Curly cartoons

Daria-Jodie and Mac

La-la-la-la-la….la-la-la-la-la.

Don’t pretend ya’ll don’t know what I’m talking about! Ok maybe some of you don’t. I’ll be 30 in a few days so I have to remember that I’m getting into the the “I remember when…” part of life.

Daria, one my all time favorite shows on MTV, had a large cast of characters that represented (however satirically) both suburbia and high school life. Among those characters, you know they had to have the “token” black folks. Enter Jodie and Mack.

Jodie, an ambitious and overachieving student, and Mack, her laid-back, intelligent football player boyfriend, add to the witty (and often cynical) dialogue and  plots of the show.

Often commenting on their token status at school, these two both have natural hair styles. I’m assuming that Jodie is wearing a cornrowed braided style and Mack has dreads.

Super Readers-Princess Pea/Presto

Thanks to PBS for this wonderful show! The computer animated Super Readers help children learn the foundations of reading and enjoying a good story.

From the PBS website:

Quirky and slightly clumsy Princess Pea, the daughter of Prince Charming and Princess Priscilla of The Princess and the Pea, is a princess in training. She carries a pretend wand, travels in a rhinestone-studded coach, and takes dance classes with such royalty as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Although known to be a bit of a “drama queen,” Pea has a good heart and always speaks her mind. And, yes, Princess Pea loves to eat Peas!

Princess Pea transforms into the spectacular Princess Presto. Dressed in her beautiful ball gown and sparkling crown, she twirls in, to the rescue! Waving her Magic Spelling wand, she helps kids write letters to spell words and make objects magically appear. For example, Princess Presto might spell “dress” to get Cinderella ready for the ball or spell the word “open” to make a drawbridge open the door to the giant’s castle. She also asks viewers to identify sounds that a letter makes before writing it. Although a bit clumsy at times, Princess Presto has a great sense of humor. And, when it comes to spelling and writing, with the assistance of the home viewer, Princess Presto can help save the day!

She’s just an adorable little character. I was also able to find a lot of merchandising surrounding this character. Here’s a doll and a costume, which I’m sure some little girls would just love.

Jem! – Shana

A lot of people don’t remember this cartoon but it used to be hot stuff in my house as a little girl. Jem was a show about a female rock group who’s lead singer was an alter ego of a record company owner produced by a hologram machine. Whew! Not 80s enough for you? (What is it about holograms and the 80s?)

The members of the band all also had huge, unnaturally colored hair.

Yes, Shana was indeed truly…truly… truly outrageous. She was a guitarist and drummer for the band, as well as a fashion designer. Her hair color might not have been natural, but that is definitely a fro! And for those who say natural ladies can’t attract men…well Shana never had any problem.

I loved this show. I tried to watch some of it the other day on YouTube and it’s totally lame now, but back in the day…? No contest I still think the concept is cool and I love the clothes they wore. Work it, Shana!

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Avatar, the new special effects monster among movies, features a race of aliens called the Na’vi who have blue skin and braided hair. I’ve been wanting to see this because it’s been a long time since I’ve been wow’d by special effects and it’s gotten decent reviews.

However, I was surprised that some people were offended by the fact that the aliens wear braids. I’m all for getting offended, I do it all the time…but over this? It’s not like they are nasty looking (Ok, the male alien looks a hot mess, but I think he’s supposed to be a human in disguise). They are supposed to be the “good guys” in the movie. The braids look really nice from the pictures I’ve seen.

What’s your opinion? You ladies always have such an intelligent perspective on things and voice ideas I never would’ve thought of. Is there something that I’m missing here?

Edit 1/4/10:

I saw the film and absolutely loved it! Add me to the list of people who are not offended. The whole movie was a treat for the eyes.

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I really enjoyed this movie and was grinning the whole time. This was my son’s first movie at the theatre, and though he was a little hesitant at first, he settled in and really enjoyed it. He even got up and started dancing during one of the songs.

Prince Naveen’s race did not bother me at all. He’s not Hispanic, he’s from a mythical kingdom somewhere. He is definitely brown, not just olive skinned. The pictures that I’ve seen all make him look much lighter than he is. He’s a source of a good deal of the humor in the movie.

Tiana is a wonderful character!  Extremely hardworking and needs no man to help her get to her dreams.From an aesthetic point, I loved her clothes and she’s just plain pretty!

As I suspected in this post, Tiana’s father,though he dies early on in the film, is a big source of her courage and determination.

I know a lot of people were concerned about the voodoo in the film and how it would appear stereotypical, etc. Well, I’m from the South and the fear of voodoo is real in some areas. Don’t be mad at me if you live in the South and never had any voodoo talks with anyone. I was brought up to be aware of it and my grandmother would go in to specifics.

New Orleans was shown in a very positive light. The city was clean, the citizens were mostly African American and well dressed. And, of course, there is an abundance of Jazz.

Actually, the only place where I saw that anyone could get offended was the brief appearance of a group of  backwoods Cajun people who were really over the top.

The music was okay. It doesn’t seem like any of these newer Disney films have the same draw of the films from the early 90s as far as music is concerned. But there were probably 2 of the songs that I really enjoyed (and apparently for DS too since he got up to dance to one of them).

The humor in the film was decent. I know what makes a lot of children’s films so popular is that they also appeal to adults. I did chuckle a few times though.

If you have a younger child, there are some scary parts in the movie. I won’t go into detail, but my son has been talking about “the monsters get da frog” since we got home LOL!

After it was all said and done…I couldn’t see the big deal. It was a movie. It was for enjoyment, and it was (as my husband said) for Disney to make money. My son and I had a good time watching it together, just as we do any other film.

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The date is slowly approaching! I found these clips on Youtube and had to share.

This one shows the first few minutes of the movie after a brief intro from some of the creators.

A brief featurette, meet some of the characters:

One of the musical numbers:

Whew, I can’t wait. The more I look at Tiana, though, the more I don’t think her hair is meant to appear “natural” as a lot of people thought. It has a slightly wavy appearance…hmm I don’t know. I guess beggars can’t be choosy, right?

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