Bob, I can't thank you enough for sharing that clip of an animated Lady Liberty using her flamethrower torch on a barbarian, a magic princess and Sabretooth in a post-apocalypse world.
And that wasn't even the craziest thing that happened on that show. Ask me sometime about the locomotive on stilts and the couple of instances of time travel.
Thundarr The Barbarian is one of those shows that deserve a reboot. Two of comic's greatest legends making a short-lived classic that wasn't tied to the big two is worth a second look. Thanks for this eulogy of two long-forgotten creators, Bob.
Back in the day when Steve Gerber was still writing comics, he did a harsh take on the TV censors with whom he crossed words. It was one of the most scathing commentary on hypocrisy that could be compared to Jonathan Swift.
I never knew Kirby and Gerber were involved in it! I always wondered if that show influenced Blackstar, which was definitely an influence on MotU...Also: Sun Sword? Yeah, that's a lightsaber. Ukla? Yeah, that's a wookie. Princess Ariel? Yeah, that's...a princess!
Props also to Alex Toth for character design, whom they also worked with on HB stuff like Herculoids and Space Ghost. It was great seeing them in their element and with better production.
Quite a few things to bring up: 1. Wow, Ruby-Spears were the guys who made Scooby-Doo for Hanna Barberra? Amazing 2. Isn't it amazing how TV executives seem to always know what doesn't work when they first get something until someone makes them a literal boatload of money for it and then they milk that cash cow until something else comes along? 3. While fans didn't exactly like the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon, they've start to at least appreciate it for what it tried to do originally 4. Wait, Turbo Teen wasn't just a thing made up by Seth Green for that one Robot Chicken sketch!? Huh, you learn something new everyday
It's surprisingly easy to miss since Joe and Ken never really took personal ownership of Scooby for whatever reason. They only gave a couple interviews on the subject and always seemed somewhat ambivalent to the show's longevity. I don't think they were expecting the show to be such a success either. It's a shame Thundarr never caught on at all since I got the sense that they were really proud of that show.
Despite being child of the 1980s and 1990s, I grew up with the older Hanna-Barbera cartoons and its wonderful to see someone give Ken Spears his proper due in light of his unfortunate passing. Also, great to see new episodes of The Big Picture as well - keep up the amazing work, Bob!
Agreed. I was born at the very end of the 80s, and I remember growing up on the Hanna-Barbera, Ruby-Spears and Turner libraries back when they were the only things on Cartoon Network and UPN. The 90s weren't great, but they were a great time to be a kid.
'Turbo Teen', the one Ruby-Spears show that Cartoon Network NEVER aired. However, it was mentioned in a promo with I.Am. Weasle explaining the difference between regular cartoons, and Cartoon Cartoons.
'Turbo Teen', the one Ruby-Spears show that Cartoon Network NEVER aired. However, it was mentioned in a promo with I Am Weasle explaining the difference between regular cartoons, and Cartoon Cartoons.
Bob Chipman talking about old, obscure cartoons. All is right with the world. If they still made hokey animated shows out of video games, I want a "Ruby-Spears" style adaptation of Binding of Isaac
@@ECL28E Bob probably deleted the original tweet. But he did a "apology" some time ago. And people on youtube are ripping in to it. So if you google moviebob and nostalgia chick you will finde it.
Until Bob pointed it out here, it honestly never occurred to me that the hook of Fangface was that they just combined Scooby and Shaggy into ONE PERSON! Hm...I wonder if RS were also the ones behind Drac Pack, a cartoon about the younger relatives of classic Universal monsters trying to redeem their elders' reputations...by fighting crime (taking mission orders from Count Dracula, who they just call "Big D" no less)!
Thundarr the Barbarian was my jam when I was younger. My favorite cartoon for years. Just a half hour before I saw this video I was rewatching the first episode upon hearing the news of Spears' passing. I have always been saddened that I've never heard anything about a remake of it. It seems like such a natural with such a great creative pedigree-- Jack Kirby! Steve Gerber! Alex Toth! Buzz Dixon! and bunch of others--that I'm surprised a major studio hasn't snatched it up yet.
@Tony M. Sorry dude, no matter how much you try to white knight Ellis and her high school mean girl act, she is not going to blow you. And YOU are the one being creepy here, leaving replies in every thread like a psycho stalker. Bob is a much better and more insightful commentator and critic than Ellis has ever been. I'll stick with him, thanks.
"prior to Ruby Spears putting their mark on it, Alvin & the Chipmunks really wasn't much more than selling rerecorded music with the pitch turned way up" Wait one god damn second... That's just Nightcore!! those rodents were ahead of their time!
The chipmunks made it mainstream, but pitch shifting in music has been a thing since the 1940's. There are old-timey black and white clips of singers and groups where the pitch has been cranked way up. It doesn't sound bad, but it is a strange effect when the singer isn't a tiny cartoon.
Man, that takes me back. I loved Thundar when I was a kid. Clearing a Star Wars rip off, but it still had its own originality and craziness. And easily the best animation this side of the Pacific in those days.
Bob, I can always rely on you to cover the forgotten yet important areas of pop/nerd culture rather than (always) chasing what the almighty algorithm thinks you should talk about. For that, I’m eternally grateful and a proud patron. Please, please, please keep it up!
Well, Skysurfers was a surprise. And thanks to this video, I stopped dead and watched the first three eps in a row off Tubi. The intro is the most *normal* the show gets, folks.
