|
|
Post by brutalis on Feb 1, 2019 16:15:15 GMT -5
Back in the late 1970s, the Filmation Batman, Tarzan and Flash Gordon were among my favorites. Another interesting thing about the Flash Gordon cartoon was that it told a serialized story, so you pretty much had to watch the episodes in proper order, which was pretty unusual for American Saturday morning fare. And yet each episode managed to stand on it's own and tell a good story. I saw episodes out of sequence once the original season was over and would miss a week or so here and there, especially during summer, but it was one of the few series (along with Star Trek animated) I tried to watch as often as I could. |
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Feb 1, 2019 17:21:29 GMT -5
Yeah, that's true enough (about Flash Gordon).
Funny you should mention Star Trek. Despite its rudimentary animation I really like it, and basically consider it season 4 of the original series.
|
|
|
|
Post by beccabear67 on Feb 1, 2019 18:26:49 GMT -5
Back in the late 70s, the biggest cartoon for me was Battle of the Planets. Looking at it now, the Americanization of the original Gatchaman anime is almost laughable but as kid, I loved it. Spent many an hour drawing/tracing/redrawing the Phoenix ship, loved that design (and still do). The original Gatchaman/G-Force I've seen was pretty graphically violent, no way they could've shown that in the U.S. in the '70s for long. The bits with the 7-Zark-7 comedic robot was created to fill in the amount of stuff that had to be cut out, but I guess like K-9 in Doctor Who "kids loved him". I had a Gold Key published Battle Of the Planets comic book back in the day, Win Mortimer art I think. Found the cover of the issue on-line and it brings back memories...  |
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Feb 2, 2019 0:33:31 GMT -5
Flash Gordon was originally produced as a prime time movie: Flash Gordon, the Greatest Adventure of All.. The network was so impressed they asked for a tv series, for Saturday morning. The tv series used the footage from the movie for about the first quarter, then reused battle scenes for later episodes. You could usually spot the new animation. The tv series launched before the tv movie was shown. The movie had an opening sequence during the Nazi invasion of Poland, with Stukas bombing Warsaw. Flash meets a contact who is dying, speaking the word "Mongo." He is flying back to the US, on the same plane as Dale Arden, when the plane is struck by a meteor. They parachute and land near Dr Zarkov's laboratory. he tells them it is an invasion and they hop in his handy rocket and blast off for Mongo. Then things progress as in the early episodes of the cartoon. The climax is built around them tunneling into Ming's palace, to rescue Dale and reverse the machines that are pulling Mongo towards the Earth. Flash fights Ming, as in the final episode of the tv series, with the same twist, at the end. There is also a subplot about Ming providing advanced weaponry (including the V2 rocket) to the Nazis.
If you watched the tv series, the material from when Flash goes to Coralia, Frigia, Tropica, and the caverns of the Witch Queen is all new, with some footage reused from the movie. The footage from the first episode to when Flash goes to Dale's rescue, with Barin, Thun and Vultan, in the drilling machine, plus the final episode, constitutes the bulk of the movie.
Here is the movie, on Youtube...
They used rotoscoping, which dates back to the Fleischers, where live action footage is traced for animation cels, to create a more fluid movement. They did that with some model shots, as well as human action. Filmation had already been using that on Tarzan, the New Adv. of Batman, and the New Adv. of Zorro. Tarzan used it for scenes of swimming, leaping and swinging, plus calling animals. Batman for swinging on the Batrope and Zorro for the fencing scenes.
Dino De Laurentis looked at some of the footage, as he was producing the Sam Janes movie, at that time, and invested some money in the telefilm. The telefilm also has different voice acting, with David Opatashu as Zarkov (instead of Bob Holt), Ted Cassidy as Thun (instead of Alvin "Sam the Butcher" Melvin), Vic Perrin as Ming (instead of Alan "Balding Rudy Wells" Oppenheimer). Also, Barin was not voiced by Robert Ridgely, in the telefilm.
