...cartoons of my childhood.
My brother and I used to watch a huge amount of tv when we were not playing football. It left a huge mark on my childhood and it has been fun to reminisce about those old times. Here are my favourite cartoons from my past. I hope you enjoy.
Battle of the Planets (1972)
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Battle of the Planets; or G-Force as I affectionately remember it, was a sci-fi cartoon from the late 70’s and early 80’s. It centered around a team of 5 teenagers (Mark, Jason, Princess, Keyop and Tiny) that are trained to protect Earth from attack. They all had individual skills and specialities that were pretty cool.
The attack of Earth usually came in the form of Zoltar a masked, lipstick touting badness with a classic throw your head back evil laugh. Zoltar is a master of disguise and deception, often dressed as a woman and regularly and humorously ridiculed by his big boss ‘The Luminous One’ for failing to kick G-Forces ass.
The team had a ship called the Phoenix (see intro) and that also housed lots of smaller machines and cool gadgets that the crew used to good effect.
The original series was made in Japan in 1972 and was called Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. Battle of the Planets is an english adaptation of the anime series that was produced in 1978 - 1980. Not only did they have to dub over in english but they also had to remove lots of the story because of adult connotation, excessive violence and profanity. I would have been around 7 years old when this came out and the images and the sentiment of the show has always stuck with me. It has also seen a mini revival lead by the official website here
If you could transport yourself to a certain Junior school in Bristol, England in the mid eighties you would witness a bunch of pre teens kicking the shit out of each other in the name of Battle of the Planets. Good times!
Space Sentinels (1977)
The Space Sentinels are three teenagers with special powers that have been given with the responsibility to protect mankind. The three main characters are Hercules (Strength), Mercury (Speed, flying and running) and Astrea (Shape Shifter). They are teamed with MO a quirky robot that helps to keep the sentinels heads out of their asses and Sentinel One the computerised brains of the operation.
There were a few enemies of the Sentinels including Morpheus; who is himself a Sentinel turned bad, and many others.
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This was another late seventies show with only 13 episodes. I remember it most for the funny banter and classic seventies music.
Need to be viewed on youtube. Click on the link and then the second link.
Dogtanian and the three Muskehounds(1985)
It is exactly what it sounds like. The three musketeers with dogs! It follows Dogtanian and his swashbuckling adventures in Paris, meeting Athos, Porthos and Aramis and learning to be accepted by and become one of the musketeers. On the way he meets Planchet his trustee servant and falls in love with Juliette the handmaid to the Queen.
Cardinal Richelieu is the one cooking up trouble for the king and for the muskehounds themselves, aided and abetted by his idiot of a right hand man, Wildimer and the sly and sultry, Milady.
It’s wonderfully animated and has a cool theme tune which was an absolute must for my choices in a cartoon.
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From dogs to cats now as we take a look at a cartoon with another awesome theme tune in Thundercats. This definitely appealed to a younger audience at the time and my younger brother and his friends loved this show.
The complex story’s outline is that the Thundercats (Lion-O, Cheetara, Panthero, Tygra, Wilykit, Wilykat and Snarf) flee their dying planet, pursued by evil mutants hoping to steal the Eye of Thundera, a magical power on Thundera and the source of the Thundercats abilities and skills. The Thundercats crashland on Third Earth and quickly make it there home so they can defend themselves against the mutants and an ancient evil that they join forces with in the form of Mumm-Ra the Ever-living.
The complexity of the story was cool, for instance Lion-O stasis pod didn’t work properly and he has physically grown in to a man yet is still a young boy and must lead the others. The fighting is cool, the relationships between the the main protagonists are engaging and there are the kids and fluffy Snarf for the little ones.
Muum-Ra is a bit scary but an awesome ‘Baddy’!
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Fast paced and fun. There have been several attempts to revive this cartoon including a new series coming out next year.
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An absolutely epic cartoon series with one of the best theme tunes and indeed soundtracks out there.
This is a fusion of Greek mythology and a futuristic environment. Ulysses has angered the gods and his punishment is that his crew are in a suspended animated state until he can find the Kingdom of Hades. He has his son Telemachus with him and also No-no their quirky little robot who worries about Telemachus all the time. They also have a little alien girl and her brother on board, Yumi and Numenor that Ulysses saves but Numinor is one of the passengers who has also been sent into a sleep. Each episode has a link to Greek mythology and includes Zeus, Poseidon, Hades and many of the scenarios that are famous in the mythology.
