What Are Your Favourite Cartoon Shows?

Belle & Sebastian was easily my least favorite cartoon ever, which might be why I hate the band so much. Cities of Gold - is that the same thing as Esteban and the City of Gold? Cos that rocked. Not that i ever saw it but ESTEBAN??? That's awesome.

I was never a huge cartoon person, I liked a few very vehemently though. Voltron was my absolute favorite and I STILL reckon that my infatuation with Voltron is responsible for my taste in men. I love Pokemon, because Pikachu is the cutest cat I ever saw.

I loathe Scooby Doo. It's one of those ones I liked as a kid, but I try watching it now and it's so boring and stupid. And plus there is Freddy Prinze involvement.

Also hated inspector gadget. I would love to see a snuff film of his grisly death.

But I liked the Smurfs and the Superfriends, so I may be smoking crack when it comes to critical analysis of cartoons.

Oh, I just totally forgot my real all-time favorite, which is Josie and the Pussycats, godamnit. I knew I forgot one.

Hulk Hogan's Rock and Wrestling, The Smurfs, He Man, The Gary Coleman Show, Grape Ape, Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch, Wacky Races...I'm a big fan of all the formulaic Hanna-Barbera crap, actually. And Loony Tunes.

He-man, and Thundercats. That is all.

Have you noticed how damn wordy the He-Man theme is? It's just He-Man doing a great big monologue about his life, as if you can't just WATCH THE SHOW and understand it. Why was Skeletor so buff when he had a skeleton head?

The best thing about He-Man was always at the end when they would have a little moral and laugh at Battle Cat's antics. As a kid I would always have tea and rich tea biscuits when He-man was on. I think maybe Skeletor is using a host body? Or maybe just his faced got dissolved away or something (yuck!). Oh, and the Smurfs was great, does anyone know of a schoolground curse involving watching the Smurfs?

THE POWER PUFF GIRLS
DEXTER'S LABORATORY
COW AND CHICKEN

Since when was Belle and Sebastien a CARTOON? Was it still about La Resistance in the Pyrenees?

I loathe Scooby Doo (Nicole)

I like Scooby Doo but the modern remakes are better than the originals - more sophisticated.

Monster Rancher is quite good (a bit like Pokemon/Digimon).

I love power puff girls and dexter, and the new one Cartoon Network has (Time Squad) is pretty good too -- how could it not be with Mark Hamill as a gay robot?

Belle & Sebastian was about some kid who's mom died or something like that and then this dog Belle took care of him in the woods or the mountains or something. Really, I have no clue but that's what it seemed like it was about.

Nickolodeon cartoons really sucked hamsters. I mean, hello, David the Gnome?

They did a Belle and Sebastian cartoon series quite distinct from the b&w French original - IIRC it came from the same stable as Willy Fog, Dogtanian, Mysterious Cities of Gold et al, and was shown in the UK circa 1989.

Me? I liked the (original) Moomins, Roobarb and Henry's Cat. Indeed, anything by Bob Godfrey whatsoever (anyone else familiar with "GREAT: Isambard Kingdom Brunel"?).

I interviewed Bob Godfrey once, in abt 1985. He talks EXACTLY like Henry's Cat, which is very unsettling (even more when you're transcribing the tape). Great = GRATE.

My next-door neighbour animated the sleepy penguin in that famous BR advert where the Hasidim play chess, and Leon Redbone sings.

WHat of Birdman?

fav. kids' toon when i was a actual kid - "Wacky Races". Fuck H-B tho', H-B suxxx (everyone wearing a collar & tie so's moving their head was easier or some shit - prefiguring of the computer-animation PLAGUE. FUCK anything computer animated & anything Japanese)(back to black & white! back to mono! back to ancient roman pantheism!)

"Wapping? Is this Wapping?"

"Just give me a rope and a little bit of wire, and I'll do it after tea".

"Arise, Sir Rocky."

*Queen Victoria knocks electric guitar through Shakin' Stevens impersonator's head*

"Kneel, Sir Rocky."

And the most grotesque public schoolmasters ever animated. Fabulous stuff. And those are just the easy bits to mention. I think I can even remember the hyperspeed last verse of "There's One Or Two Things That He Didn't Invent" ...

The BR advert you mention was the late 80s one with the "RELAX" slogan: the railways go yuppie when they were still holding out from the govt's privatisation mania. Would that we, etc., etc. ...

I liked the way Muttley always swore at Dick Dastardly under his breath..."razza frazzin rick rasterdly"...I think he's really saying something much worse. Totally off subject, does anyone think that in Return of the Jedi, when R2 and 3PO arrive at Jabba's Plaace, the guy with the squid type head says "Jabba Wanker!" ?

The original moomins series was grate, but it was more puppetry than cartoons. Dead eerie though: one of my friends still gets the willies about Hattifatteners at the age of 26. The more recent one called 'Moomin' should be avoided at all costs.

Trap Door. Trap Door is possibly the best kid's show EVER. Not technically a cartoon, but it was animated, and as I'm the moderator it's going in this thread. More recently, yes, Dexter's Lab, but how good is Pinky & The Brain? Very, that's what.

A little request: Does anyone remember a French cartoon called 'Robo Story' that used to be on after Wacaday in the mid-80s? I've got one- and-a-bit episodes on tape, but I'd like to know more about it, if anyone can help.

I knew the original Moomins wasn't actually a cartoon, but I've interpreted the thread subject widely.

Richard / Hemulen, who was your favourite / most-identified-with character? Mine was initially Moomintroll (bright-eyed and bushy- tailed child), then I became melancholic / vaguely folky and so came to identify with Snufkin, then I became unspeakably glum about Absolutely Everything so adored the Hemulen. I think I feel closest to Snufkin now: I still sometimes imagine myself sitting on the bridge, contemplating the future, and just going away, amicably, travelling somewhere else until the spring ...

Except I don't own a mouth-organ. It's the one thing Snufkin has that I don't aspire to.

Pee-Hoo!

I think I've always identified most closely with the Hemulen. I was a rather geeky and permanently worried child and the Hemulen's obsessive collecting of stuff and generally bleak outlook naturally appealed to me. The fact he wore dresses was an added bonus. I'm a lot more laid back now but my cheerful pessimism is still much closer to the Hemulen's personality then those of the other characters.

The most identifiable-with character in the Moomins is obviously the Muskrat, who has a book called "The Uselessness Of Everything". Later replaced with "The Usefulness Of Everything", which makes him just as happy.

Oh, even I was never melancholic enough to identify most with the Muskrat :).

Tom "Groke" Ewing is wrong:
'"On the Usefulness of Everything," read the Muskrat. 'But this is the wrong book. The one I had was about the Uselessness of everything."
But the Hobgoblin only laughed.

There is no textual evidence for the claim that Muskrat was reconciled to the replacement. This is one of the few unresolved moments of potential unhappiness in any of the books.

I have just realised the bitter, twisted Groke-like sarcasm secreted in the phrase "just as happy". The Muskrat is never happy. As you were.

Reluctantly dragging the topic away from the Moomins (for now) - I saw the Powerpuff Girls for the first time on Saturday morning (it's on at like 8.30 when nobody's going to be up, hello?) and I thought it was well good. Really clear, modern design and also genuinely funny AND extremely rude to redneck Americans AND!!! with a serious Political Point to make too. That it was followed by the supremely ghastly Mega Babies only added to the wonder.

If Maura is reading this then I humbly apologise for taking the piss out of it so often just because it has a theme tune by Bis. (THough the theme tune by Bis is rubbish.)

Themetune by Bis = my second favourite record of last year

Behind what?

Themetune for Buffy = my favourite record EVERY year!!

Bis are the worst crap that ever lived and should be beaten with sticks by Thom Yorke.

Powerpuff Girls are ace, when I can be bothered to watch. I just love the fact that someone on there is called Mojo Jojo, that's great.

I see, Mark :).

Ally is right about Bis, except that beating is too good for them even if it's Thom wielding the pointed sticks. I would suggest that they instead be forced to watch Pokemon cartoons until their collective brains haemorrage due to awfulness of animation in said cartoons, except that they'd probably like that, the twisted fucks.

I would suggest that they instead be forced to watch Pokemon cartoons until their collective brains haemorrage due to awfulness of animation in said cartoons

I like the animation in Pokemon and that style of cartoon...or maybe it's not the animation I like but rather the beautiful colours. What I really *don't* like is the way the creatures always have to do what their trainers tell them to do - out of the pokeball one minute then back in the next (and jump to it). It's just full of horrible hierarchical assumptions about life.

Messy squall of Bis travesty clashes with clean-lined fun of rest of programme.

The last time I saw Pokemon they were reviving a classic (=dud) tradition of British comic storytelling, i.e. the sports tournament saga, whereby Roy Of The Rovers or whoever would plough through round after round of the FA Cup only to lose pluckily near the end. Better luck next season eh Roy. Anyway the same sort of thing was happening in Pokemon.

I love Pokemon, because it's nonsense. I mean, obviously, something the size of fucking Snorlax could easily kick Pikachu's ass, but he doesn't, because the creators already know Pikachu is by far the cutest animal, followed closely by Evey, so he has to win, all the time, even when it's just not feasible in any way. Team Rocket knows this cuteness over all ethic, which is why they're all about stealing Pikachu. I mean, Meowth, he's a cat but he's just not cute. And don't get me started on how fucking useless Squirtle is. "Oh, look, it can spit on you!" Well, listen, the bad guys have MIND CONTROLLING POKEMON GHOST CREATURES, I think that Pokemon would win over one that just spits for fuck's sake.

The best episode of South Park, for the record, was the Pokemon parody. "BOMB DEE HARBOR. BOMB DEE HARBOR". It was fantastic.

Favorite cartoons: Rocky and Bullwinkle. And Looney Toons, duh.

Batman: The Animated Series (note highbrow name; I saw the other month in a video store that they moved on to "Batman and Robin" which looks rubbish - is there a rule that adding Robin to any Batman turns it to rubbish? answer is yes).

Ducktales (woo-ooh). For some reason scads of people I know that are my age know intricate details about Ducktales. Sadly I am forgetting lots of them. Still remember the Uncle-Scrooge-Loses-His-Gold-And- Goes-on-a-miniseries-around-the-world-adventure-to-retreive-it- including-uh-a-desert-somewhere-that-gets-flooded-with-water-and-also- there-is-a-cool-robot-submarine-that-drops-money-in-a-little-coin- purse episode though. That show had such great ideas.

Darkwing Duck too but it wasn't as cool. In fact I probably watched a bunch of those sort of Disney series but either they started dropping off in quality, or I started becoming less interested (or a combination of the two).

I watched the former three religiously in my early adolescence. Rocky + Bullwinkle was sadly only shown in my area for a short time when I was young, and we never had cable. But I don't remember much about cartoons I liked when I was a kid. Oh except I know I liked Looney Toons when I was a kid, and then when I was older. Its being on late on Saturday morning probably helped. That waking up early to watch cartoons shit got old fast.

Spaceghost is one bad (shut yo' mouth!). And the best talk show host as well.

Re. Snorlax. Snorlax is cuter than Evey, in an enormous sort of way. However to say he could kick ass is a mistake, since his only fucking power is 'REST'. Use Snorlax in a fight and you're completely shafted: he goes to sleep. That is all.

Duck Tales and ideas therein - were these all swiped from Carl Barks' old Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics? Having never seen DT and only having read a few of Barks' comics I really wouldn't know but perhaps someone in the wide world of ILE does...

but did you see the Ducktales movie? oh yeah. Thundercats and somethin else is what i watched with my dad when i was tiny. Man, i had some kind of battery powered battle vehicle from some show back then and i threw it down the stairs..and that thing was so cool. finally, did anyone used to watch (offtopic) Punky Brewster?! i did

SCOOBY DOO!!! Utter classic, simply because all my entire life, I've been in love with Shaggy. He is my perfect man. Most of you know this already.

Powerpuff Girls is ace, my mum keeps sending me giant stuffed toys of Bubbles claiming she looks just like me. Errrr... Then again, people think my band looks like the PPG. Maybe if we can ever persuade our drummer to wear a lab coat...

But my ALL TIME FAVOURITE CARTOON EVER... would have to be Battle of the Planets, also known as G-Force. I never knew as a kid that it was a proper Japanese anime series called Gatchaman which had been bought wholesale, cut up and reassembled with different plots, with the 7- Zark-7 bits added in later- but we did notice at the time that it never quite added up.

The more I've found out about it as an adult, the more I just marvel at it. The Amano character designs are utterly beautiful... if you can ignore the fact that all the bad guys have absolutely *horrible* mullets. (It was the 70s after all...)

And oh wow, guess what? Casey Kasem did the voice for Mark from G- Force, as well as Shaggy. Good thing I fancied Jason when I was 9 or I'd start to worry about it...

shit, i can't remember any now. henry's cat is brilliant obviously, mark, you interviewed bob godfrey??? i have to know more. now.

DG, trap door was shit. i hated that programme.

pokemon is obviously way cool. and mysterious cities of gold, just coz it went on for EVER, as did dogtanian, belle & sebastian and all those dubbed ones.

Sadly I did not see the Ducktales movie. Nor have I read any of the comics; it wouldn't surprise me if the ideas came from them. But the executions were ace too. ;)

Carl Barks = most overrated comics 'great' of all time?

