Mikey O’Sullivan on Childhood Cartoon Origins

Hi, this is Dan Gilbazan and you're listening

to the GeekCast Radio Network. Hello and welcome

to Tooncast! This is episode 287 and we are continuing

on with the Tooncast origins. Over the last two

weeks, we've had Eduardo and Patricia on in episode

285, as you fine folks have heard. We talked

about Tiny Toon Adventures, how I spent my summer

vacation because I don't care what a VHS box

says, because, oh, it was too, it wasn't, it

was too big to fit in the book. Anyway, and then

in 286, you heard their cartoon origins and now

I. Yeah, this is yeah, this is Mikey O'Sullivan

from moon base to this is his tune cast debut

on this show you've been on oh You've been on

other shows that that we do here at the Geek

Cast Radio Network, but Yeah, you've never been

on this one and oh boy This gonna be fun So Did

you grow up watching cartoons and what were some

of your earliest cartoon memories? Um, oh yeah,

like I've been into cartoons basically as long

as I can remember in one form or another. Um,

earliest memories, God, like the first time I

have like a specific memory of a cartoon, like,

oh, this is an animated thing. It was the Lamb

Before Time movie. Because I don't know if you

ever had this in America, but we live quite rural.

And what used to go around was a video van. So

just van, videotapes, drive around to houses,

they have a little catalog of cartoons and stuff

like that. And I was about three or four years

old and lovely woman, I remember very well. And

she came in and said, these are all the cartoons

we have. And it's just like, looking back at

it now, it was the 80s cartoons that children

shouldn't be watching. Plague dogs and water

ship down and and land before time which was

a lot rougher than people remember it being I

remember we got land before time out and I watched

it and I cried and I enjoyed it and then I got

played dogs and I didn't sleep for a week But

the interesting thing after seeing plague dogs

I asked what worship down was like and the woman

and the band said oh It's very like that one

and I got worship them. So I was starting to

get hooked. But I was also big into Looney Tunes

when I was young, and Tom and Jerry and stuff

like that. Very, very big into the sort of classic

50s, 40s, 50s era cartoons. Not Disney stuff

so much. But I would always watch all the Looney

Tunes stuff. Somewhere in my house, there is

a complete collection, but I could not tell you

where it is. But no, animation, yeah, and then...

Probably probably the first big one where it

was like I am now following something animated

with turtles He's off April we had a rough night

I'm not doing a thing to eat some serious breakfast

and we don't eat until we practice Michelangelo,

don't lose your patience. I'd say you just got

smoked, Michelangelo. Indeed. Michelangelo has

much to learn about patience. Yeah, you gotta

learn to keep cool like the rest of us. Turtles

was the big one for Indus House when I was young.

Oh god, Land Before Time came out in 88. Holy

crap. Wow. I always ate when that film came out

and thankfully I have only ever seen the first

one. I know they made like a million more after

that, but... Yeah i was gonna say yeah the time

came out in 88 and they didn't start murdering

it until about mid 90s. There's a lot of things

that got murdered in the mid 90s. What cartoons

were you watching most as a kid were you a Saturday

morning consumer and after school consumer or

both. uh probably both um our setup was a little

different like saturday morning wasn't quite

the same thing we had sunday morning cartoons

but saturday morning um what i usually used to

do was i would actually go around to my godmother's

house and watch um power rangers because she

had satellite um so we could watch the british

channels um so i'd just go around her house and

watch power rangers and all the art troopers

and stuff like that but um Like the especially

like the action stuff would come on in like me

midweek mornings and stuff like that or with

midweek afternoons So it'd be like before school

after school and weekends would kind of like

more Waiting for the movies to come on like whatever

animated movie was on like that. But yeah, like

God I Was like I'm thinking back to some of the

random stuff like James Bond jr James Bond you

around the world and captain planet and stuff

like that we need help you mean exactly we must

do as a guy advised we must combine our powers

let's do it let our powers combine Because like

I the age where everything was um, here's a message

show here's a message or they are Sonic um Sonic

the hedgehog that was really weird show or skeleton

warriors or stuff like that. Like I I've got

so many of those like I'd watch in the afternoons.

Yeah, a lot of stuff that we didn't get because

at the time there was quite strong laws against

violence in TV. Like you couldn't watch Power

Rangers on Irish TV until early 2000s? Okay,

so talk about that because I'm really interested

about that. I'm really interested on that because

as everyone knows here in the US in the 80s there

were all the parents groups and everybody else

and oh you can't... Have the Transformers toy

commercial during a Transformers episode. You

have to run that during a GI Joe episode and

whatever else. There wasn't necessarily a ban

here or anything, or there wasn't any laws in

place of, oh, children shouldn't be. It was more

just parental groups of why are you promoting

violent robot cartoons to my child? So, how was

it in Ireland back then? What was the thing?

We didn't have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

We had Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. Right. So,

Beast Wars was also pretty edited when it aired

over here. A lot of our stuff would be trimmed

down. We didn't get gargoyles until something

like 99. I didn't see gargoyles until I was relatively

old. and like Batman we got away with because

it was big on Batman but that was like mid 90s

and things are starting to ease up a bit but

yeah it was very much like just ingrained in

the law like you can't show certain amounts of

violence before 7 or 8 p .m. and obviously like

a lot of cartoons and stuff wouldn't go on late

because hey kids are all in bed or they should

be in bed So it was just like not something you

were very exposed to. Turtles got away with it,

I think, just because it was kind of more slapstick.

Yeah. And I didn't really start seeing more violent

stuff. And so I was watching like the British

channels when other people said when they got

satellite and stuff like that. So like Children's

Channel was a big one because that had a lot

of American cartoons you've never seen of the

Irish stations like Stunt Dogs or Cadillacs and

Dinosaurs and stuff like that. Interesting. Very

interesting. So you mentioned Turtles, would

you say that's your number one favorite cartoon

as a kid, or what would be your number one favorite

cartoon as a kid? Hmm, that's actually a tough

one. I would say Turtles is the one that I remember

most getting into, like, by the hype. But definitely

by the hype. Like, I was so into it. I stopped

watching about season five or six, I remember.

I think it went on to season 11, the original

Turtles show. Ran from 87 to 96. I have the...

Give me a minute. Keep talking. So I would say

that would be like the first one I was like,

buy the toys for everything kind of thing. Oh,

absolutely. Yeah. And I remember thinking like

I remember saving up for the transforming Michelangelo

that went from the non -mutated turtle to the

mutated turtle. Yeah, that was a good toy. Yeah,

and I used to go around trying to do the face,

you know, with the teeth showing, you know, just

the two sides of your mouth curled up. I don't

know why I was so obsessed trying to get that

right, but it turned out you can't really talk

like that. Not well, anyway. No, but you have

to kind of talk like this and you have to grin

at the same time and you have to move. Like,

you can't do a ventriloquist act here with this

because you still have to, you know. Yeah, but

I'd say that was it. Like, I'd say... There were

so many of those like flash in the pan Cartoons

that followed up trying to ride the toy circuit

and everything else I don't think I settled in

on like my cartoons actually until I was older

like cuz I'm thinking like at that time I was

watching Turtles, but there was also stuff like

just the rush of stuff you were getting in the

late 90s early 2000s period of like Street Sharks

and extreme dinosaurs and skeleton wars and Pirates

of Black Water and Conan the adventurer. I remember

Conan the adventurer very well. I was always

drawn to more fantasy stuff. Fancy and sci -fi.

Like superhero stuff I didn't really get into

until I started watching DCAU. Even Batman, because

we had Batman but it didn't air a lot. So I only

caught random episodes. I would say it would

have been around just as late when I actually...

We had satellite ourselves by then when I got

into the DCAU. Most impressive. But what's it

got to do with us? I once thought I could protect

the world by myself, but I was wrong. Working

together, we saved the planet. And I believe

that if we stayed together as a team... We would

be a force that could truly work for the ideals

of peace and justice. What, like a bunch of super

friends? More like a justice league. Do you have

any idea how corny that sounds? But maybe the

big guy's got a point. With all of us behind

it, it just might work. Count me in. Me too.

And me. My mother may not approve, but I find

man's world to be intriguing. I'll gladly join

What about you Batman? I'm not really a people

person, but when you need help and you will call

me But yeah, I would X -Men I'd say would actually

be the first big one. I said was mine lousy luck

You sure make a lot of noise You decide to join

us, eh? Yeah. Because I wouldn't miss an episode

of X -Men. If I did, I freaked out. Like, I was

fascinated by the idea that X -Men was its own

show, and Spider -Man was its own show, and Fantastic

Four and Iron Man, but they could cross over

and talk to each other, and it was the same character.

