I’m putting together a box-o’-fun for my mother’s birthday coming up – all DVDs of exclusively cartoons and Pixar-type CG movies. I’ve got the movies covered – stuff like Nightmare Before Christmas and Happy Feet (she’s seen that one, but loved it) but I need a lot more cartoons. I’ve got to get these things shipped off in a couple of weeks and my brain is frozen – I’ve got Spongebob, Fairly Oddparents and a single Futurama, the latter because Futurama might(? – haven’t seen it in a while) be too crammed with contemporary pop culture references, and she’s not extremely savvy with that stuff. She’s very intelligent and loves sharp wit and slapstick humor. I so want to get her Courage the Cowardly Dog – but that’s apparently only available in a complete set of all shows. Stuff like South Park is a bit too scatological (it’s my mom, after all!)
Any help? I’ll preview them if I can, but I trust the Dopers. If this should be in My Humble Opinion, please move it – sorry!
Invader Zim. My kids and I both think it’s hilarious. It only ran for 1 1/2 seasons and was just finding it’s audience when Nickelodeon canceled it. It’s sharp and smart and silly all at the same time. It’s about a really incompetent alien invader and his elementary school nemesis.
A couple of good episodes:
“Walk for Your Lives” – Zim builds a time machine. When it malfunctions and blows up, it explodes reeeeeealy sloooooowly … .
“Megadoomer” – Zim’s leaders accidentally send him a giant battle mech. But batteries aren’t included. Mayhem ensues.
Got work cut out for me here. Independent/foreign shorts and features are great too. I might break the “silly” rule for another I thought of, Fantastic Planet.
My daughter got me a boxed set of Cowboy Bebop episodes, and the movie, too. However, we had watched various episodes on cable TV, and we enjoyed them, so she already knew that I liked that show.
If you can’t think of any more movies or cartoons, then include some gourmet popping corn and some popcorn oil and seasonings. Or some hot cocoa mix. Land O Lakes sells some very nice cocoa mixes, available in single serving packets.
If she likes the old Warner Brothers stuff I suggest “Oggy & the Cockroaches”, it was done in France but the plot lines are simple enough that no language is needed plus the Cockroaches are named after the Ramones!