Happy Holidays—Animated!

October 15, 2019
You know Rudolph and Santa and Frosty and Mickey, Chipmunks and Grinch and Magoo and Snoopy. But do you recall Wladyslaw Starewicz's Moscow-made 1913 cartoon, The Insect's Christmas? If not, Crump's charmingly esoteric reference work will fill that void. 1800 cartoons from the past century-plus are covered, with half-page-ish entries presenting background information, the year of release or air date, a plot synopsis, any songs included, voice cast, production credits, and where, if anywhere, the cartoon is available now, including on DVD compilations, YouTube, and streaming services. The exhaustive feat of this single volume is that it includes holiday episodes of cartoon series, from American kids' shows like The Backyardigans to more adult fare like Beavis and Butthead and Rick and Morty to Japanese anime to Christian videos to French Canadian series to the New Kids on the Block Christmas Special. The index (not seen) will make it easy to identify the non-Christmas cartoons and find works by well-known creators like Rankin and Bass, and for sheer breadth of coverage, this is a must-have for collectors and the curious.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)