Lunch with Bill Melendez
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008Holiday Traditions, we all have our rituals right? The things we do with our families every year without fail. My family gets together and we enjoy my Mom’s delicious handmade Tamales with a warm cup of Atole. Other families bust out the eggnog and cook up a turkey. While others like my roommate back in Art School had the Traditional Christmas Hot Tub party.
Then there’s the whole tree thing, the cookies, the shopping, the wrapping, the colorful lights, the cards, the goofy sweaters. Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby and David Bowie singing a duet of the Little Drummer boy. All wonderful stuff that brings families together.
After a while I came to realize the sleighload of Holiday traditions that our Animation Forefathers gave us. Just off the top of my head let’s see, Chuck Jones and his brilliant adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s masterpiece How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Rankin Bass Stop motion Santa Claus, Rudolph, Frosty special. Epic! What about Yogi’s first Christmas huh? Killer! Mickey’s Christmas Carol.Gorgeous and Timeless. Mr Magoo’s Christmas Carol, I dare you not to laugh! And of course who could forget the Star wars Holiday Special, sure it only played once but once was enough for it to be burned into my memory banks forever. Thank you Nelvana for the animated introduction to Boba Fett! Lest we forget the Norelco commercial with Santa riding the electric shaver down the slope. Ahhhh good times. I love all of these shows and I hope someday when I have kids to share these animated treasures with them. (more…)







