Remembering the 80s cartoons – Part 5

Ah, the 80s. The decade that gave us the 30 minute commercials.

At the dawn of the beginning of the decade we could still catch re-runs of Scooby Doo and the Flintstones along with our old Warner Brothers favourits like Bugs Bunny and Roadrunner ‘toons. They were harmless fun that had little to no redeeming value. If you were lucky your local stations might play classic anime cartoons like “Star Blazers” or “Battle of the Planets”. Again, no lessons learned. Nothing more than entertainment. If you wanted to, you could go to the store and buy products based on these shows.

Then, things started to go wrong.

First there were a pair of five-day mini-series from an animation company wholly owned by Hasbro. The two shows were based upon toy lines manufactured by Hasbro: GI Joe, and Transformers. This was one of the first times in the US that a product was released first and the show second. The shows presented nothing more than an advertisement for all of the products that kids could nag their parents into buying for them.

The success of Transformers and GI Joe was so incredible that other companies started to pick make their own miniseries based on their toys.

This would lead to entire series being based on toy lines such as “He Man and the Masters of the Universe”, “Care Bears”, “Strawberry Shortcake”, and French import “The Smurfs”. Soon it was nearly impossible to find a cartoon that didn’t have a massive toy line already out that was dedicated to it.

Despite the fact that the shows were blatant advertisements, they still felt the need to redeem themselves with 2-5 minute public service announcements at the end telling people how lying was bad and playing inside refrigerators could be harmful.

But, toys weren’t enough. Soon cartoons based on actual video games were coming out and you could tune into programs with “plots” based on popular video games like Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Q-Bert, and Dragon’s Lair.

It was starting to look like creativity was rapidly disappearing from American Tv. At one point the only animated program really worth watching was “Robotech” a Japanese import that was actually three different series that were re-written by an American Producer to fit together smoothly and had an incredible plot that could keep a viewer entertained for 85 straight days.

But, it wasn’t enough – until 1987. Disney hadn’t done much more than a few dismal attempts at movies and they decided to get back into the afternoon cartoon business

Movie reviews: The Transformers (2007) – Part 64

Transformers, the new Spielberg movie, bring us to a moment where the earth is the battle field for 2 groups of robots, world-less, in the search for the initial Spark, so they have a new home.

A mix between a high-school movie (every adolescent dream is a good-looking girlfriend and a cool car), a sf animated movie from our childhood and an American war movie, you can see almost everything in this new film: yellow cars that transforms in giant funny robots, music players that becomes evil little robots, ready to steel all US secrets, fights between ferocious robots and touching scenes between 1 boy and his girlfriend.

Although not the best movie Spielberg was ever involved with, Transformers is a nice, filled with humor movie, perfect for a relaxing Saturday evening, when you got nothing else to do.

Movie reviews: The Transformers (2007) – Part 60

Transformers, will be one of the classic action movies! This movie was all that and more. If Will Smith had came out with one of his 4th of July movies bock busters. I really don’t think it might have made allot of money. I know this had to be the hight-est grossing movie of the 4th of July weekend!

The special effects were so explicit, you will be wondering how did they do that!

It stars Shai La bluff as a teen that seems to be kind of a not so popular teen. He seems to be a joke around school. The time comes for him to turn in one of his school assignments and he was not that organized and it got him a B on his report. He need an A to get his car that his father told him he would help him buy. So after he negotiated an A from his teacher he was off to get that hot car so he thought!

When he went to look for his car, he thought he was getting something hot. Turns out he received a piece of hunk of junk. Sold to him none other by Bennie Mack. Bennie Mack told told Sam (Shai La bluff) that the car chooses it buyer. So when this yellow car showed up on Bennie Mack’s car lot a car he never seen before. Bennie Mack tried to raise the price of it. Giving Shai a hard time. The yellow car was none other then Bumble bee, A transformer sent to earth to protect Shai because it was about to be some drama.

