Cartoons and Cheesecake

Something gastronomically interesting I learned this week:

When you're feeling absolutely wretched for one reason or another (I know I have been acting like the blue Care Bear with the raincloud on his cute tummy since the previous weekend), a huge slice of blueberry cheesecake washed down with a glass of water CAN BE the perfect comfort food.

I say "CAN BE" because your stomach is not made of the same stuff as mine.

Or is it?

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Sue and I have been friends since we were in grade school and the reasons why we have remained as such all these years vary from the usual to the unusual. One reason would be our (still undying/unwavering) fascination for Disney cartoons.

A couple of days ago, while waiting for our Oblicon professor, Mini and I almost spontaneously launched into this talk about Disney cartoons as well.

We then went on to enumerate three Disney cartoons which we liked the least. Mine included the ones listed below. The last time I saw these titles would be a good fifteen to twenty years ago.

1. Snow White because:
a. Snow White has this shrill, high-pitched voice which makes her sound scarier than the Witch/Evil Queen.
b. Prince Charming has redder lips than Snow White.
c. Snow White puts on too much eye makeup.

2. Dumbo because:
a. Like what Mini said, the multi-colored elephants in Dumbo's dream in that scene where he had a little too much to drink were scary (think of what It did to clowns).
b. Of that scene where Dumbo's mom was cradling him with her trunk because she was locked up. That was just a little too much for my 5-year old heart to handle.
c. Of those mean, jealous, ugly, old elephants!

Poor Dumbo! *sniff sniff

3. Bambi because:
a. BAMBI'S MOTHER DIED!!!
b. I couldn't understand why Bambi's father had to be away most of the time.
c. It was a little weird watching a fawn talk.

Although the irony of it all is that when I was seven, I was once cast as the only girl to play a dwarf among six other boys (whose names I can still call out aloud) in our school production of Snow White.

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I had been pining for blueberry cheesecake for two months, I think. A couple of times, I would have dreams wherein I would be sinking my teeth into the best blueberry cheesecake in the world. I would wake then wake up feeling absolutely crazy for two reasons: 1) I want the cheesecake so bad and 2) when I was a child, I read a book which said that dreaming of food and eating usually happens to people who eat too much. Uh-oh.

So one day, just to cater to that longing for something sweet, I bought a junior-sized chocolate cake to share with my sister because the bakeshop where I usually buy the cheesecake said they no longer had it in the menu. As I put forkfuls of cake into my mouth, I thought that it was not as satisfying as cheesecake but I guess, it was good enough in its own way.

Two days later, I went back to the mall to get a bunch of new pens to use for school. I passed by a branch of the same bakeshop and lo and behold! They had cheesecake right there staring at me in the face! I couldn't go ahead and buy it because there was still a lot of chocolate cake left to be consumed. I left the bakeshop muttering a lot of "shoulds."

About a week later, when the chocolate cake was no more than a mere memory, I was happily sinking my teeth into the cheesecake that had haunted my very dreams for several nights.

An interesting interplay between settling and waiting can occur in the most outrageous of circumstances.

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Aside from being horrifying in terms of losing one's mother, Bambi had its fair share of funny moments.

I especially enjoyed this one scene towards the middle of the cartoon wherein winter has finally come to an end and spring has just made its entrance. Bambi is now sporting some form of antlers, though not as grand as his father's. His friends Thumper (the rabbit) and Flower (the skunk) have also grown up. The three of them then embark on a little expedition of some sort, each animal walking with head held high to the tune of an interesting background music.

Somehow, the "expedition" makes a different, unexpected turn (pun definitely intended).

Flower is the first to go when he gets distracted by another female skunk. Thumper scoffs at him for being too soft but apparently Thumper talks too soon. Then, as the viewers all know, Bambi isn't alone for too long either.

I remember that as a child, I found the entire chain of events absolutely funny.

Perhaps I never did quite understand how exactly it would feel like to lose a skunk.