Reviewing Even More Cartoon Openings

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I was going to run down some children’s TV openings, but after two or three I really couldn’t come up with any good examples to discuss. Children’s live action shows take a very different approach than cartoons. So instead, let’s go over cartoons. And maybe I will work in a live action show or two. Since I kind of covered syndicated stuff last time, let’s have some fun by going over some classic Saturday Morning fare.

 

 

Let’s start with one of the more quintisential Saturday Morning cartoons:

Smurfs

It’s amazing how just the first two seconds of this opening makes you realize how awful those live action movies were. Why in the world were The Smurfs in New York?? Anyway, we get this great shot of the world they live in before meeting our characters. The song is awesone, the characters are doing wat they do, and we even get a great intro for our main villain. And wat a dufus he is. This is a nice, quick opening that tells us all we need to know.

 

Reviewing More Cartoon Openings

So the other day I had fun doing this, but I got bogged down but focusing on Superfriends os much. There are a ton more out there to look at, so let’s do more today. And again, just cartoon’s we’ll get into livr action children’s programs another time. Considering how cory those can be that shou;d be fun. For now, let’s keep animated.

 

Thundercats

While I never watched this show this opening is pretty awesome. The fast animation and we get to see everything we need to see. It’s hard for a show to not have narration over it, but this one doesn’t. Just that awesome music. Ok to be fair the “song”, if I can even call it that, is weak. They couldn’t do more than just repeating the same three words over and over again? No wonder they threw everything into the animation.

 

Reviewing Cartoon Openings

So let’s take our attention away from sitcoms and talk about cartoons. You could argue that openings for cartoons are twice as important. It’s one thing to have to get the attention of an adult that your show is worth watching. Doing it for children is much harder. Which is probably why cartoon openings are usually quick, with lots going on while kickass music plays. People realize that often the best animation for the series is in that opening, which makes sense.

Let’s go through some cartoons and decide not so much if they worked, but how well they worked.

Alvin & The Chipmunks

Yeah kind of a weird one to start off but this opening has always been one of my favorites. That music is great, grabbing you right away. The song explains who they are, and does it in a great way. The franchise had floundered before this little cartoon came along, and that opening theme is what drew me in to learning just who Alvin, Simon and Theodore were.

A Look at Filmation Classic Cartoon’s

Well I discussed Hannah Barbera it’s only fair to finally give some love to Filmation.

Founded in 1962 by Lou Scheimer, Hal Sutherland, and Norm Prescott the company produced some great, and not so great, cartoons for over thirty years. Before they went defunct in 1989. I mentioned one a few weeks ago, The Tarzan, Lone Rangers, Zorro Adventure Hour was three Filmation productions mashed into one. What else did they produce? A LOT!!!

 

This is not a “top 10” or a “favorite” list, just an overview. The reason for that is while Filmation was a great company, it never really rose Hannah Barbera levels and most its cartoons are remembered for being, silly. Well animated perhaps, but silly. This is because they were more interested in turning out material than they were making quality. So you’ll notice similar animation styles and stock animation used in a LOT in their programs. And speaking of those programs, here are some noteworthy examples:




The New Adventures of Superman

One of the first Superman cartoons after the Fleischer days and they borrowed heavily from them. There was a Superboy cartoon also.

Top 10 Favorite Looney Tunes Characters

If you’ve read my stuff you may have noticed one franchise I hardly talk about. Looney Tunes! Not that I didn’t watch these growing up, but for some reason I was never crazy about them like others. Nevertheless, these characters (animated by legend Chuck Jones and mostly voiced by Mel Blanc) are so popular and so beloved that even if you never watched the cartoons, you know who they are. So since I did my ten favorite Hanna Barbera characters a few weeks ago, I decided it was time to give a little love to another animation legend.

 

Of course ten doesn’t even scratch the surface, so don’t think if I leave off your favorite it means I don’t like them.



#10.Michigan J Frog

As I said I didn’t watch Looney Tunes exclusively, but one of my favorite cartoons ever has to be One Froggy Evening, which is the one and only appearance of Michigan J Frog. It’s a brilliant cartoon with no dialogue, aside from the ragtime music, and a wonderful payoff. The character may have only appeared once, but he endures. So much so he was made the mascot of the WB network back in the day.

