MIGHTY MAX’ Episode 1.1 “A Bellwether in One’s Cap” (7 out of 10) Based on the Might Max Toy line made by Bluebird toys; developed for television by Mark Zaslove and Rob Hudnut; starring Rob Paulsen, Tony Jay, Richard Moll, and Tim Curry; originally aired September 12, 1993

After today’s viewing I’m not exactly sure how this wasn’t my favorite cartoon at the time of its airing. I was the right age for it, and the developed plot and mythology makes it surprising that the show was created as a means to sell toys, toys that were an off chute of Polly Pocket no less.

The pilot episode does a pretty good job of wrapping up all the whats and whos and whys into 20 minutes. We are introduced first to Skullmaster destroyer of Lemuria and Atlantis. Lemuria for those who don’t know was a hypothetical lost continent that previously was used to explain perceived discrepancies in biogeography, the discovery and understanding of plate tectonics has rendered the theory unnecessary. Atlantis is of course, Atlantis.

For his crimes, Skullmaster was imprisoned underground where he made a home at Skull Mountain and took control of the various hellish monsters there. You can think of Skullmaster as Sauron and Skull Mountain as Mt. Doom.

 Almost immediately upon meeting Max it’s clear that he’s brighter than the average kid. He arrives home from school, the house is empty, and Mom is working late. A package is delivered and addressed to Max. Inside is a small statue of an anthropomorphic bird. Egyptian hieroglyphs on the statue bear a prophecy, “You have been chosen to be the cap-bearer. Go to the mini-mart and wait for a sign Mighty Max.”

The term ‘Mighty’ is used as a title of courtesy, like Mr. or Mrs. turning it’s repeated use from something of an annoyance to something kind of cool. Max drops the statue astonished, inside is a hat marked with a large M. He puts it on because, of course you do.

Max leaves for the mini-mart and we turn back to Skullmaster watching the events unfold from underground. He sends a lava monster with the order to bring him Max’s heart so he can eat it raw.

When Max arrives at the mini-mart, the lave monster is already there and generally tearing things up, Max runs. You might say that makes Max a coward but bear in mind, the monster was made of lava. I’m not ashamed to say I’d probably run too. While running Max accidentally activates the hat and opens a portal to Mongolia where he meets Virgil, the bird from the statue and Norman, an immortal Viking warrior (whose adventures through time were the basis for Thor, Hercules, Lancelot, and others) and sworn guardian of the chosen one.

The three of them return to Max’s bedroom where Virgil insists a basement is present despite Max never having seen one. Norman punches out a part of the wall and reveals a door leading to a secret basement. There they find the portal to Skull Mountain. The lava monster arrives and takes Virgil through a portal to Skull Mountain forcing Max and Norman to pursue.

Thus begins Max’s teleporting adventures around the world protecting humanity from Skullmaster.

Upon arriving Norman is subdued by a group of monsters almost immediately leaving Max alone when Skullmaster arrives. Max eludes his grasp and runs in search of Virgil and Norman. Once reunited they attempt to escape but the only portal out of here is thirty feet out over a waterfall made of lava. They are confronted by Skullmaster again who tells them there is no escape. He also states his intention to rip the limbs from their bodies and slowly suck the barrow from their bones.

This was the moment I realized I love this cartoon. A kid with a hat that opens portals, a talking hyper-intelligent bird, and an immortal Viking warrior battle in what is essentially hell to protect humanity from destruction and a villain who is legitimately scary; I mean who says stuff like that?

Max finds a tunneling machine and drives it into the river of lava with Virgil and Norman in tow. Skullmaster grabs onto the side. Our three heroes climb to the top and leap as the machine falls over the lavafall and through the portal to safety or- Australia so, relative safety.

Skullmaster falls into the fading abyss while screaming “You will die!” You know he’s not dead, you know that right? Because I’m going to go out on a limb here and say he’s not dead. He’s Skullmaster for Norman’s sake.

Remember those “Problem Child” movies from the early nineties? The ones starring John Ritter and Gilbert Gottfried. For those of you unaware, they were about a kid who got adopted by John Ritter and then instead of being grateful or having his hard heart softened by the generous love of strangers, he’s just a snot nosed bastard all the time.

And I don’t call the little son of a bitch that because he’s an orphan, though he is, but because he’s just a shitty human being all the time.

I liked these movies as a kid, I watched them on VHS I don’t know how many times. But now, just looking at his smug little face makes my blood boil.

That bow-tie isn’t even connected to anything, it’s held on by lies! Luckily for my health and probably yours, I couldn’t find an episode of the show anywhere online. So instead we’re watching…

“DENVER, THE LAST DINOSAUR” Episode 1.5 – Denver Makes the Grade (4 out of 10) – Created by Peter Keefe; Starring Pat Fraley as Denver; Originally aired September 16, 1988.

