Holiday Memories: Intergalactic Thanksgiving (or, Please Don't Eat the Planet)

The next special is a somewhat odd one and seems to be only rather tenuously connected to Thanksgiving. The Canadian animation company Nelvana had already produced A Cosmic Christmas (1977, Christmas), The Devil and Daniel Mouse (1978, Halloween), and Romie-0 and Julie-8 (1979, Valentines Day). Their last holiday show was Please Don’t Eat the Planet (also 1979). It was later renamed Intergalactic Thanksgiving, perhaps to clarify the intent or perhaps to identify it with their more successful project, A Cosmic Christmas.

The show opens with ‘a wagon train to the stars’ of Earth farmers (Peter and his goose Lucy from A Cosmic Christmas make a cameo appearance) fleeing an ecological disaster and seeking a new planet to grow their crops on. Bringing up the rear is the ship of the dour Spademinder family, Ma (voiced by Catherine O’Hara) and Pa and their restless daughter Victoria and her dog Cromwell. After trying to crank things up and using unfamiliar methods (‘Let’s speed her up to Warp Factor 8’) they crash-land on the planet Mearth.

As the Spademinders try to set up a stead the news of their arrival travels to the planet natives. They are a jolly green bunch whose ruler, King Goochie (voiced by Sid Caeser), quickly grants them leave to stay. This is because the Laffalot society, having been relieved of the need to work by massive synthesizers that produce all that they eat, have based their lives solely on amusement, and they find the Spademinder’s earnest and straight-faced antics to be the most comical things they’ve seen in years.

The young prince Notfunnyenuf is a more serious-minded person than his father, and he soon makes friends with Victoria, as they try to understand each other’s culture. After initially opposing it (‘She must stay and toil the soil!’), the Spademinders reluctantly allow Victoria to go off on a drive with him. Notfunnyenuf explains that in Laffalot the funnier you are the more important you are; his father is King because he is the funniest. But Notfunnyenuf is not funny enough to succeed him. He treats Victoria to some of their synthetic food (which seems rather bland to her) and explains the process which has relieved his people both from anxiety and a work ethic.

The next day King Goochie consults with the Oracle (a sort of parody based on the Evil Queen from Snow White’s mirror). The good news is that his subjects are laughing. The bad news is that they are not laughing at HIM. They are on the verge of declaring the Spademinders the new king because they find their efforts absurdly charming. Goochie arrives at the farm and tries to woo his subjects with rather heavy-handed pranks, but when they are unresponsive, he takes up the mallet Pa had been using to pound stakes and declares if Pa can do it, he can do it. But when he strikes the earth, a chasm opens up and swallows Notfunnyenuf, Victoria, and Cromwell.

The Laffalots try to organize a search party, but they have the wrong idea about how to ‘throw’ parties. Meanwhile Victoria and Notfunnyenuf realize that the food synthesizers have hollowed out the planet; the only reason it is still standing is because of the shoring efforts of the tiny Bugs (a race of ant-like construction workers, a foreshadowing of the Doozers on Fraggle Rock, 1983) who sing a song about how you have to give back and not just take away.

King Goochie bursts into tears at the loss of his son, as do his subjects, and the resulting cascade of water causes the seeds to sprout into enormous vegetables. Misunderstanding the circumstances, King Goochie attacks a gigantic radish as a ‘new alien’, but when he pulls it up, he finds Notfunnyenuf clinging to its roots. Both sides band together in an effort to find Victoria, and in the process complete the harvest in record time. They hold a huge feast in thanksgiving.

The Oracle completes the tale. The synthesizers are stopped just in time to save the planet, which turns out to be extremely fertile. The roots of the huge vegetables which replace the phony food help stabilize the caverns below, allowing the Bugs a little rest in their efforts. While staying funny, King Goochie cultivates a serious side. Victoria and Notfunnyenuf remain friends and plan to eventually move farther into space to see what’s out there.

Whew. Writing that summary took much longer to accomplish than just directing you to watch the show on YouTube. And I’m not sure either effort is worth it, at that. There seems to be only the thinnest connection to a Thanksgiving celebration as it is known in the United States; it is much more concerned with an ecological message. If there are any thanks involved, they are to impersonal chance circumstances. After a strong beginning making holiday shows, Nelvana seemed to be running out of steam. Perhaps producing a special a year was not allowing enough time for development.

The spate of Thanksgiving specials might have been kicked off by the interest in United States history engendered by the upcoming Bicentennial; now that it was passed, so was the fervor. And elements of the holiday were becoming more controversial, so I think production of its specials were seen as problematic. I will forgo The Bugs Bunny Thanksgiving Diet (1978) or Daffy Duck's Thanks-for-giving Special (1980); they were merely clip-jobs of barely related old cartoons glued together by a badly animated plot line.

But there is one more odd little 1980 Thanksgiving special I want to cover before I stop, as it fell into the era of my youth.