Filmation

[fan4life]

Seems that the 1970s-80s offerings in terms of Saturday Morning toons were dominated by the offerings of the defunct studio, the legendary but no less afforementioned-in-another-thread company called Filmation. They're the guys who put out the "Super-7" toons as well as "He-Man" toons. In reruns, I've seen their take on Batman, and I'm impressed. What does everyone else think, remember, etc?

[dandu]

Their superhero cartoons are pretty good as well as Fat Albert...The rest like the kiddie cartoons are very poor, like Wacky and Packy and even worse Fraidy Cat, Groovie Ghoolies are funny but just pointless and corny...

[nickramer]

[QUOTE=dandu]Their superhero cartoons are pretty good as well as Fat Albert...The rest like the kiddie cartoons are very poor, like Wacky and Packy and even worse Fraidy Cat, Groovie Ghoolies are funny but just pointless and corny...[/QUOTE)
Not to mention, that Ghoolies and Looney Tunes don't mix.:eek: :daffy: :ysam: :befuddled :sylvester :tweety: :coyote: :beepbeep: :lepew: :ham: :foggy:

[Larry T]

I've been partial to the Filmation Saturday morning fare.... probably because it's strictly due to nostalgic reasons.

But they did produce some pretty groundbreaking TV content... capiltalized on the "character-name" stuff (superhero, brands, etc).

And if you're really drunk you can enjoy quite a lot more of it.

I personally LIKE the "Groovie Goolies". It's probably the worst of what they ever came out with, but you gotta appreciate them for having the audacity for putting some kind of glamour into a necrophiliac, morbid subject to make it attractive to kids. When I was young my friends and I would pretend we were the characters.. I wanted to be Wolfie ;)

Another series, that Filmation put out in the 70s, which incidently was ultimately COOL, was a short-lived series called "Mission:Magic". It was a kind of really colourful drug-induced trip where this group of kids in a high school had a magic user for a teacher, who used to bring them through a door in their blackboard to these really messed-up lands (Land of Backwards, Atlantis, Land of Hyde, 2600 AD, etc....) to fix affairs. There were some really cool ideas put into this one, and the premise was interesting.... I'm so looking forward to BCI releasing this DVD boxset early next year.. :cool:

[Mark J]

I really liked Filmation stuff like Spider Man, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, Fantastic Four etc. in the 1970's when they were on Saturday mornings and reruns 5 days a week. Watching any of those in the last 10 years has been a painful experience for me, realizing how extremely limited the animation was. Spider Man was basically still frames jumping from scene to scene with no real animation at all, just a good theme song.

[Madison Carter]

I enjoyed the Filmation stuff, and have been having a blast reviewing the recent BCI releases. I admit the animation isn't on par with many of their competitors, but they're still usually pretty fun stuff. And yeah, definitely groundbreaking in how they dealt with ethnic/racial roles. Far as Groovy Ghoulies go, it's one of those things that I like an episode at a time, but having tried to watch the entire disc at once, I'd never recommend that to anyone else.

[Madison Carter]

I really liked Filmation stuff like Spider Man, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, Fantastic Four etc. in the 1970's when they were on Saturday mornings and reruns 5 days a week. Watching any of those in the last 10 years has been a painful experience for me, realizing how extremely limited the animation was. Spider Man was basically still frames jumping from scene to scene with no real animation at all, just a good theme song.

I may be completely mistaken, but the Spider-Man you're referring to wasn't Filmation or from the 1970s. It was the original show 1966-1968 still in repeats.

[Kolbar]

I really liked Filmation stuff like Spider Man, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, Fantastic Four etc. in the 1970's when they were on Saturday mornings and reruns 5 days a week. Watching any of those in the last 10 years has been a painful experience for me, realizing how extremely limited the animation was. Spider Man was basically still frames jumping from scene to scene with no real animation at all, just a good theme song.The first Spider-Man cartoons were the '67 series made by Grantray-Lawrence. Then there was the 1981 series produced briefly by DePatie-Freelang and then by Marvel Productions.

The Fantastic Four's first cartoon from 1967 was produced by Hanna-Barbera. The 70's show was produced by DePatie-Freelang.

Filmation did not produce any Marvel properties, they did make loads of DC cartoons.

[Studio Toledo]

The first Spider-Man cartoons were the '67 series made by Grantray-Lawrence. Then there was the 1981 series produced briefly by DePatie-Freelang and then by Marvel Productions.

The Fantastic Four's first cartoon from 1967 was produced by Hanna-Barbera. The 70's show was produced by DePatie-Freelang.

Filmation did not produce any Marvel properties, they did make loads of DC cartoons.

People really do need to pay attention more to the studios that have done these. Even I wouldn't knew better over which studio did what.

[That 70s Mom]

My favorite Filmation production wasn't a cartoon, but the live-action Shazam/Isis Hour. It was so corny and campy, especially with the "moral" of the story drilled into you at the end (and yeah, Billy Batson was a hottie). Uncle Croc's Block was a short-lived train wreck of a show that I couldn't help watching.

But their cartoons never floated my boat. I loved The Brady Bunch but hated The Brady Kids. I couldn't keep track of all the "Archie" shows and spinoffs. The most memorable thing about most of the cartoons was the "Lou Scheimer-Norm Prescott" going around in a circle at the end of the credits.

Guess I should've been drunk! :)

[fan4life]

I really liked Filmation stuff like Spider Man, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, Fantastic Four etc. in the 1970's when they were on Saturday mornings and reruns 5 days a week. Watching any of those in the last 10 years has been a painful experience for me, realizing how extremely limited the animation was. Spider Man was basically still frames jumping from scene to scene with no real animation at all, just a good theme song.

I've heard that the entire series run of Filamtion's "Star Trek" is now available on DVD. May bop down to the Best Buy to see what I can see....

[Mark J]

The first Spider-Man cartoons were the '67 series made by Grantray-Lawrence. Then there was the 1981 series produced briefly by DePatie-Freelang and then by Marvel Productions.

The Fantastic Four's first cartoon from 1967 was produced by Hanna-Barbera. The 70's show was produced by DePatie-Freelang.

Filmation did not produce any Marvel properties, they did make loads of DC cartoons.


Thanks for the corrections! I knew Fantastic Four and Spider Man were from the late 60's and I was watching reruns in the 70's, but I thought they were Filmation. Haven't seen any of these in a while. I do believe Star Trek and Planet of the Apes were Filmation. I remember watching both of those first run Saturday mornings - I saw those animated Treks before I even watched the real Star Trek and Apes before I saw any of the movies.

[Sogturtle]

Thanks for the corrections! I knew Fantastic Four and Spider Man were from the late 60's and I was watching reruns in the 70's, but I thought they were Filmation. Haven't seen any of these in a while. I do believe Star Trek and Planet of the Apes were Filmation. I remember watching both of those first run Saturday mornings - I saw those animated Treks before I even watched the real Star Trek and Apes before I saw any of the movies.

Mark~

"Star Trek" was indeed animated by Filmation for Paramount (they forgot to include enough in the budget for a salary for actor Walter Koenig, thus no Mr. Chekhov:eek:). Like most of the Filmation product of the Seventies its is VERY thin on animation but has great writing and voices.

And "Return To The Planet Of The Apes" like the late '70's "Fantastic Four", "Spiderwoman" was animated by DePatie-Freleng... Though despite its fine design, it at times boasts some of the least amount of animation to ever come out of DePatie-Freleng.

[Fibber Fox]

Seems that the 1970s-80s offerings in terms of Saturday Morning toons were dominated by the offerings of the defunct studio, the legendary but no less afforementioned-in-another-thread company called Filmation. They're the guys who put out the "Super-7" toons as well as "He-Man" toons. In reruns, I've seen their take on Batman, and I'm impressed. What does everyone else think, remember, etc?

Filmation had great old radio actors working for it - Marvin Miller was Aquaman, Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander were on Superman and Olan Soulé was on Batman. But the comedies sucked, despite Howie Morris. The music was just dreadful.

FF

[ThePeterNetwork]

The first Spider-Man cartoons were the '67 series made by Grantray-Lawrence. Then there was the 1981 series produced briefly by DePatie-Freelang and then by Marvel Productions.

Didn't DePatie-Freleng become Marvel Productions for the purpose of bringing animated versions of their characters to television?

[cbrubaker]

I think the first few "Spider-Man" cartoons were made under DePatie-Freleng's banner, but wern't released until it became Marvel.

Sid Marcus is listed in the "animation director" credits for some of the episodes, yet he died before DFE became Marvel.

[J Lee]

Gosh, here's a topic we can go back a good 8-9 years to find similar comments on.... ;)

Just to rehash 1998 or so, I liked the early Filmation product -- Superman, the Archies, Batman -- because it was a change of pace from the Hanna-Barbera stuff that had come to dominate kids cartoons by the late 1960s. The problem was that for those cartoons, they had to create original animation, because they had no previous product; for their later series, like the Ghoulies, Sabrina, the Brady Kids, My Favorite Martians, Fat Albert, etc., they didn't even care as much as Bill and Joe did to try and hide the re-used animation, they simply drew in a new character over the original work done for The Archie Show (or on their action/adventure shows, Superman and Batman). So all the walks were the same, all the looks were the same, the car driving off into the distance over the hill was the same...

And after the success Norm and Lou had with the musical numbers Don Kirschner scrounged up for The Archies that made the Top 40 hit list, it was a given that every Filmation show for the next 6-7 years would have to have someone playing a guitar, in hopes of recapturing the magic of "Sugar Sugar" and "Bang Shang-a-Lang". They got one song with the Ghoolies, "Chic A Boom" that got onto the record charts in the early 1970s, but other than that, the shows simply stopped dead to push a forgetabble musical number (The opening titles for "My Favorite Martians" featured Tim and Uncle Martin in the Archie/Reggie guitar poses, but thankfully, they didn't stick a song into each one of those episodes. And as I mentioned in the past, by the time Fimlation did "Star Trek" in 1973, I was fully expecting Kirk and Spock to break out their guitars and start playing on the bridge of the Enterprise the first time they came under Klingon attack....)

[MarkTheShark]

(The opening titles for "My Favorite Martians" featured Tim and Uncle Martin in the Archie/Reggie guitar poses, but thankfully, they didn't stick a song into each one of those episodes. And as I mentioned in the past, by the time Fimlation did "Star Trek" in 1973, I was fully expecting Kirk and Spock to break out their guitars and start playing on the bridge of the Enterprise the first time they came under Klingon attack....)

I never thought of that...too bad, that would have been hilarious!

I can just see Mr. Spock in the "Reggie" pose with the eyes-shut wide grin, swaying from side to side playing the bass. Maybe Dr. McCoy on tambourine? A "Tribble" sitting to the side where Hot Dog would have been?

Now I won't be able to get that image out of my head for the rest of the day!

KIRK: And NOW....here's a NEW DANCE......to WATCH....and LEARN. It's called the "DAMMIT JIM!" (Cue music)

Live long and prosper baby.....

I better get off the internet now...the possibilities are endless...

"Enterprise Funhouse"

"Sabrina And The U.S.S. Enterprise Crew"

[J Lee]

I never thought of that...too bad, that would have been hilarious!

I can just see Mr. Spock in the "Reggie" pose with the eyes-shut wide grin, swaying from side to side playing the bass. Maybe Dr. McCoy on tambourine? A "Tribble" sitting to the side where Hot Dog would have been?

Now I won't be able to get that image out of my head for the rest of the day!

KIRK: And NOW....here's a NEW DANCE......to WATCH....and LEARN. It's called the "DAMMIT JIM!" (Cue music)

Live long and prosper baby.....

I better get off the internet now...the possibilities are endless...

"Enterprise Funhouse"

"Sabrina And The U.S.S. Enterprise Crew"

The Tribble dances across the screen like Hot Dog. Sulu on drums, since they can't afford Chekov, all the Klingons have southern accents like Mr. Lodge, and the Enterprise goes up and down over a series of planets and into the distance as the wacky music plays and the episode fades to black....

[Studio Toledo]

My favorite Filmation production wasn't a cartoon, but the live-action Shazam/Isis Hour. It was so corny and campy, especially with the "moral" of the story drilled into you at the end (and yeah, Billy Batson was a hottie). Uncle Croc's Block was a short-lived train wreck of a show that I couldn't help watching.

But their cartoons never floated my boat. I loved The Brady Bunch but hated The Brady Kids. I couldn't keep track of all the "Archie" shows and spinoffs. The most memorable thing about most of the cartoons was the "Lou Scheimer-Norm Prescott" going around in a circle at the end of the credits.

Guess I should've been drunk! :)
Pretty much sums up Filmation right there! Brady Kids was a bad idea truely (what with the recycled Archie poses they used for the guys).

[Studio Toledo]

Mark~

"Star Trek" was indeed animated by Filmation for Paramount (they forgot to include enough in the budget for a salary for actor Walter Koenig, thus no Mr. Chekhov:eek:). Like most of the Filmation product of the Seventies its is VERY thin on animation but has great writing and voices.

And "Return To The Planet Of The Apes" like the late '70's "Fantastic Four", "Spiderwoman" was animated by DePatie-Freleng... Though despite its fine design, it at times boasts some of the least amount of animation to ever come out of DePatie-Freleng.

