The scene where the air conditioner unit blew up in the window was absolutely one of the worst things I think I ever saw in a kid's movie when I was young.
The air conditioner's overload. The wannabe "technician" who Frankensteined "fixes" for broken appliances. The junkyard magnet and the crusher. All awesomely scary and memorable imagery.
But nothing in that movie, NOTHING, matches the fire clown in his dream. His appearance with the smoke wafting through his teeth just to tell the toaster, "Run!" lives in my memory forever and I love it.
About all I remember is the weirdo driving the monster truck (am I remembering that right?) and a lingering sense of dread (I am definitely remembering that right).
I just checked and, no, it wasn't. Funny enough that unlocked a core memory because I had Kipper the Dog books when I was a kid and completely forgot about them until I saw the pictures, and it all came rushing back at once.
Thank you for another thoughtful entry. First off and most importantly, I very much agree and think you're spot-on with your main point. It really does feel like our culture is enamored of irony and cynicism and so afraid to be sincere much of the time, and it can get grating for sure. We absolutely need more stories that are sincere and wholesome without tipping over into the saccharine. I promise I won't keep banging on about my own hobby horses, but this exact thing is one of the reasons I'm such a fan of The Adventures of Pete and Pete. It's very sincere while still being clever.
I guess I could quibble that there are some big swathes of pop culture where the happy ending and cotton candy wholesomeness really do rule supreme. Look at the whole romance genre, or, say, cozy mysteries, Hallmark et al. Maybe most people still do want happy endings and are willing to pay for them in the end. That said, I still think your point stands pretty well on the whole. Maybe the problem is that those genres are nothing but sugar, but you need that sweet spot where there's some teeth, but not too much. If that makes any sense at all.
As for Angel Hare, I ended up watching the whole thing. In some ways it reminded me of the SCP Foundation, which I'm also a fan of (and one property where the extreme cynicism feels warranted, but I wouldn't want them all to be like that). You make a good case for the first season finale, but to be absolutely honest...while I appreciate your points, I wasn't quite as taken with it as you were.
Ironically enough because it felt like it wanted me to be surprised at the "he murdered his abusive dad/stepdad" thing, which was so predictable I was rolling my eyes. That whole trope is also such a big cliche, and contrary to your opinion the writing felt like it was spoonfeeding a lot. I agree the animation and acting were very good, though. Certainly better than the writing IMO. That said, I can appreciate the nicely ambiguous ending, even if "she wasn't actually evil" also felt like a predictable "subversion".
On the other hand, I found the second season much stronger overall. Instead of playing with all those cliche creepypasta and horror tropes, the move into more of a mystery approach worked much better for me. Especially when the MC threatened to end the broadcast and Angel Zag broke character. The second season felt more ambitious and more complex in a good way, and I found the ending a much more elegant twist on the "she's actually good" approach. Plus I'm always a sucker for noir, haha.
Sorry for going into review mode there, force of habit. I agree it's an interesting series and better than many things with much bigger budgets.
It's alright - this is safe space for banging on horses of any hobby. I always appreciate feedback and discussion, regardless of what it may be, I assure you. If anything, that's more evidence I need to invesitgate this show. I've been doing research on 90's sitcoms as part of an upcoming article I'm working on and that show comes up quite frequently in the "underrated but great" sitcoms of the era. But, right now, I'm binging certain shows that may or may not be other Nickelodeon sitcoms from a later era... which is probably a good hint of what I'm working on now.
That being said, yes, there are certain genres of media that do rely heavily of sugar-sweet endings, but I'm mostly referring to the dominant media of the day. Don't get me wrong, I see what you're saying, but Hallmark and Lifetime movies are kind of a niche thing. Overall, mainstream cinema and media is obsessed with darkness as a whole. I actually read a lot of romance novels and it really feels as if this Millennial neuroticism of "nothing can ever be good" is leaking into them, as well. I figure it's only a matter of time until it's reflected in adaptations of those works, if they ever come to fruition. Which I hope they don't. I really, really hope they don't.