In all seriousness though, I actually knew nothing about these guys. Thank you Bob. You helped me learn about two people who (it turns out) did a lot to feed my imagination and enrich my childhood.
5 year old me was freakin' terrified of Turbo Teen; specifically, the transformation scene, where the human face warps into the car grill and headlights.
Thundarr the Barbarian really took me back to my childhood in the 80s. I'm not sure I so much as thought about that cartoon, much less saw it in over 30 years! Even so I remembered that opening narration almost word for word once it started.
Fun fact, my older sister is named after the female lead in Thundarr the Barbarian. Everyone thought she was named after The Little Mermaid, but that movie hit when she was 7, while Thundarr was on TV while my mom was pregnant with her. XP
Not surprising...that wise-cracking sorceress was the sane, stable anchor in that post-apocalyptic funhouse. She's the reason I still crush on fictional sorceresses and I saw it in the first run.
There's no cartoon in my youth that more shaped my interests to this day as an adult than Thundarr. I'm convinced it's THE biggest reason why I'm obsessed with post apocalyptic aesthetics & gonzo storytelling today. If I ever manage to pull my act together and create something, it'll be guided by the same spirit; where no matter how successful it may be, let it be sincere enough to inspire future generations as Thundarr did for me.
Yeah, I'm sitting here remembering how much I liked Thundarr before going through my "Oh all this crappy animation sux" phase. Those old cartoons were wonderfully weird and bat-shit crazy in the best possible way.
@Tony M. okay? Your point? I'm over here reminiscing about Thundarr. I don't give a shit about this drama. He fucked up, he apologized. ALSO if Ellis was so bothered by this, she could've literally just blocked him and got it over with; what's with this soft blocking multiple times crap? Just block him, lady, for crying out loud. But why bring this up in this thread where all I'm doing is looking back fondly on a show that helped shape me? Zero relevance, zero.
@@traewilson5127 Trolls gonna troll, pal. Why he's wasting everyone's time on a matter between extremely minor Internet figures no one is likely to remember (I say that without malice; nobody remembers the pro critics) is beyond me.
Reminds me of when I met a woman cosplaying as Isis...when I asked her if people recognized the character, she said most people thought she was She-Ra!
I feel like showing '80s cartoons to the UA-cam generation and saying "Yes, this was real!" is a bit like telling them about Watergate and saying "Can you believe an actual US president did this?!" Although, that Rubik's Cube show...
@@johnathonhaney8291 That last shot, of the kids taken across the face of the moon by their magic friend, is wearing its influences a little TOO obviously, tho, LOL!
To be fair, it still managed to surprise me though... I thought that "Thundarr The Barbarian" was just a throwaway gag in one of the webcomics I used to read in highschool. The name stuck in my head because it sounded "cool enough that it sounds almost like a real thing"
I never got why they thought one of the Sky Surfers should be called Soar Loser. Really? You couldn't think of any better puns guys? That being said that show was quite the fever dream. And honestly, their take on Mega Man will always be their best thing ever.
Growing up in Ireland in the 80s one of the radio shows syndicated here was the Billboard Top 40. I was *completely* caught off guard many years later when I learned that Casey Kasem was the voice of Shaggy. RIP.
Wow... a walking Statue of Liberty almost a decade before Ghostbusters 2!!! Also, I remember Rubik was one of those cartoons that put POC in the forefront. And yes, I am one of the 5 people that remembers Turbo Teen.
Otakon can transform into a cardboard box because nanomachines, son! (Proceed to make lots of "I want you inside me" references completely straight-faced while swearing up and down they had no idea it could be taken sexually.)
@@wdcain1 He's posting it in every comment thread he finds, it seems. Presumably, it's one of the hate-stalkers of Bob's from when The Escapist was taken over by the alt-right.
@@WraithMagus I looked down the comments and saw it. Cripes. I know Moviebob has a hatedom but it gets me the lengths these nuts go for no real objective besides getting under his skin.
@@wdcain1 I went through and reported all the harassment-spam I saw, but if you wanted to go through and report them, as well, they'll likely be acted upon faster if more than one person is reporting them...
Thanks, Bob. Between your videos and Wikipedia, I'm always relieved to find out that some of the TV shows and toys I remember from my childhood weren't surreal fever dreams!
i think there's going to be a time probably very soon in the future to talk about just...the...everything...of this year, but seeing trump's head get blown up and then hearing the old "TV. IS. WEEEIIIRD." followed by another really interesting retrospective...it kind of felt like the perfect piece of escapism for the moment. also turbo teen looks incredible. it's like a bunch of old ass tv executives were like, "okay so we want to sell to boys, and boys like cars, right???? so what if we make a show where a boy turns INTO car??? 🤯"
Ahhh, right in my childhood! Amazing how many of those "lesser efforts" I remember, heh. "No, you don't understand, there was a cartoon with a crime-solving duo where one of them was a REALLY UGLY talking dog, I swear!"
@@johnathonhaney8291 I keep trying to remember that one because it seems I should, but I just watched the title sequence and it didn't stir any concrete memory. Maybe I saw it when I was a kid, but if I did it didn't make an impression!
That's nothing, try describing freakin' Jabber Jaw or Grape Ape to people! (BTW, wasn't there an episode where they finally showed what was under the doghouse mask, or did I just dream that?)
Who else remembers The Trouble with Miss Switch?? Never got around to reading the book, but that giant supercomputer at the end also scared the crap out of me! Also, pretty sure those specials are where I saw Bunnicula...
