Mickey has Minnie, and Donald has Daisy, but Donald and Daisy aren't married. Donald constantly needs Daisy's help, but she's often oblivious to that -- and frequently aggravates situations by being the Disney version of a Valley Girl.
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was an animated series focusing mainly on the adventures of Sonic who actually had two very famous influences. Sonic's red boots and white gloves are drawn from Michael Jackson's music video "Bad", and Bill Clinton was the inspiration for Sonic's "get it done" attitude. Sonic the Hedgehog is truly a product of the 90s.
Do you know the Tigger song? If you didn't know it before, you're now looking it up on YouTube and it will be stuck in your head for the rest of the week. You're welcome.
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Craig McCracken, the creator of the Emmy Award-winning animated series "The Powerpuff Girls," was a part of the development team for "Dexter’s Laboratory."
For Batman: The Animated Series, while they were casting for the voice of Batman, the voice director Andrea Romano wanted a voice that was "inherently sexy." Since Batman was a rule breaker and was considered dangerous in some respects she wanted something that would appeal to women. Kevin Conroy had the perfect voice and nailed his audition in the first try.
Robert McKimson designed the character of Taz-Mania after the real Tasmanian devil which is native to Australia. The only resemblance to the real-life marsupial, however, is their ravenous appetite. The Devil devours everything in site, including boulders, tress, shrubs, and hills. He also harbors a special craving for rabbits.
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Scooby-Doo first appeared in 1969 in the "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" TV series. Don Messick was the voice of Scooby-Doo from then until his death in 1997.
Inarguably, this is Hanna-Barbera’s most well-known show. The original "Flintstones" cartoon has several animated spin-offs, TV series and live-action films. There are also theme parks dedicated to the characters and concept of the show.
Captain Planet and the Planeteers combines edutainment (educational entertainment) with environmentalism. The Earth spirit, Gaia, is voiced first by Whoopi Goldberg and then by Margot Kidder.
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"The Smurfs" TV series began airing in 1981. It was based on a Belgian comic franchise created in 1958.
Mike Judge who is the creator of the show Beavis and Butt-Head, improvised most of the dialogue during the music videos. He was also virtually all of the voices for the show besides Daria and Stewart. All of the references on the show to fire were removed permanently after the show was blamed for the death involving a five-year boy setting fire to his Oklahoma home killing his 2-year old sister. The mother said Beavis' fire-making and blatant love of arson was responsible.
Mickey is probably the most identifiable cartoon character on the planet. Disney controls the image with an iron fist, and woe be to the T-shirt printer who slaps a pair of mouse ears on a shirt without permission.
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Which version of the Tom and Jerry cartoons do you like better, the ones where they outright feud or the ones where they're allies? To me, the fight 'toons are by far the funniest.
"The Radical Squadron" referred to in the show Swat Kats: The Radical Squadron, is talking about three specific characters in the show. They are T-Bone, Razor, and Callie. Originally, The Giant Bacteria was planned to air as the first episode of the show but, they went for The Pastmaster Always Rings Twice instead because of the huge box office success of Jurassic Park.
"Dial M for Monkey" and "The Justice Friends" were two short segments featured in seasons one and two of "Dexter’s Laboratory." "Dial M for Monkey" featured Dexter’s pet lab monkey, while the focus of "The Justice Friends" was three superhero friends sharing an apartment.
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Yogi Bear first appeared in "The Huckleberry Hound Show." He became so popular, however, that he was given his own show. "The Yogi Bear Show" also featured segments with Snagglepuss and Yakky Doodle.
Winnie is the ultimate cheerful little forest fellow. There's no trouble that can't be cured by a mouthful of honey and a nap in the meadow.
The voice of Astro, the Jetson’s dog, is provided by Don Messick who would later use the same style of “dog speech†for voicing Scooby-Doo.