I also respect that you didn't have the same experience with Angel Hare as I did. That's the beauty of art, y'know? Not everyone takes away the same thing. You watched it, you appreciated it on different merits, and that's perfectly fine. I think some of the reason I was so taken by the end of Season One was simply because I consume a LOT of YouTube horror content and, for me, I was primed to expect a certain thing that maybe not everyone else who doesn't (and isn't terminally online) wouldn't. That being said, the second season is great too, and I'm really looking forward to what they have next.
Speaking of the SCP series, I've always been a fan of that myself. I've had a piece on that particular beast for a while, but I haven't been able to finish it yet. It's just so fucking big, you know? There's so much to it. So much to say. The meta-history of the site and the community kind of overshadows the actual content itself, of which, like you, I'm a huge fan of. I've been invested in the SCP series since its inception (I was literally one of the first users on the site, though I've never contributed), and part of what makes it so hard to write about it just how badly it's been butchered by political ideologues over the past couple years. There's still a lot of good stuff coming out of it, but that's in spite of the current crowned heads of the community, not because of them. Maybe I'll revisit what I have on the backburner after I get through what I'm working on now.
I'd love to see your take on the SCP Foundation, especially if you're that much of a veteran. You're right there's probably enough for a full book there. On my part, I think I found it somewhere around the late 2000s or very early 10s. I'll also admit I haven't been keeping up with it much for a while now, so my admiration for it is more fond memories of the 1000 and 2000 series in particular.
My all-time fave has to be SCP-1193, the buried arm in Arizona. It's just such a superb combination of weirdness, horror and even poignancy, with perfect clinical tone, and somehow manages to be both hilarious and disturbing at the same time.
Anyway, I think the SCP phenomenon is another good example of the kind of thing that could never be produced by a megacorp, and I love how the CC license stops anyone with real money from doing anything with it.
Another thing I forgot to mention from the article: Youtube Poops. I was in my early twenties when these were all the rage, so maybe too old for them since they feel like a very teenage phenomenon, but I still got a lot of laughs out of them. Maybe I'm just childish at heart, but there's something about this kind of really dumb internet humor that always gets me. Hotel Mario in particular makes me laugh to this day.
I think "so bad it's good" would be great fodder for an article in itself, and there's no finer example of the phenomenon anywhere than Hotel Mario. It's glorious in its all-out absurdity, shoddiness and insanity, and the soundtrack is a work of pure art. The CD-I Zeldas are at least understandable. They were trying for something normal and generic and failed. But Hotel Mario is inexplicable, haha. It's all one big non-sequitur, which somehow makes it even funnier.
One final note re. Pete: the show also had a bit of good luck in that it ended at just the right time. There's a very noticeable drop in quality in the last season (even if Das Bus is one of the best episodes IMO). They had enough time to refine the formula and find their best ideas, but were forced to stop before the rot could really set in. That's an uncommon combination, I think.
Still thinking about doing my own write-up of it too. I've never done much non-fiction other than creative writing critiques, but would be fun to try. My original idea was to do comprehensive reviews for every episode, but maybe something more big-picture would be better. That's another thing I appreciate about your essays here: the way you tie some very particular bits of nerdy esoterica to a larger context.
For Pete, one way to go might be to tie it in with the "suburban whimsical fantasy" subgenre, exemplified by its spiritual cousins/contemporaries Goof Troop, Earthbound/Mother 2 and big parts of Tim Schafer's work. And of course then we're off to the phenomenon of suburbia itself, "the biggest misallocation of resources in human history" per James Howard Kunstler...
I was thinking about happy endings and sad endings last night, in relation to the fantasy genre. It occurred to me that you could break the fantasy genre up into different ages:
1. The Idealistic Age - JRR Tolkien, ER Eddison, Robert E. Howard.
2. The Cynical Age - George RR Martin, Joe Abercrombie
3. ???
We're still in the Cynical Age, in this scheme, and I'm not really enjoying it. I had a scifi fan explain Joe Abercrombie to me by saying, "All the main characters get tortured." He was taken aback when I told him that wasn't my scene. It takes an emotional toll that I don't have the capacity for, most days.
Besides my personal preference, the Cynical Age is self-terminating. George RR Martin has petered out on his magnum opus, because he killed off or neutralized all the characters that were worth a damn. Book 5 ended with the last few good characters exiting the stage, leaving us with a bunch of boring, loser-ass nobodies. He knows it, and he's spent the last eleven years screwing around instead of addressing it.
So what comes next? I don't think it's feasible to go back to the Idealistic Age. We don't have the cultural context for it anymore.
I'm proposing the Desperation Age: Shit's getting real, it's getting grim, and you better find yourself a path to the light, because Instagram, Pornhub and Door Dash ain't gonna save your American ass. My guess is the art that proves resonant in the near future will need to have something of this sensibility.
I'm not sure I fully agree with calling the first age "idealistic". Sure, LotR has a happy ending on the surface, but when it comes down to it it's a deeply pessimistic universe. Or at least it has a very autumnal sensibility, to put it that way. Everything glorious and great is behind us and slowly fading, just like how Tolkien saw the nascent industrial civilization chew up the world of his youth. (On a side note, I find it fascinating that this man could remember a time when automobiles were rarities, saw the rise of all the wonders of high modernity and lived into the 70s, and still preferred the preindustrial world. That's a strong rejection of the Myth of Progress.)
As for Howard, he reportedly hated civilization, nevermind modernity, and didn't seem like the most idealistic fellow. Neither does his main character as far as I can tell, but I'm not as familiar with his work as I am with Tolkien's. If I understand it right, he does seem to both champion and predict that "barbarism" and brute force will win out in the end, which seems like a less than happy prospect to many of us.
If anything, maybe "the Defiant Age" would be a better name? Both of them seem to represent a sort of last stand against inevitable decline.
Agreed that another era feels overdue. I could see themes of a small group kindling a light in a world that's going insane and falling apart around them as one possible theme...
I could go along with "the Defiant Age." Mostly I was grabbing at whatever terms came readily to mind, to try to get a grasp on this idea that had struck me.
And also I was thinking of a time when it didn't seem insane or cliche to have the good guys win (even if Conan isn't exactly 'good,' even if the Elves pack their shit up and head West). Or when you could have a coherent narrative arc without some sadistic killer kicking the door in and brutally murdering your hero.
No matter what subject you choose to opine upon in these essays, you always manage to inject a certain level of passion into them. That aspect will come out in some essays more than others, but there's a baseline minimum that you never seem to dip below. It's quite the solid draw, I find, and it plays well off the snarky cut of your wit in those essays where you're exploring the things you find odd or unpleasant.
Passion is a wonderful tool, though, and not just for how genuine displays of it can help readers like myself connect even with subjects we're unfamiliar with. It's also extremely versatile, making it equally applicable to what we enjoy as it is to what we dislike. This essay is a fine example of that, with your enjoyment and investment in Angel Hare put on fullest display. It was enough that I did, in fact, take your suggestion at the midpoint and watched the first season of the series before you dug deep into your thoughts on the story and its mysteries.
I'm glad I did. Admittedly, I don't find it as impactful as you did. I tend not to saunter through the realms of analog horror videos not because it isn't the sort of thing I'd dislike, (you've read some of my stories, you know I don't shy away from the dark, the creepy, or the scary) but generally because it's a style of horror that's never landed with me. Even in the best cases I tend not to find analog horror scary or unnerving so much as I do silly, hackney, and a bit boring. But I definitely see the appeal in something like Angel Hare. It nails that janky basement animation or cheap public access production feel almost perfectly, and it reminded me of some of the weird things I found tucked away in the storage closet of my home town's little church, or hidden away on the back shelves of our town's local library. At the same time, it gives just enough of that off feeling to add that extra compelling angle to it. Predictable, yes, but an interesting enough twist, particularly with the handling of that sixth episode, to keep me invested.
Do I think it's groundbreaking? No, but it does call back to an element of children's entertainment that I think has been missing from it for a very long time - fear. One of your other commenters already mentioned The Brave Little Toaster, which was a cavalcade of scary moments packed into a story about a cute, sentient toaster and his cute, sentient appliance friends going on an adventure to find the little kid who used to be their owner. Then there's some of Don Bluth's best work, movies like The Secret of NIMH, which had no qualms about showcasing some pretty frightening imagery with the monstrousness of that old farmhouse mousing cat, Dragon, or the imposing blend of mystery and abject danger presented by The Great Owl. For me, Angel Hare's analog horror elements work not because of how they play specifically with analog horror, but because by playing with it, they're throwing back to that darker aspect of children's media that's made so much of the newer offerings feel so hollow in comparison.
Did those more frightening scenes in things like The Brave Little Toaster, The Secret of NIMH, and yes even some of the golden age Disney animations scare me as a kid? You're damn right they did! I remember the smoke breathing clown in the Toaster's dreams super clearly because of how terrifying it was. I remember all the dangers Mrs. Brisby faced in her efforts to save her son's life. I remember being scared when King Triton found out about Ariel's hidden grotto of human artifacts and, desperate to make her understand the danger she was putting herself in, flew into a rage and destroyed everything. I remember sitting on the edge of my seat as Jafar turned into that giant cobra and nearly killed both Aladdin and Princess Jasmine. I remember seeing those tough mobsters in Batman: The Mask of the Phantasm running for their lives only to be mercilessly killed by that ghostly new character in ways that were pretty fucking dark for a kid's superhero movie.
Most importantly, I remember the lesson those moments taught me - sometimes you'll be faced with scary things that will make you want to run away, or scary people that will try to convince you to do wrong. Courage is needed to face those moments and have the willpower to do what's right. The characters who faced those dangers all showed courage, moral strength, and decency, but they couldn't have shown that without playing on our fears first. Angel Hare touches on this same idea, albeit in a much more intentionally vague way due to the analog horror it's playing with. Which is to say, yes, I'm coming down on the side of her likely being a good guy. At least for now.
Thank you for introducing us to Angel Hare, and for a positive, good thing to enjoy. And I always feel that whatever you write on is a positive read anyway. Always a very merry trip through one of your posts! Thank you.
I watched Veggie Tales, too, but I had reason recently to recall another old Christian/puppet VHS tape I had as a kid; something one of my kids did reminded me of it in one of those flashbacks like you wrote about 😂 Have you heard of the Donut repair man and his little puppet buddy Dunkin? It’s funny to read this article right after I remembered about that show!
Anyone else remember that sweet Brave Little Toaster trauma?
The scene where the air conditioner unit blew up in the window was absolutely one of the worst things I think I ever saw in a kid's movie when I was young.
The air conditioner's overload. The wannabe "technician" who Frankensteined "fixes" for broken appliances. The junkyard magnet and the crusher. All awesomely scary and memorable imagery.
But nothing in that movie, NOTHING, matches the fire clown in his dream. His appearance with the smoke wafting through his teeth just to tell the toaster, "Run!" lives in my memory forever and I love it.
About all I remember is the weirdo driving the monster truck (am I remembering that right?) and a lingering sense of dread (I am definitely remembering that right).
I think the british dog show you might be thinking of is Kipper the Dog??
I just checked and, no, it wasn't. Funny enough that unlocked a core memory because I had Kipper the Dog books when I was a kid and completely forgot about them until I saw the pictures, and it all came rushing back at once.
ah, bummer. Kipper the Dog was great! I'm watching Angel Hares now, thanks for your blog :)
Thank you for another thoughtful entry. First off and most importantly, I very much agree and think you're spot-on with your main point. It really does feel like our culture is enamored of irony and cynicism and so afraid to be sincere much of the time, and it can get grating for sure. We absolutely need more stories that are sincere and wholesome without tipping over into the saccharine. I promise I won't keep banging on about my own hobby horses, but this exact thing is one of the reasons I'm such a fan of The Adventures of Pete and Pete. It's very sincere while still being clever.
I guess I could quibble that there are some big swathes of pop culture where the happy ending and cotton candy wholesomeness really do rule supreme. Look at the whole romance genre, or, say, cozy mysteries, Hallmark et al. Maybe most people still do want happy endings and are willing to pay for them in the end. That said, I still think your point stands pretty well on the whole. Maybe the problem is that those genres are nothing but sugar, but you need that sweet spot where there's some teeth, but not too much. If that makes any sense at all.
As for Angel Hare, I ended up watching the whole thing. In some ways it reminded me of the SCP Foundation, which I'm also a fan of (and one property where the extreme cynicism feels warranted, but I wouldn't want them all to be like that). You make a good case for the first season finale, but to be absolutely honest...while I appreciate your points, I wasn't quite as taken with it as you were.
