Three from Filmation
March 14, 2018 6:53 PM Subscribe
In addition to Star Trek: The Animated Series, He-Man, She-Ra and some other fondly-remembered shows, Filmation also produced, well, a lot of ridiculous crap. Here is some: an hour of "Fraidy Cat," nearly two hours of "Quackula" (unrelated to Cosgrove-Hall's much better Count Duckula), and an unsold pilot for "Dick Digit," an action/comedy show, that has to be seen to be believed.
Courtesy of random YouTube searches and the files of MST Club.
Fraidy Cat premiered on the little-seen, little-remembered Uncle Croc's Block, which was live-action bits starring Charles Nelson Reilly as the titular Uncle Croc. Croc didn't even last a whole season, but Fraidy Cat would show up as bits in other shows for a while. F.C. is a cat on his ninth life, and thus deathly afraid of the coming annihilation (although we humans only get one life, and we don't fall to pieces like this, or most of us don't anyway). Unexplained, however, is that if he says any of the numbers one through eight, he summons the spirits of his previous lives. They're an amiable, even friendly, bunch (with a couple of exceptions), but they're all hopelessly incompetent, and usually get Fraidy in more trouble than he had been in before. Even less explained is the fact that, if he says "nine," what is summoned is an evil malevolent cloud in the shape of the numeral 9, which pursues him and tries to electrocute him with lightning bolts. Do not look for explanations for any of this, for there are none.
Quackula was a rotating bit in Filmation's New Adventures of Mighty Mouse hour, also including Heckle & Jeckle. Quackula was the only original character on the show, and his name was apparently too close to that of an existing comic book property, so when the hour was cut down it was an easy excision. Quackula is a vampire duck (again, not Cosgrove-Hall's friendlier and funnier vegetarian vampire) who lives in the basement of a spooky mansion, who loves scaring the wits out of the upstairs tenant, a hapless bear. He notably rests in a padded, egg-shaped coffin that gets stuck when opening it. There is more Quackula on YouTube, but it's in Spanish.
Very little is known about Dick Digit. I read somewhere that the pilot was found in a collection of cartoons on DVD in the UK. The seven-minute cartoon contains more WTF per pound than most things that aren't Trump speeches, so enjoy! Especially entertaining are the ghostly face that haunts The Jester's marionette, Jester telling his parrot friend "You're no bird, you're a chicken!", when asked to help a tiny spaceman proclaims "With what, somersaults?!" and the evil space spectres, who destroy things by shrinking them with their shrink ray on their James Bond-style ray table, and say stuff like "DOUBLE the power!" and "Maximum FORCE!" for no reason.
Extra: the intro to "Sport Billy", which also doesn't make much sense, but is apparently a licensed character from overseas or somewhere.
Courtesy of random YouTube searches and the files of MST Club.
Fraidy Cat premiered on the little-seen, little-remembered Uncle Croc's Block, which was live-action bits starring Charles Nelson Reilly as the titular Uncle Croc. Croc didn't even last a whole season, but Fraidy Cat would show up as bits in other shows for a while. F.C. is a cat on his ninth life, and thus deathly afraid of the coming annihilation (although we humans only get one life, and we don't fall to pieces like this, or most of us don't anyway). Unexplained, however, is that if he says any of the numbers one through eight, he summons the spirits of his previous lives. They're an amiable, even friendly, bunch (with a couple of exceptions), but they're all hopelessly incompetent, and usually get Fraidy in more trouble than he had been in before. Even less explained is the fact that, if he says "nine," what is summoned is an evil malevolent cloud in the shape of the numeral 9, which pursues him and tries to electrocute him with lightning bolts. Do not look for explanations for any of this, for there are none.
Quackula was a rotating bit in Filmation's New Adventures of Mighty Mouse hour, also including Heckle & Jeckle. Quackula was the only original character on the show, and his name was apparently too close to that of an existing comic book property, so when the hour was cut down it was an easy excision. Quackula is a vampire duck (again, not Cosgrove-Hall's friendlier and funnier vegetarian vampire) who lives in the basement of a spooky mansion, who loves scaring the wits out of the upstairs tenant, a hapless bear. He notably rests in a padded, egg-shaped coffin that gets stuck when opening it. There is more Quackula on YouTube, but it's in Spanish.
Very little is known about Dick Digit. I read somewhere that the pilot was found in a collection of cartoons on DVD in the UK. The seven-minute cartoon contains more WTF per pound than most things that aren't Trump speeches, so enjoy! Especially entertaining are the ghostly face that haunts The Jester's marionette, Jester telling his parrot friend "You're no bird, you're a chicken!", when asked to help a tiny spaceman proclaims "With what, somersaults?!" and the evil space spectres, who destroy things by shrinking them with their shrink ray on their James Bond-style ray table, and say stuff like "DOUBLE the power!" and "Maximum FORCE!" for no reason.
Extra: the intro to "Sport Billy", which also doesn't make much sense, but is apparently a licensed character from overseas or somewhere.
Charles Nelson Reilly -- God love him, no wonder he drank his vodka by the bottle.
posted by Countess Elena at 7:27 PM on March 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Countess Elena at 7:27 PM on March 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
I remember Fraidy Cat from its place in the rotating segments on The Groovie Goolies reruns. It was actually one of the better ones. Such a grim, kooky premise! (The very best was a half-hour of the Groovie Goolies themselves. The very worst was Lassie's Rescue Rangers. If The Groovie Goolies was kind of like opening a box of assorted chocolates every afternoon, the Lassie episodes were like biting into one of those gross creme things.)
That Dick Digit episode was fascinating, reminding me of nothing so much as a fantastical Daniel Clowes Eightball story. (Although "Dick Digit" is a truly unfortunate name, sounding a little too much like a foreign language edition of Edward Penishands.)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 7:29 PM on March 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
That Dick Digit episode was fascinating, reminding me of nothing so much as a fantastical Daniel Clowes Eightball story. (Although "Dick Digit" is a truly unfortunate name, sounding a little too much like a foreign language edition of Edward Penishands.)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 7:29 PM on March 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
My dad LOVED Uncle Croc's Block! He'll flip when I show him these clips. Thanks!
posted by Krazor at 7:54 PM on March 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Krazor at 7:54 PM on March 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Truly, there is no bottom to the Hole of Cartoon Badness.
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:17 PM on March 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:17 PM on March 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
Filmation is also known for the first Superman cartoons since the Fleischers' WWII-era toons: "The New Adventures of Superman" had three 6-minute segments per half hour, with a Smallville-based Superboy in the middle one; then the next year expanded to "The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure", (the highest profile the super-swimmer got in the 20th century), plus one or two segments per hour of various other DC heroes (including the Atom, Flash, Green Lantern and Hawkman); but when the prime time Batman was cancelled they segued quickly to "The Superman/Batman Hour".
At the same time, Filmation had a couple less popular series based on scifi properties: "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "Fantastic Voyage", both which lasted one season of 17 episodes, plus a year of reruns (the Saturday Morning minimum at the time).
When protests over violence in kids' cartoons endangered superheroes on Saturday Morning, Filmation committed to another comic book franchise: "Archie". One form or another of "The Archie Show" ran for over 10 years, with "The Archies" faux musical group getting the #1 hit "Sugar Sugar" (lead singer Ron Dante is one of the biggest pop stars you've NEVER heard of) and spinning off the first TV version of "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" that, in turn, spun off "The Groovy Goolies" featuring comedic parodies of classic movie monsters (when nobody was seriously enforcing their copyrights).
To me, the most notable Archie variation was "Archie's TV Funnies", which rotated segments featuring various already-existing syndicated comic strips including Dick Tracy, The Captain and the Kids, Emmy Lou, Nancy and Sluggo, and Broom-Hilda. Because Filmation never seemed to give up on an idea, its was revived a few years later as "Fabulous Funnies", substituting comic strip caveman Alley Oop for Archie as host.
Most of Filmation's series were 'cartoon versions of something else', including The Hardy Boys, The Brady Kids, Jerry Lewis (characters from some of his movies), Lassie, Tarzan, Gilligan's Island (plus a later "Gilligan's Planet" set in outer space) and My Favorite Martian. Plus frequently recycled cartoon franchises Mighty Mouse and Tom & Jerry.
Next to Superman, Archie and Star Trek, Filmation's most famous second-hand franchise was "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids".
But as the main post pointed out, Filmation occasionally made shows from original concepts and they were generally not very good, including a live-action Saturday Morning comedy starring Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch as "The Ghost Busters" (and the reason the carton based on the later hit movie was "The REAL Ghostbusters").
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:34 PM on March 14, 2018 [12 favorites]
At the same time, Filmation had a couple less popular series based on scifi properties: "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "Fantastic Voyage", both which lasted one season of 17 episodes, plus a year of reruns (the Saturday Morning minimum at the time).
When protests over violence in kids' cartoons endangered superheroes on Saturday Morning, Filmation committed to another comic book franchise: "Archie". One form or another of "The Archie Show" ran for over 10 years, with "The Archies" faux musical group getting the #1 hit "Sugar Sugar" (lead singer Ron Dante is one of the biggest pop stars you've NEVER heard of) and spinning off the first TV version of "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" that, in turn, spun off "The Groovy Goolies" featuring comedic parodies of classic movie monsters (when nobody was seriously enforcing their copyrights).
To me, the most notable Archie variation was "Archie's TV Funnies", which rotated segments featuring various already-existing syndicated comic strips including Dick Tracy, The Captain and the Kids, Emmy Lou, Nancy and Sluggo, and Broom-Hilda. Because Filmation never seemed to give up on an idea, its was revived a few years later as "Fabulous Funnies", substituting comic strip caveman Alley Oop for Archie as host.
Most of Filmation's series were 'cartoon versions of something else', including The Hardy Boys, The Brady Kids, Jerry Lewis (characters from some of his movies), Lassie, Tarzan, Gilligan's Island (plus a later "Gilligan's Planet" set in outer space) and My Favorite Martian. Plus frequently recycled cartoon franchises Mighty Mouse and Tom & Jerry.
Next to Superman, Archie and Star Trek, Filmation's most famous second-hand franchise was "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids".
But as the main post pointed out, Filmation occasionally made shows from original concepts and they were generally not very good, including a live-action Saturday Morning comedy starring Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch as "The Ghost Busters" (and the reason the carton based on the later hit movie was "The REAL Ghostbusters").
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:34 PM on March 14, 2018 [12 favorites]
The funny thing is, they RE-MADE "Ghost Busters" as an actual cartoon. When you said "live action," I thought "that surely cannot be!" but there you go. Filmmation: remaking things that shouldn't have been made in the first place!
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 8:40 PM on March 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 8:40 PM on March 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
Foop, you're a treasure!
I wanted to keep the focus to these cartoons, but Filmation had better stuff. I have on a hard drive somewhere a lot (if not all) of their rotoscoped Tarzan cartoon. There's a joke in our circle how Tarzan was always swinging on the same vine, over the same river, into which the same crocodile was always entering. They had a pretty decently rendered (if repetitive) Flash Gordon cartoon for a while too, as well as Plastic Man.
Filmation's comedy tended not to be so good. Fraidy Cat has its moments sometimes, but the addition of that damn laugh track undercut a lot of it, making subtlety impossible. I think we all have our own personal "evil malevolent" Number Nines chasing us through our lives in one way or another. Quackula, however, is nearly unwatchable now. Crazy-funny cartoons don't take to their limited animation gimmick well.
Dick Digit is inexplicable. There's got to be scripts for a prospective series somewhere (if Hallmark didn't burn them). How was it supposed to go forward from there?
posted by JHarris at 8:42 PM on March 14, 2018
I wanted to keep the focus to these cartoons, but Filmation had better stuff. I have on a hard drive somewhere a lot (if not all) of their rotoscoped Tarzan cartoon. There's a joke in our circle how Tarzan was always swinging on the same vine, over the same river, into which the same crocodile was always entering. They had a pretty decently rendered (if repetitive) Flash Gordon cartoon for a while too, as well as Plastic Man.
Filmation's comedy tended not to be so good. Fraidy Cat has its moments sometimes, but the addition of that damn laugh track undercut a lot of it, making subtlety impossible. I think we all have our own personal "evil malevolent" Number Nines chasing us through our lives in one way or another. Quackula, however, is nearly unwatchable now. Crazy-funny cartoons don't take to their limited animation gimmick well.
Dick Digit is inexplicable. There's got to be scripts for a prospective series somewhere (if Hallmark didn't burn them). How was it supposed to go forward from there?
posted by JHarris at 8:42 PM on March 14, 2018
Fraidy Cat creeps me out. He looks miserable. Not just hangdog, but genuinely terrified. It’s like it’s a nightmare about watching an old cartoon where terrible things begin to happen.
posted by Countess Elena at 8:55 PM on March 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by Countess Elena at 8:55 PM on March 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
Oh my god. Bits of my barely remembered childhood here with Fraidy Cat!. Terrible but sometimes amazingly weird animation, writing, voice work. I remember distinctly the little intro motto, but didn’t remember much more. SO WEIRD. So many drugs were smoked making this shit!
Bookmarking for later perusal. Thanks!
posted by edheil at 9:04 PM on March 14, 2018
Bookmarking for later perusal. Thanks!
posted by edheil at 9:04 PM on March 14, 2018
Countless Elena, that’s exactly it! Fraidy Cat is part of the constellation of half memories that makes Candle Cove seem so real to those of us who were little in the 70s.
Every so often I come upon something on the internet that makes me say “my god, that wasn’t a fever dream, that really was on television during the 70s.” That’s happening here big time.
posted by edheil at 9:08 PM on March 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Every so often I come upon something on the internet that makes me say “my god, that wasn’t a fever dream, that really was on television during the 70s.” That’s happening here big time.
posted by edheil at 9:08 PM on March 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Thanks for sharing. I knew about the Ghosterbusters one but the others are new to me. Checking Fraidy cat, beyond being struck by the unsettling horror in his face + laughtrack combo, the attacking cloud-number had me thinking... Where have I seen something like that before?
Any square one TV fans: Mr. Glitch from mathman?? Grumbling, lightning shooting tornado? Reasonable comp for grumbling, lightning shooting cartoon numbers.
posted by Theophrastus Johnson at 9:27 PM on March 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
Any square one TV fans: Mr. Glitch from mathman?? Grumbling, lightning shooting tornado? Reasonable comp for grumbling, lightning shooting cartoon numbers.
posted by Theophrastus Johnson at 9:27 PM on March 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
There's a joke in our circle how Tarzan was always swinging on the same vine, over the same river, into which the same crocodile was always entering.
For me it was how in the 1960's Spider-man cartoon, even though the three seasons were produced by two different cartoon studios (Grantray-Lawrence and Krantz Films), every time Spidey started swinging on his webbing, it was from the same building, down the same street, to the same building.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:27 PM on March 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
For me it was how in the 1960's Spider-man cartoon, even though the three seasons were produced by two different cartoon studios (Grantray-Lawrence and Krantz Films), every time Spidey started swinging on his webbing, it was from the same building, down the same street, to the same building.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:27 PM on March 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
Mr. Glitch from mathman??
I was pretty young when Square One was on and holy shit was I terrifed of the Mathman segment. It legit gave me nightmares. Something about the animation style, combined with Mathman's monotone repetition of his name, Mr. Glitch's mumbling, and Mathman's inevitable demise - because I knew he was doomed to eventually eat the wrong number every episode - straight up haunted me. It could be the reason I've disliked math my whole life. And why I've always been unsettled by the design of U of M's football helmets
posted by Hey Dean Yeager! at 9:55 PM on March 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
I was pretty young when Square One was on and holy shit was I terrifed of the Mathman segment. It legit gave me nightmares. Something about the animation style, combined with Mathman's monotone repetition of his name, Mr. Glitch's mumbling, and Mathman's inevitable demise - because I knew he was doomed to eventually eat the wrong number every episode - straight up haunted me. It could be the reason I've disliked math my whole life. And why I've always been unsettled by the design of U of M's football helmets
posted by Hey Dean Yeager! at 9:55 PM on March 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
The weird glowing silhouettes they did for the aliens in Dick Digit are actually pretty excellent.
posted by straight at 11:01 PM on March 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by straight at 11:01 PM on March 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Dick Digit looks oddly similar to UK cartoon favourite Bananaman.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 3:24 AM on March 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by GallonOfAlan at 3:24 AM on March 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
Sport Billy played occasionally on NZ TV during the 80s and was as dire as the opening credits made it look. It had a vague theme of encouraging kids to take up outdoor activities, which it admirably achieved by stinking up the screen so much that even the laziest child would go outside.
posted by AndrewStephens at 5:03 AM on March 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by AndrewStephens at 5:03 AM on March 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
With the exception of Dick Digit, there is not a single series mentioned by JHarris or oneswellfoop that I did not watch on Saturday mornings as a kid. All of them.
posted by briank at 5:21 AM on March 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by briank at 5:21 AM on March 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
Dick Digit is inexplicable. There's got to be scripts for a prospective series somewhere (if Hallmark didn't burn them). How was it supposed to go forward from there?
