Thirty Days of Turning Thirty

Event: Watching The Little Mermaid & The Flintstones

The Little Mermaid is my favorite Disney movie ever.  I saw it at the theater several times, owned the VHS tape, wore out the cassette of the soundtrack, flipped my hair a la Ariel in the pool, and had the poster on my wall & sheets on my bed.  Years later when I started babysitting, I tried to work this movie into the viewing rotation amid Barney & Friends episodes as much as possible.  If acknowledging that this movie was released twenty-one years ago doesn’t make me feel old, the fact that the oldest of the kids I babysat just graduated high school surely will.

It had been many, many years since I’ve watched The Little Mermaid, so I was a little surprised at how many lines I remembered.  I love how much Ariel’s hair flows throughout the movie and the songs are fantastic!  I have to say, though, ol’ Ursula and her collection of poor unfortunate souls are a little unnerving.

Even before I admired Ariel, Flounder and Sebastian, I loved Fred and Barney.  I remember waiting for 3:35 to roll around to see what was going on in Bedrock on The Flinstones on TBS.  I also remember being disappointed when the show cut to commercial before Fred yelled “Wilma!” after the credits rolled.

For Christmas this year, Jim got me the complete series (six seasons) on DVD.  Tonight I enjoyed the Bonus Features from Season One.

It was fun to see how the looks of the characters changed from the original pilot when they were the Flagstones.  Another thing I learned was that before The Flintstones advertised their own products (vitamins & cereal), they were in ads for Alka-Seltzer and One-A-Day vitamins.  

Marshall Dillon was not nearly as impressed as I was with tonight’s plans.  Perhaps my off-key sing-a-longs are to blame?

Up on the shore they work all day
Out in the sun they slave away
While we devotin’
Full time to floatin’
Under the sea

Flinstones.  Meet the Flinstones.
They’re the modern stone-age family.

Yabba Dabba Do!