Ten Saturday Morning Cartoon Mashup’s

Wanted to discuss a particular part of Saturday Morning Cartoon’s which has always fascinated me. When a show is mashed up with another show to form a full “hour”. Usually this is a transparent attempt to bolster one not so popular show with another. Or to make re-runs look like new material. One that really worked was “Garfield & Friends” which featured U.S. Acres segments in between Garfield cartoons. I was annoyed at this when the show premiered but I came to be fond of U.S.Acres, which was another Jim Davis strip.

But for every “Garfield and Friends” you get odd blending like “Pinky and the Brain and Elmira”. I mean what the heck was that about? Here are ten classic examples of two (or more) shows being packaged together to form one.




The Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour
Why has no ever done a comprehensive look at this craziness? Ok, first we had Fonz an the Happy Days Gang, where the Happy Days gang go time traveling (I am serious!). So that prompted another show, Laverne & Shirley Go to the Army. At least this one was a little grounded in reality. Fonzie was later added to L&S, and that show was blended with the new Mork & Mindy cartoon to make a full hour. Got that? There will be a quiz at end.

Top 10 Favorite Hanna-Barbera Characters

A lot of people say Disney or Looney Tunes ruled their childhood. Others say Fox Kids or Kids WB. For me? It had to be Hanna-Barbera!

 

Founded in 1957 by creators and former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the studo lasted for decades giving us iconic characters we all know that will be around forever. The studio closed in 2001 and the properties were absorbed by Warner Bros, but we not gea to discuss that. We’re here to celebrate the amazing characters created over fifty years.

One of the best rides was ever on was the Hanna Barbara ride in Universal Studios. It isn’t there anymore, but the clip is on YouTube. I loved it, I was smiling the whole ride! So let’s run down the 10 favorite characters. And yes lots will be missing here like Birdman (who liked that?), Popeye (not a H&B creation), and Top Cat. Because no one remembers Top Cat (just kidding),






#10.Tom and Jerry

I seriously forgot they were created by Hanna and Barbera. I guess when H&B left MGM they took these two with them. It was classic cartoon slapstick and we loved every crash and scream of AARRRGHHH!! These classic cartoons are great examples of how strong H&B’s animation was. True they are still around, being shoehorned into other franchises, but the classic cartoons will always be the best.

Five Saturday Morning Cartoon Curiosities

As I’ve talked about before I, jut like most kids in the old days, loved Saturday Morning Cartoons. It’s really a shame they don’t exist anymore. We all remember the classic stuff like Alvin and the Chipmunks, Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, The Smurfs, Garfield, and Superfriends. But sometimes the less than stellar stuff stay in our memories also. A lot of these shows came and went because they were kinda silly. And while some stuff was so silly we all remember it existed, like Rubik The Amazing Cube and Shirt Tales, there are other shows that I never see anyone talk about.

 

My colleague Rowdy Reviewer has been discussing Saturday morning cartoon’s the last few weeks. It occurred to me that they fall into two categories. You remember them fondly (Shirt Tales) or you never heard of them (The Biskitts?). It’s easy to remember the good stuff that people love so much that they’ve even been rebooted  (Yeah I see you over there Muppet Babies). But what about the other stuff? The ‘Wish Kids”, “Camp Candy”s or “Foofur”s (that last one was a real thing!!).  Here are five Saturday Morning Cartoons which I always remembered…even if they weren’t great. And since I was not a kid for forty years, there’s only a small range here in the mid to late 80’s. Though I’m pretty sure that awful Happy Days cartoon would have been on here if I had seen it.







Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling!

Oh hell yes! It’s hard to believe in the 80’s Wrestling was a huge thing. I even got hooked into it (even went to a few live shows). So a cartoon series was a given with the “good guy” wrestlers vs the “bad guy” wrestlers. Is that still a thing in wrestling? The wrestlers appeared in live action segments. So what makes me saw this was “awful”? The funny thing is that while the word wrestling was in the title and Wrestlers were the main characters (voiced by others), there was never any wrestling on the show!! Yeah the plots were generic as they could be. At least the Mr.T cartoon had interesting plots and the actor provided the voice!

