Mary
7-24-01, 04:11 PM
I hope I haven't already posted this! I did search the board first. We were talking about a certain cartoon mentioned on this list in another (http://www.80sxchange.com/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=000064&p=4) thread... LOL, I won't name any names.
My friend LaGremlin wrote this on Yesterdayland (http://www.yesterdayland.com/popopedia/boards/GetMessage.php?ID=85128). I shortened it a bit for posting here. Enjoy!
Deep Questions About 80s Cartoons and Toys and the Like
In the “He-Man” and “She-Ra” series, what did Orko look like under that cloak? And was Skowl’s flying appendages his wings or were they his actual ears?
What ARE the Wuzzles? No, I know what they are but I mean where did they come from? Some kind of bizarre Island of Dr. Moreau type top secret genetic engineering experiments or something?
Speaking of “the Wuzzles”, why the heck did every one of them, regardless of whether they were part insect or not, have those fly wings on their backs? Were they ever functional? Is there origin then more akin to the David Cronenburg version of “the Fly” (spew!)?
Let’s get another big one out of the way. Why were there only three female Smurfs? Bear in mind that none of these female Smurfs were born in a normal way (both Smurfette and Sassette were created artificially, and I’m not sure of where Granny Smurf came from but I’m sure it was weird). Furthermore, if a Smurf village isn’t normally supposed to have females in it, then do Smurfs reproduce asexually?
On “Thundercats”, each member of the team was an anthropomorphic (from here on in, I’ll use the term “Furry”<img src="wink.gif" border="0"> version of a different species of wildcat. Okay, fine. But on Thundera, their home planet, were there many members of each different species? Did they tend to stick to their own kind romantically or could they interbreed? And would resulting children be sterile hybrids (as in the real-life Liger)?
How old is Rainbow Brite? She looks to be ten, but consider that she’s been in charge of providing color and light to the entire Universe forever. Doesn’t that make her (and the Sprites, and Starlight, and the Color “Kids”<img src="wink.gif" border="0"> as old as the Universe or older? If so, then what is she, a goddess?
On the other hand, maybe time is different on the planet that Rainbowland is on. Maybe while ten years have gone by on Rainbowland, thousands of years have passed on Earth. But if time goes slower on Rainbowland then on Earth, how come Rainbow Brite’s Earthling friend, Brian is still ten years old every time they run into each other? Why isn’t he suddenly eighty-four or something? Does this mean that Rainbow Brite can time-travel (it’s already well established that she can travel through space)?
How come, on “Inspector Gadget”, Chief Quimby knew exactly what Dr. Claw was up to? Ever get the sense that Chief Quimby and Dr. Claw were the same entity?
How come Penny and Brain never b****ed about getting no credit for saving the day? Did they ever snap and go on an insane cross-country killing spree? Is that why the spin-off series didn’t go into the character’s futures but chronicled their past instead?
And, finally, what IS Inspector Gadget anyway? A robot? A cyborg? I tend to think he’s a robot but if that’s the case, why does he have a niece? Or is Penny just posing as his niece so he can feel more human? Doesn’t that make him kind of a pitiable character?
Any time the adventuring team on “Dungeons and Dragons” found some way or other to get home, the porthole was only open for a very short time and a LOT of the time they lost was spent debating whether to take Uni with them. Ever get the sense that Uni was trying to keep the kids from getting home? Was this her own plan or was she Venger’s pawn? Or was the whole thing Dungeon Master’s idea?
Speaking of Venger and Dungeon Master, there’s a famous episode where D. M. calls Venger his son. Now, I know he might have meant it figuratively but what if he didn’t? And if Venger is D. M.’s kid, then can you imagine what his mom must have looked like?
Would anyone else feed Uni to Tiamat during that very first encounter in the opening sequence or is it just me?
Is “Muppet Babies” about the Muppets as kids, or is it about the second generation of Muppets? If it’s about the Muppets as kids, how come both Robin and Bean Bunny show up if they’re supposed to be the youngest Muppets?
Okay, on “Muppet Babies”, we NEVER saw Nannie’s face. We never even saw her above the shoulders. What the heck did she look like? Consider that it’s left unclear as to whether she’s just the babies’ caretaker or if she’s their mother. And if she isn’t their mother than where and who are their parents?
This is hardly an eighties cartoon, but don’t you think it’s high time Bugs Bunny came out of the closet?
The cast of the “My Little Pony” cartoon changed several times as old ponies in the collectable toy line were retired and new ones introduced. Okay, but Megan and Spike remained in the cast each season. Didn’t they notice that some of their friends had vanished?
