Its Not for you! - a look at rebooting your childhood.

There are a lot of 80s cartoons being rebooted of late.  Voltron started a while back.  We have new TMNT ( again) new Thundercats, and new She-Ra cartoons all premiering later this year or next year.  They all appear to be drastic departures from the versions so many of us grew up with, so its understandable that some of my fellow 80s kids have a hard time with this change.  I did too for a long time, but in this post I want to to talk about how I became OK with the reboots and my new philosophy on Life, the Universe, and Cartoons.

Much of my life has been inundated with thinking about the things I loved as a child.  The cartoons, movies, and toys of the 80s are all such a huge part of what I loved about growing up.  They were important to me.  I have fond memories of lounging around and watching the mid afternoon cartoons on my families woodgrain TV with very persnickety tuners.  These cartoons were how the kids of the day formed a lot of their social interactions.  It was the water cooler talk of Kindergarten and first graders.  

Of course, watching the cartoons led to buying the toys and playing with those.  The characters and the franchises were on the screens as well as down the toy aisle.  I saw some of these characters more than I did some of my family members.  You form connections unwittingly to these characters and franchises. 

And this is where fandom gets tricky - you see, we love these things.  We have supported these things for years - often when no one else did, we support them so much that we often feel like they belong to us, That we own them, and that the franchise owes us something for our support.  We compare everything to that original version that we saw as kids.  If it does't touch that nostalgia space in us -  it sucks and had destroyed our childhood ( one of the worst phrases in this whole debate of reboots - also something a reboot can't actually do). It’s broken and it doesn’t deserve to exist.  It is worth less than the value we have put on it in our minds.

But here is the thing-  we don’t own it -  and honestly what we think doesn’t matter.  Let’s be real for a minute .  The original Thundercats is excruciating to watch.  The remake in 2012 - was good - but kids (still the target audience) - didn’t like it.  So honestly what do we know anyway.  Its important to accept these shows aren’t made for us -  but - it’s still there and they represent a new way for us to interact with the franchise.  These new shows are for our kids.  It provides a new way for our kids to interact with the franchises we loved when we were kids.  It is a way for us to connect.  Our kids will love these -  this will be their Thundercats or Ninja Turtles, or She-Ra.

The same ultimately goes for movies -  for all of you who are disheartened about the direction of the new Star Wars trilogy. Luke Skywalker was your hero - he was mine -  but it doesn’t mean he should be redirected in a saintlike stature - because our kids don’t have the co. Action to him.  Like it or not these new movies aren’t for us.  Once again they are for our kids - and those who did not grow up with warn out VHS copies of the movies.

It took me a long time for me to get to this place in my life.  I was there, specifically with Doctor Who.  Weathering the wilderness years between the classic and new series was hard.  When I came out of the other side of it- it did feel like I was owed something.  and in a way that I was superior.  that I knew what was better for the series.  As it turns out I didn't, and the BBC still owns it.  Do I think they have made some odd choices - yes I do.  do I think the show will go on. . . Yes I do.  Do I still watch every single episode. . . Yes I do.  You see that show - isn't made for me any more.  it is made for a different audience, but it is still mine to support if I choose to.  So, Bring on Jodi Whittaker and here is to her being the best Doctor yet!

Now don't get me wrong, we are all entitled to our opinion.  you are perfectly fine to not like something.  You should be proud of the things you don't like and you should be able to vocalize why you don't like it.  That is what fandom is about.  In the end though - say your peace and let those who like it like it.  If you are able support it, because of what it was.remember most of those who are making these things now are like us.  They grew up with it and are putting that lense on it as they are creating it.

Ultimately it is time for us 80s kids to appreciate that we have grown up and that we are no longer the audience for these cartoons - That these new versions are being made for someone else.  You should watch these shows in support of what they once were and what they will be for the next generation.  We owe them that support.  Buy the toys for the kids in your life - and remember what it was like when your parents or loved ones bought them for you.  Remember that feeling and be happy that you can share it with your kids.  This will create the next generation of creators, animators, comic makers, and generally good people!

You can view images, trailers, or intros for some of the upcoming reboots below:

The new She-Ra upcoming from Netflix coming later this year!

(P.S. I'm secretly looking forward to all of these reboots - and the action figures that will come with them!)

The League: Social Media

The League has called and this time I am stumped.  This week the League has asked us to take a look at what the social media of a fictional character would look like.  It's a great opportunity for a character study, but who to study. . . this is going to be one of those stream of consciousness posts. . . I can already feel it.