The Dynamite series, Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist, with Alex Ross, uses the telefilm as its inspiration.
|
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Feb 2, 2019 0:40:33 GMT -5
Back in the late 70s, the biggest cartoon for me was Battle of the Planets. Looking at it now, the Americanization of the original Gatchaman anime is almost laughable but as kid, I loved it. Spent many an hour drawing/tracing/redrawing the Phoenix ship, loved that design (and still do). The original Gatchaman/G-Force I've seen was pretty graphically violent, no way they could've shown that in the U.S. in the '70s for long. The bits with the 7-Zark-7 comedic robot was created to fill in the amount of stuff that had to be cut out, but I guess like K-9 in Doctor Who "kids loved him". I had a Gold Key published Battle Of the Planets comic book back in the day, Win Mortimer art I think. Found the cover of the issue on-line and it brings back memories... Frank used Zark to cover gaps in footage and provide narration to redirect the story to other planets. There was also new (inferior) footage of the gang playing in a rec room and the Phoenix flying through space. Gatchaman was set entirely on Earth, with Sosai X (aka The Luminous One) being an alien power who fused twins into a hermaphroditic entity, who would change gender to be both Berg Katsei (Zoltar) and the female form (which was Zoltar's sister and a Spectra commander, in BOTP). BOTP only used about 85 of the 105 Japanese episodes, avoiding the most violent, including the climax of the series (which includes a lot of death). Gatchaman was later shown on TBS as G-Force, Guardians of Space, with a slightly different 85 episode package (including a few episodes not used for (BOTP and vice versa), with new character names and new incidental music. it kept the action on Earth and was closer to the original stories, though BOTP had better voice acting and the original incidental music (plus the awesome title them). Here's a bit of fun, with Animetal (a Japanese metal band, who did covers of anime and live action theme songs)... |
|
|
|
Post by zaku on Feb 2, 2019 3:04:35 GMT -5
Fun fact: In Italy, for whatever reason, we got the Americanizated version of Gatchaman (so Zark and other planets). But then the broadcast sequels were the original Japanese versions and: - For a kid was quite disorienting: the name were all changed, the tone was completely different, we got blood on screen.
- Gatchaman III was incredibly bleak. Like, really really dark and bleak. Like, Evangelion bleak
because in the last episodes, {Spoiler: Click to show}EVERY MAIN CHARACTER DIES!
But at least Dr Nambu/Chief Anderson dies as a real badass!
|
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Feb 2, 2019 5:44:15 GMT -5
Flash Gordon was originally produced as a prime time movie: Flash Gordon, the Greatest Adventure of All.. The network was so impressed they asked for a tv series, for Saturday morning. The tv series used the footage from the movie for about the first quarter, then reused battle scenes for later episodes. You could usually spot the new animation. The tv series launched before the tv movie was shown. The movie had an opening sequence during the Nazi invasion of Poland, with Stukas bombing Warsaw. Flash meets a contact who is dying, speaking the word "Mongo." He is flying back to the US, on the same plane as Dale Arden, when the plane is struck by a meteor. They parachute and land near Dr Zarkov's laboratory. he tells them it is an invasion and they hop in his handy rocket and blast off for Mongo. Then things progress as in the early episodes of the cartoon. The climax is built around them tunneling into Ming's palace, to rescue Dale and reverse the machines that are pulling Mongo towards the Earth. Flash fights Ming, as in the final episode of the tv series, with the same twist, at the end. There is also a subplot about Ming providing advanced weaponry (including the V2 rocket) to the Nazis. Yep, I remember the TV movie - and that it came out after the Saturday morning cartoon. If I recall correctly, the movie covered the story from the first four episodes of the series. |
|
|
|
Post by dbutler69 on Feb 2, 2019 9:26:39 GMT -5
Plastic Man was very good, too and the Ruby-Spears Superman was excellent.
I vaguely remember watching some Battle of the Planets episodes and enjoying it.