Me telling you about the movie will not do it any justice! It’s one of those movies that you have to see for yourself. Transformers will have you not wanting to blink because you will be seared that you will miss something. I telling you from the beginning to the end there’s not a dull moment. Transformers will have your eyes glued to the screen it’s so Action packed You may not want to go to the restroom or even get popcorn! I never was a big fan of the cartoon when I was young because I was in to Care bears, Jem, and the other girlie cartoons! I loved Transformers so much that I want to go by all of the cartoons and toys.

If you don’t go see it you will be mad because everyone,everywhere will be talking about it. If you have kids and you think I cant take them you can because it’s rated p-g. take my word when I say it’s worth every dollar I paid!

Battle Chess: A Computer Chess Game, Not For The Faint Of Heart

Battle Chess is a computer game version of chess released for the 3DO, PC, Apple IIGS, Commodore 64, Amiga, Amiga CDTV, CD32, AtariST, Apple Macintosh, Acorn Archimedes, and the Nintendo Entertainment System. Developed by Interlay Productions, Inc., the game was designed to draw people who did not normally play chess.

Battle Chess elevates the game beyond a mere cerebral one and into a full-fledged war with riveting graphics and animations that bring each piece to life. The objective is the same as the board game version–to capture enemy pieces and finally the King.

The animations are extremely entertaining and clever. The Bishop fights opponents by using magic and twirling a staff with retractable blades that resemble a martial arts expert. The Pawn performs wizardry and hits the ground with the butt of his lance that creates a large hole large enough to swallow the Bishop. The Queen uses magic to capture opponents, and also blasts them to pieces using bolts of energy. In one animated sequence, the Queen decimates the opposing Knight and blasts the Bishop with such force that only his skeleton remains!

The others have moments of glory too, and the Queen does not always dominate. For example, when the Queen throws her energy bolt at the Knight, the Knight can in turn use his shield to redirect the bolt back at the Queen and turn her into a small dragon. The Rook transforms himself into a large rock monster and attacks the Queen, swallowing her whole. The Rook also reduces the Knight to a helmet with feet by pounding the Knight’s head.

The King also has a bag of dirty tricks. He takes a gun against the Bishop, strikes down the Rook with magic powder, and hurls a bomb at the Knight. When capturing the Queen, he embraces her passionately before hitting her with his scepter when she tries to stab him in the back with a knife.

When defeated, the King ends up resembling a deflated two-dimensional cartoon character. The Knight cuts open the King’s robe, and pounds him into a two dimensional version of himself that looks as though he has been run over by a steam roller. The Pawn, with a flip of his lance, then takes the King’s crown for himself as the King pounds the ground in frustration.

Battle chess attracted a large number of imitators but none matched the humorous animation of artists Todd Camasta and Bruce Schlickbernd. The game can be played with 3D animation, and there is also a version in 2D with no animation. There are a total of 30,000 different moves in the game’s library. It can be played across 10 levels of increasing difficulty. The game can be played with a human opponent or against the computer. Another entertaining option is watching the computer play against itself.

Rediscover Bugs Bunny Superman Batman Dexter And Other Cartoon Characters

- Tom and Jerry are the legendary cat-mouse pair, responsible for some of the most funny and unforgettable scenes of animation. They have delighted and gained more and more fans along time and won seven awards.
- Scooby-Doos shows are numerous. They evolved along time through more and more inspired series on the stream with the latest scientific conquests in the field of computers. However, they have preserved their ace, the mistery waiting to be revealed, the creepy atmosphere, suspense, thrills and harrowing adventures; this is what gave the charms to this cartoon and gained its fans forever.
- The Flintstones, Fred and Wilma, and their neighbours the Rubbles, Barney and Betty, the town of Bedrock, vehicles propelled by the drivers feet, Dino, the dog-dinosaur and the adventures of the Stone Age transformed into a modern atmosphere. Nothing new and still, so fresh every time you see them.
- Dexters Laboratory. This cartoon series is about a boy genius, a junior scientist called Dexter, his passion for scientific discoveries and disgust for girly feelings, weaknesses; Dexters older sister Dee Dee is exactly the opposite, but together they form an A team that gives delightful moments to the audience.
- Johnny Bravo with his Elvis-like appearance, his bulging biceps, and overflowing ego are only a few of the qualities this mamas boy has. He makes you laugh and you somehow adore him although you hate everything that he does. In fact he is his own worst nightmare wherever he goes.
- The Powerpuff Girls. Three supernatural superhero girls created with a secret ingredient by Professor Plutonium in a laboratory near Townsville fight against bad guys. A mayor, too small to be good and candies as fuel for super-heroines, and this is just part of the story.
- Codename: Kids Next Door. Five 10-year-old tenacious kids fight to preserve the innocence of the childhood which is permanently endangered by the world of adults which is always ruled by implacable rules. Besides the drama you can easily laugh and enjoy their mustard or sweets based weapons.
- Courage the Cowardly Dog describes the isolated life of a very timid, timorous and scared dog which has to fight against horrifying monsters to protect himself and his owners, especially Muriel who is very devoted to her dog, while her husband Eustace scares the poor dog all the time and enjoys it.
- Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends. Children create imaginary friends which give them the needed help to pass over the obstacles and misfortunes of life. However there is a time when that created hero is no longer wanted so he has to retire somewhere, and thats what Fosters home is for.
- Camp Lazlo. The camp where the Bean Scouts spend their summer is a place where rules are observed and the nature is a temple. Everything was in an orderly fashion until Lazlo appeared. For more cartoons and information please see our other resources on Cartoon-secrets.com

