Monday, April 28, 2014

Garfield and Friends

Garfield and Friends is an American animated television series based on the comic strip Garfield by Jim Davis. The show was produced by Film Roman, in association with United Feature Syndicate and Paws, Inc. and ran on CBS Saturday mornings from September 17, 1988 to December 10, 1994, with reruns airing until October 7, 1995. The show's sevens seasons make it one of the longest running Saturday morning cartoons in history, with most lasting no more than two or three seasons.

Garfield is a fat, lazy orange cat, who wants nothing more out of life than to eat and sleep. He loves to eat his favorite lasagna, takes care of his teddy bear named Pooky, and sometimes the audience hear Garfield's thoughts while his mouth doesn't move. His owner Jon Arbuckle is a bachelor cartoonist who has poor luck with women, sometimes often annoyed by some of Garfield's antics, and has a love interest named Liz Wilson who is a veterinarian. Garfield's best friend Odie is a yellow dog who communicates with body language and it makes Garfield understand what he says. Arlene is Garfield's on-and-off girlfriend who can successfully crack jokes at the expense Garfield regularly. In the 2004 live-action version of Garfield, he is voiced by Bill Murray and he must rescue Odie from the Chapman while Odie is being abducted. Jon is played by Breckin Meyer and Dr. Liz Wilson is played by Jennifer Love Hewitt. Followed by Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties in 2006, Jon plans to marry Liz in London while Garfield confront Prince XII, who looks like Garfield, and is voiced by Tim Curry.

The cartoon series features the voices of Lorenzo Music as Garfield. Thom Huge as Jon Arbuckle. Gregg Berger as Odie. Desiree Goyette as Nermal.

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a French-American animated television series produced by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson and the French company IDDH. The pilot was shown during the week of December 14, 1987 in syndication as a five-part miniseries and the show began its official run on October 1, 1988. The series featured the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters created in comic book form by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. The series ran from December 14, 1987 to November 2, 1996 when it aired its final episode.

The four super turtles named Michelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo, and Raphael take revenge on the evil Shredder who is always against his will and takes orders from Krang the intelligent, disembodied brain from Dimension X. The Turtles took ninja lessons from Master Splinter the mutant rat, who is a former classmate of Oroku Saki when he lived in the sewers of Manhattan as a homeless rat. With the aid of the Channel 6 reporter named April O'Neil, the Turtles must evolves into stopping Shredder's ongoing criminal career and they will force him to restore Hamato Yoshi's human for, but it's also dangerous as it could result in the Turtles reverting to ordinary turtles and losing their humanoid abilities.

The series features the voices of Townsend Coleman as Michelangelo. Barry Gordon as Donatello. Cam Clerke as Leonardo. Rob Paulsen as Raphael. Peter Renaday as Splinter. And Renae Jacobs as April O'Neil.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Alvin and the Chipmunks

Alvin and the Chipmunks is an American animated television series featuring The Chipmunks, produced by Bagdasarian Productions in association with Ruby-Spears Enterprises from 1983-1987, Murakami-Wolf-Swenson from 1987-1988, and DIC Entertainment from 1988-1990. It aired from 1983 to 1990 on NBC and is the follow-up to the original 1961-62 series, The Alvin Show.

The show introduced The Chipettes, three female chipmunks with their own human caretaker, Miss Beatrice Miller. In 1987, during the show's 5th season, the Chipmunks' first animated feature film, The Chipmunk Adventure, was released to theaters by The Samuel Goldwyn Company. The film was directed by Janice Karman and featured the Chipmunks and Chipettes in a contest traveling around the world. In the year of 1990, the Chipmunks also teamed up with other well-known cartoon characters for the drug abuse-prevention special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue. There is also a 2007 live action/animated version of Alvin and the Chipmunks, along with Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel in 2009, and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked in 2011, starring Jason Lee as Dave Seville, Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, and Jesse McCartney as the voices of Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, and the Chipettes: Brittany, Jeanette, and Eleanor are played by Christina Applegate, Anna Faris, and Amy Poehler.

The cartoon show features the voices of Ross Bagdasarian as Alvin and Simon. Janice Karman as Theodore and the Chipettes Brittany, Jeanette, and Eleanor.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Marmaduke and Heathcliff

Heathcliff is an animated TV series that debuted on October 4, 1980. It was the first series based on the Heathcliff comic strip and was produced by Ruby-Spears Productions. It ran until September 18, 1982 with a total of 26 episodes, under two different names. The second season is also called Heathcliff and Marmaduke that ran for 13 episodes and featured backup segments with fellow comic strip character Marmaduke the Great Dane.

