The Cartoon Intro Examination Thread (60s Edition) - Hanna the Barberian

[Johnny Unusual]

Dudley Do-Right

There are actually three intros to this one: one that appeared in the various Rocky and Bullwinkle series and two for when Dudley got his own show. I’m was a big fan of the Jay Ward cartoons of the 60s. The animation was crude but functional, the way many early Adult Swim cartoons were. But really, it was a radio comedy for the TV, most of the jokes being more verbal than visual, though there’s still some fun to be had in the looking. First, lets look at the Rocky/Bullwinkle intro.

Stage curtains part as a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police mounts his horse backwards and a William Tell Overture-esque piece plays as they take off. It’s a pretty simple “gag” that is greatly enhanced by the expressions of gritty determination on both characters’ faces, with Dudley himself looking absolutely manic.

We then see them from far away in silhouette while the title fills in word by word under them.

Keeping with its old-timey routes, after blacking out, the next scene opens with an iris on the villain, Snidely Whiplash and as the scene opens up more we see that he’s tying up the show’s resident damsel in distress, Nell, to the railroad tracks. Nell struggles as Snidely ties her up in a scene more generally animated than I come to expect from a Jay Ward production.

Dudley then rides up, still backwards with a much more gormless expression on his face than before. Dudley tips his hat to Snidely as he passes, realizes what’s going on and rushes off screen. When we catch up with everyone, we see Snidely tied up with Dudley placing a foot on him as Nell pets Dudley’s horse. I feel like there’s supposed to be a role reversal at play with the horse getting the girl and Dudley playing the “pet sidekick’s” role of holding down the villain but I’m not sure.

It’s a decent enough opening but it isn’t the only one.

Next we have…

This one is a bit of a lesser intro, though it tries to end with an original gag, which I appreciate. Basically, it starts being a “clips from the show” intro which, unless they are very well edited, are usually not good.

Dudley is reading a book only to be disturbed by a wolf, who chases him into the city streets. Dudley is chased into the theater where, uh… “Hoy” is playing. Which is Spanish for “today”. Anyway, at least this is a thematically appropriate use of a clip, being that Dudley Do-Right harkens back to the day of Republic serials, broad matinee films and, despite the lack of silence, silent era films.

The title appears with VO.

“The Dudley Do-Right Show. Starring our hero, Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties!”

We see Dudley in an iris and being credited as portrayed by “Sid Gould, Jr.” Dudley looks, as best the character can, looks dashing, then begins waving demurely at the audience.

Iris out and iris in on Dudley’s horse, Horse, who is played by “Sid Gould, Sr.” “His faithful steed, Horse”. Horse smiles and blinks at us. Not, I feel like he is not just smiling at us and blinking, his blinking is so pronounced, I feel like it is specifically AT us.

Iris in and iris out on Nell Fenwick, who is played by “Sid Gould’s wife”. Troublingly, this doesn’t specify which Sid Gould. The lovely sweetheart, Nell Fenwick. She too makes a somewhat demure, shy expression.

“Her father, Inspector Fenwick.” Iris out on her and iris in on Inspector Fenwick, who is played by “Sid Gould’s mother-in-law”, which is a joke that doesn’t really work on two fronts now: “ha, a woman playing a man?!” is a joke that feels lightly aged (I say lightly because it is presented non-judgmentally but the implied joke and that an old woman would look like an old man and that’s no good on at least a couple fronts) and also “mother-in-law” jokes? Ugh.

“And that arch-villain, Snidely Whiplash!” Iris out and iris in on Snidely Whiplash who raises his eyebrows and then covers up his face with a cape. He is “played by Sid Gould.” This actually is a really good end to the “played by” bit, though it raises some questions, to be sure. I guess he’s just a Sid Goud unrelated to Sid Gould Jr. Or Sid Gould Sr.’s brother is also named Sid. I guess this reveals in “real life”, Nell is married to Snidely, which I like (sort of like how in real life “Basil Fawlty” was married not to his screen wife by his often-mistreated employee. No, not that one, the other one.

But if he is Sid Gould Sr.’s brother, that’s adding some weird psycho-sexual (or at least weird psycho-“romantically chaste”) stuff into the mix.

Hey, that wasn’t a bad opening. Nice homage to the days of classic film.

Here’s one more for “Dudley Do-Right and Friends”.

It’s the wolf opening from the last one, but this time in color. However, this time we se what is happening in the theatre. The wolf catches up with Dudley, who is enamored by what he sees on the screen. The wolf is snarling and about to bite Dudley, but Dudley stands up and points at the screen.

“Oh my, look! The greatest Mountie of them all!”

I’m going to give this moment credit, the expression on the face of the wolf is perfectly full of awe and wonder as he searches the screen for this mythic figure.

We then see a few clips from the show:

Dudley laughing.

A fox throwing dynamite and a detective dog jumping on it to muffle the blow and exploding (RIP Detective Dog).

Dudley in a crowd pointing up in shock.

A king lion being harassed by a gangster rodent and a sickly looking lion and being thrown out the window from his thrown.

Firemen about to catch him maybe?

Detective Dog walking off a cliff and accidentally firing a gun, sending a tree with Dynamite Fox in it down as well.

The skunk painting the king’s back. The fact that the skunk takes a second to maybe literally brownnose is worrying.

The king doesn’t seem happy with it either. I will say, the show actually has the wherewithal to turn a clips package opening into something else as the cartoon wackies from the previous scene fall on the wackies from the current one with a spelled out “Crash” and “Clonk”.

Again, Dudley points and I can’t tell if the re-used footage is to intentionally punctuate the cheesiness of the editing or not but I kind of liking. We then see the rat-man and the sickly lion riding in a small plane, guns ablazin’ and all four characters scattering.

The Dudley pointing again. Did they not want to pay for new Dudley animation? Anyway, Dudley dashes off the scene.

