Top 10 Tuesday: Cartoon Franchises We Wish Were Films

While you savored your colorful eggs, Marshmallow Peeps, and chocolate bunnies this past holiday weekend, many ventured out to their local theaters to cheer on the Joes in G.I. JOE: RETALIATION. Paramount Pictures’ Easter basket was overflowing as the action-figure fueled movie took in over $132 million across the globe. Here in the U.S. the Jon M. Chu sequel totaled in the $51 million range.

This isn’t the first cartoon franchise to hit the big screen and won’t be the last. When TV was king, Frankenstein, Jr. and The Impossibles, Pirates of Dark Water, Valley of the Dinosaurs teleported us to another place and the animation studio Hanna-Barbera reigned supreme in every kid’s universe.

Filmgoers have seen their beloved Saturday morning shows and comic book heroes transfer from the small screen to wildly, gigantic movie heroes. Whether you grew up with them as a kid planted in front of the TV with a bowl of Sugar Smacks or collected the comics with your weekly allowance, you have to admit, some of your favorites you’d give anything to see in the cinema.

With that in mind, the geeks came up with the ten Cartoon Franchises We Wish Were Films.

Let’s start with our honorable mention – the muscular one… JOHNNY BRAVO.

A Cartoon Network original, JOHNNY BRAVO is a real man’s cartoon… albeit, not one that highlights our genders’ mental capacity. Starring an egotistical, bodybuilding would-be ladies’ man with an Elvis-style pompadour, Johnny Bravo is always trying to get the girls and he would to, if his own hilarious stupidity wasn’t always getting in his own way. Sit back, relax and watch this muscular moron repeatedly make a fool of himself while popping wise cracks and delivering endless lines of unforgettable dialogue. The plot may sound silly and worn out, but the show remains a popular favorite around the world, even in reruns. “hoo ha hooah!”

10. DEPUTY DAWG

This iconic drawling dim-witted Southern-fried crime-fightin’ canine was one of the last animated superstars from Terrytoons studios. Cartoonist Paul Terry started the company near the beginning of the film industry and gained initial fame with the Farmer Alfalfa series. When talkies began, his cartoons were released by 20th Century Fox. Terry’s biggest stars were the two wise-cracking magpies Heckle and Jekyll and that operatic super-rodent, Mighty Mouse. He was one of the first to see the potential of television and sold the company to CBS. Soon they were producing animation exclusively for TV, and in 1962 they syndicated “The Deputy Dawg Show” to local stations. DD was so popular in the Southern states that his seven minute adventures were shown at theatres and drive-ins. Perhaps a savvy film maker could concoct a SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT parody with the critters. Several members of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour could provide the voices for the CGI Deputy, Musky, and Vince as they raced and chased through a live-action backwoods backdrop. As for the only human regular character, DD’s long-suffering superior officer, can you imagine Hollywood’s “Mr. Cranky” Tommy Lee Jones sporting a droopy white mustache as “the Sheriff”? As that rascally Musky would say, “It’s possa-bull!”.

9. DINO-RIDERS

Amongst the many cartoon series produced to promote a line of action toys for boys, DINO-RIDERS was amongst the less successful, first airing in 1988 and only producing 14 episodes. Despite the series’ relative failure, it was still a blast for it’s more discerning fans and did enjoy a more successful toy launch from Tyco, complete with a matured collectible following that now has these rare toys bringing top dollar. The story has the good guys, the Valorians, fighting off the evil Rulons in a prehistoric Earth. Consider JURASSIC PARK meeting MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, whereas the two opposing forces strap armor and heavy weapons onto dinosaurs and head into full scale kick-ass battle. How much better can this get?

8. THE TICK

What began as a comic book series, became part of Fox Kid’s Saturday morning line up. People across the board loved the quirky quality about it – played so well to young and old alike. In the comics The Tick was an escapee from an asylum while in the TV series the creators made him “Protector” of the city with his sidekick Arthur.

A send up of the superhero genre, the charm and comedy of the animated series has gained a huge cult following. With a nod to the big band era, the show has a snappy opening theme song. THE TICK went from cartoon to TV show that starred Patrick Warburton, David Burke, Liz Vassey and Nestor Carbonell, How’d we love to see this cast in a big screen movie, where there would be budget and time enough to make a live action TICK work.

