Toonaloo

The Evil Genius family, along with the Princess, the Princess' mother, and the Artist, went to an event at Tower City Mall in downtown Cleveland on Sunday. It was sponsored by American Greetings and featured cartoon characters owned by AG: Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, and Holly Hobbie. Thus the name of the event, Toonaloo. We girls all saw the world premiere of the latest Strawberry Shortcake movie, which will not be out on DVD until February. Ooh aah! A Holly Hobbie Christmas film and a Care Bears movie were also shown, but we could only take in one film, and Strawberry Shortcake was the most popular. Then for a small fee, which was donated to charity, there were different activities to do. The girls opted to have their pictures taken with Strawberry Shortcake and various Care Bears, and to make tiaras. Here are some pics! Note the lovely pose of the Artist's hand. She probably picked up some lovely ballet poses from her mother.



The Princess' mom (aka the Quilter) and I lamented that Holly Hobbie is now a modern girl, the great-granddaughter of the "original" Holly Hobbie in bonnet and quilted dress. (Although they do offer "classic" Holly Hobbie items for those of us that live in the past :) ) I hate the way marketeers are always "updating" everything, and yet times are different now. There was a focus on the simple life, a sort of pioneer, earthy mentality, back then. Can you imagine the Sunshine Family dolls selling today? I suppose they could push the recycling aspect, making things for the dolls yourself out of items around your home. But granny dresses just aren't cool anymore. Steffie would wear jeans and a knit shirt (made out of organic cotton) and a denim jacket nowadays, and Steve would lose that nerdy turtleneck and get some Dockers. They'd still buy organic fruits and vegetables at the co-op, though, if they didn't grow them for themselves in the Watch 'Em Grow Greenhouse, with the Gardening Craft Kit, and then sell some at the Farm Produce Stand. Hmmm. Maybe they would fit in today after all! Too bad I'm a contra-crunchy. :)