This is one of those shows I saw as a very young kid, barely recording memories. An image of Denver was burned into my memory and stuck there for 20 years before I stumbled across this cartoon again and had that “Holy shit, that’s the thing” moment.

Denver is a Corythosaurus, a species noted for a duck-bill and a sweet head crest that gives them that permanent Mohawk on a Neanderthal look, they died out about 75 million years ago. He’s been hanging out dormant in his egg apparently just waiting to be let out and sucking on the everlasting gobstopper that must be in his egg. Most dinosaurs who sit in their eggs that long just die and turn into rocks. Denver, he just rocks, extreme!

He is let out of his egg by a group of California teenagers and they teach him about modern life, important stuff like what the cool kids wear and how to skateboard and play guitar. They also protect him from adults who would exploit him for their own gain. Bonus trade off, they get a god damned dinosaur for a best friend and learn valuable life lessons every week. Everybody wins.

First point of contention, the theme song is simply the worst. In fact all of the music in this show is irritating, just try and tune it out, there’s a dinosaur on the screen.

It’s science fair time and the gang wants to win. Only trouble is another group of “bad kids” who also want to win so that they can use the ribbons to pick up girls at the mall. Because in this alternate universe not only does a dinosaur exist but chicks dig science fair ribbons. Suspension of disbelief shattered.

The gang racks their brains to come up with something scientifically stupendous to present. What could you possibly do your project on? Oh I know, how about the freaking dinosaur in the pool with you!

The most redeeming part of the show is when the kids gaze into Denver’s apparently magical time travelling egg shell and are transported back to the Cretaceous Period. This segment serves to actually teach viewers about dinosaurs but is way, WAY too short. Plus, I’m not exactly sure how one would site “magic time travelling egg shell” in an academic paper. The only other problem is that the model they build of Denver to present is destroyed and the kids decide to enter Denver as their project instead, posing as the model, because putting your friends at risk in order to show up some school jerks is totally cool.

Their consciences get the better of them and some of the boys want to confess. The other’s dissent because that would mean revealing Denver’s existence to the world. So obviously you don’t tell right!? Right?! These kids are idiots, and terrible friends.

In the end the kids learn a very valuable lesson about cheating, but learn nothing about not selling out your friends. It just goes to show that you can’t trust your four year old self to like things that aren’t terrible. 

Salt Lake Comic Con 2014 had over 200 special guests; it was truly an event to remember. Among them was Tom Cook, a veteran animator with over 35 years of experience working for well known names in cartooning like Funimation and Hanna-Barbera, among others. On Friday, September 5, Cook was kind enough to give us an hour of his time to talk about his experience in animation and what it takes to make the cartoons we all know and love.

His story isn’t at all what you’d expect; most artists go through a lifetime of practice and training with an eye toward their goal, constantly pushing to get an opportunity to show the world what they’re made of. Cook’s story begins on a bus. I don’t mean to misrepresent the circumstances – Cook had some experience drawing as a hobby but becoming an animator or professional artist wasn’t really on his agenda. Just a few short weeks before his career began in earnest, he was still a bus driver in Los Angeles. He decided to take a comicbook art class, more or less as something to do. That class was taught by Don Rico. Rico was an early pioneer in the comicbook medium, working for companies like Marvel (you may have heard of them).

During the course of the class, Cook brought in a portfolio of work for Rico to look over. At this point, Cook was recommended for a three-week animation class taught by Hanna-Barbera, where Rico was then employed. The class consisted of 40 individuals and taught the basics of animation and, at the end of three weeks, four people – including Tom Cook – were selected for an assistant animator position.

Cook, in a pragmatic fashion, didn’t want to risk a good job as an L.A. bus driver on an animation pipe dream and felt a bit like he wasn’t qualified for the job, so he figured out a way to take a leave of absence from driving so that he would have a safety net in the event that this new opportunity didn’t pan out. He never had to go back.

In early conversations, Cook was told that everyone they hired could draw Fred Flintstone, but they were looking for talent to work on other things. Ironically, his first drawings were of that very character. He started by drawing “in-betweens” – essentially, movement frames that allow for a smoother transition of a character from one position to another. This consists of taking two drawings of a character in different locations or points of motion and literally drawing what they would be doing directly between those two positions.

Thus began the career of a man who would work on some of the most well-known titles of that generation. “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids,” “Heathcliff,” “Blackstar,” “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe,” “The Jetsons,” The Flintstones,” “Scooby Doo,” “Thundarr the Barbarian,” “The Smurfs,” “Godzilla” and “Extreme Ghostbusters” are just a sampling of the works he literally had his hands in.