Ironically enough because it felt like it wanted me to be surprised at the "he murdered his abusive dad/stepdad" thing, which was so predictable I was rolling my eyes. That whole trope is also such a big cliche, and contrary to your opinion the writing felt like it was spoonfeeding a lot. I agree the animation and acting were very good, though. Certainly better than the writing IMO. That said, I can appreciate the nicely ambiguous ending, even if "she wasn't actually evil" also felt like a predictable "subversion".
On the other hand, I found the second season much stronger overall. Instead of playing with all those cliche creepypasta and horror tropes, the move into more of a mystery approach worked much better for me. Especially when the MC threatened to end the broadcast and Angel Zag broke character. The second season felt more ambitious and more complex in a good way, and I found the ending a much more elegant twist on the "she's actually good" approach. Plus I'm always a sucker for noir, haha.
Sorry for going into review mode there, force of habit. I agree it's an interesting series and better than many things with much bigger budgets.
It's alright - this is safe space for banging on horses of any hobby. I always appreciate feedback and discussion, regardless of what it may be, I assure you. If anything, that's more evidence I need to invesitgate this show. I've been doing research on 90's sitcoms as part of an upcoming article I'm working on and that show comes up quite frequently in the "underrated but great" sitcoms of the era. But, right now, I'm binging certain shows that may or may not be other Nickelodeon sitcoms from a later era... which is probably a good hint of what I'm working on now.
That being said, yes, there are certain genres of media that do rely heavily of sugar-sweet endings, but I'm mostly referring to the dominant media of the day. Don't get me wrong, I see what you're saying, but Hallmark and Lifetime movies are kind of a niche thing. Overall, mainstream cinema and media is obsessed with darkness as a whole. I actually read a lot of romance novels and it really feels as if this Millennial neuroticism of "nothing can ever be good" is leaking into them, as well. I figure it's only a matter of time until it's reflected in adaptations of those works, if they ever come to fruition. Which I hope they don't. I really, really hope they don't.
I also respect that you didn't have the same experience with Angel Hare as I did. That's the beauty of art, y'know? Not everyone takes away the same thing. You watched it, you appreciated it on different merits, and that's perfectly fine. I think some of the reason I was so taken by the end of Season One was simply because I consume a LOT of YouTube horror content and, for me, I was primed to expect a certain thing that maybe not everyone else who doesn't (and isn't terminally online) wouldn't. That being said, the second season is great too, and I'm really looking forward to what they have next.
Speaking of the SCP series, I've always been a fan of that myself. I've had a piece on that particular beast for a while, but I haven't been able to finish it yet. It's just so fucking big, you know? There's so much to it. So much to say. The meta-history of the site and the community kind of overshadows the actual content itself, of which, like you, I'm a huge fan of. I've been invested in the SCP series since its inception (I was literally one of the first users on the site, though I've never contributed), and part of what makes it so hard to write about it just how badly it's been butchered by political ideologues over the past couple years. There's still a lot of good stuff coming out of it, but that's in spite of the current crowned heads of the community, not because of them. Maybe I'll revisit what I have on the backburner after I get through what I'm working on now.
I'd love to see your take on the SCP Foundation, especially if you're that much of a veteran. You're right there's probably enough for a full book there. On my part, I think I found it somewhere around the late 2000s or very early 10s. I'll also admit I haven't been keeping up with it much for a while now, so my admiration for it is more fond memories of the 1000 and 2000 series in particular.
My all-time fave has to be SCP-1193, the buried arm in Arizona. It's just such a superb combination of weirdness, horror and even poignancy, with perfect clinical tone, and somehow manages to be both hilarious and disturbing at the same time.
Anyway, I think the SCP phenomenon is another good example of the kind of thing that could never be produced by a megacorp, and I love how the CC license stops anyone with real money from doing anything with it.
Another thing I forgot to mention from the article: Youtube Poops. I was in my early twenties when these were all the rage, so maybe too old for them since they feel like a very teenage phenomenon, but I still got a lot of laughs out of them. Maybe I'm just childish at heart, but there's something about this kind of really dumb internet humor that always gets me. Hotel Mario in particular makes me laugh to this day.