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X-Men is and was a colossal hit and the animated series was just the beginning. There is a comic that is based solely on the animated series of X-Men, X-Men Adventures was a comic adaptation of the show and launched immediately after the series started. In addition to comics, the series inspired many spin-off games like X-Men, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse, X-Men 2: Clone Wars, X-Men vs. Streetfighter, and the X-Men vs. Capcom series.
The Ren & Stimpy Show, Doug, and Rugrats all debuted on the same exact day. Stimpy's character design was inspired by the cat in the tweety bird cartoon, mainly it was the blue bulbous nose the cat had that acted as inspiration. The idea for Ren came after John Kricfalusi saw a chihuahua in a sweater.
The Rugrats creators are also behind The Simpsons' signature yellow skin and Marge's blue hair. Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo got married and then started the animation studio called Klasky Csupo. Before they worked on The Rugrats, the worked on The Simpsons. They produced other iconic cartoons like "Aaahh!! Real Monsters", "The Wild Thornberrys", and "Rocket Power."
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Tiny Toons Adventures used composure Bruce Broughton to create the music for the show, which cost an estimated 60,000 an episode because they used a 30-35 piece orchestra. 1200 actors auditioned over the span of three months because of a rushed production schedule. Tiny Toons producers needed to get all 65 episodes of the series made in 18 months.
Bobby's World was originally supposed to be called "The World According to Bobby", which was going to parody "The World According to Garp." This show was created by Canadian actor-comedian Howie Mandel. Howie Mandel also provided the voice for both Bobby and his father Howard.
You can have all the mouse ears; for my money the cartoon king of all time is Bugs. Everyone has a favorite Bugs 'toon, but for me, it's a tossup between his faceoff with Wile E. Coyote and the famous opera with Elmer Fudd.
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The Huckleberry Hound Show featured various segments: one starring Huckleberry Hound; one with Yogi Bear and Boo Boo; one with Pixie, Dixie and Mr. Jinks; and sometimes Hokey Wolf and Ding-A-Ling. The show won an Emmy Award in 1960 – the first animated program to do so.
The main heroes featured in the "Super Friends" were Batman and Robin, Superman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman. When the series premiered in 1973, three characters appeared who were not previously in the comics. They are teenagers Wendy and Marvin, and Marvel the Wonderdog.
The "Top Cat" animated TV series became the basis of comic books, children’s books and movies. One movie, "Top Cat Begins," relates how the gang of alley cats got together.
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Darkwing Duck was originally called Double O' Duck, and would have starred wannabe spies Launchpad McQuack and Gizmoduck. The video game of Darkling Duck actually had a different ending, if you managed to beat the game and bankrupt Scrooge, you saw the "Sad Scrooge" ending. Also, you can still play the original DuckTales online!
2 Stupid Dogs was created and designed by Donovan Cook and was produced by Hanna-Barbera. Originally this show ran from September of 1993, until May of 1995 on TBS as part of their Sunday morning show. Cook had graduated from CalArts and conceived of the show's premise after seeing two stray dogs roaming around his apartment complex. He followed closely to a previous cartoon called Secret Squirrel as he had loved watching it as a kid.
Felix is one of the very first animal cartoon characters, dating back to the early days of the 20th century. He survived colorization, animation and the addition of voices to cartoons, but now is mostly only seen as a moving clock sold in tchotchke shops.
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The "Magilla Gorilla" TV series was created in order to promote sales of a line of Magilla Gorilla toys. The toys were sold by Ideal Toys, which is the same company that sold the original Rubik’s Cube.
Wile E. is a nearly Shakespearean character. He elevates futility to art, and even at his most wicked and Roadrunner-hungry, he still ties a napkin around his neck in anticipation of a meal that never comes.
Daffy is the perfect comic foil for the perfect comic hero, Bugs Bunny. The famous "Duck Season/Rabbit Season" 'toon will leave you writhing on the floor.
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In the late '80s, the AMC theater chain decided to bring back the old pre-movie cartoons for a summer. The first one I saw was the one where Granny takes Tweety to the seashore, and Sylvester at one point ends up water-skiing into a piling. I couldn't stop laughing after seeing it on the big screen.
