Poll of the Day > What was the best Filmation cartoon?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Some of these shows went through multiple iterations, such as The Archie Show, which was known by 6 different titles plus multiple spinoffs.

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TAS lmao.

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My instinctive first answer is He-Man, because it was sort of the most significant at the time I was actually watching cartoons.

Ghostbusters was my second thought, because while most kids (at least the ones I knew) were kind of snobbish about it at the time (because WE didn't know there was a Ghost Busters TV show in the 70s and just wondered why the hell this show was so weird and didn't have anything to do with the 80's movie), it's not actually that BAD of a cartoon. Whereas He-Man kind of ages really, really poorly if you try to go back and watch it as an adult.

Filmation was never really a major studio for me, though. Marvel/Sunbow and DiC probably produced waaay more of the must-watch cartoons of my childhood.
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I have a soft spot for ghostbusters. Had a few of the VHS tapes when I was growing up

I like that there is an bad guy team of monsters in it... And now that I think about it it's probably just ripped off of he-man in that sense, lol

He-Man is the most iconic but that show is cheesy to the MAX now.

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Fat Albert

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Best?

You mean least worst?

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Whereas He-Man kind of ages really, really poorly if you try to go back and watch it as an adult.

New Adventures of He-Man surprisingly holds up better despite being in many ways a colossal clusterfuck.

Metalsonic66 posted...

that show is cheesy to the MAX now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZpW2aBLm5I

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The only one I ever really watched is Fat Albert. I might have watched an episode or two of He-Man and She-Ra (I seem to recall them calling the hour block the "He-Man and She-Ra Power Hour") and maybe Ghostbusters.
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BraveStarr was the last animated series that Filmation created and I think it was the best. That clipity-clop and whip during the Filmation logo at the beginning always sends a shiver down my spine because it was the only show that did that with the logo.

Plus it probably had the best theme song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUfJuOp7Dck

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He-Man for sure, but I loved me some Bravestarr. Had the action figures with those "laser packs" and everything. Can't believe you didn't include The Lone Ranger and Zorro too, though. I can hear that funny Filmation logo sound in my head now. Good times, good times.

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What the fuck is Gilligans Planet

is it exactly what it sounds like?

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Zeus posted...

New Adventures of He-Man surprisingly holds up better despite being in many ways a colossal clusterfuck.

Rewatched the 2003 (2002?) version with my brother a year or two ago. The voice acting and animation hold up. The character names and designs though... Mekaneck, Man-E-Faces, Clawful... lol

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Mead posted...

What the fuck is Gilligans Planet

is it exactly what it sounds like?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MagAchLlJP4

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Toss-up between He-Man and Fat Albert.

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Blackstar was the predecessor to He-Man, complete with magic swords.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmlSNvOQnkE

John Blackstar, astronaut, is swept through a black hole, into an ancient alien universe. Trapped on the planet Sagar, Blackstar is rescued by the tiny Trobbit people. In turn, he joins their fight for freedom against the cruel Overlord, who rules by the might of the PowerStar. The PowerStar is split into the Power Sword and the Star Sword. And so with Star Sword in hand, Blackstar together with his allies, sets out to save the planet Sagar. This is his destiny.

I am John Blackstar.

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And then John was a zombie

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Metalsonic66 posted...

Rewatched the 2003 (2002?) version with my brother a year or two ago. The voice acting and animation hold up. The character names and designs though... Mekaneck, Man-E-Faces, Clawful... lol

Yeah, those were all holdouts from the original series, which also included such luminaries as Sy-Klone, Stinkor, Roboto, Evil-Lyn, Two Bad, Snout Spout, Scare Glow, and Fisto.

And it's a good thing He-Ro Son of He-Man was never produced, or we would've had to deal with the vile machinations of the villainous Skeleteen.

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He-man probably - but She-Ra holds up a little better, which isn't surprising since it was the last to come in the series.

Ghostbusters would be next.

Metalsonic66 posted...

Rewatched the 2003 (2002?) version with my brother a year or two ago. The voice acting and animation hold up. The character names and designs though... Mekaneck, Man-E-Faces, Clawful... lol

Never really got around to watching the 2000s one, but it was a professional production by that point. By contrast, Filmation (and vintage Hannah-Barbera as well) went super-sloppy at times. Plus a lot of VA-work at the time was just done by family members of staffers so, when it sounded like they hadn't ever acted before, in some cases they hadn't >_>

The thing about the 2000s version afaik is that it went with a more serious presentation, so the names and designs -- which they could have got away with in a campier show -- were always going to clash, considering that half of them related to toy gimmicks.

