Chronicles of an Ingenious Blogger: 14 Amazing Facts! 14 Amazing Animations! 1 Amazing Date!

Welcome back to my blog! Does the date: 14 November ring a bell? If the words ‘Children’s Day’ flashed through your mind or you were flooded with pleasant childhood memories of ‘Bal Divas’ (as it is known in Hindi), then you are on the right track! In my homeland India, we celebrate ‘Children’s Day’ on 14 November every year to increase the awareness of people towards the rights, care and education of children. The first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was born on this day 126 years back in the year 1889. It is indeed AN AMAZING DATE!

Google greeted ‘Happy Children’s Day’ on 14-November-2015 with ‘Create Something for India’ Doodle 4 Google 2015 winning entry (featured on its home page) below:

'Create Something for India' Doodle 4 Google 2015 Winning Entry

This innovative doodle has been created by P Karthik from Sri Prakash Vidyaniketan, Andhra Pradesh and shows a Plastic to Earth Machine. Karthik describes the doodle as , “This mega machine to recycle all the waste plastic from our country and make it into a material which helps the growth of mother nature. This machine will turn the most powerful evil plastic into green.”

Creative innovation of this kind is the way to go for the budding generations! After all,

“Children of today are Citizens of Tomorrow”.

Now let me post something amazing to celebrate this amazing date! Every child has been enamored of animated characters. Television to most children translates to Cartoons! As a child, my favorite hour was the cartoon hour on Sundays on Doordarshan. My favorite shows were ‘He Man and The Masters of the Universe’ and ‘Tom and Jerry’.

Children connect with animals and even inanimate objects like dolls, toys etc.,. at a much different level than adults do. Hence, it is but natural that when life is put into animated characters through great visual effects and advanced digital audio techniques, children get transported to the funny fantasy world of cartoons!

Hence, what better way to celebrate the amazing date of 14 November 2015 than an effort to know more about our very dear and favorite, cartoon characters, some of whom, we may have grown up watching and who continue to enthrall the current generation as much as they used to rule the former!

I therefore present to you 14 amazing facts and 14 amazing animations to celebrate 1 amazing date: 14-November-2015.

Here we go,

Did you know?

1. Tom and Jerry* were initially Jasper and Jinx and the series has won seven academy awards for Animated Short Film!

That is some achievement for an Animated Film!

In the following video 'Puss Gets The Boot', at 2:30 Tom is called 'Jasper'. Although Jerry is not named in the film, his name is 'Jinx'. This is their debut appearance.

Watch, Laugh and Have Fun!

* In this post, each series will be counted as one animation. For example, Tom and Jerry Series in this case,

2. Mickey Mouse has only four fingers. There are two reasons behind it. The first was that Disney believed that five fingers were too many for a mouse. The second was to save company money.

Watch this fun video where a 3 year old discovers that Mickey Mouse has only four fingers on each hand.

3. Donald Duck was created by Walt Disney when he heard Clarence Nash doing his “duck” voice while reciting ‘Mary Had A Little Lamb’ and his middle name is Fauntleroy (first revealed in the 1942 film Donald Gets Drafted) , reportedly the only major Disney character with an official middle name.

Here is a special appearance by the truly talented Clarence Nash at the 1984 Oscars.

4. Popeye, the Sailor made his comic strip debut in January of 1929. Popeye was originally just one of many characters (an extra) in a comic series drawn by Elzie Segar called Thimble Theater, which had been around for about 10 years before Popeye showed up. The Popeye character quickly became so popular, the strip was re-christened Thimble Theater Starring Popeye and then later just called Popeye, the same title it carries to this day.

Presenting the first appearance of Popeye,The Sailor in a Betty Boop Cartoon! Enjoy!

5. Scooby Doo is really Scoobert “Scooby” Doo, named after a nonsense vocal line in Frank Sinatra’s hit song “Strangers in the Night”.

Here is the Scooby Doo! Where Are You Season1 Intro video! Sing and dance to the Intro!

6. The main inspiration behind the appearance of the Disney character Aladdin was originally Michael J Fox in Back to the Future, but later changed to Tom Cruise.

Can you spot the resemblance below?

The Disney Character Aladdin is inspired from Tom Cruise

7. If Nemo is one of your favorite characters, then this one is for you !

Early Sketch - Finding Nemo

Finding Nemo

8. Native American Actress Irene Bedard not only voiced the title character of Pocahontas in the 1995 Disney Film, she also provided the major inspiration for the heroine’s look and movement. Look at the unmistakable resemblance below:

Disney Character Pocahontas is inspired from Native American Actress Irene Bedard

9.The American Film Institute lists Walt Disney Pictures’ The Lion King as the fourth best animated film of all time.

Watch the trailer now.

10. Hanna-Barbera character Yogi Bear’s personality and mannerisms derived inspiration from Art Carney’s Ed Norton character on The Honeymooners , while his name resembled that of contemporary baseball star Yogi Berra.

Yogi Bear, Boo Boo and Ranger Smith in Hanna-Barbera's Yogi Bear Series

11. Jennifer Lee is the first female director of a Walt Disney Animation Studios feature film (Frozen) , the first writer at any major animation studio to become a director and the first female director of a feature film that earned more than $1 billion in gross box office revenue.

Catch Jennifer Lee on the success of Frozen in this video.

12. The longest running primetime animated series is The Simpsons, which began in 1987.

The Simpsons

13. The word Pinocchio originates from Italian language translating to ‘Pine Cone’.

Watch the Original Walt Disney 1940 Trailer of Pinocchio now.

14.Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs won a special Honorary Academy Award . Academy President,Frank Capra came up with the idea of giving Disney a special Honorary Academy Award for “significant screen innovation”. The award was one regular sized Oscar and seven tiny ones. Here’s Shirley Temple presenting the award: