Saturday 15 February 2014

Saved by the Bell

Today's next show is a sitcom about life in high school. It's  Saved by the Bell!




Zach Morris the cool trouble maker, A.C. Slater the kind hearted jock, Screech Powers the smart and funny nerd, Kelly Kapowski the teen dream who is Zach Morris obsession, Lisa Turtle the gossiping fashion lover, and Jessie Spano the feminist straight A student. They make up the six individual students and their misadventures at Bayside High School.

Pinocchio

Today I give to another Saban translation of a japanese anime, this time it's The Adventures of Pinocchio!



This version of tells a story of an extremely gullible, naive and morally confused wooden doll brought to life by a mystical blue fairy. Pinocchio is characterized as having many character faults which he must learn to overcome in order to be worthy of being granted humanity. Some of these character faults include selfishness, rudeness, insensitivity, indolence, obstinacy, over- trusting, self-pity, stupidity, disobedience, compulsive lying, arrogance, greed, cowardice, recklessness, cruelty, foolishness and an inability to learn from mistakes.
Throughout the entire series Pinocchio, partly due to his own delinquency and repetitive disobedience, must undergo other costly ordeals of hardship and pain in which he is continuously tormented, persecuted, bullied, humiliated, tricked, ridiculed, ostracised, beaten, downtrodden and subjected to degrading and inhumane treatment. Its plain depiction of the austere reality of what it would be like to be literally subhuman growing up in a world of danger and hardship, makes this another good example of traditional Japanese stories, which teach moral observance through tough endurance.

Friday 14 February 2014

The Herculoids

Next up is another 60's Hanna-Barbera classic, The Herculoids!



The Herculoids battled to defend their planet from menaces on Amzot/Quasar and from outer space. All of the Herculoids displayed Human-level intelligence—employing precision teamwork and complex tactics—as well as emotions, and Zandor and Tara both displayed a working knowledge of complex alien technologies as well as the ability to pilot interstellar spacecraft.
But essentially, Zandor, Tara, Dorno, and the Herculoids were all apparently fighting to keep Amzot/Quasar a technology-free, primitive planet. This is further indicated by the pseudo-barbarian outfits of Zandor, Tara, and Dorno and the fact that technology was used mainly by the various villains, but rarely if ever by the heroes.

Darkwing Duck

Today is Valentine's day, but there isn't much cause for love and stuff when you are a little kid, so in honour of being a kid, I'm going to ignore anything lovey-dovey and give you some serious action instead!


Today's first show is Darkwing Duck! 


Darkwing Duck tells the adventures of the titular superhero, aided by his sidekick and pilot Launchpad McQuack. In his secret identity of Drake Mallard (a parody of Kent Allard, the alter ego of the Shadow), he lives in an unassuming suburban house with his adopted daughter Gosalyn, next door to the bafflingly dim-witted Muddlefoot family. Darkwing struggles to balance his egotistical craving for fame and attention against his desire to be a good father to Gosalyn and help do good in St. Canard. Most episodes put these two aspects of Darkwing's character in direct conflict, though Darkwing's better nature usually prevails.

Thursday 13 February 2014

Thundarr the Barbarian

Next up we have the adventures of Thundarr The Barbarian!




Directly inspired by comic books, with the likes of R.E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian and Flash Gordon, Thundarr the Barbarian is set in a future (3994 AD) post-apocalyptic wasteland divided into kingdoms or territories — the majority of which are ruled by wizards — and whose ruins typically feature recognizable geographical features from the United States, starting in New York City and working itself to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Mount Rushmore, San Francisco or Washington, D.C.
The hero Thundarr, a muscular warrior, was meant to be strongly akin to the comic book characters Thor the God of Thunder and Conan The Barbarian. In this setting, Thundarr and his companions Princess Ariel, a formidable young sorceress, and the Wookiee-like Ookla the Mok traveled the world on horseback, battling evil wizards who combine magical spells with technologies from the pre-catastrophe world.
Enemies include The Brotherhood of Night (a group of werewolves who could transform others into their werewolves by simple touch), the cosmic Stalker from The Stars (a predatory, malevolent cosmic vampire), humanoid lizards, and mutants. Intelligent humanoid-animal races include the rat-like Groundlings, the crocodile-like Carocs, and the cat-like Moks.

Tales From Fat Tulip's Garden

Let's have a sit down and listen to a story. One from Fat Tulip's Garden!


