Aborted "Thundarr" Video Game

I loved the cartoon "Thundarr the Barbarian" (1980-1982) as a kid, and wrote HERE previously about the proposed "Thundarr" toy line that was abandoned when the TV show was cancelled and the toy company went bankrupt. 

Today I learned of another, similar casualty. Apparently a "Thundarr the Barbarian" video game was developed in the early 1980s for Atari and for ColecoVision. You can view the original, full color press release for the game, including box art and a screen grab HERE.  But this may've been a blessing.  The game was apparently canceled after the licensor, the animation company Ruby-Spears, determined that it was not of sufficient quality.  But you can judge that for yourself, as it turns out. The game was released in 1984 anyway, under the revised title, "Tomarc the Barbarian," and here is a 4 minute clip of it:

Godzilla: Why 1978?

The new "Godzilla" film that will be released later this week got me reflecting on how I became familiar with "Godzilla" as a kid in the 1970s. Of course, the old B&W movies from Japan were shown regularly on TV on Saturday afternoons back then.  But I mostly knew Godzilla from this 1978 toy and from this 1978 cartoon.

Why was Godzilla suddenly revived in America in 1978 (seemingly out of the blue), I wondered?  (Marvel also published a Godzilla comic book at the time, and a set of "Godzilla" View-Master reels were released that year, too.) I couldn't find a single, definitive answer to that.  But it may've been linked to a proposed 1978 re-make of the original 1954 film that was to have been titled "King of Monsters: Rebirth of Godzilla."  You can read more about it on the Toho website HERE. ("But for whatever reason the project never came to pass.")

Test: How Much Did You Like "Thundarr"?

Did you like the "Thundarr the Barbarian" cartoon as a kid back in 1980, too?

If so, did you like it enough to watch this 18 minute documentary about the show that was prepared for a DVD compilation a while back?

Would you stil watch it if I told you that it offered very limited insights about the cartoon or its creation? How about if I further told you that the most interesting part of it to me was when the creator asserted that the show was cancelled after just two seasons (despite high ratings) because it was "too violent, or something." Would you still watch this?

D'oh: USPS Loses $1.2M On "Simpsons" Stamps

A few years ago the United States Postal Service printed one billion stamps featuring "The Simpsons," commemorating the cartoon's 20th anniversary.  But they didn't sell, apparently, and over 600 million of them have now been destroyed.  The already struggling USPS lost $1.2 million.

You can watch a 30 second segment about it from the NBC Nightly News HERE.

Mel Blanc Died On This Date

Legendary voice actor Mel Blanc, "The Man of a Thousand Voices," including those of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig (to name just a few), died on this date in 1989. He was 81. In his later years, he was a popular recurring guest on the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. You can watch a 2 minute clip HERE of one such appearance, wherein he tells Johnny, among other things, how he created the voice for Bugs Bunny.


Less notably perhaps, in later years he also provided the voice for Captain Caveman in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon of the same name, and for the robot Twiki on the late 1970s TV show Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.


His grave stone reads simply, "That's All Folks."

Frank Frazetta Has Died

Legendary artist Frank Frazetta died following a stroke today at the age of 82.  You may not know his name, but you might well recognize some of his work. He may be most famous for his painted covers of fantasy novels in the 1960s, like the "Conan" paperbacks published by Lancer Books (see a tame example at left). His name was in the news again last December when one of his sons, Frank Jr., was arrested using a backhoe to break into the Frazetta museum, the culmination of a dispute among each of his three adult children about how to handle his estate. Luckily, a settlement among them was announced on April 23, less than three weeks ago.


I loved those "Conan" paperback covers myself, and so really looked forward to the 1983 movie "Fire & Ice" in which he and legendary animator Ralph Bakshi collaborated to make an animated fantasy movie based on Frazetta's artwork.  I thought (and still think) that movie was great.  But it wasn't released widely in theaters at the time and was ultimately a financial failure. You can watch the 1 minute trailer on You Tube by clicking HERE.


