The Introverted Detective

 This film was the project where Dave and Max Fleischer didn't speak to each other. Yet, it turned out adorable and fun. Gulliver's Travels is about a shipwrecked sailor coming upon a village of tiny people. It's silly, it's fun, and it wasn't enough to save Fleischer from going under.  Courtesy of alamy.com I watched this last (since the shorter cartoons are easier to fit into a busy morning). I loved it. It was adorable, silly, and family-friendly. This was one Fleischer cartoon that the whole family could watch. It was re-released in later years. I'd watch it again.  The Review What was so great about it? The silly characters, physical comedy, and fun music. Fleischer is known for music and animation together. This was no different. You could tell the animation took time. Gulliver being entertained by his tiny host country was delightful. He stops a war, saves a wedding, and creates a new song mash-up. It's so sweet.  10 stars, easy. I was entertained by ...

 I'm loving the Silly Symphonies. So much emotion in such a short cartoon. This one was The Ugly Duckling, which is exactly the story that you think it is. Let's dive in.  Courtesy of Pinterest Silly Symphony storylines are usually expressed without words (and in this case, no intelligible words). All you have is a duck quacking, bird sounds, and a swan crying. This is the tale of a little swan that got hatched by a duck, left by the duck mother, and picked up by a swan mother. It's incredibly sweet. There isn't too much to say.  After the little duck wanders off, it gets in another nest. After being chased out of the other nest, it finds a duck decoy and gets bonked on the head by it. This makes the ugly duckling (swan) a little traumatized and sad. It sobs its little eyes out until a swan mother and her little ones hear it. Once he finds a loving home, he never returns to the duck who hatched him. Our little swan swims off with the loving adopted mother and her hatchl...

 Today I watched Clock Cleaners (from 1937), a Disney cartoon featuring Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. Let's talk about it.  Courtesy of D23 As I research cartoons, I find that Disney can be hard to find in some cases (at least the full version, anyway). I don't have Disney Plus and don't intend to get it. It's true that Disney doesn't play around with pirated media. Even so, I found this one from 1937 on YouTube. The older the media, the higher the chance you can get it in a full version.  This cartoon is about Mickey, Donald, and Goofy cleaning a clock. That's it, that's all. Mickey encounters a sleepy stork while Donald fights with a spring. Goofy has the longest adventure and the fewest lines of dialogue as he cleans a bell and does it when the clock hits noon. Two statues hit the bell several times while he's in it, then hit him. Mickey then tries to help Goofy not fall off the clock tower. By the last moment, they are all sprawled on the floor together...

 Not only did I get this book suggestion from a friend, but I already had it when they mentioned it. Today I review The Woman In Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware.  Book cover courtesy of Simon and Schuster The main plot of this book is a woman reporter, known by the nickname Lo, reporting on a cruise boat. She's already had a rough time by the point she's on the boat. She's having panic attacks, was burgled a day or so before the cruise ship reporting gig, and is clearly drinking to avoid some mental image you (the reader) don't fully understand. This is when she hears a murder on the boat - in cabin 10 - only there is no one in cabin 10. From here on out, you have to read it yourself. The ending is just too good. I tried to Agatha Christie solve this one and, well, I got it dead wrong.  Overall Thoughts This book starts with an unsettling mental image of a body washing up on shore in someone's nightmares. Not only that, but you get the feeling your main perspective is definit...

 I'm back to researching after the holiday season ended. Here's another Silly Symphony. This was made in 1932 and features two trees having a romance.  Courtesy of Pinterest.com The Silly Symphony cartoons seem to have less dialogue than I expect. What this one excelled at was telling a story of two trees romancing, with no words at all. It is all visual with an orchestra behind it. I loved it. Let's count the ways.  What I loved about it This was a feast for the eyes. While The Old Mill was better, this was still amazing. You see the whole story portrayed in visuals alone, with the musical support behind it to reflect the scene. The conflict between dead evil tree and nice tree is laid out before you in a way that everyone can understand.  A toddler could watch this and understand it. This makes it family friendly. While I do think some media doesn't have to be family friendly (example, Lonesome Dove), cartoons of the 1930s were aimed at the whole family. The parent...

 I love the In Death series of suspense novels (written by JD Robb). I collect them. This is one of the smaller books. Let's talk about a return serial killer and a Christmas spent solving crime.  Eve Dallas is having a Christmas of love and new traditions with her husband Roarke, until a serial killer named Dave - specializing in torturing people for long periods of time - gets out of the mental health facility to get back at the people who put him away. He leaves the judge of his trial in a public area and kicks off an investigation that interrupts Eve's Christmas celebration.  Thoughts This was a shorter read, a ten-chapter read that reminded me how much I loved this series. I don't have anything negative to say. I won't spoil it. These do have a formula if I remember the series correctly. Eve is in some sort of danger, as always. In this case, she's on Dave's hit list.  It was only ten chapters. This one was compelling and short. If you need a quick suspense...