OptimusSolo’s Top 20 Toons

Hi, this is Tom Ruger and you are listening to

the GeekCast Radio Network. Sword of Omens, give

me sight beyond sight. I see a new episode of

ToonCast coming this week. Beyond good, beyond

evil, beyond your wildest imagination. Hello

and welcome to ToonCast episode 300. We are continuing

on with GeekCast Radio Network's ToonCast. We've

been around for four... 15 years as of june 1st

this year in 2023 i am of course tfg and mike

this is top 20 tunes this time around since it's

the 300th episode i am bringing back one of the

original creators and co -creators of tune cast

with me it is none other than the one the only

optimist solo hello sir have you had any mac

and cheese today you just can't get rid of me

nope I haven't watched MacGyver in a while, actually.

I did just finish The Wonder Years, but MacGyver

is somewhere on the list. I was so disappointed.

Yeah, I was so disappointed. So before my lovely

bride, Karen, passed away two years ago, we were

going through all of her DVD collection that

she had amassed over the years from family and

whatever else, and she had MacGyver. And I'm

like, oh, cool, you have MacGyver. Two years

later, after she dies and all that stuff that

happened and all the stuff that I've had to go

through in the last two years, I look at it again.

I'm like, MF -er, this thing is just the first.

I thought it was the complete series. It's just

the first season. I'm like, whatever, MacGyver.

But we are here to talk about tunes. We are continuing

the top 10 tunes. This time around, because it's

the 300th episode and it's Optimus Solo, we are

going to give him top 20 tunes. He is going to

do top 10 animated series and top 10 animated

films. 300 episodes. God. The beginning was,

yeah, the beginning was Nintendo tunes. And I

think it was me, you, Dion, and Geek of Todd.

I don't know whatever the hell happened to Geek

of Todd. I remember we kind of started the show

with him because we kind of wanted I don't want

to say a third wheel, but a third person, because

I find personally a trio of hosts is the best

to have on an audio podcast. But that's just

that's just my own person. But I'm like big enough

for two people. So, OK, personality wise, weight

wise, I'm big enough. Seven people. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, hey. Leave my opinions alone. You leave

my onions alone, damn it. Yeah, I one by one

knocked everybody else out of the ToonCast mix

there for a while. Cannibalized the show until

it was just myself and Mike so I could hear myself

talk more. And then 300 episodes later, there's

been a lot of other stuff that's happened along

the way. Yeah, there's a... I did a quote back

in 2018 when we hit some sort of anniversary

or something. It was like, TF2 and Mike, just

a bunch of fucking repaints. Well, I guess I

better talk about myself because nobody else

is talking about me or something. I don't remember.

So, yes, top 20 tunes. We are starting with what,

sir? It happens every time when a boy tries to

show off for his girlfriend. Sooner or later,

he ends up all wet. Keep going back and forth.

Let's start with the... Actually, let's start

with the TV series, I guess. Let's start with

the animated series. The other reason why we're

doing top 20 is because you can't contain me

to 10 cartoons. My cartoon database is too big.

He can't make the hard decisions. He refuses.

There's too many cartoons out there to narrow

it down to 10, but my goodness, we tried. Hey,

I did. I tried. You're going to see a little

bit of an 80s slant on this. Well, of course,

because you actually have four lists, but I vetoed

that. We'll do that in another – we'll do your

80s lists in another episode. It's a good list.

Yeah, exactly. So, all right. What are we – Scott,

I feel like it's 2009 all over again. What in

hell are we starting with? Starting with the

top 10 animated series overall, and I'm going

to start with number 10 if that's all right with

you. Well, yeah, obviously. I tried to get a

good variety. I mean this is a hard task to try

to narrow down all of the animated series that

have ever happened down to 10. So I'm trying

to have a variety, have certain things represented,

as well as some of my personal favorites, as

well as some that I think just acclaim -wise

would make most people's list, or at least if

it was a larger list, like a top 50, top 100,

I would think all of these would be on there

somewhere, hopefully. And I disqualified a few

of the obvious ones just because I haven't personally

had a connection with them or watched them. So,

for example, The Simpsons I've never seen. You've

never seen The Simpsons? I've never seen an episode

from beginning to end of The Simpsons, no. Wow.

Okay, yeah, that's how I did my list when I did

my list with Steve, when Steve interviewed me

for my list. I did basically, what have I seen

and how do I want to rank them? Right. So I tried

to make a combination. They had to be shows that

were somewhat... critically acclaimed or like

had an impact legacy iconic shows but they also

had to be something that i had a personal connection

to right so i eliminated stuff that i haven't

like i've i've really never hardly watched futurama

there was just a a bunch of those adult themed

cartoons that i just didn't expose myself to

and simpsons back in the day was one of those

things i don't think i was allowed to watch it

at first and then i wasn't huge on the character

design piece like the look of it and then it

just became this thing where like are you really

going to start a show that has 700 seasons and

try to like go through it at this point so yeah

like things like that i've just never seen but

speaking of which it's kind of going well hand

in hand with my number 10 because i did pick

my number 10 is the representation of kind of

those adult cartoons or primetime cartoons i

guess you could say okay not not for children

and i did not go with family guy just to try

to keep you happy even though i don't get your

list i don't know i just didn't want to deal

with you harassing me on my own show here so

instead of family guy because i think that's

the obvious pick for me that's the one i've seen

the most that's the one i have on almost all

of it on not all of it but at one point i had

all of it on dvd since they've just kept making

episodes so i Couldn't keep up. But I'm going

to go with Archer for number 10. What a day.

Wait, are you recording? Okay. Hi, Sterling Archer,

the world's greatest spy. God, you've got so

much to catch up on. So we're going to have to

montage the shit out of this thing. Here we go.

Wash everything. So, uh... Shut up. Here it comes.

Try to keep up. I've been sous chef. Bartender.

Drug dealer. Captain. Bob. Hitman. Astronaut.

Pirate king. A private investigator. The world's

greatest secret agent. Punch. Bang. Boom. I've

been up against terrorists. Communists. Cannibals.

Clowns. Aliens. Dudley douchebags. Russian spies.

The world's slowest elevator. Cyborgs. I forgot

the space pirates. Anywho, I've had sex with

Veronica. Jeanette. Gerald. Janelle. Katya. La

Madrina. Lana! I don't remember this. Get me

drunk enough and I might have sex with... Super.

But long story short, I've been shot, stabbed,

set on fire, poisoned, shot, sexually assaulted,

partially chewed, shot, and declared legally

dead. Twice on the same day. This is gonna be...

Wait for it. Epic! Boom. Click. Boom. Boom. Boom.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Did I just blow your mind?

I swear to God, I could watch this like a million

times. FX is Archer, now streaming on Hulu. Really?

That actually sounds pretty cool. I just think

Archer is such a cleverly written show. It's

funny. It kind of encapsulates all of those other

types of shows that were out there at that time.

It's a mix. I feel like if you took Family Guy,

The Cleveland Show, You know, all of the Seth

MacFarlane type shows. And then you combine it

with a lot of the stuff that we got like on Adult

Swim and things of that nature. Like Archer is

kind of a little of both of that to me. So I

just really enjoy the show. I haven't seen as

much of it as I would like. I've seen bits and

pieces here and there, but it always makes me

laugh a lot. So I wanted something on that primetime

represented. So I went with Archer at number

10. very cool very cool yeah i've never i've

seen advertisements for it i've seen promos i've

seen clips but i've never actually watched it

and wasn't it the first fx animated series because

it's done by fx right yeah i think that might

have been that might be true i'm not super knowledgeable

on the history of archer but that sounds right

to me yeah i i've always wanted to to watch it

i just never it's just one of those things that

i never have The other reason it kind of fits

with me is because it's kind of that action cartoon

style adult humor primetime show. Whereas with

Family Guy and The Simpsons and all of those

are more sitcom like. So they're like the animated

versions of sitcoms. Whereas Archer for me is

kind of it's like that. obviously the secret

agent slash you know james bond type feel it's

more of that action series with the comedy so

i think it kind of separates itself a little

like that oh it's got 13 seasons holy crud i

haven't been able to keep up no it's well it's

all on hulu so right you have access to my hulu

so that's fine i just wanted to make sure like

i could actually find and watch it somewhere

so it reminds me of the one there was another

one that was much lesser known and not nearly

as successful it came just to maybe like within

the last 10 years that was almost like a spoof

of He -Man that came out and I'm blanking on

the name of it but I enjoyed that one a lot but

I think it only lasted like one or two seasons

but I kind of enjoy that adult humor take on

some of those action style cartoons very cool

very cool I'm gonna go a completely different

direction with number nine though All right,

what is your number nine, sir? All right, so

Disney has got to be represented somewhere in

a list of cartoon series overall. It's going

to be represented, I think, if I'm looking at

my list correctly, twice on my countdown. But

I wanted to represent it in two different ways.

