Doug's Movie/TV Shoutouts 02

A Continuation of my previous DOUG MOVIE SHOUTOUTS post from earlier in June 2025.

Doug's Dog Date & Doug's Friend's Friend-The Two references to GENE KELLY:

You know the film SINGING IN THE RAIN? 

Well Doug referenced it Twice!

One all the way back in the beginning of the Nick Era back in 1991

and later during the Disney Series' Sophomore Season in 1997

Night of the living DOUG’s-I Dream Of Patti

Well, the various Wikis have somehow spoiled the surprise but what the hey.

It seems like Patti Mayonnaise is a fan of the classic 1965-1970 Screen Gems tv series I DREAM OF JEANNIE, right down to dressing up as the titular genie as originally portrayed by Barbara Eden.

Though please tell me how did Patti grow her hair long enough to have Miss Eden’s ponytail?

As of this writing, Barbara Eden is still alive and well... though she's long since retired from acting due to age and other factors.

Doug's Monster Movie: Doug's least favorite Critics.

Even before DOUG'S 1ST MOVIE was released on March 26 1999, Doug himself was never a fan of SISKEL AND EBERT way back in 1993.

Right down to suffering from the duo giving his Monster Movie their signature Negative Review: A BIG CARDBOARD THUMBS DOWN.

Though to be honest, DOUG was not impressed with the duo giving his mother the THUMBS DOWN due to mistakenly submitting her ANTI-GARBAGE PSA to the duo as a feature film.

Though by the time DOUG'S 1ST MOVIE premiered in MARCH 1999, Gene Siskel was already dead by One Month but DOUG would still have to suffer the through Ebert's scathing responses during that time.

When Disney or Hulu revive DOUG, I better see an episode where the now Adult DOUG FUNNIE confronts DOUG WALKER (The Nostalgia Critic) for all the jokes revolving around Walker's childhood.

Dougapalooza-The Sleech brothers two homages

When making the Monster Call to lure the Lucky Duck Monster out of the lake, Skeeter mentions that Al and Moo may have been referencing Dr. Seuss for the call’s design as well as the saying the brothers cutting up a hole in their garage is referencing an old BUSTER KEATON gag.

Both the brothers vehemently say that "It’s a homage".

Whoops. I forgot the VLC Screenshots. I'll update this post when the I get the chance.

DOUG'S HOT DOG-Porkchop's French Comics Shout Out(And DOUG's love for the French)

I noticed this frame from the late 1996 episode DOUG'S HOT DOG where PORKCHOP is fuming at the lost puppy who's replacing him.

While many would see these ANGRY EYES as a major OFF-MODEL design even for Porkchop, and even for Disney, 

one could defend that these eyes were probably meant to pay homage to FRENCH COMIC Designs where they often had characters who's eyeballs are sort of merged together.

Think SPIROU Comics, Marsupulami(Not the Disney Version), or THE SMURFS...

As an add extra bit of trivia, Nickelodeon's Doug, at least between Seasons 2-4, was animated by the French, alongside the Korean Hanho Heung-Up and their usual Animation Services.

But when Disney took over, the French were not contacted to do the overseas animation.

Instead, Disney's Doug's Animation was outsourced to BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD'S (and KING OF THE HILL'S) overseas studio PLUS ONE ANIMATION.

DOUG GRADUATES-The Wizard of Bluffington Elementary

We all know that one of DOUG's imagination spots about an unseen Principal is clearly referencing the 1939 MGM film THE WIZARD OF OZ.

Great reference

but I want to see PRINCIPAL BUTTSAVICH'S real Face MAD-DAMMIT!!!

DOUG'S SOUR SONGBIRD-Sound of Music Mountains

While the episode may be infamous amongst fans due to retconning Patti as being bad at singing despite being shown to sing decently in the Nick era and yes, she sang decently well in the the Disney Episode DOUG'S BIG PANIC, this episode is rife with some good choices of movie references.

For example, when DOUG is told that Patti won't sing at the Anthem contest due to getting sick, DOUG imagines himself as....

Ok, he doesn't cross dress but rather he takes the place of MARIA VON TRAPP and stands on a mountain while HALLELUJAH plays in the background.