It was as if they were LEARNING from the competition! :D

[Studio Toledo]

The Tribble dances across the screen like Hot Dog. Sulu on drums, since they can't afford Chekov, all the Klingons have southern accents like Mr. Lodge, and the Enterprise goes up and down over a series of planets and into the distance as the wacky music plays and the episode fades to black....
Someone needs to animate this in flash quickly! :D

[Sogturtle]

It was as if they were LEARNING from the competition! :D

I think the first few "Spider-Man" cartoons were made under DePatie-Freleng's banner, but wern't released until it became Marvel.

The Tribble dances across the screen like Hot Dog. Sulu on drums, since they can't afford Chekov, all the Klingons have southern accents like Mr. Lodge, and the Enterprise goes up and down over a series of planets and into the distance as the wacky music plays and the episode fades to black....


Studio Toledo/Chris~

Welllll, it's a pretty clear sign of which TV cartoons Friz really didn't care about quality-wise. He made no secret in interviews how he felt about the tons of action/superhero cartoons that the networks were demanding... However, DFE's late-late '70's "Fantastic Four" and "Spiderwoman" feature fuller animation than "Return To The Planet Of The Apes".

Charles~

Yes, the Spidey cartoons were indeed started while DePatie-Freleng was still in existence. I have one or two scripts I got from the original writer which not only have the DFE symbol on them but which the writer confirmed were done for DFE. NOW, if I could just get all of Stan Lee's scribbled notes out of the margins! :p


John~

Hey!! Sounds like you got a copy of the animated "Star Trek" pilot film!! :eek:;):p:D I have some animated Trek scripts too, really weird to see direction saying "Uhura dance here while Kirk sings...":eek::daffy::daffy:

Thus "Star Trek--The Musical"!! (Coming soon to Broadway:bugs2: )

[nickramer]

I did like the early products Filmation did like the DC Comics cartoons. However, by the 70s there wasn't much intresting cartoons to talk about at the studio, except some gems like the Archies (sorry, Fibber) and Fat Albert.
By the way, Homestar Runner did a funny pardoy of the Filmation cartoons that has be linked here before, but I will link this not to save any trouble for finding it. http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail126.html P.S Be on the lookout for some easter eggs.

[J Lee]

John~

Hey!! Sounds like you got a copy of the animated "Star Trek" pilot film!! :eek:;):p:D I have some animated Trek scripts too, really weird to see direction saying "Uhura dance here while Kirk sings...":eek::daffy::daffy:

Thus "Star Trek--The Musical"!! (Coming soon to Broadway:bugs2: )


Jimmy's here/
Sulu's here/
Ulhura too/
Spock is here/
Hey, McCoy, where are you?/
We want to probe/
And we want to beam/
Have some fun, go adventuring/
All our crew is here/
But we ain't complete/
We ain't the Trekies/
Without the McCoy beat/
Jimmy's here/
Sulu's here
Ulhura too/
Spock is here/
And here comes McCoy/
And Scotty too/
So Everything's Trekie!

(I will admit that putting Scotty in the last line ruins the chance to have a tribble do a goofy dance across the screen. But Scotty doing the same thing works just as well, IMHO. ;) And for you younger folks in the theater, if you need to match the lyrics to the beat, click here (http://www.toontracker.com/realaudio/archie.ram).)

[frizfrelengfan]

Didn't DePatie-Freleng become Marvel Productions for the purpose of bringing animated versions of their characters to television?I think that Friz Freleng sold DFE to Marvel around 1980 and returned to Warner Bros.

Nothing from the Filmation studio sticks in my mind as being impressive. When I was young most of the Saturday morning animation came from either DFE, Hanna-Barbera, or Filmation. Of the three, Filmation made the least memorable cartoons.

[Studio Toledo]

I think that Friz Freleng sold DFE to Marvel around 1980 and returned to Warner Bros.

Nothing from the Filmation studio sticks in my mind as being impressive. When I was young most of the Saturday morning animation came from either DFE, Hanna-Barbera, or Filmation. Of the three, Filmation made the least memorable cartoons.
Obviously Ruby-Spears (sister company to H-B) would replace DFE in the 80's to become one of the big three cartoon mills in the biz (what I Like to think of them as)!

[mighty mouse]

Darn ! Everytime i watch my archies classic dvd from here on, ill be thinking of the ripoff song J Lee made, lol !!!:D

[fan4life]

The upside to the shows were the voices used-for "Star Trek" they used most of the original actors from the TV Show, as they did with the 1970s "Batman", and so forth. Even the "Gilligan" toons had most of the TV Cast working on the voices. So I think that there was some degree of continuity there between live action and animation. Evenso, the fact that the "Star Trek" toon is not accepted as canon is something of a surprise to me, as these were some great episodes and adventures.