The first one I'm going to do with number nine

because I think that classic Disney characters,

as far as Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy,

Pluto, Donald Duck. They are such a part of most

kids' cartoon history at some point. So I wanted

to represent that in a way, and there's been

like a gazillion Mickey Mouse -oriented cartoons

that you could pick from. But I think my favorite,

just because of all the different things that

it pays homage to and references the Disney library

in its entirety, is House of Mouse. So I just

think that one, if I'm picking one Mickey Mouse

-centric... I think House of Mouse does the best

job of encapsulating all of Disney as far as

the movies, the cartoons, the old classic characters,

etc. Yep. So I like that one a little bit better

than than some of the other ones that you could

choose. I mean, your kids probably watching what

like the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or like something

else like that. But I think House of Mouse for

me is how I would want to represent Disney overall.

I'm going to have another Disney show later on

that's representing a completely different aspect

of Disney in a way. But House of Mouse to me

is something that was just so well done. Yeah,

House of Mouse was interesting because it was

a way for Disney and Disney Channel and Disney

Junior and Disney, whatever, Disney, Disney,

Disney. You know, it was a way for them to use

the traditional animation, the animation that

we know and love and not the stuff that's in.

Clubhouse or whatever this new... Some of the

new style animation on... And I know it's for

kids. It's not for me. It's whatever. And that's

fine. That's not the point. The point is the

difference in styles of the animation. The animation

in House of Mouse is very traditionally dry.

It's like comparing Transformers Generation 1

to Transformers Animated. It's two very different

styles and whatevers. But I love House of Mouse.

And it was fun always waiting to see which characters

were going to show up. Yep, which characters

were going to show up to the club or which character

was going to do something – which one of the

villains was going to do something nefarious

during them showing you all these classic cartoons

because that was the other thing. It was a way

for Disney to re -show everybody. It was a cool

way for them to re -show everyone the old classic

Mickey, Goofy, Donald stuff. I love House of

Mouse. It's awesome. So I am trying my best to

represent different things in this list and trying

to, you know, have a show stand in for multiple

shows, I guess, in a way. And there's no way

I'm not going to have something on my list that

represents 80s action, boys action cartoons,

because that decade is just and I know I'm biased.

I know that was my decade, et cetera, et cetera.

As far as when I was a kid. But that doesn't

take away the fact that the 80s did something

that had never been done before in any other

decade, and that was establish these action cartoon

franchises that would turn into franchises. Because

there's a good number of these 80s action shows

that have just lived on and been rebooted and

rebooted, have had movies, whether it be animated

movies, live action movies, new cartoon series,

et cetera, et cetera. toy lines that have been

on the shelves for decades and decades and no

other time period up until that point had done

that it's just you're not going to find a dozen

70s shows that are still living on as far as

the action you know nobody's talking about uh

what danger mouse Well, no, Danger Boss was 80s,

too, and it's not really quite the same style

as actions. I'm thinking like some of these were

kind of 80s, too, but like the whole thunder,

the barbarian type, black star type. That's what

we had in the 70s. And, you know, those things

have fizzled like that. They're not being reinvented

over and over and over again. So. Right. So I

had a lot of 80s action cartoons to think of

when I wanted to see which ones were going to

be represented in my list. That's why I made

a whole separate list that maybe we'll get to

at some point that is just 80s action cartoons

ranked. Yes, that will be a future episode of

the podcast. But this is going to be where I

kind of stretch the limits a little because I'm

not just going to represent the 80s action cartoons

with one entry on my list. There's going to be

a few. And I'm going to start here with number

eight, and that's going to be G .I. Joe, a real

American hero. I just think that's an iconic

80s brand. It still exists. The toys are still

on the shelves. We haven't got quite as much

of the cartoon. reboots as we have some of these

other ones yeah but it's had a few and it's had

its live action movies everybody knows what gi

joe is right like i mean that was like the original

the 12 inch toy way back in the day for boys

like that was kind of where it was at so i think

gi joe just does a good job of representing one

of those most iconic 80s action cartoons so it's

number eight on my list awesome very cool very

cool yeah i recently went You and I have known

this for years now since DVDs and whatever else

and all that stuff and whatever, like TV shows

on DVD and everything else. When I first moved

here to Indiana at the time, last year when I

was moving across country, at one point or another

I ended up in Walmart and I ended up in the entertainment

section because... We always end up in the entertainment

section for something, whether it's computer

based or television based or whatever. And they've

done these condensed DVD sets. So it is the entire

show, but it's not like the footlocker that you

have from the complete series kind of thing.

So I finally picked up. the original sunbow gso

we will be doing at some point i'm in the midst

of making plans we will be doing gi joe on this

podcast at some point i don't don't know when

but uh it depends on your schedule steve schedule

all that good stuff but i'm like oh i should

grow because it was like for the entire sunbus

it was like on sale it was like 15 bucks and

i'm like This is a big DVD set, even though it

was in a smaller package. The good thing of DVDs

becoming not the top type of physical media.

Blu -ray has helped us out with those prices.

Yeah, absolutely. And I've gone blue now. I have

a Blu -ray player in my, you know, on my TV setup

and everything else. But, like, man, I just,

yeah, I love. And that was the thing. I've seen

bits and pieces of G .I. Joe. I know about the

various. I don't know about the various. Hell,

Geek Cast Radio, the flagship podcast of this

network, episode one, was myself. I don't know

if you were there. I don't remember. I'm not

going to look it up at this moment. It was me,

Steve Megatron, and either somebody else or maybe

it was just the two of us. We discussed G .I.

Joe Resolute back in the day. So, you know, it's

just one of those things that, yeah, absolutely.

Love, love Joe. Love, love all that stuff. All

right. That is the first of my action cartoons.

There will be more. Cool. Awesome. For number

seven. Okay. So if you know how they always have

those lists that are like the 20 most powerful

people in entertainment or the 50 most influential

people in blah, blah, blah. I feel like if they

were to do that, like on an all time basis, like

who have been the most influential people on

children's entertainment, kids entertainment

from a TV standpoint or whatever, this guy would

be probably in the top five, maybe top three,

maybe number one. I don't know. It depends on

how you would break that down. So I had to have

him represented somewhere. And the man I'm talking

about is Jim Henson. And so for me, I have to

go to the 1980s classic Muppet Babies to represent

him, just because Muppet Show is not animated.

Muppet Babies, I feel like, is a slightly better

show than Fraggle Rock. There has been a reboot

of Muppet Babies in the last few years, which

is fine. But something about that classic one

with all of the movie clips they did from Star

Wars and things like that, which is why it's

so hard to find this on DVD, all the music cues,

things like that. When you rule, it's kind of

weird, and you wish that you weren't there. Just

close your eyes and make some noise, and you

can be anywhere. I like it. I like my life. I

love great jokes. I'm a mobile. I've got my computer.

I can do that. I play the piano. And I've got

blue hair. Is everything all right in here? Yes,

Nanny. and it was just an interesting thing it

started like this whole revolution too as far

as talking about like a legacy or an impact on

the media if you want you could make a top 10

cartoon series list of shows that tried to mimic

muppet babies and as far as going into like baby

or younger versions of their cast you had flintstones

did it flintstone kids you had uh tom and jerry

tried to do like a baby version yep yep so and

there's a bunch of other ones that you could

name off but there's so many things that tried

to like replicate what muppet babies was able

to achieve but muppet babies also wasn't just

like It wasn't just a manufactured cartoon to

sell something necessarily. Like there was a

intelligence in the writing. There was an emphasis

on imagination and things that you could imagine

you and your friends doing. And they allowed

them to go way into all these different areas,

even though they were technically all in this

nursery the whole time. So I just think Muppet

Babies was an iconic show from the 80s. It represents

Jim Henson, who did so much through all of his

movies and TV series and whatever. Like I said,

I think you probably have Walt Disney in there,

Jim Henson. There's not that many people that

have a resume like this guy does. So I had to

represent him, and Muppet Babies is how I'm doing

that. Absolutely. So, you know how Disney calls

various people imagineers, like whoever works

for them or whatever, they call them imagineers

because Walt Disney wanted to, you know, everyone

to use their imagination. And most of the time

in most Disney things, I can use my imagination.

I can put myself as a, you know, fly on the wall

in Robin Hood or Peter Pan or whatever. But there

was nothing. Not a single cartoon that got your

imagination going more than Muppet Babies. And

the reason for that is because Jim Henson loved

for kids in the 80s to learn from his programs

and learn to use your imagination. It separated

itself from Sesame Street, too, in a way, because

even though that's probably the most iconic Jim

Henson property ever as far as just lasting impact

and things like that, it's funny, though, because

this is a show about babies. It's in the title,

Muppet Babies, but it's somehow more advanced

in a way. It's somehow a little bit more intelligent

and mature than Sesame Street, even. Okay, so

let's – this isn't a whole Muppet Babies episode.

We're going to do one of those at some point.

I think we did actually already do an overall

one, but we're going to get deeper into Muppet

Babies at some point on this podcast. But look

at the – like it says the title is Muppet Babies,

and yes, you are right. There were plenty of

other cartoons, Baby Looney Tunes. We could list

them, Tom and Jerry Kids, whatever, like we've

already said. Look at Muppet Babies. how old

you're a father you have a daughter how old would

you say those characters are in that show one

two i wouldn't say one i would say maybe two

or they're walking they're talking they're talking

enough so you'd think that they were like probably

three or four right yeah so it's like three or

four year olds technically They are still babies.

