Happy New Year everyone, at time of writing I'm in the future that is 2015 as Britain goes into the New Year before America. But there are a number of people we will miss who didn't make it this year but since 2014 was so cruel to celebrities, this has to be split into several parts starting with those we lost from January-March
So lets give these people a last goodbye.
James Avery 1945-2013
Before 2014 even began we lost the voice of Shredder, main villain of the Ninja Turtles as well as performing a memorable role as Philip Banks in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Hal Sutherland 1929-2014
A prominent animator for Disney throughout the 50s whose credits include Sleeping Beauty, Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan and the last theatrical Donald Duck cartoons; he would later provide animation for 70s Filmation super hero works including Flash Gordon, Batman, Aquaman and Superman. His last work was on He-man.
Seizo Katou 1927-2014
Veteran voice actor whose credits include the Japanese voice of Megatron from the Transformers franchise among hundred other roles.
Ichiro Nagai 1931-2014
Veteran voice actor whose credits include Happousai from Ranma 1/2 among hundreds of other roles along with Japanese dub roles as Yoda and Dumbledore.
Masaaki Tsukada 1938-2014
Veteran voice actor whose credits include Yamamoto Genryūsai from Bleach among hundreds of other roles.
Arthur Rankin Jr 1924-2014
One half of Rankin/Bass productions responsible for Thundercats, numerous Christmas Specials and animated versions of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
Gordon Bell 1934-2014
British Cartoonist whose works were featured in pretty much every British comic from Beano to the Dandy. Works include Dennis the Menace (British version) along with numerous others.
Jimmy Murakami 1933-2014
Animator for Christmas short film the Snowman as well as other books by author Raymond Briggs, also provided animation for the cartoon adaption of The Chronicles of Narnia.
Harold Ramis 1944-2014
While not animation related, Harold Ramis was still an important part of geek culture as writer and acting role as Dr Egon Spengler for the Ghostbusters films.
Runa Akiyama 1954-2014
Veteran voice actress whose roles included many characters from the Time Bokan franchise.
Ever since the creation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1984, there have been challengers to the crown ever since in every attempt to try and win with the very same formula they created, here are the ten most shameless attempts. The rules are any animation counts, anthropomorphic animal shows only and they must follow the same formula as TMNT; I'll also be listing the year of each entry, So lets begin.
Honorable Mention: Butt Ugly Martians - 2001
This one only missed the list because of the animal rule but is still a shameless ripoff nonetheless. It's a CGI cartoon about aliens who fight with power suits, despite the title, I can't really call the martians butt ugly, the attempt was to capitalize on the popular space trend that came briefly with the new millennium hype but came far too late for it to eat up any popularity.
10. Road Rovers - 1996
A group of dogs transformed into anthro canine superheroes to fight evil, it's kind of a Justice League for dogs as each canine is a world leader's pet. The team is one big 90s cliche and doesn't evolve beyond that.
9. Wild West COWboys of Moo Mesa - 1992
By divine powers of a convenient meteor, a bunch of cattle in late 19th century west become anthro cows and start playing the Wild West, apart from the fact that it plays on every cow related word possible, it was decent enough to watch and was early enough to still be fashionable for the period.
8. Loonatics Unleashed - 2005
I've mentioned this one before and I don't think highly of it, it's the only one on this list to have multiple animals rather than just one, but despite having a Looney Tunes label there are no Looney Tunes to be found, a misguided attempt by Warner Bros to try the pseudo anime craze and realizing that you need more than just the art style to succeed.
7. Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go - 2004
A very ambitious project about a team of cyborg monkeys and their human friend fighting the evil Skeleton King. It was a lot better than a number of other attempts and the villain truly looks frightening but the series is ruined by the fact that it has the Worlds Worst designed Robot ever, seriously they had the Japanese on board for this one and that's the best robot they can come up with.
6. Battletoads - 1992
This is the only direct challenger the Ninja Turtles ever got, better known for their ridiculously hard video games but largely outclassed in every field within the genre with the exception of maybe a better villain, okay not much better but at least they tried something different with that one.
5. Mighty Ducks - 1996
Disney formed an ice hockey team in 1993 and tried to make a cartoon out of it's mascot which is about an intergalactic team of ducks who just happen to play Ice Hockey. Funny thing is that the real life team didn't win the Stanley Cup until after Disney sold it. Disney are normally good with ducks but not this time around.
4. Biker Mice From Mars - 1993 & 2006
The only Ninja Turtle clone who managed a remake and the only series to be reasonably popular and the only series to keep it's original voice cast in it's remake. But still shameless nonetheless, these days the Biker Mice are slash fiction worthy.
3. Street Sharks - 1994
This series didn't even try to be subtle, it's whole intent was to make a franchise that could compete with the Ninja Turtles but with not much to go on other than sharp teeth it never really caught on.
2. Samurai Pizza Cats - 1990
To be fair, the popularity this series had wasn't their fault. In Japan it was a straight up animal anime about Samurai Cats, a few gags here and there but nothing that passes for a spoof. When it was dubbed however, there was lack of proper translations, and what they had to work with was far less than anticipated so they played it as a Ninja Turtles spoof with writing similar to the Animaniacs and ended up becoming more popular as a spoof than the original going as far as the original creators admitting it worked better as a spoof.
1. Kung-Fu Dino Posse - 2009
But we British have done it again, we actually successfully made something so shameless to the Ninja Turtles that it's hard to believe it even exists. There were more Dinosaur related shows like this one such as Extreme Dinosaurs & Dinosaucers but this series is the ultimate in shameless entertainment, if you wish for me to place this one in the cartoon vault if only to know what the hell this series is, then please comment.
Regular readers know that I like to use as many obscure titles as I can for reviews, often they are OVA shows like Jewel BEM Hunter Lime & the Debutante Detective Corps; on the other side of animation, big projects used for discovering talent ...
Read the full post »
