Welcome to Bugaloos my new Animal Crossing Town

I decided to turn over a new leaf and create a new game for my Animal Crossing GameCube town, The town's name is now called Bugaloos and its been 2 weeks since I created the town, I currently have apples as my town fruit, but I created a second town and got peaches from that one

Since also, we are in a pandemic at the moment, I'm going to be blogging once a week the adventures of myself in Bugaloos and it is also the upcoming 50th anniversary of The Bugaloos a favorite television show of mine from the 70's

My villagers are Alli, Sidney, Sprocket, Grizzly, Bertha, Bob, Boots, Pinky, Truffles, Cashmere, Pate,   Vladmir, Betty, and two more villagers whose names escape me at the moment, I will update as soon as possible on that

For now though sit back and read the adventures of Bugaloos


until then

Phantom Manor Recap

I am very surprised to be writing this review! However, since Halloween is 6 days away, I figured I'd review the updated version of the Haunted Mansion's cousin, Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris which was given a proper update and reopened this year.

The major difference is the dialogue is French and English, the English is narrated by Vincent Price, yes, you heard me! The late Vincent Price recorded dialogue originally intended for the Phantom Manor but French officials wanted the dialogue in mostly French, so they hired the guy who dubbed Vincent Price in his movies in French.

The original backstory, was that there was a very rich settler called Henry Ravenswood who settled in land that was protected by a Thunderbird, He struck gold and became very wealthy. In time, he married and had a daughter Melanie who of course was very beautiful and Thunder Mesa (the name of the town) grew and pretty soon the gold started to run out which caused the miners to dig deeper into the earth.

Melanie grew up from a young girl into a beautiful woman and became engaged to a local train engineer who played to take her away from Thunder Mesa, Henry did all he could to stop and prevent the wedding! However, before the wedding, a earthquake struck the town and killed Henry, his wife Martha, and many of the townspeople causing Thunder Mesa to be damaged. It seemed the stories of the thunderbird were true as local natives claimed the earthquake was inflicted to the town by the legendary thunderbird who was protecting its treasure. Melanie meanwhile continued plans of her wedding.

However, on the day of the wedding, a mysterious phantom snuck into the mansion and led the groom up into the attic where he was hung on the rafters. Melanie did not know this and spent the entire day searching for her groom. Many people gave up the missing groom for loss, but Melanie vowed to never remove her wedding dress and was said to have said someday he will come for me. Today, she roams the mansion looking for her bridegroom, as time passed, the mansion fell into disrepair and Melanie was never seen again. Many believe that the girl's poor soul is trapped in that house to wander for eternality. The phantom of course invited his undead friends who reside in the house. Thunder Mesa became a ghost town haunted by all killed in the destructive earthquake.

The new storyline was changed with the part of her fiancee was remove and instead she had many suitors who were murdered by Henry under mysterious circumstances.

When you first walk into Phantom Manor, you see a portrait of the phantom (Henry Ravenswood) and Melanie in her wedding dress and it looks so goth and depressing,

The portrait changes from doom and gloom into what once was an elegant mansion and a happy Henry Ravenswood and Melanie who is dressed in a lovely blue gown

We then go into the stretching portrait room where we see Melanie with each of her four suitors, Captain Rowan D. Falls, Sawyer Bottom, Berry Claude, and Iggy Night. Melanie is dressed in a different outfit with each man. Suddenly the portraits with Melanie vanish and we are shown the grisly unfortunate deaths of each suitor.

It's interesting that each man died under mysterious circumstances, and their names give a reference to how they died, example is Rowan D. Falls, he rowed out into the falls, a waterfall. Berry Claude also had an unbearable death, he was mauled by a bear, Sawyer Bottom got sawed in half, and Iggy Night was blown up to smithereens by dynamite, all work by Henry Ravenswood

I am confused as to how this plays out in the original storyline, is that one fiancee no longer cannon. If Melanie didn't marry any of those guys, why is she still wearing a wedding gown. I recall an imagineer who works for Disneyland Paris said that Melanie went insane due to the loss of her lovers. My head is still scratching.

