Of all the classic Rankin-Bass stop-motion holiday specials, my undisputed favorite is 1970's Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. I'm a sucker...

Yeah, he sucks his thumb. Yeah, he carries around a security blanket and lets his big sister push him around. His head is lumpy and his...

I'm cheating a bit here: this entry is really about two characters, though a single archetype. First, I love Ebenezer Scrooge. I love...

I think we've all got a bit of George Bailey in us. Life rarely pans out the way we thought it might when we were young. We plan to lasso...

Kicking off my version of the Twelve Days of Christmas here at Favorite Fictional Characters with a character I really like from a...

Kurt Vonnegut, among his other superpowers, is a master of the short story. His 1968 collection Welcome to the Monkey House might be...

True Confessions: I don't love Blade Runner. Oh, I respect Ridley Scott and adore Harrison Ford and I totally acknowledge how important...

Yesterday we took the boys to see Disney's newest offering, the Polynesian girl-power romp Moana. It's a lush visual experience, rich in...

Bugs Bunny has had numerous antagonists over his long career. Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, the Tasmanian Devil, among others. None have...

There are scoundrels like Han Solo, swashbuckling smugglers who never grow up, never settle down, never trade in the buccaneer life for...

I know The Odd Couple originated on Broadway with Walter Mathau as the lovable sportswriting slob Oscar Madison, and that old friend...

Richard Scarry's Busytown can be a bewildering place, full of vaguely continental anthropomorphic beasties doing all sorts of things -...