Goku Approved.

During my travels this morning I ran into something that left me shaking my head.  It was an empty can of Dragonball Z Spirit Bomb energy drink.  It has a nice picture on it of Goku about to throw a Spirit Bomb.  It's certainly one of the odder tie in products I've seen in a while.

But it is culturally appropriate.  The Japanese have been drinking what we'd recognise as energy drinks, there called eiyō dorinku, nutritional drinks, since at least the early '60s.  I would imagine someplace in Dragonball Z someone is portrayed as drinking what would be obvious to the original Japanese audience as an energy drink.

I'm sure someone would be upset at the idea of using a cartoon character to promote energy drinks, which are generally not recommended for kids.  But the North American audience for DBZ isn't really kids.  Most fans today may have been kids when the show first appeared here, but that was more than 20 years ago.

Hey, Tom And Jennifer.

I appreciate the sentiment.  We do need young people to vote.  But seriously, you bring back 6teen for a US voting PSA, when you didn't even give us a 10th anniversary surprise back in 2014.  And you have Jonesy wearing a MAGA hat?  I can't say I'm too happy.

For any other 6teen fans who missed it, here it is.

I Don't See The Connection.

For years after it become obvious the series itself wasn't coming back the official Undergrads website continued to be available online.  It's been a while since I've checked it out, so I wasn't expecting to find the URL now redirects to an Asian cosmetics site.  I'd love to know why.  Chances are most people looking for an Undergrads site aren't looking for cosmetics from a non-North American supplier.  I knew the webpage would go down sooner or later, but I expected to find a for sale notice up, not this.

Strange Combo, Yet Not.

This morning I visited one of the local Dollarama stores.  I noticed that they had some CDs, and took a quick look.  There was nothing I wanted to buy, but one did attract my attention.  It was a karaoke CD of religious songs.  That's a bit odd.  Even more unusual was the cover art, which consisted of a young woman, drawn in an anime/manga style.  Not quite the combo you might expect.

But then again maybe you would.  Christianity and anime have met in the past.  Japanese animation firm Tatsunoko Productions collaborated with the US Christian Broadcast Network in the early '80s on Superbook, a series of cartoon adventures based on the Old and New Testament.  At the same time they also produced a series called The Flying House, which also used Biblical materials as the plots for its episodes.  Some years later Osamu Tezuka, revered as one of the giants of anime and manga, created In the Beginning: The Bible Stories, an anime series that told the stories of the Old Testament.  It was co-production with Nippon TV and the Italian government broadcaster RAI.  It was one of Tezuka's last projects before his death of cancer in 1989, and was not completed until after his death.

Tom And Jennifer Would Approve.

I had a nice surprise this morning.  I had to brave the icy streets that resulted from last night's snow and freezing rain.  As I was about to turn onto McKercher Drive I stopped behind a car that had the custom Saskatchewan license plate 6teen.  It probably had some other meaning, but I couldn't help but speculate the driver might be a fan of the cartoon series 6teen.  Hopefully I'll see it again at some point.

Will Nikki Be Happy Or Unhappy?

It's really hard to say.  One of the things that defined the character of Nikki Wong on the Fresh TV cartoon series 6teen was her skepticism towards consumerism.  So it's hard to say how she'd react to the news that Toronto's Galleria Mall is probably going to be demolished, replaced by a condo development.  In the series a namesake mall is the centre of most of the action, other than the occasional scene elsewhere, and the place that Nikki and the other characters hang out.  Of course the fictional Galleria Mall is the kind of place you might want to hang out, while the real one is old and past it. On the other hand Nikki might not approve of yet another generic condo building popping up in an increasingly crowded skyline.  In any case if you're in Toronto, or visiting it, and you're a 6teen fan  you might want to stop in for a visit, while you have the chance.  At the very least you can check out Randy McDonald's pictures of Galleria at the link above.

Byebye Retro, Hello CN Canada.

I've never watched Teletoon Retro, their channel for old cartoons, much.  So I was surprised to see it listed as "Off Air" on my Shaw cable box this morning.  But programming was running when I turned to the channel.  It turns out that Corus, the owner of Teletoon Retro, has folded the channel in favour of Cartoon Network Canada. CN Canada hadn't been previously available from some major Canadian providers, such as Shaw and Rogers, for reasons known only to them.  Teletoon Retro had wider carriage, so replacing it with CN Canada instantly increased the latter's coverage.  So if you've been waiting for CN Canada to appear on your cable package check out your local listings.  It should be noted that some systems have had Teletoon Retro replaced with Corus's new Disney Channel Canada.

Interesting.....

I came across some familiar faces on Deviantart tonight.  Hopefully we'll be seeing more of them in the near future.

6teen In Africa?

This morning I got a hit on an ancient blog post that mentioned 6teen.  It was from Cameroon.  Was the person looking for something else, or does 6teen air in Cameroon?  Has it aired anyplace in Africa?  The Wikipedia article for the series gives no sign it has.  Cameroon certainly doesn't look at first glance like the most likely place for the show to air, but you never know.  

When I Rule The World 16.

When I rule the world, all sidewalks will have to have that rubberised coating on them that some people put on their driveways.  I really like walking on that stuff.

And since this is number 16 of these, I  will add an additional requirement.  When I rule the world all homes will have to have all episodes of 6teen on DVD.  And the whole series will be put on DVD.

Clone High On Shaw VOD.

Clone High was a 2002 co-production by MTV and Canada's Teletoon.  The cartoon series revolved around a high school whose students were clones of various historical figures, created for purposes the series never got a chance to reveal.  The main characters were JFK, Abe Lincoln, Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, and Gandhi, along with crazed principal Cinnamon J. Scudworth and his robotic butler Mr. Butlertron.  Apparently the last 5 of the 13 episodes made weren't aired in the US,  The show's demise has sometimes been blamed on Indian complaints about the portrayal of Gandhi, who was portrayed as a  horny teen with little sign of the original's intellect, although poor ratings are a much more likely explanation.

If you were a fan of the series, or if it sounds interesting, and are a Shaw Cable customer, you can currently watch the complete series via Shaw Video on Demand.   Click on Other TV  then Kids TV, then Shaw Kids Club, then Teen.   The episodes are located after the 6teen episodes, and are free.

Mel Would Disapprove.

How bad is The Looney Tunes Show, the most recent incarnation of Bugs Bunny and friends?  Very bad.  Why would I want to see the classic Warner Brothers cartoon characters doing bad sitcom plots?  Not to mention that they're done badly. Bad execution just makes a bad idea worse.  Whoever is behind the idea should be ashamed.

Still Running.

Interesting.  The Official Undergrads Website is still up.  I just about wrote "still active," but I don't get the impression anyone has done anything to it in years.  Some links seem to be gone, but it's still largely functional.  You'd think it would cost Teletoon or whoever last operated it money to keep going, but maybe the operating costs were prepaid for a long time, and that account still hasn't run out.

Harry Potter And The Animator's Storyboard?

This week sees the debute of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, the final big screen adaptation of JK Rowling's ultra popular book series.  Hearing a news report this morning on the film made me wonder if there was ever any attempt to make a Potter cartoon series.  It seems highly likely that it was done.  Many franchises have hit the TV screen in cartoon form.  Some were successful, such as the 1980s cartoon version of Ghostbuters and the current Star Wars:  The Clone Wars series.  Others never made it to air, such as the proposed cartoon version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, despite a short pilot animation that included voice work from much of the cast of the TV series.  Then there are such bizarre examples as Rambo and the Forces of Freedom, based on the Stallone movies.  Perhaps Rowling didn't like the idea of material being produced that wasn't directly based on the books, as the movies were.

For that matter I wonder if there was ever a pitch for a Harry Potter ongoing comic book.  Again this would obviously have revolved around stories not created by Rowling, which is perhaps why it didn't happen.

Not A Sibling Act.

When Jeopardy started tonight I couldn't help but smile when I saw that two of the contestants were Carl and Chloe, and were beside each other.  This was because siblings Carl and Chloe Crashman were characters in the Canadian cartoon Carl Squared, which aired on Teletoon.  Too bad neither of the Jeopardy contestants had the last name Crashman, which would have been even cooler.  And of course neither were related, as relatives can't play against each other.  Not that the animated siblings would be happy to be on the same show anyways.

Caitlin Wouldn't Work There.

Regular visitors of this blog will know I'm a fan of the now ended Teletoon teen sitcom 6teen.  Although an actual location is never given I've always felt that the series took place somewhere in Southern Ontario, specifically one of the cities of the Toronto region.  Via A Bit More Detail I found out that there actually is a Galleria Mall in Toronto.  Robyn Urback posted at blog.TO a report on the mall.  Unlike the animated megamall in 6teen this much smaller mall has seen better days.  Of course that's because they only share a name, with the TV version being based on Toronto's Eaton Centre and Edmonton's West Edmonton Mall, not this sad place.  It reminds me a bit of Saskatoon's Market Mall, which tends to have a vibe of being past it, but Market Mall is a powerhouse by comparison.   Interestingly in an early episode, "A Lime To Party," the owner of the Big Squeeze lemon drink stand, Big Steve, threatens to move it to a strip mall when sales drop.  I would imagine it would be a place like this real Galleria Mall. 