Over all I'll cut the story to the chase and praise the detail and visuals, the portraits were awesome and I liked how they could change. I also like how Henry Ravenswood is now the phantom which makes sense in a way on being overprotective of his daughter. There are some flaws like the Melanie asking guests to marry her and the storyline is all over the place. 8/10

Here Comes Peter Cottontail 1971, RECAP

Hey gang, tomorrow is Easter and I figured I'd give a recapped review on a underrated Rankin Bass Special that was focused on Easter. It's strange how Here Comes Peter Cottontail never airs on television, I guess the networks think Easter specials from Rankin Bass which there are only three of them The First Easter Rabbit, Here Comes Peter Cottontail and The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town aren't worth airing on the Easter holidays. I purchased the DVD a year ago from Target and I sat down today to watch it.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail is about a rabbit called Peter Cottontail who was voiced by the late Casey Kassem (the original voice of Scooby Doo's Shaggy) and he wants to get the job of being the chief Easter Bunny from Colonel Bunny (Danny Kaye) an evil rabbit named Irontail voiced by the late Vincent Price wants the same job and cheats the Easter egg contest that both rabbits had to give all their eggs away in one day by feeding Peter's chicken alarm clock bubblegum which blocks the chicken's crows from making a sound. Because Peter was irresponsible by going to a party and got to bed later, Irontail wins the contest for delivering only one egg and Peter goes back in time in a flying balloon time machine with the help of an eccentric Willy Wonka character named Seymour Sassafras (Danny Kaye) and a talking caterpillar named Antoine. However Irontail has his spider minion rig the time travel machine, the whole premisis has Peter visit different holidays like Independence Day, New Years Eve, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Valentine's Day, Christmas, Mother's Day and Saint Patrick's Day while trying to get back to Easter. Irontail changes Peter's eggs to green and Peter delivers the eggs to a Saint Patrick's Day parade. He wins the contest and becomes the chief Easter Bunny bringing joy and happiness back to April Valley.

The songs are very memorable, I like If I Could Only Get Back to Yesterday, In The Puzzle of Life and Improvise, but Vincent Price's song The Easter Bunny Always Sleeps is great too.

Danny Kaye voices the narrator Seymour Sassafras, Antoine and Colonel Bunny, he does great impersonations of Peter and Irontail as well and I enjoyed his characters very much. Vincent Price was a great villain and as Irontail you could tell he enjoyed playing a character like Irontail, I remember Vincent Price from The Ten Commandments and also The Great Mouse Detective but here he brings to life an evil rabbit who despises children and gives a great detailed backstory on the reason why he wants the Easter Bunny job in the first place.

I also enjoyed the stop motion and thought this was a much better crossover story than when Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July attempted years later.

Overall if you are looking for a Easter special for your children and grandchildren to enjoy this is highly recommended, the storyline is pretty fast paced, the songs are catchy and memorable as well as the timelessness of how well done this special was. 10/10

Leprechaun's Christmas Gold RECAP

Thanks to AMC purchasing the rights to many of Rankin Bass's holiday specials, I spent the weekend binge watching a lot of the stop motion specials including some which Freeform chose to not air during the 25 Days of Christmas for the past two years in a row, among the four specials that never aired on Freeform durning the nearly two year run, were The Leprechaun's Christmas Gold, Pinocchio's Christmas, Little Drummer Boy Book II and The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus.

 Possibly one of the most strangest Rankin Bass Holiday Specials, I don't ever recall watching The Leprechaun's Christmas Gold special unless it was 2007 and I was in the middle school at the time. Yet I can see why this special isn't remembered fondly unlike other Rankin Bass Christmas Specials like Rudolph, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Frosty the Snowman and The Year Without A Santa Claus.

The special itself is confusing, it feels more like a St Patrick's Day special than a Christmas special, It's also confusing what the timeline is unless it is supposed to be in the 15th or 16th century Ireland. Anyways a cabin boy name Dinty Doyle goes to an uncharted island to pull up a pine tree for his captain who plans to use the tree as a Christmas tree. While on the island, Dinty finds out he isn't alone as he spots a family of leprechauns peaking through the bushes. Unintentionally Dinty pulls up the pine tree and out pops a banshee called Old Mag the Hag, finally free from her prison she casts a storm that causes Dinty to get shipwrecked on the island. However the storm briefly stops and a rainbow appears that lures Dinty to a secret shamrock patch where it opens to reveal a horde of leprechaun gold.