I never could remember the name but the story itself was burned into my brain. A schoolteacher who is secretly a witch AND the first instance of a good guy witch I ever saw (I hadn't yet been introduced to Wizard of Oz and Miss Switch was more a classic witch anyway)? You don't forget that...ever.
Props for discussing Spears. I had no idea how many, many hours of my very young days were filled with his teams work. This episode was certainly a bit of a nostalgia trip. I probably didn't really need to remember how much I watched of Rubik, but thanks for the ride regardless.
I remember Dinosaucers with fondness for no reason I can fathom. But Gargoyles, Batman: The Animated Series and Exosquad are the ones I'm making my kids watch over breakfast. Although, I've had British friends who've never heard of Exosquad, take one look at it and go 'dude, that's dark'.
Always loved that Ruby Spears sweeping music score. Also the Ruby Spears era of Alvin and the Chipmunks has a big place in my heart. :) Also Ucla the moch is named after the UCLA school campus. :3
I do have to admire the sheer balls of kid's show animators who just say "Challenge Accepted!" to adapting R-rated movies like Rambo and Police Academy to children's television (please tell me the Blue Oyster made it into the show somehow)!
I grew up with some of the Ruby-Spears stuff.. Alvin and the Chipmunks, Thundarr, even the Mega Man cartoon as well.. It really was a good thing to see these two spread their wings and try something different from the formula at the time.
Mr. Chipman...I do believe that you just encapsulated my entire childhood animated series watching with that. Thundarr The Barbarian is STILL my go-to pulp storytelling example (had a crush on Ariel, no lie) and first exposure to the genius of Jack Kirby.
Two things: 1) SKYSURFER STRIKE FORCE! Loved that show as a kid, but nobody I know ever saw it. 2) Didn't know that Ruby-Spears had Disney-level singers on contract.
I think Thundarr and Adventure time have things in common: Both are in a post-apocaliptic world when magic and sorcery are possible and technologic too
Given that the people who made Adventure Time grew up watching 80s cartoons, Thundarr is probably a direct inspiration. A lot of us older Millennials and younger Gen-Xers grew up watching that stuff on Saturday mornings back when Saturday Morning Cartoons were still a thing.
@@bm1747 so, a very popular thing in 90s action cartoons was to have Japanese production houses essentially make an anime opening for an otherwise cheaply made cartoon. You could argue this served to prime kids and teens for the anime boom in the West that occurred at the turn of the century.
The only thing in this entire video that I've never even HEARD of before! Hopefully the entire show is of that quality and not just the opening! ...And I gotta admit, I'm *really* curious as to why the one guy is code-named "Sore Loser"!
As a proud owner of the Thundar the Barbarian board game (when I was little anyways) and an avid watcher of all things cartoon, this one gave me some really weird feelings. I definitely have not seen all of these but there were a few instances that made my dusty old memory light up and go "I... think I've seen this before, HOLY CRAP" and that's always fun. The one I really loved seeing though was that quick flash of the Lazer Tag cartoon as I have incredibly fond memories of that but have never met another human being who ever saw it. Also if you think Thundar is set in a cool universe I'd suggest trying to get one's hands on a copy of Gama World, an old Gary Gygax TTRPG set in a fairly similar world.
Looks like an anime studio made that bitchin' anime opening. I doubt the whole show looked like that... Also, was that last guy's code name Soar Loser? His teammates sound like a-holes.
Wow, this episode was my childhood Saturday tv watching experience. When Thundar came out it was like nothing I had seen before and wish they would do a reboot of the show. And by that, I mean keep the scripts and designs as they are and redo the animation.
Same! I also loved Dungeons and Dragons, even got the boxset they released a while back. Also, the Biskitts. Never met another person who even remembers that cartoon, and yeah, it was a smurfs ripoff, but darnit, I liked it!
I like how the villain of Thundar is just a transforming action figure of Darkseid whose other face is just Darkseid's face with more eyeliner. Also how Turbo Teen is just Sandman but a teenager and a car.
I vaguely remember seeing THUNDARR on TV as a little kid, and as such felt a similarity when I later started getting into Jack Kirby's comic book art. Heck, some of his imagery such as the toppled Statue of Liberty from KAMANDI ("the last boy on Earth") I'm pretty sure made its way into THUNDARR's background art. And not for nothing but I'm pretty sure TURBO TEEN started life as a Kirby idea, too. So while it sounds like a bad "TRANFORMERS but with a human being" idea, it was actually a "SIMPSONS did it" by the King. Incidentally, while I caught on that the gravity of the "runaway planet" caused the moon to bust in half, what exactly did it do to Earth? It looked like it drew off the atmosphere, but then everyone would have asphyxiated, so what precisely was the "vapor" being drawn off? The ozone layer?
Didn't realize both these guy passed in recent months. Certainly remember their catalog. Like most 1980s Saturday morning cartoons, I can't say most of their outposts was good, but some was memorable. The 3 networks had 12 hours of programming time to fill, and they shoehorned every single fad into cartoons and breakfast cereals. Must admit that I confuse a lot of RS serials with Hanna Barbera, the aesthetic was so similar, though I suppose Ruby Spears tended to aim at slightly older children.
So glad I found this again. I hadn’t seen a new episode in ages, and I finally posted a message on the Escapists latest video. All of Movie Bobs previous content was private, and there was no reference to new projects going elsewhere.
It's sad I have never seen or heard of a lot of these shows I would have loved as a kid... but Australia always misses out on stuff, especially the cool stuff.
