1980s Cartoon Overload!

[magog_83]

BEWARE YOUTUBE OVERLOAD!

So, planejane was just posting about the 1970s kid's TV show Rainbow, and I have just fallen into a deep dark pit of nostalgia thinking about all the things I used to love watching :D So I bring to you, the Best Theme Song Ever (TM), the most blatant attempt to make children eat fruit and veg since Popeye, my Cartoon Heroes from the 1980s, and Some Important Life Lessons from He-Man and Friends (AHAHAHAHAHA)



I blame this first cartoon for my lifelong love of sixteenth century history. It's from The Mysterious Cities of Gold, a series set in 1532 following Esteban, Zia and Tao on their journey to the New World and their search for the legendary Cities of Gold, along with Mendoza, a conquistador who might or might not have good intentions... It's one of those rare cartoons that you can watch as an adult and it is STILL GOOD. In fact you appreciate just HOW good all the more, it doesn't really pull its punches regarding the conquest of South America and the fate of the Incas.

BANANAMAAAAAAAAAAN. Actually this one is a little disturbing, for all that I used to love it. Eric the young boy eats a banana and becomes... a fully grown man??! That's kind of creepy, but still, it got me to eat bananas I bet.

Ok, I spent ages looking for a good 1980s cartoon video (I was born in 1983) and then I remembered that MANY YEARS AGO, when I first discovered Movie Maker, I actually made one! Please excuse the quality of the clips, I had to get them where I could :( All the other tributes were a little bit US oriented, and I didn't watch half the shows featured.

Lastly, do you ever wish you were more moral? DO YOU? Well, STOP PANICKING PEOPLE because He-Man and his friends are here to help! He-Man took the 'bludgeon the children over the head approach' to life's lessons. So enjoy, and don't take any of those magic drugs, and remember YOU HAVE THE POWER OF LOVE. Or something ;) Also, watch out for the MOST RANDOM MAGNA CARTA REFERENCE EVER at 2.20.

Ah, memories! What were your favourite cartoons???

Comments

[sighnomore.livejournal.com]

I loved the Robin Hood Anime...he was my childhood crush when I was like, six XD And Darkwing Duck! I LOVED him!

[vensre.livejournal.com]

Darkwing Duck owns!

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've come across Darkwing Duck, I just googled him! I see it's a spin off of Duck Tales though which I remember very well :D :D

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

Not to mention a man who thinks purple tights with a pink tunic is a good look and has furry pants :/

I think I watched a bit of the Captain Pugwash cartoon they did, I probably remember it better for the notoriety around all the names and the myth that they were all somehow dodgy!!! (Master Bates etc)

[jamie15.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's Inspector Gadget! And Chip and Chap! And the Gummi Bears :D!

My favourite cartoon series used to be Willy Fog - a kind of children's adaptation for three books by Jules Verne. ... Come to think of it, this might explain my incessant love for Around the World in Eighty Days ... :D!

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

I remember Willy Fog!!! And that purple cat lady in it (I think she was a cat lady). That was, and still is, my main knowledge of the Jules Verne story I think ;)

GUMMI BEARS. I wanted to be the Princess an embarrassing amount, I really really did.

I loved Inspector Gadget too, but I was always annoyed on Penny's behalf because she saved the day and never got any credit, and everyone thought Gadget was fantastic and did it all.

Hmmmmm I'm starting to think that sounds familiar.....

[jamie15.livejournal.com]

I think she was called Princess Romy or something like that ... :D
My favourite character though was Rigodon, the cat(?) servant! He was such a loyal but clumsy person ... just adorable :D!

Haha! I loved Gummi Bears embarrassingly much, but I did always feel very sorry for poor Toadie ... he did have such a pathetic voice in the German dub ...

Hmmm ... might there possibly a pattern to the kinds of shows we watch :D?

[katzgalore.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I love retro tv shows. I'm totally seconding Inspector Gadget (not that long ago I bought an Inspector gadget t-shirt :D) and Gummi Bears. I also watched Care Bears, the popples, My Little Pony, all really cutesy stuff as much of it was back then.

When I was little I really liked live action shows like Thomas the Tank Engine, Greenclaws (baffled me for years until I rediscovered it!), Sooty and Sweep, Rainbow of course and Sylvanian Families, for which I had loads of playsets. Ah, proper tv :)

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

I have a She Ra t-shirt :D And I believe I had a Rainbow t shirt back in undergrad (it was pink and I wore it to a seminar and the lecturer commented on it and I NEVER WORE IT AGAIN). I don't remember the Popples? But god do I remember My Little Pony! I wanted to be Megan (I was pony mad) and I had quite a few My Little Pony toys and even a tent that I mainly set up in my room.