Dinty starts to go crazy over seeing a bunch of gold and encounters Blarney the head leprechaun who at first gets territorial over his gold, and later invites Dinty for tea and to tell him the story of how Old Mag the Hag terrorized the leprechauns for their gold even causing a part of Ireland to split off the mainland and end up in the middle of a sea until the lord of the leprechauns tricked Mag into turning into tears which of course is how the pine tree was planted to keep Mag trapped there forever. There is also a story of Blarney having an argument with his wife over Mag's disguise as a fairy godmother and they break up. Dinty confesses to having pulled up the tree and releasing the banshee and Blarney is distressed so he drinks his tea which unbeknownst to him was spiked with a potion by Mag the Hag herself. However even though he is drugged he gives the gold to Dinty and makes him promise to never give Mag the gold.

While trying to get off the island, Dinty encounters at the beach a girl named Colleen who claims she was the only survivor of a shipwreck, Dinty is too stupid to realize Colleen is Old Mag the Hag herself as she continuing sheds tears which is a give away for banshees but he tells her about the leprechauns and how he became in possession of their gold. Colleen suggests he give the gold to her so she can give it to the leprechauns and have them build a boat for Ireland. Dinty agrees and gives her the gold and Colleen transforms into her true form as Old Mag the Hag herself, she casts Dinty into a deep sleep of a hundred Christmas and goes to get her Christmas gold but before she can do anything the sun for Christmas morning has risen and her time is up, Dinty awakens from his sleep, Mag transforms into tears and is washed away by the waves, Blarney and his wife make up and the ship Dinty was on appears on the horizon that carries everyone away back to Ireland.

The special itself is forgettable and why do the leprechauns care if Old Mag the Hag takes their gold? Is she going to enslave the leprechauns? Overall it's not a great special, It's cute but that's about it. Many of the songs like Golden Gold of Ireland, the Killarney's shoes etc are forgettable and have nothing to do with Christmas. Christmas in Killarney is alright,

Take it for what it is 5/10

Maddie moves in

So yesterday I started my game and I had to restart it twice because of a glitch which caused my gamecube controller to move my character by itself. When I restarted it the second time because I couldn't get to the geoid in front of my house I had to face with Mr Resetti the mole man who promptly screamed at me for not saving. Yeah he yelled at me for five minutes and then told me not to do it anymore.

After Resetti left I went out checked my mail and visited among my neighbors. My new neighbor is Maddie and she is a dog, I currently now have two chickens, two ant eaters, two dogs, a rabbit, a squirrel, a horse, a zebra an elephant, a wolf, a pig, a bear and an alligator.

I sent some fossils to the Museum and ended my game afterwards.

I'm going to play Animal Crossing on Halloween, wish me luck

Huggy moves out in Pringles and I visit to Tranquil Island

Today I loaded up my Animal Crossing game on my Wii and I noticed I got some letters in my mailbox, one was from the Happy Home Academy, three were from the Museum, two were from Tom Nook and one was from one of my villagers Huggy, I had forgotten Huggy had moved into my town she is a Koala but I hadn't played Animal Crossing for months until early September. Huggy sent me a farewell letter telling me she was moving on to greener pastures so I will defiantly update on who moves in tomorrow or Tuesday.

I then took Kappn's boat to my island and spent some time talking to my islander Bliss a squirrel. She looks a lot like the villager Caroline in later Animal Crossing games

Villagers who have moved on now from Pringles consist of Puck, Rollo, Coco, Louie, Penny, Winnie, Huggy, Sandy, Vesta and Rhoda

Villagers who still live in Pringles are Bea, Sue E, Elmer, Hector, Gaston, Dizzy, Liz, Snooty, Savannah, Pango, Pecan, Bluebear, Hank and Chief

I had to delete my second town on my Mad Catz Memory Card, It kept getting corrupted. I bought a 59 Nintendo Memory Card for my other gamecube games on Amazon but I will defiantly scrap whatever money I can exchange for a gift card on Coin star to Amazon for another 59 Memory Card. I'm planning on naming my second town Forest, but if any other name pops up I will defiantly consider that.