Cook went on to talk about what he considers to be the “Golden Age of Cartooning” and the parts of its “soul” that were lost with the rise of computer animation. He was quick to point out that he doesn’t think that all computer animation is bad, noting “Toy Story” and most things Pixar as an example of computer animation done right. However, he is of the opinion that computers aren’t able to capture all of the freedom that traditional animation has to offer. Cook provided an example of an animator working on a character who was in the act of taking flight. During a single frame, the animator turned the character into the space shuttle. He said you wouldn’t have been able to see the change when viewing the cartoon, but it did allow the character to appear more streamlined and aerodynamic on screen, as well as being a fun inside joke for those working on the production.

I’m reminded of similar “Easter eggs” in Disney productions. If you go frame-by-frame during a scene of “Aladdin” toward the end of the movie when Jafar’s spells are wearing off and Rajah is returning to normal size, you’ll see that for one frame the tiger’s head is in fact Mickey Mouse colored with tiger stripes. Such things are lost when working with a computer model which doesn’t allow for quite as much manipulation.

When asked about his favorite cartoon he ever worked on, Cook was quick to offer “Thundarr the Barbarian” as the reigning champion. He cites the creative work by Jack Kirby, as well as the futuristic elements, joking that it took place in the far-off year of 1994. He also mentioned that if there was any cartoon he would have wished to work on it would have been “Pinky and the Brain.”

When asked if he thought his story could be duplicated in modern day, allowing for a proverbial rags-to-riches animation experience, he said flatly, “No.” He explained that the environment has changed, animation isn’t what it used to be, it takes more experience and knowledge of the existing tools and there is more competition. Cook blamed overseas production for the death of American animation, coupled with the greed of unions. The demand for rising pay of the animators, along with the ability for overseas markets to do the job for roughly half the cost, resulted in the elimination of home-grown cartoons. Some of that has come back, said Cook, but the landscape has never quite been the same.

Tom Cook is now retired but is a wealth of knowledge on the cartoons that accompanied many of us through childhood. I’d invite you to pick his brain next time he’s in town.

Originally published on the official Salt Lake Comic Con blog. 

This week I wanted to do something a little different from the normal formula. In observance of Halloween, just six days away, something horror related seemed apropos. Originally I had selected “Little Shop” an early nineties adaptation of the musical “Little Shop of Horrors” starring Rick Moranis and Steve Martin. But then I wondered if I could find anything scarier. The problem with this endeavor is that the Venn diagram of Saturday morning programming and nightmare fuel doesn’t have a whole lot of crossover, except for “Inhumanoids” maybe.

The simple explanation, I thought, is that animation is wholesome on the whole, made for kids and trusted for its family friendliness right? Surely there are no disturbing animations outside of the hallowed halls of that anime stuff your mom never let you watch. In that assumption it seems I was wrong, horribly, terribly wrong.

Turns out there are plenty of animated stories that delve into the somewhat creepy or downright disturbing edges of the Venn diagram. So today I got up while it was still dark and watched a handful of animated horror shorts, three of which I’m sharing with you.

I’ll give them to you in order from “Whoa, that was kind of weird” all the way to “Jesus Christ, why would you make this.” You’re welcome. First up is-

“ALMA”  Written and directed by Rodrigo Blaas; Run time: 5:29. Released June 24, 2009

This short film has no dialogue and relies on the implications of certain events to lead you along the story. We follow a little girl named Alma, who is identified when she writes her name on a chalkboard at the beginning of the story. Alma walks along a snowy street when she becomes fascinated with a doll in a toy store window. The animation is solid, reminiscent of Pixar, probably because Rodrigo Blaas was an animator on a couple of flicks you may have heard of (“Finding Nemo,” “The Incredible,” “WALL-E” to name a few). I’d give it a rating of 5 on the scare scale. It’s a creepy concept with alarming implications, but probably still okay for kids. The same can’t be said of-

“MEMORIA”  Directed by Elísabet Ýr Atladóttir; Run time 6:28; Released September 27, 2013

This is the only one of the three shorts that has any dialogue, though it’s pretty minimal. We open on a house with an obviously storied past. A homeless man encounters the house and begins exploring but he finds that each door he opens shows him more than he expected. This one gets a 6 on the scare scale, it feels like a horror movie condensed into six minutes. Probably not appropriate for younglings for murder/suicide reasons, but hey I’m just a random blogger, not a child services agent. Raise your kids how you like.On the topic of raising little hellions. Have you ever asked the question “What do I have to do to get my kid to just never sleep again?” Ya, me either but if you hate peace and quiet and your child’s mental well being, show them-

“Escape from Hellview”  Written and directed by Hadas Brandes; Run time 6:46; Released May 17, 2011

Or, if you’re not a monster, send your kid someplace happy and watch this by yourself, then question your decisions.