Well, that was some of the most bizarre stuff I had never heard of. Thanks for sharing it. Btw, I would love to see a deep dive into the many different versions of Scooby-Doo, like you did with Yogi Bear and the Flintstones many years ago.
@Tony M. Ok I get it. But is it the same level of creepy as you posting a copy of this tweet under every other comment on his videos? Because dude - creepy af
Bob, I can't thank you enough for sharing that clip of an animated Lady Liberty using her flamethrower torch on a barbarian, a magic princess and Sabretooth in a post-apocalypse world.
And that wasn't even the craziest thing that happened on that show. Ask me sometime about the locomotive on stilts and the couple of instances of time travel.
I was SO hoping that the Princess would animate the Lincoln Monument to fight her, haha!
@@HandofOmega It would never have worked. Abe was too much of a gentleman to ever hit a lady, especially THAT lady.
@Tony M. ...I don't see how that relates to my comment.
I can't watch the statue of liberty get animated without thinking of that scene in Ghostbusters 2. Music and alll...
Thundarr The Barbarian is one of those shows that deserve a reboot. Two of comic's greatest legends making a short-lived classic that wasn't tied to the big two is worth a second look.
Thanks for this eulogy of two long-forgotten creators, Bob.
Back in the day when Steve Gerber was still writing comics, he did a harsh take on the TV censors with whom he crossed words. It was one of the most scathing commentary on hypocrisy that could be compared to Jonathan Swift.
Get Genndy Tartakovsky on it and I'm in.
I never knew Kirby and Gerber were involved in it! I always wondered if that show influenced Blackstar, which was definitely an influence on MotU...Also: Sun Sword? Yeah, that's a lightsaber. Ukla? Yeah, that's a wookie. Princess Ariel? Yeah, that's...a princess!
Props also to Alex Toth for character design, whom they also worked with on HB stuff like Herculoids and Space Ghost. It was great seeing them in their element and with better production.
@@rokurokubi3273 To be fair, if Genndy Tartakovsky wanted to reboot the god-damned Care Bears, I'd be in.
Quite a few things to bring up:
1. Wow, Ruby-Spears were the guys who made Scooby-Doo for Hanna Barberra? Amazing
2. Isn't it amazing how TV executives seem to always know what doesn't work when they first get something until someone makes them a literal boatload of money for it and then they milk that cash cow until something else comes along?
3. While fans didn't exactly like the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon, they've start to at least appreciate it for what it tried to do originally
4. Wait, Turbo Teen wasn't just a thing made up by Seth Green for that one Robot Chicken sketch!? Huh, you learn something new everyday
It's surprisingly easy to miss since Joe and Ken never really took personal ownership of Scooby for whatever reason. They only gave a couple interviews on the subject and always seemed somewhat ambivalent to the show's longevity. I don't think they were expecting the show to be such a success either. It's a shame Thundarr never caught on at all since I got the sense that they were really proud of that show.
For those of us in our late 30s and early 40s Robot Chicken is literally just raping our childhood and making us love it ;)
Despite being child of the 1980s and 1990s, I grew up with the older Hanna-Barbera cartoons and its wonderful to see someone give Ken Spears his proper due in light of his unfortunate passing. Also, great to see new episodes of The Big Picture as well - keep up the amazing work, Bob!
Agreed. I was born at the very end of the 80s, and I remember growing up on the Hanna-Barbera, Ruby-Spears and Turner libraries back when they were the only things on Cartoon Network and UPN. The 90s weren't great, but they were a great time to be a kid.
Turbo Teen is literally the show that made me reconsider whether Saturday Morning Cartoons needed to continue to be a part of my week.
'Turbo Teen', the one Ruby-Spears show that Cartoon Network NEVER aired. However, it was mentioned in a promo with I.Am. Weasle explaining the difference between regular cartoons, and Cartoon Cartoons.
'Turbo Teen', the one Ruby-Spears show that Cartoon Network NEVER aired. However, it was mentioned in a promo with I Am Weasle explaining the difference between regular cartoons, and Cartoon Cartoons.
Bob Chipman talking about old, obscure cartoons. All is right with the world.
If they still made hokey animated shows out of video games, I want a "Ruby-Spears" style adaptation of Binding of Isaac
If each episode didn't start with a heeey erbody I don't know if I could cope.
@Tony M. I beg your pardon
@@ECL28E it's about movie bob fabricating his relationship with nostalgia chick. Wich is creapy.
@@bartoszjedlinski6808 Source?
@@ECL28E Bob probably deleted the original tweet. But he did a "apology" some time ago. And people on youtube are ripping in to it. So if you google moviebob and nostalgia chick you will finde it.
“Which is not really as interesting as it sounds.”
That’s a damn shame, because that looks amazing.
Much like the 90's themselves, am I right? Eh? Eh? Anyone?
Until Bob pointed it out here, it honestly never occurred to me that the hook of Fangface was that they just combined Scooby and Shaggy into ONE PERSON! Hm...I wonder if RS were also the ones behind Drac Pack, a cartoon about the younger relatives of classic Universal monsters trying to redeem their elders' reputations...by fighting crime (taking mission orders from Count Dracula, who they just call "Big D" no less)!
@@HandofOmega Didnt you hear him say "put'em up, let me at them" That's Scrappy's sctick.
Thundarr the Barbarian was my jam when I was younger. My favorite cartoon for years. Just a half hour before I saw this video I was rewatching the first episode upon hearing the news of Spears' passing.