Update in my town Pringles

It's been a while since I updated my town Pringles. Unfortunately I hadn't played Animal Crossing in like 8 months so when I re set up my Wii and put in the Animal Crossing game; I had tons of weeds all over my town. Rhonda had moved out, and so did Coco. My new villagers are Bea a dog and a pig whose name escaped me for a moment. I'll update later on.

The villagers were all wondering about my whereabouts so I spent yesterday running errands for them and also cleaning up the town. It's interesting how much Pringles hadn't changed.

I'll be playing Animal Crossing again but probably less often than I will because I'm currently back at Chabot College. Next semester I might be taking more classes so I dunno.

Oh well, it was fun revisiting Pringles again.

In Pringles Olivia moves out and a new neighbor Rhoda moves in

I hadn't played Animal Crossing the Gamecube for like 6 days. I logged on almost a week ago last week and got a letter from my neighbor Olivia. Olivia said farewell, and she would never forget me. Rhonda moved in on Wednesday, so I talked to her for a bit before I surveyed the town.

I noticed it snowed in Pringles and the ground is covered with white snow. The trees also have snow in them. Another thing I noticed about the trees is most of them that aren't fruit trees have Christmas lights on them. Toy Day is less than a week now and Sunday will be Christmas Eve. Jingle is supposed to come on Christmas Eve and you have to find him five times before he gives you an item. After you find Jingle five times, you have to change your shirt before you find him again to receive the Jingle furniture items.

I've already bought all the shirts I can for Jingle's night. They are all in my basement. I will be playing Animal Crossing on December 23, and 24th Christmas Eve

I'm excited

Rankin Bass Christmas Special: Nestor the Long Eared Christmas Donkey

I'm going to continue reviewing Rankin Bass's Christmas Specials on my Blog for the period of December, Besides blogging about my Animal Crossing towns.

Today's review, Nestor the Long eared Christmas Donkey. I do realize some people find this special depressing as hell, but I'm going to review it anyways. This is frequently airing on Freeform, formally known as ABC Family.

The special starts out with Santa Claus at the North Pole leaving with his reindeer to deliver presents on Christmas Eve. We are then introduced to our Narrator voiced by Roger Miller a donkey named Spiletoe who then talks about his ancestor Nestor the donkey who helped Mary and Joesph out during that First Christmas.

Nestor was a donkey who was born with long ears, much like similarly Rudolph was a reindeer born with a red nose. The other donkeys on the donkey farm as well as the other farm animals made fun of Nestor and his long ears. Even the donkey owner Olaf was a jerk and mocked him for being born different. The only person who truly cared for Nestor and was kind to him was his mother.

One night during a blizzard, some roman soldiers arrive at the Donkey Farm and purchase all the young donkeys including Nestor, that is until one of the soldiers notices Nestor's long ears and takes the rest of the donkeys for free leaving Olaf without money and with Nestor. Angry over loosing a sale Olaf cruelly tosses Nestor out into the snow and Nestor's mother's instincts kick in where she leaves her warm stall to search for her son. Nestor and his mother wander thru the blizzard where Nestor's mom digs a hole and Nestor lays in it with his mother covering him with her warm body. Tragically Nestor's mother dies that night.

The next morning the storm has ended and we see Nestor grieving over his mother's death. Her body is buried in a snowbank. Nestor is left alone and survives the winter by wandering thru the forest until he meets a cherub named Tilly. Tilly explains Nestor has a purpose and it will save a life, like his own mother sacrificed hers. They spend the spring, summer and autumn traveling to a place called Bethlehem. Nestor and Tilly arrive at a donkey seller's camp out in the desert with Tilly's instructions that he must wait here until he is ready. Nestor spends the remaining months being bullied by the other animals and mocked by them.

Then one night Mary and Joesph arrive at the animal farm in search of a donkey as Mary is expecting a baby that will take them to Bethlehem. The donkey seller tries to sell Nestor for a large sum of money, but after seeing pregnant Mary and receiving an unknown force the donkey dealer offers Nestor for free so they set out with Nestor guiding them and following a star.

