Alternate Title: The Ballad of a Brooklyn Broom Bandit What started as a spat over DuckTales turned into Fox making their own kids entertainment, with an ambitious take on J M Barrie's tale of the boy who never grew up. It's a story of the intricacies of the public domain, schedule slip-ups, ensemble darkhorses and the brilliance of the one and only Tim Curry. We hope we did right by this almost forgotten gem.
Looks up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a bird in something akin to a plane!! Super Chicken was a project Jay Ward had tried to get to air for over seven years by the time it reached ABC in 1967, when it finally did as part of George of the Jungle. One sip of the super sauce and Henry Cabot Henhouse III fights like a comet! I mean, comets can only fight by crashing into things, so I'm not wrong, am I?
After 100 episodes of pratfalls, birdcalls, stock gags, flea bags, wild takes and corn flakes, we finally get REALLY TWISTED! It's the wild story of Felix the Cat's 1990s revival series that was as turbulent behind the scenes as it was surreal on the screen. Marc and Jordan from the That's Not Quite All Folks podcast join us as we break down and build up a true cult classic first season that took a drastic turn in the second. FUN!!
Righty-O! It's Felix, the Professor, Poindexter, Rock Bottom, and the rest of one of the most enduring 1950s television animated series of all time. It's also DEEPLY strange with oddball gags and the episodes being split in two roughly three and a half minute parts. So does it hold up at all? Would you believe "maybe"? Come see what we pull out of the bag of tricks this time!
Unbeknownst to a much younger James, Western sword and sorcery tropes, motifs were a big deal in gaming in 1980s Japan, and from that wellspring would arise one of the most enduring fantasy franchises in that nation. Record of Lodoss War has it all: goblins, dragons, wizards, thieves, and leggy Elvish women that a young Pemmy fell in love with. So come join our return to the world of tabletop gaming tropes in animation. And remember... it's Falis with an F, not a PH.
It's the X-Men as most kids hadn't seen them before at the dawn of the 21st Century, as teenagers! With the Fox cartoon so fresh in people's minds, this was a way to get a new angle on these now pretty well-known characters, and a match made in heaven for the youth market-oriented WB Network. But as one of the "middle child" adaptations of this franchise, it's not very prominent today. Does it still hold up? Justin Toner joins us to find out!
The Hooded Claw is ransoming this podcast description to lure Penelope Pitstop into yet another one of his traps, so I'll keep this one brief: it's the writing of Michael Maltese, the voices of Janet Waldo and Paul Lynde, and one of the most memorable women of animation in the 1960s, all coming together for a true cult classic. Please join us, and maybe help us untie this rope while you're at it?
And as a raven shouts defiance, the call goes out for the mightiest heroes of all! ... so how did these five guys wind up being the ones to answer it?? A break-out success for Ralph Bakshi in the 1960s, the Mighty Heroes were a bunch of cartoon cut-ups who wouldn't make the cut for the Great Lakes Avengers! It's up and away with this formative superhero parody that has some issues but still somehow holds up.
To follow up DuckTales, did Disney think bigger? Nope, they thought smaller. Rodent size, in fact, by returning Chip and Dale to prominence with a 65 episode run of high adventure in tiny spaces. It's pompous feline crime bosses, nefarious cults centered around soda, and one lady mouse that some people are still strangely fond of, all in this episode with special guest star Cary Woodham!
Detective work in the cartoon world is a dog-eat-dog racket. Ace Hart, Private Eye, he'd know. This animated German Shepherd deals with every case thrown at him by his animator Eliot Shag, and even has the nerve to talk back if it's not going so great. Yup, it's a fusion of animation and puppetry courtesy of Nelvana and the Jim Henson Company with some of the cleverest film noir parody ever on Saturday mornings. With special guest, artist Will Carroll!
After post-apocalyptic beasts, a cosmic trilogy and a successful feature film, the Transformers return to animation like never before! Quite literally as Transformers Animated has as much in common with shows like Ben 10 and Teen Titans as it does past iterations of the franchise. And yet it worked so very well, becoming one of the more loved iterations of the robots in disguise to this day!
It's the only animated appearance by Judy Garland! It's the movie that got Chuck Jones fired from Warner Bros! It's... a box office flop. Gay Purr-ee is a fascinating movie both by its circumstances and the fantastic artwork that went into it, and Krissi helps James on a journey to 1890s Paris through the eyes of a starstruck Mewsette. Best enjoyed with a champagne or at least a soda with lots of Bubbles! Bubbles!
The filthiest language ever on Saturday mornings! Q*Bert hopped out of the arcades and into a pastiche of Happy Days courtesy of Ruby Spears, for a cartoon that was... just kind of mostly there. Atari Archives creator and frequent Retronauts host Kevin Bunch joins Pemmy, Krissi and James to talk about the game, the show, and the circumstances surrounding the video game industry around this time. Hop on in and join us!
Is this trip really necessary? Or rather, is this podcast a little too of the moment?? Well, half of it, anyway. The animation industry became pitchmen for rationing, selling war bonds and other ways to help our men and women overseas during World War 2, while also taking every pot shot the Hayes Code would allow them to at the fascist powers we were opposed to. Can we bring that energy back? Please? Anyhow, we've got Donald Duck, Popeye, Woody Woodpecker and a batch of oddly familiar gremlins....
Would you believe that in 1973, Evel Knievel wasn't done in by a motorcycle accident but a bunch of bumbling roller skaters? Bailey's Comets, another DePatie-Freleng production conceived by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, attempted to out-do Wacky Races in every regard. More characters! More teams for these characters! More outlandish situations! More memorable protag... no, we can't say that with a straight face. Dastardly and Muttly these bozos AIN'T!!
Rally Ho and away we go! As Hanna Barbera entered their first, brief action/adventure phase, their old comedic roots would still be showing with this particular series at the same time. Thus you had the boisterous Ted Cassidy-voiced Frankenstein Jr bellowing his way through madcap monster battles while the Impossibles took on various eccentric criminals between jamming out. Hard to believe today this show was considered too violent for TV, when it was kind of mild even back then!
In-between Garfield's own segments was US Acres, a short subject series based on Jim Davis' other, less widespread comic series. The tales of Orson, Roy, Wade, Bo, Lanolin, Booker and Sheldon got pretty popular as part of the show, outlasting the comic they were based on by a good few years, and giving the show's team vehicles for more gags that wouldn't work with Garfield himself. So come down to the farm, y'all!
Arguably the magnum opus of both Jim Davis and Mark Evanier, Garfield and Friends entertained audiences and pushed cartoon writing into some genuinely funny places it hadn't really gone since the heyday of Jay Ward. It's held up remarkably well, and our hosts look at four of their favorite short segments that star the fat cat himself. Tune in for US Acres coverage in two weeks, too!
Tis the season for hot chocolate, presents under the tree, goodwill to all men and women, and... colorful ghost monsters?? It's the timelessness of A Charlie Brown Christmas, contrasted with the VERY "of its time" Christmas Comes to Pac-Land. One of these aired for years upon years on network TV until just very recently. One of these was reran at 3 in the morning on Cartoon Network. I don't think I need to tell you which is which. Merry Christmas, and enjoy the podcast!
This is the podcast that quacks in the night! This is the iOS update that makes your phone too hot to handle! This is the Darkwing Duck episode! A breakaway hit for the Disney Afternoon that is still much loved to this day, we're joined by Cary Woodham to talk about two of our favorite episodes, Comic Book Capers and Life, the Negaverse and Everything. Step right up and come on in, here's where the danger begins!
