The Big Picture: Celebritoons

[Mr_Terrific]

Not even gonna lie. I loved Hammerman and Pro Stars...but I'd pretty much watch anything during 1984-1992 when Batman came along and suddenly, I had standards...lol

 

[Strain42]

I would also just like to make a post saying that this is the video where I finally bought Bob's book. I'd been wanting to pick it up for a while, but I didn't have any money. Well I just made some the other day, so I went ahead and grabbed it.

Can't wait for it to show up. I look forward to reading it.

 

[Cameron Everett]

Oh god, that Hammerman intro was physically painful...and 11 year old me ate that shit up. I need to time travel now and smack some sense into myself.

 

[Darth_Payn]

And me without my brain bleach...
Interestingly, Bob, MC Hammer is having a resurgence, of sorts, where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. In Oakland, at A's home games, during the 8th inning, the jumbo-screens will play the video for "2 Legit 2 Quit". He's kind of a hometown hero here, and before he was a rapper, he was the A's batboy in the '70's.

Oh, and ONE MORE THING...

Granted he might not have heard of it but I'm surprised that Bob didn't mention the Jackie Chan cartoon. For those of who you don't know it starred a guy named Jackie Chan who worked as an archeologist and knew Kung fu. He worked in his uncle's house, looked after his niece and fought both mystical villains and criminal organisations. At the end of each episode Jackie Chan (the real one) would answer a question about himself.

YES!!! That show was awesome! One of the highlights of the Kid's WB lineup, before the merger with UPN.

 

[mbarker]

There were cartoons I've never thought of since I was a kid. After this the flood gates to my terrible TV watching habits opened and a flood of memories came pouring outr. You could make a series on all of these great, or not so great, cartoons and have ample material for years.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

I'm surprised you didn't mention "Jackie Chan Adventures." Which, by the way, was awesome! It had some of the coolest action sequences, it made use of Chinese/ other Eastern mythologies and settings, and it had a kid sidekick character that wasn't completely annoying (or at least I didn't think so). Heck, one could make the argument that Jackie Chan's cartoon helped bring about other, similar cartoons like "Avatar: The Last Airbender." So yeah, Jackie Chan+Cartoon=Awesome.

Argh, Ninja'ed!
I hate you and love you at the same time!

 

[MowDownJoe]

Since you brought up "Wish Kid", I'm now remembering a dozen different 90's kid's cartoons based off of movies. I vaguely remember a Richie Rich cartoon. I know there were ones for The Mask and Ace Ventura and they had a cross-over. Then there was Bill & Ted and I think one for Wayne's World, and definitely one for Men in Black (which did a much better job exploring the world the film forged than the sequels, even if it never explained why K is back and why L is relegated back to medical work). I'm sure there's more. (And they probably didn't really care that much about the rating of the movie it premiered in, given the Ace Ventura and The Mask bits.) You could do a whole episode on that.

 

[saintdane05]

No mention of Thomas the Tank Engine, AKA Ringo Starr/George Carlin/ALEC DAMN BALDWIN talks for five minutes?

<youtube=iPLCx7jgQq8>
<youtube=e69Xkm0oJRM>
<youtube=RlD02Mx-tOc>

 

[Muspelheim]

Bloody hell, I remember a few of those shows now. I thought I'd have fevered most of them up.

I rather liked Life with Louie, though. It felt rather honest, in a way. I can't recall much of it, but I wouldn't mind seeing it again.

 

[RJ Dalton]

"I'm not sure if that's any better."

It's not.

 

[MorganL4]

how was the Jackie Chan show left out of this. i mean it was at-least half way decent, and far more recent then anything else on the list.

Yeah it was cool, and I enjoyed watching it as a kid. But just around the time I quit watching Nickelodeon/Cartoon Network etc another show came on, this time based around Gene Simmons (KISS)

 

[soren7550]

While these cartoons in themselves are weird, the fact this was a "thing" at all for a period still baffles me.

That Ali cartoon in particular is just surreal.

I've heard of many of these during an episode of Laser Time podcast ( http://www.lasertimepodcast.com/2012/05/28/laser-time-animated-vanity/ ) and actually seeing them in action here makes it all the more strange...

...I do wonder how the Governater would have turned out in the long run.

Sweet, another Laser Time listener! *hi-fives*

Yeah, I know of most of these because of Laser Time, two I actually vaguely remember seeing on TV, the Pro Stars I know of because of Atop the Fourth Wall, and why no Jackie Chan Adventures?

 

[BarelyAudible]

I liked "Jackie Chan Adventures" (I'm too old to add "When I was a kid" to that) but the first thing that came to mind for me was the Puffy Ami Yumi Show. Apparently Teen Titans was so popular another show got greenlit based on the popularity of its' theme song alone.

Random trivia time!

Production for Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi started long before Teen Titans first aired. A CN Exec heard about the duo on the radio and said, "They need a show!"

While that was going down, he added, "Hey, this show needs a theme. You want it?"

"Eh, why not."

Something like that.

 

[Xenominim]

You know what is one he missed? Bruno the Kid which was a Bruce Willis show actually voiced by Bruce Willis as I recall. Which seems really bizarre as he wasn't exactly scrounging for popularity or work at any point that I recall.

 

[The Funslinger]

No mentioning if "Jackie Chan Adventures"? Now I am disappointed... (probably the only show of this kind that I ever saw, too.)

I think he was only pointing out the bad ones.

Yeah, I remember the Jackie Chan cartoon was successful enough to the mid 00's.

 

[AwesomeExpress]

Pro Stars was awesome! I totally bought into it. I ate the cereal, and collected the trading cards, it was great! I remember being sad when it got canceled.

 

[Leemaster777]

Bob, I love you but I am FORCED to throw my entirely impotent online rage your way.

You forgot Jackie Chan Adventures. Come on man, you make a show about Celebritoons and forget the absolute best one ever made? I don't even care that I'm only the 20th or so person to bring this up, all I could think of while watching this week's episode was "okay, when's he gonna talk about Jackie Chan Adventures?".

It's fun, it's genuinely high-quality, and it's EASILY as weird as some of the other cartoons you've listed (how many cartoons can you think of where a talking superhuman moose doll fighting a supernatural giant orange man isn't the WEIRDEST thing that's happened on the show?).

As punishment, I demand you commit seppuku right here... or watch the intro 20 times.

 

[Brundlefly]

At 2.28, who is in that picture? Looks so much like Paul Merton on the right.

 

[Callate]

So is there any person/group associated with this that shouldn't be incredibly embarrassed to have been so?