I'm not old enough to remember the days of a cartoon & news reel before the motion pictures in the theater, but I do remember some theaters still running a cartoon before a Disney movie here and there, when I was a kid.
With today's technology and the availability of so much on DVD/Blu-Ray/Youtube we can really enjoy things better than ever before.
Instead of just a plain old movie night, why not pair the movie up with some other bits of the past to make it even better?
Pick a cartoon short that goes with the general theme of the movie your watching and a half-hour episode of a television show that does the same.
For an easy one, I went with this set that, to me, is a great mix....
"Ghostbusters", released June 8th 1984, the comedy/adventure classic as the main showing, it's a really fun family film that almost everyone still enjoys, it's got a great history and we just had the new sequel, "After Life", just came out.
Before Ghostbusters, go all the way back to Christmas Eve, 1937 when Disney released "The Lonesome Ghosts", starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck & Goofy as the Ajax Ghost Exterminators Agency, who are called to a house to rid it of ghosts, trouble is, it's the four trouble-making ghosts who called them in. You can find the short version of this short, with about 2+ minutes cut from the original, on Youtube.
Then after Ghostbusters, an episode of "The Real Ghostbusters" animated show, "Citizen Ghost", where Peter tells the story of how Slimer came to live with the gang at the firehouse and follows directly up after the original film. The suits the Ghostbusters wore to battle Gozer were supposed to be disposed of (oops Venkman) and take on a life of their own, with doubles of the team that try to take out the originals and take their place. It's available on the DVD Series collection.
Watched together, it all just flows and makes for a really fun night for the family along with your favorite pizza (New York style, of course). And it should all take less than 2.5 hours but it's something that the family should remember.
What combinations can you think of that go together?
Just a quick historical note of irony, as "Lonesome Ghosts" debuted on Christmas Eve 1937 in theaters, With no mention in the schedule at all, HBO gave its subscribers a major surprise Christmas present on Christmas Eve 1984 with a single airing of, "Ghostbusters", which didn't make it's official HBO debut until March 1985. It's a Christmas Eve tradition of a surprise showing that they would continue for several years.
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