Furthermore, all the ponies in Ponyland were female (the males were conveniently “on a race around the world” and only appeared in one episode). Where the heck did the baby ponies come from?
Doesn’t it strike anyone as odd that they called it the “Care Bear Stare” when what they were doing was zapping people with pictures on their tummies? What did getting “Stared” feel like? Being bombarded with giant Lucky Charms?
Were the Care Bear Cousins the Bear’s actual blood relatives? Then how can a bear possibly be related to a penguin?
Why did the opening of the second “Care Bears Movie” completely contradicted the origin story from the first one? Did they think the kids wouldn’t notice?
The second “Care Bears Movie” was subtitled “A New Generation”, so maybe it’s about the second group of Care Bears. But if that’s true, what happened to their parents from the first movie? Why do the “new generation” Bears act and look EXACTLY like the first batch? Were they cloned from the first Bears after they died in a horrible accident (maybe the giant heart from the first movie’s end title sequence fell and flattened them during the final group portrait)?
Again, not an eighties cartoon, but does anyone else feel really bad for Kenny on “South Park”? No matter what, he always ends up dead before the end of the episode. Is he supposed to represent the concept of Predestination? That our destiny is decided for us from day one and we can’t do anything about it? Or does it just suck to be him?
The “Silverhawks” were a team of cyborgs who ran around exploring space. So why the heck did they have a country singer up there with them? Yeah, I know he was a cyborg too, but still, what kind of help is he going to provide? Scaring space monsters away with a rousing rendition of “Achy-Breaky Heart”?
Or, was Project: Silverhawk (or whatever) supposed to be some kind of cybernetic “Real World”? Like a bunch of totally random people (and a bird, and whatever the hell Copper Kid was) get turned into cyborgs and sent into space and we get to watch what happens?
How big were “the Snorks”? Some cartoons show them as being about two or three feet tall but others place them at only inches high, about the size of a shrimp. And, once and for all, if they were tiny, then were they related to the Smurfs or not?
What’s the deal with the Snork’s “snork” anyway? I guess it’s a breathing organ, but how does it work? Does it work like a gill or like a snorkel? If it works like a snorkel, then how come you never see the Snorks surface for air?
There was also that one Snork who had two snorks. Is he some kind of advanced “Super Snork” or is this a primitive feature (akin to a horse being born with dewclaws)?
My friend LaGremlin wrote this on Yesterdayland (http://www.yesterdayland.com/popopedia/boards/GetMessage.php?ID=85128). I shortened it a bit for posting here. Enjoy!
Deep Questions About 80s Cartoons and Toys and the Like
In the “He-Man” and “She-Ra” series, what did Orko look like under that cloak? And was Skowl’s flying appendages his wings or were they his actual ears?
What ARE the Wuzzles? No, I know what they are but I mean where did they come from? Some kind of bizarre Island of Dr. Moreau type top secret genetic engineering experiments or something?
Speaking of “the Wuzzles”, why the heck did every one of them, regardless of whether they were part insect or not, have those fly wings on their backs? Were they ever functional? Is there origin then more akin to the David Cronenburg version of “the Fly” (spew!)?
Let’s get another big one out of the way. Why were there only three female Smurfs? Bear in mind that none of these female Smurfs were born in a normal way (both Smurfette and Sassette were created artificially, and I’m not sure of where Granny Smurf came from but I’m sure it was weird). Furthermore, if a Smurf village isn’t normally supposed to have females in it, then do Smurfs reproduce asexually?
On “Thundercats”, each member of the team was an anthropomorphic (from here on in, I’ll use the term “Furry”<img src="wink.gif" border="0"> version of a different species of wildcat. Okay, fine. But on Thundera, their home planet, were there many members of each different species? Did they tend to stick to their own kind romantically or could they interbreed? And would resulting children be sterile hybrids (as in the real-life Liger)?
How old is Rainbow Brite? She looks to be ten, but consider that she’s been in charge of providing color and light to the entire Universe forever. Doesn’t that make her (and the Sprites, and Starlight, and the Color “Kids”<img src="wink.gif" border="0"> as old as the Universe or older? If so, then what is she, a goddess?
On the other hand, maybe time is different on the planet that Rainbowland is on. Maybe while ten years have gone by on Rainbowland, thousands of years have passed on Earth. But if time goes slower on Rainbowland then on Earth, how come Rainbow Brite’s Earthling friend, Brian is still ten years old every time they run into each other? Why isn’t he suddenly eighty-four or something? Does this mean that Rainbow Brite can time-travel (it’s already well established that she can travel through space)?
