Animated Spin-offs

[Mo Frackle]

Recently saw an episode of the '70s Addams Family cartoon. It wasn't too bad. A lot of old L-A sitcom writers were involved, some of whom worked on the original Addams TV series. Jackie Coogan and Ted Cassidy reprised their roles of "Uncle Fester" and "Lurch" (HB managed to get John Astin and Carolyn Jones for the Addams' earlier Scooby-Doo appearance. I guess they wanted too much money for this series, or something. Astin would later return as "Gomez" for the '90s animated adaptation). A then-unknown Jodie Foster played Pugsley.

And kudos to character designer Takashi Masunaga for basing the family's likenesses off of Charles Addams' original artwork.

Only downside - much like Yogi's Gang, a moral is shoved down the viewers' throats in each episode.

 

[Drtooth]

I tried watching one of those once. It was okay, but I can't get over the terrible, not even close to Astin's delivery voice Weinreb gave Gomez. The Clyde Crashcup-esque voice does not fit the character at all.

Of note, I'm loving how Dreamworks has successfully side stepped TV networks on their latest line of animated adaptions and spinoffs of their movies. Nickelodeon was brutal to their shows while i almost hypocritically never not airing them on Nicktoons. Heck, they held several episodes of Penguins of Madagascar hostage as late as several years after they should have aired as Nick is want to do. I'm glad they ran all of MVA the series, but the series was doomed to one season because it's not one of their endless, obnoxious tweencoms, and everything the series set up fell flat. To say the least of CN randomly dropping Dragon Riders of Berk which could have very well help to promote the movie.

I've been saying for some time their Turbo animated series far surpasses what they did with the movie, and gave the characters a new lease. That appears to be over, though, but a King Julien and Puss in Boot series have started with a Croods series on the way. Rumors of a Peabody and Sherman series have also surfaced.

 

[mr3urious]

I tried watching one of those once. It was okay, but I can't get over the terrible, not even close to Astin's delivery voice Weinreb gave Gomez. The Clyde Crashcup-esque voice does not fit the character at all.

Of note, I'm loving how Dreamworks has successfully side stepped TV networks on their latest line of animated adaptions and spinoffs of their movies. Nickelodeon was brutal to their shows while i almost hypocritically never not airing them on Nicktoons. Heck, they held several episodes of Penguins of Madagascar hostage as late as several years after they should have aired as Nick is want to do. I'm glad they ran all of MVA the series, but the series was doomed to one season because it's not one of their endless, obnoxious tweencoms, and everything the series set up fell flat. To say the least of CN randomly dropping Dragon Riders of Berk which could have very well help to promote the movie.

I've been saying for some time their Turbo animated series far surpasses what they did with the movie, and gave the characters a new lease. That appears to be over, though, but a King Julien and Puss in Boot series have started with a Croods series on the way. Rumors of a Peabody and Sherman series have also surfaced.

DW has really made the most of their Netflix contract, and it seems to be working for them.

 

[Drtooth]

I really like Dreamworks' animated spinoffs of shows. I'd say Penguins of Madagascar was arguably better than the film series, focusing on the best characters from the movie, The Penguins and Lemurs. I really like the compromise they made for their spinoff movie connecting it directly with the film series, but using the same humor as the cartoon series. Rico managed to keep his cartoon babbling (even though it was done by a different voice actor) for one thing. Seems they're the only ones really doing spinoff animated versions of their movies anymore.

I'd say Disney's Miles from Tomorrowland is more of a tie-in than a spinoff. Other than that, you just don't see animated versions of movies like you used to. Not that it's a bad thing at all. Sure, there was some great stuff like Beetlejuice, Men in Black and The Real Ghostbusters. But then there was some pretty sloppy stuff. As fun for the irony as it is, Rambo was only made a cartoon series to be a knockoff of G.I. Joe. Then there was Evolution, based on a meh movie that turned into Ghostbusters but with aliens and lower quality.

Even the themesong is a ripoff of the Ray Parker Jr. tune

I tried watching that series on multiple occasions and it was just... blehhh. DIC was really going through something in that period and they made some questionable cartoons. It just clumsily tried to capture the lightning in a bottle that RGB was, and it was painfully obvious they were trying to emulate it down to the thing they found in the movie being their mascot. Too bad they couldn't emulate it with good writing and likable characters.

 

[Mo Frackle]

I wonder what other crazy cartoon spin-offs the networks could have tried shoving down kids' throats.

Three's Company in Outer Space - In order to stay on Mr. Roper's spaceship, Jack pretends to be an alien. Joyce DeWitt provided the voices of both Janet and Chrissy as Suzanne Somers' agent demanded triple the rest of the cast's salaries. Featuring Frank Welker as Jack's robot, Disco Darren.

Archie Bunkrock's Cave - Based on All in the Family. The series depicted caveman Archie Bunkrock as he tries to deal with his new neighbors the Jefferstones. None of the cast wanted anything to do with this series. Not even ex-HB voice talent Sally Struthers. Daws Butler voiced Archie while Scatman Crothers voiced George Jefferstone.