Sometimes a good idea on paper turns sour in the execution. The Biskitts, a show with a strong resemblance to the Smurfs at first glance, could have easily been its own thing if it played more into the Robin Hood-esque outlaw aspects of the characters hiding treasure from a greedy despot and helping others. Instead we get repetitive slapstick, stilted dialogue and one really, really bizarre court jester. Enjoy?
Like, Scooby and the gang get a whole lot more talkative and a lot sillier in this one, man! Swinging the pendulum in the direction of comedy after the darker Mysteries Incorporated, Be Cool was advertised as a more back to basics approach, but only in terms of storytelling. Between one daffy take on Daphne Blake and the major increase in gags per minute, this one had fans kind of divided, but not our hosts! So pack a box of Scooby Snacks or twenty and come listen!
It's showtime! Just in time for Halloween and in the wake of his massively successful comeback movie, Beetlejuice fever is running wild once more, so what better time to revisit the characters' kid friendly incarnation in animation? Nelvana, with Tim Burton himself helping develop the show, brought the Ghost with the Most to ABC Saurday mornings and to Fox Kids on weekday afternoons with wild antics and the most blatant puns of the era. Don't come apart at the seams, come join us!
9 seasons, 101 little blue fellows, and one nearly inescapable cultural force. The Smurfs, straight out of Belgium and the pen of creator Peyo, sang and played while evading Gargamel to the delight of 80s kids and no doubt the annoyance of their parents. Behind the Hanna-Barbera created cartoon is a long history of comics and other animations extending both before and after it, but for American kids like your hosts, it's the natural starting point. So Smurf along with us and enjoy!
He's courageous! He's amazing! He's... a mouse in a London pillar box. Danger Mouse protects the world from the criminal activities of Baron Silas Greenback and various other would-be world beaters alongside the hapless helper Penfold, all with the stiff upper lip we associate with our friends from across the pond. Running for over a decade in its native country and doing good business in the States for Nickelodeon, the secret agent gave many 80s kids in America their first real taste of British...
A semi-major FIFA mascot who came from a comic book isn't the craziest choice for a cartoon subject, but Sport Billy did not deserve to be saddled with the bizarrely bad acting of Lane Scheimer. A mid-season replacement on NBC in 1982, the show would be the last Filmation product that network would pick up for their Saturday morning schedule. No amount of penalty kicks can make up for this! Pemmy, Krissi and James have been wanting to get this out of the- I mean, examine this now rarely seen car...
No dammit necessary, he's Gumby! The little clay fellow who could go anywhere, do anything, and wound up in all sorts of messes because of those very attributes. With friends Pokey, Prickle and Goo, Gumby's adventures enchanted generations, inspired numerous stop motion artists to come, and could quickly go from adorable to WILD in a heartbeat! Join us as we watch how a molded figurine broke the mold!
Heavens to athlete's foot! With 20 years under their belt, Hanna Barbera plunged into their character archive to assemble three teams to compete in a pastiche of Battle of the Network Stars in Laff-a-Lympics. Just getting there, though, was a long, winding race to rival any carrying of the Olympic torch! Pemmy, Krissi and James line up on the track to talk about the mother of all cartoon crossovers!
Oo De Lally, this movie had a wild and winding history to its making! Robin Hood is arguably the cult sensation of the various Disney feature films, not nearly as big as the Silver Age and Rennaissance Age hits that sandwich its release, but still much adored by those who grew up with it. Linwood Knight joins James and Krissi to break down why the movie turned out as it did, especially with all that notorious recycled and traced over animation, and discuss what worked and what could have worked ...
They're tiny, they're tooney, they took the fight right to Disney for syndicated dominance! Tiny Toon Adventures brought Warner Bros' animation division back to top form, with the help of Steven Spielberg and a host of talented writers, artists and voice actors. Krissi and James are joined by friend of the podcast Meiou to discuss the wild comedic lunacy of a trio of short subjects from the first season, and a pair of music videos. If you know the show, you probably don't need us to tell you whi...