Created by drama school chums Tony Robinson and Deborah Gates, Tales from Fat Tulip's Garden was a hilariously bizarre children's show featuring Tony Robinson crawling around a garden for ten minutes while explaining in great detail the strange things that went down above the grass. Tony took telling tales to the tenth degree while producing some truly unique television. 

Wednesday 12 February 2014

Teknoman

Also known by it's orignal title of Tekkman Blade, this was some pure anime that was brought over and localised by Saban Entertainment (who also brought us Power Rangers in it's American form).

Teknoman!




Earth's defence forces are engaged in a losing battle with the evil Darkon. A ship plummets to Earth and explodes, and out walks a stranger, unscathed, but suffering from amnesia. In his possession is a Tekno crystal, which he can use to transform himself into Teknoman, an unstoppable fighting machine. As the war turns in their favour, they learn that Darkon is breeding Teknomen from captured Earth families - Teknoman must soon face his own brother in a battle to the death.

(This video contains the original opening rather than the Saban opening, but the show itself is the edited Saban version)

I first saw this show on a Japanese Anime Weekend on the Fox Kids channel in the late 90's, they only ever aired the first two episodes though...

Tiny Toon Adventures

Hey folks, today's first show is the Tiny Toon Adventures!








Tiny Toon Adventures is a cartoon set in the fictional town of Acme Acres, where most of the Tiny Toons and Looney Tunes characters live. The characters attend Acme Looniversity, a school whose faculty primarily consists of the mainstays of the classic Warner Bros. cartoons, such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester the Cat, Wile E. Coyote and Elmer Fudd. In the series, the university is founded to teach cartoon characters how to become funny. The school is not featured in every episode, as not all of its storylines are centered around the school.
Like the Looney Tunes, the series makes use of cartoon violence (e.g. anvils falling on someone, liberal use of explosives) and slapstick. The series parodies and references the current events of the early 1990s and Hollywood culture. Occasionally, episodes delve into veiled ethical and morality stories of ecology, self-esteem, and crime.

The two main characters are both rabbits: Buster Bunny, a blue male rabbit, and Babs Bunny, a pink female rabbit. Other major characters in the cast are generally nonhuman as well. These include Plucky Duck, a green male duck; Hamton J. Pig, a pink male pig; Fifi La Fume, a purple-and-white female skunk; Shirley the Loon, a white female loon; Dizzy Devil, a purple Tasmanian devil; Furrball, a blue cat; Sweetie Bird, a pink canary; Calamity Coyote, a bluish-gray coyote; Little Beeper, a red-orange roadrunner; and Gogo Dodo, a zany green dodo.
Two human characters, Elmyra Duff and Montana Max, are regarded as the main villains of the series and also are students of Acme Looniversity. As villains, Elmyra is seen as an extreme pet lover while Montana Max is a spoiled rich brat who either owns lots of toys or polluting factories.

Tuesday 11 February 2014

The Ratties

Next is a cartoon that is a little bit bonkers. I mean in the totally stark raving sense, it's The Ratties!



The Ratties live behind the skirting board in the living room of a pink country cottage. And they're mad. Stark-raving, cross-eyed, bonkers. Tatty, Aunt Hatty, Uncle Matty, Baby Batty and The Fatty Brothers get up to all kinds of loopy mischief as they emulate the human owners of the cottage or enact their own preposterous fantasies and daydreams - like pretending they're cowboys, or circus stars, or attempting to fly, or lord-knows-what-else...
Tatty would dearly like to be loved by humans, but he only ever seems to scare them. Aunt Hatty's a houseproud rat, forever washing and knitting everything and anything she can lay her hands on including the other Ratties. Baby Batty is a genius in a nappy, whilst The Fatty Brothers are geniuses at inventing stupid games and pranks, most of which are targeted at poor Uncle Matty although he barely has the sense to know it.

"The Ratties" series was created by Mike Wallis and Laura Milligan, she being the daughter of the maddest March Hare there ever was or will be, Spike Milligan. What's more, Spike narrates the series and "sings" the title song with its incessant "Ratties" chant. Spike rattles off the narration at a breathless pace, often far ahead of the viewer . It's easy to miss some splendid asides and and additions.

King Rollo

Time for a bit of true nostalgia, with King Rollo!




The central character of the stories was Rollo himself, a childlike King who was always in need of advice and assistance from his friends. Among these were The Magician (a father figure); Cook (the king's cook, a mother figure, who was arguably the real ruler of the kingdom); his neighbour, Queen Gwen; King Frank; and, perhaps most importantly, Rollo's cat, Hamlet, who was generally portrayed as wiser than Rollo himself.
The animations used the same distinctive colourful cut-out paper look as McKee's other works, such as Mr Benn, and one memorable aspect was that the characters' legs would rotate outwards when walking until they were at right-angles to the sides of their body.

