be the worst narrator in history. In fact, a third grader can talk better than him. Maybe I can do it better than he can. He talks like he has experience as a heavy metal singer. He mispronounces the word "evolution" and calls the Hindenburg the Heidelberg. He is absolutely annoying, so much that I couldn't wait for this to finally end. They could have afforded someone who can, well, speak normally.

Amyway, this asks the question did the dragons really exist? Maybe in Westeros, but not on this Earth.

3/10.

...and yet seemingly no one votes for it?

A Shrek-like creature proves that beauty is only skin-deep when he tends a garden full of flowers. This is one of the best animated shorts I've seen since the dawn of the new century, dazzlingly directed by Moon Hwa Seun, and should have been given lots of votes by now. But so far, it's gotten less than five votes - despite it has won many awards and been nominated for others. It's simple, yet powerful and moving. It's been stated that there will be a Henry feature film soon (but let's hope that happens).

Tell people to see Henry's Garden, and tell them to vote for it. Tend to this short with love and care like Henry tends to his garden.

MSNBC spent a lot of money to lure Phil Donahue - only to see it sink faster than a stone and he was canceled after six months. MSNBC (I hate this channel except for Savage!) put Michael Savage on for a Saturday afternoon show, and this is much better than Donahue. Essentially, this is a TV version of his radio show and his number one bestselling book of the same name. Savage attacks the "Red Diaper Doper Babies" and the "Hollywood Idiots" like 'Susan Saranwrap' and 'Ed Asinine' on his show, and anyone who disagrees with him.

The only problem with the TV Savage is that it's only an hour long! He doesn't have much time to speak to the callers. Overall, it's truly much better and much compelling than most of the crap MSNBC puts out. The ones that MSNBC gets buzz for gets screwed up by the network (remember The Site?) and I hope The Savage Nation will not meet the same fate.

When I saw this cartoon on Cartoon Network, I saw the credits the dreaded words "directed by Gene Deitch" - I thought, this was going to be another stupid Deitch T&J short.

Actually, it's a somewhat UNDERSTANDABLE toon that is the best of the Deitch era of T&J - and that's saying something.

Sure the Eastern European animation is not up to par with the Hanna-Barbera era (watch a scene set in judo school), but the bizarre sound effects used in the other Deitch T&J's that can put any sane toon nut insane are barely noticed. The storyline is actually good. It's too bad that the other Deitch shorts were full of bad stories and bizarre sound effects, which led to MGM dismissing him after only thirteen shorts.

Still I prefer the Hanna-Barbera days of T&J.

This Turner Classic Movies production of a century of (mostly) American film (up to Schindler's List) is fast-paced. It begins in chronological order, but then skips during the middle, but returns to chronological order at the end. There are notable omissions (No Citizen Kane, the movie named by the American Film Institute as the Best Movie of the last 100 year; The African Queen, the only film with the Best Actor and Actress of the last century according to the AFI voters - Bogart and Hepburn; or Some Like It Hot, the AFI's pick for funniest movie.) Also no mention of live action or animated shorts (the only animation is of Jerry the mouse dancing with Gene Kelly in Anchors Aweigh; in fact, no Disney film is not even seen.) But it keeps you riveted to see what movie clip will be shown next and you can play along at home.

Here is a show that historians will dig up years from now as an example of TV run amuck - even if they won't ever learn about the scandal that resulted from this show.

Yes, I watched the last hour of this "show" and I found it absolutely silly, sick and tasteless...and yes, it was like watching a train wreck as Fox threw away all of its reputation it had earned as home of Homer, Bart, Mulder and Scully. Jay Thomas was probably the most smarmy host around IN HISTORY to preside over this fiasco (laughing as Rick Rockwell proposed to Darva Conger).

February 15, 2000 will go down in TV infamy - that was the day this show aired.

I watched this show on USA network in 1987 and the big question I wondered about this one back then is: what would Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II think about members of the royal family dressed up in medieval outfits, leading like- dressed celebrities (I bet John Travolta would never do something like this now) to play games (like Knock A Knight) for charity? Anyway, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson (they were married for a year at this time), Princess Anne and Prince Edward captain their teams of Brit celebs and some oddball choices (Walter Payton, Meat Loaf, etc.). A curio back then, and a curio now.

Arthur is a very good animated show. Based on Marc Brown's wildly popular series of books for children, Arthur - a third-grader in an aardvark suit - and his anthromorphic family and friends attempt to make sense of one another and the world in general. Arthur has a pre-school sister, D.W., who just for fun annoys him. Very believable, and very good if your child is 4 to 8 years old. Grade A