What about Filmation Cartoons

Like you said, Filmation could be criticized for poor animation. However, there were a couple ways by which Filmation's people got around that....

First of all, there were the sound tracks. From "Superman" to "Archie" to "Star Trek" to "Shazam!" to "Tarzan" to "He-Man" to "Flash Gordon", Filmation had the richest and most expressive sound tracks this side of Golden Age Hollywood shorts. The ponderous movement of characters was greatly covered up by a musical score that wasn't.

Second, at its best, Filmation's story values were far superior to its rivals. In that respect, the best of their work could easily stand up to today's animation, like "Star Trek", or "He-Man" episodes in which Teela and Evil-Lyn were forced to form a temporary alliance, or when He-Man and Teela confronted an ancient dragon to try to save Man-at-Arms.



Well, Filmation could be funny. Unfortunately, they never seemed to handle characters like "Droopy", "Tom and Jerry", or "Heckle and Jeckle" very well. These characters were intended for 1940s and 1950s movie screens, and trying reproduce the originals' past glory only served to put the spotlight on Filmations' deficiencies. I remember "Mighty Mouse" to be the only golden age character that Filmation handled with any success at all, though MM was not a primarily comic character, and Filmation went away somewhat away from the original character and more towards a direction more in keeping with its strengths.

"Superman" was one of the fond memories of my SatAM childhood, though unfortunately I found the cartoons didn't hold up that well on adult viewing on CN. I suspect the "Batman" series of both the 1960s and 1970s were better, and probably would stand up under my viewing today (though of course they never came close to the WB folks' efforts).

I remember being an absolutely devoted fan of "Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down?" and "The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty", I wish I could see them again to see if they would hold up as well today. Interestingly, I did get to see "Archie" again on the Hallmark Channel before it lost the rights to Filmation shows. Usually shows I saw years ago don't tend to hold up as good as I remember them, once in a while I appreciate things I missed the first time around--but "Archie" is a rare case of being exactly as I remember it. The first season was one of the all-time best shows on SatAM, the second season was as wretched as I remembered, the third season was a mixed bag of hit-and-miss (the "Dick Tracy" segments were probably the best part of the show), while the fourth-season "U.S. of Archie" was well-meaning but boring.

The "Secret of the Sword" I only saw in its five-episode form as the start of the "She-Ra" series, but I would rate it as pretty good. "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night" was, in my humble opinion, the very finest work that Filmation ever did. It was sad that the swan song of "Filmation" was "Happily Ever After", its third and final theatrical film in which all of its weaknesses came to the forefront.

The early episodes of "Flash Gordon" that Filmation compiled into a prime-time movie for NBC actually came off pretty splendid. I never could bring myself to watch much of the "Brady Bunch" movie that kicked off the "ABC Saturday Morning Superstar Movie" series (I could find out I'm wrong if I got a chance to watch them, but aside from "Star Trek", I get the impression that Filmation was not at its best adapting prime-time live action shows). However, I remember enjoying what I saw of the Looney Tunes characters teaming up with the Groovie Goolies (characters spun off twice removed from the "Archie" universe). As much as that movie is disdained today, I have my suspicions that it may be more entertaining than people give it credit for, even if only in a "it's-so-bad-it's-good-sense"--hey, if the Punisher could team up with Archie....

I found "Shazam!" great when I first watched it (great opening theme!), but in retrospect I wished Filmation had stuck to animation, and tried to bring in more of Captain Marvel's magical universe to begin with.

One last bit of remininscing, I remember being a faithful viewer of "Tarzan", which I suspect is also underrated. In a lot of ways, the series was a dry run for the success the studio would later find with "He-Man"....
 
Hey Gary, have you seen "Starchaser"? that's another great Filmation movie that proves that not all their animation can be bad.
 
Well that's obvious since he's getting the nice, smooth treatment, whereas poor Eddie gets kicked and bounced around, getting the rougher treatment. The only thing in his favor were the orange boxers as Jake's were pink. Pretty gutsy though for a guy to be wearing that color, boxers or otherwise.
 
The transformation sequence basically highlighted the two aspects of its leads: Jake was blonde, skinny, smart, perfect in every way, smug, and had his choice of not one but two women, including an alien from the future. Unfortunately, this left Eddie being the fat, clumsy, dumbass who would fail "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" in about 10 seconds. Remember kids: Don't get fat or you'll be a clumsy dumbass!
 
