Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggety dog
Now we got ears it's time for cheers........so, Young Ben and I were watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on TV the other morning (Ben wanted to watch Bloomberg to see how his shares were doing but I like my Mickey fix in the morning) and I was once again reminded of the strange situation with Pluto and Goofy.
I mean, they are both dogs, are they not, yet Goofy gets to walk upright, wear clothes, drive a car and talk whereas Pluto still runs around on all fours chasing sticks and drinking from a bowl as Mickey's pet. Apparently Goofy is anthropomorphic and sentient (I had to look them up) while Pluto is just a 'dawg'. I wonder how Goofy feels about his best mate Mickey having a dog for a pet. Does he worry that if he lands on hard times he could be back running around naked and barking at trees?...and how does Pluto perceive Goofy? Does he consider him a sell-out who has forsaken his own kind just to make a fast buck?
You have to wonder if that former planet had been called Goofy instead of Pluto it might still be on talking terms with Mars, Venus, Jupiter and the likes
Anyway, in the episode we were watching Goofy was going on a date with a cow (no I am not casting aspersions on the young ladies character, she actually was a cow) Her name was Clarabelle and she walked on two legs and also wore clothes. I believe she even has a pet puppy dog called Bella which just starts to get too weird so I am leaving that one there. I suppose a dog having a cow for a girlfriend is Disney's attempt at racial equality but Mickey still has a mouse for a girlfriend and Donald still has a duck so maybe it only goes so far. Perhaps Mickey and Daisy should have a dalliance
In each episode of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Mickey and his friends can call upon Toodles a computery flying thing with ears which can give them a choice of four "Mouskatools" to help solve any problems they are having. One of the choices is always a question mark so you don't know what you are getting. One day they were looking for something in which to put some flowers from the garden. The three other choices were a Kalshnikov AK-47, an octopus and Joey Barton so they went for the mystery choice. Unfortunately that was the Large Hadron Collider so obviously they should have picked Joey Barton and we all know where they should have put their flowers
Also on The Disney Channel is Handy Manny who is a kind of Hispanic Bob the Builder . Manny has tools which can talk including Turner the flat-head screwdriver, Felipe the Phillips screwdriver, Stretch the tape measure and Pat the hammer, whose catchphrase is "I'm a hammer" (that's why the Disney writers earn the big bucks)
Unfortunately, as yet, he does not have Miami the Vice, Les Paul the Axe, Wesley the Blade, Nurse the Ratchet, Nigel the Planer or Simon the Template (looking forward to your suggestions here)
Obviously since it comes from the Wonderful World of Disney, Handy Manny is educational as well as hilarious with a deep moral message so sometimes Manny and his tools speak in Spanish and repeat in English. Young Ben and I are learning how to put up a shelf in Spanish which will come as a shock to anyone who knows me and is aware that I cannot put up a shelf in English
When I was young my favourite cartoons were Top Cat and The Flintstones. Top Cat is currently being repeated on the Boomerang channel and I watched it the other day in the interests of research for my blog. Given that it was made fifty years ago I think it has aged well. All my old friends were there...TC, Choo-Choo, Brain, Spook, Fancy-Fancy and my personal favourite Benny the Ball who in the episode I watched was mistaken for a missing heir and inherited a fortune which by the end of the episode had obviously been uninherited again
What I liked most about The Flintstones were the gadgets like the baby woolly mammoth used as a vacuum cleaner, an 'electric' razor made from a clam shell with a bee vibrating inside and the woodpecker whose beak was used to play a gramophone record and the animal performing the function would often turn to the camera and say "It's a living"
Anyway, that's me for this week. As my mate Manny would say "I am off to the patio.. 'patio'..for a siesta..'siesta'...Adios Amigos
I am fast becoming fascinated by the inherent surrealism of your blogs.
ReplyDeleteBut perhaps, as Magritte may have said, 'Ceci n'est pas un blog'.
(You have probably by now guessed that my favourite art work is Max Ernst's 'The Elephant Celebes', although I confess it is not a great likeness.)
I think (or do I?) that what I am trying to say is that Dada does but Walt Disney!
Boom Boom!