I was fascinated by the idea of it. I'm less

fascinated by that idea now. But, um, no. I remember

that first experiment very well. I'd say, yeah,

that run of Marvel, not just X -Men, but Spider

-Man as well, and all those shows. Iron Man had

one of the best cartoon opening theme songs of

all time, I'm just saying it. Well, now... Which

one are you talking about because season one

had a theme song and then season two had a different

theme song So which one do you mean? The one

from where they shook all the dead weights and

made it just Iron Man not Iron Man and his girlfriend

in the Avengers Where they basically said like

let's just do Iron Man and Rhodey Without the

Sha -la -la -la Scarlet Witch Spider -woman and

all that Yeah, I think that's is that no force

works was in season two. But season two has the

best season two has the I am iron man that's

one thing I am. That is in I think that is somewhere

in the MCU RMM movies. It's just ingrained they

Yeah, they I was actually until the end of the

movie when you know He says what he says and

obviously everyone knows what he says at this

point But like I remember sitting in the theater

thinking. Okay, they're gonna come in with the

I you know, he said I am Iron Man Oh, no, they

come in with black Sabbath. I'm like, okay this

works Yes. Turtles had 193 episodes. It ran 10

seasons. Season 10 is only eight episodes. I

season nine and season. Wow. Season eight was

wow. Okay. So from season eight to season 10,

you had 24 episodes in total for those three.

Yeah. But before that, like, 27 16 20 so it was

all over the place season 4 is 41 episodes that

would have been probably close the height that

like the height actually. Yeah it was. 90 yeah

so it was yeah. Awesome very cool very cool what

are some other cartoons you like do you have

a favorite cartoon genre type. Like as a kid

or as an adult. It doesn't specify. As a kid,

I was into the cartoon cartoons. I was big into

the cartoon cartoons. I was that guy sneaking

up on Saturday nights when everyone was going

to bed to watch reruns of Dexter's Laboratory

and Cartoon Network. Big into that kind of stuff.

Like, wacky comedies appealed to me and action

stuff appealed to me. Even as a kid though, I

would say like... I always, the ones that stuck

with me were the ones that were a little bit

on the darker side. Because like saying Batman,

when I actually did start to see Batman, it gelled

into my brain. When I started to see gargoyles,

it's... Like, it's part of my soul. Dexter's

Lab, what always struck me are the racier jokes.

Powerpuff Girls, exactly the same. I used to

love Powerpuff Girls. A lot of the stuff there

that was from stables of people like Bruce Timm

and Gendi Tarkovsky, that was kind of like, we're

doing a cartoon for kids! Yeah, exactly And that

like even like those flash -in -a -pan ones the

ones that stuck with me were the ones with like

darker imagery like Cadillacs and dinosaurs had

a bit of it stunt dogs was funny to me because

I'll always remember one line which was like

the femme fatale character going like my god

that man there is a pain in the a ankle I did

like anime as well. Like, you know, I am a like

a lifetime anime nerd from like my mid teens

and like that's just a different type of cartoon

altogether But sometimes I don't they're so different

in terms of how they're constructed and everything

else. It's hard to sort of gel them sometimes

Yeah, but yeah, so I would say like over the

years I've tried everything basically As you

can imagine the fact I'm doing this I am still

something of a cartoon buff I would Maybe a little

bit of a down spiral these days is because it's

been a while since there was like a ream of shows

I loved. There's always one or two that I pick

up, but no. So, when did... Go on. Go ahead.

No, no, I was just rambling. When did you first

figure out Generation 1? When did that come about?

I was... 24. We are indestructible! Power to

the Decepticons forever! Wow, I watch when I

was a kid It was on TV three, which we didn't

have it was one of those channels You could only

get if you played the aerial for an hour and

a half And I was the only one who knew how so

I got that's also how I saw Godzilla the series

which is another childhood favorite, which everyone

should watch. It's a fantastic cartoon. I've

watched it recently. Holy crap, it holds up.

It's also the best thing they ever did with Godzilla

1998. But yeah, I didn't see G1. I saw Armada

before I saw G1. I was watching Armada in the

mornings before I went to school and I saw RID

2000. I used to watch that in Fox Kids. I remember

that distinctly. I didn't see G1 until I went

off to uni and basically had some free time.

I just said, I'm going to buy the box set and

watch the whole thing. Yeah, so quite late in

the game Those very oh man, I remember those

DVD days I had those very first Rhino sets. Oh

my god. We had metrodome. So we had the improved

version. Oh You bastards No, they're up in the

attic right now. They're up in the attic Very

cool. Very cool But yeah, I've had those for

a long time now. So you're an animation fan.

You're an anime fan. How did your cartoon watching

habits change as you grew up into adulthood?

I went through that phase where I was embarrassed

because, you know, everyone's telling you there's

something wrong with you. I would say what changed

was I basically started like as a child, it was

watch what's on. As an adult, it's like Find

what you want to watch. So Say easy example,

like I watched spider -man in the 90s because

it was on I watched avengers my earth's mightiest

heroes because I went looking for it Um that

yeah, that was that's a big difference for me

like it's a lot less passive for me these days

Yeah, everyone My thing is, and I know I've said

this and I will say this every episode because

not every guest has heard me say this, even though

the audience has heard me say this every time.

I am so happy we are in the age of streaming.

We are in the age of Disney plus because. I couldn't

catch an episode of avengers to save my life

at the time that it was on the time that it was

running the years and the one you know the one

that everyone says oh my god it's the best avengers

cartoon ever. And from and for me. My biggest

problem. Is and i'm sure i could just started

episode eleven but my biggest problem was those

first ten episodes cuz i do remember eventually

watching those back in the day and those are

the vignettes those are the ones that are just

like many spotless. What they tried to do with

those first ten episodes is kind of like what

syndication used to do where a self contained

he man story could be. Or go. Get some trouble

does some wrong magic runs away to snake mountain

and he man has to go save him that's the story

there is no through line there is no continuity

it's just cartoon of the week and. Those vignettes

of so i'm trying like i'm in the middle like

again my whole point is. Thank God for streaming

because now I can like you said you go find what

you want to watch Well, I'm in the middle of

season six of Clone Wars now I just finished

the episodes where they're you know, they find

the The mat, you know tubs died and then they

killed five so five damn it. Yeah So yeah, so

the oh my god, we must not let them know about

order 66 So so I'm in the middle of that and

I'm trying my best I'm gonna give it a go with

Earth's mightiest heroes, but those ten episodes

man They were rough back in the day. They were

an interesting a little experiment They were

actually like the the main show uses them as

the base like three of them are one episode of

the main show because you know It opens, but

yeah, which was I saw him on YouTube originally

But my god that show gets so good. It's got the

best TV Hulk. In fact, it's got the best media

like light moving media version of the Hulk by

a country from fucking mile Like my MC you wishes

it was this good at writing the Hulk Doesn't

compare It's got really great characters voice

acting's excellent all -around the show that

followed it up was not a good show It was a mistake

and assembled which was made because Mr. I'm

over the MCU and MCU properties from Marvel in

terms of like marketing stuff said like oh We

should make this more like that and they're just

like no Why and then ultimate spider -man went

through the exact same fucking thing. Oh My that

was a two very good shows. They got kneecapped

because of the MCU Once again a show that I never

could catch Not that I didn't dislike it. Look,

like you already said, you know, I was 14 when

Spidey 94 was on. So, you know, I was right at

that age of, oh, okay, good. Five years later,

unlimited comes. Sure. Fine. Unlimited only gets

one season. And then in 2003. Don't ever touch

animation animation ever again MTV. You can do

all the claymation Again MTV. I've never been

able to watch that spider -man show all the way

through to the enemy Terrible, then everyone

says like oh, right. Yeah, it's like I can't

look at it Yeah, I mean, yeah, the writing is

good. The voice acting is good It's just the

animation style that they chose to do is just

not not good. So I'm saying all of this to say

this is that I never caught spec Spidey. I only

caught here and there, here and there. Well,

as of right now, fantastic opening, by the way,

spectacular. Yep. Spider man. Yep. So as of right

now, it's currently on us Netflix. And I was

like, okay, fine. I'll, I'll watch it and I'll

I'd only caught an episode here or there. I knew

Josh Keaton was Spidey. I knew he was Spidey

slash Petey. That's the one thing about that

show I absolutely hate. Petey. I want to take

Liz Allen and just throw her off a bridge. Petey!

I'm like, Oh God, shut up. You're not a damn

parrot girl. Oh God. But no, the single best

thing, and I hope I can, I've been trying to

get Josh back on for a new interview, but When

I watch that show there's I forget which episode

it is it's it's one of the ones right around

Christmas and it's you know Him and Gwen and

MJ and it's he and MJ are more of and you you

know You've seen it. They're more of friends

that like he it's cuz Gwen didn't die Gwen is

still there and they're the the couple So, you

know MJ's like, oh I work better off of you know

Nice hot chocolate or whatever she says about

the hot chocolate. And then the myth of all of

this, you know, somebody bumps into him and he

burns his tongue. Oh my God. Josh Keaton as Peter

Parker, Spider -Man, fucking with a burnt tongue.

That's the best thing ever. That's like almost

as good as Sylvester and Tweety. Like seriously.

