I Recorded Hellcats to My DVR Because I Love Phineas and Ferb

As the father of identical twin daughters, who turn 2 1/2 this month, I have watched uncountable episodes of Phineas and Ferb. As a Gen X-er, I would have watched this brilliant show without the need of youthful encouragement, but my daughters absolutely adore "The Candace Show." My youngest daughter, by one minute, used to actually squeal with joy when the theme song played -- and my wife and I have heard the phrase "again!" in reference to The Candace Show more often than any other entertainment offering.

The show is fantastic in all the ways that a cartoon can and should be. It has all the humor of The Family Guy with none of the cynicism. And when it comes right down to it, I think my daughters have it right. The reason the show is so effective is the Candace character. Disney is really dropping the ball with regard to merchandising Candace. She is the character who gives the show heart and is an ideal "straight man" for much of the shows humor.

A perfect example of why the Candace character works, is the "Ducky MoMo, is My Friend" song that Candace (Ashley Tisdale) sings during the hilarious "Nerds of a Feather" episode. It has the right balance of comedy and pathos, just like the character.

So...that love of Candace led to me recording Hellcats on my DVR. I'll watch the show this weekend and let you know what I think.

Yes, I'm that guy. The guy who watches Real Housewives and Project Runway -- in addition to Top Gear.

Is it just me, or does Ashley Tisdale looks like Candace in this promo image?

Cinerati Christmas Season Movie Marathon

It is no wonder that the commercial aspects of Christmas seem to come earlier every year. No sooner than one has celebrated Thanksgiving with loving family and friends, than one realizes how swiftly one has "gotten behind" in one's annual Christmas Season Movie Marathon. At least that's how things were in the Cinerati household. The other night, we had just finished watching the new Phineas and Ferb: Christmas Special -- which was surprisingly heartfelt -- when we realized that we were significantly behind in our Annual Christmas Season viewing regimen.

 

Every year, the Cinerati household views a minimum of one Christmas themed film or TV special during each day of December. We consider it our filmic advent calendar. We typically follow this up with a Christmas Season Movie Marathon where we try to increase our viewing level to 2 movies a day from the 18th through the 1st of January. This lets us watch more holiday fare, and lets us include things like the Rudolph New Years special without breaking from the rules of what constitutes a Christmas movie -- at least for those films or shows that take place after Christmas. Our definition of what constitutes a Christmas film is pretty broad, but that's what makes it such a fun tradition. Here is a partial list of the films and shows we typically select from:

• Die Hard
• Die Hard 2
• The Last Boy Scout
• The Thin Man
• The Sound of Music
• -- The one film that breaks our about or take place rule because the movie "feels" so Christmassy and Jody has many fond memories.
• Lethal Weapon
• Holiday Inn
• White Christmas
• Elf
• Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer
• 3 Godfathers
• The Bishop's Wife
• Scrooged
• The Ref
• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• Miracle on 34th Street
• It's a Wonderful Life
• Holiday Affair
• The Shop Around the Corner
• In the Good Old Summertime
• Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
• -- Harry's Christmas present is important for the whole series and the opening song sounds über-Christmassy to us.
• We're No Angels
• Joyeux Noel
• Gremlins
• Love Actually
• About a Boy
• A Christmas Story
• A Christmas Carol
• Young Sherlock Holmes -- This movie includes Christmas, but it is also a "Victorian/Edwardian" film and any film that takes place in that era just feels Christmassy. I blame Dickens.