I have always been saddened that I've never heard anything about a remake of it. It seems like such a natural with such a great creative pedigree-- Jack Kirby! Steve Gerber! Alex Toth! Buzz Dixon! and bunch of others--that I'm surprised a major studio hasn't snatched it up yet.
@Tony M. Sorry dude, no matter how much you try to white knight Ellis and her high school mean girl act, she is not going to blow you.
And YOU are the one being creepy here, leaving replies in every thread like a psycho stalker.
Bob is a much better and more insightful commentator and critic than Ellis has ever been. I'll stick with him, thanks.
"prior to Ruby Spears putting their mark on it, Alvin & the Chipmunks really wasn't much more than selling rerecorded music with the pitch turned way up"
Wait one god damn second... That's just Nightcore!! those rodents were ahead of their time!
technically they were also the first "virtual band" before things like gorillaz and vocaloid
Never forget that the original Chipmunk Song won two Grammys for Best Comedy Record and Best Sound Engineering.
The chipmunks made it mainstream, but pitch shifting in music has been a thing since the 1940's. There are old-timey black and white clips of singers and groups where the pitch has been cranked way up. It doesn't sound bad, but it is a strange effect when the singer isn't a tiny cartoon.
@@kerricaine they Pioneered a Way for Fictional Artist to be as Famous as their Reallife Counterparts.
....mother of god, he's right!
Man, that takes me back. I loved Thundar when I was a kid. Clearing a Star Wars rip off, but it still had its own originality and craziness. And easily the best animation this side of the Pacific in those days.
Love how the badguy in Thundarr is Literally Just Darkseid. Kirby gotta Kirby.
His name on the show was Gemini...had two episodes, the only villain on that show to get such.
Funny since I saw him as a Justice League's Mongol.
@@Joshua_Shadow_Manriguez As portrayed, he was like Desaad (clear eyes face) and Darkseid (red eyes face) in the same body.
Bob, I can always rely on you to cover the forgotten yet important areas of pop/nerd culture rather than (always) chasing what the almighty algorithm thinks you should talk about. For that, I’m eternally grateful and a proud patron. Please, please, please keep it up!
So much of my childhood. This hit some locked memories.
Well, Skysurfers was a surprise. And thanks to this video, I stopped dead and watched the first three eps in a row off Tubi. The intro is the most *normal* the show gets, folks.
Comment for the algorithm. Glad you got to keep making your stuff under "The Big Picture" name after leaving the Escapist this time.
In all seriousness though, I actually knew nothing about these guys. Thank you Bob. You helped me learn about two people who (it turns out) did a lot to feed my imagination and enrich my childhood.
5 year old me was freakin' terrified of Turbo Teen; specifically, the transformation scene, where the human face warps into the car grill and headlights.
I wasn't terrified myself. It was more like "Huh, that's different..." And the stories were mostly decent.
Watching the sequence was straight-up nightmare fuel!
@@TheEvilChipmunk It was my first exposure to the concept of body horror.
You and me both! D:
I think Robot Chicken pointed out some of that implied body-horror.
Gotta love the "Bob rambles about cartoons for a while" episodes.
10:22 I don't care if this is a glorified toy commercial and 100% a product of its time - this intro is absolutely, stunningly BEAUTIFUL.
Thundarr the Barbarian really took me back to my childhood in the 80s. I'm not sure I so much as thought about that cartoon, much less saw it in over 30 years! Even so I remembered that opening narration almost word for word once it started.
Just looked it up, RubySpears also made the Centurions! I loved that show.
Thank you for the nice tribute Bob.
Also Sectaurs. They always seemed to get stuck with toy concepts with popularity limitations.
Fun fact, my older sister is named after the female lead in Thundarr the Barbarian. Everyone thought she was named after The Little Mermaid, but that movie hit when she was 7, while Thundarr was on TV while my mom was pregnant with her. XP
Not surprising...that wise-cracking sorceress was the sane, stable anchor in that post-apocalyptic funhouse. She's the reason I still crush on fictional sorceresses and I saw it in the first run.
If she ever wants to look highbrow, she can claim she is named after the character in Shakespeare's "The Tempest", though.
I lost track of how many of those shows I watched as a kid.
Wowie!
This awoke long sealed away memories of amazing cartoons that I should have never forgot about 😳
"That is not dead which can eternal lie/And with strange eons, even death may die."
There's no cartoon in my youth that more shaped my interests to this day as an adult than Thundarr. I'm convinced it's THE biggest reason why I'm obsessed with post apocalyptic aesthetics & gonzo storytelling today. If I ever manage to pull my act together and create something, it'll be guided by the same spirit; where no matter how successful it may be, let it be sincere enough to inspire future generations as Thundarr did for me.
Yeah, I'm sitting here remembering how much I liked Thundarr before going through my "Oh all this crappy animation sux" phase. Those old cartoons were wonderfully weird and bat-shit crazy in the best possible way.
@Tony M. okay? Your point? I'm over here reminiscing about Thundarr. I don't give a shit about this drama. He fucked up, he apologized.
ALSO if Ellis was so bothered by this, she could've literally just blocked him and got it over with; what's with this soft blocking multiple times crap? Just block him, lady, for crying out loud.
But why bring this up in this thread where all I'm doing is looking back fondly on a show that helped shape me? Zero relevance, zero.
@@traewilson5127 Trolls gonna troll, pal. Why he's wasting everyone's time on a matter between extremely minor Internet figures no one is likely to remember (I say that without malice; nobody remembers the pro critics) is beyond me.
