In 1986, Rankin-Bass had themselves a sure-fire hit with their flagship animated series, Thundercats. So with all the money rolling in, how does one follow-up such a success? Why, with an exact duplicate, of course. Silverhawks is often called “Thundercats in space” and that description isn’t too far off base. From the voice actors, to the animation, to the plots, to the characters, to the name, Silverhawks draws so many comparisons to its older brother that people can’t help but qualify the show as “just like Thundercats”. Now, if Silverhawks was just like Thundercats only not as good, where does that leave Rankin-Bass’ other animated clone, Tigersharks? In the dumpster, Read more »

Mother f***ing Rock Gnarlies. The GoBots were always the Transformers’ ugly kid brother, so needless to say, the GoBots feature film was “just like Transformers the Movie, only not as good”. Not nearly as good. In fact, it wasn’t “good” at all. While the writing may have been only a few notches below that of the early Transformers stuff, it is still noticeably bad. Now, the Transformers’ character designs only bore a slim likeness to their toy counterparts, but the GoBots? They were precise animated realizations of their toys. As a result, it looks like a bunch of, well, TOYS fighting on screen, not actual characters. The barren desert landscape Read more »

Bionic Six was a series I didn’t get into until the Sci-Fi Channel began rerunning it in the mornings, along with Star Wars: Droids, the New Gigantor and the Transformers. I only enjoyed it in passing, as it wasn’t my favorite of their morning line-up, honestly. I remember thinking Mother-1 was kinda hot, though. The show was an American-Japanese joint production, with animation by TMS (Tokyo Movie Shinsha), the same people that brought us Mighty Orbots and tons of other Japanese-animated cartoons. I remember the animation being rather good, particularly the opening sequence. Yeah, the theme song is hilariously lame (“We are a family! I fight for them, they fight Read more »

I’m afraid I wasn’t one of those kids who got to grow up watching Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, leaving me without a nostalgic fondness for the show. As a result, I tend to view it with a rather critical eye, noticing quite a few flaws and shortcomings. Yet, even as I watch it today, there are a few aspects that I genuinely enjoy. Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs was released in the United States in 1987, following the trend of popular space Western cartoons like Bravestar and (to an extent) Silverhawks. It was, in reality, a re-dubbed and re-edited version of a Japanese anime called “Seijuushi Bismarck”, Read more »

Like a lot of people my age, my first introduction to Space Ghost was through the Coast to Coast late night talk show on Cartoon Network. Shortly after that began airing, they started to rerun the classic Space Ghost action cartoon shorts from 1966 (or, at least, I began to notice them). Although I loved Space Ghost as a comedian, I found him much more enjoyable as an actual intergalactic superhero. Jan, Jace and Blip were annoying as crap, but they’re not why I watched the show. Space Ghost had a really well-rounded rogues gallery, a great character design (thanks to comic book artist Alex Toth, no less), awesome superpowers Read more »

When I think of Space Ghost, I draw several comparisons between him and Batman. It goes beyond the fact that Alex Toth was asked by the execs at Hanna Barbara to design Space Ghost in a manner than emulated the Dark Knight, but in the history of the character. Space Ghost first appeared in 1966 with an action cartoon series that was, though formulaic, particularly violent and fun along the same lines as Jonny Quest. He may not have been terribly “dark” or “brooding”, but there was no doubt that he was an action character. Then the 90’s happened; Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Cartoon Planet and the Brak Show Read more »

In 1991, director Paul Berry animated this dark and unnerving stop-motion short film which would go on to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film, Animated. In my humble opinion, the Sandman should have won the award, as it is genuinely an amazing piece of work. The atmosphere, music and technical sophistication are astonishing and it’s an excellent video to watch around Halloween-time. Its nine o’clock and time for children to go to bed. A small boy is sent up to his room all alone with only a dim oil lamp to guide his way. He trembles beneath his covers, as creaking floorboards and howling winds fill Read more »

One day in 1987, Fantasia and Heavy Metal met in a bar. They had a few drinks, got to talking and eventually went back to Heavy Metal’s place. And that’s how Robot Carnival came to be. When I say that Robot Carnival is a fusion of Fantasia and Heavy Metal, I’m not being a smarty-pants. It is an animated anthology film with each segment containing stories set to orchestrational, industrial and techno music, very reminiscent of Fantasia. However, many of the stories carry more modern, darker sci-fi fantasy tones that are really in-tune with what you’d see in Heavy Metal (just without the gratuitous nudity). The film is honestly marvelous, Read more »

Normally I don’t bother with harem animes since I pretty much know they’re not my thing. However, working at the Anime USA convention as a video ops staff member this year, one of my assignments was to sit in the video rooms and make sure nobody stole the equipment. That also meant I had to watch whatever was playing, and it just so happens one of those titles was Maburaho. I’ll just get it off my chest right now, I didn’t like the show. Mostly because harem animes aren’t my thing and also because the gags were just plain stupid. Never-the-less, looking at the show objectively (or as objectively as Read more »

Ssso, I had just kidnapped two scientists and ordered them to construct for me a massive ssuper weapon capable of harnessing the magma of the Earth’s molten core in order to raise the planet’s temperature just enough to increase property value in Wyoming (which I had intended to turn into the world’s largest quicksand pit once the foolish Americans had moved in), when that color-shifting fool, Zartan, approaches me demanding I watch thiss new movie he wass obsessed with. Now, under normal circumstances I would never take film recommendations from some Aussie biker freak with a sskin condition, but Zartan wass irritatingly insistent that I watch what he called “the Read more »