This short is based on and named after a song by CKY. I remember almost nothing about CKY other than that it had some connection to skateboarding in my teenage years and that they’re music rubbed me the wrong way. Apparently they write songs about perfectly distilled children’s nightmares because that’s basically what this flick is. It’s ever changing and incoherent yet somehow connected, and it moves from innocently scary to full blown pile of corpses torture terror in a few minutes. I’m giving it an 8 on the scary scale, the animation style lends to its creep factor, and the lack of dialogue forces you to rely completely on the little boys expressions for an emotional connect. Sadly the only emotions you see on his face are “Holy sh*t!” and “WHHYYYY!!!”

In retrospect, I’m sorry for putting you all through this. Maybe next week I’ll do “Little Shop” after all, feels really tame now. 

With a character that’s been around for 75 years in mainstream media, Batman has seen more iterations than most. One of the best and longest-lasting versions was made by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, “Batman: The Animated Series.” It launched in 1992, following on the heels of “Batman Returns.” That movie seems to have darkened the tone of the cartoon, making it more a psychological exploration of Batman than previously seen. That’s a depth that’s always been in the comic books, but is hard to capture with a limited amount of screen time. 

They plumbed those depths even further with Batman’s rogues, making previously laughable villains like Mr. Freeze into tragic figures. Villains and allies who hadn’t been seen in animation before, but were essential to giving Batman the depth he needed to sustain years of a cartoon series. Poison Ivy, Clayface, Ra’s Al Ghul, Two-Face, Bane, Nightwing and a new Robin. None had been included in a cartoon before “Batman: The Animated Series.” They gave Alfred Pennyworth life and personality, and finally got the relationship between Commissioner Gordon and Batman right. Paul Dini even created a few new characters, most notably Harley Quinn. She started out being a sidekick for the Joker, but ended up with a life of her own that’s made her a favorite in the comic books and video games.  

Much of the credit for the success and life of these characters comes thanks to Andrea Romano, who cast the voice actors for the series. Kevin Conroy as Batman became my Batman. For all that I liked about Christian Bale’s Batman, ever y time he talked I winced. Not just because I felt sympathy for his larynx, but because it wasn’t Kevin Conroy. He brought a billionaire playboy’s lightness to Bruce Wayne, and a badassitude to Batman that I hadn’t seen before. More surprising was a Joker voiced by Mark Hamill, who became my new standard to measure Jokers by. Looking at the extensive voice cast, from Bob Hastings’ Commissioner Gordon to Richard Moll’s Two-Face and Diane Pershing’s Poison Ivy, they’ve all become the voices of the characters for me. If I’m reading a comic book that has Penguin in it, it’s Paul Williams I hear. Not the “Waugh-waugh!” of Burgess Meredith. Not the growl of Danny Devito. Paul Williams. 

The writers and producers of “Batman: The Animated Series” had character arcs not just for Batman, but for the other heroes and villains on the show. They introduced Harvey Dent as the district attorney and a friend of Bruce Wayne. We saw a dark side to his character well before he was ever scarred with acid, becoming Two-Face. We see the pain that Bruce Wayne has at losing his friend, along with the superheroing that Batman needs to do to stop him. In the early 1990s, it was unthinkable to spend that much time developing a villain, but in order to have it be a Two-Face that we care about, it was vital that we knew him. I’ve always found it funny that “Batman Forever” had a Two-Face more cartoony than the actual cartoon. If Joel Schumacher had turned to “Batman: The Animated Series” for inspiration instead of…wherever he found it, maybe his two Batman movies wouldn’t have sucked so hard. After you’ve seen and heard Michael Ansara’s Mr. Freeze, Arnold Schwarzenegger is an insult to the character. 

“Batman Forever” had a Two-Face more cartoony than the actual cartoon.

The visuals for the series were also groundbreaking. Using the 1940s Max Fleischer Superman cartoons as a touchstone, they made a series that will end up being timeless. There’s a mishmash of time periods that somehow worked. Gotham City is patrolled by police blimps, and the cars on the street are Studebakers. They have computers and sophisticated technology, but they watch black and white television. The visual tone of the series had animators working against backgrounds painted on black boards, instead of the usual white. Going back and rewatching “Batman: The Animated Series” now, there’s a slowness to the animation, but also a film-like fluidity that other TV cartoons lacked. 