I'm like, Oh my God. Like literally like. I know

it's just a simple thing to do, but man, that's

one of the like, you know, you, you take all

the, you know, till all are ones or you take

all the whatevers and like Josh Keaton with a

burnt tongue as, especially when he eventually

has to go up against the villains and the villains

can't understand. Oh God. So good. So good. I

sort better with Coco sorting, Coco coming right

up. He's not here. He's here. I smell him. Team

one, deploy. That will lower the do -better into

the open. Way ahead of you. Ow! Hot! Spider -man!

Come out to play! That's probably the most painful

part of my night. Do yourself, you wall -crawling!

Now now, watch your mouth! You're a children's

present! What? I burned my tongue, okay? Pinky?

Is that a revolving Varda present? What? Really

need to stop with the banter a couple of tongues

had time to heal Yeah, I mean it's yeah, the

cartoon habits have always changed because like

you said at some point or another People in your

life parents grandparents even aunts and uncles

are like you got to grow up sometime Well When

we're adults and they don't necessarily control

us anymore. We don't have to grow up We can be

grown up. We just don't have to grow like, you

know Yeah, and you can watch whatever you want.

So alright So how often do you go back and rewatch

any of the cartoons you grew up with? Depends

on the cartoon really I'll rewatch gargoyles.

I'll rewatch Batman. I rewatch Cadillacs and

dinosaurs there a few years ago. That's why I'm

talking about a lot in my head One's a grown

up. I rewatch one's I've seen since growing up

more. I will watch any one of DCAU, especially

Justice League. I'll rewatch that any time you

put it on. Old anime I tend to rewatch when it

pops into my head. I've got to rewatch Outlaw

Star actually. When you say old anime, give me

specifics because I'm not... I've made this known

over the last X number of years that I've been

running this show. I am not... I'm so far out

of anime, so give me some examples here. Outlaw

Star is one I do come back to every few years.

Gum Buster, I'll usually come back, which is

just like, giant robot sad time dilation story.

It's the best way to describe that. So it's Transformers

meets Back to the Future. What if Back to the

Future was really sad? Like, basically that.

But yeah, that's from the 80s. That's an old

one. So that's one I'd go for. But I haven't

done a lot of rewatches this year or so. But

I'm always like a lot of the thing I try to do

is try and find a few new ones, because I've

always got the classics like rewatched Samurai

Jack. I've rewatched Samurai Jack more times

than I'll ever admit. But like I'm always kind

of looking like what stuff came out in like the

90s and 2000s or 2010s that I missed. That looks

interesting. Stuff you'd never hear like what

weird French piece of animation that got translated

into English came out that I never heard about

that kind of like, you know, I like left field

kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So I personally ascribed

to the idea of certain cartoons were made in

the time that they were made and they are not

supposed to be held up to today's standards.

However, which cartoons from your childhood have

you rewatched as an adult? Which ones hold up

the most? Best or worst? The Bruce Tim DCAU holds

up. It doesn't hold up. It beats most of what

comes out these days unconscious with a stick.

Yeah, it's ridiculously good. The same for the

Getting Tired of Crafts, Costy Stuff, Dexter's

Lab, Powerpuff, anything he was really involved

with. And that era of creators especially was

very, very good. Avatar Last Airbender, fantastic

show. Holy crap, it's good. Stuff you go back

to and it doesn't hold up as well. The Turtles

cartoon from the 90s, unfortunately. He -Man,

original He -Man, which I watched a little bit

as a kid and I watched an adult and it just like,

what the hell am I watching? What an interesting

run cycle you have, He -Man. Certain episodes,

certain, so we've done, just so you know, the

listeners know this, but for about 10 years or

so now, Optima Solo and I have gone through every

single. Iteration from formation to new adventures

to 2002 We've covered part of revelation and

we need to cover some other stuff But we've covered

all the classic stuff and that 130 episode run

There are some stinkers in there, but there are

some also really good episode like the problem

with power That's one of the best episodes of

that series today I broke a promise and proved

myself unworthy the great power that was given

me And if I am unworthy, I can no longer permit

myself to be He -Man. Let the power return! That's

a really bad show. A lot of the Disney original,

you know the Disney Disney cartoon like Aladdin

or Hercules or stuff like that? Or the Lion King

show. What was it? Timon and Pumbaa. Oh boy!

I remember them doing way better than they were

when I went back and tried them again. Yeah,

Timon and Pumbaa is... Horrible. Oh, it's so

bad. I don't yeah Aladdin I don't really remember

that much because for me, it's all about the

film What else? Hercules was we Hercules was

better than the movie I will say that but the

thing about the only thing I was gonna say the

thing about Captain Planet is you have to remember

that was 1989 1990 that was at the point where

everybody was like Please help us save the environment.

Like, you know, you, you talk about the 80, we,

you know, we always talk about the 80s and everything

else and all the commercials and everything else

between McGruff, the crime dog, uh, dare drug

abuse resistance education and all that and all

this anti -drug things and you know, all of that

and everything else. You hit 1990. Okay. Now

we need to save the environment and certain episodes

of Captain Planet are okay. Don't thank God.

You're not James Bond. You're bad. No, you know,

I mean I do remember the AIDS episode of Captain

Planet very well Yes, we're just like I'm saying

bad ball and we're going to get this boy kicked

off the basketball because he has the AIDS Ending

with yeah, I remember kids you can hug or even

kiss people with AIDS just like I think that

message was more of, yes, it was worded incorrectly,

especially for today's standards, but it was

more of your mother can give you a kiss on the

forehead and you're not going to get AIDS. AIDS

is not transmitted through touch. You know what

I mean? Like they were trying. Yeah. I don't

know. It was a good sentiment. It was just written

wrong. You know what's really weird? Looking

back at that show and seeing the cast. What the

hell? What the actual hell was going on with

that cast? Like I just brought up the Wikipedia

page here. We've got Whoopi Goldberg, LeVar Burton,

Kat Susi, Jeff Goldblum. Yep for Meg Ryan What

the fuck? Martin Sheen was in it What was going

on I Mean, you know, I I mean if whoopee is gonna

be on on the Muppet show I'm sure she can be

on Captain Planet. Obviously she played Gaia.

Mmm, but but yeah, I mean It was a... It was

a... It was a time. Yeah, it was a time and I

don't... I don't remember... I'm actually having

to look at it now because... Oh, he's still okay.

At least... I always hate nowadays looking up

certain people because I'm like, oh please, please

God, let me know that they have not passed...

You look at... Like literally, I was doing an

all things Transformers was origins with somebody

recently and whatever, but like half the names

we mentioned, they're all dead. Yeah. Like Chris

Lada, Arthur Berg, Arthur Berghardt isn't dead,

but like recently I've been talking to people

about certain things and every time I like David

Warner just passed in the last month or so. I

will always be mad. One, he wasn't. He wasn't

allowed to play Shockwave at one point. And two,

that wasn't a movie with a good enough Shockwave

for him to play. But man, he was always my choice

for like a live action Shockwave. Always. Man,

he was a challenged man. Holy crap. David Coburn,

who's the voice of Captain Planet. He did the

voice of Donnie Wahlberg in the New Kids on the

Block cartoon. I did not know that. Wow. Uh,

interesting. Out of all the voice actors that

we talk about, out of all the characters that

were looking at this guy's filmography, seriously,

one of the most interesting and different, like

he started out on one day at a time. And most

recently he was. additional voices in a video

game called Vampire, the Masquerade song. I've

heard of that. I don't think it's supposed to

be any good, but I've heard of it. He plays Nick

Reyes, the voice of Nick Reyes for Alfred Hitchcock

Vertigo video game. He kind of went into video

games. But yeah, I mean. I think the last big

thing that I remember him being, oh, well, duh,

he reprised. Okay, KO, let's be heroes. He reprised

Captain Planet guest spot in that show. That's

interesting. But he has one of those voices that

you know his voice and you know his voice for

a specific reason. You know, so it is what it

is. All right. What's now? You know, I, oh, you

want to talk about like, you know, you talk about,

uh, you know, Meg Ryan and all that and everything

else with, uh, how about the fact that Duke Nukem

was voiced by the late great Dean Stockwell?

I know it's so weird. Um, and like the fact that

Rigger, who is Hoggish Greedley's, uh, underling,

that's fucking cliff from chairs. I'm like, seriously?

Holy crap. What in the hell is, you've been drinking

a little too much there, Cliffy. Oh God, I haven't

revisited Captain Planet in a while. We were

actually gonna, we may do this at some point

here on Tooncast. My buddy Mike and I, Mike is

from This Week in Geek, my other buddy Mike.

I know a lot of Mikes because I am a Mike and

we Mikes stick together, but - We heard. So at

one point we were going to do a separate podcast

called Planet Punks and we were going to go through

that entire show and review it episode by episode.

Oh my god. How did Mike die? Well. No, Mike is

still alive and kicking. How did you and Mike

die? No, I'm fine. I'm good. I've seen worse.