But when I hear the word babies, I think of like

six months old, one year old, two year old. Yeah,

it's more to represent like the younger versions

of characters that we knew. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

I understand that. And but I'm just saying, like,

my point is going back to the imagination thing.

These are three and four year olds that are doing

what we were doing, that are building like. They

used to get all kinds of, like, to make a, I

don't want to say a soapbox racer or a soapbox

car racer, but, like, they would get various,

like, if they were going to build a fort or whatever.

Because they had, like you were saying, they

have all this imagination. They open a door and

it's a saloon or the party or it's a cave or

it's a this or that. Again, using your imagination,

and you are absolutely 100 % correct, the 80s

started the imagination train. Because that's

how almost 40 -something, 50 -something, I know

it's not 50 years since the 80s, but you know

what I mean? Good man. Well, yes, but next year,

40 years for Transformers, etc., etc., etc.,

whatever. But the point is that in the 80s, something

started. This imagination era started, and it's

flowed through until today. Even though, sadly...

Artificial intelligence wants to replace actual

intelligence, and I'm getting sick of it. Okay.

Anything else you want to say about Muppet Babies?

No, I think that's good. All right. Next number.

All right. So my number six, I'm going to go

back to my other Disney representation. So in

my opinion, Disney has like three streams of

stuff, right? So number one, you have the movies,

the movie catalog of Disney, which I already

sort of represented with House of Mouse because

they bring so many movie characters into that.

and then i think you have like the classic characters

like we said with mickey manny pluto you know

donald etc daisy and that's represented in house

of mouse and this one is too but i think the

disney afternoon was such a revolution it's like

disney as far as television animation and cartoon

series was not established before the disney

afternoon right so you had a few cartoons that

kind of started you had the wuzzles and you had

the gummy bears and things like that that were

kind of starting that trek but before that there

really wasn't much as far as disney cartoons

go so when the disney afternoon and the shows

that are considered part of that reached the

success levels that they did it it just kind

of solidified disney as an animation vehicle

as well and then we got so much more throughout

the mid to late 90s because of that disney afternoon

as shows kept getting added and different things

and you know disney's gone a lot of directions

since but the disney afternoon is so important

to that story and there's a bunch that you could

choose from obviously i think to me the most

iconic disney afternoon shows would consist of

gummy bears rescue rangers tailspin darkwing

duck and ducktales Those are probably the big

five. There's other shows that are considered

part of the Disney afternoon. And so if I'm trying

to pick one of those to represent the whole thing,

you could go in a lot of different directions.

But for me personally, I have to go with DuckTales.

It's just something that to me encompasses everything.

It has the cartoon series. It had the movie.

that came up came along with it it has had the

reboot now recently which was actually really

good you should check that out if you haven't

checked out the the ducktales reboot from whatever

it was five years ago or however many years i

lose track of time because i'm old now six years

six years ago it was a good series for sure and

it's it's another thing that also represents

what what disney was doing at the time outside

of gummy bears and wuzzles was that they were

taking characters that had existed in other mediums

or other forms within the disney catalog and

reinventing them so we see that with chip and

dale's rescue rangers because they take chip

and dale make them into this team add a couple

more characters which by the way trivia fact

it was supposed to originally be a series about

the rescuers not chip and dale but they went

with chip and dale instead after everything was

all said and done which i think was a good choice

but again it took these two classic you know

just theatrical cartoon type characters chip

and dale and just completely reinvent some yeah

we see that with uh tailspin a little bit and

we definitely see that obviously with ducktales

with the the few of the characters that they

throw in there in a completely different way

with donald huey dewey louis scrooge etc etc

and all the different side characters that come

or come along and it just is something that most

people know ducktales there might be yeah there

might be some people that don't don't react if

you sing them the theme song or do that to that

part or don't give you the woohoo when you do

the other part, but at least for our generation,

there was nobody that existed that didn't know

what DuckTales was. So it might not be true with

today's generation, but with that reboot just

six years ago, it might still be true. But I

just think DuckTales is a good representation

of the Disney afternoon, and so I had to include

it here on my list. Nothing but old robes. Forty

years of searching, and I end up with Kali Baba's

dirty laundry. So ladies and gentlemen, with

the 300th episode of ToonCast, As I've already

said in the last 20 minutes or 30 minutes or

so, we're going to be doing all kinds of stuff

coming up. We have all kinds of plans. I just

haven't filtered them all out yet. I haven't

figured them all out yet kind of thing. I've

been wanting to do the Disney afternoon stuff

for a long time. And it will be done at some

point. And we will probably start with... The

way I want to do it is I want to start in air

date order as far as, like, which show aired

first. And I think the first show that aired

first is DuckTales. Simultaneously, it was technically

Gummy Bears and Wuzzles aired the same day, I

think, on different channels. Wuzzles was Disney?

I thought Wuzzles was. Those were, like, their

first two properties that weren't based on another

thing. And they aired them on the same day, I

think, but on two different channels. So, like,

one was on CBS and one was on ABC or something

of that nature. Okay. Well, point is. The Disney

afternoon block will be covered on this podcast

sometime soon, as soon as I fix up the plan and

all that stuff. All right, where are we? We're

number five. All right. So the top five now.

I have some that are just completely personal

biases, I guess, that are going to continue that

80s action theme. I have two iconic franchises.

And then I have this one. who I think is just

so expertly and intelligently written that there's

no way it can't exist on my list. And I think

it also represents the 90s in a way, probably

the best of the 90s as far as cartoons go. If

I was making a top 10 list of 90s cartoons, this

might be number one. I'm going with Animaniacs.

Enough with the gratuitous cameos. And I just

think, you know, we had Animaniacs, we had Tiny

Toons, and then there was a few other ones along

that same time period. But I think Animaniacs

reigns supreme. Obviously, we have the classic

Warner characters, Warner Brothers characters

with Yakko, Wakko, and Dot. But the music that

they did, the intelligence that those songs were

written in, like the countries of the world is

still just fantastic. Yakko's world, Wakko's

America, all that stuff. And the voice acting

is great. The music is great. The writing is

great. Even when they did the reboot, which,

again, I don't remember the year, but it's been

within the last six years again, probably the

same. Animaniacs reboot started in 2020. Okay,

so just three years ago. And it was fantastically

written as well. It's like they didn't miss a

beat, and the jokes are just so good. And the

commentary, social commentary is great. And then

it's mixed into this like kids cartoon. So you

can enjoy it at all different ages. It's one

of those that really does work for kids. And

it does work for adults that are watching it

with the kids. And like I said, I think it just

represents the best the 90s had to offer as far

as cartoons go in a way. So Animaniacs, I'm going

to put that in instead of Tiny Toons. I think

it's a little bit better. And I think it deserves

to be in this list. So that's where I'm going

with number five. All right. Yeah. It's – stop

me if you heard this before because I repeat,

repeat, repeat myself. Well, I repeat myself

a lot. I was 13 when Animaniacs started, and

from 13 to 18, those five years of my life, I

just didn't – We had because I was in the state.

I was in state's custody in Kentucky when I was

a teenager and I was at various shelters and

group homes and things like that. I was at the

shelter one time, the manager there. And I'm

not making this up. I swear I'm not. When I tell

you this part of the story, it's going to be

crazy for you. But this he was maybe I want to

say mid 30. I was 13, 14. He was mid 30s. He

was the. overall not the overall supervisor but

he was like the weekend supervisor or the on

-call supervisor for the shelter his name was

kevin not kidding not kidding at all and he loved

animaniacs and he tried to get us to sit and

watch it and i i did not discover how awesome

animaniacs was until after well after I was out

of high school. I had already tried college.

I was probably 21 years old, 22 years old before

I discovered how awesome the original Animaniacs

show is. But I absolutely hated it as a teenager

because he was always talking of, like, can't

you just shut up about this show? I didn't say

that to him, but I'm thinking that in my head.

But yeah, Animaniacs, absolutely awesome. All

right, number four, sir. All right, I said there'd

be a few more action cartoons represented on

my list, and this one is the one that was the

groundbreaker. This was the opener of the gate,

in essence, that switched us from the 70s action

cartoons to the 80s action cartoons. There's

almost no action cartoon that had a bigger impact.

than He -Man and the Masters of the Universe.

So if you thought that I wasn't going to represent

a cartoon that we've reviewed every episode of

almost every series at this point, once we catch

up with the ones that have come out recently,

you're crazy. This series, you could poo -poo

on it all you want, or you could try to... pick

holes in it or tear it apart for we already did

that for the fact that it's an 80s cartoon and

it's a toy commercial and it's not that well

written and all this other stuff it is very well

written guess what when you were a kid in the

80s None of that shit mattered. All that mattered

was that you loved He -Man, you loved the cartoon,

you loved the toys, you dressed up like him for

Halloween, you colored his coloring books, you

did everything He -Man related, and it was something

that had never been done before. As far as how

He -Man broke the mold, as far as changing the

turning of a decade, basically, from a completely

censored, muted, boring -ass cartoon landscape

that we had in the 70s to what would become ridiculously

entertaining field of action boys cartoons that

we got in the 80s. And really just the 80s, like

the 80s is like this bubble because it hadn't

existed before and it certainly hasn't been replicated

since. You cannot find a decade that has the

number of iconic franchises that started that

you can in the 80s. Yep. Like it's just impossible.

Like you're telling me that you just can't do

it. You can't find a single decade, and I'm only

going to give you a few of them, that have been

rebooted and done since then. But we had Transformers,

we had He -Man, we had G .I. Joe, we had Thundercats,

we had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Just those

few, and I could name more. But those are franchises

that have been in the now, in the pop culture

zeitgeist or whatever you want to call it. It

has been front and center. for decades and decades

and decades. And it's not like the 80s had the

second version of that show. No, the 80s was

where those things started. And they have existed.

And if they hadn't been well done, regardless

of what holes you can poke in any of them, regardless

of what critiques you can say, they would not

still be going if they were not successful. They

did their job. They resonated with a generation

of kids. And they have continued to resonate

with generations moving forward. So that's my

soapbox that anybody wants to poke holes and

say, oh, He -Man's not that great of a cartoon

or this, that, and the other. It's just you're

ignoring history. You're ignoring the impact

that it had on the industry. And that's what

a lot of these cartoons on my list is talking

about. The impact DuckTales had on the industry,

the impact Animaniacs had in the 90s, the impact

He -Man had just changing the landscape. These

things cannot be ignored. Absolutely. And we've

already poked all the holes through all the He

-Mans of everything with 1983 Filmation He -Man.

You can go over to Powers of Grayskull series

and listen to all of that because that show is,

I think, as of this October. That show is 11,

that podcast is 11 years old, and we've already

gone through all the Ed Weiners and the Cousin

Jeremy's and everything else. And look, cartoons

in the 80s, they had great episodes, they had

okay episodes, they had good episodes, and they

had bad episodes. You're not going to get a winner

every time. You're just not. But the writing

for most of these cartoons was pretty damn good.

And it's I'd like to like we need to coin a different

phrase because everybody that tries to like bash

on this, it's usually people that are trying

to sound more intelligent than they are or whatever

more they're trying to validate their opinion.

So whenever they hear someone talking about.

Something from the past, they use the phrase,

oh, you're just looking at it with rose -tinted

glasses or your nostalgic glasses. What we need

to do, though, is we need to coin the opposite

phrase because what a lot of other people are

doing is they're looking back at cartoons that

existed in a different time and place with glasses

that are tinted from the future. And you've got

to understand that the way cartoons were made

in the 80s was not – they were episodic. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like it was just one episode

stands alone. This next episode stands alone.

There's not continuity based. That's not something

that really existed at the time. So you can't

take it all these decades later and say, you

know, look at it through that lens that, oh,

but it doesn't have a story that connects from

one thing to the next thing. That's not a fair

assessment because that's not what they were

doing back in this time period. So you also can't

look through glasses that are that are tinted

by decades and decades. That's like that's like

looking back at. snow white or the jungle book

or cinderella and saying yeah but the animation

just doesn't quite look like it should because

you're used to looking at things that look cgi

or whatever like you can't judge something based

on stuff that didn't really exist back then so

yeah no absolutely and again like you said transformers

gi joe he -man mask voltron Some of these programs

have had like multiple, like Thundercats is notorious

for this, but it had several sections of the

85 episodes or however many episodes Thundercats

had. where they were part one part two part one

part two part three blah blah blah those are

continuity based but everything else was like

you said episodic and we have gone in time from

the 1980s to now where it's changed where every

like i would say batman animated series and maybe

some of the future shows and whatever else kind

of you know some of the shows in the 90s kind

of started the continuity based thing in the

2000s the continuity based thing was a big thing

so we've moved into continuity based stuff now

but like you said back then episodic for the

most part there's some continuity but there isn't

a lot etc etc etc all right top three what do

you got all right i'm gonna back it up with another

one so we've had gi joe we've had he -man so

he -man is the one that broke the door down he

-man's the one that kind of set the stage for

everything that would come later in the 80s Transformers

is what perfected it, and Transformers is the

number one 80s action cartoon. I can spoil that

right now. Nothing else achieved the success

that Transformers did. At the time, you had some

others that were kind of in that same ballpark,

like G .I. Joe, like He -Man, etc., but nothing

achieved what Transformers did. With the number

of series that have been made from Transformers,

it's almost unparalleled as far as how many reboots

it's had, how many spinoffs it's had. And of

different qualities, obviously. For every Unicron

trilogy, you have Beast Wars and Transformers

Prime and things like that. So it has a lot to

offer there. It's had the animated movie. It's

had the ridiculously nonsensical Michael Bay

live -action movies. Just the movie this year,

I haven't seen it yet, but it just continues

to be a moneymaker. It continues to be a huge

franchise. The toys have never left the shelves,

literally. I don't think there's been a year

since 1984 that there hasn't been Transformers

on toy shelves. Maybe, yeah, you're most likely

correct. Because I think the G2 toys were there

long enough to where Beast Wars then took over

Beast Machines, and we had Unicron Trilogy, and

then they started doing all the different classic

-type stuff along the way, Ultimators. Transformers

has been on the shelves almost nonstop since

1984, and not a lot of stuff can say that. He

-Man's come and gone. G .I. Joe has, I believe,

had times where they have not been on the shelves.

Star Wars is probably the only other one that

comes right on that same ballpark. And it started

a little bit earlier. So Transformers just can't

be denied. So I have to have that on my list.

I have it a little bit higher than He -Man, a

little bit higher than G .I. Joe. I just think

out of all the franchises, it has done more than

the others as far as just impact and legacy.

That is affirmative. So that's your number three.

I had to try to separate my bias a little bit.

It's my favorite cartoon of all time, yes. See,

that's the thing. Yes, we all have biases, but

biases in lists shouldn't really matter. I'm

going to spoil this right now, and I know a lot

of the cartoon listeners are not going to probably

go. Hopefully you go over and listen to ToyCast

and listen to GeekCast Radio. But for the top

100 toys countdown that we have coming later

this year, my number one toy huh what i saw it

yeah i know you well i sent you the list hello

you're the you're the mathematician i didn't

give you a hard time no you didn't i know i said

i didn't yeah no no exactly so anyway i wanted

to it's okay it's fun hey number two was you

know So my top two out of 100, my number one

is Funko because that's what my Funko Pops and

Funko Sodas are my current collection. Number

two is the Transformers brand. Those are my top

two for my personal top 100 toys list. I don't

know where they're going to end up on the actual

master list that we end up doing later this year

when we do the countdown. Depends if 100 points

can get a toy on the list or not. Okay, yes,

but whatever. That's a discussion for another

podcast, etc. But my point is, is that, yes,

you are absolutely correct. And I was trying

to think if there actually was a moment in time

between Generation 1, Generation 2, and Beast

Wars, if there was like a month within like 93,

94, 95, where they weren't. And you're absolutely

correct. They have never, the toys have never

not been on the shelf. And Generation 1, out

of the... Oh, God. 98 – I almost said 86. 98

episodes, I would say there are at least 55 or

60 good ones. There are a lot of – like – and

I'm not – when I say there are bad ones, I'm

not talking about just, oh, Optimus Prime is

– look like an animation. But like plot, et cetera,

like Girl Who Loves Power going – The story of

humans and Transformers. Get your humans out

of my Transformers. Sorry. Anyway, so Transformers

is number three. Now, you have got me really

on the edge of my seat here because I was not

expecting it to be at number three. I was actually

expecting it to be higher. But number two, what

do you got? All right. I had to think of what

I was representing with this list, what has had

impact. what has been prevalent throughout time

with animated series. So Transformers has had

a ton of reboots, and G .I. Joe has had a number

of reboots. He -Man's had a couple. We've had

a lot of Disney stuff. House of Mouse represents

that in a way. There's almost nothing that has

more reboots, more reinventions, more anything

than my top two. So for number two, I'm going

with what I believe was our number two animated

series of all time when we did our top 100, maybe.

I'm cheating a little bit because I'm not picking

a specific version. I'm just going to Looney

Tunes in general. So Looney Tunes, pick a series,

pick a time period. I don't care. They've had

some really good stuff in more modern times.

They have the classics, but you can't have a

list of cartoon top anything without having.

Bugs Bunny. Daffy Duck represented. Absolutely.

If I remember correctly, and this is without

going back and listening to the original Top

100 Animated Series list, I believe Simpsons

was number one, Batman the Animated Series was

number two, and Looney Tunes was either three

or four. I'm pretty sure Simpsons was one and

Batman was two because I remember Steve and I

just kind of like just bawling on the episode

like, what? How can they? I was wrong. Simpsons

was number two. Batman the Animated Series was

number one. Really? I, for some reason, was thinking

that I forgot about Simpsons. I was thinking

Batman the Animated Series was one and Looney

Tunes was two, but you're probably right. It's

something like that, and I will go back to the

top 20 or the top whatever, the final episode,

and I will fast forward to number one to listen.

