sweasel.com

Be sure to spend some time on the ToonTracker site browsing and listening to cartoon themes.

I’m looking at you, Felix.

Love the badonkadonk!

God, childhood sucked, didn’t it? It, really, really did.

Further excrescences from the Hanna-Barbara Vault of Pain:
Captain Caveman
Grape Ape
The Funky Phantom
Speed Buggy

I shall now retire under my desk to cry a bit and suck my thumb as the awfulness of it all comes flooding back.

There were THOUSANDS of Hanna-Barbera characters, David. I mean, literally — if you go all the way back to Tom and Jerry days, I believe it’s over 2,000.

I dreamed last week I wrote a long, ranty post about H-B cartoons and when I got up, I did a little research on them. Like a lot of animation fans, I have a violent hate-on for Hanna Barbera that borders on a twisted love-that-dare-not-etcetera.

Yea verily H-B toons doth sucketh. However, we did get some of this inspired lunacy out of it: Space Ghost Coast to Coast.

Heh. I used to download those from the Digital Archive Project, Enas.

H-B is also behind (at least financially) some of the interesting cartoons on the Cartoon Network, like Dexter’s Laboratory.

Probably their worst products of all, IMO — worse than the godawful bad animation of the sixties and seventies — were the “baby” cartoons: Muppet Babies, A Pup Named Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry Kids…and on and on. Slick, stupid and bo-ring.

At least the Josie and the Pussycats sort of crap was entertainingly shitty.

Oh, I know there were thousands, S. Those were just a few examples off the top of my head. And I never much cared for them even when I was a kid and was therefore stupid. I’d be watching something that was doing hideous violence to animation, and my mother would ask, “why are you watching this rubbish?” The real answer was, “because all the other kids do and they will beat me up if I don’t.” It took a long time to rehabilitate cartoons after H-B.

Oh God. I just flashed on the Hair Bear Bunch. Then I remembered The Partridge Family 2200 A.D.. Back to crying under my desk. I’m not going to sleep tonight.

(to get an idea what Weasel is talking about, check out this to see the relentless, raging torrent of shite that they produced. That the occasional one wasn’t a total dud is unsurprising. With the compressive force of that much concentrated crap, a diamond is bound to show up sooner or later.)

I had a sneaking fondness for some of their adventure/superhero cartoons. Jonny Quest, Herculoids, Birdman. The afore-mentioned Space Ghost. Alex Toth — of whom I am a fan — did some of their character design. You’ll know his when you see them.

Jonny Quest makes up just about anything. I like how Dr. Quest sentences baddys to death “Look away, boys theres nothing we can do” when the baddy is being swallowed by tar next to his pet Pteranadon. Well, Dr Quest, he’s just RIGHT OVER THERE!

Tough Justice.

Yep, he did Space Ghost. And Jonny Quest.

The worst H-B ever? I give you The Banana Splits

That’s some serious bad acid. Hey didn’t H-B do HR Puff n’ Stuff too. That talking flute is some bad karma all by itself.

Weasel, this one is priceless. I knew something was tickling my lower brain stem about that Michelle picture.

I was a bit old for Jonny Quest, but that Race Bannon—my-oh-my-oh-my.

Hanna-Barbera had one gem – Tom & Jerry, their first work at MGM. After that, ugh. One advantage to being older – My childhood cartoons were:

1. Looney Tunes (the old ones)
2. Tom & Jerry
3. Felix the Cat
4. Rocky & Bullwinkle

My younger sibs had to watch Flintstones & Yogi Bear.

I’m looking at you, Felix.

LOL. I had a lot of those in the 90s, thanx to my sister who scoured Napster for them. I had Felix the Cat & Secret Squirrel as ringtones on my cellphone for a while. Now I have jazz, classical & pop stuff that reflects the caller (or at least my attitude toward them). Some people would not like their ringtones, I think. My cousin, who never stops talking? Flight of the Bumblebee!

On a related note – Have you seen what they’ve done to Looney Tunes? Before my husband died, he used to watch the old Loonies on Cartoon Network & the new ones on ? (Nick, I think). The new ones are ABYSMAL. Whiny, preachy, PC. Mel Blanc must be spinning in his grave.

Meant to say this first & got carried away – GREAT pic.

No, Allen. H-B was evil, but not THAT evil. Pufnstuf was Sid and Marty Krofft. Who also did some costuming work on the Banana Splits.

I’ve been spared those, Felix. Why must they constantly remake things? Badly?

Someone commented @Ace the other day that the Coen brothers are remaking True Grit (one of my favorite books AND movies) with Jeff Bridges in The Duke’s role. I just can’t see it.

I know why they screwed with Looney Tunes – All that violence. But, seriously, I’ve seen them all *hundreds* of times, and have yet to drop an anvil on anyone’s head or blow them up with mail-order Acme dynamite.

(I have occasionally considered it, however….)

Ha! I didn’t know Pufnstuf was developed from a character they designed for the HemisFair. I was there. Briefly. We swung through San Antonio on a road trip and spent a few hours riding the rides.

Roadrunner… that’s all I have to say.

Just, Roadrunner.

Heh, I had a ’75 Roadrunner (after they quit being muscle cars, unfortunately) – BEEP BEEP.

I got my first batch of Weasel Swag today – Zombie Reagan Mug and Bumper Sticker.

THEY LOOK AWSOME. Packing is great, the bumper sticker was packed in a separate envelope to prevent bending.

I have one more order on the way, but I wanted everyone to know Weasel Swag is good stuff.