A google search turns up some Dick Digit fanfic.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 5:27 AM on March 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
A google search turns up some Dick Digit fanfic.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 5:27 AM on March 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
"The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure", (the highest profile the super-swimmer got in the 20th century)
Didn't they remake him in the 90s as a Kurt Cobain-esque grungemuffin? Did that go anywhere?
posted by acb at 5:31 AM on March 15, 2018
Didn't they remake him in the 90s as a Kurt Cobain-esque grungemuffin? Did that go anywhere?
posted by acb at 5:31 AM on March 15, 2018
"plus one or two segments per hour of various other DC heroes (including the Atom, Flash, Green Lantern and Hawkman)
AND Teen Titans and Justice League. One JLA segment had the ultimate super-hero moment. Space aliens used a tractor beam to pull the Earth out of orbit - while the other Leaguers took care of the aliens, Superman did a handstand on the ground and pushed Earth back into its proper orbit.
AND the Superman cartoons had two voice actors from the Superman radio show - Jackson Beck as just about every male character, and Bud Collyer as the Man of Steel.
"This is a job...for SUPERMAN!"
posted by Billiken at 5:57 AM on March 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
AND Teen Titans and Justice League. One JLA segment had the ultimate super-hero moment. Space aliens used a tractor beam to pull the Earth out of orbit - while the other Leaguers took care of the aliens, Superman did a handstand on the ground and pushed Earth back into its proper orbit.
AND the Superman cartoons had two voice actors from the Superman radio show - Jackson Beck as just about every male character, and Bud Collyer as the Man of Steel.
"This is a job...for SUPERMAN!"
posted by Billiken at 5:57 AM on March 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
I think my favorite filmation creation was The New Adventures of Flash Gordon. The retro style was up my alley, and animation was better than the average craptacular Filmation production.
I think the thing that annoyed me most about them was using the same canned music across different shows. I still recall the "uplifting fanfare" clip they recycled to death.
For me it was how in the 1960's Spider-man cartoon, even though the three seasons were produced by two different cartoon studios (Grantray-Lawrence and Krantz Films), every time Spidey started swinging on his webbing, it was from the same building, down the same street, to the same building.
I remember the loop of Spidey traversing the city hanging from... ???? What could he possibly be suspended from? Blimps? I also thought he would be easily trackable since he apparently left residual webs wherever he travelled. *shrugs*
posted by 2N2222 at 6:11 AM on March 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
I think the thing that annoyed me most about them was using the same canned music across different shows. I still recall the "uplifting fanfare" clip they recycled to death.
For me it was how in the 1960's Spider-man cartoon, even though the three seasons were produced by two different cartoon studios (Grantray-Lawrence and Krantz Films), every time Spidey started swinging on his webbing, it was from the same building, down the same street, to the same building.
I remember the loop of Spidey traversing the city hanging from... ???? What could he possibly be suspended from? Blimps? I also thought he would be easily trackable since he apparently left residual webs wherever he travelled. *shrugs*
posted by 2N2222 at 6:11 AM on March 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
I *LOVED* the Ghost Busters ("I'm Spencer, he's Tracy. I'm Kong!") I mean, that joke was already worth the whole show. ("See? The GORILLA is named TRACY!") My brother and I sang that song all the time.
It's got to explain something about something, how much we loved that terrible show with that amazing talent. Wow. Poor guys...
posted by allthinky at 7:23 AM on March 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
It's got to explain something about something, how much we loved that terrible show with that amazing talent. Wow. Poor guys...
posted by allthinky at 7:23 AM on March 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
I think my favorite filmation creation was The New Adventures of Flash Gordon.
Yeah, I remember that as being really surprisingly good.
On the other hand, I also remember how abysmally low the bar was back then, so maybe it's not nearly as good as I remember - just not quite as awful as everything else on Saturday morning TV back then.
Remember Saturday morning TV? When I was a kid, they would air specials on the Friday night before the new Saturday morning cartoon season took off to give kids a sneak peak. We waited for those with great anticipation.)
posted by Naberius at 8:57 AM on March 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
Yeah, I remember that as being really surprisingly good.
On the other hand, I also remember how abysmally low the bar was back then, so maybe it's not nearly as good as I remember - just not quite as awful as everything else on Saturday morning TV back then.
Remember Saturday morning TV? When I was a kid, they would air specials on the Friday night before the new Saturday morning cartoon season took off to give kids a sneak peak. We waited for those with great anticipation.)
posted by Naberius at 8:57 AM on March 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
Sport Billy! (And Lily and Willy!) I remember these from my time spent as a kid in Eastern Europe in the 80s. No one used to believe me that it was real, and I couldn't even find it in the early days of YT to prove I wasn't making it up. Then I met a guy my age who grew up in Germany and he confirmed it was real (seriously I was actually relieved).