The dark curse of THUNDAR is every time I ask folks if they remember it they keep asking if it was HE-MAN or the HERCULOIDS.
Blasphemy...we know better, don't we?
Reminds me of when I met a woman cosplaying as Isis...when I asked her if people recognized the character, she said most people thought she was She-Ra!
Fuck, how could I ever forget the episode where the King Kong Animatronic got turned into a Weapon! Lol
@Tony M. Why are you replying to ME on this? WTF?
I REMEMBER The Magic Flute! I watched it loads as a kid! It was REALLY out there, but still memorable :)
And now I know the origin of the Sunsword for D and D trivia night.
Which itself was derived from the then-recent sci-fi weapon known as the lightsaber.
I feel like showing '80s cartoons to the UA-cam generation and saying "Yes, this was real!" is a bit like telling them about Watergate and saying "Can you believe an actual US president did this?!"
Although, that Rubik's Cube show...
Ah, don't knock Rubik's too hard. It was quirky and the world we grew up in had too little of that.
@@johnathonhaney8291 That last shot, of the kids taken across the face of the moon by their magic friend, is wearing its influences a little TOO obviously, tho, LOL!
To be fair, it still managed to surprise me though... I thought that "Thundarr The Barbarian" was just a throwaway gag in one of the webcomics I used to read in highschool. The name stuck in my head because it sounded "cool enough that it sounds almost like a real thing"
@@rickrollerdude Oh, I was there for Thundarr, so I knew it was real.
@@johnathonhaney8291 As a child, I honestly would have rather lost a limb than miss Thundarr.
I never got why they thought one of the Sky Surfers should be called Soar Loser. Really? You couldn't think of any better puns guys? That being said that show was quite the fever dream.
And honestly, their take on Mega Man will always be their best thing ever.
@Tony M. This is not the place to discuss Bob's questionable social skills jackass. Don't reply again unless it's relevant to my comment.
Growing up in Ireland in the 80s one of the radio shows syndicated here was the Billboard Top 40.
I was *completely* caught off guard many years later when I learned that Casey Kasem was the voice of Shaggy. RIP.
Wow... a walking Statue of Liberty almost a decade before Ghostbusters 2!!!
Also, I remember Rubik was one of those cartoons that put POC in the forefront.
And yes, I am one of the 5 people that remembers Turbo Teen.
Thundarr even beats Hasbro/Sunbow's Inhumanoids to the punch with that!
Well this made me more informed and sadder about Spears passing.
Metal Gear was tailored made to have a goofy cartoon from Ruby-Speares.
Otakon can transform into a cardboard box because nanomachines, son! (Proceed to make lots of "I want you inside me" references completely straight-faced while swearing up and down they had no idea it could be taken sexually.)
@Tony M. This is a very strange message. I'm pretty certain you put it in the wrong comment.
@@wdcain1 He's posting it in every comment thread he finds, it seems. Presumably, it's one of the hate-stalkers of Bob's from when The Escapist was taken over by the alt-right.
@@WraithMagus I looked down the comments and saw it. Cripes. I know Moviebob has a hatedom but it gets me the lengths these nuts go for no real objective besides getting under his skin.
@@wdcain1 I went through and reported all the harassment-spam I saw, but if you wanted to go through and report them, as well, they'll likely be acted upon faster if more than one person is reporting them...
Thanks, Bob. Between your videos and Wikipedia, I'm always relieved to find out that some of the TV shows and toys I remember from my childhood weren't surreal fever dreams!
Thunder the Barbarian was the reason 8 year old me got up at 4:30am
i think there's going to be a time probably very soon in the future to talk about just...the...everything...of this year, but seeing trump's head get blown up and then hearing the old "TV. IS. WEEEIIIRD." followed by another really interesting retrospective...it kind of felt like the perfect piece of escapism for the moment. also turbo teen looks incredible. it's like a bunch of old ass tv executives were like, "okay so we want to sell to boys, and boys like cars, right???? so what if we make a show where a boy turns INTO car??? 🤯"
5:04 - My entire house is woken up by me yelling "YEAAAHHHH!" at the top of my lungs!
Ahhh, right in my childhood! Amazing how many of those "lesser efforts" I remember, heh.
"No, you don't understand, there was a cartoon with a crime-solving duo where one of them was a REALLY UGLY talking dog, I swear!"
I'm one of the few people I know who still remember Goldie Gold and Action Jack.
@@johnathonhaney8291 I keep trying to remember that one because it seems I should, but I just watched the title sequence and it didn't stir any concrete memory. Maybe I saw it when I was a kid, but if I did it didn't make an impression!
@@ematuskey The title sequence made the impression, like the opening of a 1970s A picture. It was more interesting than the actual episodes.
That's nothing, try describing freakin' Jabber Jaw or Grape Ape to people! (BTW, wasn't there an episode where they finally showed what was under the doghouse mask, or did I just dream that?)
@@HandofOmega If they did I don't remember it--but it /was/ a long time ago now, and I probably didn't catch every episode anyway!
Who else remembers The Trouble with Miss Switch?? Never got around to reading the book, but that giant supercomputer at the end also scared the crap out of me! Also, pretty sure those specials are where I saw Bunnicula...
I never could remember the name but the story itself was burned into my brain. A schoolteacher who is secretly a witch AND the first instance of a good guy witch I ever saw (I hadn't yet been introduced to Wizard of Oz and Miss Switch was more a classic witch anyway)? You don't forget that...ever.
@@johnathonhaney8291 I still remember her erasing the entire chalkboard with one swipe LOL!
