Video Game Cartoons on DVD
I was recently surfing IGN.com and uncovered some good news - the complete The Legend of Zelda cartoon series that aired on the Super Mario Super Show back in the late eighties/early nineties is being released on DVD this October! Anyone who's been reading this blog knows that I'm a fan of these old Nintendo cartoons. I even posted a couple of Zelda and Mario animation cels on an earlier edition of the blog (check the "Video Game Cartoons and Animation Cels" post in the archive section). Anyway, a link to the full news article on IGN is here.
However, as much as I like Zelda, the one series I would truly love to see on DVD is the Hanna-Barbera produced Pac-Man cartoon that aired in the early eighties. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of that classic series (I would watch it religiously on Saturday mornings - yeah, I was a Pac-Man nut when I was young). It was a pretty decent production, too, considering it was based off of a character that, at the time, was little more than a bland yellow disc that moved around a blue maze.
Another series I'd like to own is the old eighties Donkey Kong cartoon, which featured an extremely early version of Mario, who, if I remember correctly, worked at a circus (I guess DK was one of the circus animals). Other than that, I remember virtually nothing of the short-lived series, but that just makes me want to see it even more now.
Although I've already mentioned Zelda, I'd be crazy to not reminisce again over the old Super Mario Super Show. The cartoon featured both live-action and animated segments, with the WWF (now WWE) wrestler Captain Lou Albano portraying Mario in the former and voicing the character in the latter. While the live-action bits were cheesy even by Mario standards, the cartoon segments were good fun, and featured surprisingly good voice talent for the main cast of characters. Not only did Mr. Albano portray a believable Mario, but the voice acting for Luigi (played by Danny Wells), Toad (played by John Stockton) and Princess Toadstool (played by Jeannie Elias) were also quite good. So good, in fact, that the voices Nintendo currently uses for characters such as Mario and Peach pale by comparison. (I have to force myself not to cringe every time I hear Mario's ridiculous Italian accent, or Peach's forced falsetto, in modern Mario games.) Anyway, readers who want to learn more about the Mario cartoon should check out this link and type in "Super Mario Super Show" in the search engine. The site provides a good description of the series, plus some interesting factoids.
Speaking of Nintendo, another popular cartoon of the early nineties was Captain N: The Game Master, a series in which avid game player Kevin Keene is sucked through his television while playing his NES and is dropped into "Video Land," a world inhabited by famous Nintendo characters. He soon joins forces with a princess and her freedom-fighting band of gaming icons (including Simon Belmont and Mega Man) to battle the evil Mother Brain. While the cartoon seems weird, cheesy and even blasphemous by today's standards, it still remains a fun and humorous take on a variety of classic game characters. A DVD release of the full series, or at least of the first (and best) season, would be greatly appreciated.
Of course, the shows I've mentioned here are just the tip of the iceberg. Ancient, forgotten programs such as the old Q*bert series probably exists in some god-forsaken vault somewhere, waiting to see light once again. And let's not forget there's at least three different versions of Sonic the Hedgehog that have been aired on TV in the last fifteen years; each one differs drastically from the others in both style and substance, and this is not even counting the fourth and current Sonic series, Sonic X.
We can only hope that, like Zelda, all these cartoons will one day see a full release on DVD. Until next time. . .
posted by GamerDan @ 9/10/2005 12:20:00 AM
12 Comments:
I saw the Zelda DVD cover, looks like it could have been much better, kinda cheesy.
I'm still waiting for the Wizard to make its way to DVD. The VHS is OOP and hard to find at your local movie rental chain. In fact I have contacted Universal Studios about this. I'll give an update whenever I hear something back.
Within 30 minutes of sending an e-mail I did get a response. {No release date has been announced, No information about the title, but please check our website for upcoming releases}
Very typical answer. I pretty much thought that's what Universal would say.
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Hey Adam. Bummer about the vague response from Universal, but not really surprising. I'll let you know if I hear anything concerning a release.
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