I might even grab that clip to put in this episode

somewhere, but yeah, Looney Tunes, man. So, as

we've already said, the 80s kind of started this,

like, action cartoon. And it wasn't just action

for boys. Right. It also was action for girls,

whether it was My Little Pony, whether it was

Rainbow Bright, whether it was Strawberry Shortcake.

I know they weren't super, like, you're not going

to have Rainbow Bright with an M4. No, it was

mainly She -Ra for the action. Right, right,

right. But, yeah, it's She -Ra for the action,

but also Jem. Gem was music and magic and everything

else, and everybody's like, oh, it's a girl's

character. Are you kidding me? Any kid from any

era would want to watch Gem because it was action

-packed, etc. But Looney Tunes, my point in saying

all this is that the 80s started something, but

it also brought stuff back. Looney Tunes started

in the 1920s, originally. It's gone. For a hundred

years, like 1920 to 2020 and all this, like,

holy crap. Like, it's everywhere. It's everything.

And those classic shorts are... Let's go over

it once more. Now, what are you? I'm a hunter.

And what season is it? Rabbit season. And there's

a rabbit! Shoot him! Shoot him! Good heavens.

He disintegrated. What's up, Doc? How are things

down here on Earth? Golly, Mr. Rabbit, I hope

I didn't hurt you too much when I killed you.

Are you nuts? Why, if he's dead, then I'm a mongoose.

What's it called? The Duck Season Rabbit Season

Trilogy. All of those. The foghorn leghorn with

the dog or with the this or with the that. Duck

amok. And on this farm he had an igloo. Would

it be too much to ask if we could make up our

minds? All right. Enough is enough. This is the

final. The very, very. responsible for this!

I demand that you show yourself! Who are you?

Am I a stinker? Duck Amok is the single greatest

Daffy Duck cartoon of all time. Have you ever

seen Duck Amok? I'm sure you have. Yeah, but

I'm not remembering exactly which one it was.

Duck Amok is the one where it starts out with

Daffy Daffy doing something. He's he's strolling

down the lane or he's doing this or doing that.

And every so often something will hinder him

from doing whatever he's doing. And then you

see like this paintbrush and it's the artist

that's drawing the cartoon. And he's like dressing

Daffy up in various things. It's just being Daffy

angrier and angrier and angrier. And it finally

ends. And we have the little white gloved. artist

with his pencil just kind of closed the door

on Daffy and it pans out to a drawing studio

ain't I a stinker it's bugs so I absolutely love

that cartoon Looney Tunes is amazing I don't

know how we could again plans folks we have plans

I have to I have a lot of a lot of things to

figure out but I love Looney Tunes. You can't

have a top list without the Disney characters

represented and without the Warner Brothers characters

represented in the Looney Tunes. That's why it's

my number two. Alright. Number one. It's not

The Simpsons. It's not the Batman the Animated

Series. Obviously. It wasn't Looney Tunes. It

wasn't Transformers. It was Mask. God, no. It

has been rebooted probably just as many times

as Looney Tunes. It's got to be up there. It's

got to be one of the most rebooted series of

all time. And it's also not from the 80s, even

though it has been in the 80s. It's been in every

decade. There has not been a decade that this

has not been represented since the original series

started. And this is where I kind of add a little

bit of biases because I could have easily had

Looney Tunes at number one or something like

that. But I just like this series just a touch

better. I'm going. Pick your version. Up to you.

But it has to do with Scooby -Doo. Snake demon?

Like, what's the good news? That is the good

news. The bad news is that all images of the

demon are cursed. Cursed? So Scooby -Doo is my

number one, whether it's Mystery Incorporated,

whether it's the original one, whether it's the

13 Ghosts one, whether it's the movie -centric

one, whether it's a pup named Scooby -Doo. That's

another one of those ones that kind of went off

the Muppet Babies, etc. Don't worry, it's cool,

Pop. Shuggy's my favorite person in the whole

world. A human person, that is. Whether it's

your boy Scrappy -Doo, whether it's anything

else, and it just continues to get reinvented.

And my goodness, it also had an impact because

what it did with the mystery theme with a group

of, whether it be teenagers or a group of, you

know, three to six characters that are solving

mysteries. Wow. How many other shows tried to

mimic that? And if you go back to the 70s and

maybe the late 60s, I can't remember exactly.

What year did the first Scooby -Doo start? 1969?

Yeah, it was 69. Something like that. I'm looking

right now. So I'm pretty sure it was 1960. Scooby

-Doo, where are you? 1969, 1970, original work.

So then what happened is. The 70s didn't have

a whole lot to offer, but if you kind of like

actually dig in and most people just know the

names of these series, but they don't know what

they actually were. But if you start looking

into the plot synopsis of every cartoon that

aired in the 70s, I swear to God, like every

fourth one is this is this concept. It's a group

of people trying to solve a mystery, whether

it has a Scooby -Doo -like character or something

else. It's going to be a group of humans and

a weird character like Scooby -Doo, but it just

gets done over and over and over again. And then

Scooby -Doo itself just kept reinventing itself

with different themes, different ways to package

it. But it's just been something that since it

aired in 1969. Again, it doesn't have the same

thing like the Transformers where the toys have

never left the shelf, but Scooby -Doo has literally

almost never left the airwaves. It has been on

TV in some way, shape, or form in some version,

whether it be repeats, reruns, syndication, or

new series that keep coming over and over and

over again. I bet you you can't find a year since

1969 that Scooby -Doo hasn't aired somewhere

on some channel in some form. Absolutely. So

2019 was the 50th anniversary. We are at 54 years

currently. And we are six years away from its

60th anniversary. 55 years sounds like a good

time to do something for it too. Yeah, absolutely.

I just can't deny Scooby -Doo. I think it's got

one of the best theme songs of its time period,

the original one. It's got... such great voice

actors throughout time they've obviously changed

and been new people cycled in from time to time

but a lot of classics in there from frank welker

to casey casem you know etc etc and i just think

it started a type of cartoon that then continued

to be tried to replicate and nobody could quite

duplicate what scooby -doo did and i mean scooby

snacks you got scooby -doo was everywhere in

the 70s and then on through the 80s and i just

think it's something that it was the first thing

i ever bought my niece when she was born was

a gigantic scooby -doo stuffed animal it was

bigger than the crib that she was in almost and

it's just such an eye it's just a lovable character

if you were trying to do like the most iconic

cartoon characters of all time scooby -doo would

definitely be on your list and i think it just

belongs to be represented if you're talking about

cartoons how can you not talk about a cartoon

that's lived this long oh absolutely It's just

so great. And I love various versions of it.

Obviously, Where Are You is the number one kind

of version. I also love the Scooby movies. I

love the 13 Ghosts. I need to see that. They

did a, what was it? Not a reunion movie, but

they did like a new movie where they finally,

because 13 Ghosts ended on a cliffhanger. And,

like, in the last couple of years, they did something

where they kind of, like, finally closed that

off as far as the continuity for 13 Ghosts of

Scooby -Doo. And a pup named Scooby -Doo, I love

that. Scrappy, as you said, is, like, it's funny.

When I was getting into Funko Pops, I've been

a Funko Pop collector since 2017. And I forget

when he came out, but whenever. It was back when

Funko was doing the... They were doing these

special drops, like whatever, on their website,

and if you didn't go and get it right, then it

would sell out in seconds. Nowadays, you can

go on Funko and pretty much get anything you

want. Or a dumpster. Stop it. My point is that

when they released the 50th anniversary, yeah,

it was in 2019, so it was two years into my Funko

collecting. They released a special edition Funko

shop exclusive 50 years. They released scrappy

do as a Funko pop. And I wanted it so bad, but

I couldn't get it at the time. And my buddy,

Wes Howard, who runs popping off toys, popping

off toys .com. He sent me it just as a gift.

And I'm like, Oh my God. Like I have several

pictures of scrappy and I like. This is why I

love Funko Pops is they are basically figurines

that they're in action figures that you don't

have to. They represent whatever character, whatever

line, whatever fandom you're in, whatever, whatever,

whatever. They just represent the characters

well. And yeah, Scooby has had a legacy 54 years,

almost 55 years next year. Yeah, it's so good.

Whether it's Don Messick or Frank Walker as Scooby,

whether it's Casey as Shaggy, which Casey will

always be Shaggy, but Matthew Willard as Shaggy

is pretty damn good. Right. Gray Delisle had

a long run in that series. As Daphne, yep. So

that is my top ten of series. So just to recap

real quick. My number 10 is Archer. You can throw

in any adult -themed primetime cartoon there.

That's what that represents. Number 9 is House

of Mouse. Throw in any Disney show you want there.

8 is G .I. Joe. Again, you could interchange

whatever cartoon you liked there as far as action

goes. Maybe Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, some

people would put there. 7, Muppet Babies. I don't

think that can be replaced. 6, DuckTales. You

can throw in any Disney afternoon show there.

