Audio Audities

   Previously, I looked at various adaptations of the original 101 Dalmatians book and even one audiobook for its lesser-known sequel. You can check that out here if you haven’t already. Now it is time to look at audio adaptations based on the well-known and popular Disney version of the story.

    Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time took the world by storm in 1992.   At least that is what it seemed like to me. Like many 80s and 90s kids, I loved dinosaurs when I was young. One thing I did not love was the way media would often show humans living at the same time as the dinosaurs as if that actually happened in the past. Dinotopia, like The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, tries to come up with a plausible explanation for how humans and dinosaurs might live side by side. Then it brings that world to life with some truly beautiful artwork.

  The early years of a big franchise like My Little Pony are interesting to go back to after several toy generations have passed. After all, there is no guarantee that a toy franchise will have staying power even after a handful of successful years. The concept behind the franchise was a little more rudimentary, and the stories were a little different from what would become the norm later on.

  Let’s dive into the next four entries in Nippon Animation’s World Masterpiece Theater series. Keep in mind that, since not every entry received an English dub, I will not be covering all of the different book adaptations that they made. Sadly, many entries have no English dub or even a hint that an English dub ever existed.

         Hey! It’s summertime right now, and the perfect time for going on vacation. There are all sorts of ways to spend time in the summer. One of my favorites is visiting historic sites and museums. Luckily, that is what most of my family enjoys as well, so we have been to quite a few over time.

  The Hundred and One Dalmatians (or The 101 Dalmatians ) is one of those franchises that has a ton of side content. It’s easy to get drowned in a sea of dalmatian puppies. Hopefully, this guide will alleviate some of the confusion about the audio content that exists for the original novel by Dodie Smith, and in Part 2, for the Disney movie and its spin-offs. 

  Barbie Sings Is the first Barbie album that was produced for the now-famous toy line. It was released in 1961 by Mattel. Although it seems commonplace today, at the time, creating a tie-in album for a toy was a fairly new concept. This was sold as a true old-fashioned album in the sense that each song is separate, one on each side of three records. Taking a look at each song provides a fascinating glimpse into the past.  

meta> In the 1970s, a trend emerged in anime of adapting Western literature into TV series. These shows were often popular in their home country and had the added benefit of appealing to Western audiences, which the production companies hoped would lead to the shows being licensed in overseas markets. One of the most influential of these was Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater . It was a kind of anthology series, consisting of multiple seasons, each a series in its own right. For each year the anthology ran, a different novel would be adapted into an anime series.

The Goonies (1985) has become a pop culture icon of the 80s. What was once a relatively small film for Richard Donner, Steven Spielberg, and Chris Columbus is now a trendsetter for nostalgia-based adventure series and movies. Stranger Things (2016) is probably the best example of Goonies-inspired projects.