Daniel Mouse Went Down To Georgia

The Devil and Daniel Mouse was a Halloween special produced by Nelvana and first aired on CBS on October 5th 1978. It's an adaption of the short story 'The Devil and Daniel Webster'. I made a point to be informative at first because it's slightly obscure now. This is the information super highway, right? Daniel and Jan mouse are folk musicians struggling to get by when one night at the peak of their struggles Jan makes a deal with the devil while Daniel is away. She signs her soul away for fame and success and becomes a huge star leaving Daniel behind.

I know, this has never worked out in the past, but to her credit, she doesn't realize it's the devil she's talking too. Somehow. All is going well before she realizes who her new agent is actually when he comes to claim her end of the bargain. She runs away and finds Daniel and begs him to help. Daniel represents her in court and you've probably figured out the rest. It's a retelling of an old story that's been redone a million times. This particular version though is pretty cool. Despite the cute animal characters, the devil and assorted imagery are still pretty scary.

Taking place in the 70's, they change from hippy folk music to hard rock really driving home the thematic change. There's such a change in tone from the folksy innocent Daniel and the newly glam Jan that I can't help to see it as commentary from the production crew. I do suppose it was a pretty stark change from flower power to gritty and glam. Either way it's a pretty unique little cartoon that may not be specifically pumpkin spicy as a Halloween special, but works tonally.

originally posted 9/9/21 

Weekly Halloween: Vampires at the Park

 

I've mentioned the Satanic Panic that was running rampant during my childhood before... and that's why I can't hear this song without strongly thinking about it. Add in the particular dramatic nature of teenagers and you've got probably one of the most ridiculous things one could be afraid of. Everyone is accustomed to the goth kids in high school, but they're a little bit of an oddity still when you're only in elementary. Headbangers? Oh yeah, you knew about those. Punks and Goths? That took a little growing to understand more. So there I was in the era of Satan around every corner and everything being a satanic message. For the record, I also had a teen-aged brother and his friends filling me about things. 

I knew about the cult that sacrificed people in the woods behind school (that one may have been real), and how Dio stood for Devil Inside Out (no really). Those kids in all black at the park? They were vampires. They worshiped the devil and drank blood. The guy who worked at the Circle K who was really into Ozzy Osbourne also worshiped the devil and drank blood, however wasn't a vampire. Just really evil. So here I was, a kid (those aren't easily scared, are they?) being told the honest truth about all these horrors going on all around me. 

Then the Lost Boys came out and that teen-aged brother and his friends? They might have been into the new hot movie for teenagers that just came out. With a popular song and music video! Lou Gramm may look fancy with his poofy man perm, but that's pure terror in that music video. Scenes of that movie with vampires that look like those kids at the park. Lou Gramm and ... whoever that kid is... stuck on the trailer from King of the Road with a bunch of ... are they vampires?

My point is that it terrified me for a few weeks there. I'd like to say it left me traumatized... but I was a kid and moved onto other things that was apparently also satanic. Before I went through my own all black clothing phase, I was also apparently satanic. This though was because I was a weird kid and liked scary stuff. Why the hell do I look back fondly on my childhood again?

Shout at Mtv

Long before Motley Crue was the official band of mid life crises they were known for worshiping the devil. This was also in that long fabled time when Mtv played music videos. Which at this point we're all tired of hearing about. Back in those draconian days Mtv had a lot of fun during the holidays. Since they had a pseudo satanic band ready to do anything, why not offer them as a prize for a Halloween contest? This old commercial of theirs shows off the spooky shindig complete with scary monsters and super cocaine freaks. I'm pretty some people didn't made it out alive.

Halloween: The Night Michael Landon Came Home

We've been celebrating Halloween since the beginning of August here on Planet Zone. As we're now officially in October, so is everyone else! We've only got one more month of pumpkin spice mayhem and we're gonna dig through the ditches and burn through the witches. I take pride in turning up the spooky sound tape a little louder each year and this year we're blowing the roof off the Spirit Halloween.

Highway to Heaven was a show starring Michael Landon as an angel sent back to Earth to save souls. Michael Landon was also born on Halloween and celebrated the spooky shit out of it. In this Halloween special edition, Johnathan's partner Mark gets in trouble with the devil. No seriously, he runs over a kid and gets tricked into selling his soul to save said kid's life. Michael enlists the aid of a con man whom he currently is trying to save from an eternity in Hell. Speaking of Hell, the Devil shows up and all Hell breaks loose. I would say it doesn't get any crazier than this... but it will later this month.

Daniel Mouse Went Down To Georgia

The Devil and Daniel Mouse was a Halloween special produced by Nelvana and first aired on CBS on October 5th 1978. It's an adaption of the short story 'The Devil and Daniel Webster'. I made a point to be informative at first because it's slightly obscure now. This is the information super highway, right? Daniel and Jan mouse are folk musicians struggling to get by when one night at the peak of their struggles Jan makes a deal with the devil while Daniel is away. She signs her soul away for fame and success and becomes a huge star leaving Daniel behind.