@@HandofOmega The grand reveal with working that cauldron in the classroom and making sure the bully gets a faceful of water is what I remember.
Thundarr was my hard to catch favorite as a 6 year old. It’s awesome that the King was involved...and obvious now that I look upon it again 🙂
Props for discussing Spears. I had no idea how many, many hours of my very young days were filled with his teams work.
This episode was certainly a bit of a nostalgia trip. I probably didn't really need to remember how much I watched of Rubik, but thanks for the ride regardless.
9:49 dang, my generation had Beast Wars and Cadillacs & Dinosaurs. The kids after us had Generator Rex.
That wasn't so bad.
@Michael Prymula honestly, those sound cool.
I remember Dinosaucers with fondness for no reason I can fathom. But Gargoyles, Batman: The Animated Series and Exosquad are the ones I'm making my kids watch over breakfast. Although, I've had British friends who've never heard of Exosquad, take one look at it and go 'dude, that's dark'.
@Michael Prymula I think that was after my time or I was really getting into anime
ua-cam.com/video/la4EzZSaECs/v-deo.html
We need a Thundarr revival. The stars are right for it.
Excellent video tribute, Bob.
The Magic Flute.
Yeah, just let that low hanging fruit on its branch and save it. For now.
I really really really want an episode dedicated solely to that...
I think Saberspark did a video about it.
@@MariaVosa Same. That looks like a real trip.
I'm a little salty that the Queen of the Night doesn't even TRY to hit those high notes!
@@HandofOmega High Fs, or GTFO!
Always loved that Ruby Spears sweeping music score. Also the Ruby Spears era of Alvin and the Chipmunks has a big place in my heart. :) Also Ucla the moch is named after the UCLA school campus. :3
I do have to admire the sheer balls of kid's show animators who just say "Challenge Accepted!" to adapting R-rated movies like Rambo and Police Academy to children's television (please tell me the Blue Oyster made it into the show somehow)!
Imagine if Fred could turn into the Mystery Machine like Turbo Teen
He already turns into a Nazi pistol, a cassette player, a jet, a race car, and bunch other stuff I'm sure.
I grew up with some of the Ruby-Spears stuff.. Alvin and the Chipmunks, Thundarr, even the Mega Man cartoon as well.. It really was a good thing to see these two spread their wings and try something different from the formula at the time.
I need the Drake meme, but with Carl Sagan's face, with no to X-Files and yes to Scooby-Doo.
Considering how few people even remember X-Files beyond the name anymore, Sagan was ahead of his time.
6:30 - How every fight against a giant in D&D goes.
Oh god, they REALLY made an animated TV show based on the Rubix Cube!? O_O
Oh, yes, and it actually wasn't half bad, dopey premise aside.
Mr. Chipman...I do believe that you just encapsulated my entire childhood animated series watching with that. Thundarr The Barbarian is STILL my go-to pulp storytelling example (had a crush on Ariel, no lie) and first exposure to the genius of Jack Kirby.
I'm glad you made something like this, it is what got me first watching your stuff.
Two things:
1) SKYSURFER STRIKE FORCE! Loved that show as a kid, but nobody I know ever saw it.
2) Didn't know that Ruby-Spears had Disney-level singers on contract.
Imagining someone who knew Joe or Ken seeing this video and being confused as hell by the comments
I loved the Ruby-Spears Megaman cartoon. A weekly superhero serial is probably the best way that series could be adapted for a TV show.
I think Thundarr and Adventure time have things in common: Both are in a post-apocaliptic world when magic and sorcery are possible and technologic too
Given that the people who made Adventure Time grew up watching 80s cartoons, Thundarr is probably a direct inspiration. A lot of us older Millennials and younger Gen-Xers grew up watching that stuff on Saturday mornings back when Saturday Morning Cartoons were still a thing.
@@zenogias01 specially with early Cartoon Network before having original cartoons
You have to do an episode of Sky surfers.... it's the mos WTF thing in this episode :D
Is it just me or does it look like a 90s Anime AF take on GI Joe characters?
@@bm1747 so, a very popular thing in 90s action cartoons was to have Japanese production houses essentially make an anime opening for an otherwise cheaply made cartoon. You could argue this served to prime kids and teens for the anime boom in the West that occurred at the turn of the century.
@@Thuazabi Yeah, I'm pretty sure Thundercats, Silverhawks, and Bionic Six are other examples of this too.
Hell, some of those same Anime Studios went on to Make Cowboy Bebop, Big-O, and most of your Toonami Favorites!
The only thing in this entire video that I've never even HEARD of before! Hopefully the entire show is of that quality and not just the opening! ...And I gotta admit, I'm *really* curious as to why the one guy is code-named "Sore Loser"!
Turbo Teen: I did not know David Cronenberg used to make kids' cartoons.
I dunno, seems like Michael Jackson ripped off the idea for Moonwalker.
Now I want a Turbo Teen remake directed by Cronenberg. It's already a mix between The Fly and Crash.
Thundarr was my shit,I caught it in syndication when Cartoon Network launched ,I was blown away by the premise.
Thunder is campy but still holds up in 2020
SOMEBODY ELSE REMEMBERS MIGHTY MANN AND YUKK
When you get Gerber and Kirby working on your project, it's tough to mess it up...
Thank you for sharing this. I learned more than I expected, including how much I unwittingly lost.
At least now I know to mourn.
That Magic Flute clip sounds like a team of non-musical writers were asked to write lyrics over a lunch break instead of hiring a songwriter.