Mary Joesph and Nestor get caught in a sandstorm and Nestor uses his large ears to hear the voice of the angels which successfully guides the donkey to Bethlehem. They arrive and Nestor takes Mary and Joesph to a stable where Jesus is later born. Nestor leaves the holy family and returns to his donkey farm where he is embraced by Olaf and the other animals.

The movie ends with Nestor saying Merry Christmas.

This special is very sad, especially with the part of Nestor's mother dying. I cried seeing it on television. Still it's a nice special that tells you God made you for a purpose. 7/10 stars

Update in Pringles, Sandy moved away Coco moves in

Today was the raffle so I logged on just for that, Sandy sent me a farewell letter no gift of course and said she was leaving because she wanted to travel more. I pulled weeds and talked to my neighbors. Hank is all ecstatic for Christmas.

I noticed a new neighbor moved into my village, Coco. Coco is a creepy looking bunny. I used up my raffle tickets in the raffle and won a Tennis NES game and a Dracula plant.

I like the raffle because everything is rare to get. You have to buy items at Tom Nook's store and get raffle tickets.

I noticed the grass is browner in the GC game and everything looks dead for winter, well except the fruit trees. But the trees leaves look brown and dull.

Tomorrow is the first of December, which in Animal Crossing is Snow Day.

Since December will be upon us tomorrow. I will be stocking up shirts from Dec 1 - Dec 24 for Jingle. Toy day is 25 days away

Sale Day in Pringles Animal Crossing

Today was Sale Day which is pretty much Black Friday in Animal Crossing on the fourth Friday of November. I visited Nook's this morning and bought all the goodie bags. In each goodie bag (which depends on the price of what year it is) there are three items, the items are random but they could be clothes, furniture, pinwheels, wallpaper and carpets. I got five pinwheels and the majority of items were clothes furniture wallpapers and carpets.

Crazy Redd made an appearance in my town tonight, I purchased all three items then left the acre. However instead of moving to a different acre it remained in the same position with Red out front. There is a glitch on Sale Day where if you buy all three items from Redd he will close his tent, then if you move a bit farther from his tent, it will vanish and reappear at a different spot with Redd not standing by his tent. He will be elsewhere. When you do find him you talk to him and he will vanish into a sign.

Anyways my third try succeeded in getting the glitch, however I couldn't find Redd anywhere. I ended my day in Pringles. I spent a lot of money today.

I'll play Saturday and get K.K. Slider's song, Sunday is the Fishing Tourney so I will be playing that.

December will be here before we all know it, the next event is Snow Day, followed by Toy Day on December 23. I will be writing throughout the month of December.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Today was Thanksgiving in Animal Crossing and since I was going to eat over at my aunt and uncle's place today I had to forward the time earlier than I anticipated to play.

In Animal Crossing Thanksgiving is the Harvest Festival and the object to get the Harvest Furniture is to find Franklin a turkey.

I really like the Harvest Festival in the GC version. The animals are gathered at tables and are drinking and having a great time. The tables are filled with food. One of the animals stands guard at the table where the forks and knives are kept, this year it was Hank who guards the table with the forks and knives. In City Folk they changed it so there are tables but they are empty with just the mayor standing guard. Also you have to give forks and knives to the villagers to get info on Franklin's whereabouts. New Leaf changed this so Franklin instead is now the chef. In the GC you didn't have to do that all you had to do was talk to villagers and their hints were what acre Franklin was at.

Franklin is pretty much in trouble, In Animal Crossing Gamecube and City Folk the mayor sends him a letter, however it's not to be the guest at dinner it's being dinner. The job of the player is to pilfer the forks and knives, Franklin believes without Forks and Knives the villagers can't serve him for dinner.
When you do retrieve the forks and knives Franklin will give you a piece of Harvest Furniture.

It took a while to find Franklin but I did manage to find him in the GC version. I completed the whole Harvest Furniture set and I got the cornucopia from Tortimer the mayor.

Tomorrow is Sale Day in Animal Crossing and next month December I will post of Toy Day (December 23) and Christmas Eve (December 24) with Jingle. I'll probably have to forward the time to 8pm to play like I did with the Harvest Festival, I might be spending Christmas Eve with some family members

Today in Pringles Winnie moved away and Penny moves in to stay

I started my game late tonight and received a letter from Winnie. She has moved from Pringles to greener pastures I guess....

