Members of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Committee, including, from left, Erin Walkow, Julia Walkow, Andy Walkow, Bob Gill, Phil LeBlanc and Diana Gill, vote on the 2026 Winter Carnival theme on Tuesday night. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — What’s up Doc? “Cartoonival” has been selected as the 2026 Saranac Lake Winter Carnival theme.

More than 50 people came out to the Carnival theme vote on Tuesday night. A majority chose the color, comedy and caricature of cartoons to cover the town next February.

The name is a combination of “cartoon” and “carnival.” Winter Carnival, which will be held on Feb. 6 through 15 next year, is set to be a celebration of all things animated — ink, cels, panels, word bubbles, hyperbole, — from “Calvin and Hobbes” to “Rick and Morty,” from “One-Punch” to “Steamboat Willy.”

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Pitching Cartoonival

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There were two rounds of voting. In the first round each person got two votes and in the second round each person got one vote. Out of five possible choices, two made it to the final round: Cartoonival and Wizards and Dragons. In the decisive vote, Cartoonival won out 33 to 27. It was a short meeting.

“This was a good meeting for two reasons,” Carnival Committee Chair Jeff Branch said. “We’ve got a great theme, and Dean (Baker)’s not going to miss ‘Jeopardy!'”

Paige Lamb said the theme elicits a lot of nostalgia. Most everyone has a cartoon they hold dear. For babies, it’s “Bluey,” for grandparents, “Loony Tunes.”

Mike Burpoe said the theme has great breadth — with Saturday morning cartoons, comic strips, anime, comic books, manga, movies and TV shows.

“I also think it would be a really cool opportunity to explore music,” Burpoe said.

He added that it would be a nice way to pay tribute to Saranac Lake native Garry Trudeau, who has been drawing the nationally syndicated newspaper cartoon “Doonesbury” for 55 years and designing Winter Carnival buttons since 1981.

Other themes

Sam Baker said Game Night could be good for introducing group activities and Kathleen Bullard said it could be multi-generational with video games, board games and card games throughout the years.

Jodi Gunther said they plan to rebrand Winter Sports and pitch it again next year. It was initially presented because there’s a potential of Lake Placid getting the Olympic sliding sports events if the track in Italy is not completed in time for the 2026 Winter Olympics, which would coincide with Carnival.

After tests began recently at the Italy track, it appears the sliding sports will likely stay in Italy.

Milt Adams first pitched Wizards and Dragons when his son was 7 and very into Harry Potter. His son is 27 now. Martha Watts, who has voted for the theme every year, said every child has a favorite wizard or dragon.

Dave Rockefeller said America’s Birthday, celebrating semiquincentennial 250th anniversary since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, was an “opportunity too good to pass up.”

Now that the theme has been chosen, it’s time for the community to gather up their colorful costumes and parade floats, for the Ice Palace Workers to start designing a Cartoon-themed Ice Palace and for people to start mining the depths of cartoon-related music.

In the immortal words of Porky Pig “Th-th-th-that’s all, folks!”