Thanks Stoaty.

Loved Jonny Quest. That robot spider was the it for me. But most HB stuff fell real flat for me.

Loony Tunes any time. Especially Roadrunner.

And Weasel? That J&P cover? Genius. Pure genius.

I am so old that I actually remember the very first Atom Ant cartoon in 1965. It played in prime time on our massive black and white TV, right after The Flintstones. These were the Old Flintstones, where Fred and Barney toked up on Winstons during the show.

Hanna Barbera had a random cartoon generator. I threw up in my mouth a little bit when I read through the list. I agree that Banana Splits was horrific.

Give me Wile E. Coyote with Acme Rocket Skates any day.

I take it back. Tom & Jerry and Powerpuff Girls were pretty good when high.

Ah the Robot Spider! Good old Doctor Zinn. Here’s the thinking…I want secrets to sell..so I’ll make a giant robot spider. Since its on a military base, I’ll make it impervious to tank gun hits…Hmm to get there I need to develop a flying UFO to carry it in…Oh i have to develop tentacles that can stun the guards…

The thought of bribing the cleaning lady is just out of the question.

I’ve seriously gotta stop reading this blog before bedtime. I know what my nightmare will consist of this evening. Ungabunga, indeed.

Hey, but remember fellow Mustelid fans: I was exposed to and contaminated by this dreck in the UK in the early 70’s. Such was the awesome global reach of the H-B goons. And you thought it was all Upstairs, Downstairs and edifying programmes about how to do fun things with the cardboard tube out of a toilet roll and gentle decline into a post-industrial Third World-ism. Oh no. Oh no, indeed. Do you have any idea what sort of penetrative power this stuff needed for me, who grew up in the Isle of Wight, to have, to this day, cross-cultural references with people who grew up in College Station, TX or or Westport, CT or Lewiston, MT? That takes some doing. None of all y’alls knows what is Catweazle or Issi Noho or Bagpuss or The Tomorrow People or The Clangers or Mary, Mungo and Midge. But we got bloody Sealab 2020.

On the positive side, I have long been of the opinion that given the right inducements, the drummer from Josie and the Pussycats could have been persuaded to be utterly filthy. So there’s that.

Oh god…animation from other eras that are worse than the “baby theme” shows I had to deal with as a kid(90’s here). Partridge Family 2200 A.D.? My god…I thought I hated the normal Partridge Family…

Gilligan’s Planet…?

My god…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiKN6uRsTM0

Mork and Mindy Laverne and Shirley and the Fonz hour? What the fuck?

The drummer from J and the P’s was named Melody, David. And she was the token dumb blonde who always got them into trouble. But the figure was clearly rotoscoped for the band scenes — she really could drum like a bastard.

Very gratified to hear that, BuckNutty. Everyone on their discussion forums says Zazzle stuff is well made and beautifully packaged. I’ll order some for myself, once I get some weasel gear made — they have a British division.

I had a sneaking fondness for some of their adventure/superhero cartoons. Jonny Quest, Herculoids,

Herculoids? That sounds like an embarrassing medication. ‘Use Herculoids in suppository or new improved cream form, for fast relief.’

That J&tP cover is very clever. Good job.

Johhny Quest fan here, too. The robot spider sold me.

Say what you will about the dreck that HB put out, but todays dreck is MUCH worse. It took me three years to get that fucking Dora-theme out of my head. Thank god the kids are old enough now they don’t want to watch that krep.

There are some good ones: Dexters lab, Phineas and Ferb (marginally) and Powerpuff Girls (which is a classic?!!? now? It’s on boomerang!).Most of the rest have just replaced cheap korean animation with cheap CGI animation.

Funniest thing was watching the 1940’s superman disc with the boy…”Daddy..whats a “Jap”? Godzilla up next…the original, Raymond Burr, version.

And I hope that Sid and Marty Kroft have a special place in hell…gawd, that was some horrible acid-induced progamming.

Wow. I guess Michelle doesn’t consider fur to be murder.

The only animal harmed in the making of her costume was a free range polyester.

Stoatie, don’t forget all the gnaugas that lost their lives for her wardrobe…..

Dr. Zinn, Race Bannon and Johnny Quest got hilarious cameos on The Venture Brothers, as did the whole Quest clan on Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.

Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim really took the piss out of those old HB cartoons. Space Ghost has already been mentioned, but nobody seems to be a fan of the glorious absurdity of Sealab 2021. Josie and the P-cats have a wacky little commercial in Kiss costumes or punked out.

Good stuff.

I’m surprised that nobody mentioned that lovely bit of environmentalist/anti-capitalist propaganda that came out in the early 90’s when Ted Turner turned his mind towards brainwashing our nation’s youth(like me at the time!)- I mean educating our nation’s youth…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpXM9bj-WPU

Go Planet! And his gang of racially diverse minors…

…and it would really suck to be given the heart ring. Such a lame power. Might of well of given him the ring of interior decorating.

Oh, god…Captain Planet! One of the crappiest cartoons EVAR.

Because I worked in an art department, nobody much cared if I had a little TV running at my desk. I didn’t get many channels because the building fucked the signal, but I could get enough UHF to watch cartoons all the damn day.

My job was sweet. I drew pictures and watched cartoons. Pretty much what I do now, but I got paid.

You’ve quite clearly captured the “inner Michelle”, there…

Expression on her face – plus its position – makes it look like someone jammed that tail in place up her excretory orifice, but that works for me, too.