Once Upon a Geek

Don’t worry, it’s almost Friday.  Sometimes a Thursday just needs a little 1980’s cartoon action…

See, now didn’t that cheer you up a bit?  There are very few things that Bravestarr can’t make feel a little better.

This post is inspired by some discussion on THE UNIQUE GEEK listserv as well as a post by my buddy SGhoul on his blog, Oozings from My Head.

A few years back, I made a CD of 1980’s cartoon theme songs.  The more I searched for these, the more I realized how much fun cartoons in the 1980’s were.  Perhaps I’m biased growing up in that era, but back then cartoons were so much more fun, family-friendly, and less … well, less stupid than many of the cartoons nowadays (I’m looking at you Ed, Edd, n Eddy).  Now, there were certainly some duds in the 80’s, I just think overall cartoons were better back then.  There are certainly a few excellent cartoons nowadays, but the majority of them are unwatchable to me.  Again, it may just be that I’m old and over the hill.

Below I’m posting the song list from my 1980’s cartoon CD.  Each has a link to a video of the opening credits (Yay for YouTube!).  If you can think of any worthwhile cartoons I’ve missed, let me know! 

ACTION/ADVENTURE
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero
Thundarr the Barbarian
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
She-Ra: Princess of Power
BraveStarr - One of my favorites and under-appreciated
Dungeons & Dragons
M.A.S.K.
C.O.P.S.
Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors
Godzilla Power Hour - with Godzuki
Bionic Six
Turbo Teen
Danger Mouse
Count Duckula
Galaxy Rangers
Centurions
Blackstar
Flash Gordon, The New Adventures of - Probably the best storytelling intro of the 80’s
Tarzan: Lord of the Jungle
The New Adventures of Zorro
Ghostbusters (Filmation)
Inhumanoids
ThunderCats
Silverhawks
Tigersharks

BIG ‘BOTS
Voltron: Defender of the Universe
Tranzor Z
Mighty Orbots
Robotech
Robotix
GoBots, Challenge of the
Transformers - Season One
Transformers - Season Four

SUPERHERO
Superman: The Animated Series (1987)
Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures
Captain Planet
X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men
Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show (1984)
(Super Friends) Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (1985)
Plastic Man
Defenders of the Earth
Spider-man & His Amazing Friends (1981)
Incredible Hulk (1982)

LIVE ACTION SPINOFF
Fonz and the Happy Days Gang
Laverne and Shirley in the Army
Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO
Ewoks
Muppet Babies
Dukes
Punky Brewster
Gilligan’s Planet
Gary Coleman Show - I’ve got the audio, but can’t find video
Mr. T
Real Ghostbusters

GAME SPINOFF
Donkey Kong
Pole Position - One of the best 1980’s cartoon musical themes!  If Kenny Loggins had done cartoon themes, they would have sounded like this!  Very catchy!
Q-Bert
Pac-Man
Rubik the Amazing Cube

HUMOR
Alvin & the Chipmunks (The Chipmunks)
Scooby-Doo, A Pup Named
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels
Galaxy High - Another of my favorites!
Alf Tales
Inspector Gadget

MUSICALLY ORIENTED
School House Rock
Jem
Kidd Video

CUTE CREATURES
Strawberry Shortcake
Rainbow Brite
Smurfs
Snorks
My Little Pony ‘n Friends
Get Along Gang
Shirt Tales
Paw-Paw Bears
Care Bears
The Littles
Gummi Bears, Disney’s Adventures of the - Another great theme song!  Very catchy!

Here are some more that I didn’t plan to include, but stumbled across while drafting this post:
The Monchhichis
The Lone Ranger
Fraggle Rock
DuckTales
The Great Space Coaster
Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling
Lazer Tag Academy
Rambo: The Force of Freedom
The Scooby & Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour
Richie Rich

80’s goodness!

On Saturday, I caught the first episode of the new Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon on Kids WB. Wow, it was pretty cool!  I really enjoyed it!  It had a nice rapid pace, lots of information in each scene, and some really cool Spider-Man moments. I’m not sure how Spider-Man purists will receive this cartoon, but as a casual Spider-Man fan I thought it was a really good adaptation that captured the true spirit of the character. 

I’m sure some people will be put off by the animation as there is a slight anime influence.  However, for once it didn’t bother me.  I thought the way Spider-Man moved was really well done.  For example, in one scene he’s slinging across the city, and he has to keep switching arms with his passenger just so he can shoot a web.  A good logistical idea to put into the visuals.

In my head, I started comparing the Spider-Man cartoon franchise with the Batman cartoon franchise.  I think I’m a lot less forgiving of the Batman cartoon franchise because the 90’s “Batman the Animated Series” was so good.  Anything they do nowadays just doesn’t hold a candle to that, in my opinion.  Probably why I didn’t care much for “The Batman” cartoon.  Whereas Spider-Man hasn’t had the quintessential cartoon adaptation yet, again in my opinion.  I really enjoyed the 90’s Spider-Man cartoon, and thought it was actually pretty good, but definitely not on the same awesomeness level as “Batman the Animated Series“.  Maybe there are Spidey fans out there that will disagree with me.  Perhaps the 60’s, 80’s, or 90’s Spider-Man cartoons are the holy grail of animation, and therefore trump this new Spectacular series. 

I was also pleased with the character choices.  Peter’s best friends were Harry Osborne and Gwen (with no MJ in sight - thank goodness!).  In the first episodes, we saw appearances by Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson, Vulture, Norman Osborne (later Green Goblin), Dr Curt Connors (later the Lizard), Flint Marko (later the Sandman), the Enforcers, and Eddie Brock (later Venom).  They took some liberties here and there, for example Peter and Eddie Brock are old friends.  However, I didn’t feel these small changes really affected the story. 

To sum up, this was a fast-paced fun cartoon.  Check it out!