5 was Animaniacs. Again, I don't think you can

replace that one. four and three were he -man

and transformers and then we ended up with two

the looney tunes and one scooby -doo and i don't

think you can really replace them but you can

pick whichever version of those two shows you'd

like absolutely absolutely all right folks we're

gonna go to a quick ad break you're gonna hear

some ads and some other stuff we'll come back

with kevin's top 10 animated films right after

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dot Lipson .com at iTunes at Stitcher or wherever

good podcasts can be found. So, uh, tell all

our one, tell all our one. We are back here on

tune cast episode 300 with Mr. Optimist solo.

And it is time for him to give us his top 10

animated films list. Yes, sir. You are here.

We are here. It is the same episode that you've

heard before. As always, as always, just a little

different this time, combining the two lists.

And what is your number 10 animated film, sir?

Yeah, so switching over from animated series

to animated movies, because unlike Mike, I cannot

combine those into a list. It's just my brain

would explode. So I had to do that separately.

And it's interesting. I found it much harder

to narrow down the list of movies than I did

the animated series. I mean, I have honorable

mentions or close calls for both lists or whatever,

but it was... We will do that in the outro after

the next break, once you get through your entire...

We will do the honorable mentions in the closing

of the show. But it was a lot harder to narrow

this down, and I ended up picking a lot more

from a certain time period than I expected. But

I only have two from the last ten years, and

we're going to start with one of those. So I

just think this movie was unique in a way as

far as not, I guess, not unique in the fact that

there was a lot of other movies that tried to

do an animated version of a toy movie. Okay.

Like we had the Angry Birds movie or toy or game,

you know, like that. And I just found this one

to be the most intelligently written. It was

unique as far as I don't think we had seen much

like it at the time. And I didn't know what to

expect when it was announced and we were getting

into it. So I was like, you know, what are they

going to do with this? How is this going to work?

And I just it wasn't what I expected, but it

worked in so many different ways. So I'm putting

the Lego movie from 2014 from Warner Brothers

here at my number 10, just because I think it

did that concept so much better than a lot of

other properties did, you know, within that same

decade or 10 year period on either side. And

it was just clever. The music was good. It was

very high energy. It was cleverly written so

that both people of all ages would enjoy it.

And I just think that it's unique enough that

it stands out from a lot of I'm going to have

a lot of movies from a certain studio. It is

what it is. This one stands out separately from

that. So I had to go with a Lego movie in a very

tight race for my number 10 spot. And check this

out. morning apartment ready to start the day

jumping jacks hit them one two three i am so

pumped up yes overpriced coffee that's 37 awesome

oh my gosh i love this song Come with me if you

want to not die. What is happening? You're the

special. And the prophecy states that you're

the most important person in the universe. That's

you, right? Uh... Yes. That's me. Relax, everybody.

I'm here. Pac -Man? Awesome! Who are you here

to see? I'm here to see your butt. Oh, my gosh.

Pow. Wham. First try. My fellow master builders.

Hello. Lord Business plans to end the world as

we know it. There is yet one hope. The special

has arisen. I know what you're thinking. He is

the least qualified person to lead us. And you

are right. A house divided against itself would

be better than this. Abraham Lincoln. I'm not

the special. I'm just a regular, normal guy.

You have the ability to be the special. Because

I believe in you. Let's destroy him. Aloha, loser.

We'll wing it. It's a bad pun. Take him to the

melding chamber. Isn't there supposed to also

be a good cop? Hi, buddy. Would you like a glass

of water? Yeah, actually. Too bad. We are entering

your mind. What? I don't think he's ever had

an original thought. That's not true. Introducing

the double -decker couch. So everyone can watch

TV together and be buddies. That is literally

the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Let me handle

this. That idea is just the worst. To the back

of you! Dang it. To the invisible jet! Dang it.

I have a very psychologically damaging relationship

with the Lego movie that we will discuss on a

different episode of this podcast at some point,

but I hated that movie when it came out. So good.

Not stand it. On the other hand, Lego Batman

is amazing. Oh, this one's far superior to that

one. And just the, the way that they so cleverly

get into like what pieces make up the little

Lego person and all the different Lego aspects

that they blend and weave into the animation,

into the backgrounds, into the story, the whole

idea with Lord business and all that type of

stuff is just, it's perfect because that's exactly.

it's like so close to what most kids go through

with toys or Legos or et cetera. And like I said,

I just think it did the toy movie better. And

I'm blanking on all the other movies that tried

to do something similar, but there's been a lot

that have done that. And I mean, Toy Story is

superior. No, I'm not talking about Toy Story

because that's like a blend. I'm talking about

like where you took like one type of toy. It

would be like if there was a Popples movie and

if there was a, you know what I mean? Like, yeah.

that type of thing and obviously we're getting

like the live action barbie movie and there was

a trolls movie which i'll get into at a different

time but like i just feel like this did a very

unique thing with with when it came out and it

was it was caught everybody off by surprise it

was one of those like january february releases

which is usually like where people just hide

stuff after the after the award season and things

of that nature and it caught a lot of people

off guard got a lot of critical acclaim and praise

when it came out and it made a ton of movie uh

money It made a ton of movie. All right. Number

nine. All right. There's going to be a few picks

on here that I will come out and admit. There's

gonna be two picks on this list that are strictly.

Not strictly, but overwhelmingly more of a personal

choice than like a best of type thing. Just like

the series. So is. Hey, let me talk. Just like

the animated series list there. I can't make

a list like that. That's going to be. Like my

individual personal favorites, like when I'm

making a list, I have to blend it. It has to

be like a combination of stuff that was actually

well done and stuff that I liked, whether it's

the same movie, which is true with all of these

movies. Like they're all movies that I think

are well done and movies that I like. People

would argue against one of the films, but we'll

get to that. And so but none of them are just

like strictly one thing or the other for me.

Like they're not just a personal favorite or

they're not just a good movie. They're different

levels of both. And this one's going to be a

little bit more of a personal favorite and maybe

not one that, you know, the critics love necessarily.

But I think the whole franchise is great. You

know, different movies have different values

in this franchise. Some are not as good as others.

But for me, the original Despicable Me is just

so good. And it triggered this craze for these

minions, whether it be in toys and stuffed animals

and animated shorts and different movies and

all this stuff. Like it was such a clever. character

concept and design and it worked so well with

the way they did the voices and the way they

differentiated them almost like something from

the 80s you would see like if you're thinking

about smurfs and snorks where you have all of

these characters that are basically the same

whatever species but but some are a little bit

taller and some are a little bit you know wider

and some are a little bit shorter and some have

this accessory and some have that accessory which

is just is something that works so well with

a with a children based audience but then they

did it in such a clever way they gave them all

these just like actual names which is crazy kevin's

one of them and and i just think the voice work

is phenomenal i think carell is amazing as grew

and i just think that this first movie is specifically

was just it's so good like i quote this movie

still and with the whole amusement park visit

you know that's so fluffy and i think i'm gonna

die i'm gonna die When he just annihilates that

whole stand and vaporizes it, basically. There's

just so many good parts of this. It's a fart

gun. I know that's juvenile and whatnot, but

to me, it just works. Again, it's a movie that

works with multiple ages, so both Lego Movie

and Despicable Me, I feel like do that. Despicable

Me came out in 2010, so it's my second movie

in the 2000s. I can't believe that's been as

many years ago as it has now, over a dozen years

ago. But Despicable Me will always have a soft

spot in my heart. I just really enjoyed that

movie when it came out, and I've enjoyed the

franchise ever since, even though, like I said,

some of the movies aren't quite as good as that

first one. Oh, you've got to be pulling on my

leg. Hello? Cookies for sale. Go away. I'm not

home. Yes, you are. I heard you. No, you didn't.

This is a recording. Yeah, I love it all. And

it surprised me because I was never, never a

Carell fan. Didn't like him in Get Smart. Didn't

like him in whatever other things he did. The

Office. I forget which show he was on, if it

was The Office. community or whatever okay well

whatever didn't care for any of that but you

put him as a former well he he wants to be a

villain but he ends up becoming a good guy kind

of you know you put him in that voice in that

character and then the minions i mean i forget

which one of the three main like despicable one

two or three i forget which one it is You mentioned,

yes, there is a Kevin, there's a Stuart, there's

a Bob in one of the movies in the very beginning.

And I don't think it's the first one. I think

it's the second or the third one. They finally

said, oh, hey, Mike, how are you? I'm like, hey,

I'm a minion, too. It's never it's one of the

ones that's like off screen in the background.

But fine, I don't care. But like, yeah, no, I

love the minions. I love Gru. I love that. Like,

I'm waiting for Despicable Me 4. I know they're

doing all kinds of stuff. I play Minion Rush

daily still, 10 years after that game was on

mobile. I'm still playing. I'm probably the only

one of my friends currently that's still playing

Minion Rush. Love the Minions. The Minions rule.

And yes, Despicable Me, the first one, absolutely

amazing. So good. So very, very good. All right.

That was number nine. So we're on to number eight.

Yep. Number eight, I'm going to go to one of

my three films from the 1980s. And I cannot have

this studio not represented. I know you're not

as versed in it, but the Miyazaki library, we

did a whole Miyazaki spotlight on the cinema

geeks and his movies are so well received, so

critically acclaimed, but they're also just so

good. They have a lot of different stuff to offer.

So I had to try to pick one from all that. And

for those that have ever listened to the cinema

geeks or watched or heard or followed along,

I guess would be the term with that. series of

reviews we did it was my favorite one of the

group so i had to put it in here so i'm gonna

go with my neighbor totoro from 1988 it's just

for me the most fun miyazaki film a lot of his

films have a little bit of a depressing edge

or things like that and i think totoro has a

better balance of like the emotions and stuff

like that and it's just a fun film and i can't

have miyazaki not represented so i'm putting

my neighbor totoro from 1988 at number eight

fittingly enough cool Awesome. Very cool. Totoro?

Thank you for watching over May and making us

feel so welcome here. Please continue to look

after us. Please continue to look after us. Last

one home's a rotten egg. There's, I mean, there's

a lot of things I'm into that you're not into

and same thing with anybody. I'm just not, like,

it's not that I have anything against any of

the Miyazaki stuff. It's just not anything I've

been exposed to too much, and I don't know that

much. It's kind of like, name something that

I like that you know that you, you know what

I mean? Like, whatever. Huh, what? Pokemon. Pokemon.

don't you like pokemon no you like uh uh power

rangers excuse me yeah power rangers yugioh i

mean i i mean i'm perfectly fine with pokemon

there's nothing wrong with pokemon but i think

i've only ever seen like the first power rangers

yeah okay yeah so you know all right number seven

what do you got well this will be the first of

a few films from this studio it's called the

disney animation studio so i can't not have some

disney yes And it's so hard for me to separate

a few of them, so I'm going to go with 1991's

Beauty and the Beast here at number seven. Be

our guest. Be our guest. Put our service to the

test. Tie your napkin around your neck, sherry,

and we provide the rest. Let's go! Bonjour! Bonjour!

Bonjour! Bonjour! I think a lot of people consider

this one of Disney's either... Number one or

number two best films ever. If you talk to most

critics, it's going to be probably in the one

or two spot. For me, it's not one or two for

me, but I get why so many people do put it up

there. I am a bigger fan of some of the other

villains. I know Gaston is great. I know a ton

of people love Gaston. I'm not trying to. yeah

he's a bad villain just for me personally i like

a few of the other villains better and i like

uh some of the other supporting characters in

some of the other films better not that there's

a ton of great you know cogsworth is great lumiere

is great and all of that and there's some great

music bell is a fantastic disney princess so

there's i'm not trying to say anything bad about

this film there is just a few that i have a personal

More enjoyment watching, I guess I could say.

But I'm still putting it in my top ten, so it's

number four for me on my Disney list. So I'm

putting Beauty and the Beast from 1991 here at

number seven. Very cool, very cool. Yeah, I've

seen it. I remember seeing Beauty and the Beast.

I've seen it a few times since it released, but

it's not in my Disney top. Not that I think it's

bad or anything like that. I put almost Aladdin,

Lion King, Sword in the Stone, et cetera, et

cetera, et cetera. I put all of those for me

personally above it. But I understand why. Just

for the record, nobody would put Sword in the

Stone ahead of Beauty and the Beast. I would.

I just said I would. I'm saying nobody besides

you. Yeah, well. All right. For my number six.

This is going to be like what I said with Despicable

Me. I know I'm letting a little bit of a personal

bias with Despicable Me come in here. I'm letting

a huge amount of personal bias come in here with

this one. And I don't care what people say about

it. I still love the movie. Number six from 1986.

We're going with Transformers, the movie. I just

I can't have this not on my list just because

of how much personal love I have for this film.

And I think it is a good film, regardless of

what others say. I used to like been the early

days of the Internet. Like I tracked down and

scoured and researched and turned over every

Internet stone, finding lost, deleted storyboards,

finding unfinished parts of this, making research

like Excel sheets of which characters die and

which don't and which appear and which. you know,

you can see, but they're not named. Like I dissected

this movie inside and out like so many times

over my high school and college career. And I

could, I watched it in the theater, just whatever

it came out, like what, two years, a year ago,

two years ago in the theater for an anniversary

of some sort. They did the 2021. Yeah. They did

the 20, the 35th anniversary. Yeah. Yes. But

they've done so. Yes. Every time. Yeah, they

did the 35th anniversary, but they also did the

30th anniversary as well, because Karen and I,

it was the worst time I'd ever seen it in theaters,

was the 30th anniversary version. So I've seen

it at least twice in theaters, if not three times.

I don't remember if I saw the 30th. I know for

100 % I saw the 35th one back in 2021 for Descent

and a few other people. I own, like, I don't

know how many. I own this on VHS. I own it on

DVD. I own it on... blu -ray i think i own it

on hd 4k or something whatever the last latest

one was i don't know i own like five different

versions of this movie and it's just great people

hear me mumbling around and moving things around

it's because i'm actually trying to get to something

here no super mario brothers Yep, 35th anniversary,

4K, UHD, Blu -ray. Got it right here on my desk.

So that's the latest one, I think. It's the only

one where every time there's a release, I make

a point to go find it, whether it be ordering

it online or actually finding it in a physical

store, which is becoming harder and harder because

nobody carries movies these days. I mean, it's

just this is when Optimus Prime dies. This is

when we get introduced to all the season three

characters and the music for it from Stan Bush

and the other people are so great. The voice

acting is phenomenal. So I just whatever people

want to say, that's fine for me. It still works

as a movie. And I'm putting in number six, 1986.

I did that a few times here where I made the

numbers match and I didn't mean to. Yes, you

did. Don't lie to us. You did. The cool thing

and the greatest thing about the 35th anniversary

version is that they did, as we all know, there's

multiple physical copies of various things. At

the time when Shout Factory released it, they

released two full -color, large, I forget what

size they are, but like posters. One was both

of the – all the artwork on the 35th anniversary

was done by artist Matt Ferguson. And I have

the cover to the 35th anniversary poster and

the Rodimus Prime, the best Autobot leader ever

poster on my wall now. Finally, no, not false.

No, he's not even in the top three, so it's just

a silly argument. What? Top three? Stop it. He's

not even in the top three. Anyway. Optimus Prime,

Optimus Primal would easily be the two top ones.

Optimus Prime will lead the Maximals, not the

Autobots, but that's a distinction without a

difference. I'd probably put Ultra Magnus ahead

of Radimus Prime. I can't deal with that now.

Anywho. It's a disguise. I'd put Omega Supreme.

I'd put Metroplex. I'd put Fortress Maximus ahead

of them. I'd put Springer ahead of them. Number

five, Springer. All right, so number five. Freaking

homewrecker. Don't start this my show. This is

my spotlight, not yours. I can't talk badly about

Springer. I'll get up and storm off. Just kidding.

So for my number five, I had to represent this

studio as well. And most people would think you

would put more than one film from this studio

on your list. And I only have one, which is really

hard to do. I really wanted to put three other

films from this studio in here at least. And

I also admittedly was very, very late to the

party with this film. And with a series of films,

I didn't see it until I want to say it was. Well,

I didn't see it until I was dating Amanda when

we went through all of them. So that was at least

the last 10 years, like 2014 ish. So probably

a few years after that. So it was over 20 years

after it came out before I saw it for the first

time. And I'm putting at number five from 1995.

The original Toy Story. You are a toy! You weren't

the real Buzz Lightyear! You're an action figure!

You are a child's plaything! You are a sad, strange

little man. If the boot fits. So I did not see

this for the first 20 years it came out. And

then Amanda and I watched all of the Toy Stories

in a row. And I think then later another one

came out in the theater, etc. And it's hard.

I mean, everybody has different favorites. I

could put Toy Story 2 in here. It's irrelevant

to me which one you would want. Yeah, it's the

franchise that I'm speaking for. So I'm not saying

that Toy Story 1 is the best of the films. I'm

not even making a distinction. I'm just saying

Toy Story in general. It's a great idea for a

film. having these different toys from a childhood

represented mr potato head and the slinky dog

and barbie and ken and and all these other characters

just fantastic uh it works it's i think it's

a movie that's going to work for multiple generations

like my daughter loves The movie, she loves Woody.

She loves Buzz. Every time you show her Woody

or she has the Woody doll, she says yee -haw

and acts like a cowboy. She loves those. She

has a couple of the toys as well, and she loves

them. We have her name on the bottom of her foot.

of the foot of the toys, but I just think Pixar

is such a great studio. They've done so many

fantastic films. It's a crime for me only to

have one Pixar film on my list, but I think if

I had to pick one, I got to go with toy story

and represent that franchise overall. That's

probably the geek in me talking. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. It's funny. I've started, uh, as, as one

of the other podcasts on the GCR and has come

back, uh, we've been back two years now with

toy cast, uh, brought it back in 2021. But I

have a line from Toy Story stuck in my head every

time I go through my closing now. And at the

very end of the show, I always like kind of give

like one of those Ferris Bueller pauses like.

Go home. It's over. What are you still doing

here? Go. You know, one of those things where

it's like, I'll stop. I'll pause at the end of

the little thing that I read. And it's like,

and remember. Play night. You know, I can't do

the deep, creepy voice that I usually do. But,

like, yeah, this Toy Story is amazing. Those

characters are all great and so, so fun. It's

got a great supporting cast as well. I don't

even see it as a supporting cast. Like, it's

a great cast. Yeah, I'm just saying, like, all

of these movies have, like, the minions are the

supporting cast, basically, in Despicable Me.