I keep coming back to the world of Eternia, and the most interesting to me would be Skeletor mainly because I think he would just use it to flame other characters.  And it would look something like this:


Skeletor
He-man is a mussel bound Nincompoop.

   - He-man
            Skeletor, If you can't say nothing good. . . 

   - Prince Adam,
             He-man Hey I know that one, my mother used to tell me that . .           . Don't say anything at all ; )





Others on eternia would just say what they are doing

Orko - Trying a new spell.

Orko -  Ooops it blew up in Man-at-arm's face. . . again














Man-At- Arms  ORKO!







So in a way I don't think it would be much different than their dialogue is already.

What I would be curious to see is what the 80's cartoonsphear of social media would be like.  If all of the characters from different franchises communicated.

I would imagine that There would be a lot of fighting in that.  So you would have all of the villains trying to be the most villainous, and things like that.

I would imagine that there would also be a lot of franchise fighting.  the Transformers would be fighting with the go-bots, and MASK would be fighting with G.I Joe.  But there would also be groups.  you would have Leader Groups where all of the leaders could get together and talk about the burdens of being a leader.  I would love to see Leader - 1 and Optimus prime in some of these social media conversations.

There would also be barbarian groups with Thundar, and He-man and any number of other fantasy characters.  But I would also imagine there would be advocacy groups where the characters could share their public service announcements!      

What do you think, what fictional social media conversations would you love to see!

Check out some of these other league posts!
The Dork Hoard imagines a wookie page!
Cool and Collected imagines a king sized twitter account
Memories of tomorrow takes on 80's characters
The man who stares at toys takes on time traveling social media

Netflix Gold: Jem

I have never been very knowledgeable of the "girl cartoons" or "girl toy lines" of the 80s.  It just wasn't that important to me.  I liked She-ra but only because of the obvious connection with the obvious connection with He-Man and Masters.  It never felt like a girls cartoon to me.  It felt like another action cartoon with fantasy elements.

One cartoon I never got a chance to watch as a kid was "Jem"  I just never saw it, but I know I would have been turned off by it.  My friend Rachel is as big of a Jem fan as I am a He-man fan (well maybe. . . ) and she talks about it quite a bit.  This weekend my Wife (who did watch it a bit) and I started watching it on netflix.

What a stark difference to the shows I watched as a kid.  It was formatted less like the cartoons of the time and was more akin to a soap opera.  Right from the intro you get strands of drama, romance, and music!  Really that is what it is all about!  Oh. . . and magical ear rings.  It's all pretty outrageous!







With the few episodes I have watched so far, the show is filled with character interactions and strange moral dilemmas.  the strangest being Rio who is Jerica's boy friend who has this strange interaction with jem, and he feels guilty. . . except he doesn't know that Jerica and Jem is actually the same person.  It is some interesting interplay!

Jem is so different from the cartoons that I watched as a kid.  It doesn't feel like any of the filmation stuff, and it also doesn't feel like transformers or G I Joe.  Other than the fact that there are strong female characters in both shows, it doesn't even really compare to She-ra.  They portray the strong characteristics differently, with less emphasis on character drama in She-ra.

In terms of story though, Jem was telling a much more complex and adult story than anything else I have seen from the era.  The story continued from week to week making it feel like it was part of something bigger.  I could imagine young girls feeling like they were into the world pretty thoroughly because of this structure.

I can't really talk about Jem without talking about the music.  Jem is the Magical front woman of the band "Jem and the Holograms."  Every few minutes a song breaks out in music video style.  The songs aren't bad.  They are very much of the time.  Not nearly as "Rocking" as their outfits would have you believe though.

There is another band as well.  The Misfits, they are the bad guys in this story.  They thrive on jealousy of the holograms.  All of their motives are based on that.  They are pretty cardboard for the most part.  They do, however, have the coolest hair!  They just look evil too!

If you are interested in cartoons of the 80s, then you should check this show out for sure.  It is currently on netflix, so I recommend you watch it!             

My time with Turtles

This post is going to be a bit of a stream of consciousness 

With the announcement that Michael Bay has gotten the rights to destroy another one of my childhood favorites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I thought I would contemplate a bit about that particular franchise and how I got involved with it.

In the beginning I remember only hearing rumblings and seeing toy commercials.  The buzz in the first or second grade was that these four teenage mutants were the next big thing in the toy aisle.  I was still pretty happy with my Masters of the Universe stuff and all of the other toy lines that had dropped and intrigued me, but even I could feel a change in the wind.

One Friday night my Aunt and Uncle took me and my cousin to a movie, and before hand took us to a toy store at the mall that the Movie theater was at.  This is when I took the plunge.  They got me Leonardo.  and since that night he has been my favorite of the Turtles.



