Lunch with Yogi and Friends

 Cartoon stars are definitely one of the staples of lunch box designs, and the Hanna-Barbera roster is no exception. There's been a great many releases over the years, but I think my favorite has to be this collection American Specialty Confections released in 1999. These boxes, which were labeled as "Cartoon Network Classics", contained unique candy mixes, as well as a unique design for each box. So let's go through some of these, shall we?

Starting off strong, we have a lunch box decorated with characters you don't often see in merchandise, Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks. The art itself is pretty standard stock art of the guys, but it's still cool to see them in more recent merchandise. If you count 1999 as recent, that is.

Next up is Snagglepuss, whose lunch box is quite literally a star-studded one. I dig the color scheme on this one, and once again, it's a character who you don't see too often in collectables, so it's a welcome addition to the roster.

Third in this set is a Magilla Gorilla centric one. The box features artwork of Magilla, Ogee, Mr. Peebles, and the pet shop. This is also the first one to sport the aforementioned "Cartoon Network Classics" branding. I don't know why only some of these have that distinction, but it's interesting nonetheless.

Yogi Bear is an obvious character to use on a lunch box, so unsurprisingly, there was a Yogi one. I love how the color scheme here feels similar to a picnic basket, but something about Yogi's expression unnerves me. Am I alone on that?

Last but not least, here's the lunch box produced for Quick Draw McGraw. Both Quick Draw and Baba Looey are present in this design, and as far as I know, the art for them here is unique to this lunch box. Maybe it's been used elsewhere, but this is the first I've seen it. 

The Man Called Flintstone Print Ads

 This last Friday, Cartoon Research's Michael Lyons wrote a fantastic retrospective on The Man Called Flintstone, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this month. I highly recommend checking it out, which you can do right here. I contributed some of my own thoughts about the movie to this post, and because of that, I figured I should have a little something to celebrate the film here. So, without any further introductions, here are some great newspaper advertisements for The Man Called Flintstone during its initial release in 1966.

This first piece advertises the flick at a couple different drive-ins found in New York. It proudly touts this as the Flintstones' first full-length movie, and that it has seven hit songs. Can't say I agree with the latter, but to each his own.

Here's a second, more simplistic advertisement for the movie. This time, instead of having seven hit songs, they mention the film having seven great new songs. This is just me, but I feel like you can't be both in this case.

These next ads are more like a two-in-one deal. The two encourage audiences to both laugh it up and down with the Flintstone family. I particularly like the second one's mention of Fred as a secret agent being a shock. Maybe in the first season or so, but considering they straight-up went to the future at this point, it's not too big of a leap.

Video of the Week: Hanna-Barbera on Home Video

 Before they came to Blu-Ray, before they came to DVD, there were the Hanna-Barbera VHS releases, brought to you courtesy of Hanna-Barbera Home Video. The division only lasted a few years before being phased out in favor of the Cartoon Network Video branding, but they released over thirty different VHS tapes in that time. 

Near the end of their run, this commercial appeared on UK tapes of Hanna-Barbera cartoons and other Turner productions. It's a really fun, very nineties sizzle reel showing off many of the most popular Hanna-Barbera characters and series. Check out this fun time capsule below!

Hanna-Barbera Welcomes The Jetsons

The Jetsons, another great new series launched by Hanna-Barbera. So says this 1962 print ad the studio put out in promotion of the series. This would've been found in trade magazines of the time, and features the future family flying in, while Yogi, Quick Draw, Huckleberry Hound, and the Flintstones all wave in support. Unsurprisingly, it looks like Top Cat wasn't invited to the occasion. T.C. or no T.C., it's a great little ad, and it's always fascinating to see how these shows were promoted in their formative years. 

Janet Waldo Looks Back

Here's quite the find. From 2002, here is a two-page interview with Janet Waldo that appeared in the magazine Animerica. For those who don't know, Animerica was a magazine that ran from 1992 to 2005, that covered anything and everything anime. As you may expect, the focus of this interview is primarily on Waldo's work on Battle of the Planets, the American version of the anime Gatchaman that aired in the late seventies. 

That being said, there's also a lot of great discussion about other parts of Waldo's career. She discusses more recent work like King of the Hill, her thoughts on the live-action Josie and the Pussycats film, and other, often understated animated roles she took on in her career. As great as Judy Jetson is, this interview is worth reading just to see her other credits get some much needed spotlight.

The Flintstones (Almost) Come to Broadway

 They conquered televisions They made it to the big screen. They've appeared in countless video games, comic books, and commercials. It seems like The Flintstones has been able to find a home in practically every medium. Except for one: the Broadway musical. But that's not to say they didn't try.

Back in 2008, Warner Brothers Theater Ventures was hard at work on a musical adaptation of the modern stone-age family. Gary Griffin, who directed shows like The Color Purple and My Fair Lady, was locked in as the director. The score was being handled by Jeff Marx and Jake Anthony, the former of whom is best known for his work on Avenue Q.  Marco Pennette, a writer on many TV shows, was set to take care of general writing duties.

That's a lotta names for the project, but what exactly was this musical going to be about? Variety reported that the show would focus on modern day issues, including a plotline where Wilma considers leaving Fred, who's too much of a caveman for her taste. Barney and Betty would adapt Bamm-Bamm, and they'd deal with the issue of global cooling. Interesting, to say the least.

And that was more or less all we knew about the project. Despite having a director and (I would assume) a script, it never went into production. Perhaps the financial crisis at the time gave WB cold feet about pouring money into it? Or maybe they simply felt The Flintstones wasn't a popular enough IP to justify its own musical? Either way, it never went into full production, leaving news reports from the time to be the only information we have on it. 

Since it never truly got off the ground, we don't exactly know what this musical would've looked like. However, Universal Studios had a Flintstones live musical of their own in the nineties, so I've attached some images from that to show what this may have looked like. What do you think though? Did we dodge a bullet, or would you've liked to see this get made? I don't have much interest in a Flintstones musical myself, but at the same time, it couldn't have been worse than Viva Rock Vegas.

Video of the Week: A Retro Bite of Hanna-Barbera

 This week's featured video is an oldie, but also a goodie. From way back in 1961 comes this great archive footage of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera showing how Hanna-Barbera animates its cartoons. It's a short clip, but they do a surprising job running through the key elements of making one of their shows. This video has been online for quite a long time, so I'm sure many of you have seen it, but if you haven't, definitely give it a watch. And even if you have already watched it, go ahead and watch it again!