Top 10 Favorite “The Simpsons” Celebrity Cameo’s

The end of this year will mark a very impressive anniversary. It was thirty years ago that The Simpsons spun off from The Tracy Ulman Show and became it’s own series. Yeah, amazing isn’t that this was originally a bunch of filler shorts?? Anyway it became it’s own show… And I avoided it entirely in 1989. Why? Because as hard as it may be to believe, The Simpsons was controversial in its day. Yeah I was around then and find that baffling. I guess Bart was a poor role model or something. It would take a few more years for people to start accepting not EVERY show had to be wholesome and educational, leading the way for Family Guy, South Park, and many others. The Simpsons truly was a game changer, as much  as I hate that overused expression it really applies here. But I covered the shows that were inspired by this one in another article. I don’t remember when I first tuned in, but it wasn’t right away. One reason was the "controversy".  The other reason I didn’t watch was also the small fact that the show originally aired opposite The Cosby Show and nothing was going to make me not watch that!

But the show was a smash and was soon EVERYWHERE. In fact the Simpsons even presented on the Emmy Awards one year! I did finally watch re-runs when I was in college, and found the show could be really good. I was never a die hard fan but I certainly had no problem with the series. I tune in occasionally, especially if there is a stunt going on like the Family Guy crossover (yes I know that was  a Family Guy episode). It’s also a Halloween standard at this point, who doesn’t watch as many of those “Treehouse of Horror” episodes they can? And of course the amazing thing is that, for some reason, IT’S STILL ON!! I mean, what the hell? Who is still watching these?? In fact it’s gonna plow right through its 30th season and start setting records to the longest scripted television series…..ever! That’s crazy!

So it seemed only fitting to discuss this show since whether you love it o hate you can’t deny it’s a major part of pop culture. It’s hard to believe there was a time when this show didn’t exist. So since I talked about the Halloween stuff to death, what other area could I cover? And that was an easy choice. One of the many cool things about the show are all the celebrities who have done cameo’s on it. So here are my ten favorite. And I am only counting when the actors played themselves, actors playing an actual character is another list my friends (one I am sure I will get to).

#10.Betty White
If you’re going to be angry and hate celebrities, you may not want to approach the sweetest and kindest celebrity ever!

Top 5 TV Transformation Sequences (re-post)

This was written in 2012, in a rush. That happens a lot I’ll just kind of throw the article together and post it. Those who read my articles a lot may be able to tell the one’s that get a little more care than the others. This one is just bad. Granted it was an easy idea, but it doesn’t work for one little reason. no pics and no videos. I’m sure there were videos, or at least links, at some point. So here it is again a little cooler this time.

One of the coolest part of some cartoons is when the hero appears in a cool transformation sequence. Some shows just have the heroes mobilize in a cool way, but others will have a character who is not so amazing transform into the cool hero in a flashy sequence which usually has the coolest animation and is obviously where the money went to. Here are my favorite of these. These are the kick ass moments that we lived for, we waited for these moments and loved every second of them. This can happen in live action to, like on The Hulk. I wanted to show a clip, but alas could not find a good one.




#5.Captain Planet
Yeah, this show was lame. It was preachy and a bit contrived. But the scene where Captain Planet is summoned is a favorite, and is the one cool thing this show generated. Let our powers combine! Wind! Water! Heart! Whatever that meant…

Five Superheroes Created Just For “Superfriends”

I’ve talked before about Superfriends. And how I loved it as a kid. And think it’s kind of silly today. But one of the ore interesting things that this show did was with the characters. Despite having a wide array of DC characters to pick from, the show introduced their own new creations to fight alongside the recognizable heroes. They weren’t given any origins or anything, they were just there. And for the most part only appeared in the cartoon!

 

These characters were probably meant to replace more familiar faces, and no doubt also to add a bit if diversity to the group since they are all of different ethnic background. Problem is this was before political correctness, so these characters could almost be considered stereotypical today. So for those who have never heard if them, here are five characters totally created by, and for, Superfriends.



