Western / Heavily Western-Adapted Cartoon Megathread

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Sun Jan 12, 2014 6:31 pm

Stahlseele wrote:Good luck with that.

Also, i just about finished aquiring Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego and i have to say that even edutainment was better back then than it is today <.<

God, I loved that show. Giovanni's been enthralled by The Magic School Bus lately, which was a favorite of my siblings when I was in high school.

A lot of the recent edutainment I see seems to be really dumbed down.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sun Jan 12, 2014 6:50 pm

Yeah . . dumb kids today is not something we say because we are old, but because it's mostly true <.<

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Jan 12, 2014 8:13 pm

Magic School Bus was great. I remember in elementary school regularly finding myself in science class studying the thing that that day's MSB episode was about.

Leress · Post by **Leress** » Sun Jan 12, 2014 10:02 pm

My favorite edutainment show was Ghostwriter. (No, not the shitty one on CBS)

Also have to give shout outs to the mini-series Tome and Talismans.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Mon Jan 13, 2014 1:40 am

Stahlseele wrote:Yeah . . dumb kids today is not something we say because we are old, but because it's mostly true <.<

It hasn't been true at all in my experience. Crime rates and the like have trended downwards to a hilarious degree in the United States even as people totally lose their shit over the horrible depradations of brown people.

Anyway, edutainment is a tough one to talk about, because one of the lessons that has been learned since the dawn of Sesame Street is that a lot of boring shit (mnemonics, repetition, etc.) is still really good at organizing information and should probably be in your show even if it makes anyone who already knows the material want to claw out their own eyeballs.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 12:55 am

i marathoned my way through all 4 seasons of where in the world is carmen sandiego.
still a good watch.

JigokuBosatsu · Post by **JigokuBosatsu** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 4:09 am

Doug, Animaniacs, and AARGH! Real Monsters were all terrible horrible shitty shit. Almost as bad as Fractured Fairy Tales.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 11:13 am

Adventure Time is really popular

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 3:03 pm

Oooh, i found a youtube channel worth plundering of his uploads.
Heroes on Hot Wheels, or Michel Vaillant as it was known over here in germany.
That Series is surprisingly hard to aquire somehow . . and some other series too ^^

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 5:35 pm

I really liked Spectacular Spider-man. The art style is a turn off to most people, but this show was amazing. The fight scenes are very fluid and have comic style banter in the middle of combat. The supporting cast and villains are very well rounded characters and sometimes surprise you with hidden depths. It's a pity it ends prematurely due to Disney buying the rights. I really miss that show. I liked it way better than the movies (both pre and post reboot).

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 5:36 pm

I really liked Spectacular Spider-man. The art style is a turn off to most people, but this show was amazing. The fight scenes are very fluid and have comic style banter in the middle of combat. The supporting cast and villains are well rounded and sometimes surprise you with hidden depths. It's a pity it ends prematurely due to Disney buying the rights. I really miss that show.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 9:04 pm

liking it better than the movies is pretty much a given i am afraid, seeing how bad they are <.<
but yes, the spider man animated tv series were pretty good for the most part.

rampaging-poet · Post by **rampaging-poet** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:01 pm

I've only seen one or two episodes of Spectacular Spiderman, but it definitely wasn't bad. I have fond memories of the 90's Spiderman and X-Men cartoons, but I haven't watched them recently to see how they've held up.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:25 pm

90's spidey holds up pretty well . . . X-Men . . sadly, not so much i am afraid <.<
90's spidey is more or less timeless, while X-Men is oh so very much 90's.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:54 pm

Spectacular is pretty good. I like that they're giving him other supers to interact with, and I actually kind of like the return to High School Spidey.

Amazing Spider-Man actually wasn't bad, on the movies note.

JonSetanta · Post by **JonSetanta** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 11:33 pm

My current guilt is Lazy Town. Not the show so much as just the tunes. So catchy.

When I have a kid, that is what we are watching.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 11:51 pm

The only good thing to spawn from that was the Pirate Song in my mind <.<
and i'm thinking you kinda sorty maybe don't wanna know what the interwebs did to that one either . .

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 11:51 pm

That's the one with the pink haired chick, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdaOT72ieXs
Note: Don't worry, the actress was 18 when she was hired for Lazy Town.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Wed Jan 15, 2014 12:08 am

Yes, that's the one.
i was talking about these though
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppj0WQOTDnM (actually sung by the group Alestorm, but this video in much worse quality is available with the original audio as well)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKdLbEpKAgs (actually the song from the series, bad video quality and some bad listening and reinterpreting of lyrics)

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Jan 15, 2014 1:46 am

Yep, the pirate song is the second thing I think of when that series comes up.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Wed Jan 15, 2014 1:53 am

Best edutainment was Reading Rainbow. Which was animated/live-action.

JonSetanta · Post by **JonSetanta** » Wed Jan 15, 2014 2:01 am

Stahlseele wrote:The only good thing to spawn from that was the Pirate Song in my mind <.<
and i'm thinking you kinda sorty maybe don't wanna know what the interwebs did to that one either . .

Nope, I know of the animation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MalBJuI9O5k

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Wed Jan 15, 2014 2:51 am

Ancient History wrote:Best edutainment was Reading Rainbow. Which was animated/live-action.

Screw you. It was Square One.

Post by **fbmf** » Wed Jan 15, 2014 11:49 am

Maj wrote:
Ancient History wrote:Best edutainment was Reading Rainbow. Which was animated/live-action.
Screw you. It was Square One.

I must concur with my learned colleague.

Game On,
fbmf

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Wed Jan 15, 2014 2:31 pm

Stahlseele wrote:90's spidey holds up pretty well

I'll look it up sometime.

Prak_Anima wrote:Spectacular is pretty good. I like that they're giving him other supers to interact with, and I actually kind of like the return to High School Spidey.

Amazing Spider-Man actually wasn't bad, on the movies note.

You're thinking about Ultimate Spider-man I think, which I haven't seen much of yet. Spectacular never had other supers (heroic ones anyway) though it could have benefited from them. I didn't like the reboot. It was a bit too serious for my tastes with all the stuff about Peter's parents, him moping around more and him quipping in just one scene IIRC.

Also, Green Lantern the Animated Series is pretty good, though the CGI could be offputting to people. One thing that made it different from most superhero shows is that all of it other than one episode is set in space and/or in different planets, giving it a bit of a Star Trek vibe. It's WAY better than the movie, though admittedly that's not saying much.

Anyone seen Gargoyles? TVtropes is crazy about it and I'm wondering how it holds up? It's by Greg Weisman who had major roles in Spectacular Spider-man and Young Justice.