Meanwhile, Colonel MacBrag, a character I actually remember, is one a sheet of ice, carried by birds, because contextless madness is great. He then lands on and slides down a rainbow, probably not an intended metaphor for his support of LGBT+ plus rights but lets go with that because it makes a character born from an archetype with imperialist (and therefore xenophobic) connotations more likable.

MacBragg then knocks out two rhinos and then we cut to Dudley at his horse’s wedding, hidden behind a wall of the show’s title.

Did It Make You Want To Watch It?

I tended to like the Jay Ward cartoons as a kid, so probably, though man, they really had a lot of jokes about Native Americans.


What Did You Find on Wikipedia?

The “Friends” of “Dudley Do-Right and Friends” all appeared on other programs. Dudley and MacBrag were Rocky and Bullwinkle fixtures and “The Hunter” (the dog) and “The King and Odie” (the Lion) were on a show called “King Leonardo and his Short Subjects” (solid title), which I’m sure to discuss later.

Fan Art

I like this but… what is he holding?

This Snidely is freaky and impressive.

Great Nell, too.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo

Mr. Magoo is a character who hasn’t aged super-well. Its largely ableist, making fun of a guy for his bad eyesight. Part of it is, at least in the early going, was that he was too stubborn to ask for assistance and was blind in spirit as well but in softening the character it became a mockery of a doddering old man who can’t see and gets into wild misunderstandings because of it. Frankly, it’s a character I think we can move beyond, though he was brought back as recently as 2018 for Portugese TV.

However, this isn’t about looking forward, its about looking back. So lets look back to the Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo. Why “famous”? The answer is in the intro…

We begin with columns of colours and black lines and white arcs appear on the screen, which turn into books. Specifically books by the great authors like Melville, Dumas and Dickens. We then fade to an open book reading “Once Upon a Time” and featuring Magoo as a medieval knight. Presumably this is from the Medieval Times scene from the novelization of The Cable Guy.

We see three different color filters filling up thirds of the screen. Then we see Magoo as a cowboy shooting at retreating Native Americans, telling us this is very much of a shittier era. Then crossing above is Magoo clinging onto a train as some Native Americans are shooting arrows at him, presumably because of what happened in the last scene.

More Magoo mayhem scrolls across the screen left and right (literally). We see pirate Magoo sword fighting two other pirates, followed by Captain Magoo peering at the horizon from in a whale’s mouth. We see a Sherlock Magoo, followed by two fencing Magoos (one has a bigger nose than usual so I can’t tell if it’s a musketeer or Cyrano de Bergerac). Right before Sherlock Magoo exits, he’s stopped by a lion and is sticking his head near its mouth looking for a clue.

We then see a Magoo about to fire a Magoo out of a cannon and he turns the cannon and fires a Magoo at the audience. After a “boom” animation, Magoo appears but his head legs and torso slowly change into an Indian peasant, then his head changes to Henry the VII. His head appears on a detailed picture of old Hank before he is piece by piece turned into a knight. He then appears as Napoleon on a red, white and blue backdrop, then turning into a Native American, then a detailed Mona Lisa, then Davy Crockett, then a surprisingly badass looking samurai.

Like, its bad that he’s extra… squinty, but otherwise that looks fierce. Then he becomes a pirate and a gladiator who appears on some pottery. He’s then a Robin Hood holding an apple and after it is shot with an arrow, he turns into the drumming guy from the American Revolution. We then see Henry G. Saperstein Presents and the shows title appears on the screen one word at a time, taking one of the screen’s thirds. We then see the title in a fancy font on what looks like a classy book page. Then we see Jim Backus credited as Magoo with a horn of plenty.

Did It Make You Want To Watch It?

No but I will say it was a pretty stylish and impressive opening, so its not the animators’ fault.

What Did You Find on Wikipedia?

Unlike the theatrical cartoons, which focused on the extremely nearsighted Quincy Magoo's bumbling, the show featured the Magoo character as an actor in adaptations of such literary classics as Don Quixote and "Gunga Din".[3] Each of these roles was played seriously, with few if any references to Magoo's nearsightedness

That’s… kind of weird. If this was just an excuse for Jim Backus to do literary roles, I’m all for it. Like, its still almost certainly got bad racial stuff but its nice to know they tone down the ableist stuff.

Many of these were two parters and the Robin Hood one is a four parter. So it actually sounds a bit ambitious for what it is in comparison to the similar “Hello Kitty Fairy Tales” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks at the Movies”.

Fan Art

I get the reference but I am WAY behind on One Piece.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The Fantastic Four

Marvel Comics is a company that hit like a bomb. Think about it, this show, Spider-Man and the Marvel Super-Heroes all got greenlit with them existing for less than five years. This isn’t unheard of. But its hard to think of a time when at least among comic fans that Marvel wasn’t super big. It didn’t take long for the American comics industry to be divided into the Big Two. Image tried to make it three but really, the company really did a lot better when they stopped being a shared universe of creator-owned superheroes and more the company that produces some great creator owned series of all genres.

But even Image, which did produce some animated series, including two aimed at adults, never really were the sensation they desperately marketed themselves as. At least, not for very long. Spawn managed to be a top selling book for a long time before people realized that beyond the art, the series is kind of a snore. But while Marvel’s had some rocky times, the name recognition never wavered and only increased with time. And it started with the Fantastic Four. So its no surprise that this is one of the series to get its own show and probably with the biggest animation studio (for TV anyway) at the time, Hanna Barbera. Which is interesting, because the company would become more known for their DC adaptations, most notably Super Friends. Maybe there’s a good reason: the Fantastic Four hasn’t had that much luck in animation and from what I hear this is a pretty forgettable entry.

From a building, a fire erupts, presumably the Fantastic Four signal flare. A four appears and the colours between that and the background flicker in switching places. We then see the classic font for the title. Its interesting looking at it. Spider-Man’s is a more conventional heroic typeface despite being considered a divisive figure within the public of the Marvel Universe.

I mean, I think there’s something subtle going on in that it arcs downwards, unlike Superman’s even more triumphant upward arc.

But the Fantastic Four, who are universally beloved by the public within the comics have a more off-kilter to make you think it’s a bit kooky.

Which it was, certainly at the time. I mean, “hero team as family” and “team of bickering heroes who care for each other” can describe almost ANY superhero team but at the time this was a very new trope (though Lee admits the bickering part was one of the elements he took from the supporting cast of Doc Savage). The Fantastic Four was a unique book before it, to an extent, became every hero book, so it feels right that the title implies a certain level of weirdness.

The Hanna Barbera titles are slightly more polished but the letters being slightly off the same horizontal plane implies something unconventional.

One by one square frames with the hero’s faces appear and square-iris out. We then see a 4 with a character in each corner off it and Johnny’s perfect hair being threatened by part of it. The four expands to fill the screen and we cut to a rocket flying through a weird series of color waves while Hanna Barbera sci-fi-tinged sound effects play.

We cut to the four before they have their powers. Richards starts to push a lever but his arm keeps going. This isn’t an animation error, it’s a super power! Meanwhile, Ben Grimm turns into the rocky skinned Thing in a time elapse (which feels unnecessary in animation but it looks fine enough), Johnny Storm catches on fire and a shocked Sue Storm turns into a visible outline, leading to her name “Visible Outline Girl!”

One by one, the Four’s hands appear over the other to symbolize their bond and promise to become a team of heroes. We then see scenes of their Fantastic Adventures such as: a bunch of balls clumping together to bloopy sound effects. The Thing smashing a wall. A kinda-off-looking Galactus smashing through a covering of rock and shooting eye beams at Reed, Sue, the Thing and the Silver Surfer as Sue protects them all with a force field.

We then see a tiny Thing throwing a giant Doom to the ground and man, he looks embarrassed.

The Human Torch then flies around, dodging spears with the Thing because apparently Doom values his weapons being aesthetically pleasing over being effective. The Mr. Fantastic stretch punches out one of Doom’s guards and we get a stylish knockout effect.

Then we see a bunch of incoming missiles, followed by the Thing tossing a big piece of Kirbytech, which apparently explodes with an effect so nice, they used it twice.

Then we see the cast shot.

I can’t tell if the read is the Thing doesn’t want to get in on this group hug or if Mr. Fantastic wants to keep him at a certain level of distance. Either way, if you look at this family photo, you are going to say “Ooh, there’s something rough going on behind the scenes, isn’t there?”

The background and the 4 on it alternate between blue and yellow and then the show helpfully reminds us that the comics are also available, which a lot of animated series fail to do.

BTW, there’s a narrated version of the intro.

“Fantastic Four!
Starring Reed Richards
Sue Richards
Johnny Storm
Ben Grimm
Reed Richards with his power to stretch!
Ben Grim with the strength of a thousand men!
Johnny! Flame on, Torch!”

This last one sounds like a politician trying to sound cool and up with the lingo of the hip kids today. Except its still not as embarrassing as “Pokemon Go to the polls.”

“And Sue, the Invisible Girl.
The Fantastic Four!
United in their fight against interplanetary evil!
Fantastic!
The Fantastic Four!
Fantastic!”

The show is pretty determined not to let you forget the title, which seems like something a show needs to do.

Did It Make You Want To Watch It?

Sure but I am predisposed to give it a try. That said, while a competent intro, it lacks a lot of what I want in an intro: a cool song and something that isn’t just a clips package. I will say I’ve heard (perhaps incorrectly) the show isn’t particularly well regarded, it has a somewhat more polished look than the other Marvel shows of the era.

What Did You Find on Wikipedia?

Its worth noting artist Alex Toth did the character designs, as he was doing a ton of work for Hanna Barbera at the time. Particularly interesting considering how rarely he did work for Marvel, with his only Marvel Superhero work being a single X-Men issues (unless you count the Rawhide Kid).

Japan, the series was known as Space Ninja Gohms

I feel like all markets must be confused by this. I mean, Japan knows what a ninja is and that these aren’t in any way ninjas. These are the least ninja superhero in the Marvel Universe and I’m including pretty much anyone on the Avengers, even the Hulk. I mean, I guess Sue is arguably the one ninja but as a unit, very un ninja like.

I am endlessly curious where “Gohm” came from.

Fan Art

Right, I talked about the Galaxy Trio. I have no recollection about what I said.

“Sue Storm! The Invisible Legged Girl!”

 

[Dracula]

Oh man, the 1960s Marvel cartoons were fairly easy to find on VHS in the 90s, so I remember renting some episodes of Fantastic Four and Spider-Man. I definitely enjoyed them, but they certainly were a shock coming from the 90s FF and Spider-Man stuff that was airing on Fox Kids at the time.

Anyway, I came here to talk about this:

In Japan, the series was known as Space Ninja Gohms

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole for this!

First off, here's the Japanese version of the intro:

It's indeed called SPACE NINJA GOHMS. The intro animation is exactly the same as the American one (they didn't even change the title card!), but it now has a Japanese narrator. I noticed some of the names are different (Sue Storm is exclusively called "Suzie"). Then I scoured the comments to see what people think of this show! I found some good nuggets in there.

First off, there were a few comments to this effect:

「消えろ、スージー！」が一瞬悪口に聞こえた(笑)

Translation: "Suzie, disappear!" really sounded bad for a moment (lol)

This is referring to a line the narrator says during the intro. Of course he's describing Suzie's superpower, but the verb inflection, and its connotation, really makes it sound like he's saying "Suzie, be gone!" or even "Die, Suzie!"