You can read his obituary in The New York Times HERE.

Jack Kirby's Unusued Character Ideas

I've written here before about a legendary comic book artist named Jack Kirby.  He worked in the field from before WWII, when comic books were still in their infancy, until just a few years before his death in 1994, at the age of 76. Along the way he created (or co-created) some of the most famous super-hero characters, including the X-Men, Captain America, the Hulk, and the Fantastic Four, to name just a few (of hundreds).  But in his lifetime he never received either the broader public notoriety or the financial remuneration commensurate with the scope and importance of his contributions to the field.  You may have even read in recent months how his heirs are now suing Marvel Comics (and their new corporate parent, the Walt Disney Company) to reassert their rights to his comic book work.


I've also written here before how, in the early 1980s, Jack Kirby stopped drawing comic books for a time and instead worked in animation, doing character design work for Ruby-Spears.  They produced my all-time favorite Saturday morning cartoon, Thundarr The Barbarian.  The New York Times has published an article today (that you can read HERE) about how in the course of his work there Kirby prepared design proposals for dozens of shows that never made it on the air.  And these ideas have just sat in a warehouse, unused and unseen, for three decades. Now that super-heroes are hot commercial properties again, and now that the name "Jack Kirby" is getting more public recognition than ever before, the owners of the now defunct animation studio (seen in the current photo above), Sid Kroft and Marty Kroft and Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, are actively marketing these (almost lost) Kirby concepts around Hollywood.  


The New York Times article also has a link to a slideshow of 10 of these concepts.  While they're interesting artifacts of Kirby's later work, I wasn't particularly captivated by any of them. ("Roxie's Raiders," for example, looks to be merely a female Indiana Jones.)  Because Jack Kirby is such a beloved and revered figure in the world of comic fandom, there has always been an understandable reluctance to note too explicitly that by this point in his long career (he was almost 65 years old), his legendary creative and artistic powers had begun to fade a little.  Note how his age is never mentioned in this article. Nor is the fact that Jack Kirby had co-created Captain America in 1941, 40 years before, and the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and The Hulk in the early 1960s, almost 20 years before.

Barbie and "Talking Malibu Stacy"

The world famous "Barbie" doll by Mattel made it's public debut on this day in 1959 at the American International Toy Fair in New York. While indisputably iconic and enduringly popular, Barbie has also come in for more than a little criticism over the years for her 'sweater girl' shape and the 'frivolous' interests implied by her accessories. 


This brought to mind an episode of The Simpsons. Lisa is angry and disappointed that the new talking version of her favorite Barbie-like doll, Malibu Stacy, says only things like "I wish they taught shopping in school" and "math is hard."  A 48 second clip is embedded below. 

New Podcast On "Thundarr The Barbarian"

The Retroist is a blog that focusses on 1980s kids culture (Atari and the Smurfs, for example).  I like it, but the posts are so regular and voluminous that I don't even try to keep up with it every day.  I just check the site from time-to-time.  That's how I stumbled upon a 25 minute podcast recently posted there about the 1980 saturday morning cartoon Thundarr The Barbarian.  If you liked Thundarr as much as I did as a kid, you can listen to it HERE.  But be forewarned, it's pretty in-depth and so not for the faint hearted.  


Much of the trivia I already knew, like the fact that "Ookla" the Mok was named after UCLA. But I was surprised to learn that Thundarr was initially approved for a 3rd season in 1982, which was going to feature two little kids as new companions to Thundarr, Ookla and Ariel.  (I almost shuddered at how risible that would have been.)  This podcast also says that comic book writer Buzz Dixon wrote a treatment for a Thundarr movie at the time which was going to be a sort of prequel, finally telling the untold tale of how Thundarr originally acquired his 'sun sword' and how he met Ariel and Ookla. 

A "Thundarr Teaser"? Thundarr In Space

The 1980 saturday morning cartoon Thundarr The Barbarian had been one of my favorites as a kid. But because it only lasted for two seasons on ABC back then, a mere 21 episodes, I was never able to find out very much about it in subsequent years, except what I could glean from the credits.

