[Ribald]

Under the guise of 'research' I recently purchased the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon series. Apart from the nostalgia factor I was wondering how many of you had seen it and what you thought of it.

Watching it now is a little surreal. The music is still great but the illogic of it all is just irritating... oh I long for the days when I appreciated it for what it is.

It is still pretty cool to see some of the D&D characters animated like this though, and I do have fond memories of this from my childhood.

So far I am still on the first series and I had thought that the first episode showed them in the real world, but apparently that was just the short opening sequence that the first series had to every episode. I also thought that they 'met' Uni at some point, but she is in the first episode.
My memory is obviously not as good as I thought it was.

The un-animated last episode script can be found here:
http://www.michaelre...requiem_sec.pdf apparently it was recorded as a radio play and is available with the Region 1 box set.

On the funnier side of observations:
Venger and Tiamat could have been guest stars on Scooby Doo due to the number of times they are defeated by those pesky kids.
Bobby's relationship with Uni is a little disturbing.
Venger looks like a cross dressing emo.
Dungeon Master is an old man who effectively kidnaps a group of children, brings them to his private 'realm', dresses them up in costumes and makes them 'perform' for him.
For a ranger armed with an energy bow, Hank is pretty ineffectual at destroying enemies. In fact a lot of the time he suffers from A-Team aim in that he can hit anything apart from people.

[HoosierDaddy]

All I can remember is them never really getting anywhere, despite always traveling.

[Ribald]

I might have to try and get the old Transformers cartoons as well as a few others.
I remember Ulysses 31 and Visionaries and have 'research' copies of them. Both of which had pretty cool theme tunes, although Ulysses probably had the best cartoon theme song in existence.

What were the other cool cartoons of the '80s?

Does He-Man count as cool? I think it is safe to class She-Ra Princess of Power as uncool, and the Go-Bots were just poor imitations of Transformers.

[drinksinbars]

he man was cool, transformers was awesome. i always used to like pole position and mask when i was a nipper. visionaries was good but centurions was better. thundercats is the bomb!!!

[Ribald]

How could I have forgotten Thundercats... (hangs his head in shame).

[Use Of Weapons]

Dungeons and Dragons -- I definitely remember them meeting Uni, and actually going to the fairground that transported them. Maybe there was a pilot before the first season proper began (like the Thundercats feature-length intro episode). It's on Youtube anyway, I've defintely seen it.

Some great episodes of D&D that I love. Like the time they visit the graveyard off heroes, with all the cool extra weapons (and power-ups for their own weapons). And the one where they nearly get home because of a 'star-gazer' prophecy that Diana fulfils. There's also a script online for the final episode that never got made.

[Use Of Weapons]

Other cool cartoons:

Transformers, definitely. Gobots -- rip-off, but still watchable.
Pole Position -- loved it, great theme tune too.
Visionaries -- ace. Also, collected the comic of this, and it was a back-up strip in the UK Transformers comic.
Centurions -- was addicted to this.
Inhumanoids -- excellent story.
I also enjoyed Zoids, short-lived but great fun.
MASK -- another fantastic tune, and great concept.


But the best theme tune ever was the one from the Gummi Bears. What a vocal!

[Kanubis]

I suffered from watching it again as an adult and tarnishing the memory as well.

Still, that thief/acrobat was the first ginger I ever had a crush on.

[Use Of Weapons]

The thief was Sheila, the acrobat was Diana.

[Kanubis]

Oooh that's right.

Definitely talking about the ginger anyway. 

[Hocknose]

anyone remember " The Mysterious Cities of Gold"

that was awesome, so was the theme song!!!

[Abyss]

I have fond memories of that show, and the ep where they go to the space graveyard, get power-ups and kick Venger's ass is still awesome, tho i have resisted watching any others. I vaguely recall that while they beat Venger more than once, they mostly ran like hell whenever Tiamat showed up. Which is only as it should be.

I think one ep had flashbacks to before they were carried over, and in another ep they made it back but had to return. And one ep where Bobby gets a vision of the future where he snogs some chick he rescued who gets sent back without them.

That final ep script is rediculous but fun in a nostalgic way... "Look! A bronze dragon!"

Other cartoons... if you want to go perfectly old skool i vote Super Harlem Globetrotters for the sheer rediculousness of it. And Laff-A-Lympics because Scooby-Doo racing Yogi Bear on water skis deserves love. And the Smurfs because dammit who doesn't love the Smurfs!?!

There was this whole run of shows based on early video games... Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Pole Position, Q-Bert... it was a dark time.

- Abyss, resisted mentioning Rickety Rocket...

[Use Of Weapons]

Some others:

Sport Billy -- magic sports bag with equipment like rocket-powered running shoes
Galaxy High -- inter-galactic education shenanigans, two earth students with lots of aliens
Galaxy Rangers -- like Bravestar in space! Cool 'cyborg' type abilities
Bravestar -- speed of the puma!
Defenders of the Earth -- *whisper* Defenders

[drinksinbars]

Hocknose, on 20 July 2010 - 12:38 PM, said:

anyone remember " The Mysterious Cities of Gold"

that was awesome, so was the theme song!!!

the giant flying condor awesome show

[champ]

anyone watch "Jace and the Wheel Warriors"???

now that intro tune was badass!

brings back so many memories looking down the list, personal favourites:

- Transformers (own all the eps DVD heh)
- Mask
- Jace and the Wheel Warriors
- Visionaries
- Pirates of Dark Water

[Use Of Weapons]

Yeah, we loved Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors. Great tune!
In Ireland it was on at 6.30 in the morning on a Sunday. And just before it was my favourite educational cartoon: 'Once Upon a Time...Life': http://www.youtube.c...h?v=qAVpX9c6Ts0

[Aristai]

I remember the D&D cartoon and comic vaguely. For some reason it reminds me of Captain N: The Game Master and Pirates of Darkwater...

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

This is the only show ever completely banned by my mother because she thought it would lead to me killing my friends with a baseball bat. Of course, this only led to me watching it secretly. Funny enough, she later bought me books and dice to actually play D&D.