Documentary on Filmation Founder

[Drtooth]

I know that our knowledge of such characters as done by Disney makes it hard for many to get into another take on it, but though I never saw "Happily" I know their "Pinocchio" is really great! Great voice cast, too!
I guess the offers were there, and they did their takes on them. I don't know if I've seen any of those, but I'd be interested in seeing them, surely. I do love how you champion Fat Albert - what a show! Adjectives fail to say how great it is! Also I'm happily surprised at your love of some of their 70's and 80's material, since that's your least fave era of animation. That in itself is a feather in Filmation's cap!

Oh, I do love the 80's and all (Ducktales, Ninja Turtles and Inspector Gadget came out of that era, you know... plus, internationally, Kinnikuman and Dragon Bll... the GOOD one)... the 70's tick me off (at least here... I LOVE Yatterman), and mostly because Hanna Barbera's self ripoffs of Scooby-Doo and all those Archie clones (I love Hong Kong Phooey, Goolies, Fat Albert and Pink Panther)... but the 80's had some good stuff. I just HATE the girl's cartoons. I hate to admit it, but I saw some of She-Ra and said to myself, why couldn't Strawberry Shortsheets kick that much butt?

But Fat Albert is a special show. They even mentioned it in that local Kid's TV episode of Pioneers. Bill wanted to show you can sell a TV series by merits of education and not merchandising. He even used it for a masters thesis. And of course, needless to say, it's the first African American cartoon star. But that never even mattered to me, because they reran those all the time when I was younger and it was one of my top favorites. I still have 2 old tapes with episodes on them. Unfortunately I'm hanging on to them. I have every Fat Albert DVD release that wasn't Time Life, and those episodes are no where to be found.

I especially love those releases that came with the CD's of the songs from the show.

Plus I like how Lou had actors Howard Morris and Alan Oppenheimer as regular voice artists and did the most voices for his cartoons. And how Lou and his wife, Jay, and kids, Erika an Lane, did voices themselves. Lou always went uncredited in the voicework or was listed as Erik Gunden. The Scheimer family remind me a lot of Jim Henson and his family.

Yeah, and later on, Peter Cullen and Pat Fraley too.

Bit of trivia. Know why Lou started doing voice work? Apparently, in the first Fat Albert special (before there was a TV show) Dumb Donald had only one line, and they didn't feel like paying another actor for one line, so he decided to do it himself. He started there just doing random grown ups (his wife did teachers and parents, his daughter did little kid voices and Tweeterbelle) And then you look at something like He-Man, and he's a big chunk of the cask. And in every interview he's sorta self deprecating about it. I thought he sounded good.

No matter how good John K. is (I admit I only know Ren and Stimpy) it doesn't change Filmation's greatness, and I hope those who criticized also pointed out things they liked, because what they said was all bad, then I'd say something's wrong there, and I don't mean with Filmation. Not after the good things I've heard.

Sure, someone in the documentary says they wish the Filmation cartoons were "less safe", but all I can say to that is that they must really support cartoons today, then, with all the adult stuff out, most of which is trash, I feel. (I'm all for freedom of speech, but I think it's sad when folks don't like cartoons unless they're cartoons made only for adults.) Maybe they didn't mean that they wanted to go that far out of the style at the time, I don't know. So if I misunderstood them, I'm sorry. But I'm glad the Filmation shows are just as they are, thank you very much.

Well, with John K and those guys, it wasn't about the style so much as the restrictions. We all know Johhny has a very specific view of cartoons (he hates basically everything that Bob Clammpett didn't do), and I like him MUCH better as an animator than a critic. But then of course, as I said, the 80's weren't all that fun a time for indie animators trying to break into their own programs. They could only sell toy lines or older characters (Hence why we had Mighty Mouse:TNA, they were originally trying to sell Ren and Stimpy). Now, I do like a lot of shows that happened in that era, but that is a very respectable plight. We take the 90's movement for granted sometimes.

But that doesn't mean those cartoons aren't good. Sometimes they need a real second viewing as an adult to really get clarity. And for the most part, 90 percent of everything holds up for me. The only things I completely out grew were Captain Planet (The less preachy, and actually fun Toxic Crusaders was superior), and said girl shows (I watched them when I was a toddler because of those bright colors). Then of course, the stuff you missed when you were younger because you weren't into it or it was at some time that was opposite something.

I recently started watching Bravestarr, and again... I find it to be their finest work, mostly because they focused on that one project. And there weren't those "everybody laughs at stupid antics of some character" endings (in the ones I watched)... they were DEEP. The episodes are pretty intense, the main bad guy has a very interesting backstory, and there was this anti-drug episode that floated past the preachy, and went into the realistic. A kid who became an addict DIED at the end of an episode.

 

[Yorick]

Oh yeah I would definitely recommend the DVD; I can't believe the effort they put in as far as the documentaries in the Special Features section.