7. HUCKLEBERRY HOUND

This early Hanna Barbera TV superstar first hit TV screens in syndication way back in 1958, voiced by the astounding voice artist Daws Butler. The blue-furred pup with the Southern drawl (which was not an imitation of Mayberry’s Andy Griffith, as many believe) crooned an off-key version of “My Darling Clementine” while tackling a different profession in each of his seven minute shorts (his show introduced a character who became an even bigger star who’s already had two feature films, Yogi Bear). Perhaps a film could be done with Huck wrecking havoc as he goes from job to job (computer programmer? reality TV star?). So who might give the CGI character a voice? I can almost hear Matthew McConaughey’s laid-back dulcet tones.

6. SHE-RA: PRINCESS OF POWER

Any girl from the 80’s knows that She-Ra was the girl to be! Her, along with the Great Rebellion fought to free their home Etheria from the menacing Hordak and his Evil Horde. They’ve already brought the story of her twin brother He-Man to the big screen. Now it’s time to see the Princess Of Power come to life! Her and her horse Swift Wind are sure to make for a magical flick.

5. THE HERCULOIDS

This was another Hanna-Barbera CBS-TV Saturday morning cartoon produced during the big superhero craze of 1967, also designed by the prolific comic book artist Alex Toth. Instead of a caped crime fighter, this show combined fantasy elements with science fiction (often described as a futurist Tarzan family). The series concerned a human family (father Zandor, mother Tara, and son Dorno) who defended their home planet (referred to as Amzot or Quasar) from countless invading alien forces. Luckily the trio enlisted a group of friendly (and very cool) monsters for help. There was Zok the flying space dragon, Tundro a charging rhino/elephant hybrid, the elastic shape-changing duo of Gloop and Gleep, and, my fave, the powerful, towering rock-ape Igoo. Modern computer effects would be able to bring these fantastic creatures to thrilling life as they battle alongside human actors (I’m seeing Nicolas Cage as Zandor). Perhaps the heroes could aid a group of lost Earth astronauts. An exciting live big-screen adventure could have kids flocking to the multiplexes and the toy stores (I can imagine a “silly putty”-like Gloop).

4. SPACE GHOST

The enormous impact of the 1966 Batman TV show changed the face of Saturday mornings that following September. The head of CBS daytime programming. Fred Silverman (yeah, that one), wanted superheroes from the animation houses. Hanna Barbera Studios were happy to comply. They enlisted comic book artist Alex Toth to design the guardian of the galaxy, Space Ghost (or as his voice actor, the wonderful Gary Owens, bellows in the opening titles, “Spaaaace Ghoooost!”). Here’s one of Toth’s model guides for him:

Along with his young wards, twins Jan and Jayce (voiced by Jonny Quest’s Tim Matheson) and their pet monkey Blip, they thwarted the plans of alien evil-doers like Brak and Moltar. Decades later SG was the clueless, dimbulb talk show host on Cartoon Network’s “Space Ghost: Coast to Coast” in the 1990’s. That show was pretty entertaining even to a SG purist like myself, but I’d love to see a full-out, big-screen space epic using state of the art effects. I’m sure producers could find actors who could fill out the white spandex properly (if only Alec Baldwin were a tad younger), as long as they don’t attempt the gutteral-growl of another big screen superhero (take away his pointy ears and Batman looks just like SG). A great feature film could be made of SG’s origin (where’d he get those cool wrist power bands?), meeting the twins, and a plot by the show’s formidable monster rogue’s gallery. Blip could be done in CGI along with the villains, voiced by some great current actors (the producers would be smart to enlist “Coast to Coast”‘s titnaic triple-threat of talent C. Martin Croker as Zorak, a nasty preying mantis). Click below for a special treat. From the recent “Batman: the Brave and the Bold” series, here’s the team-up that cartoon fans have wanted for nearly 50 years (well, they’re now both in the Warner family):

3. THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN

The future, far into the future, a post-apocalyptic world divided into kingdoms ruled by wizards may sound like the next big summer blockbuster movie plot, but in fact it’s a popular cartoon series from the early eighties. With inspiration drawn directly from the likes of CONAN THE BARBARIAN meets FLASH GORDON, THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN was created by Steve Gerber, who brought us Marvel comics HOWARD THE DUCK (the original). The hero Thundarr finds himself up against werewolves, lizard-men and other strange and evil half-man hybrids and mutants, ready to battle whatever comes his way with his trusty weapon, the Sunsword. Go ahead, read this again and tell me this doesn’t scream Hollywood blockbuster.

