Some cartoons and some snark
I had to babysit yesterday and due to rain, the little one being grumpy and myself being grumpy as well, we skipped all sorts of educational playing in favor of drawing and watching tv.
So here is my rundown of Disney Junior's programme on a late Saturday morning till noon.
Micky Maus Wunderhaus
I remember this from like eighteen years ago, when my younger brother would watch this and get all excited when Micky would ask the viewers to count with him the angles or sides of this geometrical shape or that one. Yesterday we watched a rebooted version of course, but the general gist of the show is still the same: Micky is presented with a problem (find a triangle, find a puppy, find a way to repair Donald's flute, fix the economic instability of the Southeast-Asian states, the usual) and repeatedly breaks the fourth wall to interact with viewers and teach them couting, shapes and taxes.
So I was pretty chill while watching this until my nemesis came along.
Fucking Toodles.
Toodles is a flying micky-shaped robot that provides mission-critical items for Micky and Co. but only after you complete the ritual chanting of "OH TOODLES" three times in a row.
I am aware that this is a nice, very bright and moderately well animated show for toddlers but my enjoyment of this was severely hampered by the fact that my little brother all those years ago had a phase where he would call everything apart from our parents Toodles. Drink? Toodles. Toy car? Toodles. Micky Mouse plushie? Toodles. Our grandma? Oma Toodles. His dear, loving sister who was never anything but good and wonderful to him? You guessed it: Toodles.
I swear to God I had represses this hellish memory but all it took was one baby sitting session and Disney's ruthless reboots and their devilish desire to hammer home their branding to even the smallest humans already and I was back in a Toodles-chanting nightmare.
Fuck that robot and the Wunderhaus, man.
PJ Masks
This was the one show my temporary charge was really excited about when I finally asked if watching tv would be an enjoyable activity (after a crying fit, rather destructive...criticism of our jointly assembled toy train line, and after half a dozen futile attempts at bribery with St.Martin-candy). He told me all about the characters "Roberta, Luna Girl, and then they are flying and the boy is blue" and I came up with nothing - I also misunderstod it as "Pijima" for a good twenty minutes so when it finally rolled around, I had a lightbulb moment and the kid went bonkers and jumped around before he planted himself way too close in front of the tv and accompanied the whole entire show with his own fighting noises.
Man, I get so excited when kids are loving a tv show with all their heart.
Of course they are all about selling toys and raising little consumers as early as possible, but somewhere in that bleak reality is a little boy yelling excitedly about a cat boy in a blue super hero pyjama suit and his two super hero pyjama suited friends because the show resonated with something in hIS VERY SOUL.
Am I being overly dramatic since some of my fondest childhood memories stem from my twenty year long obsession with Pokémon that started in elementary school and came back in full force some years ago?
You bet I am. God.
Those were the best twenty minutes of the whole babysitting experience, seriously. I finally remembered that talking to kids is a cool thing to do as a babysitter so I asked him a lot of questions about the characters and the plot and he answered all of them and then some. Amazing.
The show itself deserves a shoutout as well (granted, this is based on my one-episode experience of it), as the cast features a black boy as the main character and a white boy as the funny one and a girl who has flying powers and her suit is red and not pink which is in and on itself a remarkable feature.
Good one, Junior. I am not over Toodles though.
Sofia the First
Very... pink and princess-y. I did not pay much attention because the German dub gave the main character such an annoying voice ohmyGOD. But at least the cast of side characters was very diverse and I very much adored the character design of the background characters.
At least it's not only pink.
Elena of Avalor
This wins fucking everything, mostly because Elena has a flying leopard as her animal sidekick, fights baddies with swords on moving carriages and the whole worldbuilding is based on various South-American cultures (and some Spanish influences, I'm a bit wobbly in my knowdledge of architectural accuracy in Disney cartoons. As is Disney itself probably).
Am I going to watch this?
Probably not.
Is this overly long and colorful entry absolutely pointless?
One hundred percent yes.
I was in a snarky mood and I have a lot of boring real life stuff going on that I want to avoid as much as possible so I am not ever talking about that on here.
And fandom stuff is... well. Still Kpop, and Kdramas and video games. I need to write a video game entry AHHHH!!!
