Happy Land of Hanna-Barbara Canada

Here's a great areal shot of the Hanna-Barbera section of Canada's Wonderland (sister park of King's Dominion)...

From Wikipedia: Hanna-Barbera Land opened in 1981 with three sections. The first section was Yogi's Woods, based on The Yogi Bear Show, which featured the attractions Balloon Race, Yogi's Cave, Boo Boos Buggys, and the Woodland Theatre (now the Playhouse Theatre). Scoobyville was the central town site, where a carousel and other attractions were included. On the opposite end of Scoobyville from Yogi's Wood was Bedrock, based on The Flintstones. Saltwater Circus was also in the section. In 1984, Smurf Village replaced Yogi's Woods; the section featured the newly popular Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Smurfs. A walk-through attraction, Smurf Village closed at the end of the 1992 season. For the 1993 season, the Smurf Village section of the park became Kids Kingdom. In 1998, KidZVille replaced the Kids Kingdom and its two rides, the "Kid's Castle Playland" and the "Jumbo Bumps" were renamed to "The Candy Factory" and the "Twizzler Twist" (and renamed again the next year to "Sour Cherry Blaster Twist"). Along with five new rides for KidZVille, "The Busy Little Town" was launched, and it included the characters from Nickelodeon's Rugrats series.[3] The Playhouse Theatre still had a Hanna-Barbera themed show, Scooby Doo's Scary School Daze.[3] On slower days, the Scooby-Doo walkaround character may venture through this section of the park. The Bedrock section of the park met its end soon after, being replaced by Nickelodeon Central in 2003. Only the bumper cars were kept, turned into the Rugrats Toonpike. The restaurant was de-themed, and turned into a Pizza Pizza. In 2010 Hanna-Barbera Land was replaced with Planet Snoopy.

  I had the fortune to visit the park in it's heyday back in 1986. I mostly remember the Smurf Village walk through attraction, which replaced Yogi's Cave and a live Smurf show that we saw.

My Week In Movies - You Shouldn't Hang Me On a Hook, Johnny. My Father Hung Me on a Hook Once. Once!

Johnny Dangerously (1984) As far as comedies go, this has got to be one of the all-time most unsung hilarious pictures ever made. A great cast led by Michael Keaton along with Marilu Henner, Joe Piscopo, Peter Boyle, Griffin Dunne and Dom Deluise...just to name a few...spoof 1930's gangster pictures. Now, most of us ain't really seen enough 1930's gangster picture to spot a good parody of one - but this movie is chock full of solid gags from beginning to end. As the film opens up we see a city street from the past. The subtitle at the bottom of the screen tells us it's 1935...and then a car in traffic runs over the subtitle causing it to crumble in the street. That's the first joke in the movie! The first time I saw it, I knew I was going to be hooked on the whole movie from minute one. I used to watch this great flick every chance I got on HBO back in the day. I hadn't seen it in a while, so it was great to revisit it and laugh myself silly. Look it up on Netflix Instant if you ain't ever seen it - or if you just need a good laugh.

An Extremely Goofy Movie (1999) Another under rated gem, the direct-to-video sequel to the also under rated A Goofy Movie from 1995, finds Goofy's son Max off the college where he butts heads with the big fraternity on campus. Goofy finds himself also on campus as a new student and falls in love with the school librarian. This is really a solid animated film, with no singing but plenty of groovy disco tunes take make up a pretty awesome soundtrack.

Winnie The Pooh (2011) Bob Howdy, this is a really good movie. I was excited to see it again as my theatrical screening last summer was severely dampened by a very obnoxious child in the row in front of us with even more obnoxious parents. I really enjoyed it a second time around and my kids once again laughed themselves uncontrollably. Afterwards Elias declared the movie "Hilarious" which is an honor he has only also bestowed upon "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs"...which he's seen 1 million times. Pooh's latest movie has a running time of 63 minutes, the actual movie itself wraps up at 57 minutes with the remainder of the time dedicated to a very creative credits sequence. It's honestly, a perfectly paced film. In some of the DVD bonus features, there are deleted scenes which the director said were cut because of pacing problems. If he put out a 63 minute movie, and removed stuff due to pacing...he should be in charge of editing every Hollywood movie from now on! Good stuff all around! See it.