I checked my map and a new resident moved in the same day, Penny who is a mouse. I had trouble finding her at first as she wasn't in her house. She seems friendly.

Now my villagers are currently Liz, Sandy, Pecan, Pango, Hector, Snooty, Hank, Dizzy, Gaston, Olivia, Savannah, Chief, Elmer, Bluebear and Penny

Former Villagers were; Louie, Vesta, Winnie and Rollo

Yesterday Crazy Red came to my town and I purchased a NES game from him and a Japanese statue. He's supposed to come on Sale Day, So I'm hoping he'll bring more NES games with him.

Thanksgiving which is called the Harvest Festival in Animal Crossing will be coming up in 5 days. I'm going to time cheat early because I will be unavailable to play until late at night. I'm spending the holiday visiting my aunt and uncle.

I also received a new song from K.K. Slider. He's a pretty cool dog!

Happy Birthday in Animal Crossing Gamecube

Today was my birthday in Animal Crossing, I was unable to play my New Leaf game due to my 3DS being broken so I played my Gamecube Animal Crossing instead.

I started my game at 9:30 AM and expected one of the animals who is logging me in to remember my birthday, not a word. However as I exited out of my house, Hank one of my close friends came up to me and gave me a present while wishing me a happy birthday. I opened this present and it was a Donkey Kong NES game. I then checked my mailbox which was stuffed full of letters, most of my animal neighbors sent me birthday greetings and they gave me presents. The presents consisted of shirts, furniture and some umbrellas. I also received a birthday cake from my virtual game mom.

I only played for like an hour in the morning and talked to Savannah, she didn't say Happy Birthday or anything. I also talked to Hank, Pango and Pecan no birthday greetings. Hank gets a pardon because he was the one who gave me the NES game and did wish me a happy birthday.

I sold the junky presents to Tom Nook, I kept the NES game and the birthday cake, currently they are in my house. I had no need for umbrellas clothes and useless furniture. It snowed today in Pringles

I played tonight for an hour and scanned the mailbox for more gifts, not any I could find.

Now we have almost a week till the Harvest Festival, I'm stoked for that

Got a new fruit and a song by K.K. Slider

I played Animal Crossing yesterday and got a surprise present from Snooty a peach, I had to pay 170 bells but It was worth getting that fruit. Now I only need apples, I have oranges, pears, cherries and peaches. When I create my next town I'll keep my fingers cross for apples.

I talked to K.K. Slider on Saturday night and he played K.K. Reggie for me.

Current villagers I have are Elmer, Liz, Pango, Pecan, Gaston, Hector, Winnie, Hank, Snooty, Dizzy, Bluebear Olivia, Savannah Chief and Sandy

Past Villagers I had were Vesta, Louie and Rollo

As my villagers move out, I'll keep track of who stays and who goes.

I'll also post of my birthday and what I did that day. The Harvest Festival is now two weeks away

Got a new neighbor in Pringles, donated a dinosaur track

I was unable to play Animal Crossing until last night, so I checked out my new neighbor, my new neighbor in Pringles is Elmer and he is a horse. They had posted on the bulletin board about the harvest festival. I donated a dinosaur track to the museum. Olivia offered to give me 512 bells if I could guess a correct answer to a question.

She didn't give me the money but she did laugh at her own joke. Also Hank was hinting about me visiting another town.

Since the Harvest Festival is in two weeks, I'm looking forward to that, It's also four days till my birthday so I've been trying to get close friendships with most of my animal neighbors.

I visited the Animal Crossing Blog and asked a question about Jingle giving a NES Game, the guy told me Jingle is supposed to give you one whether you talk to him or not. I'm thinking you have to log on Christmas morning but I dunno.

Oh well, Animal Crossing is a interesting game

The Little Drummer Boy Book II Review

Like the Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, The Little Drummer Boy Book 2 is another underrated Christmas Specials. It has it's flaws but it also is cute and is a sequel to the original Drummer Boy movie.

