Alternate Disc-tractions: Saturday Morning Cartoons 1980s DVD review
by at August 7, 2010 12:54 am
Sections: Ads & Media, Features, Home Video, Movies, Opinions, Originals, Reviews, TV
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What do Mr. T, Chuck Norris, Ed Grimley and Monchichis have in common? Yep, they were all the feature creatures of cartoons produced in the 1980s.
Oh, it was not a proud decade. The 1980s really is the awkward teen era of animation, existing between successful prime-time cartoons, hand-drawn aniamtion and technological advancements and old-versus-new forms of marketing.
Anything with a hint of popularity became a Saturday morning cartoon, even if only for a short while, and only a few are remembered fondly. Warner Bros. has scooped up choice episodes of a few series and, instead of risking their conglomerate cash on a few failed series and a couple successes, offers an interesting sampling from the decade of puffy sleeves and, like, totally puffier hair.
Yay, it’s Thundarr, glowing magnetic sword and all!
It’s, Like, Totally ’80s
This two-disc DVD set includes an episode from eleven select shows of the era (including several produced by Hanna-Barbara and Ruby-Spears): Biskitts, Monchichis, Goldie Gold and Action Jack, Chuck Norris: Karate Commandos, The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley, The Flintstone Kids, Mister T, Galtar and the Golden Lance, Dragon’s Lair, Thundarr the Barbarian and Kwicky Koala Show.
The quality of the videos are pretty decent, considering the age of the film and that many of these have portions that were not from any type of master (don;t expect widescreen as the narrow screen was the standard TV format of the day). You’ll certainly be hard-pressed to ind transfers this decent on the bootleg market.
Not a fatality.
There’s only one featurette on this two-disc set and it is actually worth watching. It’s called “Lords of Light! Thundarr the Barbarian” includes interviews with some of the show’s creators and offers a peek at the look, style and grit the series was aiming for (and pretty much succeeded in getting).
The Good, The Bad and the Totally Worse
As for individual ‘toons, they run the spectrum from interesting and watchable to WTF-were-they-thinking-when-they-made-this unbearable.
On the former side is, of course, Thundarr and, for pure ’80s cheese factor, including the awesome name, Goldie Gold and Action Jack (“By air, by sea, by the seat of their pants!”). Galtar and the Golden Lance and Dragon’s Lair come close to this end mostly because Galtar is more of a forgotten attempt at being Thundarr-esque and Dragon’s Lair is obnoxiously faithful to the laserdisc-based arcade game (except a lot less sexy).
On the latter – the badder – side are the Chuck Norris and Mr. T shows, because of the bad live-action intros, lame attempts and stories with a message and laughable action. Likewise, The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley, which also incorporates live-action elements, fails to be appealing to kids of any sort and should have been left to SCTV as a possible skit-between-the-skits that would have been kicked off the show after a few failed receptions.
Monchichis at least have a catchy theme song, even if it makes you want to temproarily stuff your ears with anything that will fit.
For some, the others are remembered fondly mostly because they didn’t know any better when they were little kids grasping for anything with bright colors on a TV screen. Watching the ’80s furry creature and kiddie incarnation shows – Flintstone Kids, Biskitts, Monchichis and Kwicky Koala Show – now is like like listening to nails on a chalkboard while watching an eye surgery. The pacing, annoying voices and super short and uber lame stories don’t even make it worth your attention-deficit self to pay attention.
Gag or Grab?
This set does exactly what it should: It offers an eclectic sampling of animated Saturday morning shows that exemplify the 1980s.
There are celebrities turned into poorly animated versions of themselves, toy store phenoms turned into “live” and talking characters, an instant shark-jumping kiddie version of a classic series, forced moralities and one attempt to take an adult skit and turn it into a kid’s show. Sure, it may be missing a dozen or so shows but this at least exemplifies the spectrum of stuff available for the decade.
I pitied the fools who made this series. Geeze, Mister T, you had class all your own. You at least had to admire the attempt to create an all-American Olympic kids super squad. And his T-Mobile, er, I mean, Mister T Mobile?
If you have any inkling for nostalgia or appreciate animation shows from any era, you owe it to yourself to get this set even if just to experience a sampling of some of these hits and misses from the ’80s. This is not a set to get because you like these cartoons (chances are really, really good that you will not) but, instead, you should get this set because you like cartoons.
Photo Gallery [Saturday Morning Cartoons 1980s @ Gamertell] Product Page [Saturday Morning Cartoons 1980s @ WB Shop]
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