Then there was this very helpful comment:

Fantastic-4の キャラクタ名は日本オリジナルにアレンジされています。
ゴームズ：ゴムのように体が伸びるから（Mr.Fantastic）
スージー：透明になると、アニメでは、「筋」に描かれるため（Invisible Woman）
ファイアーボーイ：そのまんま（Human Torch)
ガンロック：岩rock（ある意味一番秀逸）（the Thing）

Translation:

The Fantastic 4's names were localized for the Japanese audience.
Gohms/Mr. Fantastic: Because he can stretch his body like rubber (gomu)
Suzie/Invisible Woman: Because in the cartoon when she becomes invisible, it's drawn as a "streak" (suzi)
Fireboy/Human Torch: As-is
Gunrock/The Thing: Gan (stone) + rock (In a sense, the best)

So the names are kinda neat! Some fun wordplay going on there, especially with Sue.

I have no idea why they are "space ninja." I thought maybe it was an attempt to associate them with Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, but that show's from the 70s, so it would only make sense if Gohms was aired long after it was originally created.

 

[Octopus Prime]

I definitely did watch this version of FF before; it was like a (much) higher budget version of the Marvel Super Heroes Show (to be fair; everything has a higher budget than that); going for extremely faithful adaptations of comic stories; just edited down for a little for time. And, confusingly, to remove any possible mention of the rest of the Marvel universe (a story involving Klaw did not ever mention Black Panther or Wakanda, despite being a direct follow-up to that story; and Namor was barely edited into a new character, but everyone still knows who he is).

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Oh man, the 1960s Marvel cartoons were fairly easy to find on VHS in the 90s, so I remember renting some episodes of Fantastic Four and Spider-Man. I definitely enjoyed them, but they certainly were a shock coming from the 90s FF and Spider-Man stuff that was airing on Fox Kids at the time.

Anyway, I came here to talk about this:



I went down a bit of a rabbit hole for this!

First off, here's the Japanese version of the intro:

It's indeed called SPACE NINJA GOHMS. The intro animation is exactly the same as the American one (they didn't even change the title card!), but it now has a Japanese narrator. I noticed some of the names are different (Sue Storm is exclusively called "Suzie"). Then I scoured the comments to see what people think of this show! I found some good nuggets in there.

First off, there were a few comments to this effect:



Translation: "Suzie, disappear!" really sounded bad for a moment (lol)

This is referring to a line the narrator says during the intro. Of course he's describing Suzie's superpower, but the verb inflection, and its connotation, really makes it sound like he's saying "Suzie, be gone!" or even "Die, Suzie!"

Then there was this very helpful comment:



Translation:



So the names are kinda neat! Some fun wordplay going on there, especially with Sue.

I have no idea why they are "space ninja." I thought maybe it was an attempt to associate them with Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, but that show's from the 70s, so it would only make sense if Gohms was aired long after it was originally created.

I'm so glad I had this deep dive because this is fascinating.

And shout out to Kishi who discovered this bit of trivia.

Capcom's beloved 3D fighting game Power Stone (1999) features two forms for each character. One member of the cast is named Gunrock and looks like this:

The design of Gunrock's powered-up form is often compared to Marvel's Thing. But today I learned the 1960s Fantastic Four TV series received a Japanese localization, where the Thing was named...Gunrock!




So not only is the visual similarity intentional, but the name "Gunrock" itself is as direct a reference as if they'd just called him "the Thing" in the English version.

Wotta interestin' development.

I'm glad "Gohms" makes some sense, though it makes all the members who don't have stretch powers look out of place.

The potential Gatchman connection seems feasible, assuming it didn't get translated until years after its original airing (which is definitely something we've seen the other way around, such as Dragonball Z airing about five or six years after the original airing in North America and that time that they tried to sell the very 80s looking Saint Seiya in the early 2000s with a Bowling for Soup cover of a Flock of Seagulls song. as in intro.

Gohms would actually be a better title if there were five of them.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Fantastic Voyage

I’ve never seen he movie Fantastic Voyage but I know the general premise: in order to save a politician’s life (the president, maybe) a group of scientists shrink themselves down to enter the dude and save his life before time runs out. I have seen Innerspace, so I get the idea.

Anyway, they made a cartoon.

We start with some mysterious music at some sort of facility.

“Headquarters!” Says the narrator loudly. Then he clams up, as if that’s enough.

We then see… something? And then we pan down quickly for even more identified colours.

“CMDF! Combined Miniature Defense Force!”

Oh, I know what this is!

We see the letters on the screen and a door opens. Behind the door in the distance is a strange device. We close up in on it, then see it from another angle.

“Project: Fantastic Voyage!”

The titles appear on the screen in olde tyme computer font and is then shrunken down to nothing.

“Process: miniaturization.”

We transition to a darkly lit room of monitors. A shadowed man in a chair is looking out. We pan behind him and see a flashing screen with a silhouette in it.

“Authority: Top secret! Highest clearance!
Team: Jonathan Kidd, Commander.”

And he kind of looks like a parody of what a hero of the era looks like. Futuristic suit, squared jaw. It’s the eyepatch that really puts it over the top, though. He looks like he could be voiced by Phil Hartman or Patrick Warburton or Stephen Colbert (who basically did a very similar character in Harvey Birdman.)

“Guru, master of the mysterious powers."

Wuh-Oh. I mean, I find it exciting that your team of micro-surgeons includes a wizard but the turban pretty much scream “Oh, yeah, the people of the East are all versed in magicks. I saw it on a circus poster.”




“Erica Lane, doctor, biologist.”

She’s in theory the most useful member of the team but she’s the woman in a 60s cartoon so my guess is Kidd is constantly saving her from roving bands of hemoglobin.

“Busby Birdwell, scientist, inventor, builder of the Voyager.”

The screen cuts to the Voyager swooping and back to Busby.

Man. Busby. Look, I know I shouldn’t make assumptions but I already hate this guy. Look at his smug face. I already know how he sounds. Like a more irritable Brainy Smurf. This dude 100% will always choose to leave a team member behind to complete the mission. He’d probably through Guru into an aorta if it was “him or me” and might betray Jonathan Kidd to some influenza. He has a punchable face.