Apache Chief

This one was the coolest, even if he was also a bit of a stereotype of Native Americans. But he probably got the most screen time and was possibly the most memorable. He had the powers to grow to unlimited sizes. Plus he had a “sixth sense” which gave him a sort of enhanced perception. He even got an origin in one episode which is pretty impressive. He was also the only one who had a nemesis, Giganta who was a female who could also grow to ridiculous sizes.

Top 5 Favorite Cartoon Mom’s

A looong time ago I listed my five favorite sitcom mothers. But of course mother’s are not specific to sitcom. What about animated shows? So in honor of Mother’s Day, here are my top five animated mother’s. One rule, they have to be TV animated Mom’s.

#5.Jane Jetson

Jane is a perfect “Donna Reed” style mom and that’s why she is on the top of the list. There isn’t anything “realistic” about her. She basically keeps house and takes care of the house. That doesn’t mean she’s a bad mom, by no means, but she’s also a little to perfect. Except for her driving skills which in today’s world seems a tad sexist.

Five Beloved Cartoon Series I NEVER Watched

I talked last month about the cartoon characters which are loved by most people, and yet never really made an impact with me. I knew they existed, but never watched the shows or enjoyed any of the memorabilia surrounding them. Course cartoon series are the same, some I loved and watched every single day. Others I just kind of passed by and despite their popularity just never watched.  If somehow you remember an article I did way way back where I listed my favorite cartoons, there were some glaring omissions.

So since I have  spent so much time talking about the franchises I did watch and love like Superfriends, He-Man, and Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, it seems only fair at long last to give these good shows some much deserved attention! And of course I am not bashing these shows, I respect them and their longevity. I'm aware most people love them and if you are a fan of them then fantastic. 

I remember the toys. Thanks to my brother who was a fan of this franchise. I had a Panthor and King Mumra (and his tomb) and…I think the lion guy. What was name? Just kidding it was Lion-O. But I’ll be damned if I ever saw a single second of the actual show. I guess it just didn’t grab me. The show is about a group of cat like humanoid aliens who fight evil on a planet called Third Earth. Not getting it, why are they cats? Yeah it still doesn’t really grab me, but it’s still around obviously people loved it. There are still comics, there was a second series, and a movie was briefly in the works! The show is even considered one of the best animated series of all time, so I’m clearly missing something. One thing I will say, that theme song is fantastic!!

Five Disliked Cartoon Characters I Always Liked

So last time I talked about five beloved cartoon characters that I never really cared for. Seems only natural to discuss the opposite, characters that most or many find annoying but I have a soft spot for.

Now I said last time that everything was subjective, and that is even more true in this case. I tried to pick five characters that are generally disliked, but that sure doesn’t mean I am alone in liking them. Obviously since they are not beloved they are not as much a part of pop culture. They are the second banana’s that don’t get enough love. That all being said, here we go:



ORKO

For some reason every cartoon has to have the annoying sidekick character who was only there to be goofy comic relief. From Gleek on The Superfriends to Slimer on The Real Ghostbusters! to….What the heck was Snarf anyway? These characters were just here to be silly and goofy and serve no real purpose. And while Orko on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe sure fit this particular bill, I never disliked him. In fact he was a pretty good character. Oh sure he was silly and caused trouble but he had a really good heart. He would help out and was often brave saving the day a few times! It’s one instance I can see why the others put up with him, they know he means well! Compare him his She-Ra counterpart Kowal who was sooo useless! So as far as silly comic relief characters go, this one wasn’t so bad. I even had the action figure once upon a time!

Five Beloved Cartoon Characters I NEVER Liked

I’ve talked about my favorite cartoons in the past, but what about the one’s I didn’t care for? Everything is subjective and just because a cartoon character is popular doesn’t mean everyone likes him or her. Others love them, and that’s great, but not me. Maybe I never watched the cartoons. Maybe when or if I did they did nothing for me. Sure as an adult I can appreciate them for their legacy and endurance, but as a kid not so much.

Oh, before I begin some may expect this little fellow to be on here..

But honestly I never had any issue with Scrappy. I never liked the cartoons he was in either, but that was more because those cartoons deviated from the Scooby Doo formula that I preferred.