The turtles toys or the franchise in general has always took a back burner to Masters and some other lines, but it was always special eventually I did see the cartoon and it captures my imagination.  The Technodrome, Baxter Stockman and Krang were just so different to my young mind that I loved it and soaked it all in.  Like every other preteen boy I couldn't get enough.

My affiliation with the turtles is very linear, in that I remember events along the way, the next event was going to Pizza Hut and playing the Arcade game.  It was amazing!  I had never experienced anything quite like it.  It was like playing the cartoon!  It was so much better than the ill-conceived Nintendo game.

The Movie was the next big event I remember.  Before the internet you heard about movies by going to other movies and watching trailers.  I think it was the little Mermaid that my mom took me and my cousins to.  The trailer for the Ninja Turtles movie was on at the beginning.  I glassed over.  I was useless for the rest of the movie.  I officially could not wait for the movie.

I saw that movie a couple of times in the theater.  It was a fun movie.  A little later there was the "Coming out of their shell" tour that came out from Pizza hut.  I didn't see the show, but I did manage to get a hold of the Cassette, It was horrifically bad, but I thought it was awesome.

The other movies came and left and the Cartoon began to drag on and on, and eventually even I lost the enthusiasm. But it was a fun time while it lasted.  The Ninja Turtles will always be special to me  and very real to me for their time!

Do you have memories of The turtles!  share them!           

Bumblebee and Me

A few months ago I was making my rounds on some of the blogs I follow and on battlegrip I found reference to this book "Bumblebee and Me" by Dan Gilvenzan.  Recently I picked it up and have had the chance to read it.  If you are a kid from the 80s Dan Gilvezan is probably familiar to you if not by name, then by voice.  He was the voice of Peter Parker and Spiderman in "Spiderman and his Amazing friends," and more notably the voice of bumblebee from Transformers!

The book is pretty short but was a very good read.  Dan runs you through the process of voice acting and relays some great antidotes about his fellow actors.  He really digs deep and has many fond memories about the show as well as the character he played.  One story that he tells is about how he went into a Toys R us and bought a dozen bumblebee figures because he felt a sort of kinship with the character. 

He talks about working with people like the Scatman, and Frank Welker, and Voice Director Wally Burr.  The book really lets you, the reader, in on the process of voice acting.

As I mentioned the book is pretty short with the nutritive portion weighing in at a whopping 52 pages.  Dan is to the point and tells the story he wants to tell.  There are spelling errors and some of it feels awkward to read, and it feels like it could have used a bit more editing.

All that said the book still tells a story, and Dan really puts his antidotes out there for fans to have.  It feels like it is a collection of the stories he tells at cons put in a narrative form.  I like that, I may not ever get to see him at a con but I can still get his side of the story with this book.

You can find the book at Amazon for under $7.00, and it also available as a kindle edition for 2.99.  If you are a fan of 80s cartoons, voice acting or transformers I would highly recommend that you pick this book up!             

Saturday Morning Memories

Saturday mornings used to be a time that was a weekly holiday for kids around the united states.  Saturday mornings were made for kids to rouse out of bed in their footy pajamas, find a bowl of cereal and most importantly watch cartoons.  I have very fond memories of getting up early, winding my way into the living room turning the over-sized knobs on the TV, and settling into my dads arm chair.

There were all kinds of cartoons that would permeate the network.  The Snorks, Pac-man, Mr. T, and some of my favorites Spiderman and his amazing friends and The Super Powers Team:  The Galactic Guardians  (the latest iteration of the super friends.)  Within these shows were the other main attraction, The Commercials.





The toy commercials of the era was the best way to inform the kids of the time about what they would find on the toy shelves.  They fun and colorful and action packed.  They usually told a story with the figures, and showed them being played with by kids.

All of these things made for a fun beginning to another Saturday and was a great way to kick off the weekend.  As I breeze through the TV channels now on Saturdays I am confused by the lack of the good creative programming that I had the opportunity to watch when I was growing up.  It disappoints me that this up and coming generation will not be able to share the meaning of what Saturday morning is truly about.       

Rewatching Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future

A few weeks ago I picked up the Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future DVD box set.  Mainly for a little nostalgia, but also to fill some holes in my 80s cartoons and children show collection.  I remember Captain power being a very hyped so so live action and CG affair that was essentially another 30 minute long toy commercial.  I went in to watching it with the idea that it was going to be a little hokie.  It was, BUT it worked, and the elements that were good were really good.