“Mission: In their miniaturized form, to combat the unseen unsuspected enemies of freedom!”

How many mini-surgeries are going to be Commie-based?

We see them standing heroically as they are shrunk on the Wheel of Fortune wheel.

“Time limit: 12 HOURS!”

We then see a very colourful little countdown clock with a big emphasis on the 1.

We see the title and the shrink ray again, then move into what I assume is a bloody fog.

Did It Make You Want To Watch It?

Hmm… a little bit. It makes me curious what this would look like as a weekly series. It’s a bit of a fun intro that makes you feel like you are given a debriefing. But I’m not going to remember this one strongly.

What Did You Find on Wikipedia?

Not a lot of interest. Here’s one of the episode plots, though.

Erica miniaturizes Busby without authorization to use him as a puppet at a children's hospital show, only to have a jealous puppeteer steal her "puppet."

Huh. This seems like a terrible use of the technology.

Here’s another one.

When a wizard uses the Crystal Ball of Kabala for evil, the CMDF must go inside the crystal to destroy the evil within.

Then I noticed. NONE of the synopsis deal with micro-surgery. They are just shrinking into other stuff.
Fan Art

Right, I talked about the Galaxy Trio. I have no recollection about what I said.
This one is from the movie…

The human body is surprisingly cold.

 

[Dracula]

HEADQUARTERS!

 

[MetManMas]

I'm assuming this show went about doing random bullshit with shrink rays because actually entering a person's body like in the movie was deemed too visceral or something by the 60s television censors.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Unless the inside of an evil wizards magic ball is much goopier than you'd expect.

 

[Daikaiju]

I'm assuming this show went about doing random bullshit with shrink rays because actually entering a person's body like in the movie was deemed too visceral or something by the 60s television censors.

I second this theory

 

[Torzelbaum]

“CMDF! Combined Miniature Defense Force!”

Oh, I know what this is!

Fantastic Voyage ... it means love?

It’s a bit of a fun intro that makes you feel like you are given a debriefing. But I’m not going to remember this one strongly.

I liked the music in the intro and the sound effects were nice. I didn't care much for the end credits but they did have some nice blinkenlights.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles

I decided to get in two “Halloween” intro in this month but the fact of the matter is, these ones are only there in the loosest sense, because “Frankenstein” is in the title. Get ready for non-horror based superhero adventure with “Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles” and “Frankenstein Jr.”!

One is the intro two the double billed show and the other is an opening for a segment. So, lets starts with the show proper.

We see “Hanna Barbera Presents” while we start with a shot with the most Hanna Barbera door possible, featuring an F with a Hanna Barbera font. Then it gets even more Hanna Barbera-y as a Hanna Barbera laser makes a Hanna Barbera sound as it hits the futuristic door. The narrator dives right in.

“Presenting Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles”, which is an awesome band name but it also doesn’t count for that thread since the latter half of the show IS a fictious band. But having your frontman be “Frankenstein Jr.” puts a little stank on it.

Right after, the door opens and we see a big friendly robot with Ralph Wiggum almost-hair and a steam shovel jaw, my favourite kind of robot jaw. Frankenstein Jr. bashes his hands together and thunder crashes and lightning flashes all with a smile on his face. I already like this guy a lot.

We then see “The Impossibles”, the silhouette of a rock band with a rainbow-esque array of colors filling the outlines with the title under them.

The narrator starts counting down from ten dramatically and speeds up at the halfway point. Each number is punctuated with an image of the character, starting with an already off-color Frank Jr., then showing blacklight outlines of the Impossibles and ending with the narrator saying “Go!” while Frank Jr.’s mouth is moving. If that’s Frank’s actual voice, I would have been genuinely surprised.

We then see the Impossibles playing their instruments.

“Impossibles!” intones the narrator, who has a perfectly mellifluous voice full of gravitas for a silly adventure show. Its great.

“Coil Man!” The stoutest member spins around and turns into a superhero with springy, coiled limbs. We then see some abstracted coloured coils which unfurl into background colour stripes. Coil man bounces along and then flexes.

“He makes the scene when things look mean, Impossibles!”

We then see the black haired taller member.

“Fluid Man!”

His background turns into a bunch of water droplets. We then get a quick cut to him in his superhero suit, a green number with swim goggles, flippers and a pretty unpleasant shade of green. The then dives into the ground and splashes into it.

We then see abstracted waves and rain lines before coming back to our hero who splashes back to human form in a green sploosh. And to me Fluid Man is really unfortunate since he turns into ugly green liquid. Like, you’d think “at least he isn’t yellow, since he’d look like pee” but that darkish green color looks like UNHEALTHY pee.

“Fluid Man! Stays on the spot, the spot that’s hot! Impossibles!”

I must say that I love the narrator’s voice but man, his superhero-based poetry is terrible. Neither of his quotes about the characters tell us about them. Nothing about their powers or personality. They are so vague. I mean “makes the scene when things get mean” makes sense because while it is vague, it still means that he shows up where there’s trouble. Fluid Man just… stays there? I guess when things get “hot” he doesn’t falter but there’s got to be a better way to say it. Clearly, they just had to make sure there was a rhyme regardless of whether its any good.

Fluid Man then turns into liquid again and is about to turn to normal until the scene cuts because who wants to keep looking at his gross green watery self?

We then see the shaggy-haired redhead.

“Multiman!”

He bobs up and down like a 1920s cartoon cow playing the banjo and multiples and de-multiplies.

“Makes like a crowd, no crooks allowed! Impossibles!”

Hey, that one worked. I liked that one. We then see the characters in their civilian forms standing on a… thing with their name on it. The thing turns into a car and the Impossibles turn into their superhero forms.

“Impossibles! Impossibles!”

The Impossibles ride off in their flying car and we then cut to a still shot of the team.

And… wasn’t Frankenstein in this?


Did It Make You Want To Watch It?

