At home, Spongebob lays hopelessly on his bed, realizing that working out didn’t work out. A voice from his TV set addresses him as a “wimp”, to which he instinctively responds. On screen is a shark, advertising the perfect product for the wimp who wants to look muscular – Anchor Arms. They slip over your real arms like a glove, then are inflatable with air. “How big do you want ‘em?”, the host asks, demonstrating that they can be pumped up to normal, veiny, or for the benefit of the ladies, even to hairy. Spongebob quickly reaches for the phone. The next day, his shadow looms past the yard of Squidward, making the squid’s eyes pop. Mr. Crabs is so frightened at the sight, he pulls in his eyes and nose like the limbs of a turtle, and hides inside the Krusty Krab, hanging out the “closed” sign. Spongebob heads for the action at Mussel Beach, and blows the minds of the local weight lifting clan with his giant inflated arms, which Spongebob has pumped up so much that they are longer than he is tall, so that he can literally walk on them instead of his legs for a taller look. As the body builders praise how ripped he is, Spongebob pulls the old Popeye Gag, flexing his fake muscles into the shape of the letters, “THANK YOU”. The crowd renames him “Musclebob Buffpants”, and he becomes the center of attention at the local juice bar, where everyone clamors to hear his body building secrets. Spongebob makes up stories as he goes, about eating 20 raw eggs every day and pumping iron, and adds ridiculing comments about the days when he “used to look” like others in the bar. However, Spongebob finds there may be one little matter that could potentially blow his cover. As a drink is served to him by the bartender, Spongebob discovers that despite his apparently brawny forearms, he is still unable to muster any lifting power – not even enough to lift the glass from the bar. He quickly covers by slurping the drink up with a straw instead of gulping it down. Sandy happens along, and spots the commotion in the bar. Seeing the surprising development of Spongebob, she asks outright what’s his secret. Spongebob improvises that he’s developed his own special exercise regimen, which starts off with arm exercise, in the form of squeezing his armpits to make the sound of a whoopee cushion. A lobster asks, “Are you kidding?” “Do these muscles lie?”, responds Spongebob. Within a moment, he has everyone but Sandy repeating his embarrassing noisemaking. Sandy says she can’t argue with results like Spongebob’s – but that now, he should put his new muscles to the test. An athletic competition, the annual Anchor Toss, is slated at the beach for this afternoon. Sandy heads for the event sign-ups, signing in her own name, and Sponfebob’s too. Spongebob is unable to stop her, as the bartender has served up another drink, placing ir on Spongebob’s inflatable hand, and pinning him to the bar.

With so much cartoon talent on the roster, why not make an actual cartoon? Two years ago, the team launched a Kickstarter for a proposed animated series based on the Vox Machina campaign. It became one of the site’s most successful crowdfunds ever, raking in over eleven million dollars and guaranteeing a solid first season. Amazon stepped in at that point and picked up the series, tacking on a Season 2 while they were at it.

Occasionally, such effects would even spill over into other media involving our cartoon favorites, such as the curiosity of Colpix Records release of “Wake Up, America!” with Yogi Bear (CP 453) – an entirely oddball assembly of skits and songs featuring Yogi, Boo Boo, and other members of the Hanna-Barbera animal gang, pushing the exercise and nutrition kick. What better spokesman for fitness than a fat, dusty old bear! Add to this that none of the regular Hanna-Barbera voice crew appear on the record (all voices are supplied in poor impersonation by Chuck McCann), and you have a really solid recipe for obscurity, accounting for a low-selling album that practically never shows up on record store shelves. Popeye too (at least with original voices Jack Mercer and Mae Questal) would partially bow to the craze in Golden Records LP “Songs About Health, Safety, Friendship, and Manners” (GLP 73). While less biting and better written than the Yogi project, it was another idea that didn’t sell, and virtually never turns up (although in its day, a few of the singles culled from the LP found their way into my original kiddie collection).

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If you’ve been paying attention to Netflix over the last few years you’ll have noted that they’ve been on a tear in regards to going and getting all sorts of anime on their platform both past and present. As well as making new animes or adapting certain manga that haven’t been given the animated treatment before. When it works, it works well, but recently they’ve had a series of missteps, and one that seems to keep misstepping is that of Record of Ragnarok.

Ten years later the tunnel reappears and Towa is able to go home — and to her shock, Setsuna doesn’t seem to remember her! Untangling this mystery is going to take more than just the two of them…they’ll need Moroha, the daughter of Inuyasha and Kagome. The series goes on from that point.

Having known animation legend Bob Clampett and interviewed him several times, I can state that he always held Walt Disney in high esteem and used him as a business model in creating his own brand.

Netflix revealed a ton of other cartoon information today, and 100% of it was video game related. The Castlevania anime spinoff has been confirmed to focus on a different Belmont (Richter, the son of Trevor and Sypha) and take place during the French Revolution. A CGI Splinter Cell series is in the works, written by Derek Kolstad (creator of John Wick) — it’s the closest thing to a new Splinter Cell in years. There will also be Captain Laserhawk, a six-part anime set in the Far Cry world.Pillow Case