Showdown At Subway: Jive Turkey Dance Club vs Funky Fresh Chicken Dance Club

I eat lunch at Subway every weekday.  This week, I tried the (limited time) Autumn Carved Turkey sandwich.  I really like it!  It inspired me to create a new character.  It inspired two, actually.  I was thinking of "Rival Mascot" characters that are used for promotions, like Count Chocula, Frankenberry and Boo Berry cereals from General Mills.  I want Subway to have characters, too.  The first is Jive Turkey Dance Club.  He is heavily influenced by Robert Crumb's Keep on Truckin'.  Just imagine the Bee Gees song Jive Talkin' playing in Jive Turkey's commercial.

When I order the Autumn Carved Turkey at my Subway, I now ask for the Jive Turkey.

My regular sandwich at Subway is the Rotisserie-Style Chicken.

So of course, the rival sandwich of the Jive Turkey Dance Club is the Funky Fresh Chicken Dance Club.

Funky Fresh Chicken Dance Club is clearly inspired by Saturday Night Fever.

Run Forrest Ham is based on Subway's Black Forest Ham Sub and the 1994 Tom Hanks movie, Forrest Gump.

Attention, Jive Turkey!  You just got served!  On fresh-baked six inch Italian bread, with chips and a drink.

Hustle on down to Subway and join the Clubs!

Disney's The Santa Clause At Subway

The Tim Allen film "The Santa Clause" was a huge hit at movie theaters in 1994.  There were even Santa Clause toys for sale at Subway restaurants, though many people probably did not know about them.

Disney re-released "The Lion King" at about the same time "The Santa Clause" debuted.  Burger King took the opportunity to re-issue the very popular Lion King toys that had sold out quickly in the Summer of 1994. I'm not sure what McDonald's was promoting at the time, but Subway restaurants promoted The Santa Clause.

The world was a very different place in 1994, and I had no idea that The Santa Clause was at Subway.  There were no commercials.  For many years, Subway only promoted its Kids' Pak meals using posters at the restaurants, and the toys were typically not shown.

I happened to find some Santa Clause Subway toys at a Flea Market in Louisville, Kentucky sometime in the late 1990s.

This 3D Puzzle is noteworthy because it sports a caricature of Tim Allen.

The cartoon Santa Clause characters remind me of animated movie titles seen in front of many live action films in the 1980s and 1990s.

The main elf in the film was played by David Krumholtz, and was a familiar face at the time thanks to his role in "Addams Family Values."

The rest of the elves in The Santa Clause were played by younger children.

The toys in this set, like the ELFS Action Figure, were very simple.

The Comet the Reindeer toy was not even promoted with the other toys in the set.

Comet was an "Under 3" toy that had to be specially requested by Subway customers.

To my knowledge, the Subway toys were the only merchandise made for "The Santa Clause."

Tim Allen's show, "Home Improvement", was a huge hit on TV when "The Santa Clause" hit theaters.  One year later, he could be heard in Pixar's "Toy Story" as Buzz Lightyear.

The Santa Clause was so popular that a sequel, "The Santa Clause 2: The Mrs. Clause" debuted in 2002.  This was followed by "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause" in 2009.  All the Santa Clause films have become holiday viewing rituals for many people.

Can we expect more sequels?  Maybe!  Keep your eyes open for "The Santa Clause, Deadliest Catch: The Crab Clause".

Cats Don't Dance At Subway

Do you remember that episode of the TV show "Quantum Leap" where Scott Bakula becomes a cartoon cat in Hollywood in the Thirties?  Well, that was a 1997 Turner Feature Animation movie called "Cats Don't Dance."

Optimistic Danny the Cat (voiced by Scott Bakula) travels from Kokomo, Indiana to Hollywood to become a singing and dancing star.

Danny is so skinny.  Instead of Subway, maybe he should eat a Big Mac.

Jasmine Guy (from the TV show "A Different World") provides the speaking voice for Danny's love interest, Sawyer (a former dancer and a secretary for an Animal Talent Agency).

Sawyer's singing voice was provided by Natalie Cole.

"Cats Don't Dance" fully embraces the romantic idea of Hollywood in a fun way (notice Woolie the Elephant as the mascot for Mammoth Pictures, a clever spoof of the MGM Lion).

To my knowledge, the only merchandise tied to the film was the set of toys available at Subway Restaurants.

Before the countless Penguin animated films we've seen over the past ten years, there was Pudge the Penguin  (voiced by Matthew Herried).

Things are rough for the animal actors in Hollywood until Danny shows up.

I found the "Cats Don't Dance" Subway toys at a Flea Market many years ago.  I think the Woolie the Elephant Squirter (which I never got) may have been the toy sold to kids under the age of three.

I never saw the Two-Faced Darla Subway toy.  I heard that it was recalled at some point.

Darla Dimple (voiced by Ashley Peldon, with singing by Lindsay Ridgeway) is clearly a parody of Shirley Temple.  Her towering monster servant, Max, was voiced by the film's director, Mark Dindal.

"Cats Don't Dance" was the first and last movie made by Turner Feature Animation.  By the time the film was released, Turner Entertainment merged with Warner Brothers.

When "Cats Don't Dance" debuted in movie theaters in March of 1997, it didn't do very well.

Most people are probably more familiar with this film from showings on the Disney Channel or Cartoon Network.

Re-watching "Cats Don't Dance", I discovered a nice little hidden Easter Egg.  In the "Danny's Arrival Song" sequence, there is a sign on a building with an artist's palette and the name "Nikolai."  This was put in by "Cats Don't Dance" visual artist Dennis Greco as a nod to (Disney) artist Larry Nikolai.

Larry Nikolai has worked in animation and theme park design for many years.  He was nice enough to help me out with a story I did called Monsters, M.I.A.: Six Flags Over Georgia's Monster Mansion And The Big Monster On Campus.

Looking at the model of Woolie the Elephant, it does make me wonder what a CGI "Cats Don't Dance" would look like.

A younger Scott Bakula takes time from his Quantum Leaping to work with a younger Randy Newman.

In the movie, we learn that Scott Bakula can sing, and sing really, really well!

The songs were written by, but not sung by, Pixar favorite, Randy Newman.

The character Danny the Cat seems to have been inspired by Mickey Mouse (at least subliminally).

Danny's personality and many of his facial expressions and poses are very Mickey Mouse (in a good way!).

Danny and Sawyer learned to dance with a little help from their mentor, Gene Kelly.

The character animation in the movie is very reminiscent of Disney's Aladdin, too (there's even a "Darladdin" poster in the background during the "Animal Jam" scene).

Look for lots of fun old Hollywood caricatures in the movie, too.

Luckily, Danny and his pals get discovered and are put into lots of movies!  Specifically, at the end we see the characters in posters for Warner Brothers movies like Batman, Superman and Beetlejuice.  It takes us way beyond the 1930s.

Danny's animal friends include Tillie the Hippo (Kathy Najimy, from "Sister Act"), Woolie the Elephant (John Rhys-Davies), T.W. the Turtle (Don Knotts), Frances Albacore (Betty Lou Gerson, the voice of Cruella De Vil in Disney's "101 Dalmatians") and Cranston Goat (Hal Holbrook).

Say, doesn't Frances the fish look a bit like Yzma from Disney's "The Emperor's New Groove"?  Well, there's a reason for that.  Both films were directed by Mark Dindal, and they both have a very similar feel (even similar jazzy soundtracks!).

For more fun, check out Bucky And The Emperor's New Groove At McDonald's.