[Sogturtle]

The upside to the shows were the voices used-for "Star Trek" they used most of the original actors from the TV Show, as they did with the 1970s "Batman", and so forth. Even the "Gilligan" toons had most of the TV Cast working on the voices. So I think that there was some degree of continuity there between live action and animation. Evenso, the fact that the "Star Trek" toon is not accepted as canon is something of a surprise to me, as these were some great episodes and adventures.

"Star Trek - The Musical" was already attempted by Sheldon (http://www.sheldoncomics.com/), a 10-year old billionaire, when he bought the rights (http://sheldoncomics.com/archive/030905.html).

Fan4life~

We already covered the fact of the entire original "Star Trek" cast being used (that's really where much of the budget went). The exception as pointed out before was they forgot to budget for Walter Koenig's role as Chekhov.
The fact of it not being accepted as "canon" is easy to figure when you watch how sadly "unanimated" it is... The writing and audio tracks are fine, just the lack of animation is an embarrassment. I've not-so-subtly-agitated before for the vocal tracks to be re-used for a newly animated version... Paramount are you listening?!?!;)

Charles~

Woe and alas I was ignorant of that!!!:p [Though the Borg weren't invented at the time of the Filmation Trek series]. But this does illustrate once again that "there is nothing new under the sun" (Eccles. 1:9-- by Solomon, king of Israel and Judah, ca. 935 B.C ).:cool:


John~

I loved your twisted song!! And I can see Scotty and a Tribble doing a Highland fling together...:D

[fan4life]

I think the one thing that made the Filmation toons identifiable from its competition was the house style of art-that is, how the characters were drawn, that and the background music. I can listen to the musical score of a "Batman" toon from Filmation, and or another of their non-comedy toons and the same musical score seems to be in use.

[doctoon]

My childhood musical soundtrack is largely from Filmation's composers Yvette Blais and Jeff Michael. Especially when the Groovie Goolies went into weekday syndication, I could hear their background music six days a week (counting Saturday mornings). I also enjoyed seeing the producers' "wheel" and the "happy face" logo. Each September I looked forward to a new season and which characters the studio would copy or caricature; even at 6 or 7 years old, I knew they rarely did their own stuff. :)

After Norm Prescott left, the wheel discontinued, and the logo became multicolored; it wasn't the same. Worse, by having Shuki Levy and Haim Saban do the music by 1983, Filmation at that point sounded like DIC! :(

[rkish]

I've heard that the entire series run of Filamtion's "Star Trek" is now available on DVD. May bop down to the Best Buy to see what I can see....

Unfortunately, like the Star Trek TOS DVDs, they are not cheap. Best Buy has the "boxset" for $44.99, which is a "reasonable" list price...but if you want the set, patience is a virtue. I wound up buying it on Amazon for $38.74 (I had a gift certificate for $40.00) with free shipping (any orders $25.00 or more)...it's currently up to $40.62. If you are a Sam's club member or can borrow a member's card, it's $34.99 (best price I've seen yet). Sam's also has the Harvey Toons boxset for $24.99, which is also a very good price.

I've only seen the first "cartoon" so far, but Universal procured VERY good source material, as these are crisp copies and the colors are quite vibrant. Some of the artwork is quite nice...that, the packaging (plastic case similar to those used in the TOS packaging), plus the bonus materials, make it worth it, if you're a fan and get it for a decent price (used/new copies on Amazon/EBay for $30.00 or so with shipping).

[dandu]

I would like to make a note to my previous post, I got Fraidy Cat confused with Waldo Kitty. Fraidy Cat is actually pretty good, now Waldo Kitty really stunk, it had a unique idea, but it didn't quite work out, a 30 minute episode acutally felt like it lasted an hour (I saw the Lone Kitty, HO HI STERLING AWAY, for a minute it seemed that was all he could say!!)

[Sogturtle]

I think the one thing that made the Filmation toons identifiable from its competition was the house style of art-that is, how the characters were drawn, that and the background music.

