Dr*audios Clyde Crashcup thread got me thinking about this!

Surely you guys loved Speedracer as a kid! My fav. toons as a kid were Speedracer, Johnny Quest....and the Bugs Bunny Roadrunner Hour!

Watched SR all the time as a kid and who can forget the Speedracer theme song? Admit it......you're humming it as you read this! :D

Back in the 1980's there were plans on a live action Speedracer movie....Charley Sheen was supposed to be Speedracer but the whole project fell through apparently. Who knows, mighta sucked....mighta been good.


Russ

Along with Gigantor,Kimba,and Astro Boy,probably Americans first exposure to Anime.
Its funny that you should mention a live action version:John Singleton,the director of 2Fast 2Furious has said in interviews that he used Speed Racer as an influence when shooting the racing scenes in that movie.
Jimmy

MY all time favorite was Star Blazers! Who could forget the adventures of Captain whats-his-name travelling to the planet Iscandar to fight off Desslok and the evil blue guys to save the earth in a Japanese battleship equipped with a wave motion engine! :)

I always wondered why they didn't bring Speed racer back in reruns a long time ago. Space Ghost and the Hurculoids were good as well.
Had to watch Rocketship 7 (from Buffalo) before going to school. I guess every kid had a local morning show that they watched while getting ready for school

Man, Russ...I forgot about Johnny Quest. That was Saturday mornings at about 8 AM. With doughnuts my dad brought home for me and my sis. Hadgi, the sidekick, Bandit, the faithful dog, and was Race Bannon in that one?

Also, I think the opening soundtrack for Dan Patrick's ESPN radio show, is the Speedracer intro music :yes:

Don't forget Marine Boy! Thinking back, damn, I watched a lot of TV cartoons! Speed Racer, Marine Boy, Gigantor, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Space Ghost, Bigs Bunny-Roadrunner, Max Fleischer Popeye cartoons, Fireball XL-5, Thunderbirds, Magilla Gorilla, Flintstones, Jetsons! It's a wonder my brain works at all or that I remained normal!
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a315/Bogframe/JCavatar.jpg

I LOVED the Max Fleischer "Popeye" cartoons...Remember Popeye was always mumblin'-& it was always a hoot? Loved the ones w/Eugene, the majical Jeep...the one where Popeye gets captured by this 2 headed monster, & he ends up getting the 2 heads into a fight w/each other? Nowadays, cartoons either have to teach the kiddies a lesson in Brotherhood or some crap, or -more likely- they're just one long commercial. Bullshit. Gimme Popeye & Bluto beating the Tar out of each other, any day...

I collect 16mm, and 35mm movies. I have literally HUNDREDS of cartoons in the collection. Up until about 10 years ago, I had a set of Starblazers shows (52 episodes) and a set of Speedracer shows (also 52 shows!)

Go, Speedracer, Go-o!

Wish I still had them, sometimes...

Man, Russ...I forgot about Johnny Quest. That was Saturday mornings at about 8 AM. With doughnuts my dad brought home for me and my sis. Hadgi, the sidekick, Bandit, the faithful dog, and was Race Bannon in that one?

Also, I think the opening soundtrack for Dan Patrick's ESPN radio show, is the Speedracer intro music :yes:

Yes, Race Bannon was the pilot in "Johnny Quest".

Speaking of pilots....remember "Roger Ramjet"? :D


Russ

Oh, yeah-Roger Ramjet-mid-60s affair, kinda crudely drawn, planes sorta but not really reminded me of F104s.

Oh, yeah-Roger Ramjet-mid-60s affair, kinda crudely drawn, planes sorta but not really reminded me of F104s.

Roger Ramjet was an airborne "Dudley Do Right"! Same chin, same attitude only he wore a flightsuit. :D

Actually the "planes" reminded me of F-5 Tigers or T-38 Talons!

Russ

Yeah, come to think of it, they WERE more like T-38 Talons...

How about Woody Woodpecker? you never see that on anymore... I used to watch a japanese sci fi show as a kid called Ultra-man... it was dubbed in english ... did i know that at the time? heck no... hiotta

I have a question for you loony tunes people.. i remember seeing a cartoon as a kid there was a couple of guys hunting and the one guy says to the other... " Hey Homer did ya get one? " duh yah and hes got antlers like this.... he puts his hands up... BLAM!

I have been trying to find a copy of Gunsmith Cats.

Speaking of Max Fleischer, there was an interesting thing about the Betty Boop cartoon... Big Band leader Cab Calloway* was filmed dancing for Minnie the Moocher. One of the cartoon characters was animated by drawing the cells over the frames of Cab dancing in a process called Rotoscope. So, the animation reflected Cab's actual movement. The Rotoscope process was invented by the Fleishers.

* For you younger guys, Cab Calloway was the custodial engineer at the orphanage in the original Blues Brothers movie... who later in the movie sang his band's theme song onstage "Minnie the Moocher" with the Blues Brothers band.



http://www.heptune.com/minnbett.html

Clutch Cargo anyone? Cheapo animation, but with real moving lips! With Spinner and Paddlefoot :yes:

MY all time favorite was Star Blazers! Who could forget the adventures of Captain whats-his-name travelling to the planet Iscandar to fight off Desslok and the evil blue guys to save the earth in a Japanese battleship equipped with a wave motion engine! :)

Captain Avatar, along with Derek Wildstar, Sandor, Nova and the rest of the crew...

