kattitudes

B&W stop motion animation from the 1950s, played regularly through the 70s.

I took last Frightday off, but I had to have more. I love Frightdays.

If you have been to Kattitudes before on Fridays, you know the sole purpose Fridays serve.

Frightday night. Movie night. Dogs, Mister, sofa, takeout, Boogyman du Jour. Creepy bad movies. Oh so bad movies. Illegal in 17 states. If you haven’t heard the shpiel, search Frightday Night and you can read the extended explanation.

I am still addicted to MST3K. They just fit the bill for me right now. I am not doing the current gorefests that pass for scary these days. I love me some scary horror more than anyone out there. Scare the bejebus out of me and I am yours forever. But splash the walls with gore and I am gone. The two do not go hand in hand and yes, I understand it is a bizarre dichotomy.

Since I cannot find a satisfactory horror flick, I am going with classic B grade science fiction for Frightday Night.

Once upon a time, MST3K was so popular that they actually came out with a feature length movie. It was fantastic. Ah, the memories.

For this delight, they chose the 1955 science fiction movie This Island Earth. Typical 1955 black and white, other planetary dangers are involved, interspace travel.

One of those classic B movie delights. Definitely worth some downtime enjoyment.

I have read the story eleventy thousand times. Seen the movie eleventy dozen times, both black and white and colorized. It is only fair to include the cartoon.

I. Am. In. Love.

Just. In. Love.

This video is small movie of the reading of a book written by Mr. Mears entitled Saint Nick and the Space Nicks. It is a children’s book about … you know what? I am not going to spoil this. But I will say that it takes but six minutes and it is WONDERFUL.

Preview it first so you know what you are showing, but then, you will have an utterly FANTASTIC story that you can show your kids over and over and over when things get busy during the holiday season. Oh my goodness. I am so thrilled I found this book. I know just what I am getting for one of my dear nephews (the other family would most likely find it sacrilegious, but pooh on that because the story is just too precious for words).

This is one of the times that I am not going to include a direct link to his website because the video certainly takes care of that for me (I am inserting a small eye roll here for the obligatory advertisement that obviously must be done, but did it have to be done over all the entire video?! I guess if I were in his shoes, I would probably have done the same…but still).

Nonetheless, fantastic story! Bravo!

I feel like a Christmas cartoon. And this certainly fits the bill.

A 1987 special, it makes those of us from the 80s glow with remembered Christmas joys. If you were not there in the 80s, you will really enjoy the schmaltz. It is definitely a feel good, especially without the emphasis on buying!

The Snowman is one of my absolute favorite Christmas movies, done by Raymond Briggs. It is beautiful. Coupled with his other Christmas movie about Santa’s vacation (entitled Father Christmas which, while I own, I must transfer online and, in typical fashion, am procrastinating reaching the conclusion of said job), the two movies together constitute a double-header of my favorite quiet-time Christmas anticipation.

Have I mentioned lately how much I miss living in England? Watching this just brings it all back. I am going back one day. To stay.

Of course, I say that now, but when I was there, I was homesick for the South. I guess that is what you get for moving so much as a kid. Never satisfied settling down. But still, I would like to go back to England for a substantial amount of time.

If YouTube tells you that the movie is not available, I have found that if you reload the page, they suddenly become available. Amazing how that works.

It is rather a pain to watch it this way, but you can thank YouTube, as they have created a situation where you can only upload a maximum ten (10) minutes worth of video at a time now. Ridiculous. At least there are no 1980s television commercials buried in the middle of this version.

The first ten minutes, so start here:

then the second ten minutes:

then the final ten minutes:

If you have been to Kattitudes before on Fridays, you know the sole purpose Fridays serve.

Frightday night. Movie night. Dogs, Mister, sofa, takeout, Boogyman du Jour. Creepy bad movies. Oh so bad movies. Illegal in 17 states. If you haven’t heard the shpiel, search Frightday Night and you can read the extended explanation.

I have been overloading with Mystery Science Theater entries lately, but oh, this one is perfect. It is the MST3K Thanksgiving show! Absolutely hilarious. Anyone that can say “sucks on toast” is my kinda woman (you will hear it in the first few minutes).

The MST3K movie starts with the weirdest freaking short in the world. It has no purpose and no logical continuity to the movie, which is Night of the Blood Beast. The absolute non sequitur combination of the two together is just amazing and giggle inducing.

I love the whole Thanksgiving focus and it gets me ready to get all the little odd jobs done this weekend that I need to do to be ready for next Thursday.

Not the best of qualities in terms of video to internet, but finding this particular story was nigh on to impossible. General consensus seems to be that this is pretty much the least popular of the great Shultz trinity. No one even makes mention of the Valentine, Easter or camp specials anymore. I guess they do not officially exist in the lexicon.

Someone finally posted their copy recorded in the early 80s, television commercials and all. Now that is a hoot. Talk about a flash from the past. Still, quality is not all there, but in terms of video like this, you take what you can get and smile happily.

Regardless of the quality of the video, it is the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special, shown in 1973. If you are of a certain age range, watching this around Thanksgiving time was as much a part of the Thanksgiving dinner celebration as putting black pitted olives on all your fingers and waving at everyone around the table until Mom told you to quit playing with your food and take them off your fingers.

It is so interesting to me to re-examine my reactions to these little specials now that I have passed into the age of the “wah wah wah wah wah” mush mouth speaking adults portrayed in Charlie Brown specials. After Charles Shultz passed on, biographies shed a little light on the personal demons that haunted him through his life.

As an adult, I have so much more history behind me than I did in 1973. Now I can see his experiences reflected in these specials. Watching them fascinates me. It gives a whole new meaning to a quaint enjoyable childhood delight.