Fan4life~

Hmmmm... The Filmation house-style, how the characters were drawn? You mean like this...?

http://i2.ebayimg.com/01/i/000/7b/9b/a870_1.JPG
Orrrrrr....

http://i10.ebayimg.com/02/i/08/f2/5b/4b_1.JPG
How about...?

http://i5.ebayimg.com/03/i/000/7b/9b/a999_1.JPG

Or like this?
http://i4.ebayimg.com/05/i/000/7a/e2/fcc2_1_b.JPG

I WISH I could forget this style!:p
http://i19.ebayimg.com/04/i/000/7b/4a/c4e6_1.JPG

http://i16.ebayimg.com/06/i/000/7b/91/e77d_1_b.JPG

Or did you have this in mind?
http://i18.ebayimg.com/05/i/000/7a/d4/fe34_1_b.JPG

:tweety::D;):daffy:

[J Lee]

Fan4life~

Hmmmm... The Filmation house-style, how the characters were drawn? You mean like this...?

http://i2.ebayimg.com/01/i/000/7b/9b/a870_1.JPG
Orrrrrr....

http://i10.ebayimg.com/02/i/08/f2/5b/4b_1.JPG
How about...?

http://i5.ebayimg.com/03/i/000/7b/9b/a999_1.JPG

Or like this?
http://i4.ebayimg.com/05/i/000/7a/e2/fcc2_1_b.JPG

I WISH I could forget this style!:p
http://i19.ebayimg.com/04/i/000/7b/4a/c4e6_1.JPG

http://i16.ebayimg.com/06/i/000/7b/91/e77d_1_b.JPG

Or did you have this in mind?
http://i18.ebayimg.com/05/i/000/7a/d4/fe34_1_b.JPG

:tweety::D;):daffy:


You know, if Norm and Lou could have managed it, and if the two shows weren't on competing networks, they probably would have replaced Stanley Adams with The Cos as the voice of Cyrano Jones in the tribbles sequel episode ("Hey, Hey, Hey Captain, these trbibles don't breed no more...")

[Bobby Bickert]

http://i4.ebayimg.com/05/i/000/7a/e2/fcc2_1_b.JPG


Is this Journey Back To Oz?

[Sogturtle]

Is this Journey Back To Oz?

Bobby~

Yes it is indeed "Journey Back To Oz", Filmation's 1971 theatrical release, the film where Liza Minelli ended up taking her late mother's teenage role. [However the soundtrack was recorded back in the '60's when Liza was just a teenager so her mother had to sign her contracts!].

[fan4life]

Well, turtle, there's also this:

[Sogturtle]

Well, turtle, there's also this:

Fan4life~

Yes indeed!;) I also started to include images from "Superman", "He-Man" (w/Skeletor), "Batman", "Flash Gordon" etc., but it was just getting TOO darned long on that page! :)

[fan4life]

Fan4life~

Yes indeed!;) I also started to include images from "Superman", "He-Man" (w/Skeletor), "Batman", "Flash Gordon" etc., but it was just getting TOO darned long on that page! :)

So perhaps I'll amend that statement and say that there's the Filmation house style, and there's other styles and renderings equally unique, part of what makes Filmation toons enjoyable and fun.

I won't say they were superior to the other studios collective output-and I won't say they were Emmy caliber-but they were fun to watch.

[Larry T]

Hey, that's Tut-Tut near the gramophone !!!

(again, anxiously awaiting the BCI release of Mission: Magic on DVD).

I did pick up the Groovie Goolies boxed set earlier this week and have started to watch the episodes (I DID say that I liked this series, so LAY OFF!!). Wow, that brings back memories...

But holy crap, for the amount of actual animation in those things, and I mean REALLY LIMITED animation, they sure turned the DVNR up to full blast. :( almost anything that moves even the slightest bit blurs its way from pose to pose, especially on the camera shakes, which they use a lot of.

It's is a blatant, downright abuse of this digital media technique- Filmation cartoons don't need DVNR, there's almost no animation to speak of in them.... what a way to wreck this compilation. Are the other Filmation release sets this bad??

By the way, I read through some very interesting names on the show's credits... Laverne Harding, Virgil Ross, Herman Cohen, Mark Kausler, to name a few ;)

[Bobby Bickert]

Bobby~

Yes it is indeed "Journey Back To Oz", Filmation's 1971 theatrical release, the film where Liza Minelli ended up taking her late mother's teenage role.


I actually saw this in the theaters, though it must have been a rerelease since according to my baby book I saw my first movie in 1972.

[Sogturtle]

Hey, that's Tut-Tut near the gramophone !!!

(again, anxiously awaiting the BCI release of Mission: Magic on DVD).

I did pick up the Groovie Goolies boxed set earlier this week and have started to watch the episodes (I DID say that I liked this series, so LAY OFF!!). Wow, that brings back memories...

