Sunday, October 4, 2009

Some Groovy Cartoons (OK, not really)

Those zany madcaps at io9 have a great article about forgotten cartoons of the 1960s.

Here are a few things I noticed.

In the Galaxy Trio cartoon, our space faring pseudo-cops travel to a planet where the citizens are all in suspended animation (or frozen in sleep for the younger viewers). In the first minute of the toon we see all this cool futuristic stuff: giant viewscreens and computers, a space ship, a transporter device, a stunning future city, a personal helicopter, and...a guy hammering a couple of two by fours (at 1:13). WTF? Two by fours? Hammering? No "plasteel?" No "sonic insertion device?" I bet those were the last two pieces of wood on the entire planet? And this doofus, Goober-7, is banging on them. They should be in a museum.

Another thing that stood out for me in the Galaxy Trio episode is at 1:01 Galaxy Girl says "We better go down and investigate," they quickly beam down, find all the people in a trance, and at 1:24 - less than 30 seconds later - she says "I think we better investigate." Either she thinks her cohorts are pretty stupid, or she can't hold a thought in her little air head unless she repeats it several times.

Then check out Space Angel for that ultra-limited "animation" - I've seen statues move more - in the mold of Clutch Cargo. It's hilarious how many shots here are of people with giant microphones covering their mouths, or my favorite, seeing just the BACKS of characters as they speak, all so you don't have to do any animation, or in this case, superimposing real people lips over the cartoons (called Synchro-Vox).

Oh, by the way, Space Angel, you only have ONE GOOD EYE. That eye patch you wear tells me there's no way you could be a pilot, let alone a space angel (whatever the hell that is). Time to climb down out of the capsule, buddy, and turn in your space suit.

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