Here are five popular cartoon characters that I never cared for…






This is a tough one since I could mean a few things here. I could be referring to Yogi’s friend, but he name was Snagglepus and he never bothered me. I am also not referring to the famous Jacques Clouseau movies. Never saw em. No I am talking about the character inspired by those movies, the animated panther who got his own show(s). And I never got it. What is the appeal? Does he even have a character? Is he a jerk or is he nice? WHY DOESN’T HE SPEAK! OK ok he does talk in the older shorts. This character never did a thing for me and I still don’t get it. To be fair one of the reasons I know Pink Panther are the ads he used to do for Owens Corning (look ’em up).
Oh and in the interest of fairness I do like that Henry Mancini theme. Who wouldn’t?

Top 5 Worst Live Action Movies Based on Cartoons

It seems like such a simple concept, take a cartoon and make it live action. All you have to do is have actual actors and viola, no problem! Right? Well it sure doesn’t seem to work out that way most of the time. I mean some get it, like Transformers. Yeah those movies are from perfect but the give what they promise. And I don’t think G.I.Joe was THAT bad. When I watched the first Alvin and the Chipmunks it felt like Alvin and the Chipmunks. And then there’s the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies and while they may vary in quality none of them are truly awful.

However some are not so lucky. Some are so far off the mark that they aren't just bad, they piss the fans of the source material right the hell off! Here are five live action movies based on cartoons which are just awful. And it can be any kind of cartoon from a show to comic strip.






#5.The Flintstones

I saw this when it came out, it was hyped big time, and I can’t deny it. I liked it when I saw it. It was ok, nothing too bad. The characters were on track and it felt like we were watching a live action episode. With one big exception. That idiotic plot! The Flintstones was, at the end of the day, a simple sitcom with sitcom situations. Here we get a money laundering scheme, I think,  with sexual innuendo. Uh, yeah. No! It has the same problem as Mr.Magoo, but with that one the cartoon hardly had a solid premise so you could divert from it. The Flintstones did have a solid premise, and this movie feels way off the mark. Sometimes getting the look down isn’t enough, check out the Speed Racer movie as another example. Or the infamous Robin Williams “Popeye” movie which got the characters down cold (especially Olive Oil) but man was it soooo boring!!!

Five Cartoon Remakes That Missed The Mark

With the Ducktales remake having come out (FYI it’s nothing offensive but not for me), I noticed people seem to like it. And after checking it out, I see why. It seems to upgrade stuff from the original series but keeps the heart and charm that made that series work. To bad some other reboots don’t get that. Sometimes people will reboot a cartoons series but will either focus on one area to much over another, or just miss the mark entirely on what made the cartoons so beloved.


Some get it, for instance the JLA cartoon was leaps and bounds better than the old Superfriends show. And the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show had its fans, in fact they did a special crossing over the old show with the new. But not all are so lucky. Here are five cartoon reboots that I wanted to like but I have to admit, they just didn’t get it right.





He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

In 2002 the 80's series got a reboot, and I watched the pilot episode. It did fix a lot of the problems with the classic show, most notably better animation leading to awesome action scenes. The characters and backstory were fleshed a lot better too. But the show missed one thing the new one had, heart. The characters in the old show were memorable and we liked them, and I didn’t get that with this one. For example The Sorceress went from being a kind mother figures to a dead pan Egyptian style princess with no personality at all. So I saw the pilot, and that was it for me.

Five Forgotten 80’s Franchises I Grew Up With

As I was discussing He-Man the other day it made think of all the cartoon franchises from the 80’s that are still around. TMNT, My Little Pony, Transformers, and even JEM and G.I.Joe are still kicking ass with lousy movies. He-Man and Thundercats are even still around, though these days mostly in comic books.

But what about the cartoons of the 80’s that didn’t make it? Those franchises which had potential nut have instead disappeared. Here are some examples of what I mean. There are toys I played and/or shows I watched, and yet noting ever came from them. And since I’ve gotten into trouble before, let me say while the word forgotten is in the title I am sure many remember these franchises very fondly.



Before I get to the five, I was going to mention Popples until I realized that this franchise has been rebooted on Netflix. This was a cute toy and harmless little cartoon show. And of course a comic book. But since I love sharing things that people can never forget, here is the opening intro which is a real earworm:

Brave Starr

From Filmation,  who gave us He-Man, we have Brave Starr! It’s a western show about cowboys… on an alien planet. Called New Texas. With robot horses. What? Yeah, at least Cowboys of Moo Mesa made sense. But the toys were cool and thanks to my brother I had a few of them.

