Return to Gummi Glen
Well, I don’t think I need to do a heavy weekend recap, seeing that most of the people likely to read this were at the 2 braai / chat fests (although some faded pathetically early).
Anyway, Sunday evening was more interesting in that Paul and I shunned the bollocksy MNET Sunday movie in favour of He-Man and the Gummi Bears. Considering most of our tapes dating back to the 1980s are sprouting mushrooms, the 3 video cassettes I’ve borrowed from Ashley (and will be digitizing) are in surprisingly perfect condition.
Anyway, I can say that the years have not been kind to He-Man. Or, at least, my mind has been sufficiently warped to prevent me from taking it at all seriously. Prince Adam wears a pink and purple tights and has the worst pudding bowl haircut you can imagine. Then, when he pulls out his sword, he is transformed into the tanned, thong and furry-booty wearing He-Man. It’s the ultimate gay fantasy. I kept expecting Skeletor to ask He-Man for a blow job.
In contrast, Gummi Bears continues to hold up as probably the finest family animated series ever made – along with Ducktails, probably. Both are classics from back in the day when Disney did their own original animated series, instead of falling back on spin-offs from their animated films- Timon and Pumba, Buzz Lightyear etc.
I still remember certain episodes of Gummi Bears so vividly – the pilot episode, the one where Sunni is kidnapped by the vultures, the one where Gruffi goes beserk every time someone says ‘Thank you,’ Cubbi and his 'pet' wolf, Loopy. Last night we watched the second episode ever – the one where Sunni gets a hat that transforms her into anyone whose name she says. Looking like the princess, she gets kidnapped by Duke Igthorn and his ogres. This brings her into contact with the real princess (also kidnapped), who quickly becomes her best friend, and is initiated into the world of Gummi.
I remain confused by a few things: why has Disney yet to release a DVD boxset of Gummi Bears? And why did they never have anything Gummi related at their theme parks? What child hasn’t fantasized about a race through the Quick Tunnels? And forget World of Warcraft – how cool would a Gummi RPG be, using the Gummis, ogres and humans as classes?
Oh, and one other fantastic thing I noticed last night in the second episode: 1980s Discipline! Early on in the episode the princess is having a tantrum about hating her life and wishing she were a peasant. Instead of tepidly telling her to ‘think about what she’s done’, as we see so often in contemporary kiddies’ entertainment, the king sends her to her room without dinner. Starvation as punishment. Hell, yeah!
Anyway, now to go and read a ton of heavy theoretical gender-related readings for tomorrow. *blergh*
Anyway, Sunday evening was more interesting in that Paul and I shunned the bollocksy MNET Sunday movie in favour of He-Man and the Gummi Bears. Considering most of our tapes dating back to the 1980s are sprouting mushrooms, the 3 video cassettes I’ve borrowed from Ashley (and will be digitizing) are in surprisingly perfect condition.
Anyway, I can say that the years have not been kind to He-Man. Or, at least, my mind has been sufficiently warped to prevent me from taking it at all seriously. Prince Adam wears a pink and purple tights and has the worst pudding bowl haircut you can imagine. Then, when he pulls out his sword, he is transformed into the tanned, thong and furry-booty wearing He-Man. It’s the ultimate gay fantasy. I kept expecting Skeletor to ask He-Man for a blow job.
In contrast, Gummi Bears continues to hold up as probably the finest family animated series ever made – along with Ducktails, probably. Both are classics from back in the day when Disney did their own original animated series, instead of falling back on spin-offs from their animated films- Timon and Pumba, Buzz Lightyear etc.
I still remember certain episodes of Gummi Bears so vividly – the pilot episode, the one where Sunni is kidnapped by the vultures, the one where Gruffi goes beserk every time someone says ‘Thank you,’ Cubbi and his 'pet' wolf, Loopy. Last night we watched the second episode ever – the one where Sunni gets a hat that transforms her into anyone whose name she says. Looking like the princess, she gets kidnapped by Duke Igthorn and his ogres. This brings her into contact with the real princess (also kidnapped), who quickly becomes her best friend, and is initiated into the world of Gummi.
I remain confused by a few things: why has Disney yet to release a DVD boxset of Gummi Bears? And why did they never have anything Gummi related at their theme parks? What child hasn’t fantasized about a race through the Quick Tunnels? And forget World of Warcraft – how cool would a Gummi RPG be, using the Gummis, ogres and humans as classes?
Oh, and one other fantastic thing I noticed last night in the second episode: 1980s Discipline! Early on in the episode the princess is having a tantrum about hating her life and wishing she were a peasant. Instead of tepidly telling her to ‘think about what she’s done’, as we see so often in contemporary kiddies’ entertainment, the king sends her to her room without dinner. Starvation as punishment. Hell, yeah!
Anyway, now to go and read a ton of heavy theoretical gender-related readings for tomorrow. *blergh*
Comments
I have loads of old arb ones like Nils Holgerson, Fables of the Green Forest and Noggin the Nod. I've even got an episode of Duck somewhere. My mother believed in taping ALL the kids tv shows when I was little. I also have Little Women (animated version) on video, and the Blinkins.
Shout if you want anymore.
About 0.1% cool, just under SimAccountant.