Sanford and Son - Made during the popularity of other "and son" shows (The Pink Panther and Sons, Popeye and Son). Each episode would follow young Lamont Sanford and his one-joke friends as they try to do good deeds for their neighborhood. Remembered for its preachiness about keeping the environment clean and not calling someone a "dummy." Redd Foxx was so embarassed by this series that he refused to ever acknowledge its existence.

 

[mr3urious]

I wonder what other crazy cartoon spin-offs the networks could have tried shoving down kids' throats.

Three's Company in Outer Space - In order to stay on Mr. Roper's spaceship, Jack pretends to be an alien. Joyce DeWitt provided the voices of both Janet and Chrissy as Suzanne Somers' agent demanded triple the rest of the cast's salaries. Featuring Frank Welker as Jack's robot, Disco Darren.

Archie Bunkrock's Cave - Based on All in the Family. The series depicted caveman Archie Bunkrock as he tries to deal with his new neighbors the Jefferstones. None of the cast wanted anything to do with this series. Not even ex-HB voice talent Sally Struthers. Daws Butler voiced Archie while Scatman Crothers voiced George Jefferstone.

Sanford and Son - Made during the popularity of other "and son" shows (The Pink Panther and Sons, Popeye and Son). Each episode would follow young Lamont Sanford and his one-joke friends as they try to do good deeds for their neighborhood. Remembered for its preachiness about keeping the environment clean and not calling someone a "dummy." Redd Foxx was so embarassed by this series that he refused to ever acknowledge its existence.

Wow, those actually sound like real cartoons! I salute you, good sir!

 

[Drtooth]

Wondering if comic books count.

Some part of me wants to say they do. Or toys. Or both... Kinda like how G.I. Joe and Transformers only became cartoons because Hasbro (and maybe Marvel) said the cartoons were based on the comic books, not the toy line because of the restrictions they had at the time.

Then you look at something like Batman TAS. It's based on the comic book, sure, but the show was inspired by the Tim Burton movies at the time, down to the almost Tim Burton-esque music in the series. And there's no denying that the weird CGI Spider-Man series was to tie into those movies, to a lesser extent Spectacular Spider-Man. Makes me wonder if Sony still had the animation rights that their next Spidey cartoon would have been inspired by the Amazing Spider-Man films.

I know that Disney pretty much forced them to make a new Avenger series directly based on the movie counterparts, causing all the Marvel shows to take place in the same universe. Meaning that, because Coulson was posing as the principal while undercover with SHIELD in Ultimate Spider-Man, Disney found a huge reach around as far as the MCU goes.

 

[snichols1973]

I just happened to stumble upon another long-forgotten animated spin-off from Filmation Studios while browsing around Wikipedia:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brady_Kids

Even though neither the parents nor Alice appeared in this spin-off, additional characters were added: Chuck White, Fleetwood, and Babs, teenagers who went to the Bradys' school; Marlon, a magical talking red mynah bird, twin panda cubs Ping and Pong, and a dog named Mop-Top.

Larry Storch voiced Chuck, Fleetwood, Marlon and Mop-Top, while Ping, Pong and Babs were voiced by Jane Webb.

Even Star Trek had an animated spin-off (produced by Filmation) from 1973-74 with the original cast members (with the exception of Walter Koenig, whose Chekov character wasn't included in the animated version because the show's budget couldn't afford the entire cast); two additional crew members were added in Chekov's place: Lt. M'Ress, a female cat-like alien (voiced by Majel Barrett, a.k.a. Nurse Chapel), and Lt. Arex (voiced by James Doohan), an Edosian alien with three arms and three legs.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Animated_Series

 

[Drtooth]

It's weird how we've actually got less spinoffs of movies lately. And for a short period, we were getting them in the form of adult cartoons. And of movies that were made years before.

Like the meh Spaceballs cartoon, with it's very stiff Flash animation and decidedly not Mel Brooks style humor. Or the amazing, but culturally irrelevant Napoleon Dynamite series that didn't last more than a few episodes (really should have been on cable, as Fox's line up was a poor fit). Then the frustratingly recently cancelled Black Dynamite which was actually funnier than the movie (or what I've seen of it... and it was pretty freaking funny to begin with). There's been talk of a Pacific Rim series as well. Dunno where that's going to end up.

The only kid's adaptions of kid's movies that are even out there are all Dreamworks based, even before they had the Netflix deal. Unless anyone wants to count Miles from Tommorowland, which seems more like a tie-in than a full fledged spinoff. Though Disney Junior has been starting sort-of spinoffs for their preschool programming like 7D (which has a weird sort-of prequel connection) and Sophia the First (well... the movie Disney princesses pop up from time to time). A very strange feeling as the 80's and 90's dominated with cartoon spinoffs of movies.

It's actually been said the only reason we got Ghostbusters II was due to the cartoon series. I like that movie and all, but the cartoon just nailed it better (well... first several seasons, anyway).

 

[mr3urious]

Then the frustratingly recently cancelled Black Dynamite which was actually funnier than the movie (or what I've seen of it... and it was pretty freaking funny to begin with).

It's unfortunate that a lot of Titmouse shows don't last long. I'm still crushed over Megas XLR and Motorcity getting canned early.