Jeremy Squirrel, star of The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn't

Happy Thanksgiving, to El Pasoans and cartoon fans everywhere!

Wondering what to do after your bellies are full of celebratory turkey or other comestibles? This is a great time to gather as a family and enjoy animation. So what are the options this year?

TV: Mostly the usual fare, no schedule changes, with one notable exception. Boomerang, at 5pm MST (following earlier morning airings), is running The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn't.  Thanksgiving specials never proved quite as enduring and evergreen as Christmas specials, perhaps not least because the mythology is less magical and has less room for variants, outside of adding talking animals. That applies to the best known Thanksgiving special, Rankin/Bass' Mouse on the Mayflower (sadly not on DVD).

However, it also fits this now obscure 1972 Hanna-Barbera special, a reasonably sprightly half-hour fictionalization of the "First Thanksgiving," complete with squaredancing Pilgrims, musical numbers, and a talking squirrel named Jeremy (naturally, wearing a tiny cute Pilgrim outfit). The voice work, as often with Hanna-Barbera, tends to outshine and compensate for the actual animation, featuring Hal Smith (Otis on The Andy Griffith Show and countless Santas in cartoons, sitcoms, and commercials), the legendary June Foray (Rocky the Flying Squirrel and countless others), Don Messick (Scooby Doo and Boo Boo), and radio actor Vic Perrin (radio's Gunsmoke, Escape, and the control voice on TV's Outer Limits). 

I initially neglected to mention that ABC is airing A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving at 7pm MST,  with its famous alternate dinner menu of toast, popcorn, and jellybeans (among others). At 4:30 MST, Cartoon Network West (for those who get it) is running The Bugs Bunny Thanksgiving Diet, one of several 1980s Looney Tunes compilation specials (clips and old cartoons with a minimal amount of new bridging material).  

Theaters:  In El Paso movie houses at least, one's options include Sony's Planet 51, which opened last week.  A sort of combination fish out of water/reversed expectations comedy, the computer animated feature spotlights an American astronout (the voice of the former "The Rock," Dwayne Johnson) who lands on a planet of green 50s suburbanite aliens. The little green men are panicked by this "monstrous" invader. Includes the inevitable scatological humor, garnering a PG rating. 

If one would rather get into the Christmas spirit early, there's still Disney's 3-D, motion capture epic A Christmas Carol. To this critic, however, it bears the same eerie problems of Robert Zemeckis' previous forays into motion capture (like The Polar Express and Beowulf) and there's little evidence that the venerable story has gained much by the technical additions, the overly complicated rendering of Tiny Tim's performance (with Gary Oldman's motion capture, child actor Ryan Ochoa's voice, and it seems *another* child for additional movements) or the gimmicky use of Jim Carrey. But the film is making money and the basic story of Scrooge's redemption remains unchanged, and families seem to be enjoying it. (However, my own recommendation would be Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol on DVD, or the non-animated Muppet Christmas Carol, a tradition in this household.)  

The best bet is likely The Fantastic Mr. Fox, which opens today. Based on a popular Roald Dahl book, albeit with a fair amount of revision, the stop-motion film's story still focuses on a fox and his attempts to provide for families and neighbors and conflict with a trio of cruel farmers. Director Wes Anderson, who incorporated some stop-motion (by Henry Selick) into his Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, helms his first fully animated feature. Anderson is certainly the auteur behind the project, since it bears his sensibility, he co-wrote the adaptation, and cast and directed the voices (mostly familiar Anderson actors like Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Jason Schwartzman, plus George Clooney in the title role and many others), but at least equal credit is due to animation director Mark Gustafson, a veteran of Will Vinton's Claymation days, who was the actual on-set director. The animal models look appealingly complex and fluffy, if perhaps too realistic. A full review should follow in a few days, but it 's certainly the most interesting movie, animated or otherwise, opening this week. Disney's return to drawn animation The Princess and the Frog gets an *extremely* limited release today in New York and at Disney's own movie house in Burbank, but is otherwise being saved for December 11.   

DVD: Of recent releases, the best bet hands down is Up. The DVD includes a bonus short starring Dug the dog, French and Spanish tracks, and other extras. It's the movie itself, however, that's a fine family or solo viewing experience, following the epic adventure of an old man and a chubby boyscout in the air and across South America.

Online: Finally, it seems appropriate, like every other cartoon website today, to link to Jerky Turkey, the 1945 MGM short by Tex Avery. Like all Avery shorts, it's manic, favoring gags and rapid pacing over characterization, with much communicated by characetrs holding signs. Voice impersonations (the turkey, likely played by radio actor Frank Graham, is a Jimmy Durante sound-alike) and references to meat rationing (the cartoon was likely finished before the end of WWII) date the cartoon but give one a glimpse into the time period. Is it a classic? Likely not, but it's fun. Due to somehow lapsing into the public domain, copies of variable quality have surfaced on dollar DVDs and YouTube for ages. Here's one of the better versions: