In 1967, Lyndon Baines Johnson was in The White House, but, to me, the true President of the US was James Norcross, the hero who fought numerous weird villains on television as SUPER PRESIDENT!!!
The character, whose uniform resembled that of the DC COMICS super-hero, THE ATOM, but with different colors, also had powers similar to a DC COMICS character, namely, METAMORPHO: THE ELEMENT MAN.
President Norcross, who had an aide named "Jerry", definitely reminded me of the slain John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, when I was a mere ten years of age, and my family just adored JFK, this may be part of why I loved watching SUPER PRESIDENT.
I do not have any episodes of SUPER PRESIDENT in my video collection, but I will obtain some recordings of this Depatie-Freleng program one of these days!!!
"Jerry, get the Omni-Car!".
:o)
Monday, May 28, 2007
THE MIGHTY HERCULES
I've never been able to verify this, but I always have thought that Jack Miller, who worked on the comic book character "Deadman", for DC COMICS during the 1960's, is the same person as "Jack E. Miller", who worked on this cartoon series from Trans-Lux, during that same decade.
One of the DC COMICS editors of the 1960's, George Kashdan, was definitely involved with the making of these HERCULES cartoons, Kashdan was "story editor" on some of the Filmation AQUAMAN cartoons as well. Kashdan definitely had DC COMICS writers working for him on the Filmation shows, so I believe that we can accept the idea that the man named Jack E. Miller in the HERCULES shorts is the Jack Miller who worked for DC COMICS.
Anyway, to get to the real point of this entry, I loved these cartoons of THE MIGHTY HERCULES when I was a child, and still love them as an adult. The cartoons depict the mythological entity Hercules, who, with the blessings of Zeus (yes, they mixed up the Greek Pantheon of Gods with the Roman one), hurtles down from Mount Olympus to Earth when summoned by a centaur named Newton.
Many comic book style trappings fill these stories, like Newton using a "moonstone" to send a signal to get Hercules to come down to save him, the signal that emanates from Newton's moonstone is much like the Bat-Signal in the BATMAN comic books, and their spin-offs. Newton is very much like the "Jimmy Olsen" character in the SUPERMAN comic books, with the moonstone also being similar to the signal watch that Jimmy uses to contact The Man Of Steel.
There is also the villain, Daedalus, a mythological figure who appears much as "Lex Luthor" appears to be a thorn in SUPERMAN's side, as well as the villainess, "Wilhelmina", and a few other villains too, very similar to the popular super-heroes in scores of comic books from 1938 onward.
The producers of the SUPERMAN animated cartoons from Warner Bros. during the 1990's have noted that their version of SUPERMAN was based on the look of Hercules in these cartoons, which makes me happy and nostalgic, as I like the 1990's SUPERMAN cartoons and these THE MIGHTY HERCULES cartoons in the same child-like manner.
One of the things that makes this cartoon series for me is the great theme song,sung by pop recording artist, Johnny Nash, who sang I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW during the 1960's. Nash had been an actor, but fared much better as a singer, though not as many people know Nash for singing the Hercules theme as know him for "I CAN SEE CLEARLY", they often recognize that the singer of the hit pop song is the singer of the cartoon song if the fact is pointed out to them.
The animation in THE MIGHTY HERCULES is not full animation like the old theatrical cartoons so many people love, but it is certainly competitive with other heroic animated product of the time, and, to me, is very enjoyable.
Trans-Lux had been the syndicator of the earlier television animation product, FELIX THE CAT, and would later import the hit Japanese cartoon SPEED RACER to the United States.
Other characters in THE MIGHTY HERCULES include Herc's girlfriend, Helena, Toot, a small centaur, and Timon, a youngster who would some day become royalty, if memory serves.
It may be pure childhood fondness, but, "I'm glad, I'm glad, to have, a friend, like Hercules, like Hercules".
OLYMPIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
;o)
One of the DC COMICS editors of the 1960's, George Kashdan, was definitely involved with the making of these HERCULES cartoons, Kashdan was "story editor" on some of the Filmation AQUAMAN cartoons as well. Kashdan definitely had DC COMICS writers working for him on the Filmation shows, so I believe that we can accept the idea that the man named Jack E. Miller in the HERCULES shorts is the Jack Miller who worked for DC COMICS.
Anyway, to get to the real point of this entry, I loved these cartoons of THE MIGHTY HERCULES when I was a child, and still love them as an adult. The cartoons depict the mythological entity Hercules, who, with the blessings of Zeus (yes, they mixed up the Greek Pantheon of Gods with the Roman one), hurtles down from Mount Olympus to Earth when summoned by a centaur named Newton.
Many comic book style trappings fill these stories, like Newton using a "moonstone" to send a signal to get Hercules to come down to save him, the signal that emanates from Newton's moonstone is much like the Bat-Signal in the BATMAN comic books, and their spin-offs. Newton is very much like the "Jimmy Olsen" character in the SUPERMAN comic books, with the moonstone also being similar to the signal watch that Jimmy uses to contact The Man Of Steel.
There is also the villain, Daedalus, a mythological figure who appears much as "Lex Luthor" appears to be a thorn in SUPERMAN's side, as well as the villainess, "Wilhelmina", and a few other villains too, very similar to the popular super-heroes in scores of comic books from 1938 onward.
The producers of the SUPERMAN animated cartoons from Warner Bros. during the 1990's have noted that their version of SUPERMAN was based on the look of Hercules in these cartoons, which makes me happy and nostalgic, as I like the 1990's SUPERMAN cartoons and these THE MIGHTY HERCULES cartoons in the same child-like manner.
One of the things that makes this cartoon series for me is the great theme song,sung by pop recording artist, Johnny Nash, who sang I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW during the 1960's. Nash had been an actor, but fared much better as a singer, though not as many people know Nash for singing the Hercules theme as know him for "I CAN SEE CLEARLY", they often recognize that the singer of the hit pop song is the singer of the cartoon song if the fact is pointed out to them.
The animation in THE MIGHTY HERCULES is not full animation like the old theatrical cartoons so many people love, but it is certainly competitive with other heroic animated product of the time, and, to me, is very enjoyable.
Trans-Lux had been the syndicator of the earlier television animation product, FELIX THE CAT, and would later import the hit Japanese cartoon SPEED RACER to the United States.
Other characters in THE MIGHTY HERCULES include Herc's girlfriend, Helena, Toot, a small centaur, and Timon, a youngster who would some day become royalty, if memory serves.
It may be pure childhood fondness, but, "I'm glad, I'm glad, to have, a friend, like Hercules, like Hercules".
OLYMPIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
;o)
Saturday, May 26, 2007
JAY WARD and THE QUALITY OF MANIC
When I say that Jay Ward's cartoons had a "manic" quality, I mean it as a big compliment. No other cartoons have ever surpassed the wild actions of the Jay Ward cartoons, whether you are referring to ROCKY & HIS FRIENDS, later known as THE BULLWINKLE SHOW, to the segments about DUDLEY DO-RIGHT OF THE MOUNTIES, or even to Ward's CAP'N CRUNCH breakfast cereal commercials, made by him for the Quaker Oats company.
Ward was also behind a pretty much forgotten series of THE LONE RANGER in cartoon form, which was made during the 1960's, and was a seeming marriage of Ward's company to a cousin of the television series THE WILD, WILD WEST. I would dearly love to see this program again, I recall eating CAP'N CRUNCH COOKIES while I watched this series, sitting in front of my Mum's old Philco tv set!!!
Anyway, to get back to this manic-ness of the Ward comedic cartoons, they are just loaded with hysterical puns and frantic, jarring movement.
This may be mostly due to the limited animation the cartoons were made in, and the fact that they were made in Mexico, with the difficukt task of breaking language barriers to make the programs, but there is no doubt that the vivid imagination of Ward and his staff of writers and voice artists put a special stamp of hilarity in all of their shorts.
That must have been quite painful!!!
Anyway, the superb voice cast of the best known of the Ward series, ROCKY & HIS FRIENDS, aka, THE ROCKY SHOW or THE BULLWINKLE SHOW includes the great June Foray as the voice of Rocky, Bill Scott as Bullwinkle, William Conrad as the narrator, Edward Everett Horton, Paul Frees, and "a host of others".
As soon as the show opens, William Conrad's voice sets the tone for the show, at once gruff and with a slight high pitch, caused, I believe, by a slight speeding up of his voice. Rocky was the "straight man" in the show, enabling Bullwinkle The Moose to chime in with befuddled remarks,
Rocky, a "flying squirrel", full name being Rocket J. Squirrel, and Bullwinkle The Moose hailed from the tiny town of "Frostbite Falls, Wisconsin", which has been thought of as being International Falls in that state.
However, it seems to me that at least Bullwinkle is from the state of Confusion.
While the moose has the best of intentions, it is the valiant Rocky who is "the brains of the outfit", though, decidedly, Bullwinkle was the more popular of the pair.
BE WITH US AGAIN NEXT TIME, FOR, THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF...
JAY WARD & HIS FRIENDS,
or...
TO BE CONTINUED!!!
Ward was also behind a pretty much forgotten series of THE LONE RANGER in cartoon form, which was made during the 1960's, and was a seeming marriage of Ward's company to a cousin of the television series THE WILD, WILD WEST. I would dearly love to see this program again, I recall eating CAP'N CRUNCH COOKIES while I watched this series, sitting in front of my Mum's old Philco tv set!!!
Anyway, to get back to this manic-ness of the Ward comedic cartoons, they are just loaded with hysterical puns and frantic, jarring movement.
This may be mostly due to the limited animation the cartoons were made in, and the fact that they were made in Mexico, with the difficukt task of breaking language barriers to make the programs, but there is no doubt that the vivid imagination of Ward and his staff of writers and voice artists put a special stamp of hilarity in all of their shorts.
That must have been quite painful!!!
Anyway, the superb voice cast of the best known of the Ward series, ROCKY & HIS FRIENDS, aka, THE ROCKY SHOW or THE BULLWINKLE SHOW includes the great June Foray as the voice of Rocky, Bill Scott as Bullwinkle, William Conrad as the narrator, Edward Everett Horton, Paul Frees, and "a host of others".
As soon as the show opens, William Conrad's voice sets the tone for the show, at once gruff and with a slight high pitch, caused, I believe, by a slight speeding up of his voice. Rocky was the "straight man" in the show, enabling Bullwinkle The Moose to chime in with befuddled remarks,
Rocky, a "flying squirrel", full name being Rocket J. Squirrel, and Bullwinkle The Moose hailed from the tiny town of "Frostbite Falls, Wisconsin", which has been thought of as being International Falls in that state.
However, it seems to me that at least Bullwinkle is from the state of Confusion.
While the moose has the best of intentions, it is the valiant Rocky who is "the brains of the outfit", though, decidedly, Bullwinkle was the more popular of the pair.
BE WITH US AGAIN NEXT TIME, FOR, THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF...
JAY WARD & HIS FRIENDS,
or...
TO BE CONTINUED!!!
MAX FLEISCHER'S CARTOON FAMILY
The great Max Fleischer brought a particular style to animated cartoons that is totally unique, though some other cartoons have at least the same sort of genius as that kind that Max Fleischer put into his studio's shorts.
TO BE CONTINUED!!!
TO BE CONTINUED!!!
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