When you begin watching this your eyes make their way to the top gun haircuts and the overuse of rock quarries, but as you get into it you see a very ambitious show with good writing and really some state of the art special effects.  A lot of the effects were used for the first time in this show.  CG characters shared the screen with live actions characters.  This was one of the first TV shows to do this!  So in a way it was cutting edge.  

There was another cutting edge technology that made this show stand out.  As I said earlier this was meant to be a product to help promote a toy line of the same name.  The toys were about the same size of the GI Joes of the time with similar articulation.  Nothing real speacial in with he figures, but some of the other items WERE special.  These toys interacted with the TV show.  Within the program there are characters and vehicles with large computer generated lights on them.  these colorful lights would bounce a signal back to the toy and the child could be in the firefights along with the heroes, and the toy would keep score.  This was the big marketing gemic of the show.  Children would get the toy and then watch the show to play!  Genius really.







The show had some well known names attached to it as well.  Garry Goddard had worked with Mattel previously as the director of the Masters of the universe movie.  Actually there was a similar feel between the two shows.  Also J. Michael Straczynski wrote for the program.  He was already a well known name in children shows, and was establishing himself as a great chi-fi author as well.

As I watched the show I took notice of the costumes.  I remember as a child being pulled in by the (literally) shiny costumes that the heroes wore, and the bionic costumes of the bad guys.  Seeing them again I have a greater appreciation for these costumes.  They are well done and really are the heart of the show.  If you can get past the Power Rangers esque way the costumes appear for the heroes you’ll really enjoy them.

The show was gritty and was strangely character driven.  Digging into the pasts of many of the heroes.  While doing this they introduced people from their past, weaving an intricate story of the what happened to lead up to this point.  A very good portrait is painted as to what happened in the “Metal Wars.”  The characters we meet are all very real.

I recommend you taking a look at this cult show regardless if you are an 80s media fan or a sci-fi fan it is worth the look.

80's Nostalgia: The Wheeled Warriors

This week I am am going to take a look at a little known toyline form the 80s and some of it's commercials. The Wheeled Warriors was a toy line of vehicles and small (about 2 inches) figures. The vehicles could share removable parts including wheels and weapons.






(The song on this cracks me up, really playing into the good guy bad guy thing. "You can make the Good guys better" and "You can make the bad guys badder")

As a Kid I never had any of these toys, but of course as an adult I have aquired some. This is another review I hope to do soon.

There was also a Cartoon series that these toys were based on. It was produced by DIC, and Animated by Sunbow. I remember watching this quite a bit a a kid. It was a fun show. Unfortunately it is one that suffers from "Not being as good as I remember it" I recently watched it and it was just kind of blah. Of course I find that a lot of shows suffer from this.

The Avengers, Earths Mightiest Heroe's - Thoughts-

For me, cartoons based on Marvel properties have never been as good as cartoons based on DC properties. They always lack something. It always feels like they are making a cartoon to make a cartoon, and not necessarily tell a good story.

Don’t get me wrong they’re not all bad, so to speak, just lacking. That is until I watched the New Adventures cartoon. I think they finally got it right. Marvel has finally gotten their “Super friends” or to compare it to something more modern, Justice League. This series is reaching back to the beginnings of the Avengers comics, and though they are modernizing, they are staying true to source material. I appreciate that.

I am only about 6 episodes in, but they are spending their time telling character driven stories and building to something much larger. Each of the characters have gotten an episode to showcases them to get the viewer interested. Then the characters begin working together without even knowing it.

The traditional Avengers characters aren’t the only characters of importance, you also have Nick Fury and his Shield Agents, the Asgardian pantheon, and a whole host of super villains. The world the writers are constructing is complex and far reaching. The threats come from around the world, other planets, other dimensions and even from the future.

Of course there are hints at the rest of the Marvel Universe existing right there in the first six episodes. There is a News Paper about a vigilante and a skull as a photo alluding to The Punisher, and Our friend Logan who will one day become Wolverine Fights along side Captain America back in WWII. I prefer a wide far reaching universes. Things seem to pop better when I can feel that there is a world living outside of the story I am seeing.

Another thing that really works for me is the animation. So many of the cartoons I am seeing these days has a distinct Japanese style, which is OK, I am not anti anime, I just don ‘t want that to be the only diet of animation that I get. the styling of this show is like watching a comic book with, comic book art, and “sound” effects. It is truly superb.

I have to say the Avengers, was a pleasant surprise. When I began watching I didn’t know what to expect. I have seen so many dumbed down super hero cartoons, I really wasn’t expecting much. This blew me away the animation is highly superior and the story telling is excellent. If you are a cartoon or comic book fan, you should check this out. If you have kids who like cartoons, let them see this. It truly is fantastic!