Going in I assumed I would be more interested in the cartoon about the superhero rock band but Frankenstein Jr. made a big impression on me, so I’m really all in on that guy, even if the very intro that introduced him suddenly seemed to make me want to forget him. So I definitely want to watch a bit of Frankenstein Jr.

What Did You Find on Wikipedia?

I’m going to do a Frankenstein Jr. piece so I’ll just focus on the Impossibles for now. Basically, the premise is that they are a Beatles-esque rock band who are also superheroes. Its not clear to me if people know they are also superheroes but considering their band name and superhero team name is the same, it feels like its not a closely guarded secret.

Fan Art
There are a lot of good ones here.

Not feeling “tough” Fluid Man but really into Multi-Man. So-so on Coil Man.

Now this one I REALLY like

This one is pretty good too. I feel like the common theme is most artists do great stuff with Multi-Man

 

[Daikaiju]

Frankenstein Jr is really just an Americanized Gigantor/Tetsujin 28...

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Frankenstein Jr.

Now that we watched the intro proper, here are Frankenstein Jr.’s segment intros.

We start with the titlular Frankenstein Jr. and his monster… or Frankenstein Jr. and his inventor. I’m not sure which is which. Anyway, the big robot is being fixed up by a redheaded moppet, who is riveting the robot’s legs. The boy, on a… I don’t know what you call those things but its like a big open elevator so the boy can rise up next to the robot. He rises to the robot’s hip and tightens something with a wrench. Then he opens up the robot’s chest cavity and fiddles with something in there. Finally, he puts an antenna on his head and activates Frankenstein with a magic ring, as one would expect.

The boy hops on the robot and the two fly off into the night, with Frankenstein’s “F” coming lose and coming at the camera.

Our next bumper features our heroes facing a hurricane…

The Frankensteins are flying around when they see a twister about to hit a small farmhouse. The robot puts the boy on a house and then starts riding the hurricane like a cowboy. He eventually ties it into a knot and punches it until it flies into the distance. We then see the Frankensteins flying off triumphantly.

Our final bumper features a meeting between the title heroes.

We begin with the boy riding on his robot and waving at something down below. It’s the Impossibles, who are riding around and wave up at the Frankensteins. All three of them look up and aren’t keeping their eyes on the road, which is bad when the boy spots that the bridge up ahead is out. Thinking fast, the robot turns himself into a bridge for the Impossibles to cross. As a way of thanks, the Impossibles look back and wave again. YOU LEARNED THE EXACT WRONG LESSONS, IMPOSSIBLES!

Did It Make You Want To Watch It?

They are fun, but in all honesty, the Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles intro was my favourite.

What Did You Find on Wikipedia?

Not much. The boy is named Buzz and the robot is named Frankenstein Jr.

Fan Art

Again, some kick ass ones today.

 

[Torzelbaum]

I don't think I've ever seen Frankenstein Jr. but I do think I have seen some of the Impossibles segments on their own.

 

[MetManMas]

Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles sure do have some amazing fan art.

 

[Dracula]

Really the bare minimum I expect out of a superhero is that he or she is able to punch a tornado, so this guy is already smashing it.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The Funny Company

I have no idea what I’m in for here.

We start with a parade of kids marching in front of a wooden fence. Also, a bird. The kids are all carrying briefcases with smiley faces on them, which feels like something a villain in a Grant Morrison comic would possess.

Also, for some reason two of the kids are riding a railway trolley, but only one of the kids is putting in the effort.

They sing “We have a company, that you can join for free and kids in every neighbourhood belong.”

The kids march from their fort and down a hill, past a boy scout with somewhere between one and two too many stop signs, depending if he’s actually been assigned to that spot.

“It’s the Funny Company
cause it’s just for fun, ya see!
So come a-running when you here our song!”

Turns out the kids were marching from some old fort to a much cooler fort with an observatory and a poisoned tree house and a teepee—uh, oh. That can’t be good.

Anyway, one boy calls the rest of the kids to the fort.

“’Come to order, Come to order’
Says our president.
And when the Funny Company meets,
Here’s what we present”

Gonna stop you right here, Funny Company because while I appreciate your desire for diversity in your group, I think you did it wrong.

Like, I’ll bite my tongue on the baseball cap wearing dino-finned pelican but you are this is the 60s, so there’s no way your First Nation friend isn’t just awful all around and the joke is “he talks different and sometimes shoots arrows”.

Anyway, then the show lists off its segments

“Things to see
Things to do
Stories
Songs
Toys.”

Toys, huh? Like, this could be a show that tells kids how to make their own toys, but I suspect this might be brought to us by Mattel (I literally already did another show brought to us by Mattel).

Also, you better have things to see. Otherwise you could do this on the radio.

“All the things that make *I can’t make this out*

Both fun for girls and boys.”

The entire Funny Company belts out the finale, followed by the First Nations guy… making a horn noise with his mouth. I’m actually too confused to be offended but I’m sure some writer says “That’s a thing those people do, right?”

BTW, here’s a color version if you want it.

Did It Make You Want To Watch It?

No, but I am interested to find out more, so…

What Did You Find on Wikipedia?

The Mattel Corporation provided financial backing.

Got it in one!

The show is about a Junior Achievement club that do odd jobs for extra money and puts on shows for charity. Also, there’s a story arc where one of the kids goes to Hollywood or something.

In the list of characters

Terry Dactyl (an actual pterodactyl, who was frozen for many years ago, in the prehistoric times)

OK, at least I know what it is now.

The First Nations guy is named “Super Chief” and his big joke is that he makes a train noise because there was a locomotive with the same name. No thanks, show.


Fan Art


There’s more than I thought. Like, something instead of nothing.

Based on the Wikipedia page, this is “Shrinkin’ Violette” the girl who shrinks when embarrassed.

This art is a neat composition but man, I don’t want to have to dig into Super Chief.

This is the Funny Company kind of looking like… Osomatso-san, maybe?