I prefer this one pretty much than the first because they have different voice actors voicing the king. In the original Little Drummer Boy, Paul Frees (a famous voice actor) voiced all three kings, Ali Ben Haramed's sidekick and Aaron's father

The film starts out with the Narrator voice by Greer Garson, The Little Drummer Boy named Aaron is approached by one of the kings who explains he has to travel to Jerusalem to seek out the bell ringer Simeon and tell him the news of the coming of a king. It is revealed Simeon made some bells out of silver just for that occasion.

Unfortunately Simeon looses the bells when the Roman soldiers arrive to collect his taxes. The leader Brutus takes the bells and leaves Simeon distraught.

Aaron and Casper arrive at Simeon's house and learn the bells have been stolen. They go out to search for it and stumble onto Brutus camp, Aaron tells Simeon and Casper he will go and distract the soldiers while his animal friends carry off the bells. After a hilarious song Money and then the reprise Brutus tells his henchman to start a fire and get the bells melted. The wood is all wet so Brutus takes Aaron's drum and two sticks and starts a fire with that.

If you didn't watch the original, Aaron's father and mother gave him that drum as a birthday present (it's thru a flashback) before they were killed by bandits who stole the family sheep. While Aaron weeps over the drum, Aaron's animal friends sneak into the camp and steal the bells back.

Of course Brutus finds out, but by then Aaron and the animals have escaped. The good guys hide the bells in sand dunes so the Roman soldiers can't find the bells. Later back in Jerusalem Simeon rings his bells and a song plays Do You Hear What I Hear. Aaron is gifted with another drum, which he uses to play with Simeon following him back to Bethlehem and he plays his drum to the baby Jesus.

Like the former, this is almost rarely played during the Christmas season, It's pretty sad they choose the original version compared to this. Whatever though. It's not my problem.

Check this classic out, it's on DVD on the Rankin Bass Holiday Favorites DVD with Pinocchio's Christmas, Leprechaun's Christmas Gold and The Stingiest Man In Town all three I will be reviewing this December

The Life and Adventures Of Santa Claus (1985) Rankin Bass Christmas Special Review

I'm going to post this earlier, First off this is an underrated Christmas Special which I prefer than the 2000 cartoon version. I understand a lot of people will disagree with my review, because Its the only version I like, I do not like the animated version at all, while the animated one is good, I personally hate it because it has nothing to do with Rankin Bass. I also hate the songs and the characters look awful

The Rankin Bass special however is timeless, the puppets and scenes are awesome, the villains look realistic and the songs are good, not bad but alright. I grew up watching Rankin Bass Christmas Specials every Christmas Season, some of the specials I watched was The Little Drummer Boy, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town and The Year Without A Santa Claus, I remember watching ABC Family's 25 days of Christmas and The Life and Adventures Of Santa Claus would pop on along with The Little Drummer Boy Book II, Pinocchio's Christmas, The First Christmas Snow and Leprechaun's Christmas Gold, the latter three were rarely aired on television.

We start out this special with a meeting in the Forest of Bursie, Great Ak tells the story of Santa Claus in front of a council. Apparently Santa Claus was discovered as a baby by Ak; He was abandoned in the snowy woods, on a winter day. Ak takes the baby to a lioness name Sheegra to raise, a fairy named Neceile hears about the baby and steals it. Necille goes to Ak who allows the immortal fairy to raise the child. Necille names the boy Claus. Claus grows up in the forest and as a young man Ak takes him around the world and shows him what humans are truly like

After witnessing child abuse, poverty and starvation as well as war,(Really dark stuff right?) Claus decides to live among the humans and become a toy maker, so he and Tingler (I forget what he is an elf) move into a village not far from the forest. Claus one day makes toy cats for some orphans, and that inspires him to give gifts of toys to children.

Unfortunally some villains called the Awguas, hideous looking monsters inhabit the valley, they steal his toy goods and wreak his attempts to getting the toys to the children, After a magnificent fight with a huge awesome dragon, the bad guys are defeated Claus gets his toys back and the children get their toys.

Immortals vs Villains

As the years pass, Claus gets older and decides to just give the toys on Christmas Eve, So he continues to this day giving toys to children. Ak finishes the story with a request of granting Claus immortality the gods agree, and Claus becomes immortal to continue his job working with children. Necille kisses him and Claus awakens as a new man.