One of my earliest memories is going to see Sooty and Sweep at my local theatre (which, hilariously, I just remembered is called the Merlin Theatre!), it was with the original puppeteer Harry Corbet and the only bit I can remember is Sooty squirting him with a water gun :D My cousin had loads of Sylvanian Families stuff, did they actually do a cartoon for that then? I don't remember that at all! I think apart from that I watched Thomas (of course!), Woof with the boy who could turn into a dog, Grotbags, Black Beauty and Follyfoot Farm (I really REALLY liked ponies).

That really was the good stuff back then!!!

[katzgalore.livejournal.com]

Ok, when you mentioned a pink Rainbow t-shirt I immediately thought, "I had that too!". I can't find a picture but I swear we probably had the same top because I remember wearing a light pink Rainbow t-shirt with a raised, plasticky picture of the gang on the front when I was in sixth form, so that ties in with you being an undergraduate. Maybe I'm crazy and there were loads of tees, but I don't think so at that time, not like now and it just seems really conincidental?! Does that design sound familiar? I'm sorry you never wore it again, I wore mine loads and loved it (I'm such a child) but the picture eventually ended up cracking :(.

I have a bit of a t-shirt obsession, which ties in brilliantly with retro designs. Do you ever look at this site?

http://www.truffleshuffle.co.uk/store/

I've bought a few things from there but I haven't liked too many of the recent designs and it's very expensive, so I've moved onto other sites (like the roving tee addict I am :D). There's still loads of funky things like bags and purses/wallets with great designs on them. The collection of Ladybird Book items, such as the purse and sewing tins that use the front covers of classic Ladybird books as the main design are fabulous.

Sylvanian Families did indeed have a cartoon, but I was actually thinking of the British stop-motion films they did which were adorable. I think my mum fed my liking, she really loved Sylvanian Families. Probably because she grew up with the most amazing dollshouse and they were like a furry, modern version of that :D.

Spooky foretelling with the theatre! I liked when Sooty and Sweep and the others lived in that funky house. I can also very clearly recall Sue's highpitched voice.... "Sweeeeeep!!"

I wasn't one of those girls that was into ponies, but I do remember Follyfoot Farm. I also LOVED the Sweet Valley books and I remember they used to re-enact it with British girls in live-action comic style in the pre-teen magazines I used to read, which was kinda hilarious as it lost all the sun-kissed All-American girls aspect that was kinda essential. The farm thing just made me think of Sweet Valley as I have a very clear memory of one of those comic strips set at a pony stable...

God, Jessica Wakefield was a bitch. Seriously, why did Elizabeth keep enabling her?! Whoa, I just looked it all up and the author is apparently still writing for them to show them ten years on and then into their thirties. Lol, weird. Sorry, went off on a tangent, all of which will be nonsensical if you never read the books, which you probably didn't as they were so silly :).

I just went on Ebay and got all excited watching the old toy adverts. I also had the cupcake dolls, which had a beautiful playset and some small teddy bear figurines that you could buy fairground playset pieces for and they ROCKED! There were windup moving ferris wheels and waltzers with music, which was THRILLING for a child! But then, I remembered my mum sold my My Little Pony castle :(.

And just to apologize for how long this is, have some cute foxes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8xJtH6UcQY

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure we had the same t-shirt! Mine was definitely pink with the plasticky picture, I think it was from New Look?

I read the Sweet Valley books! I remember being confused that they were described as being a size '8', which is barely human size in the UK. And Elizabeth loved Todd, didn't she! But Jessica had a love/hate thing going on with... Bruce? She WAS a bit of a bitch, it's true, I always preferred Elizabeth.

Oh my god! I just remembered one where they ended up acting in a soap opera, and Elizabeth was tricked into going to the audition and got all mad at Jessica, and the producers saw her getting angry and cast her as the bitchy sister, and Jessica as the sweet one.

Ah, memories :D

Your mum sold your My Little Pony castle!!!! :(((( I had a My Little Pony nursery, but I think mum sold that too.

[a8c-sock.livejournal.com]

OMG! My childhood!

I loved and adored The Mysterious Cities of Gold as a child so much. I do keep meaning to buy the DVDs to rewatch and see how well it does stand up.

The premise of Bananaman is pretty creepy. I never liked bananas XD

I admit I was a huge Gummi Bears fan as a small child too.

In fact pretty much every cartoon going I was watching from Thundercats to She-Ra.

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

My brother has the dvds of it and I was really taken aback by just how good it was. When you watch things like He Man or Thundercats or whatever now, they are AWFUL. But Cities of Gold is actually historically researched it seems (apart from that parrot) and there is CONTINUITY (take note Merlin producers). Plus I always wanted to be Zia :D

I still have She Ra's palace up in the loft. Mum keeps trying to get rid of it but I won't let her (still has working lift!). Ah memories! We had such good TV in those days :D