As I wrote here before, the Mego Corporation was planning a line of Thundarr action figures in 1982, but went bankrupt just before they were released. But other than that, I never could find out why the show had been cancelled back then, or whether there might have been any plans for a third season before it was cancelled, and if so, what they were.

Well, about 10 years ago or so now, I stumbled upon a fan site about Thundarr that had a picture of him dressed in a space suit, with an accompanying explanation that this was a design for an episode in a proposed third season, in which Thundarr, Ookla and Pincess Ariel would travel into space. Alas, that episode was never produced. But I've never seen those plans mentioned anywhere else since then. So I was never sure whether that was "real," or just a clever invention of a fan. And then, when I tried to go back to the site a few years later, the whole site was gone. So I'd never been able to see that image again either.

Before today, that is. That's it above. I stumbled on it this afternoon on another site. And this one appears to be an original animation cel, signed by the show's producers, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears. (Though I still question whether this is "real" because the same site also contained another animation cel like this one, also labelled "Thundarr Teaser," which was a full frontal nude shot of Princess Ariel.) And so the mystery continues, I suppose.....

The Secret Life of Walt Disney

As I mentioned in a prior post, my wife and I are taking our young daughter on a family vacation to Disney World later this week. Embedded below is part 1 of a 45 minute television documentary from 1995 about the dark side of Walt Disney the man, the autocratic taskmaster at odds with his public persona as the smiling 'Uncle Walt.' ("Nobody crossed him. If they did cross him, they were simply fired.") It includes interviews with many animators and others who worked for him in his heyday.

In addition to wrongly taking credit for the creative work of his employees, he was also a man of many firmly-held prejudices according to this documentary. All of the animators at his studio were men. Women were relegated to menial jobs as inkers and colorists. ("Once women reach the age of 30, their hands get shaky and it's time to get rid of them," one former animator quotes Walt Disney as saying.) "He especially didn't like Jews. Especially New York ones," another former employee says. Another former animator relates a story in of how Walt Disney had a newly hired employee fired with the only explanation being a reference to his skin color. "He's pretty dark. Better get rid of him."

Later in the documentary, it is alleged that in 1941 Disney hired a mob figure to break a crippling strike by some of his animators who were trying to form a union at his studio (something he violently opposed). Disney's effort to break that strike was unsuccessful. He ultimately lost this lengthy battle with his employees, a loss that caused Disney to lose his passion for animation. In the mid-1950s, he was an enthusiastic informer about alleged communists in Hollywood during the Red Scare, in part, it is alleged, to get back at some of his former employees who had supported the prior unionization effort at his studio years earlier.

Tex Avery Documentary

I mentioned legendary animator Tex Avery in my prior post. While he made animated commercials at the end of his career in the 1960s (most notably for "Raid" bug spray), his legend was made many years earlier, in the 1940s. In 1940 he created arguably the first Bugs Bunny cartoon for Warner Bros. (and came up with the immortal line "What's Up, Doc?"). And later that decade he perfected his signature style at MGM: his characters' exaggerated actions and reactions, and the overt sexuality of some of his female characters (see left). But by all accounts he burned out in the 1950s, first taking an extended leave of absence from MGM in 1950 and then leaving the film business entirely to make television commercials in the 1960s. He died at the age of 72 in 1980, not having lived to see the incredible influence of his work on a next generation of animators and film makers, so evident in the 1988 film, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," as well as "Ren & Stimpy" in the 1990s and even Jim Carey's 1994 movie "The Mask."

Embedded below is part 1 of a one hour documentary made in 1988 about Tex Avery's career:

New CNN Poll On Latinos in America Shows Progress

Sixty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released yesterday say they have some or a lot of contact with Latinos. That's up 15 points from 1990. "The jump in contact is a result of the growing number of Latinos and their growing presence in all 50 states," said CNN polling director Keating Holland. "But familiarity is not the same as knowledge.....Nearly half of people we questioned said they assume that Latinos who they have never met are immigrants, and one in five believe they are illegal immigrants."