The Tigger Movie (2000) So then we revisited Pooh's initial return to the big screen which I loved when it came out and I've seen it several times since. It's still a really good movie, the first time the Hundred Acre Wood gang was treated to a full-length narrative instead of shorter stories tied together. The problem with The Tigger Movie now, is that the 2011 Winnie The Pooh did such a perfect job of creating a newer version of Pooh and Co. that this older flim seems a little less sparkly than it did 12 years ago. Still, it's alot of fun with a pretty good story and an exciting climax plus original songs from Disney's original songwriting team, The Sherman Bros.

The Last Starfighter (1984) I borrowed the VHS of this flick from my buddy Joey Carwash about 15 years ago and have never watched it. In fact, I'm pretty sure I sold the tape at a yard sale somewhere along the line. Not to worry, Joey has the DVD now. I didn't watch his tape, and I hadn't watched it off my TiVo since I recorded it over a year ago. I finally broke down and watched it this week. It's one of those movies that really isn't very creative or interesting, but it just has a certain charm about it that makes it watchable and memorable. If nothing else, this movie is notable for being the last screen credit of the original Music Man himself, Robert Preston. It was also one of the first movies to deal with video games which was such a big deal back in the early 80's. I know I had first seen this when it came to HBO in `85, didn't think much of it then and quite honestly not that big of a fan now either.

The Smurfs (2011) There are chunks of this movie that are so dumb and have nothing to do with Smurfs, it's still kind of irritating that this is the best they could conjure up for iconic characters like Papa Smurf and the gang. Yet, there are some fun moments sprinkled throughout the picture and it has it's heart in the right place so for a PG rated family-friendly comedy, it's ok.

Finally, A Post About Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments

Folks, in case you didn't know... I loves me some Christmas tree decorations! Every year there are a few Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments that catch my eye, and I always intend to share them here and always forget. So this year I'm doing it, even if it's a little early for Christmas posts.

My favorite ornament this year is easily this really cool Caddyshack one. Mr. Gopher taking control of a subtley Christmas colored golf cart would make a fine addition to the South Family Christmas tree. This one is called "Pro Gopher" and it pretty darn cool. I don't think they've done a Caddyshack ornament before so that just makes this one all the neater. As every guy, I love that movie. When I was little, I used to keep my eyes peeled for it to come on regular TV so I could watch it because it was R rated and I just wanted to see that Gopher puppet so darn bad!



Last year, Hallmark did a National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation ornament of the Griswold's Home decorated with thousands of twinkling lights. When you push the button on it, the house lights up and it plays the Hallelujah Chorus. I was thrilled to score one as a gift last season and it's a fine centerpiece of our tree. This year, Hallmark captures the opening scene in the movie when Clark and family trek out into the wood and take home the biggest tree they can find. This keepsake also plays the theme song from the Christmas movie. In the end, you just can't go wrong with the Family Truckster immortalized in ornament form!

This is the other new ornament this year that I really like. I love when stuff is based off specific old Mickey Mouse cartoons. "Clock Cleaners" captures the iconic scene from the 1937 cartoon of the same name. This is one of the best vintage Mickey toons and this ornament is a real doozy. When you turn the little crank in the front, Mickey and Donald sway back and forth working on the clock while they whistle the same song used in the film. Goofy is on the back side, also animated. Really cool piece, but at $34.99 I don't see it being added to our tree this year.

Finally, this Smurfette ornament isn't necessarily all that exciting, but it's pretty cool that the Smurfs have been included in the line-up this year, and it's a real smurf not a 3D movie Smurf. Smurfette will only set you back $9.95 so she's a little easier to hang on your tree than the clock tower. Hopefully somebody else will put out a more gender neutral Smurf ornament. We ain't got a Smurf on our tree!