Top 10 Favorite Episodes of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

Because I’m so timely here is my celebration of the 30th anniversary of He-man and the Masters of the Universe..about four years to late. Oops.

 

When I was a kid in the 80’s I adored He-Man. I watched it religiously every day. I went to see the “Secret of the Sword” movie which introduced She-Ra. I had as many of the action figures, vehicles, and playsets that I could. I even went to at least one “live” show they had a local mall. I simply adored this show. I know today it gets made fun from the corny opening intro to the lame PSA’s at the end, the lack of violence due to the rules at the time (Just once I wanted to see He-Man PUNCH Skeletor), the fact that it existed to sell toys, and of course the idiotic innuendo that some insist on forcing on to this character. This show gets a bad rep, but man was it awesome!

It was part of my childhood and I loved it. However one thing I have noticed is that thirty-three years later, I don’t remember a lot of it. 130 episodes and only a handful stand out. Oh sure there are bits and pieces I may recall. For instance, I talked before how I remember Dree Elle’s song from “Dree Elle’s Return” but I had no clue for years what episode that was in or that Dree Elle was singing. Because the song was an earworm but the episode was meh. I guess it’s fair to say that a lot of episodes weren’t high art. Skeletor did something, and He-Man eventually stopped it. So I guess that it makes sense that many of the episode wouldn’t stand out. Some of the goofy stuff was really silly too. For years I forgot Cringer and/or Battlecat talked. Why did they talk??

But that doesn’t mean some of the episodes didn’t rise above the rest and stand out as either well told stories or really exciting fun. Here are ten episodes I never forgot, not all are probably the best episodes though many are. And of course this is all opinion, feel free to disagree.





#10.”Diamond Ray of Disappearance” (Season 1)

Kind of cheating a little here but I figured the best way to start this was with the pilot. And it’s a damn good pilot! It introduces the characters, has high stakes, and gives us some great action. In fact we see more of Skeletor’s evil minions than just Beast Man and Trap Jaw, which was rare. Skeletor had discovered the titular diamond ray which makes people disappear just by looking at it. Skeletor almost gets into Greyskull before He-Man can get the diamond and crush it. And kudos, it isn’t easy! He-Man isn’t often given limits it’s nice to see when he is.

Five Awesome Things From “Superfriends”

 

I've talked a lot about how silly this cartoon was, and it really was. In previous articles I picked on the more goofy episodes, details that the show got wrong from DC lore, and how the stupid rules for children’s programming back then watered down the violence to silly levels. True I loved it as a kid, it was my introduction to the DC universe, but as an adult I can see the goofiness more, right down to the name. And it doesn’t hold a candle to the stuff in the 90’s like JLA, Batman:The Animated Series, and X-Men.

But that being said, didn’t this cartoon give us anything cool? At all? Well actually I think it did. For example all the characters were portrayed seriously and treated with respect. The stories may have been silly but the characters were always done correctly. The characters made just for the show like Black Vulcan and Apachi Chief were really good additions, you’d almost swear that they were in the comics as well. And the music was pretty damn decent right down to that awesome theme music.



Here are five other things that were just awesome either in the cartoon or spawning from it. They are things that are part of popular culture or just things that I think are just really awesome.




Comic Books

The cartoon series naturally inspired a comic run, and to be honest the comic books have many things they did better than the animated show. It was able to show more violence since it didn’t have the restrictions for children’s programming to worry about. It allowed the characters of Wendy and Marvin and Zan and Jayna to be be expanded on a bit (with a secret origin for the wonder twins for example) and it tied into DC’s ongoing Justice League title which meant that many issues would bring in other members of the JLA not to  mention some notable villains. Even more impressive, the comic books gave us new characters that would become canon and last with DC for quite awhile. They were known as the Global Guardians and it would take way to long to get into that story. Yeah the comics were still light fare aimed at a younger audience, but unlike today’s kids oriented comics which are lame they didn’t get ridiculously silly and were pretty good for what they were.