The Karate Kid

Yep you guessed it, it's the further adventures of Daniel-san and Mr Miyagi in The Karate Kid - The Animated Series!



The show retains apprentice Daniel LaRusso and his mentor Keisuke Miyagi but abandoned the karate tournament motif for an adventure/quest setting. A miniature shrine with healing powers had been taken from its resting place on Okinawa, and it was up to Miyagi and Daniel to recover it. Together with Okinawan girl Taki, the karatekas searched the globe and, naturally, encountered several opportunities to chop and kick their way out of trouble.

Monday 10 February 2014

Biker Mice from Mars

Next up today we have the Biker Mice from Mars!




On the planet Mars, there existed a race of anthropomorphic mice who enjoyed motorsports and had a very similar culture and society to that of human beings. At some point in time they were all but wiped out by the Plutarkians, an alien race of obese, foul-smelling, fish-like humanoids who plunder other planets' natural resources because they have wasted all of their own. Three survivors, Throttle, Modo and Vinnie, manage to find a spaceship and escape the Plutarkian takeover but they are soon shot down by a Plutarkian warship and end up crash-landing on Earth in the city of Chicago. There they meet a charming female mechanic named Charlene "Charley" Davidson and discover that the Plutarkians have come to Earth to steal its natural resources. The Biker Mice investigate the crumbling ghetto of the windy city and soon discover that Chicago's leading industrialist, Lawrence Limburger, is actually a Plutarkian who disguises himself as a human, plotting to ransack Earth's resources to send to his own dying planet.

Kimba the White Lion

First up today is an old classic from the creator of Astro Boy, Osamu Tezuka. Kimba the White Lion!



In Africa during the mid-20th century, as mankind encroaches, the white lion Panja gives the jungle's wild animals a safe haven. However, he angers nearby villagers by stealing their cattle and their food to feed the jungle carnivores.
A professional hunter, Viper Snakely, is called in to stop these raids. He avoids directly attacking Panja. Instead, he records the sounds of Panja and uses them to trap his mate, Eliza, who then becomes bait in a trap for Panja. Panja is killed for his hide, and the pregnant Eliza is put on a ship, destined for a zoo.
Kimba is born on the boat.
Eliza teaches him his father's ideals. As a huge tropical storm nears, she urges her cub out through the bars of her cage. The storm wrecks the boat, and he flounders in the ocean. The fish help him learn to swim. As he begins to despair, the stars in the sky form the face of his mother, who encourages him. Guided by butterflies, he makes it to land.
Kimba lands far from his ancestral home and is found and cared for by some people. He learns the advantages of human culture, and decides that when he returns to his wild home he will bring culture to the jungle and stand for peace like his father.
The show follows Kimba's life after he returns to the wild, still a young cub, and how he learns and grows in the next year. Kimba soon learns that only communication and mutual understanding between animals and humans will bring true peace.

Sunday 9 February 2014

Terrahawks

That's right! The time has come to call in the Terrahawks!!





The year is 2020 and hidden in South America is the base of the Terrahawks Earth Defence Squadron (Hawknest) - an elite fighting force which is headed by Dr Ninestein One thousand feet below the White House is the Battlehawk, the flagship of the Terrahawks. It carries in its hold the Battle Tank that is literally dropped into situations. On the back of the Battlehawk is the smaller Terrahawk which can be launched when needed. An alien android called Zelda has attacked Earth from her base on Mars. Her goal is to all enslave all humanoids in revenge for her humanoid makers using androids as slaves. She has brought a number of monsters with her (in suspended animation) to help her do this task. One such monster is Lord Sram ruler of Planet Felony. His roar can destroy things (he speaks quite posh for a monster) and his blood evaporates and becomes toxic.

I am Weasel

It's time for some mayhem! I.R. Baboon is planning on stealing I.M. Weasel's fame again, in I Am Weasel!



The series chronicles the adventures of I.M. Weasel, an internationally famous, rather eloquent, highly intelligent and much talented weasel who is adored by everyone, and I.R. Baboon, an ugly and idiotic baboon who is envious about Weasel's success and constantly tries to be better than him. The show premise begins from a humorous take on the classic nursery rhyme "Pop Goes the Weasel"

I Am Weasel was originally a part of the Cow and Chicken show, often airing as the third of three segments in an episode, after two Cow and Chicken segments. Eventually, I Am Weasel was spun off into its own series,