Dave Reviews Cartoons — page 3

I thought I’d have a look at a few cartoon shows with a racing theme, not that I’m especially into racing, so in a way they had their work cut out for themselves in trying to impress me. Let’s see how they did…

I’m not sure what prompted me to write this review having slept since I watched the episodes and took my notes, but it may be an inherent awareness of the Action Man commercials from the nineties with the “Action Man, the Greatest Hero Of Them All!” slogan. Dr. X always seemed to have some plot going on and Action Man always seemed to foil it. I have never owned an Action Man figure or watched an Action Man show or film, but I thought I would and see what my reactions to them were.

Back with some more shows that aren’t British, but were big hits in Britain.

I like G.I. Joe.

I like Transformers.

I like Inhumanoids.

I love Visionaries.

Coming at the end of the glory years of the Sunbow/Hasbro partnership, and only lasting for thirteen episodes, one season, Visionaries is my favourite of the four big shows they gave us. The gimmick with the toys was holograms on the chests and staffs and vehicles of the characters, showing what they could turn into or project magically. The animation was produced by top Japanese studio TMS, so above 95% of the time it looks fantastic. The writers really put the work in too and the actors throw themselves into the quasi-English knights and warriors characterisation.

I’m always getting great suggestions in the review comments for shows to write about, although a curious point came up yesterday – British cartoons rather than American cartoons. Britain as a dramatic giant probably goes unrivalled, but we haven’t really had an animation industry in the same way North America has. When you get past a lot of the whimsical shows that are instantly accessible for kids before they even hit school, you then have shows like Bananaman and Danger-Mouse and Count Duckula where there’s an element of action and adventure, but it’s comedy first because they starred guys like David Jason and Terry Scott and the Goodies, who were all comedy (and dramatic, in Jason’s case, even inside Only Fools and Horses [Rodney’s wedding, for instance]).

But, Britain loved importing shows, and there were a couple of shows from all over the world that were big hits here but not so big in America, so they’ll act as a substitute for now.

When I did the drugs episodes review, I had this in mind, but being in the UK I’d never seen it before so skipped it on account of unfamiliarity, but seeing as someone asked!

JLAJRC pointed out that it’s Scoobtober, so I thought I’d look at some different iterations of the Scooby-Doo shows, from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? to Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated. My history with Scoob isn’t too complicated; it’s never really been in the top ten or probably twenty of my favourite shows, but I’ve never had a problem with it per se. Kinda lame comedy with some attempts to do scary mystery and monster stories, to a formula. I watched it but rarely taped it as a kid and always preferred when the whole gang was present, because Fred, Velma and Daphne offset some of the silliness with Scoob and Shaggy. And I might be in the minority because I like Scrappy-Doo too.

Reviewing C.O.P.S. recently provided me with the opportunity to review the drug episode of that series, but I thought I’d hold it off for this review, with a look at a few of the times where cartoons took on the issue of drug addiction to differing levels of success. If it’s good I’ll say it’s a HIGH, but if it’s poor then I’ll say it’s a LOW.

As requested by JLAJRC, this is a show that popped up in the late eighties, supported by a Hasbro toyline, produced by DIC, and I guess came out of a meeting where someone said “What if we crossed Robocop with G.I. Joe?”. In the U.K., I believe it was on one summer and for a show I never really bothered to record or go to too much trouble to follow I still managed to find pretty decent. Great theme tune and opening, the best animation of the show is front-loaded into it, courtesy of the involvement of Peter Chung.

Warner Bros. Animation have been producing DC animated movies for about fifteen years, starting with Superman: Doomsday, which is of course based on The Death of Superman. Since then, it’s been a mixed bag as far as areas of focus and quality. The last one they put out, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (holy unwieldy film name, Batman!) wrapped up their quasi-New 52 continuity that outlasted the New 52 comic line by about half a decade and had already become a mess by incorporating non-New 52 stories into it and not doing them half as well as if they’d just been more faithful adaptations. This is kind of a “fresh start”, with a film focusing on Superman/Clark Kent and his various adventures.

Some people said watching this would be akin to flogging me, but I guess I must be a little masochistic, because I’ve always had time for it. After the conclusion of the Challenge of the Gobots series, Hanna-Barbera took their shot at a movie version a little before Sunbow unveiled Transformers – The Movie with this crossover/introduction to the Rock Lords. It’s the final time we’d see the Guardians and the Renegades (and the first and last time we’d see the Rock Lords), and a few stars of the time were on board to play some of the new characters, so it does feel special if you’re into it.

I’ve had this one in my pocket for a few weeks. Transformers is one of the biggest toylines and brands of all time and it all started here. Hasbro imported a variety of Japanese transforming robot toys, put them all together and have been counting the piles of money ever since. Transformers kicked off with a three-part mini-series titled More Than Meets the Eye, released in the UK on video as Arrival From Cybertron, with title cards, next episode previews and last episode recaps removed to make an hour-long movie, which is the form I’m looking at it in today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRQtMVJKBFc

Last Sunday I looked at the first of two He-Man specials that Filmation produced to preview the first and second seasons of the show. The prior one was a bit of a dry affair beyond Teela’s Quest, but this week is a lot more fun.

Seeing as there was a call to look at Thundercats and yesterday’s review was popular, I thought I’d also branch out and watch a trio of episodes from the 2011 Thundercats show, which only ran for one season of 26 episodes and really should’ve run longer except for the accompanying Bandai toyline dying on the vine. Some great episodes and there was a really good arc planned out in the vein of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but it wasn’t to be. It really was a serial, but I’m going to have at just three chapters today.

Well, even though I would’ve been happy to look at the Gobots meeting the Rock Lords (and still will!), it was Thundercats: Exodus that won the vote last weekend as the show for me to review this weekend, so let’s get to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRhNRNrPMPs

As suggested by riraho, I’m looking at Laff-A-Lympics, specifically the ones set in England. The concept is that all the Hanna-Barbera characters that could be mustered compete with one another in Olympics-style games in different countries and places around the world. Characters are divided up into three teams – the Scooby Doobies, which I’m just shocked got past the censors, the Yogi Yahooeys, and the Really Rottens, who are captained by the Dread Baron and Mumbly, barely disguised copies of Dick Dastardly and Muttley (why not just call them Rick Rotten and Roughly?). My knowledge of the show is minimal, so it’s going to be first reactions pretty much, although I have watched the episodes a LONG time ago.

Today and next Sunday I’m going to look at two specials Filmation produced to promote season one and then season two of the new He-Man show, which it goes without saying was a massive hit. They took three episodes and then added some new animation around them “hosted” by some of the characters from the show. Next week’s episode is probably the better one in that respect, although this is the special that has the best episode.

Thanks to James Fabiano for the suggestion that would have probably totally passed me by if he hadn’t mentioned it. A few days ago was the 30th anniversary of the Disney Afternoon block, so I’m going to look at the episodes in that block that played on or closest to that date.

I have a couple of things up my sleeve to review if people enjoy reading them, so please vote for which you’d like to see next weekend in the comments section below.

Life as an English teacher is busy, busy, busy, but I’ve skipped the gym and swim this morning to bring you a random selection of cartoon episode reviews!