DOUG'S SOUR SONGBIRD-Frankenstein Cosplay

Also from said episode, when Doug is caught lying to Patti about her singing, he imagines himself as FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER with Patti as THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.

What are they running from? 

A Mob over Patti's singing.

Should be both DOUG and PATTI getting chased over THOMAS LYONS' casting, and the fact that his performance was a wasted potential given how close to Billy West's FRY voice LYONS' made to his FRANCIS MCREARY character.

Though like I said, 

DOUG is better off as an ignorant Pizza Delivery Boy instead of an arrogant Corrupt Liberty City Cop.

DOUG'S 1ST MOVIE-A Tribute to a Canadian Animator's love for Kaiju.

And to save the best for last since it's CANADA DAY 2025...

A tribute to a Canadian Animator....

But this time, it's from DOUG'S 1ST MOVIE.

I sort of laughed at this bit when I saw this on the film where Roger imagines himself being crushed by the Lucky Duck Monster's Foot.

The DOUG Wiki incorrectly assumed it was CUPID'S FOOT from MONTY PYTHON but I've seen the film numerous times and that foot actually belongs to Godzilla from MARV NEWLAND'S 1969 Short Film BAMBI MEETS GODZILLA.

And here's another fun fact, this was probably Jim Jinkins’ way of celebrating NEWLAND'S 30th anniversary of that film since the short was from April 1969 while DOUG's 1ST MOVIE was from Late March 1999.

If only my father took me to the FAMOUS PLAYERS METROPOLIS Cinema back in 1999 to watch the film but then again, he'd take me to watch Star Wars Phantom Menace, Tarzan, Iron Giant, and maybe SOUTH PARK in that exact Multiplex back in the day if he wanted to.

The 10-Screen Multiplex theater is still operating to this day though it's now run by Cineplex since 2005.

And yes, I might follow up this post with a Part 03 if there's any popular demand for this series of TV/MOVIE SHOUTOUTS.

Happy 70th Anniversary LADY & THE TRAMP+How both a Cocker Spaniel and Schnauzer won the battle against convention in favor of Camera Lens innovation

On June 22 1955, Walt Disney released this animated classic to Cinemas worldwide.

This film is important not just for Disney but rather for the entirety of Animation as a whole.

As you can see above, the Film is in the Cinemascope Aspect Ratio, my preferred Widescreen Lenses.

Most 2D Animated films don't touch CINEMASCOPE Lenses for a multitude of Reasons:

As exemplified by the image above of the ICONIC Spaghetti Scene, the lenses are wide so that creates risks of not filling in that Negative space, especially when Screen Direction is important for the presentation.

And judging by the research I've read on the various Interwebs, Wikis, and DVD/Blu-Ray Featurettes, The animators and photographers admitted they weren't ready for Widescreen yet..... or ever would be, but they had no choice but to embrace the change of Camera Lenses and Filmstock.

One example that boggled our animators back in the mid-50s was the fact that because of a dramatic increase of the size of the canvas, various practices that the animators were used to using just don't apply to the new lenses.

For example, in the 4:3 original aspect ratio from Peter Pan and prior films, the backgrounds could move behind the characters.

One example of a moving background was the famous HEIGH-HO Number from Snow White.

But because of how sparse the setting is when moving to Cinemascope, the animators can no longer move the background as much as they used to without using a larger canvas for backgrounds.

So the animators had to learn to animate their characters as if they are the ones moving around.

As well as the Camera operators having to follow the directions the animators impose on them through the exposure sheets.

This resulted in creating nice scenes such as this below

What was lost was the Animator's Preference of Close Ups.

I don't feel like using a closeup of The Coachman from PINOCCHIO so instead, 

I'm using this closeup of C. Bagley Beetle from MR. BUG GOES TO TOWN.

Back in the day, the closeups could be easily achieved and fill the entire 35MM lenses.

But not with Cinemascope.

If those closeups of the face did happen, then it makes it impossible to fill the entire screen due to the width of the lenses and the artwork.

No wonder Animation preferred the Anamorphic 1.85:1 Lenses when Widescreen finally caught on with the studios in the 60s.

 Though that did not stop animators from doing shots like this scene with Trusty sleeping.

So a new method of filling the screen happened which was to fill the Foreground with more Characters.