 

[Dracula]

I can't get over the "generation millennials" watermark on the YT channel, given that no millennial has ever shown honest interest in watching The Funny Company.

(I'm also wondering what toys Mattel highlighted in this show...but not wondering enough to watch it.)

 

[Johnny Unusual]

"Welcome to Zoomed Vids. Now here's Captain Video."

 

[Zef]

Extremely late to the party, but I've always been fond of the non-narrated version of the Fantastic Four intro that we got in Latinx Land:

Despite its age, this show would rerun constantly in general-purpose Marvel blocks on the family channel, and later on, Cartoon Network (these blocks would include 70s Spidey, Spider-Woman, Spidey + Amazing Friends, the Cap, Iron Man, and Thor "motion comics", and, by the end, the 80s Hulk cartoon.) Even wee baby Zef was enthralled by this intro, because as shown above, we got the music-only version--no excitable politicians yelling the premise at us

OTOH, wee baby Zef learned to be simultaneously disappointed at the discovery that this was a clip show intro, and giddy whenever the corresponding episode ran. IIRC, the giant Doom and giant soldiers bit was from the Microverse episode (Fantastic Four: traveling to the Quantum Realm long before Paul Rudd even made the deal that allowed him to remain eternally young), the falling bombs are from the Skrull Planet episode, and the sticky balls and Kirbytech toss are from a Doom-centered ep.

Sadly, the Who Wears Short-Shorts Galactus ep never ran in Mexico.

70s FF enjoyed a very, very long run, at least into the 2000s, and even overlapping with more recent incarnations of the group, like the Herbie Four. But none of them will ever beat the dramatic violins from the original.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

I'll be honest, I clicked that expecting the Latin equivalent of Gary Owens and... no narration is kind of nice sometimes.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

George of the Jungle

Hey, here’s a show I actually know! I know this one. Now, don’t get me wrong, I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about old cartoons, including ones I’ve never actually seen. But the 60s have had a number of interesting surprised, including attempting to repackage Amos and Andy as animals to make things less racist (except that seems like a full on lateral move at best). But this is one I’ve seen on TV more than once. My memories aren’t super strong on this one but I recognized it had some similarities to Rocky and Bullwinkle, so I think it is a Jay Ward cartoon. And it also has a pretty memorable theme song, too.

We begin with what looks like a drunken lion running in place until it accidentally swallows a bird. The bird causes commotion in his mouth in time to the drums of the opening theme.

This is me doing Ring Fit Adventure.

“George George George of the Jungle
Strong as he can be.”

We then see a bunch of Georges swinging on vines and its kind of a neat visual. Fact is, George is doing pretty good on the visual front, which I feel Jay Ward isn’t known for. Not a knock on Ward but his strengths are radio show like wordplay and gags and poorly aged bits about “Indians”.

Next we have George successfully lifting an elephant over his head until he isn’t and is crushed by it. Then he does a sillier take on the Johnny Weissmuller yell (the famous Tarzan yell) and swings from a vine.

“Watch out for that tree!”

George’s friends watch as George swings straight on into a tree. This is the bit I remember the most from this show.

This is the part I think looks really slick with the name melting on George (not sure what this represents), George’s elephant taking a seat and knocking him of and then just a scroll of the title.

Its been a while since I’ve been back on this but this is a theme doing it right, with music timed to the show and a few notable and neat visuals.

Back to the song.

“George George George of the Jungle.
Lives a life that’s free.”

We then see George relaxing in the water only to discover he’s relaxing on an alligator (or crocodile) who knocks him off (like, as in a perch, rather than killing him). We then see George swinging on a vine while entangled by a snake.

“Watch out for that tree!”

A tiger watches and plugs his ears as George hits a tree.

George then falls into a cauldron (pre-tied up) and walks around in it (which is to say the cauldron is flexible, like unto pants).

“When he gets in a scrape
He makes his escape
With the help of his friend
An ape named ape.”

As George looks for an escape, Ape pops out of the already crowded cauldron and spits up some water.

“And off he’ll schlep
On his elephant shep
While Thela and Ursula
Stay in step.”

George runs away but runs into his elephant, who gets spooked off. But then a woman appears and it turns out there’s an identical woman behind her and they drag off poor George.

“Well, George George George of the Jungle
Friend to you and me.”

We then see George’s name scroll by three times as the bird from the start of the intro flies off. Ape then hugs George hard enough to leave his friend crushed and crumpled.

We then hear the George yell as leaves shake and birds freak out.

“Watch out for that—”

George yell, followed by George smashing into the tree.

George then finds himself struggling from within a plant, struggling in time to the music.

“George George George of the Jungle
Friend to you and me.”

The struggle ends with some… stamen, I think, bumping George on the head like a drum.

Did It Make You Want To Watch It?

I mean, I am already familiar with the show and I like Jay Ward, some use of stereotypes aside. But the theme song and the visuals are pretty good.

What Did You Find on Wikipedia?

There were segments on the show called Tom Slick and Super Chicken but since they have their own articles and presumably their own shows (or at least their own segment intros) I’ll deal with them later. There isn’t too much interesting except how SHORT the show is. It lasted from September to December of 1967 and considering how well the show is remembered, I was surprised. It means the terrible Canadian remakes lasted even longer.

The reason wasn’t lack of conventional success: apparently Ward was SUPER happy with the animation team after years of some rough looking shows. So happy with the Mexican studio Gamma Productions that Jay sponsored, that he went over-budget and the show couldn’t make any more than 17 episodes and a “considerable financial loss.” Ouch. No wonder most of the animation of the time kind of aimed low. George of the Jungle was the last series by Jay Ward Productions until the Netflix Peabody and Sherman Show and a Rocky and Bullwinkle reboot that no one remembers from a couple years ago by the guy who created… Johnny Test? Ew.

Fan Art

Surprisingly for a series that was somewhat popular, I could only find three. This fetish piece

And this one looks pretty decent, though I much prefer an even cartoonier look.