The results of this poll, both the hopeful and the disappointing, bring to mind an infamous television advertising campaign for "Fritos" from the late 1960s. They featured an animated character called the "Frito Bandito" who was, quite literally, a cartoonish stereotype. One such commercial is embedded below. This campaign was pulled entirely (and rightly so) in 1971, after outcry from Latino groups. But it is amazing to think that these commercials were aired on television in America as recently as the early 1970s. Or that they were made by legendary animator Tex Avery, and that the voice of the Frito Bandito was supplied by the even-more-legendary Mel Blanc, who was also the voice of iconic cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig. It does show that attitudes have evolved since then, however, that it would be totally unthinkable to produce advertising like this today.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Sold for $60 Million

The kid's cable television channel "Nickleodeon" (owned by Viacom) has struck a deal today to buy all the rights to the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" for $60 million from the co-owners The Mirage Group and 4 Kids Entertainment. According to the "Los Angeles Times" today, Nickeloden has made this deal because they want to attract more boys to its channel. A new cartoon series is apparently planned, as is a feature film.

If you remember the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" at all, you probably think of their huge popularity in the early 1990s in the wake of their successful cartoon series, which inevitably spawned a seemingly ubiquitous line of action figures and other merchandise. There was a year or two there around 1990 where if you happened to be in a shopping mall or an airport, you couldn't go 10 minutes without seeing a young boy wearing a "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" t-shirt, or with one of the dolls dangling listlessly from one hand.

It all started much more humbly, however, as a black and white comic book first published by "Mirage Studios" in 1984. Mirage Studios was actually just two guys, the creators: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. They wrote, drew and published the early issues entirely themselves, using money borrowed from family. (They called themselves "Mirage Studios" because there was no "studio" really, just them.) They had only 3,000 copies of the first issue printed, and sold it at a comic book convention being held at a Sheraton hotel in their home state of New Hampshire. The comic book was initially a somewhat crudely drawn parody of the two most popular comic books at that time: "X-Men" (thus the "Teenage" and "Mutant" in the title) and "Daredevil." (The image above is from those early days.)

But it was the Saturday morning cartoon, which started in 1988, that really popularized them. What followed was a textbook case of the power of cartoon marketing to kids. (A vintage commercial for the dolls, featuring clips from the cartoon, is embedded below. See how the artwork and the entire concept itself has been softened from the original black & white image above?) The "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" became an unlikely household word there for a time. Eastman and Laird made millions. Imagine what the property would have sold for in those days? A lot more than $60 million, I would have thought.

Where The Wild Things Are (Animated Version)

I really want Spike Jonze's movie adaptation of "Where the Wild Things Are" to be good. Maurice Sendak's original children's book was one of my favorites as a young kid in the 1970s. I must confess, though, that one of the reasons I liked the book so much was that it was short. (I didn't like to read very much as a child.) It was less than 40 pages, many with no words at all. It was so short, in fact, that it was faithfully adapted in a 6 minute animated short made in 1973 (embedded below). If you're thinking of seeing the new movie, which is being released today, you might want to refresh your recollection of the source material by watching this:

Given that this faithful animated version is only 6 minutes long, I wonder how faithful to the original source material the movie could be, since it's running time is apparently a more fulsome 1 hour 40 minutes. But the "New York Times" gave the film a positive review in this morning's edition (describing it as an, "alternately perfect and imperfect if always beautiful adaptation"). The 2 minute trailer for the film is embedded below. If you watch it just after viewing the animated version above, you can get a feel, I think, for how the tone of the film may differ from that of the book.

