Bucky O'Hare

When Toads turn bad, who is going to save the day?

Bucky O'Hare will!!

The storyline of Bucky O'Hare follows a parallel universe (the aniverse), where a war is ongoing between the slightly inept United Animals Federation (run by mammals) and the sinister Toad Empire. The Toad Empire is led by a vast computer system known as KOMPLEX, which has brainwashed the toad population.

The series only consisted of 13 episodes, another one of those situations where there seemed to be more episodes than there really were!

Danger Mouse

Arguably one of the greatest cartoons ever made at any time ever, it's Danger Mouse!!

Danger Mouse is a wacky and hilarious adventure featuring a white secret agent mouse and his trusty bumbling sidekick hamster assistant, Penfold. Penfold is lovingly daft and usually needs to be saved from one situation or another, and is the greatest sidekick ever known. Together, they are given assignments by Colonel K., their commander/walrus.
They regularly have to foil the dastardly schemes of their arch nemesis, a meglomanic frog named Baron Silas Greenback and his henchman crow, Stiletto.

Fun Facts - In 1983 when Danger Mouse was at it's peak popularity, it was getting 21 million viewers in the UK, beating the likes of Coronation Street and is a record still unbeaten by any other children's show to this date!

The theme tune was sung by Myfanwy Talog, who was the partner of Sir David Jason (voice of Dangermouse) for 18 years until her death from breast cancer in 1995.

Penfold's first name is Ernest!!

Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends

This is my third post of the day, and my final birthday celebration post for this year, Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends!!

Peter Parker (Spider-Man), Bobby Drake (Iceman), and Angelica Jones (Firestar) are all college students at Empire State University. After working together to defeat the Beetle and recovering the "Power Booster" he stole from Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man) the trio decide to team-up permanently as the "Spider-Friends". They live together in Peter's Aunt May's home with her and a pet dog, Ms. Lion, (adopted from Firestar). Together, the superheroes battle various supervillains.
Some stories featured team-ups with other characters from the Marvel Universe, including Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Sunfire, and the mid-1970s line up of the X-Men. (taken from Wikipedia)

X-Men (1989)

Today is my birthday, so today's TV shows are based on one of my other loves, Marvel comics. First up to the plate is the 1989 pilot for the X-Men series that never made it past this one episode. Entitled Pryde of the X-Men, it features a very different line-up to the later 90's series. (to be posted in the future)

Funding for this pilot actually came from the budget for RoboCop - The Animated Series. Instead of making a 13th episode of RoboCop, Marvel Productions decided to use their funding to have Toei Animation produce the animation for this pilot. The pilot itself is most specifically influenced by issues #129-139 of Uncanny X-Men.

Narrated by X-Men co-creator Stan Lee, Pryde of the X-Men stars Professor Xand the X-Men (Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Wolverine, (who speaks with an Australian accent despite being Canadian in the comics) Kitty Pryde, and Dazzler) saving the world from Magneto and his "Brotherhood of Mutant Terrorists" (Toad, the Blob, Pyro, Juggernaut, and the White Queen).

Fun Fact - The reason why Wolverine has an Australian accent in this version was to capitalize on the Aussie craze of the 80's (Crocodile Dundee, Mad Max, etc). Supposedly, the comics were meant to reveal that Wolverine was an expatriated Australian, but it never got past the planning stages, so he was left as a Canadian.

Transformers The Movie (1986)

In celebration of my birthday today, I am slightly changing things up a bit. As well as the usual TV shows, I'm throwing a full length movie into the mix!

Today we have my favourite animated film of all time, Transformers The Movie!

The story takes place in 2005, 20 years after the events of the TV series' second season and serves to bridge into the third season. Set to a soundtrack of synth-based incidental music and hard-driving metal music, composed by Vince DiCola, the movie has a decidedly darker tone than the television series, with detailed visuals in Toei Animation's typical anime film styling, and like G.I. Joe The Movie, Decepticon villains that are more menacing, killing without hesitation. The film features several grand battles in which a handful of major characters meet their end.
The film's tagline was: "Beyond good. Beyond evil. Beyond your wildest imagination."

I first went to see this movie at the cinema with my brother for my 8th birthday!!