“Batman: The Animated Series” transformed into “The New Adventures of Batman and Robin,” and then “The New Batman Adventures.” Over the course of these series, you saw Batman go from a loner to having Robin as a permanent partner, to having Robin leaving the nest (ha!) and becoming Nightwing. Batgirl goes from being Commissioner Gordon’s daughter to a Batman standin as Batgirl to a full partner. A new, younger Robin comes into the Batcave in the final season. All of these changes happen organically, and even decades later, the series works best when viewed sequentially to see the growth of the characters. The Batman family is bigger than to Nightwing, Batgirl, and Robin. Commissioner Gordon is a fully-fledged character, and we see him as the leader and administrator of the Gotham City Police Department for the first time. Alfred Pennyworth is an essential part of every scene that takes place in Wayne Manor or the Batcave. This was the first time any iteration of Batman got this right, and I loved it. 

“Batman: The Animated Series” opened the doors for other DC Comics cartoons. “Superman: The Animated Series” launched in 1996, and inspired a redesigned, “streamlined” look for the Batman characters. The eventual crossover event between Batman and Superman bridged three episodes of their respective cartoons and was eventually released as “The Batman/Superman Movie.” Sadly, I’m pretty sure it’s better written and well-acted than anything we’ll see in 2016 from Zach Snyder. We saw the dark future of Gotham City in “Batman Beyond,” pulling some ideas from comic books and others from show creators to make a rich series that had Bruce Wayne chilling in the Batcave and a new avatar doing the crimefighting on the streets. There were a few spinoffs that I didn’t watch, “Static Shock” and “The Zeta Project,” but each has their passionate fans. 

My personal favorite of the spinoffs was “Justice League,” which eventually became “Justice League Unlimited.” You had the trinity of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Flash was still pretty much Flash, but funnier and faster than we’d ever seen him before. Martian Manhunter, a favorite from the comic books who hadn’t been in any television series or movie before, brought power and pathos to the team in equal measures. In the series he was called by his name, J’onn J’onnz, almost never the more cartoony “Martian Manhunter.” These choices were all what I expected. Then two curveballs: Hawkgirl instead of Hawkman, and the Green Lantern was John Stewart instead of Hal Jordan. Initially I was skeptical of both, and eventually both became some of my favorite characters. 

These spinoffs were headed up by the same creative teams, and most used the same voice talent and were in similar animation styles. That run of cartoons, from 1992 until 2007, has become my measure of what makes for a good DC Universe movie or television show. Nothing’s quite measured up to it since. I’m envious of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that started with “Iron Man,” reached one high point with “The Avengers,” and has grown to the point where they have “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Ant-Man.” Even though WB and DC Comics have an impressive slate of films in the works, I know that even with my high hopes, I know I’ll come away disappointed. For Marvel fans and casual fans, the Cinematic Universe is becoming their definitive version of those characters. For me and others of my generation, we’ll watch a DC Comics movie on the big screen and then think, “well, it’s okay, but not as good as Batman: The Animated Series.” Is it comparing apples and oranges? Sure. But those are some damn good apples. 

SUPERTED, Episodes 1 – 3 (5 out of 10) –Created by Mike Young; Starring Derek Griffiths and Jon Pertwee; Originally aired October 10, 1983.

Doing this column every Saturday means that I have to find a new cartoon to watch every week. I haven’t yet exhausted all of the cartoons I’m familiar with from my youth but I try to mix it up with stuff I’ve never heard of. Sometimes that means that I find undiscovered gems like “Count Duckula” or “BattleTech,” and sometimes I find “SuperTed.”

Let me be clear, “SuperTed” is not the worst cartoon I’ve come across during my adventures in animation, that honor probably goes to “The Legend of Zelda” but it is one of the weirdest. The opening sequence explains Ted’s origin; he was created in a Teddy Bear factory but was singled out as anomalous and faulty, and subsequently discarded to a dusty storage room. There he was discovered by a spotted alien (Jon Pertwee) who brings the previously inanimate stuffed toy to life using “cosmic dust” (Thank Crom he didn’t waste a regeneration on this). The alien then takes Ted to a magical cloud where Mother Nature, an embodied being, gives him a spoonful of some bubbly concoction imbuing him with super powers, including, apparently, the ability to remove his skin revealing a super suit underneath along with a second skin. I told you it was weird, and that’s just the opening sequence.

In each episode Ted fights for what’s right against his nemesis Texas Pete and his gang, an idiot and a skeleton. The episodes are only seven minutes long, at first I thought I’d give myself a pass and do a short episode this week but then I got sucked in and had to watch three in order to give you all a fair assessment. Spoiler alert: it stays weird.