I know, this has never worked out in the past, but to her credit, she doesn't realize it's the devil she's talking too. Somehow. All is going well before she realizes who her new agent is actually when he comes to claim her end of the bargain. She runs away and finds Daniel and begs him to help. Daniel represents her in court and you've probably figured out the rest. It's a retelling of an old story that's been redone a million times. This particular version though is pretty cool. Despite the cute animal characters, the devil and assorted imagery are still pretty scary.

Taking place in the 70's, they change from hippy folk music to hard rock really driving home the thematic change. There's such a change in tone from the folksy innocent Daniel and the newly glam Jan that I can't help to see it as commentary from the production crew. I do suppose it was a pretty stark change from flower power to the gritty and glam. Either way it's a pretty unique little cartoon that may not be specifically pumpkin spicy as a Halloween special, but works tonally.

The Car's Carbon Footprint Is Murder

Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman. These are names likely to come to mind when thinking about Universal Monsters. There's one forgotten monster from the studio that just... look, can we forgo the clever introduction? I just wanted to talk about The Car. The Car is a movie about an evil car that just murders anybody for no reason given aside from it's possibly demonically possessed. Maybe.

Lost in the Shadows

The Lost Boys came out when I was in elementary school and was serious business. The terrifying nature of teenagers to a dorky kid was scary enough despite being vampires. Did I mention satanic panic was rampant in our area? I'm not sure if you realize it, but Satan was behind every corner in the 80's somehow. Even at the Circle K. I saw him there once.

I'm not joking, this is serious business. There are satanists sacrificing kids (like me) in the woods and those kids in black coats on the bus are vampires. My brother totally seen them kill somebody, he told me. OMG what am I going to do? Now I've got to deal with vampires? Crap. Why are there vampires? Don't even get me started on the haunted house down the street. I saw that guy who lives the other day and he's been watching me. I heard he was satanic, what if he's the lead vampire?

I am so screwed.

Go! Greenman! intro

Greenman probably one of the catchiest theme songs of it's era. As I've noted before how my mind drifts more towards horror and monsters in summer, and Greenman has some really crazy monsters. A good bit of suit recycling goes on in this series too, most notably Gaira and Minilla, it really has a great roster of kaiju sent by Maoh (also known as Satan) to collect the blood of human children (no, really). Considering Greenman is a robotic envoy of God, sent to protect the children from the devil who wants their blood and uses monsters to obtain it... this is probably the most Halloween thing ever.

Mark of the Battle Beast

of course he's fire

As winter turns into spring, of course my mind instantly goes to Halloween, which is two seasons away and I've admitted to my ridiculousness several times already. Being a child in the 80's in the south, Halloween has always has a certain flavor in it that really manages to stick around all year. It was in heavy metal, haunted attractions, certain fantasy and sci fi, wrestling, there's just that old school Halloween that's always around. Which brings me to a regular point of interest, the cousins of Transformers known as Battle Beasts. As you may know, Battle Beasts were sold in a variety of ways and one faithful Friday in the 5th grade I lucked up on a large multi pack of the fighting critters at Kay Bee Toys.

I said I was from the south and was a child in the 80's right? 

At the time, satanic paranoia was running rampant in my school as church groups were often infiltrated with the crazy scare videos and pamphlets that were everywhere at the time (they're all over YouTube). Thanks to having a teen-aged brother and living in the suburbs, I was constantly surrounded by heavy metal and all the assorted imagery that came with it. Which is where Fleet Footed Antelope comes in. You see, he was in that multi pack I got that faithful evening and among opening was presented with pure unadulterated evil.

There he was, horned and hooves, looking like every representation of the devil I was presented in those scare pamphlets. Tiny evil rubber bastard. I was petrified, I was terrified, I was horrified.

The Fleet Footed Antichrist was there and I had no idea how to deal with such a demonic presence (really, those scare videos and pamphlets left that part out). Maybe if I had the power of water. Water beats fire. But no, I'm in Georgia and surrounded by wood. Fire beats wood. I was screwed. So, I ultimately decided on doing the best thing in this situation. I locked him away where he could never get out, never to hurt anyone. Never to trick you into going to hell by playing Dungeons and Dragons. For all time and for all the good in the world, Fleet Footed Antelope had to be imprisoned.

So I put him in a Tupperware container that had my old crayons that I didn't use anymore and stuck him in the bottom drawer of my bedroom desk. There, no matter what, he could never be found. Until like a month later when I forgot I was afraid of him and found him while looking for that Mad magazine I stuck somewhere in my desk. 

Fleet Footed Asshole still smells like crayons.

Bandora/Rita Repulsa