Revisiting Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey — and the Penis Therein
Nearly 40 years after it aired on television, my sisters and I were excited to watch on DVD one of our favorite stop-motion childhood Christmas specials: Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey (1977). Only this time, we’d get to enjoy it with my sister’s kids.
The whole family assembled on my sister’s massive L-shaped sofa as the adults wondered aloud why the animated show is rarely, if ever, broadcast on television these days. But now, we know perhaps at least one reason. Here’s a screen-grab…
Wow. As soon as that nose appeared on screen, there was a collective L-shaped gasp. Pretty impressive, right?
My sister Veronica and I looked at each other and then burst into laughter. Soon the entire family, kids and grown-ups, were rewinding, zooming-in, and freeze-framing the scene until we landed on a decent frame for a photo.
Totally age-inappropriate? Sure. But who cares? We all marveled at the flaccid, big-balled nasal protrusion, and then gave thanks.
On a more technical and more serious note, the advances of high-definition along with my brother-in-law’s fifty-inch flat-screen television suddenly made visible to our grown-up eyes what we were blind to in our youth.
Stop-motion animation is intense and tedious work. As such, the creators deserved a few laughs to keep up their spirits through all those painstaking frames. And honestly, these men weren’t doing anything new — there are all kinds of rumors about phallic symbols’ and sexual innuendo’s being inserted into Looney Tunes cartoons, Betty Boop films, and Disney animation.
In any event, whoever is responsible for designing that puppet in Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey, I applaud you. You gave my family one of the most memorable Christmases ever.
If you have a memory to share about a holiday movie or TV show, please let us know.
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