What about Filmation Cartoons

T

tonywrich

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Warner Bros. cartoons,:confused: Disney cartoons, and Hanna-Barbera cartoons. I am totally shocked and surprised nobody has ever had any thing to say about the classic cartoons of Filmation. Titles like, Fat Albert, He-Man, Ghostbusters, Bravestar, The Space Sentinels, Fraidy Cat, the Archies, The Groovy Goulies, and the Freedom Force. You Can Call Me Old-Fashioned, You Can Call Me over the Hill, As Much As I Love Anime and Japanese Manga I love the classic Filmation cartoons.
This Is Filmator Signing off. Keep Cool:cool:
 
Wow, Fat Albert and The Archie's is really going back in the past. I'd never heard of Filmation, though I have heard of some of those shows.
 
One thing Filmation is famous for is limited animation. Usually the characters just stand around and talk and they're seen walking around the place with their familiar funny walks. And the voice casts are very small, usually the Filmation presidents, Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott, provide most of the voices. Still some of their shows were pretty entertaining.
 
I've been wondering what people think of Filmations Star Trek cartoon in general. With live action to cartoon adaptations (Back To The Future, Bill & Ted, Robocop) they tend to kiddify the cartoon for BSP reasons. Star Trek The Animated Series on the other hand they wrote the episode with the same approach for the original series. They even did a good job with Yesteryear.

While I haven't seen the live action shows that much, I've enjoyed the cartoon quite a bit.
 
I greatly enjoyed the Animated "Star Trek" as well. Think it helped they made it like the old TV show---which made it stand out from the rest of the Saturday morning lineup of the time ("Scooby", "Josie" and their various knockoffs)...
 
I think alot of the criticism has been unfair. They opened shop just as the theatrical short business was dying out and tv animation was opening up. The economics of tv production in this country got to the point where something like He-Man was the best looking show you could afford to make without outsourcing animation. And it's only been as outsourcing has gotten more competitive and production has adapted to handling foreign animation houses, that you find increasingly strong visual quality. Avatar's the high end on tv quality, but even lesser shows look better than anything I grew up watching.
 
Yup yup, i love Filmation stuff too. Some people consider it cheap but i think they are fun to watch, i grew up with stuff like the live-action Ghostbusters show from the 70's, the Shazam! live-action show, He-Man, She-Ra (That's right, i watched it not only for He-Man guest star appearences especially Skeletor on the show and for that awesome Hordak villain whom i had the toys to, but i had a big crush on Princess Adora, Glimmer and Catra when i was 4), Star Trek animated, Batman & Superman reruns on Cartoon express, Filmation's Ghostbusters and the best show they did known as Bravestarr which i believe was a big improvement over their previous animations thus creating the first space western before Firefly came along.

But what about their animated flicks?
 
Does Filmation still exist? That could be a big part of their lack of recognition, since the other three companies mentioned still make cartoons,
 
Yeh, but Filmation definitely went out with a bang with "Bravestar" which was their final greatest moment.

Here's my ranking of what the best animated shows they did.

1. Bravestar.
2. Star Trek The Animated Series.
3. He-Man and The Masters of the Universe.
4. Blackstarr.
5. She-Ra: Princess of Power.

And my ranking of what there best animated movies.

1. Starchaser: Legend of Orin.
2. Pinocchio and The Emperor of the Night.
3. Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of Them All.
4. The Secret of the Sword.
 
I heard that after, Bravestarr, Filmation had planned to create a series about a town of bugs called Bugsberg. But then the studio closed down before that happened.
 
Not true dudly, i thought "Bravestar" was the most finest animated show that Filmation ever did and was a BIG improvement over their previous animated shows with better animation, i guess you can say they saved the best for last.

Even a few of the animated movies i mentioned like "Starchaser", their "Pinocchio" movie and "Flash Gordon" had very good animation without the annoying frame repeating stuff or recycled animation. I knew they were going to do a "Bugsberg" cartoon starring Don Knott's Gee Willakers from the Pinocchio movie but too bad it was never made and they were even going to do a third He-Man show called "Seahawk" who starred on SheRa but that was just a pipedream which the second He-Man show would be from DiC called "New Adventures of He-Man" which was the third sequel He-Man show after "She-Ra".

However, i advise you all not to see "Happily Ever After" which was the final animated movie for Filmation and that one sucked even though Snow White was quite hot in the movie and Clockwork Orange's Malcom Mcdowell was good as the villain but those are the only two good things about the show.
 
Hmmm, i don't think Filmation produced 'Starcaser: Legend Of Orion'. From what i remember, that film's animation was a few steps above what Filmation was cranking out at the time.
 
It's sad and a waste for Filmation to die a howling death. They should have NEVER trusted Loreal.

"But something touched me deep inside......the day.......Filmation.......died........."
 
Don't know about "in general," but I can certainly say what I thought of the Star Trek cartoon. I also took a look (and more than a few pokes) at the "limited animation" techniques and how they actually worked to their advantage in animated Trek.

As I say in the animation article, you may criticize Filmation for its poor animation, but in context they weren't doing that badly. At that point, your choices were to animate cheap or not animate at all, and plenty of studios and networks were just fine with not animating at all. There is a lesson in there somewhere about the merits and evils of Flash-based animation.

There were also some pretty hot names in animation that worked for Filmation that went on to bigger and better things. It still bowls me over that one of Glen Keane's earliest credits was Star Trek, and Bruce Timm got his real break on He-Man, if I remember right.

-- Ed
 
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