An Old Teacher Of Mine.

Okay, not really.  But as with The Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo this series was a staple of my childhood, being played over and over again on local TV.  Frankly I remember it being called Professor Kitzel and His Time Machine, but as you can see it was actually called The Wonderful Stories of Professor Kitzel.  Of course given that Kitzel showed us the stories with his "time machine" that confusion is really no surprise.  The voice work was done by Paul Soles, just one of so many roles he has played in the Canadian TV business.  Interestingly Paul Kligman is listed as one of the writers.  Kligman was the voice of J. Jonah Jameson on the '60s Spider Man cartoon alongside Soles, who voiced Peter Parker and Spider Man, and was a long serving member of Canadian comedy legends Wayne and Shuster's supporting ensemble.  This was obviously made on even more of a budget than Captain Nemo that didn't allow for the story segments to be given proper animation, but it still entertained a generation of kids.  It's also an ancestor of the modern Canadian animation industry that produces a lot of programming.

What Would Mr. Verne Think?

Jules Verne's classic 19th Century novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was one of the first examples of what is now considered the science fiction genre, and introduced the world to the character Captain Nemo.  There have been various variations on and expansions of the Nemo saga, including Verne's own The Mysterious Island.  One of the (presumably) lesser known ones is  The Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo, a 1975 Canadian made cartoon that also aired in the US and elsewhere.  Set at some vague point in the future the series chronicled the adventures of Captain Mark Nemo, commander of the submarine the Nautilus, and his young charges Robbie and Chris.  The episodes were only five minutes each and included infornation abut the oceans and environment in their quick paced plots, being intended as educational programs. 

I'm not sure what got me thinking about the series tonight but a quick trip to YouTube turned up the episode above and several others.  These got played a lot on local TV stations when I was a kid in the '70s, but I'm not sure when the last time I saw one was. It's especially nice that the quality of most of what has been posted has been very good.  Surprisingly some of the episodes have been released on DVD, which is something I wouldn't have expected.  Presumably this is where these episodes came from.

Billie Mae Richards did the voices of the kids, Robbie having the typical "little boy" voice that she used in several variations for numerous characters over the decades, ranging from the Canadian made Spider Man cartoon of the '60s to the Carebears franchise of the '80s.

Like a lot of kids shows as an adult it's not hard to wonder what the parents of these kids were thinking.  Nemo's adventures weren't always safe.  Apparently mom and dad never heard about some of the things Robbie and Chris went through.  You'd also think Nemo's bosses would want him concentrating on his work, and not babysitting children.  Of course this being a '70s kids TV show no one actually put much thought into such weighty issues.  And the kids who watched it certainly didn't.

A Request For Teletoon.

If by chance someone from Teletoon's programming staff passes through I'd like to make a request:  Please give Delta State another run through sometime this year.  If you can do it for Undergrads you can do it for Delta State.  I'd like to get the second half of it recorded, since I doubt we're going to see a "season 2" DVD set.  And in case anyone is wondering, yes, I sent some of my money the DVD company's way by buying the "Complete First Season" set.

It Will Not Die.

By all reason it should be gone.  Undergrads is a cartoon series that ran fo a single season of 13 episodes.  While in college Pete Williams submitted a short pilot animation clip of an idea he had, The Click, to an MTV contest.  MTV decided they liked the concept, and with some development it became Undergrads.  MTV teamed up with Canada's Teletoon to produce the series.  But while Teletoon apparently did well with the series and wanted more, MTV didn't.  Teletoon never managed to find a new financial partner, but they sure got their money's worth out of the series, playing it multiple times over the years despite its short length.  After its last runthrough a few years ago I had assumed it wasn't coming back, so when I saw it listed on the January schedule Teletoon put out in late December I assumed this was just a mistake.

But nope, when I checked the PVR Tuesday morning the first episode, "Party," was there.  Coming up on ten years after its debut the show is once more getting a runthrough on Teletoon.  It's amazing that it just won't stay dead.  No, no new episodes are likely, and like many fans I've got the DVD.  But it's still satisfying to have it back, and hopefully it will pick up some new fans.