TVSquad

I love animation, but I have to admit my knowledge of anime is rather limited. There's a lot of anime I enjoy and admire, but what I've seen doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of this popular animation style.

If you love anime, or you just want to start at the very beginning of this art form, Digital Meme is releasing a DVD titled "Classic Japanese Anime." Don't expect stuff like AstroBoy, Speed Racer or Gigantor in this set. Instead, think silent animation from the '20s and '30s. Some of the works contained in this DVD set were originally shown in theaters with a separate audio track played on a gramophone record. If your interest in anime goes far beyond casual admiration, this is something worth spending $110.00 on. Also, every one of the fifty-five cartoons is subtitled, so there's none of that gaudy American dubbing to ruin it.

The set releases on April 30.

[via Cartoon Brew]

After the jump, I've placed a YouTube clip of the first appearance of Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street. Ernie is in his bathtub, but there's no rubber ducky to be found. Oh, and he calls his bathtub "Rosie" but I'll let you watch the clip to find out why that is. The voices are a little different than what they eventually evolved into, but even with this first appearance you can see how well Jim Henson and Frank Oz bounced quips and one-liners off one another. I love watching really early Sesame Street episodes, because the puppeteering, while excellent, hadn't quite reached the perfection it would in the show's later years. If you look closely, you can actually see part of Frank Oz's arm and head in the lower right corner. Part of me kind of prefers that raw, unedited look. Enjoy:

Who happy?

Me happy.

Cartoon Planet, a personal favorite of mine, is being re-aired during Adult Swim. The series was a spin-off of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and was geared towards a younger crowd but still maintained the surreality and goofiness of the original. Space Ghost hosted the show with his sidekicks/enemies Zorak and Brak. Of course, the show airs at 5:30 a.m., but hey, that's why God invented the DVR*, right? Cartoons from Bugs Bunny and Popeye and the like would be shown between segments featuring songs, poems, and other assorted nonsense from Space Ghost and his pals.

*Matthew 13:5: "And so it was in the town of Bethlehem the Angel Gabriel did descend from heaven with DVRs for all the people, for they had crops to tend to, but none could stand to miss the Lakers game, and were low of spirit."

To, answer my own question, yes, Squidbillies is returning to Adult Swim on September 17. I've said it before and I'll say it again: while not every show on Adult Swim thrills me, I'm more than happy to have a few shows in the lineup I don't particularly care for if it means more variety for the rest of the viewing audience. That's not to say I dislike Squidbillies, because it does have some good laughs once in awhile, and it's one of those Adult Swim shows, along with Robot Chicken, that I've been delving into recently after dismissing them when they first aired. I like to think of Adult Swim as a salad bar. I'll just take what I like and leave the rest. Fourteen new episodes of the series are planned.