The Greatest Financial News of the Decade

My Week In Movies - Not Too Smurfy

The Smurfs 3-D (2011) The Smurfs movie looks pretty bad from the trailers. It's not actually as bad as it appears...but it's pretty darn close. The main problem with this movie is that the Smurf franchise deserves so much better than this. The movie starts off wonderfully in the Smurf village. Seeing the Smurfs in their town o' mushrooms with all the detail CGI provides over Saturday morning animation is really neat. Unfortunately, the Smurfs get sucked out of their village in the first 10 minutes of the film and by means of some magic portal, end up in the mysterious village of New York. Here the Smurfs meet Doogie Howser and the pretty girl from Glee and then it's all pretty much jokes and situations recycled from Alvin & The Chipmunks and numerous other recent kiddie movies. The "realistic" design of the Smurfs grows on you and works in the film. There are some funny and cute moments but mostly the entire production is bogged down by the sad fact that this was the best Hollywood could come up with for beloved characters that are 30 years old in this country...50 years in other parts of the world. Hank Azaria does a great job as Gargamel, capturing the voice from the cartoon down to a tee and he adds his own bit of silly humor to the role. The great Johnathan Winters provides the voice of Papa Smurf and Katy Perry adds a bubbly personality to Smurfette. While there are a handful of notable actors lending their voices to other Smurfs, the majority of the movie only centers on six Smurfs leaving the rest of the village to appear only briefly in the beginning and the end. It was neat seeing the Smurfs exist in actual three dimensions but the film fails at doing anything at all with the 3-D technology. Again, overall not a bad film but certainly a disappointment as a Smurfs Summer Blockbuster.


How To Eat Fried Worms (2006) This feels like it was made simply to try and make a few bucks off the popularity of kids books as movies....i.e. Harry Potter. Not much happens in this tale of a new kid at school who crosses paths with the school bully. They end up making a bet that the new boy will eat 10 worms and then it's just pretty much the kids coming up with gross ways to cook the worms. Silly, innocent fun - my kids liked it and that's who I rented it for!

Yogi Bear (2010) Third time seeing this flick and I gotta say I enjoy it more and more each time! This is probably the best cartoon-to-live action film that they've been able to make. It's faithful to the source material and they avoided adding in too much cynical & crude humor.

The Puppetoon Movie (1987) George Pal was the innovator of a film stop motion animation process known as Puppetoons, where he made cartoon shorts using materials other pencil and paper. The effect was the forerunner to films like Rudolph and The Nightmare Before Christmas. This movie is supposed to be a tribute to Mr. Pal but after a brief introduction scene featuring Gumby & Pokey the film just settles in for over an hour of old cartoons. Without any historical context or background information the toons start to run together and become rather bland. These sort of things work in brief 7 to 8 minute spots but a feature length presentation of them is hard to sail through.

July Movie Count: 16
Best New Movie: Winnie The Pooh
Best Rewatch: The Jungle Book
Worst Movie: The Puppetoon Movie
2011 Movie Count: 118

Homemade Smurfberry Cookies

The other day while we were out driving in the woods, we came across this very rare Smurfberry bush. We pulled over and smurfed a small basket full of the ripe berries. Sure Smurfberries are delicious to eat just by themselves, and of course we made some yummy Sarsaparilla with a handful of the berries but I was looking for something a little extra special to smurf. So I went up in the attic and dug out my great great grandmother's Smurf recipe book that she had discovered in her backyard among a patch of mushrooms....during World War I?!?

Anysmurf...the fact is Saturday we had a rare occasion where we had two social gatherings to go to so I decided to get a little creative and whip up some Smurfberry Cookies, since I can't stop talking about Smurfs. I had looked up a few Smurf cookie recipes online but they were all way too complicated so I just created my own. You can make these too. Here's what you'll need:

• 3/4 cup butter (softened)


• 1/2 cup sugar


• 1 1/2 cup flour


• 1 tsp. vanilla flavor


• blue food coloring


• Pomegranate Craisins


• Smurfs Breakfast Cereal
  

This recipe is simple to smurf. First, smurf the butter and sugar together and then add the vanilla. Then start to mix in the flour while adding dabs of blue food coloring. You'll want to wait till your mixture is mostly white before adding the coloring or you'll be adding blue to the buttery yellow and it won't look right.

