In saying this, many 80's cartoons have been re-imagined to the big screen over the last several years, but not at the rapid pace one would have thought, anticipated or expected, and with a huge number of shows that lend themselves to the current capabilities of CGI, it seems about time some of them saw the light of day.
I could list numerous potential film franchises from 80's cartoons, but the main three most are screaming for seem to be:
ThunderCats - Which has also been in development hell for MANY years, in fact before he went to prison, Wesley Snipes was rumoured (as attached) to play Panthro
But the one show ripe for the picking is the original 5 Lion Voltron: Defender of the Universe.
Why would this work?
Well with an original run of 124 episodes from 1984 - 1885, and a few poorly executed reboot attempts, there is a great deal of cannon to borrow and take from to make a worthwhile franchise, or at least trilogy - Nemeses - Movie 1: Commander Yurak, Movie 2: King Zarkon, Movie 3: Prince Lotor (for the revenge/redemption element).
One of the many things that set the show apart from the others is the lack of human(oid) on human(oid) violence, which removed the element of danger for the heroes, although the original cut of the 1984 movie was almost gory in parts. Where most shows had infinite laser gun blasts, the Voltron team were generally encased in a large metal lion safe from harm, so it was generally finding ways to stop the team so they couldn't form Voltron thus removing them from the security of the Lions. It's not gore, violence or collateral damage that we're interested in here anyway, that has been done to death, it's the proximity to realism in an otherwise unreal environment/world which will suggest viewers may have something to root for or be grounded in, I mean lets face it, giant Robot lions are a bit of a stretch. However, of all the 80's cartoon's it's one of the only to seemingly kill off one of the main (Human) characters and relatively early on at that (it later turned out he was just mortally wounded, but survived). But who doesn't want to see giant mechanical Lion "Tanks" piloted by an "International" team of space explorers combine to form a giant Mecha Robot (with a blazing sword)? A Fan made short/teaser by Alex Albrecht was a promising look at the possibly of a real live action Voltron film and really is quite impressive! It added an element of potential failure, and a genuine wonder of what had happened and what will happen next, it adds that much needed element of grounding I referred to. Check it out (below):
Voltron: The End
Although poorly executed, Pacific Rim shares similarities with Voltron, enough so to convincingly suggest Voltron COULD take on a giant Robeast on a distant planet or in Space.
Pacific Rim Trailer
Because of the current state of Cartoon adaptations, which is a sad and sorry state indeed, it seems some of these potential goldmines aren't being tapped. Although the Transformers movies did very well at the box office, they are poorly written with childishly genital jokes, racial stereotyping, or sexist drivel and lets face it, they aren't Oscar contenders. Don't get me wrong, they are the antipathy of what makes the ideal popcorn movie! You don't need to think, you don't need to feel, you just watch the large colourful shapes and zone out for a few hours. But they are for the most part, a poorly devised "story" dragged out to well over two hours, with an overt use of explosions and needless "glamour" or establishing shots.
The GI Joe films just didn't work, and it's hard to pinpoint the exact point they both went from average to abysmal, but I'm fairly convinced that for many it's after the Paramount Pictures logo, for everyone else it was once Channing Tatum was cast.
Over time many other cherished cartoons have been attempted to mixed reviews, from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films (although originally a comic) which started strong, but by the third entry, with it's slashed costume budget and time travel story (which is the poor man's macguffin considering the amount of source material they could have drawn from), it was just dreadful. And who can remember the very average Inspector Gadget film which was clearly aimed at a younger audience all of whom were too young to know or remember the original cartoon, this was followed by a blatant cash grab sequel 4 years later.
Children of the 80's have fond memories of what were, realistically, poorly drawn/animated original content or adaptations of comic books, toys lines, or English dubbed Saban cartoons. As an adult going back to watch these, they are for the most part cringe worthy, but that is because time is not kind, and as a child, you just don't care. This should not be the case for the reboots and movie adaptations, there should be more substance, or an invigorated modernisation still in keeping with the source material.
To prove that good things are possible, the single 2010 season reboot of G.I. Joe, Renegades, was great and vastly improved on the original cartoon (without the toy grab as the end game), it was well written and had a great voice cast. Another perfect example, which again was only a single season, is the 2011 retelling of the ThunderCats which featured several episode archs based on original episodes, but done far better. These prove that there is writing talent and that it is possible to modernise, just for the moment seemingly not as live action films.... Time will tell.
No comments:
Post a Comment