John Dedeke

🎄 It’s 1995, and a cozy Christmas at X-Mansion has quickly turned into a risky blood transfusion in a sewer.  🎙 I call upon the raging wind and the retired hosts of The Hourchive — Drew Crowley, John Dedeke, Adam Jurotich, and Nick Main — to send us flying into the Marvel Animated Universe as we size up the X-Mansion Christmas tree, praise Storm’s fashion sense, and berate her leadership skills.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The Hourchive on The X-Men (2013) and ReduX-Men (2019).  “California Dreams.”  “Saturday Morning Cartoons’ Greatest Hits” home video starring Drew Barrymore.  “Have Yourself a Morlock Little X-Mas” on the Marvel Animated Universe Wiki.  Ross Petty (Ape) and his annual holiday pantomime theatre.  “Captive Hearts,” featuring the introduction to the Morlocks, Rogue and Gambit in swimsuits, and the Wolverine Crush meme.  ****  📼 Commercials:  The Uncanny X-Men ToyBiz Action Figures.  Lit for Christmas.  “The Christmas Book: The Ultimate Guide to Your Favorite Holiday” by Ed Daly.  ****  “X-Men” and “Have Yourself a Morlock Little X-Mas” © 1995 Filmation Associates.  Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 In Part 2 of our Disney Christmas double feature, Mickey and the rest of the Fab Five — and Daisy, who’s somehow less important than the dog — enter the third-dimension.  🎙️ Drew Crowley and John Dedeke from The Hourchive return for “Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas,” the main mouse’s first 3D-animated special.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  If you haven’t been to a Disney theme park in the last year or two, Mickey has a different face now.  The hippo and crocodile from “Fantasia” have names.  Chuck McCann (Santa) was the Dreamfinder in the original Journey Into Imagination.  The grumpy dog who keeps showing up only to get beverages spilled on him is the Stan Lee of the Mickey Mouse universe, which I only mention because we recorded this the day after Stan died.  Between the Goofys and the Plutos of this universe, there are talking reindeer who can own pets.  The Hidden Mickeys Podcast.  ****  “Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas” © 2004 Disney Enterprises, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 Live from the Turducken Hunger Games comes Part 1 of a Disney Christmas double feature featuring Mickey Mouse and his pals.  🎙️ Drew Crowley and John Dedeke from The Hourchive help me attempt to make sense of time, space, and the Disney fowl food chain as we watch Disney’s 1999 direct to video Christmas special.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Donald Duck’s comically enormous, fanmade family tree.  Happy Duck to the Future Day!  The “Quack Pack” intro will tell you everything you need to know about “Quack Pack.”  Donald Jr., a tiny, semi-realistic duck introduced in “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.”  The Fab Five supposedly live in the fictional U.S. state of Calisota, on the Pacific coast.  Pete has been a cat this entire time!  Pete smokes a cigar, something since reportedly banned from Disney movies, despite still showing up in Disney movies.  Recycled animation alert: Mickey’s wacky, tongue-waggling dance first appeared in 1942’s “Mickey’s Birthday Party.”  ****  “Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas” © 1999 Disney Enterprises, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.

🎄 It’s mime time at the Most Magical Place on Earth in 1978’s “Christmas at Walt Disney World.”  🎙️ Drew Crowley and John Dedeke from The Hourchive drop in to watch Shields and Yarnell as the most 1978 couple imaginable, Pablo Cruise and their indifference to help a screaming woman escape from pirates, Phyllis Diller in the world’s poofiest princess dress, the Doritos guy as a wildly off-model Geppetto, Dee from “What’s Happening?” as an ungrateful passenger in a magical pumpkin coach, and Broadway’s original Annie singing Christmas carols with surprisingly reverent Disney villains.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Map of what Walt Disney World looked like in 1978.  Vault Disney.  How “My Favorite Things” became a Christmas song.  The opening music, “The Great Gate of Kiev” from Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” or as I know it best, Jerry “The King” Lawler’s theme music.  Shields and Yarnell on “American Bandstand” (1976)  Drew eating a gigantic spoonful of mashed potatoes at the Liberty Tree Tavern.  Photos from the long-abandoned Discovery Island in 2009.  Disney’s short-lived plans of reopening Discovery Island as an attraction based on Myst.  One-day admission to the Magic Kingdom plus a book of attraction tickets in 1978 cost $13, according to this Ticket Price Guide.  “Ernest Goes to Splash Mountain.”  Winnie-the-Pooh wearing a honey pot on his head.  Giant, smoking cigars in a theme park parade for children.  The (1970s) “Mouseketeers at Walt Disney World.”  “Kraft Salutes Walt Disney World’s 10th Anniversary” (1981)  The Hourchive on Walt Disney World: Part 1 and Part 2.  ****  “Christmas at Walt Disney World” © 1978 Walt Disney Productions.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.