Saturday 16 August 2014

Spider-Man - The Animated Series (1994)

Been a while since the ol' web-head made an appearance on the BCC, so here is his 90's series! It's Spider-Man!




The series focuses on Spider-Man and his alter ego Peter Parker during his college years at Empire State University. As the story begins, Peter has already gained his superpowers and is a part-time freelance photographer for the Daily Bugle. The show features most of Spider-Man's classic villains, including the Kingpin, the Green Goblin, the Lizard, the Shocker, Doctor Octopus, Mysterio, the Scorpion, Rhino, the Vulture, the Chameleon, and Venom. Over the course of the series the single Peter contends with the romantic love interests of Mary Jane Watson, Felicia Hardy and her alter ego, the Black Cat. The show also features appearances from various other Marvel superheroes including the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Daredevil, Blade, Doctor Strange, the Punisher, and Captain America.

Fun Fact - The theme song for the series (including the lyrics) was performed by Joe Perry of Aerosmith!

The Girl from Tomorrow

A classic Austrailian sci-fi series for you now with The Girl From Tomorrow!



In the year 3000, the human race is in a state of Utopia. The major challenge facing them is continuing rebuilding the Earth after The Great Disaster, a catastrophic event that took place in 2500 and nearly destroyed the entire Earth. In order to investigate its causes, a scientist named Tulista is sent to the past using the Time Capsule, a device created by a scientist named Bruno. Upon the capsule's return, Tulista is held hostage by Silverthorn, a criminal from the year 2500, who is intent on conquering the future. Realizing that even though the year 3000 does not have weapons per se, his own weapons are no match to the superior technology of the Transducer, he manages to take Alana, Tulista's student, hostage, and escapes into the past, where he figures he will have a better chance. Arriving in 1990, Alana escapes, and later meets a teenager named Jenny Kelly, whose help she enlists in order to get back to the Capsule before it returns automatically to the future, leaving her stranded in the past. After thinking that the Capsule was destroyed, Jenny and Alana discover that it has been seized by Silverthorn, who is building his power and making vast amounts of money by using information from the Capsule's database, and will therefore not allow Alana to use it to return to her own time. Along with the help of Jenny's family and her teacher, Alana and Jenny must devise a plan to retrieve the Capsule while foiling Silverthorn's plans, so that Alana can return home to the year 3000.

Friday 15 August 2014

The Adventures of Sir Prancelot

Who knows what could happen when you are an eccentric inventor-knight who heads for the Crusades in the Holy Land!  It's The Adventures of Sir Prancelot!



To escape both his bank manager and his overbearing wife Lady Histeria, Prancelot decides to join the crusades. He is dismayed when he learns that Histeria intends to accompany him and eventually the entire household - including the children Sim and Sue, the miserly majordomo Girth, a cockney minstrel (who is also the show's narrator) and several serfs - set sail for adventure. They repeatedly fall foul of the dastardly Count Otto "The Blot" but always escape by some contrivance of Sir Prancelot himself. After many unlikely adventures they arrive in the Holy Land to discover they are 50 years too late. After a final showdown with Count Otto they return to England in a rocket ship also invented by Sir Prancelot.
The Sir Prancelot animation came from the same stable as Captain Pugwash and was in a similar style.

Thursday 14 August 2014

Extreme Dinosaurs

Spinning out of Street Sharks in the most extreme way, come the Extreme Dinosaurs!



The series starred a Tyrannosaurus, a Triceratops, a Stegosaurus, and a Pteranodon that were transformed into super warriors by an interdimensional criminal named Argor Zardok. They rebelled against the alien criminal and do battle with Argor's second group of warriors known as the evil Raptors. Eventually, the Raptors' objective is to cause global warming by increasing the Earth's temperature, which will make life on earth more comfortable for reptiles.

Wednesday 13 August 2014

Oggy and the Cockroaches

How do you cope when you are plagued by pesky cockroaches? Watch Oggy now and take a few clues as how not to do it!! It's Oggy and the Cockroaches!