While the mixture is forming into dough, sprinkle in the Craisins. I suppose you could use any ol' berry or fruit for this recipe. I went with Pomegranate Craisins because it's a flavor most people wouldn't identify right away and Smurfberries should taste unique and not just like blueberries or what have you. (I'm smurfing a story with these cookies people!)

While kneeding the dough, continue to add in as many Craisins as you wish and drops of food coloring. I added the blue coloring a little at a time because I didn't want the shade of the cookies to be too dark. I ended up adding enough so that the dough wasn't entirely blue, there were some swirls of white in there as well. I liked this look as it actually helps sell the visual idea of the blue and white design of the Smurfs.

Then at the last minute I had the idea to add a coating of Smurfs Cereal to the top of the cookies. Pour a little bit of cereal into a bowl, then when you roll small balls of dough for the cookies press them down into the cereal to pick up a few for a little crunchy blue and white coating on top.

Make sure your balls of dough are pretty flat to begin with. The dough didn't expand out as some recipes do and the second batch of cookies came out much better and cookie like than the first batch which is pictured above. Bake the cookies on a greased cookie sheet for 8 1/2 minutes at 375 degrees.

When they are done, let them cool for a smurf bit and then you'll have yourself a Smurfalicious Batch of Homemade Smurfberry Cookies. I think the Craisins did a good job as far as looking like a Smurfberry baked into a cookie and the light blue color swirled with the white evokes images of the Smurfs. The Smurf cereal on top is just a nice unique touch and another way to work the Smurfs into the cookies.

I made two containers of the cookies to take to our two parties. I also added in a bed of blue and red Stauffer's Smurf Crackers which are kind of hard to find in stores...so I went to their factory in York, PA and bought some directly from them. (Is that sad?) (That was a separate adventure and nothing to necessarily do with my homemade project.)

It's No Smurfberries

The other day I was pretty smurfed off when I went to not one but two grocery stores and didn't find a single bit of smurf merchandising for the new movie. I mean Smurfs are blue - that's like the big thing about them. How easy is it to just put out a blue version of whatever product you make and slap a Smurf sticker on the package and stick it out there!? Well, apparently there IS a Smurf cereal out there...I just haven't found it yet. Now I have to spend the whole weekend going to the other grocery stores in the area looking for it. Great!

The strange (yet cool) thing about this cereal is that's it' almost like Post Cereal is saying, "Hey! We realize the filmmakers smurfed up the design of the Smurfs."


"So flip the box over and here's the way the Smurfs are supposed to look!"



Well played, Post. Although If I were a cereal executive (and I so should be) I would have just put Smurfberry Crunch back out on the market. It too would be available in two versions: the kind that doesn't make your poop turn purple and the retro box which does do the trick.

Proper Smurfing

A few weeks ago I ended up watching the premier of Matthew Perry's new show, Mr. Sunshine. Normally, I wouldn't have had any interest in the program but the previews kept showing a shot of somebody punching somebody in a Smurf theme park costume. Well, if you're going to take the time to work a Smurf into your show than the least I can do is watch it. Well, the first episode didn't have a Smurf and I was felt pretty used after sitting through the show. After the case of "bait and Smurf" I never watched the show again. Thanks to the internets, I found out that the Smurfs finally did make their appearance. On the show, Perry's character runs a giant events arena and Smurfs On Ice was booked. Here's a clip from the show, even though it features Allison Janney smacking Papa Smurf's blue rump - it's alot more respectful to the Smurfs property than a certain live action film we discussed earlier this week.

Unsmurfy

First, let's take a look at the new trailer for the upcoming live action Smurfs movie - then we'll discuss...