Toys that have been unfairly criticized

Y’know, with the Transformers movie coming out soon, I’ve kinda been swept back into my childhood lately. As of late, now more than ever, I wish there was someway I could take my obscene love for all things toy, comic and animated and utilize them into a career where I could sustain myself financially while still working with something I hold dear.

But that’s not what this particular article is about.

No, while sifting around through my house I dug up some old toys in a search for some of the few Transformers I owned in my youth over twenty years ago. I found quite a surprising little cache of some forgotten gems in the form of the Go-Bots.

Now to many of you Transformers fans I have on my friends list, I know that Go-Bots are little more to you than the unloved, best-forgotten, illegitimate bastard step-children of the whole Transforming Robot Genre, and I can hear your howls of protest.

I disagree, and will point how and why, I feel anyways, that Go-Bots are as good as Transformers, and maybe possibly (and arguably) better.

For a little back story to the uninitiated, transforming robot toys were nothing new in Japan of the late 70’s / early 80’s. The two biggest lines consisting of Takara’s Diaclone line and Bandai’s Machine Robo line. The former would be purchased by American toy giant Hasbro and created in conjunction with Marvel comics, while Tonka purchased the rights and molds of the latter, creating the Go-Bots.

Transformers, I feel, gained in popularity largely due to the back-story that was crafted for it by Marvel comics, particularly under the hand of Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter, who had breathed new life into Hasbro’s GI Joe line years earlier along with veteran writer Larry Hama. I am quite sure though that all of you will be surprised to learn that, not only did Go-Bots actually OUTSELL Transformers initially, they arrived in stores nearly an entire year before Transformers. Had they had Marvel’s particular talent in story creation, things may have well turned out differently for the “Mighty Robots, Mighty Vehicles.” Okay why am I hearing howling again?!

Now here’s where I get to my points of the “hows” and “whys” of why Go-Bots are just as good, again, if not better.

1.) Price & Quality Transformers were cool, don’t get me wrong, but when it came to owning a quality toy, you couldn’t really get more bang for your buck than with Go-Bots. Transformers were usually on the high-end of the price range, basic boxed figures

Anime and Manga: An overview

Anime is basically japanese animated cartoons. Or in the book form, Manga – this literally translates to "slow pictures." It’s a growing fad on American tv now, especially ever since cartoon network aired its late night program, Adult Swim. Basically almost any anime show, you will find was first introduced in its manga form. In any case, to find out more about anime, you can google it.

Below is a list I’ve put together, with the genre it falls into and brief description what it entails.

1. Blood – Horror, gothic – a mean girl who fights off monsters, if you want pure violence and not much of a storyline, this is what you want. It’s short and gets to the point.

2. Hellsing – Again, gothic – mainly a police woman gets involved in a society that fights of vampires, and also becoming one herself – this one has more of a storyline and the character design isn’t too bad either.