WHAT?!? No mention of JOURNEY BACK TO OZ? Sure the plot suffered from retreading the same plot ground (then again, so did PINNOCHIO; you'd think the kid would suffer from some deja vu!) and the lousy characterizations on the Tin Woodman and Cowardly Lion (they would NEVER abandon the Scarecrow!). But it had Liza Minnelli, Rise Stevens, and Ethel Merman doing some good Sammy Caan/James Van Heusen numbers!

Bye the bye, did you know ER's Dr. Morris was the voice of Pinnochio?

A.Magik
 
Ok, so Filmation didn't do Starchaser and it was a fault on imdb but the animation designs looked almost nearly and i could have sworn i heard Lou Schemier's voice somewhere in the film.

The animated Ghostbusters isn't half-bad but the live-action show version blows it away! Yes i know Scott Grimes is the voice of Pinocchio, don't forget he also did "Critters 1 & 2" and "American Dad". James Earl Jones was in it as he was perfect for the voice of the title Emperor and his character is such a criminally underrated animated villian, i love the way they design him and make him powerful looking and he even looks like a puppet from "Puppet Master". Too bad their Pinocchio film failed in theaters, it's a damn shame it didn't save Filmation alone cause i have to give big points for having done that film with real flowing animation instead of the usual repeated animation in their stuff except "Bravestarr" and some impressive graphics like the spectacular musical number "You're a Star".

Yeh i remember "Journey Back to Oz" when i was a kid, not too bad but nowhere as good as "Pinocchio" or the live-action "Wizard of Oz" or Disney's "Return to Oz". I remember seeing "Pinocchio" when i was 5 back in 1987 when it hit theaters and man it sure scared the crap out of me, sure i loved it but ever since i witnessed that terrifying moment where Pinocchio changes into a puppet (Anyone scared of this part as a kid?) by Puppetino (who kind of looks like Mok from "Rock & Rule" and Mick Jagger with a moustache), i mean geez it's pretty heavy stuff for a Filmation animated movie. Don Knotts, Tom Bosley (the dad from "Happy Days") and Ed Asner did great voice acting for that film, I even have this on an import DVD from the UK. Too bad BCI is releasing the inferior "Happily Ever After" on DVD and not this cause "Happily Ever After" sucks and was kind of girly for my liking though Snow White was a hottie and Malcom Mcdowell are the only good things about that movie, it's no where near quality as "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night". Too bad the studio closed down and we would have seen some cool sequels to "Jack and the Beanstalk", "Red Riding Hood", "Rumplestilkin", "Hansel and Gretle" and other fairy tale sequels even an animated adaptation of "Alice Through the Looking Glass" which would have been better then "Happily Ever After" but just as good as "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night".

Here's the Pinocchio movie on Youtube for those that haven't seen it in a long time or haven't seen it but curious about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm9MtQgR4lk

Part 8 and the rest will come later on.
 
Sorry, "Starchaser" is a movie I've never heard of.

I will say though, that I do know for certain Filmation never made any movies for the theaters outside of just three: "He-Man and the Secret of the Sword", "Pinnochio and the Emperor of the Night", and "Happily Ever After", so if it was a theatrical movie, you can be pretty sure it wasn't Filmation. Of course, they did make a few other films, at least two for the "ABC Saturday Superstar Movie" series that I know of for sure (and maybe some other ones as well, for all I know), and they did take the beginning episodes of the "Flash Gordon" TV series and wrap some new animation around them, to come up with a movie that was aired in prime time. I remember the TV Guide critic previewing movies appearing on TV that week had nothing but praise for the film (which got me to watch it, and I ended up totally agreeing with him). If you don't mind an off-topic aside, I think it's a crime what Ruppert Murdoch and successors did to destroy one of America's truly great magazines, I know my TV savvy and viewing is all the poorer for a lack of a competent TV Guide.



I wasn't aware of Filmation had done it, are you sure MGM and Chuck Jones didn't make it (I know that MGM had closed down its animation studio and giving Chuck Jones the boot by the time "Journey Back to Oz" came out, but then again, "Journey Back to Oz" was locked in the can for a few years after the movie was made--the fact that it took so long to release the movie should have warned audiences right there that the effort was likely a turkey). I remember when it was finally released, they tried to improve it by adding some live scenes featuring the Wizard of Oz in his balloon (played by Bill Cosby--I kid you not). I actually think it did improve the movie somewhat, and that it's been a mistake not to include those Bill Cosby sequences in the subsequent airings and videos of the movie through the years.