Also a favourite of my brothers who has the box set and has shown his older daughter. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!
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An awesome concept of five huge mechanoid Lions that are fearsome on their own but combine to make Voltron - Defender of the universe.
This has a vast and complex history in its production and ownership. It started out as Beast King GoLion. A Japanese only TV show that was converted for a western audience and re packaged as Voltron. As in Battle of the Planets the conversion had to tone down some of the original content due to its bad language, violence and scenes that were extremely dark and adult in nature. This was aimed at kids, right?
Merchandising heaven!
Netflix have taken this franchise on and have created a new series.
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Arguably, the biggest brand of the lot. The transformers is still going strong to this day and is a monster in the merchandising sector and a powerhouse in film and TV franchising. The main scenario is that waring robots from the planet Cybertron crash land on Earth and have to quickly adapt to their surroundings to keep their presence a secret. Inexplicably the Autobots; who are our protagonists and value human life, chose to Transform into harmless but cool cars and truck whereas the Decepticons; the antagonists, led by Megatron, slip in to more deadly costumes in the form of military transportation and aircraft. Duh!!
Optimus Prime is the brave leader of the Autobots and was the must have toy of the time. I remember panic in the streets when stores sold out before christmas. The toys were very cool because they could transform like their tv counterparts although you needed a masters degree to figure them out.
Things have changed a lot over the years and the big screen is the setting for this franchise these days but I love the original stuff and it has a place in my heart and my early memories.
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One thing that I have learned about myself is that I have two very different sides to my personality. No I’m not crazy! …..Well, I don’t think so anyway. My first love has always been sport and in particular, football. I’m not a ‘Jock’ but I can hang in those circles if I so choose. The other side to me is a bit of a geek. When it comes to to sci fi and fantasy stuff like movies and RPG’s I’m right there. In fact, if I go all the way back to my first year in secondary school I spent my break times, not playing football but playing a little known (at the time) a fantasy RPG called Dungeons and Dragons. If you do not know what that is, watch the opening scenes of Stranger Things where they are playing it in Mike’s basement.
So imagine my delight when they produce a cartoon based on the game itself. So cool. D&D is about six friends that go on a D&D rollercoaster and get transported to a different land and become different characters based on the game (Ranger, Cavalier, Thief, Acrobat, Barbarian and Magician). As in the game, the dungeon master guides them around the land helping them to overcome various obstacles and problems. The biggest of these problems is the main bad guy, Venger, who is hell bent on stopping our heroes achieving their main goal of getting back to their own land and home.
Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors (1985)
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My favourite theme tune of all time and the coolest show ever, even if the concept is a tad weird. So this is a car based futuristic scenario where young Jayce leads a team of freedom fighters against the evil Monster Minds who plan to take over the Earth. The twist is that it’s transformer esq but with plants. It sounds odd but really works and along with the super fast pace made me and my brother go nuts as soon as we heard the music kick in.
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This show was broadcast on The Children's Channel in the UK cable tv which was not widely subscribed to in the mid eighties and, subsequently, never seem to get the all round exposure it needed to take off. They made 65 episodes and never finished the story due to a lack of toy sales. There is even a commissioned movie that was never produced.
To this day my brother and I belt out the theme tune every now and again.
Mr Rossi
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Ah! The very weird and surreal world of Senior Rossi. This is the oddest cartoon in the list by a mile but in a lot of ways the most lovable and addictive. Mr Rossi first appeared in the 60’s and 70’s in various feature length movies and tv shows in Italy. What we got to witness was a culmination of all of the footage that had been put together, translated, cut and in some cases toned down to fit into children's cartoon length episodes.
The premise is that Rossi is an average guy that just gets on with life until he has a moment of clarity and realises that he is unhappy with his lot. He’s bored and overworked, has a boring monotonous job and his boss treats him like a slave. He crack’s under the strain and in doing so his fairy godmother appears and grants him the ability to time travel using a magic whistle. She also cast a spell on the bosses aggressive dog and gives him the power to speak. Rossi and the dog Harold become best friends and travel together experiencing all the weird and wonderful things together.
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It’s a bit ‘trippy’ and psychedelic, very odd in its nature but funny, interesting and always left me and my brother wanting more. The theme tune is called Viva Happiness and is a beautiful piece of music that always make us smile and feel good when both my brother and I hear it.
Need to be viewed on youtube. Click on the link and then the second link.
There you have it, some great memories from my tv viewing childhood. I hope you enjoyed it.
Previous My 10 Favourites....
See you next time.
Gaz