3. Wolf’s Rain – this one isn’t about vampires, but about the world being in an apocalyptic state and wolves are believed to be extinct, but are really just disguised as people. In any case, I really like the way the characters look in this one, and yes it does contain some violence.

Hehe, Yes I sure do like my violent anime.

4. Sailormoon – this is an old classic, more of a girly anime – about female super heros who transforms into pretty fighting soldiers, blah blah blah, there’s a moon princess involved with a prince, it’s more or less like a fairy tale based. Not much violence here, but it’s still pretty.

5. Vision of Escaflowne – this one has to do with a girl traveling into a another world where she meets up with a strange fella, basically they fight off bad guys together and she’s psychic. This one is entertaining.

6. Inu Yasha – another one about a girl traveling into a different time zone, feudal Japan and meets a dog demon, basically they fall in love and meet up with some friends n fight a common enemy, Naraku. I LOVE this anime series because first of all, almost EVERY single character is very uniquely designed, and they all have very cool sounding Japanese names. It also has a very heavy Buddhist theme along w/ Journey to the West.

7. Big O – you like giant robots? You like pretty robot girls? You like bat man? This one’s for you.

8. Bubblegum Crisis – the new one, if you want to see four girls wear combat robotic armor n kickin’ arse, this is it. I liked this one a lot.

9. Now and Then, Here and There – this one’s rarely ever spoken of, but it REALLY is one of the highest ranking one out of all anime series I’ve seen. It’s deep. It’s depressing. Makes you want to cry. But in the end, it just leaves you to sigh. This one’s more or less about the effects of war, but it’s beautiful in its own sad way. Heh, I can’t really describe it, you just have to see it.

10. Petshop of Horror – this one’s a lil’ strange, it’s more or less about a detective trying to investigate this petshop in China town, and he seems to have a love/hate relationship with its owner. Overall, each episode is about a different story, but it all ties together, somehow. It’s interesting because some episodes involve mermaids, pets that look like missing or dead people, lost dreams, etc.

As you can see, I am really into the horror/gothic genre. There are also many other anime series that are good and outside this genre. I encourage you to watch some, if you haven’t already seen any you like.

Amazing History Of Anime

Anime The history of the amazing animations we know as anime
Animations and cartoons have always amused us, made us laugh with joy as kids and adults, alike. Cartoons such as Tom and Jerry and Felix the cat have become timeless. As other evolving creations of man, even animation is going is vast evolution with Japanese anime soaring in popularity, especially in the western countries. Transformers, Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh! These are some popular anime creations which have made a significant mark on people around the world.
Animation has always been popular in Japan with lots of them being done from 1920 onwards. Within a decade, by 1930, animation had become an indispensible part of the progressing Japanese film industry. However, the war and nationalistic propaganda moulded all the animations. All television releases and comics were used to strengthen political ideas. Soon Walt Disney’s Fantasia inspired Mitsuyo Seo to create Momotaro’s Divine Sea Warriors an animation on Japans fight for liberty. Slowly, animations started changing to their present form. Walt Disney was a great inspiration for all early animators and it would take a while before they abandoned these roots.
It was a passionate cartoonist and comic books seller, Tezuka Osamu, who is credited with the invention of the anime which is popular today. His first popular cartoon, Astroboy, was released in 1963 and since then, there has been no looking back. Slowly, variations started coming in and the immensely popular robots genre was introduced in anime, giving it a larger fan base. Apparently, the golden era of anime was the 1970s, when Space Battleship Yamamoto became an instant success. It paved way for original video animations known as OVAs. DVDs of these OVAs are selling faster than a fish takes to water these days.
Anime is a literal translation of animation in Japanese. American animation and Japanese anime (or japanimation) differ mainly when it comes to their storylines. Unlike the American style, which is mostly carefree and intended for light headed humour, anime has always been more intense and serious with emotional and deep characters adding movie-like elements to the animation.
Akira is one anime feature film which though bombed at the Japanese box-office, helped anime to become immensely popular in the west and United States. It is actually one of the many definitive anime features films or television serials which were to come up in the 1990s.These days, anime features on DVD have become a house hold item with successes such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Pokemon and Dragon Ballz.

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