Yeah, it was a shame that talented voice cast should be sabotaged by scriptwriters who clearly didn't understand the characters. But then, nobody really has been able to adapt the sequel Oz books satisfactorily in my opinion--maybe because these efforts always go back to the 1939 movie. Because that movie departed from the book in a number of ways, it doesn't really jive with material from the later Oz books. Frankly, I thought the MGM/Turner cartoon series that aired on ABC in the 1990s came off far better, by simply being a totally original sequel to the 1939 movie, and ignoring the later Oz books altogether.



Don Knotts actually had some rather notable outings as a voice actor, like that "Mr. Limpett" film when his movie career was at its height in the 1960s, and a couple outings on the Scooby Doo Mystery Hour movies. It's a shame he didn't do more along those lines.

My guess is they're releasing "Happily Ever After" on DVD because it did come out in the theaters not that long ago, while they've probably forgotten "Emperor of the Night"--though I fully agree with you that the latter film is far superior. Frankly, the movie reminds me of an animated cartoon special made on Prince Charming's and Snow White's daughter that aired on TV a number of years ago. When Snow White's wicked stepmother managed to come back and stir up trouble again, somehow this show thought it a terribly clever idea to have the daughter flee for refuge with--wait for it--seven giants. Filmation's idea to make Snow White's protectors seven female dwarves wasn't that much more inspired. After seeing what Filmation could do in "Emperor", seeing "Happily Ever After" in the theaters was a terrible letdown. Hopefully, other movies would have been more like the former movie than the latter--but we'll never know now.
 
I'm pretty sure that Bravestarr: The Legend was animated with the intention of being a theatrical movie as well, it just wasn't released theatrically until after the cartoon series had already been shown. In retrospect, this surely-unplanned delay was probably the first major indication that Filmation wasn't going to last much longer.



Actually, the reverse is true. Filmation produced the Flash Gordon movie in 1979 with the full intention of having it broadcast soon afterwards. For some reason, the movie itself was a tough sell (although it was likely the Hitler references that gave TV execs cold feet), so the TV series was made instead, with much of the exceptional animation from the movie being incorporated into the first four episodes or so. The movie wasn't broadcast until 1982, ironically well after the TV series had ended.
 
I remember those Bill Cosby segments for some strange reason.

It's pretty obvious that they couldn't use seven regular dwarfs for fear of Disney coming to their doorstep.
 
Since I did not know the history behind Filmation's "Flash", my natural assumption was that the movie came from the series rather than visa versa (I did know the movie made up the initial episodes of the TV series, because the series was repeated on SatAM shortly after the movie.)



I don't think that's the case. The seven dwarfs were part of the Snow White story for generations before the movie ever existed. Where Walt Disney's genius really lay was in his decision to treat the seven dwarves as individual characters. I think any filmmaker of a Snow White movie can use the dwarfs, as long as they don't make one shy, one with constant hay fever, one mute, one who starts out opposed to Snow White and ends up being one of her staunchest defenders by the movie's end, etc., etc.; but they take their own distinct approach. However the approach of making them seven giants, or seven girls....strikes me as, well, as not that imaginative.
 
Aside from Fat Albert, which has been released on DVD but isn't available in stores, and shows like Fraidy Cat and Wacky & Packy, which are among Flimation's few shows not based on a licensed person or property, which DVDs are you referring to? Keep in mind that I'm talking about official releases, not bootlegs.
 
I'm not talking about bootlegs and clearly you don't keep with DVD releases do you?

As for Fat Albert I have seen the dvds in stores.

BCI has released official dvd sets of He-Man, She-Ra, Ghostbusters, Blackstar, and several of Filmation's live action shows and other animated shows on DVD and they plan on releasing Bravestarr soon as well.

Here is the official site.

http://www.inkandpaintdvd.com/?page=home
 
Only when it's something I care about, and honestly, there aren't any Filmation cartoons that I need to own on DVD.

Good for you. And I've seen Elvis Presley walking out of a 7-11. So what do you want, a medal? Just kidding. :p
 
Not funny.

Fine don't support Filmation's DVD releases, but don't make a dumb statement like none of their cartoons will ever be released on DVD without doing research first.
 
Actually Bravestarr was an original idea, thanks to Filmation they created the sci-fi western genre before Serenity or Firefly. They made a deal with Mattel to make figures out of their series before it was released on TV.
 
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