I think "so bad it's good" would be great fodder for an article in itself, and there's no finer example of the phenomenon anywhere than Hotel Mario. It's glorious in its all-out absurdity, shoddiness and insanity, and the soundtrack is a work of pure art. The CD-I Zeldas are at least understandable. They were trying for something normal and generic and failed. But Hotel Mario is inexplicable, haha. It's all one big non-sequitur, which somehow makes it even funnier.
One final note re. Pete: the show also had a bit of good luck in that it ended at just the right time. There's a very noticeable drop in quality in the last season (even if Das Bus is one of the best episodes IMO). They had enough time to refine the formula and find their best ideas, but were forced to stop before the rot could really set in. That's an uncommon combination, I think.
Still thinking about doing my own write-up of it too. I've never done much non-fiction other than creative writing critiques, but would be fun to try. My original idea was to do comprehensive reviews for every episode, but maybe something more big-picture would be better. That's another thing I appreciate about your essays here: the way you tie some very particular bits of nerdy esoterica to a larger context.
For Pete, one way to go might be to tie it in with the "suburban whimsical fantasy" subgenre, exemplified by its spiritual cousins/contemporaries Goof Troop, Earthbound/Mother 2 and big parts of Tim Schafer's work. And of course then we're off to the phenomenon of suburbia itself, "the biggest misallocation of resources in human history" per James Howard Kunstler...
I was thinking about happy endings and sad endings last night, in relation to the fantasy genre. It occurred to me that you could break the fantasy genre up into different ages:
1. The Idealistic Age - JRR Tolkien, ER Eddison, Robert E. Howard.
2. The Cynical Age - George RR Martin, Joe Abercrombie
3. ???
We're still in the Cynical Age, in this scheme, and I'm not really enjoying it. I had a scifi fan explain Joe Abercrombie to me by saying, "All the main characters get tortured." He was taken aback when I told him that wasn't my scene. It takes an emotional toll that I don't have the capacity for, most days.
Besides my personal preference, the Cynical Age is self-terminating. George RR Martin has petered out on his magnum opus, because he killed off or neutralized all the characters that were worth a damn. Book 5 ended with the last few good characters exiting the stage, leaving us with a bunch of boring, loser-ass nobodies. He knows it, and he's spent the last eleven years screwing around instead of addressing it.
So what comes next? I don't think it's feasible to go back to the Idealistic Age. We don't have the cultural context for it anymore.
I'm proposing the Desperation Age: Shit's getting real, it's getting grim, and you better find yourself a path to the light, because Instagram, Pornhub and Door Dash ain't gonna save your American ass. My guess is the art that proves resonant in the near future will need to have something of this sensibility.
I'm not sure I fully agree with calling the first age "idealistic". Sure, LotR has a happy ending on the surface, but when it comes down to it it's a deeply pessimistic universe. Or at least it has a very autumnal sensibility, to put it that way. Everything glorious and great is behind us and slowly fading, just like how Tolkien saw the nascent industrial civilization chew up the world of his youth. (On a side note, I find it fascinating that this man could remember a time when automobiles were rarities, saw the rise of all the wonders of high modernity and lived into the 70s, and still preferred the preindustrial world. That's a strong rejection of the Myth of Progress.)
As for Howard, he reportedly hated civilization, nevermind modernity, and didn't seem like the most idealistic fellow. Neither does his main character as far as I can tell, but I'm not as familiar with his work as I am with Tolkien's. If I understand it right, he does seem to both champion and predict that "barbarism" and brute force will win out in the end, which seems like a less than happy prospect to many of us.
If anything, maybe "the Defiant Age" would be a better name? Both of them seem to represent a sort of last stand against inevitable decline.
Agreed that another era feels overdue. I could see themes of a small group kindling a light in a world that's going insane and falling apart around them as one possible theme...
I could go along with "the Defiant Age." Mostly I was grabbing at whatever terms came readily to mind, to try to get a grasp on this idea that had struck me.
And also I was thinking of a time when it didn't seem insane or cliche to have the good guys win (even if Conan isn't exactly 'good,' even if the Elves pack their shit up and head West). Or when you could have a coherent narrative arc without some sadistic killer kicking the door in and brutally murdering your hero.
