When I was a kid, I loved the cartoon series entitled The Wacky Races. Goofy cars driven by goofy characters, with silent-movie pratfalls and stereotypes galore. Penelope Pitstop and Dick Dastardly and Muttley. For me, there was no greater pinnacle of greatness. But what did I know? I was a young'un at the time.
Fast forward a few decades and I hear the announcement that there would be a deeveedee boxed set of The Wacky Races. I drooled. I couldn't wait to buy my very own copy of every single episode of my beloved childhood favorite. And then, on one of the basic cable stations, they announced a Wacky Races marathon.
It was awful. Bad animation. Awful comic timing. Annoying laugh track. Insipid, derivative stories. It was painful, painful, painful to behold. But it saved me thirty or forty bucks. Needless to say, I passed on adding The Wacky Races to my deeveedee collection.
My all-time favorite cartoon used to be Disney's Pinocchio. But that has been recently dethroned by Spirited Away, a movie I've seen at least every few months since it came out, with increasing delight each and every time. Everything about Spirited Away is something I love. It's not only my favorite cartoon feature, it's one of my favorite movies, period.
There's also a science fiction anime called Paprika with takes my breath away. Wonderful, very adult animation, and a really neat piece of sci-fi on top of it all.