He died on Planet. He died of climate change,

except it was a unique type. To be, you know,

have the hots for Whoopi, so... I think I broke

his brain, folks. Growing up, did you and your

friends ever pretend to be the cartoon characters

you saw on TV, say at school recess or something

like that? I only remember one time that happened.

I only remember one, and it is the most bizarre

left -wing one I can think of. For some reason,

and looking back in it, do you remember the Dragonfly

Sky Dancer toys? No. These were... They were

basically like, you'd put them on a little handheld

thing, you'd pull the string and it would fly

off, but it would be like people. People with

wings. I'll see if I can find a picture of one

actually. Yeah, I'm looking at it now. I got

it. Yeah. Well, they did a cartoon show. And

for one season, which was weirdly dark, there

was a lot of debt and pain in this show, which

had no budget. It had so little budget. Kind

of like, you know, how, um, Mikey Max, do you

remember Mikey Max? Um, that show was like, here,

we're selling a toy. We're selling a true pain.

The pain and suffering of everyone in this show.

Um, weirdly kind of in the same vein, although

not as dark. Um, and I just distinctly remember

one time me and one of the lads in school just

started running around saying we were the dragonflies.

Don't remember any other time that's happened

in my life, but I distinctly remember pretending

to be a man pretending to ride a dragon The only

time I remember Wow That's that's crazy. Oh,

yeah All right, who is your end all be all favorite

character from any cartoon or animate. When I

say cartoon folks on this show, I'm including

that in everything. So it doesn't matter. You

can pick a hero and a villain. I'm going to stick

with Western animation just because it leaves

me that I don't have to sit here going like,

oh, I'm a troll through everything. Is this a

cheap answer for me personally? It might be a

cheap answer for me personally. Fuck it, I'm

gonna say it. At the moment, I would certainly

say my favorite protagonist is Spear from Primal,

which is in season two at the moment, but it's

certainly the one I feel the most invested in.

Oh. Current cartoon, wow. I didn't realize Primal...

animated series, I thought it was some live -action

thing. Oh, there's a live -action movie called

Primal, which is about Nicolas Cage in the jungle

chasing a jaguar, I believe, which is very Nicolas

Cage. Yes, yes, yes. The animated series is,

again, it's Tartakovsky's Primal, which started

there in 2019, 10 episodes and just started season

two, started there last week. And yeah, I would

say Spear is my favorite. protagonist at the

moment in western animation. I would find it

really hard to top him. Favorite villain? Oh

god, like this is so fucking lazy of me. Like

this is so fucking lazy of me. But come on, it's

Mark Hamill's Joker. This could be a fair fight

after all and who wants to see that? Like if

you're going for a villain like I love dr. Doom

in the old fantastic four era and like the Incredible

Hulk and all that I love so many villains in

so many shows But my god was there a guy accidentally

perfectly cast Or who no one has ever been so

well cast by pure chance Like he's so good at

being that Joker And the character was so well

written and Really is what everyone even when

they haven't heard of him Every version of the

Joker is in some way referencing that because

the people who are making it now were influenced

by that show Like even the Suicide Squad one

has is more DC animated universe Joker than it

is comic book Joker, I think Because and I based

that on like not the performance because Jesus

Christ But what they told him to you the voice

you use the approach to the laugh everything

else. It doesn't have to be like that but it's

all like that even like Dark Knight returns everything

is calling back to that one that that that performance

in my opinion Well, yeah, because that Let's

face it no matter what interpretation anyone

puts on it that is the standard like before that

what did we have we had various people. Playing

him on like adventures of not adventures of Batman

and Robin Super friends. You know what? I'm trying

to yeah super friends and all that and all that

and before that we had live -action Yeah, I will

he's a Romero with a mustache Nicholson is is

pretty damn iconic as a Joker, but I think if

you Didn't have if you didn't have the 90s Jack

Nicholson, I think would be the seminal Joker,

but Mark Hamill just wandered in real didn't

think he was going to get the role and just like

blew everyone's mind. Have you ever seen Disney's

The Three Musketeers? This is the 1993 live action

film with Kiefer Sutherland. Yes. OK, so in that.

Tim Curry plays Cardinal Richelieu. Yes, he does.

Oh, my God, that's gone back a few. OK, so so

in that that movie is 30 years old next year.

So in that film. The King says to him, I would

rather die than whatever. And Tim Curry just

stands up from the throne, kicks away the little

footstool. That can be arranged. And I can like

originally Curry was supposed to be the Joker

in BTAS. I could I'd have to see if I can find

it on YouTube or somewhere, like if there's ever

the early audition that he did for it. But with

what Mark did and the legacy that that has now,

I can't hear Tim Curry as the Joker. I would

never be able to because it's just... Mark is

the quintiles. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I was just thinking

like, cause the story is like, Curry was hired,

he did three episodes and they really didn't

like his take in it. So I don't think for what

they were trying to do, I think he would have

been good for like a really goofy villain. But

if someone you're trying to portray as genuinely

threatening, I do, I don't think it would have

worked. Um, and I think they realized that. Yeah.

So from, let's say. Yeah, 92 when bts debuted

I mean he could be like a A goofy hotel concierge

kind of thing like, you know Home Alone meets

Batman the Animated Series. Uh -oh. So you mentioned

some of them, but what are some of the other

cartoon characters you like and are there any

that you hate? Again, I'll limit it to the Western

stuff. Again, too many options. I like Justice

League Flash a lot. He's one of my favorites.

Hulk from Avengers Earth, Mighty Zero is again

a favorite. um i got let's i had a list of stuff

up here um who would be someone i would like

a lot um oh what's it called uh kubo from kubo

under two strings is i really really i want i

think that movie is fantastic but i really really

like kubo in it um god is it like trying to go

through the list in my head like it's amazing

how many shows you forget you're watched in a

way but I'm just going our Goliath always been

a favorite of mine from gargoyles Jack yeah Ang

Zuko from avatar Dexter I actually I think I

like DD more than Dexter because I probably empathize

with Dexter more but I liked how much she fucked

with him Bunny you gotta love bugs the Western

Tweety. Yeah going back Foghorn like horn. I

don't know why but Foghorn like horn always spoke

to me I say boy now let me show you how it's

supposed to be done boy Foghorn is great Transformers

animated Optimus Prime is in my opinion the best

on -screen Optimus Prime we've ever had Transformers

Cyberverse Soundwave I think is the best on -screen

Soundwave we've ever had Transformers Prime Soundwave

is goddamn terrifying, but way too many, actually.

I'm trying to open it up. So in Prime, I just

became relegated to the fact, and I like that

he is silent throughout almost all of the show.

And then, I mean, the man's right there. You

could have him do both. Throughout the whole

thing, but no, we're going to make sound wave

silent, but deadly in a good way. Not the other

way. And just, you know, let it be up until that

last moment. When this stupid smiley face comes

upon his I'm like, oh my God, I don't like that.

I don't think he should ever have said anything.

I think. Oh, no. In that scene. Oh, if that didn't

happen. Oh, my God. The tension just would have

been sucked out of the room if that didn't happen.

For me, though, it was just like, what's he going

to say? Soundwave Superior. Oh, that's original.

That was worth waiting three seasons. Well, OK,

yeah, but you got to understand, though. He and

I know some wave technically doesn't have feelings

But I don't know with him. It's weird. It's been

some time. Well, yeah about a silence or something

else so yeah, yeah, so the thing is with that

scene is that I'm well, the reason why I said

he doesn't necessarily have feelings is because

I'm going to use the term I Feel that he felt

that he got won over on them. So him saying,

and especially, he didn't say it the way he said

it in the movie. He didn't say, you know, Soundwave

superior, Decepticons inferior. He said Autobots,

and I'm like, oh, that's the line. Is that the

first time that's been said in cartoons? It's

been said since, but I'm just kidding. It's one

of those lines I think people have kind of a

Mandela effect about, and kind of like, oh, I

remember him saying this, and he's just like,

he didn't technically say that. Um, he said that

the constructor cons were appropriate. We're

really bitching at, at the time. Yeah. Constructor

cons inferior. That's what he said. Not deceptive,

but that's the same. Yeah. But like, seriously,

like I was not expect, like, again, it was a,

what are you going to do with that person with

where they had him at, at that time? How could

he get away from that? The easiest thing he could

do is do a one -liner. and then set the, you

know, and then, and then go to the timer and,

Oh man, that like that moment and the moment

in animated when they changed the damn colors,

literally I was jumping for joy both times. It's

like, Oh God, so good. I would have to have a

written, you know who no one says and who I really

like and I really wish would show up a lot more.

Justice Lord Superman. Yep. And Razor from Green

Lantern animated series, who did show up recently

in Young Justice, but I'm not watching Young

Justice, so I don't know. But man, I really love

that. You just kind of whelmed with Young Justice,

huh? I was. I was whelmed. But I remember distinctly

like Justice Lord Superman is such an so much

more of an interesting take than things like

Homelander or whatnot to me, which is like what

if Superman was bad? Oh, he's violent and then

has lots of sex and ooh blood Nana Nana What

if Superman was bad and was absolutely convinced

he was doing the right thing for everyone else?

Not that he was a lunatic. What if he was like,

well, I will Burn a man in my hand because it's

right for everyone. Like that's so much more

interesting to me than the like, all -powerful

dickhead. Yeah, well, it's that thing of, it's

a thing of two things where, yes, he technically

is an all -powerful person, but he's not a dickhead

about it. He understands that he wants to be,

and he is, whatever, like, his choice is the

best choice, like you already said, the best

choice for everybody because he feels that he

knows best, and yeah, that would be, that was

such, like, Such a good interesting take of the

opposite. Yeah, and you had that great line Between

Superman and flash. It's like I knew you weren't

going to be able to stop him not such a boys

good Why because um, I felt everything he felt

and looks flash looks and not such a boy scout

after all, huh? Never even got my first mirror

badge. I Love that line Yeah, that also that

time you turned around tells Batman you're not

always right because I feel like more people

should tell Batman that That two -parter has

that part part two has the look I love Kevin

Conroy and I love him to death and I absolutely

love him and everything he's done as Batman but

that episode has the best Batman scene of any

animation ever you have Batman essentially talking

to himself and arguing with himself out loud.

I think it's just the line, they'd love it here,

wouldn't they? Who? Mom and dad. Mm -hmm. Just

like, oh, you just got put in your place by yourself.

Mm -hmm. Yeah. And then he has the line later

when they're arguing, you know, why did you do

this? I did it for them. Why? I did it so no

eight -year -old... Ever has to face down a punk

with a gun. Yeah, like, oh God. It's ridiculous.

It's an amazing. Yes. Amazingly written show.

It it's it doesn't need to be held up. It stands

the test of time no matter what time. Oh God.

The timeline of that show. We're approaching

it. God 2040 isn't far off. Yeah. Yikes. Alright,

what are some of your, who are some of your favorite

cartoon voice actors? Josh Keaton, I have a real

affection for Josh Keaton. I think he's really

good at what he does and he's one of those guys

who I think his voice is kind of timeless. Yuri

Lowensoll as well. I think he's an excellent,

excellent voice actor. Kevin Conroy, you gotta

go with the classics. Yep. Oh, what's his name?

I'm terrible at remembering names. Who's the

character? I'll tell you in a second. Jeff Lamar.

Or Phil Lamar, Phil Lamar. I mean, Phil Lamar.

Phil Lamar is very good. Tara Strong, very good.

Although I think she's kind of lacks a little

bit of range. Kevin Michael Richardson, John

DiMaggio, Rob Paulson. Frank Welker, I think

is pretty much untouchable. Mako I think was

a very, very good voice actor with one character

he could do, but he was very good at it. I wish

I could say Mark Hamill, but I think Mark Hamill

is kind of suffering from being typecast. I'd

love to hear what he could do with a role that

isn't supposed to be just the Joker. Darren Norris

is really, really good. And Dietrich Bager as

well. He's very, very good. He's doing something

transform. Yeah, he's Mandroid in the new Transformers

show. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Tom Kenny, I think

doesn't get the credit he deserves sometimes.

Yeah, I think I think sadly, Tom gets locked

into. Oh, hey, look, it's SpongeBob. Where's

Patrick? Kind of like, you know. We interviewed

Tom Kenny a number of years ago. There are certain

things you remember, folks. I remember almost

every interview I've ever done in the last 14

years, but there are two interviews I will never

forget. It's Tom Kenny and Maurice LaMarche.

When we did the Maurice LaMarche interview, and

I say this every time because not every guest

on this show has heard this story. I thought

Maurice LaMarche was going to come assassinate

me one time. So it was before, it was literally

like a week or so, maybe a month or so before

Arkham City was supposed to come out. We asked

him, like we ask all of the voice actors we talked

to, which type of voice acting do you prefer

the most? The narration, the animation, the video

games, the this, this, and this. So that's the

question. Okay. And without me prompting Maurice

goes into this thing. Oh, yeah, I just came out

of a session where I was doing a video game.

And it's just you in the booth for X number of

what, you know, four hours or whatever it is

and you're just doing lines. And we said, Oh,

can you tell us what? I mean he opened the door,

he answered the question, but he opened the door

for the follow up, can you tell us what you just

came out of? Oh yeah, I'm going to be Mr. Freeze

in Batman Arkham City. My jaw dropped to the

floor. I edited that podcast so damn fast and

I've never edited a podcast that fast in my entire

life. And ever since then, ever since then is

what at the end of every interview I ever do.

Is there anything that you - Want me to cut out

in the editing anything you don't want public

because that like I edited that thing so fast

I got it online so fast some little unknown site

picked it up. Apparently the news hadn't broken

yet that he was going to be the voice of Mr.

Freeze in Batman Arkham City. And then IGN picked

it up and it went bonkers. I had gone out with

my mom grocery shopping. So I was a wave and

you know, this is 2009, 2010, 2011, whenever

the hell it was that Arkham city came out. So

back then I didn't have a full on smartphone.

I just had one of those, you know, little crappy,

you know, you can text your friends kind of phones

kind of thing. And, and yeah, I didn't know what

was going on. I get home and everything is blown.

I'm like, Oh my God, he's going to come kill

me because of this. I'm messaging him, I'm messaging

his agent and I'm like, oh my God, oh my God,

do you want me to fix, do you want me to fix?

And Maurice was like, eh, it's out there now.

None of we can do about it. So there's that.

And then there's the Tom Kenny one, because what

I remember most about this isn't necessarily

the interview itself. We dialed him in. He answered

the phone he answered the call as spongebob.

Oh my god, like what's the name? Didn't eat like

he's like hello like and I I cannot do a spongebob

to save my life folks be like, hello This is

spongebob. Mm -hmm. Like oh my like and he went

He did like seven voices in under a minute and

a half before he let us finish Let us start talking

to him. I'm like, oh my god, Tom, that was amazing.

Tom Kenny, very, very unsung, very, I mean, he

was, was he, he was animated Starscream, right?

Yeah, he was animated. His film was Prime. No,

he was animated on Starscream. And he's in lots

of, he's in Primal. Well, he was in Primal for

now. Oh, cool. Very cool. Well, it's kind of

hard to say anyone is in Primal in terms of voice

acting, but I'll come back onto that later. But,

but yeah, I'd also say Grey Laliol and Jennifer

Hale. Like deserve so much. They're fantastic

actors. Like holy crap. We're acting like usually

if someone gets their foot in the door in animation

anyway, they're usually worth it. Yeah, absolutely.

I have had a crush on Jennifer Hale since I was

14. I'm not kidding. I believe I've had a crush

on her since I was 14 because. She opened her

mouth as Black Cat, and that is the definitive

Black Cat to me. Nobody else can touch that Black

Cat. Because holy crap. Yeah. Did you ever own

anything based on a cartoon, toys, comics, coloring

books, et cetera, as a kid? No, never. Who would

do such a thing? One or two things. One or two

things over the years. The odd toy, the odd lunchbox,

the odd giant playset from things. Yeah, no.

You can't really get into some of my hobbies

without having a wee bit of a collector's. So

yeah, no. Everything from books to blankets.

I had, so this is a funny story talking about

turtles. I think this was either 88 or 90, I

forget which year, but one year. My dad sent

me like, and I wish I still had it. I'm sure

I can find an image of it somewhere online, but.

You know that that opening shot of the 87 where

it's the title card So imagine the title, you

know the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with the

blue background Imagine that as a giant ass beach

towel with all the turtles splinter and April

on it So my dad packages this thing up puts a

for you Don't get any pizza on it, dude I was

like, thanks dad, this is awesome. Like literally

that towel was my lioness blanket for three years

from the time I was 10 until the time I was 13.

And by 13, I was aged more towards Power Rangers

than anything else at that point. What is your

favorite cartoon theme song? Hmm. Oh god. Um...

There's been one or two. There's been one or

two. Oh, this is actually quite true. Do you

know what, I'm... No. I was gonna say, no. God,

there's so many over the years. Um... And we're

in a stage where we don't have great cartoon

openings a lot of the time. Not always, but a

lot of the time. Because the thing about it is

the times and the way they're produced, it's

changed. Not everything gets an OP. You don't

have your standard of, okay, I'll put it in one.

He -Man is ending and it's going off the air

and you hear the end credits, you see the end

theme song and then either Thundercats or Transformers

or G .I. Joe. Something else comes up. So you

have like commercials between the two, the ending

of one show and the beginning of another. And

you have the themes like Turtles is a perfect

example. There is no, there's no cold open. There

is no pre -seen to Turtles. It's, you know, dun,

dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Teenage Ninja Turtles.

And then it goes into the show because back then

it was like opening credits, title card, cartoon.