The creator of Rocko's Modern Life actually had an altercation with a television at a young age. When the creator of the show Jow Murray was five a television fell on his head. The cartoonist thinks this may explain his "slightly dislodged view" of the world. The end of the show's theme song features a television falling on the cartoon's characters, a definite callback to a previous real-life event we think.
I've always found Donald Duck fairly annoying, probably because his voice is one of the few I can't imitate well. Try it yourself! Be sure to apologize to the people you shower with saliva.
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Do you always get Goofy and Pluto confused? Just remember: Goofy can talk, and Pluto is Mickey's pet.
The inspiration for Space Ghost Coast to Coast is none other than Jay Leno and David Letterman. The animator of the show actually became the voice of Zorak by doing an excellent impersonation of him in front of the big boss. Herve Villechaize initially signed up to play Space Ghost's sidekick but sadly, this Fantasy Island actor ended up committing suicide during the pre-production stage of the series.
The real Harlem Globetrotters team, on which the 1970 animated TV series is based, was founded in the 1920s. The series is the first of its kind to feature a mostly African-American cast.
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Doug was almost called "The Funnies!", but Nickelodeon changed the series to Doug because they weren't into the idea of a double entendre. We agree that this was definitely a good call on their part. Doug is also left-handed! It makes total sense when you actually think about it. Even though in the initial episode Doug refers to his journal as a "diary" he only calls it a journal from there on after.
The notion of a cartoon character being married was a novel one when Walt Disney's godlike pencil created Minnie, although none of Mickey's ribs were involved. She never caught on as much as Mickey, and wasn't a huge feature in more recent 'toons.
The TV series "Jonny Quest" premiered in September 1964. Its storylines, art and characters were deemed more realistic than any Hanna-Barbera had done previously.
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Out of the 86 voices on the show TaleSpin; there were 9 who were under the age of 16 in 1990. The youngest female voice is Janna Michaels who played the voice of Molly Cunningham who was 7 years old at the time the show was being produced. There were a total of 26 writes who wrote for TaleSpin.
Gargoyles is an American animated series about a species of nocturnal creatures known as gargoyles that turn into stone during the day. They spend thousands of years in a crazy petrified state, but then these particular gargoyles are reawakened in modern-day New York City. They become the city's secret night-time protectors. Gargoyles is special because of its dark tone, complex storyline, and drama. Character arcs are prevalent throughout the show as well as Shakespearean themes.
Bonkers was an animated television series that was supposed to be a Crime-Comedy. The premise of the series was that Bonkers D. Bobcat, an anthropomorphic bobcat, had left show business to become a cop. This show was last seen on Toon Disney in November of 2004.
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Despite the incredible popularity of the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip, Bill Watterson never licensed a Hobbes doll for sale. His dedication to the purity of his craft is admirable, if not his financial sense.
The voice of Hong Kong Phooey is supplied by Benjamin "Scatman" Crothers. He is also the voice of the Autobot Jazz in "The Transformers: The Movie" and of Scat Cat in "The Aristocats."
The original story of Animaniacs had three characters that were Warner brothers named Yakki, Smakki, and Wakki, they were little ducks. Dot's full name, "Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Banna Bo Besca the Third" was inspired by Pippi Lonstocking's super long real name, Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Ephraim's Daughter Longstocking." What a mouthful!
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"Josie and the Pussycats" first appeared in 1963 as an "Archie Comics" comic book. Aside from being featured in a TV series, Josie and the Pussycats have also been featured as a live-action 2001 movie.
The show, The Critic, was written by Judd Apatow and Steve Levitan, at one point Judd Apatow wanted to get out of his writing job at Wings and write for Critic full-time but was told by his employer that he could not. Maurice Lamarche who was a huge voice on the show, once voiced 29 characters in one episode. Most of them were nameless like "taxi cab driver" and "hot dog vendor", but still!