But holy crap, for the amount of actual animation in those things, and I mean REALLY LIMITED animation, they sure turned the DVNR up to full blast. :( almost anything that moves even the slightest bit blurs its way from pose to pose, especially on the camera shakes, which they use a lot of.

It's is a blatant, downright abuse of this digital media technique- Filmation cartoons don't need DVNR, there's almost no animation to speak of in them.... what a way to wreck this compilation. Are the other Filmation release sets this bad??

By the way, I read through some very interesting names on the show's credits... Laverne Harding, Virgil Ross, Herman Cohen, Mark Kausler, to name a few ;)

I actually saw this in the theaters, though it must have been a rerelease since according to my baby book I saw my first movie in 1972.

Larry~

Any of us that sit down and watch ANY of the Filmation product (except their theatrical feature "Journey Back To Oz) that was made up till the late '70's will come away saying something like "but, but WHERE'S the animation??":eek::eek::eek:. Then suddenly in the VERY late Seventies their stuff became markedly more animated, including their version of Tom and Jerry (and yes their Droopy sucked big-time).

And YES they had a number of VERY talented classic-era animators on staff (people who didn't want to work for HB at that point in their lives).


Bobby~

You likely actually saw the theatrical release of it around Christmas 1974. The film was (in the form of the voice-tracks and songs) started years before, reputedly in 1964 (or even earlier), with the voicetracks being recorded in New York and Hollywood and the music in Paris! It began as an independent production by Fred Ladd:eek: (yes, THE Fred Ladd) and Norm Prescott with all the storyboards being drawn by the great Preston Blair, and was to be animated in Europe:rolleyes::eek:. The European studio was fired from the film (for incompetence) and all animation was to be done by Filmation... but then the money ran out. Filmation busied itself with all its scarcely animated TV shows. And "Journey Back..." sat and languished for years till after Filmation was sold to TelePrompter, when it was exhumed to be finally finished in FULL ANIMATION. The 1971 date is the approximate date of its completion (it may well have actually been in '72). As memory serves me it was mentioned (in passing) in a 1972 article as being yet unreleased.

[ThePeterNetwork]

Larry~

Any of us that sit down and watch ANY of the Filmation product (except their theatrical feature "Journey Back To Oz) that was made up till the late '70's will come away saying something like "but, but WHERE'S the animation??":eek::eek::eek:. Then suddenly in the VERY late Seventies their stuff became markedly more animated, including their version of Tom and Jerry (and yes their Droopy sucked big-time).

That explains why some of their 80's shows like He-Man were more prestegious. In fact, I am willing to believe that Filmation's He-Man was the peak show for the studio.

I could only imagine what Filmation would be like if they continued their business today.

[Studio Toledo]

That explains why some of their 80's shows like He-Man were more prestegious. In fact, I am willing to believe that Filmation's He-Man was the peak show for the studio.

I could only imagine what Filmation would be like if they continued their business today.
They could've pratically compete too easily with the Japanese studios perhaps! :D

[gilligan fanati]

I have all the new Adventures of Gilligan and 3 Gilligan's Planet episodes. I also have 2 episodes of My Favorite Martians. Maybe some more, I'll have to check.

[brithgob]

I actually liked Filmation's Tom and Jerry... it certainly was head and shoulders over Hanna Barbera's own 1970s take on the show (sorry, Aaron Handy) -- at least they didn't try to make the two of them buddies.

Someone mentioned the logo changing -- that happened when Filmation's parent company, TelePrompTer, was purchased by Westinghouse -- the logo was redone in the same style as Westinghouse's Group W radio and TV stations.

[The Silver Fox]

IMO most of Filmations shows were pretty good for there

time eXCEPT the Tom & Jerry Comedy Hour, I think was the worst Filmations that ever came out. To this Day its on the bottome of my list of cartoons to watch. I could tolerate the HB 70 T&J show but the Filmations Version was just so poorly done, not to mention the music was only slighty better then a bad Disco LP, that it should Never be releasted to dvd or tv again.

Star Trek Animated series did have some ground breaking stories and the animation was fairly done well
I think the reason Checolv(sp) was not included in the show was do to a prior comitment he was doing at the time the show was going into preproduction.

Also no one mentioned, the Batman show also had Adam West doing the voice for a while in the 70's when the show ran on CBS. Also not mentioned was Tarzan and Zorro series (this one took a while do to the fact Disney still owns the rights to the show, which is why it only ran 2 season).

[Debbie]

IMO most of Filmations shows were pretty good for their time EXCEPT the Tom & Jerry Comedy Hour. I think was the worst Filmations that ever came out. To this Day its on the bottome of my list of cartoons to watch. I could tolerate the HB 70 T&J show but the Filmations Version was just so poorly done, not to mention the music was only slighty better then a bad Disco LP, that it should Never be releasted to dvd or tv again.