The cartoon show features the voices of Mel Blanc as Heathcliff. June Foray as Sonja, Heathcliff's girlfriend. And Paul Winchell as Marmaduke.


Monday, April 21, 2014

Richie Rich

Richie Rich is an animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that aired on ABC from 1980 to 1984 and again in 1988 as part of the weekend/weekday programming block The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera. Based upon Harvey Comics' popular Richie Rich comic book characters, the series shared time slots with Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, The Little Rascals, and Pac-Man over its original broadcast run. The other most visible character was Richie's dog, the appropriately named Dollar. This show details the various adventures of Richie Rich, his family and his friends.
The hit film Richie Rich is also a 1994 film remake starring Macauley Culkin as Richie Rich.

The cartoon show features the voices of Sparky Marcus as Richie Rich. Bill Callaway as Professor Keanbean. Nancy Cartwright as Gloria Glad. Frank Welker as Dollar the Dog. Dick Beals as Reggie Van Dough. Stan Jones as Cadbury the Butler. Al Fann as Mr. Rich. And Joan Gerber as both Mrs. Rich and Irona the Robot Maid.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Puff the Magic Dragon

Puff the Magic Dragon is a 30-minute animated television film released on October 20, 1978, based on the song of the same name. The title character was voiced by Burgess Meredith. The doctors were voiced Frank Nelson, Charles Woolf, and Regis Cordic. It was followed by two made-for TV sequels, Puff the Magic Dragon in the Land of Living Lies in 1979 and Puff and the Incredible Mr. Nobody in 1982. 

The film begins with Puff's narration about a little boy named Jackie Draper, who is filled with so much self-doubt and fear that he has stopped talking altogether. His parents are so concerned that they have three doctors examine him, and they say it is hopeless and that little Jackie will never talk again. Jackie returns to his room, where he sits until Puff comes to his bedroom window and starts a conversation with him. Then Puff and Jackie went on their adventures at Hannalee, which is located in the sea. After their adventures, Puff returns Jackie to his room and thanks to his creativity that Jackie is now a brave boy and leaves, saying he will return to visit. Then Jackie's parents come into his room and hug and express their love for him. The film ends with Puff asking the audience if they just saw the dragon walk by, similar to what he asked Jackie at the beginning of the story.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids is an animated series created, produced, and hosted by comedian Bill Cosby, who also lent his voice to a number of characters, including Fat Albert himself. Filmation was the production company for the series. The show premiered on September 9, 1972 and ran until August 10, 1985. The show based on Cosby's remembrances of his childhood gang, centered on Albert, known for his catchphrase "Hey hey hey!", and his friends. The show always had an educational lesson emphasized by Cosby's live-action segments, and in early episodes the gang would usually gather in their North Philadelphia junkyard to play a rock song on their cobbled-together instruments at the end of their show.

In 2004 on Christmas Day, Twentieth Century Fox released a film adaption of the series titled Fat Albert. The film stars Kenan Thompson as Fat Albert himself, Kyla Pratt, Dania Ramirez, Omarion, and Bill Cosby himself. In the film, Fat Albert and the boys entered into the real world after jumping out of a television in order to help a lonely girl named Doris with her issues. Fat Albert enjoys being in the real world. But after a meeting with his creator Bill Cosby, he in informed that if he and the others don't return to the television, they will end up turning into celluloid dust.

The cartoon series features the voices of Bill Cosby as Fat Albert, Mushmouth, and William Cosby. Lou Scheimer as Dumb. Jan Crawford as both Russell Cosby and Bucky. Gerald Edwards as Weird.
And Eric Sutler as Rudy Davis.

Saturday, April 5, 2014

George of the Jungle

George of the Jungle is an American animated series produced by Jay Ward and Bill Scott, who created The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The character George was inspired by the legend of Tarzan. It ran for 17 episodes on Saturday mornings from September 9 to December 30, 1967, on American TV network ABC. The half-hour program was distributed for many years by Worldvision Enterprises, currently part of CBS Television Distribution.