Here's my beefs:
1) Sending the smurfs to modern day New York City isn't a totally terrible idea (it certainly isn't an original idea) but that's a plot that should be saved for a #3 sequel. You don't jump right out of the gate with the old "sent to the real world" plot. They did it with Fat Albert, Bulwinkle and at least a few others and it just doesn't work. Star Trek did it well, but they waited until their 4th film before they sent the crew to modern day San Francisco. The Smurfs in New York is just not a terribly great way to start off a potential movie franchise.

2) Was there really not enough Smurfs to pick from that the new filmmakers had to create a new Smurf? You may have noticed in the trailer a Smurf wearing a kilt and sporting a Scottish accent. That would be the new Gutsy Smurf. Sure. That's necessary.

3) Don't sexualize Smurfette. I know everyone has always made jokes about one Smurf girl and 98 male Smurfs, but seeing Smurfette's dress blow up like and the other Smurfs ogling her is just kinda gross.

4) The new Smurfs are ugly! The original Smurf designs created by Peyo, a Belgian comics artist, 50 some years ago are masterpieces of simple cartoon character artwork. These new 3D Smurfs are, again, kinda gross. They are not cute at all.

Still, as Smurfs are deeply ingrained in my being - I'm looking forward to seeing this movie and judge first hand what they've done with the property. My 7 year old has already suggested that after we see the new movie we come home and watch the older animated film The Smurfs and the Magic Flute to see how a real Smurf movie is made. That's a Smurfy idea!

Smurfs Ahoy

It's been a little over a year since we last mentioned my all-time favorite amusement park ride, Smurf Mountain. You know, the super slow train ride though a mountain to visit the village of the Smurfs at Kings Dominion!? Well, as I'm sure we've mentioned before, Smurf Mountain had a sister ride at Kings Island in Ohio called Smurfs' Enchanted Voyage. It was basically the exact same ride except you traveled through the scenes in a boat. I was lucky enough to take a ride on the Smurfs boats back in 1988. Well, Smurfs Enchanted Voyage is no longer with us. It's joined the big mushroom in the sky along with Smurf Mountain and Smurf Island at Carowinds and Smurf Forest at Canada's Wonderland. Somebody recently posted a very smurfy video of a few minutes of the Ohio ride. It's awesome to see again...

Smurf The Halls

`Tis the Season to be Smurfy! With the Smurfs set to make a splash next summer on the big screen, Smurf merchandise is starting to pop up all over the place this holiday season. The little blue guys have been missing in action for quite sometime, but have slowly been making a comeback on the pop culture landscape. This Christmas season, Macy's department store has enlisted the help of Papa Smurf as their official Christmas Ambassador. I'm not sure what that exactly means, but I know it's cool because it involves smurfs! Macy's even has a Smurf Gift Card (pictured here) available for your gift giving needs this December! Speaking of shopping, we thought we'd smurf up a whole mess of Smurf goodies that you'll be able to smurf in someone's stocking this year!
Of course, the fun begins at Macy's where you can pick up this exclusive plush, the 2010 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Holiday Smurf Toy with Finger Puppets. This would make a fine addition to any home's Christmas decorations. Standing at almost 20 inches high (I'm not sure how that relates to three apples high!?!) this Christmas smurf is sure to Smurf up your holidays! Macy's also has a 2010 Thanksgiving Day Parade snowglobe which features the Smurf balloon among many others in it's dome.

Elsewhere in the mall, you'll be able to find more smurfy goodness at Spencer's Gifts. They have two sets of Smurf glasses, in regular sized 16oz. sizes and also they have a set of four shot glasses. Both really cool gifts that are kind of reminiscent of the old Smurf glasses from Hardee's many moons ago. At Spencer's you might also be able to dig up a Smurf air-freshener, which I grabbed and it really smurfed up the entire car!



At Old Navy you'll find lots of cool retro metal lunchboxes including this one featuring the likeness of a one Mrs. Smurfette. It even has a thermos inside. Well played, Old Navy...well played! They also have some Smurfette shirts for the smurfette in your life.