Best cartoons ever: Voltron (lion AND spaceship versions), Robotech, Transformers, Dexter's Lab, South Park, the first season of Ren and Stimpy, Scooby Doo (ALL incarnations, including those with the Paragon of Evil), Spider Man and his Amazing Friends, Thundercats.

If I can find the URL, I'll post a link to a site with a HILARIOUS parody of the first Thundercats episode.

Ren & Stimpy.

x0x0

Popples.

Otis, you TOTALLY made that up.

I used to have a Popple. It was totally lame.

Re. Snorlax. Snorlax is cuter than Evey, in an enormous sort of way. However to say he could kick ass is a mistake, since his only fucking power is 'REST'. Use Snorlax in a fight and you're completely shafted: he goes to sleep. That is all. - Tom

Well, yes, Tom, I was hoping no one would catch me on this, as my belief operates on the assumption that we could eventually wake Snorlax up and he could DESTROY ALL BY CRUSHING. Unfortunately, his power is indeed the power of sleeping, as if that's something that's going to get you anywhere. But really, the weakest Pokemon is Jigglypuff, I mean he just sings like Mariah Carey. THAT'S his power. Why not just call him "ChristiaAguileraPuff" and get it over with?

Clearly, the ghost Pokemon with mind control powers are way better and would easily kick any of these things arses, but since they're ugly they must be destroyed.

I still have Popples. I even have the shows on tape. It wasn't any good, I just like saying Popples. Plus, you could turn them inside out by pulling their head out their ass.

no, jigglypuff is cool. apart from the sounding like sigur ros thing, obviously...

The only reason I like JigglyPuff at all is because on the N64 game (Pokemon Stadium maybe?) whenever JigglyPuff comes on the announcer says in this BIG BOOMING RIDICULOUS VOICE "JIIIIIIGGGGGGGGILLLLLLLYPUFF!!!!!" I mean, the other pokemon are announced pretty normally, but JigglyPuff, who is a total pussy and sings instead of fights, gets a kick ass WWF intro. I mean, what?

Otis: The problem is, it's a pain in the ass to turn the Popples inside out and back again, so I'd end up tucking them all into their little ball and then leaving them like that, alone and forgotten while I played with some Glowworms. I hated Glowworms too, but at least you didn't have to get their heads out of their asses in a totally complex fashion.

Like Snorlax, Kevin Shields's only obvious power is that of inactivity. Still he seems to bestride the musical taste of many on ILM like a colossus (albeit a colossus with a hoover).

Oh, that's the best thing I've read in ages.

I *really* don't understand. I think I'm too old. Shall the older kids on the board start going on about The Magic Roundabout and Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men and Bagpuss to counteract this pokemadness? Now back in my day, we had atonal folk music and plants that screamed "WEEEEEEEEEEEDDDD!!!" like dealers in Washington Square. Now that is REAL kiddies programming.

I have a Jigglypuff key ring, it light ups!

The best Pokemon in the Gameboy game is Kadabra, no one can survive Psybeam...hmmm yep!

Oh crackful one, Kadabra is a weed and a wet.

OK he is quite tough but I personally have had few problems with a front line of Voltorb and Geodude (who also has best name). This psychic attack shit can bite me.

That said the ghost tower sequence in Pokemon is the most genuinely spooky bit of any computer game I've played, much more so than the ooh-zombies bits of Res Evil etc, cause you don't know it's coming.

Dude, I bow down to Tom, he's a Pokemon master. I never even played my Game Boy games, I just liked the cover art. Pikachu is the cutest thing I ever saw, if I had a child, I'd want it to be Pikachu.

Gareth is officially wrong. Trap Door is the coolest. Go buy the vids at Blackstar if you don't believe me. Pokemon got shit after the first series. I can't deal with all the new ones. I like Jigglypuff and Pikachu and Gengar and Mew, I know where I am with that lot.

DOES ANYONE KNOW ABOUT THE POWERPUFF GIRLS HAVING A SINGLE WITH A VIDEO? I saw it on TV once, a song that I've never forgotten.

My brother and I used to say 'skeletor!' 'skeletor!' to each other when we were fighting. I would never have remembered that if someone hadn't mentioned skeletor. maybe i will call my little boy . . . on an episode of the Simpsons they fought with Transformers and Bart's turned into a sword, and Millhouse's turned into a watering can

It was pathetic really but, 'Aubery'. Five minutes of deliberately shoddy, shaky anti-animation in an insane use of insipid colour (also see: 'Roobarb and Custard' another classic with the BEST cartoon theme-tune EVAH!).

Can't remember the plot of any particular episode of 'Aubery' but I remember one episode where he had trouble getting to sleep, so he reached into his bedside cabinet and pulled out a bottle of pills, he then poured the entire contents down his neck. A subtitle flashed up: "Please do not copy Aubery." Mmm. Quite.

