arthur – The Animation Commendation

‘Jeopardy!’ Host Alex Trebek Dies at 80

I’m incredibly saddened to write this post, but Jeopardy! game show host, Alex Trebek, has died at the age of 80. Mr. Trebek (1940-2020) hosted the popular game show from 1984 until his death and has hosted numerous other game shows in the past. He frequently made film and TV appearances as versions of himself, with two animated appearances being the announcer in an episode of The Magic School Bus

as well as RiddleQuest host, Alex Lebeck, in an episode of Arthur.

My thoughts go out to his family and friends. He shall be deeply missed!

My Top 13 Animated TV Shows That I Grew Up With

Wow, I haven’t done a Top 13 list since 2013! Well, it’s about time that I rectify that! Today, we’ll be looking at the top 13 animated television shows that I grew up with. Animated films have been a part of many of our childhoods, but animated television shows have also been there for us as well. That’s why I decided to make this list as I haven’t really talked much about animated TV shows on this blog yet.

FYI, my list may differ from many people’s list as I didn’t have cable growing up, so I didn’t grow up with many classic animated shows such as those from the Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, or Nickelodeon. Before I continue, let me make a couple of points:

1) The phrase, “grew up with”, is one that can have different meanings to different people. I’m defining it to refer to “TV shows that I was watching by the time I turned 13 years old”. So animated TV shows that I watched, but debuted after I turned 13, will NOT appear on this list. Neither will animated shows that debuted before I turned 13, but I didn’t start watching them until after I turned 13. In essence, this means that this is not a list of my favorite animated TV shows of all time, rather just a list of the ones I grew up watching.

2) How are these ranked? Well, I’ve ranked them via an average of how often I used to watch the show, how much I liked the show, and how much it impacted me. So it’s not primarily just in order of my favorites, but it takes those 3 qualifiers into consideration.

3) One show that I grew up with and was one of my favorites was Thomas the Tank Engine. The reason that it’s not on this list is that I’m not sure whether it would fall under the definition of “animation” or not. I know that now the show has a lot of animation in it, but when I used to watch it, it was mostly just live model trains with some eye movements here and there. Because of that, I don’t know whether this would be considered some non-traditional form of animation or just be live-action. So to keep things simple, it’s not on my list.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at my list! Why top 13? Well, why not?

Continue reading “My Top 13 Animated TV Shows That I Grew Up With”

Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman Dies At 46!

Wow, this one is just as shocking as when Paul Walker died (well, maybe slightly less so)!

Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman has passed away at the age of 46 due to an apparent drug overdose! Philip Seymour Hoffman (1967-2014) was known for his roles in films such as “Twister”, “The Big Lebowski”, “Patch Adams”, “Capote”, “Mission: Impossible III”, “Charlie Wilson’s War”, “Doubt”, “Moneyball”, “The Master”, and “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”. Continue reading “Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman Dies At 46!”

Disney Canon-Forgotten/Minor Characters #18: Hobbs

I can hear you saying, “WHO?!” and you probably have a right to say that. Hopefully, everything can be explained as we progress.

We are visiting Walt Disney’s 18th animated feature film, “The Sword in the Stone” (or as I like to call it, “How Many Times Can You Hear Wart Say, ‘Wha..?Wait. Whoa!’?“).

Released in 1963, it was the last animated Disney film released during Walt Disney’s life. Continue reading “Disney Canon-Forgotten/Minor Characters #18: Hobbs”