Favorite 80's Cartoon?

Post by **sleepynjaded** » March 8th, 2007, 6:03 pm

What’s your favorite 80’s cartoon series? Mine has always been Captain N. I have been waiting for the DVD for so long, thankfully they just started selling it.

Post by **eddievalient** » March 8th, 2007, 9:00 pm

I was always partial to Transformers (my favorite characters being Bumblebee and Starscream). I'm cautiously optimistic about the upcoming movie. I hope it will be cool, but I'm fully aware that it could be a disaster if they can't pull in an average non-fan audience. Before the movie was announced, I actually wrote a brief outline for a live action Transformers trilogy that would have been a true trilogy (parts one and two ending on cliffhangers). At the time I thought noone wouldthink of doing TF so I might actually be able to direct it myself. Silly me.

Post by **Ben** » March 9th, 2007, 6:02 am

Wuzzles, Gummi Bears, Duck Tales.

Post by **ShyViolet** » March 9th, 2007, 7:27 am

Yes, DuckTales is definetely in my tops...that and The Real Ghostbusters are my top 2 80's toons I think. (They were also always on in the same hour block for a long time)

After that, Smurfs, Rainbow Brite, Rescue Rangers, and The Littles. (LOVED the Littles

) I also liked Alvin and the Chipmunks. (the 80's and 90's versions

Oh, and Thundercats, of course.

(I never watched My Little Pony--wasn't really into those "girly cartoons" with the exception of Rainbow Brite, probably in my top 3. I also know I watced Jem and liked it, but remember VERY little about the show.)

(I have also this really weird premonition--or maybe not that weird-- that if Transformers makes $, as well as Turtles, Bruckheimer/Bay's next project will be Thundercats!

**************************************************

If you're not that familiar with the 80s, you have to understand that a BIG thing back then was girl cartoons/boy cartoons. There weren't nearly as many "gender nuetral" cartoons like nowadays. That all started in the 90's. Of course, there was crossover, some girls liked boy cartoons and vice versa, but not like nowadays.

Girl cartoons

Jem
My Little Pony
Rainbow Brite
Care Bears (sort of a gray area)
Glo-Worms (also a gray area

)

Boy cartoons

GI Joe
Transformers
Teenage mutant ninja turtles
Thundercats
The Real Ghostbusters

It all tied in to the toy factor--in the 80's it was also all about boys' toys/girls' toys--and ALLLLL of these toons had popular toys. That's why gender was so important.

Notice that probably THE most popular 80's cartoon--the one that gets all those "children of the 80s" pop culture references in film/TV--is a gender-nuetral show, The Smurfs.

(However, Smurfs WAS heavily merchandised.)

Post by **Ben** » March 9th, 2007, 10:05 am

Smurfs was heavily merchandised as a comic and characters way before the TV show.

And they were big enough to star in a feature long before Hanna-Barbera got their hands on them.

Post by **Whippet Angel** » March 9th, 2007, 8:34 pm

How 'bout the old Nick Jr toons? You know, the good ones, before the mid 90's when Nick jr began that whole "We must entertain AND educate young children!!" phase

Post by **ShyViolet** » March 10th, 2007, 11:21 am

That didn't start till the 90s I don't think.

Back in the 80s not too many people had cable (I know, shocking isn't it???

) and Nickelodian (didn't call it Nick till later

) only showed stuff like You Can't Do That on Television, Double Dare, Benji, etc...

Also, are you thinking of stuff like Littl' Bits, Maya the Bee, etc...?

I did comment on Littl' Bits here:

http://www.animated-news.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2179

Post by **Whippet Angel** » March 11th, 2007, 11:59 pm

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was the late 80's/early 90's, cause I was still in elementary school then

Yes, I remember Littl' Bits! Such a cute show ^___^

The others I remember were Maya, Noozles, The Little Koala, David the Gnome, The Little Prince, Eureeka's Castle (not animated, but an awesome show), Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics (anime versions of classic fairytales), The Mysterious Cities of Gold, and possibly others.........

Many of these ran through the mid to late 80's. Nickelodeon is pretty old...... It's actually been around since the late 70's!

Post by **ShyViolet** » March 12th, 2007, 12:10 am

Oh yeah, those cartoons you mentioned have been around a while....early 80s I think.

That's when they came to Israel, and that's when I saw them. (well, Maya and Littl' Bits are the ones I remember--the others were there as well, just don't remember them.

)

Yes, I remember Littl' Bits! Such a cute show ^___^

Yeah, I sure liked it. Like I said before it was very, very, very popular in Israel. It had a different name and all, but basically the same show.

I'd love it if it came to DVD.....however, this may sound dumb but I would rather have it in Hebrew!

That's the version I saw, after all.

Post by **Daniel** » March 12th, 2007, 1:08 am

Does the Pink Panther count? I think it came out in the 80's.

Post by **Ben** » March 12th, 2007, 8:27 am

Which Pink Panther Dan?

The original cartoon shorts came out from 1964 onwards. They were packaged in The Pink Panther Show in the 1970s and then repackaged with (I think) some new material in the 80s and 90s before that really bad Matt Frewer-voiced series really killed him off.

Oops...I hope that's not what you're thinking of...

Post by **Daniel** » March 12th, 2007, 7:22 pm

No, but that sounds interesting....

It was my mistake, though. I googled some website and it showed all these random 80's cartoons, but it doesn't specify whether or not they were new.

So yeah, ignore.

Post by **ShyViolet** » March 12th, 2007, 9:23 pm

The Pink Panther shorts (had to be the old ones, because he NEVER talked) were popular in Israel too!

I think they were the classic ones.

Post by **YCougar** » March 13th, 2007, 1:59 pm

I wonder...

I actually have no memories of those so-called "girls'" cartoons. :O I had a Glo-Worm toy that lit up when you squeezed it, but I never knew it was actually from something. And I only recently discovered that Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake were not just picture book series...

I remember watching Ninja Turtles, Ghostbusters, and quite a lot of those Nickelodeon shows (David the Gnome, Eureka's Castle, etc.) I also have vague, vague memories of some PBS show called "Pinwheel" or something. Yes, PBS was a big one... back when Sesame Street was still good (instead of segments that they repeat every single day) and with awesome cruddy animations teaching me about numbers

I remember Transformers as toy commercials primarily. And Power Rangers, while not a cartoon... even as a young 'un I thought they were dumb.

Post by **Whippet Angel** » March 13th, 2007, 8:07 pm

Hmm...... I think Pinwheel also ran on Nickelodeon for a while (in the very beginning).

Actually, "Pinwheel" was the original name for the cable channel, so perhaps the network was originally named after one of it's very first shows!