Yeah, 'Trap Door' was fantastic. Boni should have had his own show, he was a Zen master.

The thing that confused me about 'He-Man' was that Adam was a blond, strapping beefcake anyway, so what was the transformation about? Usually in superhero lore, the hero starts out as a fairly normal, ineffectual, nerdy type who then has to become the musclebound hero when danger calls. but in 'He-Man' Adam would go behind a handy, nearby bush, waggle his sword about, shout: "I have the POWWWEEEEEERRRRGH" *really* loud, and then re-appear looking *exactly* the same 'cept he would now, inexplicably, be dressed in what looked like a leather, Gay Go-Go bar outfit. Hunh?

Anyone remember 'Jamie and his Magic Torch'? It had a theme tune that ROCKED HARD!

Re: Powerpuff Girls, the single with the video was that "Love, love, love, la-la love" song, but I can't remember for the life of me right now who did it, because the album is back in storage in Swiss Cottage! Dammit! I think Paul has it, but on 7" vinyl, and his 7" collection is a mess!

Dammit, I forgot, because I was so pissed, and the bloke who asked was so pissed... but I know the guy who is working on the Powerpuff Girls video game, and he drunkenly asked if the Lollies would be interested in doing some music for it! God-DAMN!!! would we be interested. Must try and get hold of him and ask him what's going on with that. How COOL would that be?

I have (possibly had) an MP3 of it which sounded like the Powerpuff Girls (voices thereof) were doing it. It's called "Love Makes The World Go Round", though. The people who really did it were probably Sleater-Kinney or someone.

Thanks for telling me about the Power Puff Girls song! I knew other people MUST like it too. MB - that would be a privilege I think too.

Tom - maybe I could download the song somehow from you on the World Wide Web. Or I should try to look it up under 'Love Makes the World Go Round' on napster or whatever they're called.

Don't think it's Sleater-Kinney. Might be Dressy Bessy, though, or is that Bubbles' theme song? Dammit, I *have* that album back at home, and it's irritating me...

"oh crackful one"? Not sure what that means, hope it's a positive thing to be! :)...If I were a Pokemon trainer for real, I'd challenge Tom to a Pokemon battle...But, alas I'm not!

the ducktales movie is really awesome. i need to rent it, i haven't seen it in ages, but it's like a cartoon indiana jones with ducks, only it's better than indiana jones too.

Astroboy,carebears,He-man spiderman and Kimba the white lion.
I was forbidden to watch the smurfs but the local public station had an hour of anime at noon.

didnt bis do the powerpuff girls song?

dogtanian: the best.

2nd place: most of the shiot on cartoon network now: 2 stupid dogs, courage, cow and chicken etc.

Powerpuff Girls = ace, esp. the "You're hardcore!" espisode (oh and the one with Mojo Jojo's 3 Powerpuff guys).

Ye olde classics:

Mazinger Z, walk on any street in Spain and shout MAZINGER Z and any guy between the age of 35 and 27 will start shouting "Mazinger Z es la puta madre!", which in this case means: IT ROCKS! Anyway only saw this one on holidays in Spain, it's about big Japanese robots controled by humans that fight each other, evil guys always out to destroy the city, Mazinger Z has to stop them with the help of Aphrodite, a robot which, yes!, had missiles as breasts. Intense shit because good guys would actually die in this one.

Did anyone outside Holland/Germany/Scandinavia get Wicky the Viking. Man that little guy rocked. He used to be my hero. And the theme tune was also genius!

And of course the new series of Daft Punk video's totally rule.

We did, though it was Vicky here.

Yeah! Dogtanian! Loved that show but I remember I was gutted as I missed one episode from the entire series.

I loved Aubery the shaky monster, I just remember how funny it was and how my life long quest to get hold of a few copys has past me by. Who did that cartoon? I really want to see them again, I guess they are crap now.

He-man goes on?? Have you heard She-Ra's speach? Man, I guess women superheroes don't shut-up either.

The best thing about Scooby-Doo is the 60's guitar song in the middle of the episodes. I love them. I remember how as a kid how much I wanted to kill Scrappy Doo when he came on the scene. Man, one of the world's mistakes next to September 11th.

wot no I Am Weasel? Even for the theme song alone?

You don't need pants for the victory dance, cos Baboon's better than Weasel.. IR Baboon big star of cartoons...

sailor moon and powerpuff girls.

i believe that He man was the best. it had its competition but always blew it out of the water. They weren't called masters of the universe fo nothing.