Now they play with it. They've been playing with

it since I want to say. 2005, 2006 maybe, maybe

even more earlier than that. But I want to say

that's really when it started where it's like,

Oh, we can do a co Avengers as a per earth's

mightiest heroes. As per example, they have a,

they have an opening scene and then they throw

it into the theme song and, and whatever. But

nowadays it's more of, Oh, we're going to give

you just like 30 seconds of a theme song. That's

all it does. It's just a title card, but, um,

Yeah, there's a lot of options a lot of options,

but just because I think it actually influenced

a lot of my musical taste I'm going to say the

opening for Godzilla the series Which is primarily

orchestral. There's no like lyrics or anything

like that But it's got a lot of big booming moments

and horns and stuff like that and I have a real

love of that kind of music for backgrounds and

openings and stuff like Transformers Prime It's

kind of in the same spirit and I think If I was

to think what show probably ingrained that in

me, it was the Godzilla series opening. Um, plus

it's really well animated, but like talking about

the actual music, I think that because I think

that one kind of got in the back of my head and

kind of just been sitting there for years. Very

cool. Very cool. How big is your animation DVD

or digital collection? Are there any series that

you have the complete set of? Um, it's large.

Fairly large Transformers I have a complete set.

I want to pick up Samurai Jack Blu -ray But I

haven't got the money at the moment, but I'm

wanting to pick it up in the next couple of months

Which is like the season 1 -6 season 1 -5 rather

Like I said, I've got Looney Tunes I've got Jesus

lots of transformers few turtles Since streaming

age I have done a lot of clear outs and like

giving stuff to my niece and stuff like that

But yeah, no I have plenty like half of it's

up in an attic half of it's everywhere around

got like a Disney animation movie thing around

here somewhere, but no I've got I've got plenty

Very cool very cool Which cartoon or cartoons

had the biggest impact on your life? Probably

Transformers It's just my social life evolved

from that. I've been involved in podcasting for

over a decade now because of it. I got into collecting

because of it. I got into comic books because

of it. It got me into analyzing cartoons and

how they work out. I don't think I could legitimately

say anything's had quite the influence on my

life as Transformers has. Just in terms of what

it led me to do and where I've ended up. Yeah.

Cool, cool. What was the most money you spent

on a cartoon item ever? Examples are a DVD set,

a cell, a print, etc. I've got a print that was

about 100 euros. No, it would have been 100 pounds.

It's quite old. And it is from... What was it

from? Haven't looked in ages. It's a it's a it's

a Justice League one It's like that classic poster,

but it was a like really early version of it

as a collector item And it's just I was just

like young and dumb and on eBay So yeah a lot

of my early collecting was young and dumb and

on eBay, but yeah, I'd say that would probably

be the most I like I'd say to like transformer

toys and so I spent a cup I've sent 150 and some

figures but yeah, but for like Collectible in

that regard. Yeah, I'd say that would be about

much I'd never be like going into like by a hundred

thousand euro statue or something like that Yeah,

my young and dumb eBay phase was when I had a

really good job from 2005 to 2010 and that was

the point between my 25th and 30th birthday So

technically wasn't really young but I wasn't

old either. So you were down 42 back then Well,

no, I was pretty dumb. I mean, between G1 Optimus,

G1 Blaster, and G1 Soundwave, I think I spent

over $500 on all of those three to get like...

Blaster I remember was 120, Optimus was 150 and

I think Soundwave was maybe, and this is 2006

though. So back then it was like, Oh my God.

I, you know, back then was, and I know that the

eBay sniping and auctions and everything else

still goes on today, but back then in 2006, it

was like, Holy crap. Yeah. Holy crap. Do you

have a, my parents wouldn't let me watch that

cartoon story? Um, I have my parents walked in

and me watching a cartoon that I probably shouldn't

have been watching. Um, which was, um, this is

an anime one. Um, if you're into anime long enough,

you'll have heard of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

It is one of the most popular and one of the

most controversial ever made. Um, and it was

on sci -fi channel at like 12 o 'clock in the

day. Really shouldn't have been, but it was.

Um. just because I'm guessing it was animated,

so they thought, we'll stick it on. And we're

just like, oh, you fools. But I was watching

it, and then my mother comes in, and she was

like, la, la, la, la, la. Huh, this is... Huh.

Oh, okay. It had a scene which was fairly sexual

in nature. Not graphic, but pretty sexual. And

it didn't get any better because I was I used

to record the anime movies off late night sci

-fi like on saturday night They have anime movies

i'd watch them and I was just didn't know what

any of them were So I was watching one and she

came in and just like oh no This is one of those

hentais that I didn't realize was airing on tv

So she walked in at just the wrong moment Um

and saw something that I even I wasn't expecting

to think um Which led to an interesting conversation

For anyone who wants to know, and everyone will

get the context of this, the anime in question

was a rockadoji. So if someone is screaming hearing

that, someone is literally screaming into the

void going, no, not that one! That is infamous.

That is beyond infamous. That's funny. What is

your opinion on cartoon reboots? Which ones do

you think have been the most successful? I think

they can work. I don't think they always do.

I don't like one of the things I'm learning about

myself at the moment is that I don't enjoy the

binary of social media at the moment, which is

it's the best show or it's the worst show ever

made. And every show is the best or the most

interesting and the most progressive or the most

brilliant or it's the least of all those. I don't

like that. And since we're in the nostalgia phase

of everything's got to reboot, obviously we run

into that a lot. It can work, but it just depends.

I think the 2000X He -Man was a successful reboot.

I think... Motor... I think... Is a little bit

too in love with its source material. Weirdly,

I think the other Netflix He -Man show is better,

as a show. But I think Transformers and Turtles

are the biggest ones you can come to, because

they just every few years reinvent themselves.

Every few years and I guess it's killed. I don't

know Ducktales. I don't kill fucking from down.

Yeah. Oh, yeah Ducktales is amazing. Yes. I don't

think like out of everything I Don't think Transformers

and Turtles are Reboots, I don't see those franchises

as reboots. I see them not necessarily as continuations,

but like look 8487 we had G1 from 87 to 95 we

didn't really have anything. From 96 to 98 we

had Beast Wars, 99 to 2001 we had Beast Machines,

2001 to whatever we had, 2001 RID we had Armada,

Energon, Cybertron. Like all of that is it like

it's not like they were each trying to just copy

1984 whereas It's an interesting thing like I

think I think they've actually become more reboot

like as the years have gone on again as we've

hit that like reboot phase Turtles I think less

so than transformers. I think turtles And certainly

like rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

It's I don't love it, but I do think it's like

a lot more original than some franchise shows

Yeah, it's a weird one because I think Nickelodeon.

Yeah, I think Nickelodeon knows Nickelodeon knows

that okay 87 is now for the us me specifically

me at 42 years old 2003 I love 2003 2012 I dug

the first couple of seasons, but I need to go

back and rediscover some of that But like they're

all different in their own way and then you get

rise and rise. I looked at it and I'm just like

I'm just like the animation is okay Omar is like

some of the best action animation being made

today Like I don't like the style necessarily,

but the actual animation itself right? Yeah,

so fucking good To a shocking degree Yeah, just

the writing and the actual design I don't like

Yeah, exactly and and that's the thing like I

took like maybe one or two Scenes from the first

episode and I was just like Kids today can have

their turtles. I have mine. It's, you know, 40

years in the past almost and all that and whatever

else. And that's, that's fine. I, you know, we

don't have to like or dislike everything. It

can just be not for us. It can be for, you know,

and I think Nickelodeon recognizes that. And

I think even Hasbro and Transformers now kind

of recognizes that a bit more because, you know,

you look at, let's just say from 2007 to now.

Animated animated could be both for kids and

adults prime is more for us and more for people

that could have seen the films. No no self -respecting

parents should take their 10 year old to a Michael

Bay transformers movie. Just I know so you know

but it but you know you look at that you know

so you got prime you've got. 2015 robots in the

skies could be, I think, for both, but then you

get Cyberverse. Cyberverse is an animal you really

have to realize it was secretly being made for

both, but they weren't allowed to say it. Yeah,

Cyberverse to me is this era's version of G1.

Yeah. It came along. And did its own thing, but

it did its own thing with the characters that

us old guys and gals know and love. But there

has never been, and I hope to God there never

is, there has never been any Transformers animation

that has completely copied 84. Like from line

art to animation style to, like, we've never

had 84. ever again. Like, it comes close, but

like, we'll never have that animation style again.

We'll never have that 2D again, I don't think.

So speaking of which, which cartoon series from

the past would you most want to see more of today?

Whether it be a reboot, a live action movie,

or any other form of media. So basically, If

they were going to actually continue on from

REIT, because I'm counting US. I'm not counting

Headmasters and all that. That's a whole other

bucket of worms. But if they were to continue

on from REIT from, I almost said reboot. Rebirth!