In the first episode, titled “SuperTed and the Inca Treasure” Ted and Spotty investigate an Incan temple in order to protect its sacred treasures from the villainous hands of Texas Pete and his nefarious band. I’ll just let you watch it to get a feel for its particular brand of strange.

The series was created by Mike Young who created the characters as stories to tell his son in an effort to help him get through his fear of the dark. Those stories became a book series and eventually the cartoon I present to you here.

Helping your kid get over their fear is an admirable goal but I can’t help wondering if that kid was left with more questions than answers like, why is the spotted alien, the overweight guy, and the skeleton called Spotty, Bulk, and Skeleton respectively? That’s essentially like calling someone Red Skin or Blackie, which just feels racist no matter what planet or plane of existence you hail from. I mean at least make it across the board and call their leader Texas Chin since, in this world, names apparently come from someone’s most obvious visual feature.

In “SuperTed and the Pearl Fishers” Texas Chin is back with Lard-o and Bones to steal pearls from the hard working indigenous folks off the coast of a chain of islands. Remember how I mentioned in the last paragraph that certain elements of this show seem racists… yeah.

Also, what seems to be the obsession with aggressive apes, maybe there’s something there.

Finally I’ll leave you with “SuperTed and the Stolen Rocket Ship” wherein Bear and Blotch chase Marrow, Fatso, and The Mandible in a stolen rocket ship on their way to Andromeda. This episode poses important questions like, does a skeleton need a space suit to survive the vacuum of space? Or, is it ethical to cut off a person’s air supply and send them flying off into the abyss?

How is it that these people were able to construct an interstellar space craft but have no security protocols to prevent its theft?

Also, what exactly was wrong with Teddy? Was it that he can rip his skin off? And what the hell is his secret magic word, he keeps saying he’s going to say it but never does, not so much as a whisper. Perhaps Mother Nature gave him the power of ventriloquism, ya know… right after the skin thing. And while we’re on the skin, we always see him zip it off but never see it put back on, are there just piles of discarded fluffy skins laying all around this world marking the territory of one magical bear like a super creepy trail of bed crumbs? We may never know. It’s probably best not to think about it.

BATTLETECH, Episode 1 “The Gathering Storm” (8 out of 10) –Written by Marty Isenberg and Robert N. Skir; Starring Sean Bushe, Richard Dean, Roxxy Dakota, and Keith Chihara; Originally aired September 10, 1994.

BattleTech was produced by Saban Entertainment and is based on a board game of the same name. The franchise, originally titled “BattleDroids” consists of the game and series, along with video games, collectible cards and over 100 novels all set within the universe. The name was changed from Droids to Tech during the second edition of the game due to a dispute from George Lucas over the term droid.

The series takes place in the years 3050 in the Inner Sphere, a collection of thousands of planets colonized by humans. The series name is taken from a fleet of mech suits employed by the Sphere’s military as well as The Clans’ invading force. The series stick out among other cartoons of the day due to its use of computer animation during battle sequences. The combination of animation styles actually works well together due to its implementation, acting as an inside view of one of the titular mechs.

Every episode opens with narration by the primary character, Adam Steiner, a member of the military arm of the Federated Commonwealth.

“This is the Inner Sphere – thousands of planets colonized by humankind. Once it was united under the Star League, but for the last three hundred years, it has been consumed by savage wars. Until a new enemy appeared – mysterious invaders known as “The Clans”. Powerful and ruthless, they struck like lightning, attacking every sector at once! But they made one big mistake – they attacked my home planet! Now, in the spirit of the Star League, ancient enemies have reunited! And we’re gonna take back our galaxy!”

The inner sphere has suffered 300 years of interplanetary civil war until an invading faction known as The Clans attacks a backwater world called Somerset, Steiner’s home planet. Steiner is able to use the attack as long as some familial political connections to commandeer a smuggling ship and assemble a crew, comprised of the captured smugglers and military personnel, to defend the Inner Sphere.

Those in power are tentative of their support of Steiner’s proposal but allow him to gather information on The Clans in order to allow the Commonwealth to better defend itself. When The Clans attack a more prominent planet, he is finally given authorization to act a strike force and take The Clans down.

Early episodes deal with Steiner attempting to unite his rag-tag crew, some of which have their own allegiances and agenda. Once this is established, the series gets into the meat of its story and the true battle between Steiner and the invading forces for control of the Inner Sphere.

“BattleTech” ran for a total of 13 episodes between September and December of 1994. I recommend the series for its good writing, mature content, and allegory of social issues. You can check it out below, last one there is a Vegas slug rat.