2. SUPERFRIENDS

The 1970’s. What a great time to be a kid. No seatbelts in cars, playing outside until the street lights came on, real sugar cereal, Saturday-only cartoons… and Super Friends!

Based on the Justice League comic books, Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman, headquarted at the Hall of Justice, battled the Legion of Doom’s Lex Luthor, Giganta, Toyman, the Riddler, Bizarro, the Scarecrow, Captain Cold, Cheetah, Solomon Grundy, Gorilla Grodd, Brainiac, and Sinestro. These super villains’ home was the Hall of Doom and, when it wasn’t flying around, was hidden in a murky swamp. Every show came complete with a baritone voiced narrator to catch newcomers up on the action.

Ask anyone who grew up in the early 70’s if they remember watching Super Friends during ABC’s Saturday morning lineup, their first response will most likely be Zan and Jayna’s “Wonder Twins Powers Activate!”

1. JONNY QUEST

Ah yes, the grandaddy of American adventure action animations shows made for TV. After leaving the MGM theatrical animated shorts department, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera leaped into television with the funny animal characters Ruff and Reddy, Huckleberry Hound, and Yogi Bear. They then decided to enter the world of prime time TV with “The Flintstones”. Its popularity prompted Bill and Joe to follow-up with “The Jetsons”, “Top Cat” and “Jonny Quest”. Yup, this future Saturday morning staple began airing in 1964 on ABC’s prime time schedule. But this would be no toon sitcom complete with laugh track. This was a rough and tumble adventure along the line of movie serials and radio plays (for a time HB considered getting the rights to the old “Jack Armstrong” radio show). And this new show would feature realistically rendered humans, so comic book vet Doug Wildley was brought in to design this dark and dangerous world. JQ focused on the globe-trotting escapades of pre-teen, blond Jonny (voiced by future ANIMAL HOUSE ladies’ man Tim Matheson) the only son of world-famous scientific genius Dr. Benton Quest. The doc was a recent widower, so the US assigned their toughest agent, Race Bannon (he could take on all of U.N.C.L.E. combined) to be Jonny’s caregiver (so no enemy agents could grab Jonny and force the doc to work for the bad guys). After the thrilling pilot ” The Mystery of the Lizard Men” Bill and Joe shook things up by introducing one of the first cartoon heroes of color, the exotic and mysterious Hadji. This turban-clad, Nehru-jacket wearing kid was the coolest pal anybody could want. And Dr.Quest adopted him! Jonny, his brother Hadji, and Race sent countless goons to their makers over the course of the next 25 episodes (the TV censors were much more lenient in the early 60’s). Oh, they had a dog, the hyper, mini-bulldog Bandit (the token cute funny animal). There’s been talk over the years of bringing the show to the big screen (Zac Efron as JQ?). Let’s hope a great action director takes on the task. As for casting, think of a ginger Robert Downey, Jr. (minus the snarky attitude) as the doc. For Race, maybe after Daniel Craig hangs up his 007 tux, his blond locks could go platinum white. Perhaps Angelina Jolie or Scarlett Johansson could be his nomadic girlfriend Jezabel Jade. Oh and series arch-nemesis Dr. Zin (with a toned-down “yellow peril” vibe) would challenge the heroes in a big budget feature action-extravaganza. The show has inspired many animators over the years, particularly the makers of the Cartoon Network/Adult Swim show “The Venture Brothers”. Another inspired artist is Roger Evans who put together this fantastic stop-motion animated (with a bit of computer wizardry) recreation of the show’s thrilling opening titles a couple of years ago. Just try to not tap your feet to Hoyt Curtin’s pounding score. The original follows. Enjoy! “Sim, sim, sall-bim!”