After seeing one of them again on You Tube, it is pretty hard to get behind these noisy, ugly cartoons. :shame: The curious can go look for themselves...if they DARE!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi_cFlq-Uwg

[Studio Toledo]

After seeing one of them again on You Tube, it is pretty hard to get behind these noisy, ugly cartoons. :shame: The curious can go look for themselves...if they DARE!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi_cFlq-Uwg
Heh, why remind me? I remember when these used to be on 25 years ago. I hate to admit to many I liked the '75 H-B reworking of the characters than I did the Filmation series, which tends to be a bit more faithful to the essense of T&J, if it wasn't for that horrible choice in music (what I once referred to as "retarded Devo-like", really, I'd rather listen to Devo than I would this). I think John K. himself worked on that show as well.

[The Silver Fox]

the soundtrack was not all that bad about

filmations T&J series, the animation totally Sucked, and if you seen CN reairing some of the cut up show, you can see the out of focus, poorly drawn cells of the show. Not to mention there was a ton of animation mistakes.
Also bad was Jerry's laughing fit he had his laugh was as bad as fingernails on a chalk board.

But your right, the sound on this cartoon is a devo
want that should have never been used.

the only thing that sorta made the show good is they tried to used the MGM formula of them being enemies, but the shows animation and sound just didnt seen to work.

Its sorta the same problem that T&J HB movies are having currently, but the animation though limited, is tons ahead of the Filmations incarnation. Most of the New T&J shows seem to suffer from "ripoff" scripts, such as the latest that been airing on CN, that basically a bad scripted Pirates of the carabin, or the race one which was a bad done Amazing Race.

[Studio Toledo]

the soundtrack was not all that bad about

filmations T&J series, the animation totally Sucked, and if you seen CN reairing some of the cut up show, you can see the out of focus, poorly drawn cells of the show. Not to mention there was a ton of animation mistakes.
I wouldn't say it was out-of-focus, more like the only copies they bother showing of the cartoons are all 16mm dupes as opposed to 35mm prints. I do have a video fragment in my collection of what the show looked like on CBS or some channel that looked WAY too clean and sharp as opposed to the way it looks now (the same quality I remember seeing these on WTBS when they showed them from a 16mm telecine).

Also bad was Jerry's laughing fit he had his laugh was as bad as fingernails on a chalk board.

But your right, the sound on this cartoon is a devo
want that should have never been used.
The whole thing was like a reminder that the 80's just started (since this show first aired on CBS in 1980). It just screamed "Welcome to 1980" all over!

the only thing that sorta made the show good is they tried to used the MGM formula of them being enemies, but the shows animation and sound just didnt seen to work.
Being reminded of a few quirks I had with the cartoons, often the one thing that came to mind is noticing the updates of certain things like Tom getting scared out of his sleep by the sound of Jerry playing Pong on the TV. Still rather nice how they tried to update T&J for the new generation of kids like me who would otherwise watch the older stuff and could tell the differences easily over the new stuff.

Its sorta the same problem that T&J HB movies are having currently, but the animation though limited, is tons ahead of the Filmations incarnation. Most of the New T&J shows seem to suffer from "ripoff" scripts, such as the latest that been airing on CN, that basically a bad scripted Pirates of the carabin, or the race one which was a bad done Amazing Race.
I'm only glad I don't pay attention to any of it (and don't get me started on "Tom & Jerry the Movie" either).

[CyrusGrissom]

I'm suprised no one has mentioned "Starchaser: Legend of Orin" or "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night", they are the best things Filmation has ever made. Anyone remembers these? the Pinocchio movie is the scary animated movie with James Earl Jones as the title villain and it's really dark compared to Disney's Pinocchio and also stars Don Knotts and Tom Bosley.

[Studio Toledo]

I see someone has awaken the Filmation thread, for this you will PAY! :p

I'm suprised no one has mentioned "Starchaser: Legend of Orin" or "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night", they are the best things Filmation has ever made. Anyone remembers these? the Pinocchio movie is the scary animated movie with James Earl Jones as the title villain and it's really dark compared to Disney's Pinocchio and also stars Don Knotts and Tom Bosley.
I still don't believe Filmation did "Starchaser" (just haven't seen any real mention much in the production of that film unless some staffers had worked on it separately).

As for "Pinocchio & The Emperor of the Night", I think I said all I did on the YouTube comments.