September 6, the final day of Salt Lake Comic Con, was a Saturday and the day begun like any respectable Saturday should, with cartoons. The first round of panels began at 11:00 a.m. and among them (perhaps the crown jewel of the hour) was a discussion on Saturday morning Cartoons.

The panel was moderated by Geek Show’s Shannon Barnson who was joined by Clark Schaffer (Schaffer Studios), Kristyn Crow (author of children’s book “Zombelina”), Chris Bodily (Illustrator), Tom Cook (Animator), and yours truly (I’m not biased).

The hour opened with a quick word from Barnson on why cartoons are important and what they mean to us growing up as well as into adulthood. What followed was an hour of geeking out over what each of us loved about cartoons, what we disliked or outright hated, as well as where cartoons have been and where they are going.

Highlights were chosen, among them “Thundarr the Barbarian,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” and many more. Lowlights were also discussed, including “The Legend of Zelda,” (you can find my scathing review here) and an undetermined “He-Man” rip-off.

Tom Cook, a 35 year veteran of animation, including work for Funimation and Hannah Barbera on such notable titles as “Thundarr,” “The Smurfs,” “Scooby Doo,” “He-Man” and too many more to note, discussed what he sees as the losses modern cartoons have suffered at the hands of computer technology. While some personal touches are lost when working with computer models versus hand drawn cells, Cook was quick to point out that it’s not all bad, and some truly wonderful things have been done with the technology.

Crow discussed the influence that cartoons had on her as a young girl and how those elements have impacted the way she rights, as well as the balance that can be found between what some consider to be content meant specifically for boys or girls. Crow noted her book “Zombelina” as an example of finding that balance that can appeal to both sides of the childhood aisle. Having seen my own child choose her book from among hundreds on the shelf at the library, I’m inclined to agree.

One of the many highlights of the hour was watching Barnson and the rest of the panel become continually impressed and awe-struck at the influence Tom Cook had over most of our lives. By the end of our time Cook’s phrase “I worked on that” had become a running joke among those gathered in the room, even to the point of beginning to ask him ahead of time if he had anything to do with a particular title before we moved on.

Questions from the audience sparked a discussion on whether or not the rise of merchandising and the shifting of a lot of animation overseas had a negative impact on the quality of cartoons we’ve received over time. The short answer is, sometimes.

If I could go back and do the panel again, I’d change only one thing. There seemed to be an atmosphere in the room that cartoons got better as you went back in time, the implication being that there are no modern cartoons that are any good. In that I disagree whole heartedly. I could spend an entire article talking about the good cartoons that exist right not, today. Nickelodeon’s current “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” comes immediately to mind. Marvel’s “Ultimate Spider-Man” and “Avengers Assemble” are also excellent cartoons currently on the air. And kids don’t have a monopoly on quality animated programming, “Adventure Time,” “Archer,” and “Rick and Morty” are all examples of well written, funny, entertaining programs that you should be watching if you’re a fan of animation. The latter proving that a show doesn’t have to be beautifully animated to be great, and let us not forget “Rebels” (sneak peak anyone?) coming to a galaxy near you very soon.

There is no lack of great animation and while some may believe that the golden age of cartoons is over it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon, and I’m glad.

For those of you who made it out the panel over the weekend, I personally thank you and hope you had a great time. If you didn’t get enough cartoons you can find the link to last week’s Saturday Morning Cartoon column here or type Saturday Morning Cartoon in the search bar, it should hold you over or a little while.

Remember to come back this Saturday and watch something with me.

Cheers. 

CHIP ‘N DALE RESCUE RANGERS, Episode 1 “Piratsy Under the Seas” (7 out of 10) – Directed by John Kimball, Bob Zambonie, and Alan Zaslove; Written by Mark Edens; Starring Corey Burton, Peter Cullen, Jim Cummings, and Tress MacNeille. Originally aired March 4, 1989.

By the time that “Rescue Rangers” hit the air, Chip and Dale were already well known and established Disney Characters. The duo were created in 1943 and appeared in 23 shorts between then and 1956. “Rescue Rangers” saw them paired up with two other mice (Monty and Gadget) and a fly (Zipper). Collectively they made up the a team that solved mysteries and the day using a combination of sleuthing, bumbling, muscle, intelligence, and loyalty.

The design of the two title characters is based loosely on the characters Indiana Jones and Magnum P.I. This basis only goes about as far as wardrobe, the personalities don’t transfer.

