Popular Nostalgia

Let’s croak some toads!
Captain Bucky O’Hare was the early 90’s cartoon character who graced our screens with an intergalactic battle against space toads. Remember the psychic cat “Jenny” who could read minds through the purple jewel on her head or the mad eye duck who could shoot with four arms at a time.
For those of [...]

Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil battle it out with Angelica in the sandpit. My abiding memory of Rugrats is that everyone used to know how to play the theme tune on the piano. Angelica also got on my nerves. The babies talked in silly toddler speak with lots of missing teeth and spittal - getting [...]

The cartoon series that most of us will remember ran from 1983 until 1990 and was a US production. The popular 80’s cartoon “Alvin and the Chipmunks” - featured the Chipmunks as a band with Alvin as the popular, good-looking one, Simon as the intellectual and Theodore as the cute baby-faced brother. Dave was their [...]

All I can remember about this cartoon is seeing Scrooge McDuck diving into a room full of money and then discussing with my brothers what we would do if we had that much money. As for Hughie, Louis and Dewy, they were just background to the amazing array of what Scrooge had.

Danger Mouse and Penfold used to solve mysteries and crimes together zooming around in their ace yellow supercar. Danger Mouse made eye-patches cool waaay before Gabrielle. The walrus boss-man, Colonel K, instructs the British, white mouse to save the day from evil fiends and master crooks. The arch nemesis is Baron Silas Greenback (a frog) [...]

The Getalong Gang is a fine exemplar of everything that a cartoon should be: informative, fun and featuring a moose AND a caboose.
2 words you don’t often hear in the same sentence these days, more’s the pity, are ‘moose’ and ‘caboose’. A caboose is of course the single train cart club house that the getalong [...]

Sharky and George was originally a French Canadian animation that was then translated into English. The two fishy detectives solved underwater crime, Seacago style. The show is full of marine puns on everyday words -like Silly-Clam Valley

Pinky and the Brain were two scheming mice that wanted to take over the world in a tried and tested slapstick fashion. Like a nicer version of Ren and Stimpy, this Steven Spielberg classic

Light years ahead in terms of technology, virtual reality children’s television series, Knightmare, was actually really scary.
It was like a cross between a medieval re-enactment and a computer game. It would be really strange to take part in it as it literally was a walk through computer game -except some gammy actors would accost you [...]

Marshall Bravestarr -the intergalactic policeman of New Texas. He had the eyes of the hawk, ears of the bear, strength of the bear and speed of the puma. I tried to explain this once, to a group of drunken friends after a late shift. They didn’t remember the cartoon, but proceeded to re-enact the start [...]

“By your powers combined -I am Captain Planet! Captain Planet, he’s our hero, gonna take pollution down to zero”. Who sang these things? Global activism is nothing new -Captain Planet was on to it long before Al Gore.
I always wanted the power of fire and nobody wanted the power of heart because that was just [...]

A 1960’s animation of space-mice that communicate through whistles. The Clangers are very cute but a bit wierd -as all space mice are. I like their pannelled gold outfits -the fashion is coming back into season right now. The predeccessor to Button Moon, the 90’s kids have much to be grateful for.

Responsible for mentally scarring a whole generation of 9 year olds, the death of Mufasa made children cry -all over the world. In the same league as the death of Leonardo di Caprio in Romeo & Juliet and the death of Jack in Titanic, Mufasa’s death was cruel and horrible. I’m glad to consign this [...]

Donatello, Michaelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo -the heroes in a half shell. Their mentor Splinter is a mutated rat and Shredder and Brains their enemies. Owing to the controversy surrounding whether these cretins were Heroes or Ninjas I have left the title ambiguous for now. Now all together:
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles
Teenage Mutant Hero [...]

“Go-go-gadget legs!”
Inspector Gadget was a buffoonish policeman who had a whole host of gadgets, most of which consisted of making his legs or arms extend. He also had helicopter style rotor-blades which came out of the top of his head.
Most of the crimes which Inspector Gadget ‘investigated’ - his missions - were given to him [...]