And scrolling through Amazon, I stumbled across these awesome Smurf Mega Blocks sets. There are a few different ones to choose from and I'm happy to say my wife approved the purchasing of the largest set to arrive at our home. We're going to build us one Smurfin' carnival!

All this smurfy goodness has made me just realize something....Smurf Happy Meal next summer! Holler!

Off The Mark 6/23

Smurf Movie

I've been really excited about the new Smurfs movie coming out next summer. From what I've been reading, the movie was supposed to take the Smurfs and give them a big budget, Lord of the Rings style trilogy. From the looks of this first trailer for the film, which comes out next summer, it looks more like we'll be getting another movie in the Garfield/Alivn & The Chipmunks/Marmaduke category instead. Bummer!

I've still got my hopes up for Yogi Bear!

The Best Cartoon Video Games

Hey! Did you know that I like classic cartoon characters!? I like them in my movies, I like them on my breakfast cereal, and I like them in my video games. More often than not, a cartoon based video game is slapped together quickly - sometimes the game doesn't even have anything to do with the cartoon. For instance, Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular where you have to help Snoopy and his brother Spike carry a stack of pizzas over a finish line...in Italy?! Other times, cartoon gaming experiences are pure joy! Here's some of the best video games based on cartoon properties that I've ever played...

The Little Mermaid (NES) Here's a game where you'd think it was going to be only for four year old girls. But instead, the great game developer Capcom created this multi-level intricate platform game where you swim Ariel through six levels of undersea peril. This was the first video that I played all the way through and beat. That was about 20 years ago and I still talk about it...pretty sad, eh?

Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (NES) Here's another Capcom Disney game that I beat. Based on the Disney Afternoon series of the same name, this game allowed two players at the same time running through the city and picking up and trowing everything in sight. This was a fast paced game with alot of tricky obstacles and challenging enemies. Even though the cartoon show took some liberties with the Chip `n Dale characters, the video game stayed very true to the spirit of the show. Just don't get me started on how we all got gypped out of a Rescue Rangers movie.

Popeye (Arcade) This might be the first arcade video game to feature a classic animated character and I think most video game aficionados would agree that Popeye is one of the all-time classic old school games. Popeye has to catch the little hearts that Olive Oil is tossing out. He's got to catch them before they reach the water at the bottom of the screen. Standing in Popeye's way is his ol' nemesis Bluto. Luckily, Popeye can always grab a can of spinach and punch Bluto square in the face, or he can hit a punching bag and drop a bucket on Bluto's head. The game even works the obscure Sea Hag character into the mix! Even the cartoons forgot about the Sea Hag!

Donald Duck in Goin' Quackers (Playstation/PS2) This game really blew me away because it's just as challenging and complex as any Mario Bros. game you'll ever play. There's level after level of frustrating situations to make Donald mad. One of the neatest features of this game is that they worked in the animation of Donald's trademark temper tantrum. There's also a full cast of supporting characters from Donald's hometown of Duckburg. An all around really well-done game that took me months to beat...but I did it!

B.C.'s Quest For Tires (Commadore 64) Perhaps the best game ever that you can play with the arrow keys on your keyboard. Thor the caveman must ride his stone unicycle while jumping over rocks, animals and holes in the ground all on his way to save his girlfriend from an evil dinosaur. Good times! A better game has never been put on one of those gigantic black floppy discs.

Sorcerer's Apprentice (Atari 2600) Mickey Mouse has starred in at least a dozen video games over the past few decades, this is one of the earliest and the only one I've ever really gotten into. Based on the sequence from the 1940 film Fantasia, this primitive game was made up of two screens. The first, pictured here, involves Mickey shooting and catching stars. I never really got this stage and never spent much time playing it, but if you exit the screen to either side you got to the meat of the game. On the other screen you had to stop the walking brooms from making their way to the bottom of a staircase and dump their bucket of water. The more brooms you missed, the higher the water lever rose in the room. Quick, simple game play that was also addictive and fun. (There's a new Wii game around the corner called Epic Mickey that looks pretty darn cool!)

Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (Colecovision/Atari 2600) You have no idea how bad I wanted this game when I was younger! After years of lusting over it, I finally got to play it on a neighbor's Colecovision. It was pure video gaming heaven for this young Smurf fan. Not only does this game incorporate the world of the Smurfs into it, the game is made up of the greatest basic objective in all of video game history: run through a forest, jump over things, collect things. It's all as simple as that! Later on in high school, somebody mentioned that they had this game and I made them dig out their old Atari games and find it for me so I could finally sit and play it. Another check-off on my bucket list! (Here's a link to the old commercial.)

The Simpsons: Road Rage (PS2/Game Cube) The Simpsons have had a long career in video games since the show debuted 20 years ago. I remember playing a game called Bart vs. the Space Mutants quite feverishly back in the day, and The Simpsons arcade game stands out as a classic. But I really loved this 2003 variation of the hit game Crazy Taxi. Road Rage is almost the same game except that it's filled with The Simspsons brand of humor and wonderful cast of characters. The game looks an awful lot like the TV show and you get to drive around town exploring all the nooks and crannies of Springfield. Probably one of the games I've logged the most hours on in my adult years.

Tiny Toons 2: Trouble in Wackyland (NES) In my book, when you mix amusement parks with video games there is much goodness to be had. Using a theme park as it's center, this game was a collection of mini-games based on different theme park rides. There was a roller coaster game, bumper cars, a train ride, and a log flume. They were all pretty addictive, if I recall correctly. I'm not sure how well the game captured the spirit of the Tiny Toons cartoon but it sure was a fun game.

The Flintstones: Rescue of Dino & Hoppy (NES) Like others on the list, The Flintstones have popped up in more than one video game. This Nintendo game was my favorite as it was built around the simple side-scrolling platform engine that I've come to adore in video games. Of course you've got Fred and Wilma and the whole cast of characters from one of my all-time favorite TV shows and there's lots of rocks and boulders to smash. I don't think I ever got past the end of level 2 where you had to beat Joe Rockhead at a game of basketball. Thanks Joe Rockhead!

Darkwing Duck (NES) Finally one last fantastic Disney Afternoon inspired game from the folks at Capcom. Darkwing Duck was a show I really enjoyed and I loved the video game just as much. I consider this one of my all-time favorite video games. The game play is so smooth and fun, with lots of things to shoot at and grab hold to and jump on and over...it's just alot of fun. The game also incorporated the entire world of the show very nicely. I easily burned way too many hours playing this in my Community College days. Tell well spent if you ask me!

Please share with us any toon games you've loved over the years...

We're Finally Going In!Vintage Kings Dominion Video

I'm not usually a big fan of any video on YouTube over 3 1/2 minutes long. But this video of Kings Dominion, which clocks in at near 10 minutes, is pretty darn awesome and I just had to share it.

The poster, KDFanPre91, took some old home video, slides and television commercials and edited them together into a tribute to the Virginia theme park pre-1991. There's several videos posted, each spotlighting a different section or two of the park. The video here is for International Street, Hanna-Barbera Land and Lion Country Safari. You'll see some great footage of the International Street fountains; the walk-around characters like Fred Flintstone, Yogi Bear and even Hong Kong Phooey; and the old Monorail Safari ride...plus there's some great TV commercials sprinkled in (none of which I've found on YouTube before!)

If the video is too long for you, you can just scan through it and get the idea. There's a front seat POV of the Scooby-Doo Roller Coaster that's a bit long...it runs from 3:25 to 4:53 if ya wanna skip it. But make sure you don't skip past 5:59, for there you'll get almost one full minute of glorious footage inside my all-time favorite ride: Smurf Mountain! I've searched the internets high and low for some video of the interior of this attraction and this video gives you a good look inside the ride. It's pure Smurfy goodness! Enjoy...