And omg Count Duckula! I forgot about it until now! And it totally explains why Darkwing Duck always seemed so familiar even though it was new!
posted by A hidden well at 9:03 AM on March 15, 2018
And omg Count Duckula! I forgot about it until now! And it totally explains why Darkwing Duck always seemed so familiar even though it was new!
posted by A hidden well at 9:03 AM on March 15, 2018
The Cartoon Research blog's weekly Animation Anecdotes feature has one item about Filmation and their efforts to get into the theatrical animation biz in the '80s:
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:24 PM on March 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
In 1985, Filmation announced it would produce thirteen animated feature length films beginning with The New Adventures of Pinocchio. They were each budgeted at about six million dollars and would be ninety minutes long. The plan was to release each film theatrically, then to home video, followed by a television release. Filmation claimed that their research showed a strong demand for family entertainment and a shortage of “quality animated product”.Here's the trailer for the finished Pinocchio movie and the entire movie, if you dare.
The other planned films included Snow White and the Seven Dwarfelles, The Challenge of Cinderella, Time Machine II: The Man Who Saved the Future, Bambi: Prince of the Forest, 20 Million Leagues Across the Universe, Frankenstein Lives Again!, The Further Adventures of Gulliver, The Son of Sleeping Beauty, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, The Continuing Adventures of The Jungle Book, New Tales of The Arabian Nights and Alice Returns to Wonderland.
Disney sued to halt these productions but Filmation countered that the characters and stories were in public domain. The judge decided in Filmation’s favor but stated that after the films were released, if any part infringed on Disney’s intellectual property, Disney could then sue. So, for the Pinocchio movie, Filmation could use Gepetto who was in the original book but not the name of Jiminy Cricket which was a Disney creation. So Filmation changed the name of the cricket to “G. Willikers” which was another popular exclamation.
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:24 PM on March 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
Boy, has there ever been a good TV show whose title started with, "The New Adventures of"?
posted by rhizome at 11:50 PM on March 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 11:50 PM on March 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
Dick Digit feels like the 196x version of the Weird Kids YouTube stuff. Take a bunch of stuff kids have liked in the past, jumble them up, pick a few and make a cartoon as quickly as you can. With odd moments of beauty - the aliens made up of what looked like a shimmering energy field effect left over from the transporter scenes in Star Trek were pretty cool!
posted by egypturnash at 12:21 AM on March 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by egypturnash at 12:21 AM on March 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
Quackula has... a lot of mugging for the camera, you can say that about it at least. I loved Duckula when I was a kid, and I don't know if it's nostalgia, or that it's extremely British, or what, but I agree it still holds up and is way better than Quackula seems, if that episode is any indication.
There's a LOT of mugging for the camera.
posted by elsilnora at 7:39 AM on March 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
There's a LOT of mugging for the camera.
posted by elsilnora at 7:39 AM on March 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
There's a particular repetition to Quackula's camera mugging because most of the animation is canned bits made for reuse. So, the mugging is basically baked into the character. And to switch between the bits of canned animation, most Filmation cartoons are full of cuts between them, giving their cartoons a kind of jumpy feeling.
For their "action" cartoons it's actually not so bad, because the shots can be long enough to give, say, He-Man a long run-up to the thing he's about to punch, or Man-At-Arms the chance to stand still and talk for a couple of seconds, turning his head slightly along the way. For a wanna-be frenetic comedy cartoon, they're really jarring. Characters who start walking from a standstill tend to either have a cut to hide the transition, or instantly disappear in a puff of smoke and a "zoom" effect.
A lot more could be said about this. There's certainly a lot of examples available on YouTube.
posted by JHarris at 5:17 PM on March 19, 2018
For their "action" cartoons it's actually not so bad, because the shots can be long enough to give, say, He-Man a long run-up to the thing he's about to punch, or Man-At-Arms the chance to stand still and talk for a couple of seconds, turning his head slightly along the way. For a wanna-be frenetic comedy cartoon, they're really jarring. Characters who start walking from a standstill tend to either have a cut to hide the transition, or instantly disappear in a puff of smoke and a "zoom" effect.
A lot more could be said about this. There's certainly a lot of examples available on YouTube.
posted by JHarris at 5:17 PM on March 19, 2018
The Dick Digit thing was fascinating to me because it was like outsider art, truly strange and creepy, but with the look of a fully-produced, old-fashioned Saturday morning cartoons. It's kind of a wonderful thing and I'm sorry that it never became a series even as I enjoy it as a bizarro one-off.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:38 PM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:38 PM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
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posted by JHarris at 6:56 PM on March 14, 2018 [1 favorite]