No matter what subject you choose to opine upon in these essays, you always manage to inject a certain level of passion into them. That aspect will come out in some essays more than others, but there's a baseline minimum that you never seem to dip below. It's quite the solid draw, I find, and it plays well off the snarky cut of your wit in those essays where you're exploring the things you find odd or unpleasant.
Passion is a wonderful tool, though, and not just for how genuine displays of it can help readers like myself connect even with subjects we're unfamiliar with. It's also extremely versatile, making it equally applicable to what we enjoy as it is to what we dislike. This essay is a fine example of that, with your enjoyment and investment in Angel Hare put on fullest display. It was enough that I did, in fact, take your suggestion at the midpoint and watched the first season of the series before you dug deep into your thoughts on the story and its mysteries.
I'm glad I did. Admittedly, I don't find it as impactful as you did. I tend not to saunter through the realms of analog horror videos not because it isn't the sort of thing I'd dislike, (you've read some of my stories, you know I don't shy away from the dark, the creepy, or the scary) but generally because it's a style of horror that's never landed with me. Even in the best cases I tend not to find analog horror scary or unnerving so much as I do silly, hackney, and a bit boring. But I definitely see the appeal in something like Angel Hare. It nails that janky basement animation or cheap public access production feel almost perfectly, and it reminded me of some of the weird things I found tucked away in the storage closet of my home town's little church, or hidden away on the back shelves of our town's local library. At the same time, it gives just enough of that off feeling to add that extra compelling angle to it. Predictable, yes, but an interesting enough twist, particularly with the handling of that sixth episode, to keep me invested.
Do I think it's groundbreaking? No, but it does call back to an element of children's entertainment that I think has been missing from it for a very long time - fear. One of your other commenters already mentioned The Brave Little Toaster, which was a cavalcade of scary moments packed into a story about a cute, sentient toaster and his cute, sentient appliance friends going on an adventure to find the little kid who used to be their owner. Then there's some of Don Bluth's best work, movies like The Secret of NIMH, which had no qualms about showcasing some pretty frightening imagery with the monstrousness of that old farmhouse mousing cat, Dragon, or the imposing blend of mystery and abject danger presented by The Great Owl. For me, Angel Hare's analog horror elements work not because of how they play specifically with analog horror, but because by playing with it, they're throwing back to that darker aspect of children's media that's made so much of the newer offerings feel so hollow in comparison.
Did those more frightening scenes in things like The Brave Little Toaster, The Secret of NIMH, and yes even some of the golden age Disney animations scare me as a kid? You're damn right they did! I remember the smoke breathing clown in the Toaster's dreams super clearly because of how terrifying it was. I remember all the dangers Mrs. Brisby faced in her efforts to save her son's life. I remember being scared when King Triton found out about Ariel's hidden grotto of human artifacts and, desperate to make her understand the danger she was putting herself in, flew into a rage and destroyed everything. I remember sitting on the edge of my seat as Jafar turned into that giant cobra and nearly killed both Aladdin and Princess Jasmine. I remember seeing those tough mobsters in Batman: The Mask of the Phantasm running for their lives only to be mercilessly killed by that ghostly new character in ways that were pretty fucking dark for a kid's superhero movie.
Most importantly, I remember the lesson those moments taught me - sometimes you'll be faced with scary things that will make you want to run away, or scary people that will try to convince you to do wrong. Courage is needed to face those moments and have the willpower to do what's right. The characters who faced those dangers all showed courage, moral strength, and decency, but they couldn't have shown that without playing on our fears first. Angel Hare touches on this same idea, albeit in a much more intentionally vague way due to the analog horror it's playing with. Which is to say, yes, I'm coming down on the side of her likely being a good guy. At least for now.
Hmmm... watching Angel Hare reminded me a little of reading about Nell and her interaction with the Primer in Diamond Age.
Thank you for introducing us to Angel Hare, and for a positive, good thing to enjoy. And I always feel that whatever you write on is a positive read anyway. Always a very merry trip through one of your posts! Thank you.
I watched Veggie Tales, too, but I had reason recently to recall another old Christian/puppet VHS tape I had as a kid; something one of my kids did reminded me of it in one of those flashbacks like you wrote about 😂 Have you heard of the Donut repair man and his little puppet buddy Dunkin? It’s funny to read this article right after I remembered about that show!