As a proud owner of the Thundar the Barbarian board game (when I was little anyways) and an avid watcher of all things cartoon, this one gave me some really weird feelings. I definitely have not seen all of these but there were a few instances that made my dusty old memory light up and go "I... think I've seen this before, HOLY CRAP" and that's always fun. The one I really loved seeing though was that quick flash of the Lazer Tag cartoon as I have incredibly fond memories of that but have never met another human being who ever saw it. Also if you think Thundar is set in a cool universe I'd suggest trying to get one's hands on a copy of Gama World, an old Gary Gygax TTRPG set in a fairly similar world.
I halfway expected this to be about how Britney Spears has been treated since I saw Bob tweeting about this earlier.
I forgot Turbo Teen existed. Thank you for reminding me. Is that sarcasm or a genuine thank you? Yes.
Yes! The Big Picture is back
Cannot wait for more Schlocktober and Game Overthinker episodes
Turboteen could 100% be a Black Mirror episode today. That transformation looks Teerrifying
Damn, wish I knew about Sky Surfers Strike Force. Looks like the kind of show I would've loved
Looks like an anime studio made that bitchin' anime opening. I doubt the whole show looked like that...
Also, was that last guy's code name Soar Loser? His teammates sound like a-holes.
@@fireyay It would have made more sense if the character was written as a hothead.
It can be watched on demand on Pluto TV.
'Sky Surfer Strike Force' looks more like an anime than the rest of their output. Kinda like how 'Swat Kats' looks more like an anime for H-B.
Wow, this episode was my childhood Saturday tv watching experience. When Thundar came out it was like nothing I had seen before and wish they would do a reboot of the show. And by that, I mean keep the scripts and designs as they are and redo the animation.
Same! I also loved Dungeons and Dragons, even got the boxset they released a while back. Also, the Biskitts. Never met another person who even remembers that cartoon, and yeah, it was a smurfs ripoff, but darnit, I liked it!
oh my ...The herculoids...I miss those cartoons.
I like how the villain of Thundar is just a transforming action figure of Darkseid whose other face is just Darkseid's face with more eyeliner. Also how Turbo Teen is just Sandman but a teenager and a car.
Yeah, no, Gemini was no more a recurring villain than most of the other baddies. He got two episodes but the series had no true Big Bad.
Holy cow, I had totally forgot about Sky Surfers Strikeforce until just now! I kind of want to go watch it again now.
It’s available on demand on Pluto TV.
I vaguely remember seeing THUNDARR on TV as a little kid, and as such felt a similarity when I later started getting into Jack Kirby's comic book art. Heck, some of his imagery such as the toppled Statue of Liberty from KAMANDI ("the last boy on Earth") I'm pretty sure made its way into THUNDARR's background art. And not for nothing but I'm pretty sure TURBO TEEN started life as a Kirby idea, too. So while it sounds like a bad "TRANFORMERS but with a human being" idea, it was actually a "SIMPSONS did it" by the King.
Incidentally, while I caught on that the gravity of the "runaway planet" caused the moon to bust in half, what exactly did it do to Earth? It looked like it drew off the atmosphere, but then everyone would have asphyxiated, so what precisely was the "vapor" being drawn off? The ozone layer?
Guess it's about time I watched that Superman show I got on DVD a while back.
Gotta be real, that Magic Flute movie doesn't look too bad.
@Tony M. Lmao
Good to see you back, Bob. Def interested to see you finally do that Venture Bros video you've been promising for ages. ;)
Damn fam, this has been the best big picture since that one about The Iron Dream
RIP, Ruby and Spears...you both gave me lots of great times growing up!^____^
Oh damn, I didn’t even hear about this; and I work in animation!
That sky surfers thing is the most 90s thing I've seen in a long time
Man, that Rubik's cube show looks like it was a trip
I was there. And it was.
Time to dust off the resume
Didn't realize both these guy passed in recent months. Certainly remember their catalog. Like most 1980s Saturday morning cartoons, I can't say most of their outposts was good, but some was memorable. The 3 networks had 12 hours of programming time to fill, and they shoehorned every single fad into cartoons and breakfast cereals. Must admit that I confuse a lot of RS serials with Hanna Barbera, the aesthetic was so similar, though I suppose Ruby Spears tended to aim at slightly older children.
HOLY CRAP SKYSURFERS!!!
Great tribute. I can always count on you for educational and interesting content. Thanks, Bob!
That Superman cartoon was one of the last DVD box sets I ever bought.
I feel that more love should be shown to it.
So glad I found this again. I hadn’t seen a new episode in ages, and I finally posted a message on the Escapists latest video. All of Movie Bobs previous content was private, and there was no reference to new projects going elsewhere.
This was an excellent and informative tribute, thanks
It's sad I have never seen or heard of a lot of these shows I would have loved as a kid... but Australia always misses out on stuff, especially the cool stuff.
LA 's lease you had around The twist
Well, that was some of the most bizarre stuff I had never heard of. Thanks for sharing it.
Btw, I would love to see a deep dive into the many different versions of Scooby-Doo, like you did with Yogi Bear and the Flintstones many years ago.
Good to see you back
Bob: Yes that's real
Me: "I don't believe you Roy Burgundy GIF"
@Tony M. Ok I get it. But is it the same level of creepy as you posting a copy of this tweet under every other comment on his videos? Because dude - creepy af
They will be sorely missed.
Good to see you putting out these vids again bob!
I was really hoping BOB would have commented more on the Superman Series