It's a simple and dirty hack but it does work as it prevents the attention span from shifting away from the characters to the backgrounds.

Something that would later be a thing of a fierce camera battle once again with SLEEPING BEAUTY 4 years later in 1959.

Why did LADY & THE TRAMP switch to CINEMASCOPE?

Because according to sources, Disney wanted to represent sort of a DOG's View of what their environment looks like, sans the Yellow/Blue Colorblindness of Dog Eyes.

Until the advency of home video, Surround Sound on Lady and the Tramp was out of the question since unlike with SLEEPING BEAUTY, LADY wasn't planned to have stereophonic sound so I bet those who were alive in 1955 who saw this film in Cinemascope probably would have wished DISNEY gave this film a full FOUR-TRACK or SIX TRACK stereophonic Soundtrack because with just widescreen, monaural soundtracks would not make the film immersive enough.

Though Surround sound on a film that was originally released with a monaural soundtrack can still be a sore point for those who want restorations to be true to the original release.

As for the release of this film, I heard that to compensate for theaters that were not equipped or built for Cinemascope, or any form of widescreen,

The animators had to re-photograph the film using modified versions of their Exposure Sheets used for the film that's optimized for 4:3.

But unfortunately for VHS lovers, myself included back in 1999, we were stuck with Pan-and-Scan versions of the cinemascope print so for those who watched the film on VHS since the 1980s, we had to contend with the fact that it's actually the Cinemascope print that's using Pan-and-Scan which meant the camera faked movement.

Fortunately for those who watch on DVD, Blu-Ray, Ultra-HD Blu-Ray, and 4K Streaming, the film always uses it's original CINEMASCOPE Presentation to maintain all that widescreen goodness.

Though most Streaming Services for Windows, Mac, or Linux, are not optimized for ultrawide so If you plan to watch movies like this on your Ultra-Wide Monitor like my ASUS TUF Ultrawide, just burn the Blu-Ray into your SSD using VLC Player or MakeMKV, reformat it for Ultrawide, and there you go.

Or just look through the Catacombs of Archive.org for a 4K Print of the film that's already optimized for Ultrawide because watching Cinemascope movies on an Ultrawide monitor natively just looks good compared to watching on a TV or a Cinema Screen that's optimized for 16x9.

Or if you still want to watch it on your browser, download the Ultrawide Extension for CHROME.

Though watching on an Ultrawide monitor can't beat the superiority of watching on a Cinema Screen that's optimized for 21x9 that's for sure.

Happy Father's Day 2025 Reuben Martinez+Cartoon Anecdotes from THE SIMPSONS in New York from the late 90s.

Happy Father's Day Reuben Martinez.

I think to celebrate this day of Patriarchal Parenting, let me share a story that takes me back to late 1999 or early 2000.

You know how I stated my father Reuben was the one who molded me into the Cartoonist I am today?

Just compare that to John Kricfalusi who grew up in the 60s with his Cartoon-Hating late father Michael Kricfalusi....

When John K., aka the creator of Ren and Stimpy, was growing up, his father was pissed about his son being more into Cartoons, Comics, Mary Blair, MAD Magazine, and THE BEETLES, 

instead of Taxes, Fishing, Cottages, Canadian Mounties, etc.....

You know, the manly stuff that fathers demand from their children.

My dad on the other hand is the opposite of MIKE.

My dad loved Television and was always supportive of my interests even if the word NINTENDO did sometimes annoy my dad throughout my school years.

Now, I'm sort of inspired by this Blogpost where John K. stated that the only Cartoon that his father actually liked was FOGHORN LEGHORN because he reminded him of how a real man acts when it comes to Patriarchal parenting.

But for the life of me, I didn't grow up with Classic Looney Tunes till 4th Grade which was 2007-2008..... 

In fact, my mother domineered my viewing habits.

When I'm not watching Disney movies on VHS, my mother preferred to cherry-pick my TV Channel habits so she insured I only watched Treehouse TV on her watch.

Obviously I can't talk about anything from that block but at the same time, I can't talk about the Cartoon Network stuff due to Zaslav and the fact that I could only watch that channel at Gregoria's via her Shaw Cable plan which didn't happen until 2003-2004. 

So instead, let me tell you an anecdote about THE SIMPSONS since it's Father's Day.