In the opening title, George is depicted swinging on vines, repeatedly slamming face-first into tress or other obstacles even as the theme-song writers warn him to "watch out for that tree!" Another running gag is that George keeps forgetting that he lives in a treehouse, falling to the ground every time he leaves home. George's "beloved mate" is Ursula, a Jane-like character far brighter than George, whom George refers to as "Fella". George's closest friend is an ape named Ape who like Ursula is far more intelligent than George. He has a pet elephant named Shep, who behaves like a lap dog, as George refers to him, a "great big peanut-lovin' poochie", and who he thinks is a dog. Also of note is the Tooky Tooky the toucan famous for his call: "Ah ah ee ee tooky tooky." In 1997, the segment was adapted into a live-action film titled George of the Jungle. Brendan Fraser played the title role, with Leslie Mann as the lovely Ursula Stanhope, John Cleese as the voice of Ape, and Thomas Haden Church as the villain. A direct-to-video sequel George of the Jungle 2, starring Christopher Showerman as George, was released in 2003.

The cartoon series features the voices of Bill Scott as George. June Foray as Ursula. And Paul Frees as Ape.

Friday, April 4, 2014

Peanuts Gang

Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950 to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. Peanuts achieved considerable success with its television specials in their prime-time animated special based on the comic strip and produced by former Disney, Warner Bros., and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also voice foe the character of Charlie Brown's beagle named Snoopy. The list of Peanuts specials are A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965, It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie in 1966, You're in Love, Charlie Brown in 1967, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving in 1973, It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown in 1974, Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown in 1975, and Happy New Year, Charlie Brown in 1986. And also The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show that aired on the CBS network from 1983 to 1986.

Plus it television specials include the animated movies such as A Boy Named Charlie Brown in 1969 with the score by Vince Guaraldi, Snoopy Come Home in 1972 with the songs from the Sherman Brothers, Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown in 1977, and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!) in 1980. And the new Peanuts movie will be releasing next year on November 6, 2015 produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox.

The Peanuts Gang features the voices of Peter Robbins as Charlie Brown and later. Pamelyn Ferdin as Lucy Van Pelt and later Robin Kohn. Stephen Shea as Lucy's brother, Linus Van Pelt who loves his blanket. Kathy Steinberg as Charlie Brown's sister, Sally Brown and later Hilary Momberger. Christopher DeFaria as Peppermint Patty. Jimmy Ahrens as Marcie. Robin Reed as Franklin. Glenn Mendelson as Schroeder. And Bill Melendez as Snoopy and Woodstock the little yellow bird.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

The Pink Panther

The Pink Panther is the main and title character in the opening and closing credit sequences of every film in The Pink Panther series except for A Shot in the Dark and Inspector Clouseau. His popularity spawned a series of theatrical shorts, merchandise, a comic book, and television cartoons. He starred in 124 short films, 10 television shows and three prime time specials. The animated Pink Panther character's initial appearance in the live action film's title sequence, directed by Friz Freleng, was such a success with audiences and United Artists that the studio signed Freleng and his DePatie-Freleng Enterprises studio to a multi-year contract for a series of Pink Panther theatrical shorts. One of the Pink Panther shorts, The Pink Phink, won the 1964 Academy Award for Animated Short Film, and all of the animated shorts utilized the distinctive jazzy theme music composed by Henry Mancini for the 1963 feature film, with additional scores by Walter Greene or William Lava.

Other DePatie-Feleng Enterprises that go with The Pink Panther are The Inspector, the 1960s theatrical cartoons released through United Artists. The titular character is based on Jacques Clouseau, a comical French police officer who is also the main character in the Pink Panther series of films and is voiced by Pat Harrington, Jr. And in The Ant and the Aardvark, the cartoon follows attempts of a blue aardvark named Aardvark, to catch and eat a red ant named Charlie, usually doing so by inhaling with a loud vacuum cleaner sound.  Those 17 theatrical short cartoons were released by United Artists from 1969 to 1971. It stars voice of John Byner as both Aardvark and Charlie.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Underdog

Underdog is an American animated television series that debuted on October 3, 1964, on the NBC network under the primary sponsorship of General Mills and continued in syndication until 1973 for a run of 124 episodes.

Underdog, Shoeshine Boy's heroic alter ego, appears whenever love interest Sweet Polly Purebred is being victimized by such villains as Simon Bar Sinister or Raff Raff. Underdog nearly always speaks in rhyme, as "There's no need to fear, Underdog is here!" George S. Irving narrates the story of Underdog. In the 2007 live-action version of Underdog, it was distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment and with a lemon beagle named Leo sporting a red sweater and a blue cape. It also features the voices of Jason Lee as Underdog and Amy Adams as Sweet Polly Purebred.

The cartoon series features the voices of Wally Cox as Underdog. Norma MacMillan as Sweet Polly Purebred the TC news reporter.