A Trip Down Memory Lane

80’s Cartoons: My Childhood Top 10

By Geeky Gem

 

As many of you know, I love cartoons, some of my favourite cartoons are from the decades where I was a child. It is at this point I should point out that yes, I still watch cartoons and why shouldn’t I? Some of them are truly awesome. Anyway, here I thought I would share with you just some of 1980’s fair. Maybe if you’re very good at some point I will do one for the 1990’s. So with out further ado, here are just some of my favourites in no real order.

 

Dungeons and Dragons

 

I thought I would start with this as it has dragons in, and I love dragons. Now for those of you not in know, Dungeons and Dragons was a American fantasy series based losely on the role playing game of the same name.The show originally ran from 1983 through 1985 for three seasons, for a total of twenty-seven episodes. It was about a group of six friends who are transported into the titular realm and followed their adventures as they tried to find a way home with the help of their guide ‘Dungeon Master’.

 

Gummi Bears

Gummi Bears will be one of the strange ones on this list, as I am not sure why I liked it. I just know I did and I didn’t move from my television when it was on. Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears, to give it its full title, aired in the 1980’s through the early 1990’s. Now, yes they are based on a sweet which is an odd concepte but hey it works. It was a bright funny show which was always good for giggle.

 

Jem

 

I am not going to lie to you, this was one of my all time favourtie cartoons as a kid, and it has nothing to do with the fact her name is Jem, this is also the most girly cartoon you will find on this list. I loved this show. Jem and the Holograms ran from 1985 to 1988. The show is about music company owner Jerrica Benton, her singer alter-ego Jem, her band the Holograms, and their adventures. Each week Jem and the Holograms would perfrom a number of songs as would their rival band the Misfits who were always trying to stir up trouble. It was just one of those shows I loved.

 

She-Ra

 

Now for a different type of girl on my list the fantastic, ass kicking She-Ra. As much as I wanted to be Jem when I was little I wanted to be She-Ra more, manily becasue she kicked butt. Plus I thought if I was She-Ra, I could kick the Hulk’s butt and not be afarid of him any more. Silly I know, but I was a kid so that was my logic. She-Ra’s alter ego was Princess Adora who happened to be the twin sister of He-Man. She-Ra is introduced in the animated movie The Secret of the Sword (Which I have on DVD, as well as some of the other shows on this list) as Force Captain Adora, an agent of the evil Horde that rules the planet Etheria. She discovers that she is the long-lost sister of Prince Adam of Ethernia, having been stolen by the Horde’s leader, Hordak as a baby. She is granted the Sword of Protection, which parallels He-Man’s Sword of Power, gaining the power to transform into She-Ra, her secret identity. Come on what’s not to love?

 

Danger Mouse

 

I thought I havent really picked any UK made cartoons so far on this list so here I bring you Danger Mouse. Oh Danger Mouse what can I say, well it features the eponymous Danger Mouse, an English Mouse, who works as a Superhero/ Secret Agent. The show is a loose prady of British spy fiction, particularly James Bond. The show originally ran in the September 1981 to March 1992. Danger Mouse was voiced by the fantastic David Jason. It was everything you wanted from a secret agent and more.

 

Superted

 

Superted will always hold a special place in my heart, as he is Welsh. He also taught plenty of children in Wales in the 1980’s how to cross the road safely in Cardiff. Anyway Superted was in fact a show about a Teddy Bear with Super powers. He was rejected as a normal Teddy bear and bought to life by Spotty his best friend, with a magic dust that gave him super powers. This is more than likely where my love for Super heroes came from.

 

The Raccoons

 

No list would be compelte without The Raccoons, I can still watch this cartoon today. It was fantastic.The series revolves around a trio of raccoons called the Evergreen Raccoons – Bert and Melissa, and their friend Ralph. The show would see them mostly fighting against the industrialist forces of the greedy Aardvark, millionarie Cyril Sneer, who would always try to destroy the forest for a quick buck. However, the Raccoons would always save their forest from Cyril’s schemes, with help from their forest friends including Schaeffer, a gentle sheepdog, Cedric, Cyril’s college graduate son, and Sophia Tutu, Cedric’s girlfriend.

 

Tranformers

 

If you were born in the 1980’s and never watched this cartoon, what the hell were you doing, it was awesome. The show depicted a war among giant robots who could transform into vehicles, other objects and animal-like forms. Written and recorded in America, the series was animated in Japan snd South Koera The entire series was based upon the line of transforming toys originally created by Japanese toy manufacturer Takara, which were developed into the Transformers line by American company Hasbro. The Hasbro did what it did best and had it turned into a cartoon to reach the mass market. I for one am very glad they did.

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

  

The clever ones among you may notice I called the show Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I always hated the fact that in the UK the show was called Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, because people thought it was a violent name. So that is why I call it TMNT and not TMHT which just looks silly any way. This was one show I could watch with my little brother that didn’t end with us having a fight over the remote. We even had some episodes on VHS. The series featured the TMNT characters created in comic book form by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. The show was always lighter in tone than the darker comics in order to appeal to a family audiance. This also spawned a toy line as was the thing with most 80’s cartoons and it was massive. I loved TMNT and still do. There were a great many things I wanted to be when I was younger, and a ninja was one in a long list. It was that bad I even started to take martial arts classes.

 

Thundercats

  

You didn’t think I would leave Thundercats out did you? Come on do you not know me but at all. Thundercats follows the adventures of the eponymous team of heroes, cat-like humanoid aliens from a planet called Thundera. The series pilot begins with the dying planet Thundera meeting its end, forcing the ThunderCats to flee their homeworld. The fleet is attacked by the Thundereans’ enemies, the Mutants of Plun-Darr, who destroy most of the starships in the “ThunderFleet,” but spare the flagship hoping to capture the legendary mystic Sword of Omens they believe is on board. The sword holds the Eye of Thundera, the source of the ThunderCats’ power, which is embedded in the hilt. The flagship contains the young Lord of the ThunderCats, Lion-O, as well as the ThunderCats Cheetara, Panthro, Tygra, WilyKit and WilyKat, and Snarf. I again loved this show and even had the toy sword that lit up, which meant I ran around alot shouting Thundercats HO!

 

There we have it folks my Top 10 1980’s cartoons. I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane and will join me again soon as I may travel to the 1990’s and see what I can dig up.