How come, on “Inspector Gadget”, Chief Quimby knew exactly what Dr. Claw was up to? Ever get the sense that Chief Quimby and Dr. Claw were the same entity?
How come Penny and Brain never b****ed about getting no credit for saving the day? Did they ever snap and go on an insane cross-country killing spree? Is that why the spin-off series didn’t go into the character’s futures but chronicled their past instead?
And, finally, what IS Inspector Gadget anyway? A robot? A cyborg? I tend to think he’s a robot but if that’s the case, why does he have a niece? Or is Penny just posing as his niece so he can feel more human? Doesn’t that make him kind of a pitiable character?
Any time the adventuring team on “Dungeons and Dragons” found some way or other to get home, the porthole was only open for a very short time and a LOT of the time they lost was spent debating whether to take Uni with them. Ever get the sense that Uni was trying to keep the kids from getting home? Was this her own plan or was she Venger’s pawn? Or was the whole thing Dungeon Master’s idea?
Speaking of Venger and Dungeon Master, there’s a famous episode where D. M. calls Venger his son. Now, I know he might have meant it figuratively but what if he didn’t? And if Venger is D. M.’s kid, then can you imagine what his mom must have looked like?
Would anyone else feed Uni to Tiamat during that very first encounter in the opening sequence or is it just me?
Is “Muppet Babies” about the Muppets as kids, or is it about the second generation of Muppets? If it’s about the Muppets as kids, how come both Robin and Bean Bunny show up if they’re supposed to be the youngest Muppets?
Okay, on “Muppet Babies”, we NEVER saw Nannie’s face. We never even saw her above the shoulders. What the heck did she look like? Consider that it’s left unclear as to whether she’s just the babies’ caretaker or if she’s their mother. And if she isn’t their mother than where and who are their parents?
This is hardly an eighties cartoon, but don’t you think it’s high time Bugs Bunny came out of the closet?
The cast of the “My Little Pony” cartoon changed several times as old ponies in the collectable toy line were retired and new ones introduced. Okay, but Megan and Spike remained in the cast each season. Didn’t they notice that some of their friends had vanished?
Furthermore, all the ponies in Ponyland were female (the males were conveniently “on a race around the world” and only appeared in one episode). Where the heck did the baby ponies come from?
Doesn’t it strike anyone as odd that they called it the “Care Bear Stare” when what they were doing was zapping people with pictures on their tummies? What did getting “Stared” feel like? Being bombarded with giant Lucky Charms?
Were the Care Bear Cousins the Bear’s actual blood relatives? Then how can a bear possibly be related to a penguin?
Why did the opening of the second “Care Bears Movie” completely contradicted the origin story from the first one? Did they think the kids wouldn’t notice?
The second “Care Bears Movie” was subtitled “A New Generation”, so maybe it’s about the second group of Care Bears. But if that’s true, what happened to their parents from the first movie? Why do the “new generation” Bears act and look EXACTLY like the first batch? Were they cloned from the first Bears after they died in a horrible accident (maybe the giant heart from the first movie’s end title sequence fell and flattened them during the final group portrait)?
Again, not an eighties cartoon, but does anyone else feel really bad for Kenny on “South Park”? No matter what, he always ends up dead before the end of the episode. Is he supposed to represent the concept of Predestination? That our destiny is decided for us from day one and we can’t do anything about it? Or does it just suck to be him?
The “Silverhawks” were a team of cyborgs who ran around exploring space. So why the heck did they have a country singer up there with them? Yeah, I know he was a cyborg too, but still, what kind of help is he going to provide? Scaring space monsters away with a rousing rendition of “Achy-Breaky Heart”?
Or, was Project: Silverhawk (or whatever) supposed to be some kind of cybernetic “Real World”? Like a bunch of totally random people (and a bird, and whatever the hell Copper Kid was) get turned into cyborgs and sent into space and we get to watch what happens?
How big were “the Snorks”? Some cartoons show them as being about two or three feet tall but others place them at only inches high, about the size of a shrimp. And, once and for all, if they were tiny, then were they related to the Smurfs or not?
What’s the deal with the Snork’s “snork” anyway? I guess it’s a breathing organ, but how does it work? Does it work like a gill or like a snorkel? If it works like a snorkel, then how come you never see the Snorks surface for air?
There was also that one Snork who had two snorks. Is he some kind of advanced “Super Snork” or is this a primitive feature (akin to a horse being born with dewclaws)?