|
|
|
|
Post by dbutler69 on Feb 2, 2019 9:28:06 GMT -5
Yeah, that's true enough (about Flash Gordon). Funny you should mention Star Trek. Despite its rudimentary animation I really like it, and basically consider it season 4 of the original series. Me too. That was an excellent cartoon. Of course, it had most of the original actors, plus Gene Rodenberry's involvement, plus several of the writers for the original TV series, so it's not surprising that it's a lot like season 4. I only wish it could have been an hour long instead of a half hour. |
|
|
|
Post by tarkintino on Feb 2, 2019 11:02:25 GMT -5
I saw Plastic Man and Spider-Woman. Unless you want to see the novelty of Spider-Man guest-starring on Spider-Woman once or twice, I kinda doubt there's much in the way of gems. was formulaic, but its important in showing how far Marvel would try to promote a then-relatively new character as the next big thing that was not exactly a best-seller as a comic. That, and the animation studio--DePatie–Freleng--was owned by Marvel, so a-not-so-hot character landing her own series was the textbook example of an inside job, rather than being born of public interest. DePatie–Freleng's other Marvel series, The New Fantastic Four (NBC, 1978), was horrible. I remember the in-house notices and advertising for it in Marvel's various titles, trying to sell it as some exciting, explosive comic come alive (allegedly bolstered by Jack Kirby's involvement), but it was such a terrible, amateurish mess, and replacing the Human Torch with H.E.R.B.I.E. the Robot was such a shameless attempt to cash-in on the "cute" robot trend led by Star Wars' R2-D2. Plastic-Man played as a comedy series was a disaster, and making matters worse was the Hawaiian racial stereotype "Hula-Hula", who was another fat comic relief character, with the voice actor ripping off the late Lou Costello. Who was that supposed to attract? People of the Depression - to - early Baby Boom generations who were familiar with the Abbot & Costello act instead of kids? Agreed. The only 1970s American animated series that hold up thanks to adult scripts and high production standards were Filmation's Star Trek and Flash Gordon, and Hanna-Barbera's one good series in that decade, Sealab: 2020 (the original, not the Williams Street/Cartoon Network parody). The rest requires someone either being curious in a historical sense, or having the rare ability to place their minds in the state it was in childhood, so the series' numerous failings won't sour the memory. |
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Feb 2, 2019 11:37:49 GMT -5
The Human Torch wasn't used in the 78 Fantastic Four because the rights were held elsewhere, for a potential media property. No doubt the use of a robot was down to Star Wars; but, it was a decision made because of a lack of a 4th character, rather than a deliberate exclusion of the Torch.
The Thing cartoons, from Fred & Barney Meet The Thing is a really weird iteration. It is a teenager who has a ring that turns him into the Thing, rather than Ben Grimm. Really bad series.
The one problem (aside from repeated footage and music cues) of the Filmation shows was their cheap voice direction and acting. They would cut corners there, too, and you can immediately pick out producer Lou Scheimer for incidental characters (and cutesy ones, like Bat-Mite, Orko, and Mo, the Robot, from Space Sentinels),
One we haven't discussed is the Filmation series, the Young Sentinels, later retitled The Space Sentinels. It was a superhero series which featured three young champions, taken from different time periods: Hercules, Mercury, and Astrea. They are part of an intergalactic peacekeeping force (hmmm........), each with super abilities. Hercules is super strong, Mercury has super speed and Astrea can change into different animal forms. They operate from their ship, based inside a volcano crater, with the direction of sentient computer, Sentinel One, and the aid of their maintenance robot, MO. In one episode they face a rogue sentinel, Morpheus, who possesses all of their powers; and, in another aid two other sentinels on a distant planet.
The series premiered in 1977 and changed its name after Star Wars became a hit, to further the space connection. The Sentinel force was pretty much the Green Lantern Corps, though EE Smith's Lensmen predates both.
The model for Hercules was later used for the Freedom Force cartoons, in the Super 7 bloc, from Tarzan and the Super 7. The Force consisted of Herc (complete with superhero suit, rather than historical look), Sinbad (only seen in one episode), Isis (using the live action model), Merlin and Super Samurai (a Japanese kid who transforms into a giant samurai, with a Shazam-like magic word).
The other cartoons in the Super 7 were: Manta and Moray, with a human woman and an amphibious sea dweller, Web Woman, a hero with powers granted by alien technology (later pulled because of challenges from Marvel), and Super Stretch and Micro-Woman, a pair of African-American heroes (who were pulled after a challenge from DC). Because of the legal issues with Web Woman and Super Stretch & Micro-Woman, Freedom Force got the most airings. It was released as a bonus feature on the Space Sentinels DVD set.
|
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Feb 2, 2019 11:52:08 GMT -5
You also get a bit of confusion about which studios produced which cartoons. Hanna-Barbera was the biggest studio and content provider, selling to all three networks. They produced the Super friends cartoons, the Scooby Doo shows, the Flintstones shows and most of the Scooby imitators. they had also done Jonny Quest, Space Ghost, the Herculoids, Mightor and Young Samson, in the 60s.
