TMW #50: Cartoons adapted from inappropriate 80s movies, Thunderbolts* has a new title
Plus, a quiz on movie surfers!
Holy tentacle Tuesday!
As Ace Ventura used to exclaim in the cartoon spin-off, toning down his movie catchphrase. Or so I recall. I can’t find any evidence for that catchphrase anywhere. (If you remember it too, please drop a comment below.)
That was just one of many animated series I watched as a kid that were based on often age-unsuitable movies. Heck, once you add Dumb & Dumber and The Mask there were three based on Jim Carrey movies alone. But today I chose to focus on the most inappropriate movies from the 80s that ended up being prime children’s-TV fodder, merch and all.
Ahead of the release of Nic Cage’s The Surfer later this week, there’s also a fiendish quiz on movie wave-riders. Tubular! And remember, you can support The Movie Wingman by: becoming a paying member; liking/sharing/restacking our posts; sending good vibes our way 🤙
Here’s hoping for a great four-day week, and we’ll see you again on Friday with reviews of The Surfer and more!
Matt (Matthew and Jordan)
In ’toon with the times
Matt looks back on some of the ultraviolent, scary and generally family-unfriendly 80s movies that TV commissioners saw as prime material to adapt into children’s cartoons…
Recently, I’ve been thinking about some of the gateway films that I watched at an impressionable young age that helped cement my passion for cinema. I sometimes feel guilty about my reckless disregard for the BBFC guidelines back then, but when I look at the films that were being adapted into kids’ cartoons, who can blame me?! These are just some of the shows I hazily recollect watching after school with a custard cream and a tumbler of squash.
Beetlejuice (1989-1991)
THE FILM: Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice (1988) was rated 15, and featured a bio-exorcist helping a pair of recently deceased ghosts scare away the new inhabitants of the home they’d left behind. Antics include the stripe-suited creep forcefully trying to marry a teen girl, and a couple crumbling as their bodies rapidly decay during a ritual.
THE CARTOON: Toning things down somewhat, the cartoon gave Beetlejuice a family of like-minded oddballs and made him and Lydia friends. The sandworms make a reappearance, while BJ can magically influence the world around him (and frequently loses his head for comic effect). The series even won an Outstanding Animated Program Emmy (tied with The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh).
RoboCop (1988)
THE FILM: An ultraviolent satire of capitalism and privatisation, Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop (1987) sees police officer Alex Murphy gunned down in cold blood, before being resurrected as the titular crimefighter. As well as Murphy being blasted limb from limb, there are also sequences of genital shooting, coke-snorting and boardroom massacres.
THE CARTOON: Arriving even faster than Irvin Kershner’s RoboCop 2, the ’88 animated series took the bare bones of the film and (like Murphy’s lifeless body) updated it with advanced tech, such as laser weapons in place of bullets. While obviously not as graphic as the movie, the premise remained largely intact, and Clarence Boddicker still guns down Murphy in the opening credits.
Rambo: The Force of Freedom (1986)
THE FILM(S): Sylvester Stallone’s other iconic character with a name beginning with R was a traumatised ‘Nam vet on the run in First Blood (1982) and a pec-popping, rocket-launcher-wielding one-man-army in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985).
THE CARTOON: The Force of Freedom still sees Col. Trautman dishing out orders to John Rambo, but the main antagonist is the Specialist-Administrators of Vengeance, Anarchy and Global Extortion (S.A.V.A.G.E.). Inspired by G.I. Joe, Rambo was part of a team including Edward "Turbo" Hayes, Katherine Anne "K.A.T." Taylor and White Dragon. According to a New York Times article from 1985, this was the first R-rated film series to be adapted into a kids’ animated series. Stallone was also reportedly not best pleased to see the character turned into a cartoon character.
The Real Ghostbusters (1986-1991)
THE FILM: The beloved 1984 comedy-sci-fi-horror made a virtue of the chaotic blend of Saturday Night Live comedians and paranormal blockbusting. Not the most outright inappropriate film on this list as, outrageously, it was initially released as a PG before the BBFC later reclassified it as a 12A, warning “a few sexual jokes might be unsuitable for young children”. As well as the moment where Ray’s fly is undone before the implied performing of a spectral sex act and Dana’s lusty possession by Zuul, there are also some pretty intense scares (this writer lost sleep over both the librarian and the zombie cabbie).
THE CARTOON: Given the slightly arrogant The Real Ghostbusters title due to a legal dispute over the name (an unrelated show had previously nabbed the title), the series followed a ghoul-of-the-week format, ideal for flogging fondly remembered toys. The heavy presence of Slimer (later series were titled Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters, thanks to his extended segments) and Stay Puft also tricked a generation of kids into thinking these two icons of the franchise had more screentime in the films than they ever did. Also inappropriate: the DIC ident remains as funny now as it was then.
Toxic Crusaders (1990-1991)
THE FILM: Lloyd Kaufman’s cult favourite is a superhero origin story in B-horror clothing. The 1984 original saw janitor Melvin Junko (“98lbs of solid nerd” as the tagline put it) transformed by toxic waste into a deformed vigilante who mopped up crime in Tromaville. The films spawned three sequels, and a rebooted version starring Peter Dinklage hits cinemas this year.
THE CARTOON: Like other cartoons of the time (eg. Captain Planet), Toxic Crusaders had an eco-friendly bent, with Toxie and his mutant pals often fighting off environmental ills. Toxie’s mop also fell into the waste here, gaining sentience as an anthropomorphised sidekick. It only ran for one season, but also spawned comics, toys and video games, and arguably had the biggest earworm title song of them all. (Matt Maytum)
Do you have any fond memories of cartoons adapted from wildly inappropriate movies? Let us know in the comments section…
‘risky Business
Spoiler alert! The secret behind Thunderbolts* asterisk is out. Did Marvel spill the beans too soon?
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