Here we are.

 

[MetManMas]

It's been decades since I saw the OG George of the Jungle opening and I am seriously impressed by some of the animation on display here. It still has the look of a 60s cartoon, but still...wow. And the theme song is definitely memorable.

Also original George is really buff compared to that li'l stick man from the aughts Flash remake.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Apparently the character was inspired by (wait for it) a cook's caricature of body builder George Eiferman drawn onto his mine sweeper. It never actually attributes this fact to Jay Ward or Bill Scott, though I get the impression that Ward did more drawing and Scott was more of a writer (as well as the voice of George) so I would assume Jay.

Here's George.

 

[Dracula]

I want to say I originally heard about George from my dad, who taught me the theme song. There were a number of 1960s TV shows and cartoons that, for a while, I only knew through my dad singing the theme songs (Gilligan's Island was much more interesting in my head than in reality).

But I remember George much more for the 1990s Brendan Frasier film. I'm pretty sure I watched it multiple times. I would basically watch anything that had Frasier in it. I'm sure it's aged poorly, but it does have this famous memeable moment.

Bad guy falls in poop! Classic element of physical comedy. Now comes the part where we throw our heads back and laugh. Ready?

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Even if I didn't even want to see the movies based on cartoons I liked, I do like Fraser. Apparently, the poor guy was through some stuff in the last couple decades so its nice that he's back in Doom Patrol.

Spoiler: Warning, things get a little real, albeit non-explicit

But the dude had a lot of surgery, a divorce ruling that messed him up financially and then revealed he was sexually assaulted in the early 2000s by the President of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and coupled with his divorce and mother's death threw him into a serious depression.

I've always liked Fraser and hope he comes back. And even though I was not interested in those movies, his presence SO much sense to continually cast him as cartoon characters.

 

[JBear]

“All the things that make *I can’t make this out*

"All sorts of things of interest", I believe.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Gigantor

I don’t plan on doing anime generally (I don’t remember if I actually did a review of the Starblazers theme or not) but American versions seem like fair game to me. Particularly if they are as good as Gigantor. Gigantor doesn’t have some sort of amazing flair to it. Its just a really catchy song.

We start with, what I am going to say, is an atypical looking robot for a title character in anime.

This is from a pre-mech era, before Mazinger Z and Gundam sort of solidified what a protagonist’s big robot looks like in anime. But Gigantor looks more akin to what you might expect a villain to look like: huge, fat body, pointed nose, centurion helmet. That’s not to say he looks “evil” but even when big, you expect a look from a hero robot with either a sleek or a muscular look, rather than rotund. He has no neck. And I feel like that’s the charm of his look. Its kind of endearingly goofy.

Anyway, we hear some charge up noises as Gigantor flexes and energy emits from his arms.

He then takes off into the sky with his rocket pack.

“Gigantor!
Gigantor!
Gigaaaaaaaaaantooooooor!”

Gigantor just… flies around a bunch.

“Gigantor the space age robot!
He’s at
Your com-mand!”

I have to confess something. In high school, a friend (who I sadly don’t see anymore) gave me a CD of superhero themes from TV and Movies and I still have most of them on my computer from over 20 years ago. *weeps at age* I’ve ALWAYS heard this lyric as “He’s it, you’re not.” This always seemed like a hilarious and weird distinction to make so I’m disappointed to realize that its “He’s at your command” because I’ve been listening wrong for years and its just not as fun to me. This feels like the “laurel” thing except I might be the only one who heard it different. I can hear it know I know but its so jarring to me.

Anyway, we see a little kid control the robot via remote control. This was another fantasy that was common in earlier anime we see less of now: instead of being piloted by a teen, the robots tended to be controlled remotely via remote or commands by children (see also Giant Robo AKA Johnny Socko and His Flying Robot).

“Gigantor the space age robot!
His power is
In your hand!”

This is clearly good marketing to make you feel like you are one with the lead who gets to have the fantasy of the power to boss around a big robot, making him fly around and HOLY SHIT!

I… I hope that was an enemy plane. It wasn’t actually established as doing the work of evil. It really just looks like the boy was making his robot fly around and found a target of opportunity and said “Eh, what the Hell” and murdered a random plane.

“Bigger than bigger
Taller than tall
Quicker than quick
Stronger than Strong
Ready to fight for right
Against wrong.”

From here on in, its mostly Gigantor doing Gigantor stuff. Energizing. Flying. Being bombarded with missiles. Busting through some underwater bubble. More flying. Dude does a lot of flying.

We then see the logo, which I like, with a huge G and each descending letter getting smaller.


I also love the fact that the bongos and overall sound feel less akin to a giant robot show and more appropriate for… George of the Jungle? They aren’t that too far removed in sound except on is a comedy.

Did It Make You Want To Watch It?

Sort of. I kind of like the song a lot. The visuals are lacking. And I’m kind of expecting it to be a show that is repetitious, so maybe one or two episodes.

What Did You Find on Wikipedia?

This is one I’ve known a little bit about going in. The original title is Tetsujin 28-go (Iron-Person 28) and a little boy controls a robot to fight evil. Its so popular that they even made a live action film.

Actually, there were four animated series, TWO films (one animated) and a TV drama. Apparently, this is also the first remote control robot hero in manga.

In less savory trivia: 1) this show’s main character inspired the term “shotacon” and the less I have to explain that, the better and 2) the robot was designed to fight the allies in World War II but was scuttled following Japan’s loss so… that puts a perspective on the origins of the character. Like… I’m not sure what to take from that. Some imperial wish fulfillment or the idea that something intended for war could have a more heroic role. Considering the character was created only 11 years after the war is… interesting.

Fan Art

As you can imagine, there’s a lot.

I love the art deco look on this one.

Meanwhile, this has a “Marvel Movie Concept Design” look.

This one is my favourite. I like the sense of scale with the immense power kneeling to a small child.