My dad and I watched THE SIMPSONS on our little Woodgrain Television when we were living in Apartment building 1809 in Francis Street in Vancouver.

To my mother's bemused Chagrin, my dad let me watch THE SIMPSONS with him on our little woodgrain TV because why not.

Suddenly, I was exposed to real television that I could not get from TREEHOUSE TV because it was my first exposure to DOWN-TO-EARTH screenwriting, not the cherry-picked crap that Treehouse had in their scripts.

Anyway, I can't remember what was my first episode I watched with my Dad but the one that I think did made a major Impact in my Childhood was the episode 

THE CITY OF NEW YORK VS. HOMER SIMPSON which aired in 1997.

I think we watched a rerun of that in 1999 or 2000 but it really made me laugh for the hell of it.

The Simpsons' New York Episode is regarded as an All-Time Classic despite how dated the episode is due to the Twin-Towers, Robert Downey Jr's drug problems, etc.

But after 9/11, the episode was removed off Syndication because Network affiliates were worried that the episode would be in bad taste in the wake of the collapse of the Twin Towers.

So thank balls my first exposure to the episode was before that infamous day...

Anyway where was I,

Oh yes, the impact the episode had on me and my father back in the day.

This episode follows Homer as he goes to New York..... BEGRUDGINGLY.... to retrieve his car after his friend Barney borrows it but doesn't return it a month from now.

I was very young back in 1999 so until I became more obsessed with THE SIMPSONS in 2010, I only saw spurts of this episode.

But my memory is vivid and I remember many things from this episode that had a major impact on me.

One of these is the Flushing Meadows Scene from this episode.

But I think the most memorable for me, my father, and every SIMPSONS fan on this Planet, is the scene where Homer thinks to himself:

"SCREW IT! I'LL DRIVE EVEN WITH THIS DAMN BOOT ON MY CAR!!!"

Though the actual quote was

"Well that's it!

I'm getting out of this town alive if it kills me!!!"

Yeah Yeah, I had a small Woodgrain TV from the 1980s, even in 1999 but that didn't stop me from laughing my balls off watching Homer driving with that boot still on his car.

As I get older, I seem to know more about this episode than I let on, even for 2 year old me back in 1999-2000.

For example, this Episode had major research on making the landmarks as realistic as possible.

As well as future anecdotes.

For example, 

This is the first time Homer said an F-Bomb..... close..

We know what he's saying but we can't hear it phonetically due to the fact that when he says it, he's biting a bolt on the BOOT on his car.

Like I said, this episode is date and due to these two behemoths

Because of what happened on September 2001, the producers expressed some regrets with the episode...

Well they don't regret it because it's a fan-favorite of CLASSIC SIMPSONS

But what they regret is not taking future events as well some jokes that they think are in poor taste.

One such joke the writers regret is the JERKS ON TOWER 1 joke.

"When September happens, we will bring our arguments someplace else because...

Well, you get what I'm talking about and I'm not saying it!!!"

This episode was also the earliest to implement CGI.... sort of.

The first was in a TREEHOUSE OF HORROR episode in 1995 but this episode made some attempts to merge CGI with the Cel Animation but unlike the Butterfly in the Pepper Episode, this episode took a different approach.

For the Bridge Credits scene, the models were made on the Computer, printed, and then the animators traced on another sheet of paper over the bridge scene to make the scene stand out better with the driving car on the scene.

And I heard that before this episode's 1997 debut, the SIMSPONS Staff had to negotiate with FOX not to cut to Commercials before the credits just so this Awesome Punchline can be more effective with all that awesome Jazz Tunes.

And that's the episode.

And as for you Reuben, hope you find this Father's Day Blogpost entertaining.

On another note, While I have previously use my DVDs for SIMPSONS Images, This time, I recorded this episode using my Avermedia Capture Card while watching on Disney+ because I had some issues with Screenshots on VLC Player and my Season 9 DVD as well as ripping the contents using the convert tool.

So I felt SCREW IT, I'll just go the Avermedia route and capture the episode since it's in a higher resolution than the DVD.

And yes, I confirm that the SIMPSONS Aspect Ratio has been set to Classic so I retain the original Height and Width Presentation of the episode.