Overall like I said in the Beginning this special is underrated and quite forgettable, I can understand why, It's from the eighties folks and this is probably the least popular Rankin Bass Special. However despite its flaws like cheap scenery and outdated stop motion. It's a favorite special of mine and I really appreciate it. Too bad Freeform or whatever ABC Family turned into doesn't appreciate it. 

It rarely airs on the network. Thank god for DVDS LOL :)

Rollo moves out, errands day in Pringles

So I started up the game today only to receive a farewell letter in my mailbox from Rollo, He said it pains him to leave but he had to go to greener pastures.

I played for twenty minutes today and helped my animal neighbors out, Snooty needed me to retrieve her handkerchief from Liz and Hank wanted me to get his Gameboy from Sandy. I also caught a fish for Dizzy, helped deliver clothes to Bluebear and planted flowers near Snooty and Gaston's house.

I don't know who will move in today or tomorrow, but I will update on that shortly.

Speaking of which, The Harvest Festival is only two weeks away and I cannot wait because I want to play and get all the harvest furniture.

On the other hand, I don't know about Jingle giving an NES game on Christmas. I watched a youtube video that a guy played Animal Crossing on Christmas and he didn't get Balloon fight. I asked an Animal Crossing gamecube blog about that so hopefully they can answer my question.

I'll update my progress tonight or tomorrow morning

My Gamecube Animal Crossing Town

As I've said before my Gamecube animal crossing town's name is Pringles, You also get your own island in the GC but you need to get a GBA Cable and a Gameboy Advance to connect to the island. I am planning on getting a GBA cable for Christmas with another memory card.

The villagers who live in Pringles are currently Hank, Dizzy, Gaston, Chief, Hector, Liz, Rollo, Pecan, Pango, Snooty, Winnie, Savannah, Sandy, Olivia and Bluebear. The Villagers who lived in my town and have since moved are Louie and Vesta.

My town fruit is oranges, but I got pears from Rollo and my virtual game Mom sent me a cherry a month ago so I planted them in different places. I just need apples and peaches and I'm thinking about creating a new town for that on a separate memory card.

One thing I like about this GC animal crossing game is you can have as many towns as you want with unlimited memory cards, unlike later games which require you to buy another game just to have a second town. It's very nice, The Game Cube AC also has large acreage unlike later games where you are confined to a town plot. I also prefer the Harvest Festival to Gamecube rather than City Folk and New Leaf, Franklin is much easier to find here and he sounds like he has a high voice rather than the deep voice he has in New Leaf and City Folk.

While Halloween is the hardest of all in GC out of the three Animal Crossing games, I still prefer the Gamecube version, I hated how New Leaf just lets you buy the furniture from Nook's store. I'd rather just go out with candy and work for it. City Folk also took the fun out of dealing with angry candy craving villagers.

I also like Christmas Eve in the Gamecube version as well, I like it's separate from Toy Day and how you have to find Jingle five times before you get an item and then you have to spend a couple of hours changing your clothes and trying to find him again and again for Jingle furniture.

Other Holidays I should mention are the Fireworks show which is the 4th of July, I really liked seeing the fireworks from the lake and getting pinwheels and balloons and fans from Redd (the fox) I also like the Cherry Blossom Festival, where the animal villagers get drunk, The Spring and Fall Sports Fairs, Morning Aerobics, and Valentine's Day. It's interesting that on Groundhog's Day Resetti will appear and predict the weather in the GC. One other holiday I like in the Gamecube version is the Koinbori it's not really a holiday but it's a reference to a Japanese holiday in Japan where children hang fish flags outside. It's really neat to see.

New Years Eve is also a huge holiday in Animal Crossing after the countdown and fireworks go off, If you leave the New Years party area the melody of Auld Lang Syne can be heard in the background. It is really awesome if you ask me. There is also Sales Day which is like Black Friday in Animal Crossing if you buy a goodie bag you can get a pinwheel, furniture wallpaper and or a carpet.

Overall it's not a bad game, It has its flaws but I have a soft spot for Animal Crossing Gamecube, It was something I grew up with