Top Hat Sasquatch

Everybody loves a great puppet show, and in honor of the decade that doesn’t get written about much, I give you the 10 Greatest Puppet TV Shows of the 90s. I didn’t want to include the 80s for various reasons, but mainly because there would be a lot more obvious choices in that list. Hopefully you’ll remember some shows you haven’t thought about in a long time, or discover some you’ve never heard of.

Whether you’re trying to remember what that puppet show in the 90s with the dragon was called or just want to be reminded of some awesome shows, this list is for you.

10. The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss

Buy the DVD on Amazon

First up is the short-lived puppet series based on the works of Dr. Seuss. The Wubbulous World ran on Nick Jr. for two seasons (96-97) and included all of the classic Seuss characters, but in new stories. I always had a fascination with shows that I knew I was too old for in the 90s, and I remember watching a few episodes of this. I loved how well Dr. Seuss’ characters translated into puppet form. I’d take a movie in this style over either of the horrible live action Seuss stories any day.

9. Dog City

Buy the DVD on Amazon

Dog City was a cartoon/puppet hybrid show that aired from 1992-1995. It was a spinoff of the Dog City segment on an episode of the Jim Henson Hour, which was all puppets. The puppet segments revolved around Elliot Shag, a dog cartoonist who creates the detective character Ace Hart. I know there was more cartoon than puppets, but I still had to include it.

So far in the states the only way to legally find the show is to download episodes on Amazon for $1.99. Boo for Amazon Video on Demand being Windows only. You can also check out the intro on YouTube.

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Some kind person with far too much time on their hands has uploaded the entire 90s masterpiece that is Adventures in Dinosaur City onto YouTube. If you don’t remember, Adventures in Dinosaur City (or, that one movie where the kids get sucked into the TV and go to dinosaur land) made my list of the worst dinosaur movies of the 90s.

Bummed you can’t find this movie on DVD? Fret no longer, because thanks to the internet you can watch the full movie in ten not-so-convenient clips.

This news is getting posted everywhere today, and I would have posted it earlier if I would have understood it the first time.

Fresh out of Reuters is news that Nickelodeon has acquired the global rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise from Mirage and 4Kids for $60 Million. The release mentions a new CG television series and movie, and when I first read it I thought that was all they had the rights for.

I didn’t realize that they bought the whole package, including toy and merchandise rights. I guess this is a big deal for TMNT fans, but honestly, I think Nick will handle the franchise well. I must admit, I’ve been less than amazed at Mirage’s “huge” 25th Anniversary Shellabration. If anything, it will be nice to see some talent behind TMNT marketing.

The current cartoon will continue to run until August 31st, 2010. Check out the full press release at Reuters.

Update: Now read the words straight from TMNT creator Peter Laird’s brain on why he sold.

I’m sure all you gamers have heard of Warren Spector’s crazy-looking Disney Wii game Epic Mickey. Well, Game Informer has released a new batch of info and images about the game, and it sounds awesome.

If you haven’t heard about it, the title is pretty accurate. It’s an epic adventure where you play as Mickey Mouse in a disutopian/steampunk style environment in which Disney’s lower cast of characters have teamed up to defeat you. Its cool that Disney is backing a project like this, where Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is a villain.

For us animation buffs, it’s cool that they’re using the classic Disney shorts and comic strips as inspiration, even obscure characters like the Mad Doctor and the Phantom Blot. Spector is about as hardcore of a Mickey fan as you can get, so you can expect this game to be chocked full of references to Mickey’s history.

The gameplay involves the erasing and painting of objects, and has some 2D style side-scrolling levels in addition to the 3D levels.

Make sure to check out the article, and keep an eye on Game Informer’s Epic Mickey landing page.

Get ready for more TMNT related awesomeness out of NECA, makers of the why-don’t-I-own-you-yet action figures. Next month they are releasing limited edition TMNT BATSU urban vinyl figurines.

I haven’t quite hopped on the cute urban toy bandwagon yet, but these may be a great place to start. Each figure comes with it’s signature weapon and even has some articulation. Dibs!

Thanks to Space Monkey X for the tip.