I'm still surprised that we never got a self-aware, comedic reboot of the series around the same time as the new She-Ra.

dainkinkaide posted...

Yeah, those were all holdouts from the original series, which also included such luminaries as Sy-Klone, Stinkor, Roboto, Evil-Lyn, Two Bad, Snout Spout, Scare Glow, and Fisto.

roflmao, frigging Two-Bad. They went absolutely nuts with a lot of the characters. Some of them they could get away with, though. For example, Sy-Klone really just a funky spelling.

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The new she-ra is garbage.

I didn't think they could make animation look worse than the original, but they did it somehow.

kukukupo posted...

The new she-ra is garbage.

I didn't think they could make animation look worse than the original, but they did it somehow.

Yeah, the new She-Ra's art sucks, the animation sucks (the fight scenes are terrible), and -- as far as I've watched (which was only to the end of s1) -- the characters and story kinda suck as well. I'm not sure I'd want anybody involved in that series to make a new He-Man/Masters (although it would have been a great way to work the character in, since that's how they introduced She-Ra), but I do want a new Masters. And I've hoped that the fact She-Ra has apparently been moderately successful would help in that regard.

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kukukupo posted...

The new she-ra is garbage.

I didn't think they could make animation look worse than the original, but they did it somehow.

New She-Ra is not nearly as good as the new Voltron. But it is well-made and well-written.

When I saw that She-Ra was gonna be by DreamWorks (like Voltron), I was expecting better animation, but it's far from bad. To say it's worse than the original is hilariously wrong.

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Metalsonic66 posted...

New She-Ra is not nearly as good as the new Voltron. But it is well-made and well-written.

When I saw that She-Ra was gonna be by DreamWorks (like Voltron), I was expecting better animation, but it's far from bad. To say it's worse than the original is hilariously wrong.

No it isn't. I've watched both (unfortunately - my wife likes the new she-ra for some reason) and the old animation is sooo much better.

lol no.

The original show had shit for animation. The new show is certainly not the best animation ever but it's like hundreds of times better than the old one

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Metalsonic66 posted...

lol no.

The original show had shit for animation. The new show is certainly not the best animation ever but it's like hundreds of times better than the old one

Just went back and looked at both to make sure I wasn't exaggerating. I'm not wrong on this.

Most new cartoon remakes are pretty shit. Mostly because they seem to be being made by people who don't actually give a fuck about the originals, and only want to exploit the brand recognition, while either catering to much younger audiences (a la Teen Titans Go) or pandering to Tumblr.
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Metalsonic66 posted...

The original show had shit for animation. The new show is certainly not the best animation ever but it's like hundreds of times better than the old one

The original She-Ra's animation was halfway decent. The new one's animation looks like the kind of crap you'd find on Newgrounds.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

while either catering to much younger audiences (a la Teen Titans Go)

TTG was something of a love letter to the Teen Titans cartoon, which very loosely adapted the comics. It's basically a xerox of a xerox >_>


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Zeus posted...

TTG was something of a love letter to the Teen Titans cartoon

Not really. It's just using the general designs and voice actors of the original but deliberately skewing every aspect of the narrative and to a younger target demo.

It's the exact same thing they did with Thundercats. The remake aimed at teens/adults failed, so they made one aimed at younger children instead.

Studios have openly admitted the reasoning in the past - basically, intelligent shows aimed at older audiences don't really sell merch, so they're more expensive to produce (because you can't underwrite the costs via toy sales or t-shirt/Underoos money). So there's a motivation to aim downward (especially since it's generally easier/cheaper to shit out lolrandom kid cartoons than trying to develop something both kids and adults will enjoy). That's the same thing that mostly killed Young Justice on Cartoon Network as well (the ratings were actually fine and the show was critically praised, but it was too expensive to produce for a show that wasn't selling toys, so it was doomed).
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kukukupo posted...

Just went back and looked at both to make sure I wasn't exaggerating. I'm not wrong on this.

I'm honestly struggling to understand how anyone can come to this conclusion. Speaking strictly of animation, the new She-Ra trounces the old in terms of fluidity, expression, effects, action, and sheer variety. It's flawed when it comes to consistency, and whether you like the character designs depends on preference, but the other categories pull it so far ahead that it's not even a contest.

And I'm not even saying that Netflix She-Ra's animation is anything to write home about. I'm just surprised that we're not all on the same page that 80's She-Ra and He-Man had animation worse than the typical Hanna-Barbera short.