Filmation was their biggest rival, having begun in the 60s, with the New Adv. of Superman. They did the 60s DC cartoons, Flash Gordon, Tarzan, Zorro, Star Trek, Space Sentinels; plus, the live action Shazam and Isis, Space Academy, Jason of Star Command and Ark II. They also produced the Archie cartoons, which spun off Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies. They also sold to all 3 networks, until Uncle croc's Bloc did so poorly, Fred Silverman vowed never to buy another show from them. They later moved to syndication for He-Man and Ghostbusters (based on their old live action show).
The third major provider was dePatie-Freleng, who produced the Pink Panther and related cartoons (The Inspector, Ant & the Aardvark, Tijuana Toads), the 1978 FF, Spider-Man and Spider-man & his Amazing Friends, and return to the Planet of the Apes. Marvel bought the studio and redubbed it Marvel Animation, after Friz Freleng retired, with DePatie staying on in the new company. They also produced the bland Spider Woman cartoon. In the late 70s and early 80s, the studio produced many licensed cartoons, like Muppet Babies.
Rankin-Bass was big through the mid-70s, with series like King Kong, the Jackson 5ive, The Osmonds, Kid Power (featuring the characters from the comic strip Wee Pals) and the later syndicated Thundercats and Silver Hawks. Rankin-Bass also produced a lot of animated holiday specials, aside from the stop motion ones.
The other major content provider for Saturday morning was the Krofft Brothers, Sid & Marty, who did the live action puppet shows, like HR Puffnstuff, Sigmund & the Sea Monsters and Land of the Lost.
|
|
|
|
Post by tarkintino on Feb 2, 2019 12:33:35 GMT -5
The Human Torch wasn't used in the 78 Fantastic Four because the rights were held elsewhere, for a potential media property. No doubt the use of a robot was down to Star Wars; but, it was a decision made because of a lack of a 4th character, rather than a deliberate exclusion of the Torch. I know why the Human Torch was not used, but I was pointing out how he was replaced by that aforementioned, shameless Star Wars ripoff. They would have been better off creating another type of "fire" character for the show (in the way Firestar was created for Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends for that same Torch unavailability reason in 1981), or just drag one of the million-and-one other Marvel characters who would fit in. Fred and Barney Meet The Thing (NBC, 1979)--which was actually two separate shows, not the Thing running around in Bedrock--followed the sort of ageism not uncommon in certain cartoons, hence the reason teenaged "Benjy" Grimm replaced the gruff adult from the comics. I imagine the producers thought a teen would be more appealing/relatable to young audiences. Years earlier, Hanna-Barbera used the same sort of motive when its I Dream of Jeannie spin-off Jeannie (CBS, 1973) replaced the live action series' adult characters Tony Nelson & Roger Healy with teenagers Corey (voiced by Mark Hamill) and Henry. Yeah, the series was a short-lived flop. |
|
Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,220 
|
Post by Confessor on Feb 2, 2019 12:50:10 GMT -5
IMHO very few 70's American cartoons, stripped of their nostalgia factor, can be considered good. At the best, they can be viewed as a interesting snapshot of another time but watching more than two or three episodes of them consecutively can be a chore. Yeah, what he said.  |
|
|
|
Post by beccabear67 on Feb 2, 2019 13:20:42 GMT -5
Nobody else remember Mighty Man & Yukk?
Was Spider-Woman all that much different to She-Ra? I don't remember it well but I don't recall it being bad, but I do remember Plastic Man being bad. There was also a New Shmoo cartoon and Grape Ape I seemed to like, but not as much as Secret Lives Of Walter Kitty where he'd dream of being a superhero, a robin hood type, a jungle king or a spaceship captain. I loved Walter Kitty! It had a live action start and end with real cats and a bulldog.
If there was a Krofft show on though in the '70s, even as a re-run, I always went with that over animation. Stuff like ArkII, the live Isis, or re-runs of The Banana Splits I would also choose over M*U*S*H, Funky Phantom, Scooby Doo etc. Really, only Star-blazers/Yamato hooked me from the animated side of things! I had to see each one while Battle Of The Planets was okay but you didn't care at all if you missed one.
|
|