In the pilot episode titled “Piratsy Under the Seas,” Dale finds himself accidentally inside a trash can on garbage day and is lifted into a truck and eventually a barge out to sea. The rest of the rangers make pursuit to rescue him on a powered roller skate designed and built by Gadget. While on the barge, the group encounters a group of “pi-rats” so called because they are pirates, but also rats. The series is filled with puns just like this. The pirates are all located on a capsized ship on the bottom of the ocean but send up a surface craft made from a barrel to pull trash from the passing barge for them to eat. Chip and Dale happen are pulled into the water and the rest of the gang must rescue them. Gadget once again comes to the rescue by building a submarine out of supplies she finds on the barge.

Chip and Dale discover that the pi-rats have been guarding a pile of gold and waiting for their long lost captain for 200 years, never having seen the surface during that time. Most of them were born on the ship under water and have never seen the surface, only one rat is shown to have actually known the captain. Once Chip and Dale see the massive amount of gold they are guarding, they find that they will never again be allowed to return to the surface for fear that they may reveal the secret of the treasure to the world on the surface.

Using a disguise, Monty pretends to be the captain and is almost successful but it all falls to pieces due to Monty’s biggest weakness, visually stinky cheese.

Once discovered for their ruse, the Rangers are forced to walk the plank and become the latest meal for Billy the Squid (another one of those puns for you). Luckily they all escape, due one more time to Gadget’s ingenuity. She devises a plan to raise the entire ship to the surface by dumping the gold that’s weighing it down.

One short talk later, the pi-rats are convinced that they have become prisoners of their own mythology and take the newly raised ship on new adventures of their own, while the gang goes back home.

The series is particularly good in its ability to showcase the problem solving ability of teamwork and because of the character Gadget, the genius and only female member of the team who more often than not saves the day with brain power. The characters and situations of this series make it a gem that stands out above most other cartoons from the same era. 

BIONIC SIX, Episode 1 “Valley of Shadows” (5 out of 10) – Directed by William Hurtz and Toshiyuki Hiruma; Written by Gordon Bressack; Starring Norman Bernard, Carol Bilger, Bobbie Block, Jim MacGeorge, Alan Oppenheimer, Hal Rayle, Neil Ross, and John Stephenson. Originally aired April 19, 1987.

The Bionic Six are a family team of superheroes “brought together by faith and given super powers through the miracle of modern science.” The family is comprised of two parents, Jack Bennett (Bionic-1) and Helen Bennet (Mother-1) and their four multiracial kids Eric (Sport-1), Meg (Rock-1),  JD (IQ), and Bunji (Karate-1), each member of the family has been infused with a different set of bionic powers. The seventh member of the team is a gorilla-like robot called F.L.U.F.F.I. Together they fight and keep the world safe from the evil Dr. Scarab. The series ran for 65 episodes between April 1987 and November 1989, it also spawned a series of toys and action figures as well as a picture book, a comic book was planned but never happened.

In “Valley of Shadows” the family has their breakfast interrupted by Professor Amadeus Sharp, a genius doctor who gave the family their bionic powers. Amadeus tells them that an explorer, Brent Holworth, has been investigating a mythical valley rumored to give its inhabitants eternal life. After having made an important discovery, Holworth was kidnapped by Dr. Scarab and it’s up to the Bionic Six to save him and stop Scarabs nefarious plot.  Amadeus provides the Six with a medallion, the only evidence of the valley’s existence.

The team takes their jet, complete with flying mini-van into the jungle in search of Holworth and the Valley of Shadows, where they split up into teams. JD, Eric, and F.L.U.F.F.I encounter an indigenous tribe (not immortal) who flee at the sight of the medallion while the rest of the family search for Holworth. Luckily they find a guide who offers to take them into the jungle in search of the valley but he isn’t who he seems.

The guide transforms, revealing that he in fact works for Scarab and attempts to kill the boys. Eric escapes back to the rest of the family and JD makes his way through the mountain with the medallion, along with F.L.U.F.F.I.

Meanwhile Scarab has located the stone of live, an orb that will give him the power over death and over the whole of the world. JD an F.L.U.F.F.I make their way to the Valley of Shadows were they find a 5000 warrior chief who tasks JD with stopping Scarab and returning the stone, he is given a different medallion to aid him in his task. Once reunited with his family they are captured by Scarab but JD uses the medallion to reverse the stones power, aging Scarab in the process.

Scarab sends his army of robots after the Six but using their bionic powers, they dispatch them with little problem and return the stone to its rightful place.

Despite clearly being an attempt at forward thinking and inclusiveness with the focus on science and the multi-racial family, there are some moments in the episode that are borderline racist, the “language” of the indigenous tribe and the way the kids speak to them stick out in my mind. That being said, I imagine it was fairly revolutionary for the time giving children of different races heroes they could look up to and challenging the notion of what makes up a family.