You know, that's the question. So not necessarily

just Transformers, but which cartoons from the

past would you want to see more of now? Tricky

one, actually. Like I said, I'm a little gun

shy of a lot of the more nostalgia driven reboots

and stuff like that. Yeah Maybe I would say Maybe

I would say something like I looking back on

those like made 90s Like the one and done Series

I think some of them could be quite interesting

to see how they're done today. Like I mentioned

coming on the adventure, that got a very bad

sequel series. But I think with the tone you

can do in action writing these days, I think

it could be kind of interesting to see what you

could pull off with that. I would watch another

Dexter's laboratory movie as long as it's done

by Gendi. Yeah. Well should be interesting trying

to think of one I haven't already mentioned I

I don't see I don't like live -action remakes

in general on principle So I don't think I'd

ever go with one of those right, but yeah, I

just think it's I think it's insulting to the

medium if I'm honest I think it's saying like

hey, we'll give it legitimacy. Oh good legitimacy

Because it didn't have that before foolish thing

I always think of a quote from him from getting

tired of Koskinda where he went to meeting and

he said like oh you're being asked to direct

this live -action film and the guy walks in and

the guy behind the counter says so are you ready

to finally go up into making real movies and

he walked out. Oh my god, good for him. He was

absolutely right to walk out. So for me it's

like you can remake it and if you think you can

add something to do In a way that live action

can do that the animation couldn't sure but a

lot of the time live action is more fundamentally

limited than animation Just because of what you

can do and stuff like that. Um, yeah, maybe I

don't know. It's a tricky tricky one. I want

to see new ideas I'm not so much interested into

seeing yeah Yeah, that's the thing like the and

look I get it but these companies Insert company

name here, but let's just say Hasbro, Nickelodeon,

whatever. They have to keep a hold of their IPs.

They after this, they after that, they have to,

they supposedly have to appeal to both kids and

adults now because us as adults were the kids

that they appealed to 40 something years ago.

And they want to appease everybody. And there's

not always an easy way to do that. And. It just

seems like, oh, let's do this and let's like,

look, G .I. Joe, He -Man, Transformers, Turtles,

Thunder, all of the stuff we had in the 80s.

And yes, Batman obviously was around since 1939.

But you know what I mean? Like all of those original

shows we don't have, we have some original shows

now. But anytime I see one of those Netflix videos,

here's what's coming up on Netflix this August.

And I looked through it and I watched the video

and went, okay, I don't care about that cartoon.

I don't care about that cartoon. I don't care

about half the crap they have in this video.

So I guess I'm not paying for Netflix in August

because they just don't have anything I want

to watch. You know what I mean? It's that thing

of. They have to now appeal to us who want the

things we know and love no matter what version

that like animated prime, whatever it's all transformers,

you know, versus trying to come up with something

new because the something new stuff is supposedly

we have to now have this for kids. So these kids

can like, uh, what is it? Uh, the, the, the CGI

he man so far for the two seasons that I've seen,

I'm really digging it. Absolutely. I enjoy it

more than I enjoy the Clerks version of Masters

of the Universe. But that showed to me personally,

my own personal opinion, the CGI He -Man and

the Masters of the Universe is to kids today

as to what 1983 He -Man was to us back, you know,

40 years ago. It'll be remembered down the line.

And you have to remember that as well. Like I,

for me, I, when I think about that, I often think

that like, I just wish that we didn't have to

use the nostalgia card as much. Like I hope there

is a child who comes away from that human and

think like, wow, this is great. And it inspires

them to be really into animation or cartoons

or just media in general. But I'm also like,

I really wish it wasn't something based on what

I remember. I wish it was based on a new idea.

It's just, I think. The nostalgia thing gives

people too many safety nets from the creative

point of view, if you know what I mean. Yeah.

And I have all the respect in the world for,

and I hope we can eventually interview him at

some point on the network, but I have all the

respect in the world for John Bailey. I have

all the respect in the world for Jake Foushee,

but there ain't nobody. Like Peter Cullen. Like,

yes, they can do a good sort of impression or

imitation of him. I am so happy. I don't even

care what the rest of the cartoon is. I'm so

happy that Earth Spark Optimus Prime is fucking

Watt from A Knight's Tale. It's Alan Twitt. I'm

so happy about that because that is a casting

choice. That casting choice came out of left.

Like literally, I'm sure they went into that

saying, okay, this is going to be awesome. This

is going to be good. Let's unveil this at Comic

-Con or whatever, you know, kind of thing. Oh

crap. The whole world just went, Oh my God, Alan

Tudyk is the voice of Optimus Prime. And for

me, it's like, Oh, interesting because I can't

wait. Just like Gary Chalk was primal. David

Kay got a chance to play Optimus. Other people

have played Optimus, like I mentioned, John Bailey

and Jake Foushee. But David Kay and Alan Tudyk

are the first people that do their own thing

with The Void. David Kay sounds like David Kay.

Sounds like Beast Wars, Megatron, you know. You

watch Beast Wars and you watch X -Men Evolution,

okay? Is it Evolution? I forget. No, no, no,

I'm serious. No, it is. I know what you mean.

He was in it. No, he was Apocalypse. No, he was

Xavier in Evolution. Was he? Anyway, the point

is that... I don't remember. He was something.

Anyway, but the point is between David Kay and

Alan Tudyk... they are the most unique versions

of Void and I barely have heard Tudok's Prime

yet, but like Yeah, so Yeah, so anyway, all right.

Let's continue on here. No, I was just gonna

say like yeah, I agree Yeah, I mean, yeah All

right. Let's see here What is your opinion of

the cartoon sidekick? Snarf, Orko, etc. Love

him, hate him, don't carry the weight. Kind of

don't carry it away. Like, it's a bit performative

when I was younger and used to go like, oh no,

the guy everyone hates. Like, listen, they can

be as well or badly written. There's plenty of

other characters in those show who are equally

as annoying. They just, you know, they're older

and less gimmicky. Like, no, they don't bother

me. Any bothering they had was like purely performative

when i was younger and again dumber. So they're

fine they're happy i like orco scene in master

the universe revisions i think he was one of

the better parts. In your opinion which decade

represents the golden era of cartoons and why

fifty sixty seventies eighties nineties two thousand

or twenty tens. I think it depends what you mean

by golden i think. I think for creativity, the

late 90s and 2000s were probably, for me, the

hype. I think other people would say like 2010s

when you started getting stuff like Steven Universe

or stuff like that or Owl House, which is just

recently aired, which is very, very good. But

for me, I think. You got such a wide variety

of shows in the late 90s and early 2000s. So

you don't get that nowadays People are very much

chasing what's the most successful genre or successful

style to be doing and it's only now like Post

Adventure Time post Steven Universe It's only

now you're starting to see a lot of shows get

a bit more creative and maybe a bit more action

shows coming in a bit more wacky comedies and

stuff like that, like very much they were locked

in on, you know, follow the leader was a very

big thing. So I would say that just you've got

such high quality shows, you got more experimentation,

you got more original concepts. Like I think,

yeah, late 90s, 2000s era, I think is the one

for me. Yeah, absolutely. We are both right.

He played both voices, Professor X in evolution,

Professor X in Apocalypse. But the thing about

Apocalypse, as soon as I like, I know what the

professor x sounded like in that series of my

okay it's david k i get it. You bring in apocalypse

and i'm like holy crap these words that these

words megatron came back what what's going why

is these words megatron in in in my superhero

cartoon what's going on here so so yeah yeah.

Alright, some people view cartoons as something

for children, and don't view animation as a serious

form of media that adults should consume. Who

should cartoons be made for, in your opinion?

Whoever wants to watch them. Yeah, that's what

everybody says. I think the idea of limiting

a medium is ridiculous. I think the fact that

an animated movie can't go for Best Picture in

the Oscars is a very silly thing that was put

in there for elitism, which, if you look in the

history of it, that's literally what happened.

You know, it's a ridiculous thing. And there's

so many fantastic live action movies. There's

so many fantastic animated movies. And there's

so many animated movies that kick the ass of

every live action movie that year. But they're

never going to be given the consideration. I

mean, look at Toy Story. Look, look, look it

up. Yeah. Wally. Like if you just want to go

with the big names, that's even before you start

going lower down. I mean, Jesus. Best picture

there a few years ago, and it says so much about

the arrogance in some animation. The best picture

for animation went to Lion King, a movie that

they marketed entirely, and the fact it was live

action, even though there was not a single live

lion in it. It was just a terrible remake of

a very good film. It's what it is. I think the

best TV show of the last five years is a piece

of animation in Primal. I don't think anything

alive action comes close to it in terms of emotion

and quality and certainly not in terms of action.

But it's like, if you want to watch something,

if I could drill something out of people's heads

at a very young age, it's like, if you enjoy

something, it's fine. It doesn't matter what

it is. As long as you're happy and no one else

is being harmed, I really don't give a shit.

And you shouldn't be made feel guilty because,

oh, this involved a cartoon. which means that

it probably took a lot longer to make than your

thing. And frequently had more creative freedom.