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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Not really. It's just using the general designs and voice actors of the original but deliberately skewing every aspect of the narrative and to a younger target demo.

But it has so many fucking callbacks and references to the original cartoon.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

It's the exact same thing they did with Thundercats. The remake aimed at teens/adults failed, so they made one aimed at younger children instead.

Oh right, I forgot the new one was a thing.... and also never got around to watching the remake.

Bearing in mind that cartoons live or die based on merch sales, the idea that it was targeted at teens/adults is a little flawed. Most of the merch for the new series wasn't anything close to collector-level, with the few new collector-level offerings released at the time instead being for the *original* series (which they completely bungled, first releasing a "wave" of two 8-inch figures then having a second "wave" (again, being generous here since two figures does not a wave make) once again of two figures, but this time in a 6-inch scale (which they really *should* have done in the first place)... and one of the two figures was once again Lion-o).

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Studios have openly admitted the reasoning in the past - basically, intelligent shows aimed at older audiences don't really sell merch, so they're more expensive to produce (because you can't underwrite the costs via toy sales or t-shirt/Underoos money). So there's a motivation to aim downward (especially since it's generally easier/cheaper to shit out lolrandom kid cartoons than trying to develop something both kids and adults will enjoy). That's the same thing that mostly killed Young Justice on Cartoon Network as well (the ratings were actually fine and the show was critically praised, but it was too expensive to produce for a show that wasn't selling toys, so it was doomed).

Because the merch for the cartoon sucked. You had 2 figure "waves" where for the 6-inch figures where one character packed with a playset for $20 at a time when the DC Universe Classics line -- which are in the same 6-in scale, similar style (in fact, they did some kitbashing) -- were only $13 and included a BAF piece. If parents had been buying those DCUC figures for their kids all along (which were collector level), the 6-in offerings would be more appealing to them... so the fact that it was a clusterfuck when there was no reason for it to be a clusterfuck killed it.

There was also a smaller line in a style almost comparable to the JLU figures, which was fucking stupid because the JLU line's poor sales had doomed that cartoon and ensured it wouldn't get another season (if it did get another season, Queen of Fables was going to appear -- she finally did appear in a DC cartoon, after being used in Harley Quinn). Mattel over-invested in trying to continue this smaller format for no real reason, since I think the initial run was like 20 different figures (where, again, the first wave of the 6-in line had 2)

Mattel bungled the toyline. The toys didn't sell. Mattel pulled its funding. It wasn't the cartoon's fault. By the way, it looks like Mattel lost the DC license altogether. McFarlane is now producing mass-market DC figures (which don't look great, but still better than the stuff Mattel had towards the end) and Spin Master is producing the low-end stuff.


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kukukupo posted...

Just went back and looked at both to make sure I wasn't exaggerating. I'm not wrong on this.

You are completely wrong and it's not even close

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OtakuD50 posted...

ust went back and looked at both to make sure I wasn't exaggerating. I'm not wrong on this.
I'm honestly struggling to understand how anyone can come to this conclusion. Speaking strictly of animation, the new She-Ra trounces the old in terms of fluidity, expression, effects, action, and sheer variety. It's flawed when it comes to consistency, and whether you like the character designs depends on preference, but the other categories pull it so far ahead that it's not even a contest.

And I'm not even saying that Netflix She-Ra's animation is anything to write home about. I'm just surprised that we're not all on the same page that 80's She-Ra and He-Man had animation worse than the typical Hanna-Barbera short.

The new animation looks like some twelve year old drew some anime portraits for RPG maker or something.

The original is so much better.

I think you're confusing art with animation

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrL0KyhUQDY
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lol exactly

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Metalsonic66 posted...

I think you're confusing art with animation

If it looks terrible, why would I care how it is animated?

He-Man is great, then and now. No you can't take it seriously, but just about every episode is hilarious.
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kukukupo posted...

If it looks terrible, why would I care how it is animated?

You were the one who kept saying animation lol

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Metalsonic66 posted...

You were the one who kept saying animation lol

Technically it's all part of the same thing regardless.

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There is a big difference.

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Metalsonic66 posted...

You were the one who kept saying animation lol

It's barely even animated.

Just look at John Krifluaski's blog, and he writes about his tenure at Filmation, even though he despised it as a kid due to it's shoddy animation, yet was employed there solely to get into the field.

He hated every last second of it. He is not even alone in other of Filmation's alumni.