The Simpsons: An Unauthorized, Uncensored History

"The Simpsons" is one of my all-time favorite TV shows, dating back to my college days in early 1990 when a friend recommended in passing that I watch one of the first, crudely drawn episodes airing to little fanfare on the then-fledgling Fox Network. I was hooked from the start and still watch the show today. Much to my wife's dismay, my young daughter even likes the show now. So I'll definitely be buying a new book released yesterday, The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History

The book's author, John Ortved, wrote a story for "TheDailyBeast.Com" about how uncooperative Fox, Matt Groening and James L. Brooks were with the project. One quote from this article really caught my eye since I had always viewed Matt Groening as the undisputed, beloved creator of the main characters and of the show itself, and since I had seen a "60 Minutes" profile of Sam Simon years ago that explained he had left the show after the first few years.

"One witness to the early days was particularly annoyed that Groening took so much credit for the show’s success, when 'the fat fu** just sat up in his office all day, figuring out ways to make more money [with merchandising]' while Sam Simon and the writers churned out brilliant script after brilliant script."

That's piqued my curiosity, for sure. (And probably piqued a few other people as well.)

The Dark Side of Walt Disney

One afternoon while my young daughter was watching a Mickey Mouse cartoon, I started explaining to my wife that the "real" Walt Disney was by today's standards a flawed character, in some ways wildly at odds with his smiling, grandfatherly persona.

Like his alleged attitudes about race and ethnicity that were not, to put it euphemistically, "modern." Or his treatment of his own animators, and his reaction when some of them tried to start a labor union. Or his testimony in 1947 at the House Un-American Affairs Committee where he branded several animators and Hollywood labor organizers as communists. Or even the famously untrue urban myth that, after his death, he had his body cryogenically frozen so that he might be revived one day in the future. (His ashes actually rest at Forrest Lawn. Like Michael Jackson.)

The other day I stumbled upon an animated spoof about these same allegations on the NBC website that first aired on "Saturday Night Live." Mickey Mouse awkwardly struggles to defend all of this to two little children. At one point, Mickey sort of gives up, exasperated, and says to the kids, "Look, he was who he was. Take the good with the bad. He created me. Think of all the laughs I've given you." And the two kids look back at Mickey, confused, and ask, "You're supposed to be funny?"

It's 3 minutes long and is embedded below:

"Thundarr" Newspaper Comic Strip

I have written here previously about how as a child I loved the 1980s saturday morning cartoon "Thundarr the Barabarian." I also wrote about how Mego was to release a line of "Thundarr" action figures in 1983, but went bust before they came out. In the same wistful "if only" spirit, I offer the page above, which is from a proposed, but never published, "Thundarr" newspaper comic strip, which would have been drawn (like the sample above) by the legendary Jack Kirby.

Synergies: A Kong Kong Phooey Movie

It was announced yesterday that Alex Zamm, the director of Carrot Top’s “Chairman of the Board” as well as “Dr. Doolittle: Million Dollar Mutts,” is developing a live action movie adapatation of the 1970s saturday morning cartoon “Hong Kong Phooey” (pictured at left). The title character was a talking dog, voiced by Scatman Crothers, who transforms from a janitor into a bungling kung fu super hero.

I liked this cartoon as a child. But how can this combination fail to produce a movie that is anything other than scat, man.

Don't believe me? Remember the live action "Scooby Doo" film that was released (to terrible reviews) in 2002? The trailer for that movie is embedded below. Can you even make it through the full 2 minutes?

Thundarr's Princess Ariel Is A Bad Girl Now?

As I mentioned in my last post below, "Thundarr the Barbarian" remains one of the best regarded cartoons of the early 1980s, despite the fact that only 21 episodes were ever produced.

How does that regard manifest itself today? Admittedly very few new "Thundarr" products have been marketed in recent years (though a line of action figures was made), and it is not even available on DVD.

But there does seem to be a booming trade in vaguely fetish-istic images of Thundarr's female companion, Princess Ariel. One example is the painting at left, which was apparently done as a commission.

And a young woman has posted a series of similar photos of herself dressed as Princess Ariel at this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/inglaterra/226722167/

Imagine the type of guy she's trying to attract like that....