And now to learn there's more than one documentary in the Special Features section, this is even more of a must Thanks for the info, heralde!

 

[Yorick]

Oh, I do love the 80's and all

Great list of great 80's shows! In defense of Strawberry Shortcake, though I haven't seen it in years (and shows like that can be thought of as "too cute" by some) if you compare any of those originals (like Strawberry) to their 2000's/2010's remakes, the originals have much better writing and animation, I feel.

That's a shame the Fat Albert DVD releases you have are missing the episodes that you have on tape. Is there a complete version out? Time Life perhaps? I bet there are cool commercials on the Fat Albert VHS!

The last part of the documentary this thread is about shows how much Lou thought of Fat Albert. I won't give anything away, but it's quite moving, the conversation between Lou and Bill Cosby, another person I admire.

Aw, CD's of Fat Albert songs sounds great!

Yeah, and later on, Peter Cullen and Pat Fraley too.

Yeah, Eddie Spenser and Jake Kong!

Very cool story on why Lou started doing voice work, and I agree that he sounded good - he put just as much into his voice acting as the best of them, I'd say! He's Orko!

I liked your take on John K, animator vs critic, I think that's quite fair, and I see your point on the plight, and thankfully some great new ideas came out in the 80's in spite of this. And again, it's great to see your appreciation of the era, being you know your cartoons so well!

I agree on Captain Planet - I always loved the message of taking care of the earth, and still do, but agree others have done it better, though I never saw Toxic Crusaders...based on Toxic Avenger, right?

It's crazy about the commercialism, whether it was the 80's with the selling of toys, or on that Pioneers Of Television episode with the hosts having to sell the products on their shows that came out at the dawn of TV.

Bravestarr for me is like the shows you mention not seeing at the time, but enjoying now. I heard the main bad guy Tex Hex was meant for Ghostbusters but instead went to Bravestarr! I wanted to see the antidrug episode "The Price" that GonzoLeaper mentioned (though he didn't give away the end!But that does get the point across about how deep Bravestarr was!) but it's not on Hulu yet.

And the "everybody laughs at stupid antics of some character" endings were in a good amount of shows, weren't they? Ha!

In short, great post, Drtooth!

 

[Drtooth]

Great list of great 80's shows! In defense of Strawberry Shortcake, though I haven't seen it in years (and shows like that can be thought of as "too cute" by some) if you compare any of those originals (like Strawberry) to their 2000's/2010's remakes, the originals have much better writing and animation, I feel.

If you ever stumble upon a Japanese series called Anpanman, it's like Strawberry Shortcake on acid. And it's for preschoolers... but MAAAAN it's one of the weirdest coolest things I've ever seen.

And the "everybody laughs at stupid antics of some character" endings were in a good amount of shows, weren't they? Ha!

And Bravestarr had one episode where the bad guy stands on a mountain cliff, tearyeyed.

But it's like every episode of Super Mario Super Show (and we all know how much I love that one) is Pasta joke, everyone laughs.

 

[CensoredAlso]

And now to learn there's more than one documentary in the Special Features section, this is even more of a must Thanks for the info, heralde!

No problem, hope you enjoy! Yeah there's one segment on the characters and another segment on "The Morals of He-Man." It was so amazing to see all the people who had worked on the show and clearly how much affection they had for it. That's what documentaries are all about!

And again, so surprising that they put in that much effort so many years later. I remember reading that fans were a little annoyed when the first Thundercats DVD set didn't have too many special features. Thankfully for the second set they did include a documentary with the voice actors and others, very cool!

 

[Yorick]

It was so amazing to see all the people who had worked on the show and clearly how much affection they had for it. That's what documentaries are all about!

And again, so surprising that they put in that much effort so many years later. I remember reading that fans were a little annoyed when the first Thundercats DVD set didn't have too many special features. Thankfully for the second set they did include a documentary with the voice actors and others, very cool!

Absolutely! I'm so glad to hear that regarding the He-Man She-Ra Christmas special, and the Thundercats second set! And having such things all these years later really adds something special to it all. I'm grateful for hearing from everyone who participated on these releases.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Absolutely! I'm so glad to hear that regarding the He-Man She-Ra Christmas special, and the Thundercats second set! And having such things all these years later really adds something special to it all. I'm grateful for hearing from everyone who participated on these releases.

Definitely, it sort of makes us fans feel vindicated to see how much the people behind the scenes enjoyed it as well, lol.

Oh and I should have mentioned, the documentary is on the Thundercats Season 1, Vol. 2 set. Just to set that straight because it's a little confusing, lol.

 

[Yorick]

I agree! Thank you for clearing up which Thundercats set it is, too!

Sorry the Lou video is no longer up But I really appreciated seeing it!

And now Lou's book is out:
http://www.amazon.com/Lou-Scheimer-Creating-Filmation-Generation/dp/160549044X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8
Great news!