But. And I agree with that, because here's the

thing, like, I think the problem is, is where

social media comes in. And Before like I've told

this story on air and off air I want to somehow

create a written story an audio drama Whatever

whatever end form it ends up being I want the

story to be we got we got social media in 1975

so Everything that is currently going on and

whatever else in the world except social media

happened in 1975 We fast -forward to 2022, see

how dystopian we are, because I remember in school,

in the 80s, in elementary, fourth, fifth, and

sixth grade, fourth and fifth grade, I said to

one of my friends or maybe a teacher or something,

like one of my friends probably asked me, what

are you going to do tonight? Oh, I'm going to...

Go home, watch some cartoons, maybe call this

girl I like. All of a sudden the teacher's like,

oh, I also had mentioned I may or may not be

listening to some hard rock at the time. You

shouldn't be calling girls and listening to hard

rock. What kind of, and I come from divorced

parents, but what kind of parents are raising

you? Like this whole thing of, and that's where

I think nowadays the social media, ever since

social media has been a thing. You can't go on

any forum insert forum name here or Twitter Instagram

Facebook and say you like something without 75

people coming back at you and saying well This

is why I don't like it or this is why it sucks

or this is what like the whole look Opinions

are like assholes. Everybody's got one. However,

you can still be respectable and respectful by

expressing your opinion without attacking, like

I'm a huge fan of Nickelback, but I'm not going

to sit here and be shamed for liking a rock band

that came out, you know, almost three decades

ago. I don't know. It's just one of those things

that just, yeah. So, all right. I've said this

every episode in one of these days, I'm actually

gonna get somebody to do a voice for this, but...

We're now entering the cartoon fantasy land!

If you could own any vehicle featured in a cartoon,

which one would it be and why? Grimlock. Because

you can write name accounts of the vehicle. And

I shouldn't have to explain why, it's a fire

-breathing T -Rex. Yes. If you could live in

any cartoon world that you wanted, where would

you live? Courage the Cowardly Dog. Because at

least it would be interesting. You'd live in

terror, but it'd be interesting. Yes, yes it

would. Who would be your top three tune pals

to join you and become a quartet? Oh my god.

Can't be anyone action based, because never put

me in a fight. I will - No, this is like barbershop

- this is like if Optimus Prime, Megatron, and

Soundwave - We're gonna join you in a barbershop

quartet. That's much more sense than what I was

thinking. I will say Porky Pig. Mm -hmm. Glomgold.

Oh, wow. Well, he could be like, you know, Scottish,

so he can hit certain notes if I can't. I will

say Captain Planet. Because he's made of lots

of different aspects. He must have some musical

talent in there. There you go, that's your three.

That's your three. Oh, I got it four. Okay, that's

where we're going with. You are the fourth, so

Captain Planet, Glomgold, and what was the other

one? What was your first one? Trying to remember.

No, even better. Mandark from Dexter's lab. That

would be even better. That's awesome. If you

could date any cartoon character, which one would

it be? Hannah Dundee from the Cadillacs and Dinosaurs.

She was possibly just my first crush, let alone

your first cartoon crush, but she was my first

crush. And I was very young. I was too young

to know what women were about and just like,

this woman is in hot pants and I don't know why,

but yes. The answer is yes. It's always scary

how I didn't have to think about that one at

all. Well, no, I mean, you know, it's like, you

know, so when in my episode when I was asked

that question, hands down, no contest. I knew

you were going to say Jessica Rabbit. I mean,

you know, if Optimus Prime wants to get caught

by a booby trap, why not one of the best ones?

Oh, boy. what is the holy grail of cartoon artifacts

the sword of omens the matrix of leadership the

power sword from he -man except samurai jack

sword there you go that's an amazing like we

can't kill it can only kill evil it's really

cool it's a simple looking sword so it's cool

and you actually have to be good with swords

to use it so it's it's under this like oh i've

got superpowers everything else it's like no

no you actually have to know how to fight I just

think it's so important, like, in anything. Very

cool, very cool. Awesome. Alright folks, we are

now exiting cartoon fantasy land. Last question,

what is one piece of advice that you would give

the cartoon fandom in general? Um, enjoy what

you enjoy. Think about things. Think about what

you're saying to other people. There are unfortunately

some pretty terrifying horror stories out there

from the cartoon fandom of what they did to people

who didn't conform to what they thought they

should. I remember one from Steven Universe about

some poor girl, she was a fan artist and she

was harassed so badly over her art of Steven

Universe that she tried to kill herself. I remember

that story. And there's been stories like that

throughout many things. Don't harass creators

just because you have access to them on social

media would be another one. But enjoy what you

enjoy. Love what you love. Tell people what you

love. Tell them why you love it. But remember,

they may love something else. And there is no

sacred golden calf of animation. If you say Batman

1990s was a piece of shit and here's why, you've

got your reasons and that's fine. I'm not owed

extra respect because I happen to think it's

a piece of art. Absolutely. All right, folks,

before we take a quick break, would you like

to be on the Origins episodes here at Tooncast?

Send an email to feedback at geekcastradio .com

with the subject line, Tooncast Origins guest

spot. You must have one year or more of a podcast

experience, have a good microphone and be able

to be on a PC or Mac because Zencaster does not

like mobile. We're going to take a quick break,

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to the Marku42's universe podcast from the universe

and beyond. Hi, Maggie. What are you writing?

Oh, hi, John. I'm writing down ideas for a new

promo for Married with Comics. I like our old

promo. But the clips from the old promo are from

an episode that's never even aired. It's lazy

podcasting. But we're incredibly lazy podcasters.

And the only thing you've written down are the

words, come up with ideas for the new promo.

Well, I guess we'll just have to fall back on

plan B, then. Uh, B for blackmail professional

podcast guest Tim Price into doing a Mephisto

bit? Exactly. Greetings, internerds. It is I,

Mephisto, ruler of the netherworld. and prince

of all evil. I am taking this time for my evil

machinations to issue a warning to everyone in

Popcastland. Avoid married with comics with John

and Maggie at all costs. They're a despicably

lovable pair of newlyweds who talk about comic

books and other areas of geekdom with enthusiasm

and joy that is anathema to me. Just listen to

them as they paraphrase panels. For those who

don't have the issue, Thor's expression is pretty

much that of anyone who reads this issue once

you're done with it. You, you there, everyone's

sick of this and sick of you. I am warning where

you need to go, which is away from here and away

from this issue. And I do love that first panel.

It's pretty neat. I like it. Batman going swoosh.

Explain exposition. I have no idea what's happening.

In this one, it looks like Superman's tearing

a bridge down. Why is he destroying a bridge?

I think this is part of his eventual reign of

terrorism. Oh, maybe. And another thing! The

bridge! Screw that! And comment on all their

favorite comics. Everything about this issue

is just gollywhackers. He's causing huge amounts

of property damage, which, by the way, at least

when the Fantastic Four does it, they pay the

city back. Superman's not going to pay anybody

back for this. Married with Comics, available

directly at marriedwcomics .libson .com on Apple

Podcasts, Stitch, or Podbean, or wherever you

get your podcasts. Or find us on Facebook or

Twitter by searching for Married with Comics

Podcast. We've got everything you need. Do you

like retro cartoons? Then Saturday morning rewind

is the podcast for you Join them each month as

they talk about classic cartoons and interview

legendary voice actors like Jim Cummings Cory

Burton Rob Paulson How are we gonna find chaps

our size? Nancy Cartwright and many more. Eat

my shorts. So grab a bowl of Lucky Charms. They're

magically delicious. Put on your hammer pants.

Go to SaturdayMorningRewind .com. And be prepared

to feel like a kid again. Once again, that's

SaturdayMorningRewind .com. Saturday Morning

Rewind was voted best podcast ever by its host,

Tim Nydel. So it's gotta be good. Yeah. All right,

Toonsters. We are back. Any final thoughts from

you, Mr. O'Sullivan? Everyone should watch Primal.

Everyone, right now. Go watch it now. Stop. Whatever

you do. Stop listening to this and go watch Primal.

Why are you still here? Why aren't you watching

Primal? Okay, Ferris. Thanks a lot. I'm too subtle.

I'm too subtle. That's my problem. All right

Toonsters as always we want to thank you for

joining us here on Tooncast. If you'd like to

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Visit the website geekcastradio .com where you

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Radio for the network. What is your Twitter that

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tunes all the time over there as well. We hope

you enjoyed this episode of tune cast. I wish

you'll join us next time when we will be giving

you our thoughts on something. I still have no

plan folks. Like literally like 285 to 287. I'm

like, okay, 285. I know what I want to do. 286

is an origins. This is an origins next time.

No clue. I'm actually in the. Early stages of

preparing either a Flintstones Fridays. And or

in conjunction with that a space age Saturdays

or a sprockets Saturdays I haven't figured like

Flintstone Friday that's easy done but like I

can't like there is no Jay day of the week like

there is no. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, none of that rhymes

with Jetsons. So, for now, I am TF2 on Mike with...

Mikey from the Mistoo! Thank you for joining

us. Watch Primal. Tune in. Yes, watch Primal.

There we go. Thank you for listening. Until next

time, oh yeah. and unleash the tune in you as

he cackles through my closing.