Whoever thought Robocop, Highlander and Rambo would make suitable kids' cartoons?
These folks, that’s who…
There are certain eternal questions in life that I doubt well ever find an answer to.
Who was Jack The Ripper?
What happened on the Mary Celeste?
How have there been fiveResident Evilmovies?
In some ways it makes sense.
Everyone knows this, the studios especially.
But surely they cant be that blatant about it?
You cant make a show for kids based onRoboCop!
Wont somebodypleasethink of the children?
Its easy to forget how dark the originalFirst Bloodfilm is.
Rambo: The Forces OF Freedomrecast John Rambo in a rather obviousGI Joeknock off.
They battled the very Cobra-like S.A.V.A.G.E., a generic bunch of bad guys with vague, take-over-the-world schemes.
While Rambo looks the part, the character is drastically neutered.
There wont be any violence.
He will have giant muscles and all of that.
But he will be a guy who loves nature and wont look for trouble.
The Rambo of the cartoon is a lovable square-jawed all-American good guy, hanging out with his buddies.
Thats a very different proposition.
If only the trend continued.
Set between the fourth and fifthPolice Academyfilm, the animated show includes most of the franchises (beloved?)
The show takes advantage of the animated medium to turn the wackiness up to eleven.
Or Dr Deadstone, a safari suited guy with a massive snake.
Or Kingpin, who is basically just a copyright-free version of Marvel Comics The Kingpin.
If thats not enough for you, they also had a team of comedy police dog sidekicks.
Its a relatively faithful adaptation of the first movie, just with the violence and the fun shorn out.
A decade later, Murphy got another shot at animation in 1998sRoboCop: Alpha Commando.
Its as 90s as the previous series was 80s, and not in a good way.
But on the other hand, I suppose there is a certain amount of logic.
Obviously the show is toned down from the films, but its still pretty gross for a kids cartoon.
The original 1986 movie might not be a classic, but its a very fun piece of 80s trash.
This is probably what lead to this strange French-Canadian produced animated version in the mid-90s.
The biggest problem with the show though, is that its saddled with some very dated early CGI animation.
All the characters have that uncanny valley plastic look rememberFinal Fantasy: The Spirits Within?
and everyone looks like a sex doll, making it hard to empathise with any of them.
Plus they all walk like theyve soiled themselves.
Okay, this isnt real.
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