The lady who played Nova (Amy Howard Wilson) is a friend of mine... in fact, I was the one who introduced her to her husband!

I've also met the actor that played Wildstar (Ken Messerol), and talked with the actor that played Mark Venture (Tom Tweedy). One of the advantages of being one of the founding directors of an anime convention!

Speaking of Speed Racer- I've also had the honor of meeting Peter Fernandez (voice of Speed), and Corinne Orr (voice of Trixie). Also, I was able to talk to Fred Ladd, who basically was the single biggest reason Japanese cartoons were brought to America in the first place (producer of the American versions of Astro Boy, Gigantor, and Kimba the White Lion, all between about 1962 and 1966).

Incredible people, who've basically done everything as far as cartoons are concerned!

Regards,
Gordon.

I used to watch a japanese sci fi show as a kid called Ultra-man... it was dubbed in english ... did i know that at the time? heck no... hiotta

That was a particular favorite of mine. I loved when he raised the beta capsule up and <BAM!> turned into UltraMan. Great stuff. Sort of in the mold of all those Godzilla and other Japanese monster movies.

Speed Racer was the coolest. It was on Cartoon Network late at night for a while. I caught the episode with the Gang of Assassins. Great shots of Speed in the Mach 5 roaring down the highway with Mt. Fuji in the background.

My old neighbor's dad (when I was growing up) wrote the Popeye music (Winston Sharples). I was discussing Ultraman this past weekend. Remember that "beta" capsule?

! Speaking of Speed Racer-
seen the geico bit, w/speed n trixie?

http://www.advertisementave.com/tv/ad.asp?u_player=mediaplayer&adid=609

I NEVER saw an episode of speedracer, but I did use to watch some Jonny Quest when I was a young teenager. As an older teenager getting high and watching Looney Tunes was a blast will listernig to rock music. I swear sometimes you could read their lips and seen the swearing that they were saying. Especially characters like Pistol Pete and Daffy when they were pissed at Bugs.

I always wondered why they didn't bring Speed racer back in reruns a long time ago.
They reran it on, IIRC, MTV in the mid or late 90s, but like most good MTV programming, it didn't last long...

Mere words are not sufficient to describe my dislike for "Speedracer." I am old enough to remember its first runs on American television. I didn't like it then and like it less now.

It has a firm spot in my 10 Worst animated series list AND in my 10 Worst TV shows list.

The only thing I can think of that's worse is "The Mullets." :thumbsdn: You remember that show from a couple seasons back that starred Loni Anderson? :drool: By comparison it makes a bad show like "According to Jim" look like great art. A real steaming heap and another defining moment in television's great slide toward total idiocy. :no:

My old neighbor's dad (when I was growing up) wrote the Popeye music (Winston Sharples). I was discussing Ultraman this past weekend. Remember that "beta" capsule?
Winston Sharples (1909-1978) Was one of the hardest working composers in show business! In a career than spanned about 35 years, he had scored close to 800 shorts. Among the cartoons he scored were, Betty Boop, Popeye, Little Audrey, heck, most of the stuff that came out of Famous Studios/HarveyToons from the '30s until the '60s. He also did some of the music in Gigantor, Beany & Cecil, Top Cat, Beetle Baily and Friends and Go-Go Gophers.

GIGANTOR...GIGANTOR...GIGAAAAAAN-TOOOOORRRRR....Bigger than big, stronger than strong...I remember trying to watch this on Channel 98.7, an ultra low power UHF station in Rossville, Georgia, right on La Frontiera between Georgia & Chattanooga. Cheapo synchro-vox animation, black 'n' white, silly-looking anime, no-plot stories, most of the time it was Gigantor flying thru the skies w/the sleek, ultramodern 1964 skyscrapers whizzing by. Or what some poor, underpaid Japanese animator thought sleek, ultramodern 1964 skyscrapers oughta look like, anyway...

GIGANTOR...GIGANTOR...GIGAAAAAAN-TOOOOORRRRR....Bigger than big, stronger than strong...I remember trying to watch this on Channel 98.7, an ultra low power UHF station in Rossville, Georgia, right on La Frontiera between Georgia & Chattanooga. Cheapo synchro-vox animation, black 'n' white, silly-looking anime, no-plot stories, most of the time it was Gigantor flying thru the skies w/the sleek, ultramodern 1964 skyscrapers whizzing by. Or what some poor, underpaid Japanese animator thought sleek, ultramodern 1964 skyscrapers oughta look like, anyway...
Gigantor, Gigantor, GIGAAAAAAN-TOOOOORRRRR.

Gigantor the space aged robot,
He's at your command.
Gigantor the space aged robot,
His power is in your hand.

Bigger than big, taller than tall,
Quicker than quick, stronger than strong.
Ready to fight for right, against wrong.

Gigantor, Gigantor, GIGAAAAAAN-TOOOOORRRRR!

BTW, here's a nifty Gigantor site that also has a .wav file of the Gigantor Theme (http://home.alphalink.com.au/~roglen/gigantor.htm) (remember that nifty calypso beat?)