I hope you have a wonderful Sunday, people. <3
So here is my rundown of Disney Junior's programme on a late Saturday morning till noon.
Micky Maus Wunderhaus
I remember this from like eighteen years ago, when my younger brother would watch this and get all excited when Micky would ask the viewers to count with him the angles or sides of this geometrical shape or that one. Yesterday we watched a rebooted version of course, but the general gist of the show is still the same: Micky is presented with a problem (find a triangle, find a puppy, find a way to repair Donald's flute, fix the economic instability of the Southeast-Asian states, the usual) and repeatedly breaks the fourth wall to interact with viewers and teach them couting, shapes and taxes.
So I was pretty chill while watching this until my nemesis came along.
Fucking Toodles.
Toodles is a flying micky-shaped robot that provides mission-critical items for Micky and Co. but only after you complete the ritual chanting of "OH TOODLES" three times in a row.
I am aware that this is a nice, very bright and moderately well animated show for toddlers but my enjoyment of this was severely hampered by the fact that my little brother all those years ago had a phase where he would call everything apart from our parents Toodles. Drink? Toodles. Toy car? Toodles. Micky Mouse plushie? Toodles. Our grandma? Oma Toodles. His dear, loving sister who was never anything but good and wonderful to him? You guessed it: Toodles.
I swear to God I had represses this hellish memory but all it took was one baby sitting session and Disney's ruthless reboots and their devilish desire to hammer home their branding to even the smallest humans already and I was back in a Toodles-chanting nightmare.
Fuck that robot and the Wunderhaus, man.
PJ Masks
Click to viewThis was the one show my temporary charge was really excited about when I finally asked if watching tv would be an enjoyable activity (after a crying fit, rather destructive...criticism of our jointly assembled toy train line, and after half a dozen futile attempts at bribery with St.Martin-candy). He told me all about the characters "Roberta, Luna Girl, and then they are flying and the boy is blue" and I came up with nothing - I also misunderstod it as "Pijima" for a good twenty minutes so when it finally rolled around, I had a lightbulb moment and the kid went bonkers and jumped around before he planted himself way too close in front of the tv and accompanied the whole entire show with his own fighting noises.
Man, I get so excited when kids are loving a tv show with all their heart.
Of course they are all about selling toys and raising little consumers as early as possible, but somewhere in that bleak reality is a little boy yelling excitedly about a cat boy in a blue super hero pyjama suit and his two super hero pyjama suited friends because the show resonated with something in hIS VERY SOUL.
Am I being overly dramatic since some of my fondest childhood memories stem from my twenty year long obsession with Pokémon that started in elementary school and came back in full force some years ago?
You bet I am. God.
Those were the best twenty minutes of the whole babysitting experience, seriously. I finally remembered that talking to kids is a cool thing to do as a babysitter so I asked him a lot of questions about the characters and the plot and he answered all of them and then some. Amazing.
The show itself deserves a shoutout as well (granted, this is based on my one-episode experience of it), as the cast features a black boy as the main character and a white boy as the funny one and a girl who has flying powers and her suit is red and not pink which is in and on itself a remarkable feature.
Good one, Junior. I am not over Toodles though.
Sofia the First
Very... pink and princess-y. I did not pay much attention because the German dub gave the main character such an annoying voice ohmyGOD. But at least the cast of side characters was very diverse and I very much adored the character design of the background characters.
At least it's not only pink.
Elena of Avalor
This wins fucking everything, mostly because Elena has a flying leopard as her animal sidekick, fights baddies with swords on moving carriages and the whole worldbuilding is based on various South-American cultures (and some Spanish influences, I'm a bit wobbly in my knowdledge of architectural accuracy in Disney cartoons. As is Disney itself probably).
Am I going to watch this?
Probably not.
Is this overly long and colorful entry absolutely pointless?
One hundred percent yes.
I was in a snarky mood and I have a lot of boring real life stuff going on that I want to avoid as much as possible so I am not ever talking about that on here.
And fandom stuff is... well. Still Kpop, and Kdramas and video games. I need to write a video game entry AHHHH!!!
I hope you have a wonderful Sunday, people. <3