The show centers on Oggy, a content, blue cat, who would prefer to spend his days watching television and eating - if not for the three roaches in the household: Joey, Dee Dee and Marky (named after members of the punk group Ramones). The trio seems to enjoy making Oggy's life miserable, which involves mischief ranging from (in most cases) plundering his refrigerator to such awkward things like hijacking the train Oggy just boarded. Oggy usually finds creatures accompanying him to the end of the episode, such as crabs, clams, a horse, a very technologically advanced child, a puppy, and an octopus. However, it's not always Oggy who wins.

The cartoon relies on slapstick humour, much like its "ancestor", Tom and Jerry, only amplifying the level of extremities up a notch. While traditional slapstick cartoon characters prefer dropping anvils and pianos on each other, this show sometimes uses buses or submarines. Despite these, however, most gags are easily accessible and enjoyable for younger viewers. Since dialogue is kept to a minimum, the humour is entirely visual.


Tuesday 12 August 2014

Jumanji - The Series

In honour of Robin Williams who sadly passed away yesterday, I bring you the cartoon spinoff one one of his great family movies, Jumanji!




While it followed the movie's plot, there were a few changes such as the exclusion of Bonnie Hunt's character Sarah Whittle and the age and relationship of the policeman Carl Bentley (played by David Alan Grier in the movie) was changed somewhat. Van Pelt appears in some episodes. Each turn, the player was given a "game clue" and then sucked into the jungle until they solved their clue. Robin Williams' character Alan was stuck in Jumanji because he had never seen his clue. Judy and Peter would help Alan try to leave the game providing the characters' motivation during the series. Also, Peter would sometimes be transformed into various animals whenever he cheated, sometimes using the abilities of whatever animal he becomes to an advantage.

Monday 11 August 2014

Insektors

There's a war going on in the undergrowth, a war hidden from our eyes, but of you look carefully you find the Insektors!



Insektors is a 90’s Children’s TV computer generated cartoon, which follows a character called Flynn who was found as a baby by the Verigreens and raised as their own.
The Verigreens live in a beautiful place full of enormous flowers and colour. But all is not not well in this wonderful place, because nearby lives a group called the Kruds. They live underground in a place where everything is brown and no one laughs or has fun. They especially don't like the Verigreens with all their flowers and colours and their main aim is to cut down all the flowers and turn them all into Kruds.

Sunday 10 August 2014

Storybook International

I am a storyteller and my stories must be told... It's Storybook International!



The show famously began with an animated title sequence with a troubadour singing the theme song, accompanied by a friendly anthropomorphic fox. The original version was sung in a traditional English folk style, but subsequent international versions had different versions of the song. Notably the US version replaced the line "In England I am John" with "In America I'm John".
The weekly, half-hour show was a collection of folk tales and fairy stories from all over the world, based on an anthology of stories for children published by Gollancz in 1981, edited by Veronica Kruger. Filmed in such locales as Russia, Ireland and Scandinavia, the series' live-action playlets were based on stories which originated in England, Czechoslovakia, France, Romania, Turkey, Wales, Israel, Norway, China, Africa, India and elsewhere. A few of the stories were campfire legends derived from the Native Americans of New England and the Maori of New Zealand.


Vicky the Viking

It's taken a lot of time to find this show, but finally it's here for you all to enjoy! It's Vicky the Viking!



The series' main character is Vicky, son of Halvar, chief of the Viking village of Flake. Unlike his village fellows - including most of the other boys of his age - Vicky is blessed with a sharp and imaginative mind which helps his fellow Vikings out of many tight situations, including rival Viking lord Sven the Terrible. Certain results of his intellectual approach shown in the series and the film adaptation include building a makeshift catapult to beat his father in a stone-ferrying contest, fitting their longship with kites to make it glide through the air, and using a small sawfish to cut an escape hole through a wooden door.