Animated Theatre films based on shows!

[Ben]

Still have my Great Space Race VHS!

(Tubes are back now…weird!)

[Randall]

Hmmm. I don't recall Heathcliff. Bravestarr, of course, was the show's pilot. Space Chase edited together episodes from the Filmation show. I regretted not getting the VHS tape when I saw it, but I do have a bootleg DVD now.

[gaastra]

Yup mighty mouse was filmations great space race segments edited into a film and released in theatres to cash in on empire strikes back.

Bravestarr the movie was renamed bravestarr the legend overseas and yes, your right was the origin story of the show. It bombed in american theatres however adding to the death of filmation. Heathcliff the movie was clubhouse pictures again. Released in 1986. It was more a clip movie. They had planned a full new film but mel blanc got sick and could only record about 10min of new lines so--clip film! Some parents were not happy they took their kids to see it only to find out it was episodes of the show at the time but due to it costing nothing to make ironic still made a profit! At some drive ins it was paired with one of the karate kid films!

[gaastra]

Ok one more video--here is an tv spot for clubhouse pictures. In the 70s and 80s studios would release tv ads promoting multiple releases to theatres. One had back to the beach and masters of the universe in the same ad. Clubhouse just made an ad to promote all of that years releases at once and play the ad the full year!

They don't do that much today!

[gaastra]

Why not--a few more for today--

[EricJ]

Babar was not, as expected, the pilot story of Babar and the nice old lady, but just a generic fight-the-villain story before the series had even hit the US.

And if we're stretching definitions, since the two had the same producers and concept, it could be argued that 1968's Yellow Submarine was producer Al Brodax's bigscreen mutation of his 1965 King Features "The Beatles" TV cartoon:
(Which was having trouble in its third season, as the Hard Day's Night image of the characters was getting harder to adapt for the more psychedelic songs from the Revolver and Sgt. Pepper era...)

And if I could find an isolated clip of Submarine's last-minute "Hey Bulldog" scene, I could clinch the argument with its uncanny resemblance to one of the TV-cartoon song segments.

[gaastra]

Well, it's not the last time babar hit theatres in america!

[gaastra]

Three more films--

[gaastra]

Overseas poster is better than the american one!

[gaastra]

Love how they show the mystery creatures from the film right on the poster! So much for that mystery!

[gaastra]

[Ben]

Yeah, I was waiting for someone to come up with T&J, which obviously wasn’t based on a TV series (though, yes, smartypanties everywhere, you could point to the 70s Filmation show, or the fact that the cartoons, by that point, had basically become TV filler, or that it was being made by a TV animation outfit and that, again by that point, Hanna-Barbera *was* basically TV animation those days), but the intention was to take the theatrical shorts and turn them into a movie. Of course, that failed abysmally!

And should we maybe try and stick to pre-90s stuff? As digital made things easier to just repurpose, we got a bunch of animated "movies" from then onwards that were basically just extended or flashier TV episodes. The older things were at least trying to be "a movie" and marked themselves out differentially. In a funny way, that point did come around T&JTM, after which Aladdin and The Lion King took things in a whole new direction…!

[gaastra]

And should we maybe try and stick to pre-90s stuff?

Then you miss a bunch of films as 90s and 00s had a bunch of films based on shows out. Can't skip those two. plus some later ones have great posters. Some great newer films also.

Yeah, I was waiting for someone to come up with T&J, which obviously wasn’t based on a TV series (though, yes, smartypanties everywhere, you could point to the 70s Filmation show, or the fact that the cartoons,

70s hanna barbera tv show with them as friends as well followed after by tom and jerry kids. I did say golden age cartoon based films count. Same with the bugs films. Did you know there were two more tom and jerry films not counting live action as two dtv films got limited theatre releases in america!

These two in fact--




Why those were picked out of all those dtv films i don't know. The race one I felt was pretty mean spirited also killing off the other racers and even have tom kill some of them off! Pretty dark film!

[EricJ]

Warner and Universal (with their Mattel/Barbie DTVs) in the 00s-10s had to come to terms with their own notion that physical discs were "dead", and no longer worth selling in Target-Mart wide retail--
Which means if they continued to make DTV videos to sell quickly to gullible parents, there was no way to promote them anymore, and all those sweet Digital Pre-orders would exist in a vacuum.

Fortunately, we now have Fathom, to qualify for a quick cut-and-run theatrical airing, and get the revenue without staying around or worrying about long-term box office.

[Dacey]

Source? Evidence? Anything?

Who on earth was saying that discs were “dead” before 2010?