Michael Lyons

Editor

Michael Lyons is a freelance writer, specializing in film, television, and pop culture. He is the author of the book, Drawn to Greatness: Disney’s Animation Renaissance, which chronicles the amazing growth at the Disney animation studio in the 1990s. In addition to Animation Scoop and Cartoon Research, he has contributed to Remind Magazine, Cinefantastique, Animation World Network and Disney Magazine. He also writes a blog, Screen Saver: A Retro Review of TV Shows and Movies of Yesteryear and his interviews with a number of animation legends have been featured in several volumes of the books, Walt’s People. You can visit Michael’s web site Words From Lyons at: Words From Lyons at: www.wordsfromlyons.com

Articles By Michael Lyons

Forget about a slasher in a hockey mask running amuck through a summer camp, the most impactful icon of the superstitions connected with Friday the 13th might just be a cute little kitten. In Bad Luck Blackie, the classic MGM cartoon from 1949, a kitten is befriended by the titular black cat, creating bad luck […]

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Talk about a “mash-up.” Spy Films and The Flintstones, two completely different pop-culture hallmarks of the 60s, came together fifty-five years ago this month for the full-length feature, The Man Called Flintstone. Hanna-Barbera’s landmark prime time animated series about the “Modern stone-age family,” which debuted in 1960, wrapped up its run in 1966 when the […]

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Before there was the term “fandom,” there was The Great Piggy Bank Robbery. In this classic Warner Bros cartoon short, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this month, none other than Daffy Duck proves to be a comic book “fanboy’ (or is it “fanduck?”). As The Great Piggy Bank Robbery opens, Daffy is on the farm […]

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For a film that is so pure, quiet, and earnest, The Fox and the Hound arrived at Disney during one of the studio’s most tumultuous times. In what has become a well-documented and pivotal moment in animation history, during production on The Fox and the Hound in September of 1979, Don Bluth led a walkout […]

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Movies have been inspired by books, TV shows, comics, songs, and toys. But commercials? How could the 30 to 60-second world of product sales give light to a full-length feature? Space Jam, the live action/animated Warner Bros. film from 1996, knew how. Four years before the film’s release, Nike sneakers debuted two creatively funny TV […]

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More From Animation Scoop

An Eye for A Classic: The 60th Anniversary of “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol”

He may be near-sighted, but it was Mr. Magoo who could see the way and blaze a trail for all future animated television Christmas specials. Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol debuted on December 18, 1962, on NBC, making it the very first animated Christmas special to be produced for television.  It aired two years before Rudolph […]