They're not the main character. Like, Beauty

and the Beast, it's all of the people that have

been turned into household items. You know, in

Toy Story, it's all of the other toys in the

room besides Woody and Buzz and, you know, a

few of the main ones. So it's just, it really

has the good characters, but then it has all

these good supporting things to watch and to

enjoy for all the different Easter eggs and different

things. So it's a good series, that's for sure.

Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. What's next

on your list? So I'm probably going to be one

of the only people that you would talk to during

this whole series of these top 10 animated things

that you're doing that's going to list the following

film among their 10. And I will champion this

film. It is very well received, very well received

by the critics. It has a great Rotten Tomatoes,

etc. score, things like that. It was on a lot

of people's top animated lists, you know, the

year it came out. But I'm thinking that most

people probably wouldn't include it in their

overall list. But I will never stop championing.

championing this movie it's the most recent one

on my list it's from 2016 so it's only what seven

years old and this is from the studio laika who

did things like paranormal coralline and a few

things like that and it's kubo and the two strings

kubo and the two strings is just a magnificent

told story it's great on the animation it's it's

just like a complete movie it's it's good regardless

of it being animated it could be a live action

film and i mean it would be very hard for it

to do that but i'm just saying it would it is

good on every level and i think if anybody out

there has not watched kubo and the two strings

this is why it's on my list is to try to get

people to more people to watch it so watch kubo

and the two strings from 2016 it's an amazing

film cool kubo kubo can you hear me Your village

is burned to the ground. Her enemies aren't far

behind. We need to go now. You have questions

I can tell. Who? You get three. Why only three?

Okay, that was your first question. I don't understand

what's happening. This is the beginning of your

story. Your family is very powerful. Your mother

used her magic to save you. Kuba, run! And bring

me to life. What are we gonna do? We're going

to find your father's armor. It's the only thing

that can protect you. Many years ago, I was cursed.

This great adventure is my destiny. Your magic

is growing stronger. You need to learn control.

Show off. My father's fortress. This way! your

birthright, Kubo. Give this story a happy ending.

If you must blink. Do it now. Next up. Now it

gets kind of boring, guys. I am going to end

my list in a very similar place these last three

picks. For number three, I'm going to go back

to my third film from the 80s. So we had My Neighbor

Totoro from 1988. We had Transformers from 1986.

I'm going to go to 1989 for what was probably

my first favorite Disney film. And that's The

Little Mermaid. It just, I remember, so I was

like eight when this came out. Haven't seen in

years. This is wonderful. The child is in love

with a prince. Have you lost your senses completely?

He's a human. You're a mermaid. Teenagers. You

give them an inch, they swim all over you. Relive

the timeless classic with Flounder. Sebastian.

King Triton. Ursula the Sea Witch. Prince Eric.

And of course... Oh, my gosh. And I don't remember.

I had to have seen this in theater, I'm thinking,

because I know if not, I saw it like as soon

as it was released on VHS or something. I know

we had the VHS. But what I do remember is I remember

my high school put on like a choir show concert.

It was like a their summer concert or fall concert

or something. And they did. I don't know if they

did all Disney stuff or if they just did Little

Mermaid or what. But I remember. We lived in

a very small town. There's less than 2 ,000 people

in it. My graduating class was like 60. So you

could be outside, and it wasn't busy streets.

It wasn't busy anything. And I remember being

out in the middle of our street. I think it was

my sister and I, and we were just singing the

songs to Little Mermaid. for some reason at the

top of our lungs, it was like we were living

in a movie, but it was just like, I had been

exposed to other Disney movies at this point.

Like I'm sure I had, I was eight years old. I'm

sure they had shown me a variety of Disney movies.

And my mom. made a point we oftentimes had movie

nights we would have popcorn or ice cream or

something we would watch movies she showed us

like a majority of the shirley temple films all

of like the live action disney movies from back

in the day like herbie and the love bug and and

heidi and annie and a bunch of musicals and stuff

like that so i've been exposed to a lot of that

and i'm sure along that same time i was They

had shown me all the original classic golden

era Disney films, you know, and then on through

Aristocats, Jungle Books. I'd seen Rescuers,

Rescuers Down Under, etc. Loved all that stuff.

But like Little Mermaid was like the first time

that it was like I wasn't just watching those

other movies I watched and I liked to varying

levels. But like when this one came out, it was

like groundbreaking. It was like your mind exploding

type thing. It was like this is amazing. Like

I have never heard an animated movie. with music

like this and i'm there was other disney movies

with music but not like this not like that what

what the um and i don't know why i'm drawing

a complete blank but what the the main guys that

were doing the music for disney at this time

there was two of them and i don't know why i'm

blanking alan alan uh was it rice no menken menken

yeah alan menken and and Tim Rice, yes. And there

was another one, I think, that was moved in here,

one of the movies, whatever. But these guys that

were in charge of the songs and the lyrics and

the music for this, starting with Little Mermaid

and moving into so many other Disney movies,

were just geniuses. They're what this generation

looks to from the guy that does... Hamilton.

Lin -Manuel Miranda. Lin -Manuel Miranda for

the current generation is what these guys were

for our generation. I just remember Little Mermaid

of Skin and one of those things with the supporting

cast. You have Flounder, you have Scuttle, you

have Sebastian. You have all these different

little side characters. Ursula is one of the

best Disney villains of all time. I just think

it's an amazing film. The live -action one that

just came out is great, regardless of what people

say. And this animated film was my first favorite

Disney movie, so I had to put it on my list.

Very cool, very cool. Yeah, Little Mermaid was

great. It really, really was. The crazy thing

for me is, and I know this is your list, not

my list, but for me, I had Billy Joel stuck in

my head from a year before a little too much,

though, with Oliver and company. As small as

the town as it was, I had someone that I went

to church with that she had a daughter that was

in my class and we were friends and whatnot,

but she babysat for Jody Benson when she was

a kid. Oh, very cool. And that was a crazy connection

for a small town like I went to. Yeah, that's

awesome. That's great. All right. Number two,

we're going to fast forward about five years.

This movie I remember going to at my church group

actually took us to this movie as like a youth

group activity or something. And so I did see

this in the theater. I'm 100 percent confident

in that. I remember it very specifically. And

this is probably with Beauty and the Beast, the

other one that gets named as the top Disney movie

of all time. by most people. And that's the Lion

King from 1994. It's just an epic, you got Elton

John, you have some of the best musical pieces

ever done. You, it's just from the serious moments

that you get with Simba and Mufasa and Simba

and Scar and Simba and Nala, et cetera, to the

just crazy fun that you can have with some, with

Timon and Pumbaa or the hyenas. And it's just,

it's a lot like it's, it's at the time. I remember

when it came out, like it won like a million

awards and it was so critically acclaimed and

well -received, but it's also just a lot of fun.

I do find so far with my daughter that it's,

I think it's going to be the last one. I think

you need to be a little bit older almost with

it. You do really get it because she loves little

mermaid. And she's not quite as into Lion King

so far. How old is she now? She's still only

two. She'll be three in a week. Well, in ten

days she'll be three. But certain movies she

really gravitates toward, and Lion King hasn't

been one of those, so it maybe doesn't work as

a younger group. But she does, though, love I

Just Can't Wait to be King. Like the song, she

can sing that. She gets excited every time that

comes in. But when we show the movie, I just

don't find her as attached to it as Little Mermaid.

that's besides the point it's just an observation

but lion king is is it does work for a lot of

different ages and it does hit a lot of more

of like an emotional note than a lot of the other

disney films most of the other disney films you

have like your main protagonist may go through

some type of trial we already know that most

of them don't have parents because disney whatever

but but they usually go through some sort of

trial some type of uh realizing the error of

their ways or maturing and growing into who they

are or going from a child to an adult like they

all have this like obstacle that they kind of

overcome so they all have that but lion kings

is just so much more emotional than most of them

because of Just because of everything. I don't

have to tell people what the story of Lion King

is. Just because Darth Vader is a good guy. Well,

just because of the death and just because of

the blame and all those things that you work

through. And it can resonate with so many kids

as they go through things. So I think it's one

of the most emotionally charged of the Disney

movies. And that's probably why it's usually

ranked number one or number two. I can't quite

put it at my number one because there's a film

I like just personally a little bit more. Yeah,

the thing with Lion King is it basically has

two of the biggest villain voices ever in it.

One of them is a hero, which is Mufasa, and the

other one obviously is the villain, which is

Scar. Mufasa, as everyone knows, James Earl Jones,

Darth Vader, and Jeremy Irons. Man, you could

pick any villain role he's ever done out of a

hat. Man, that guy. He's one of the best Disney

villains ever. Absolutely. Clearly. I'm pretty

sure, I actually know he wasn't, but a couple

years ago, back when Sprint was still a thing,

before they got bought by whoever they got bought

by, whatever, they had the Nextel commercials

with Malcolm McDowell, who was not in any of

the movies that you're talking about, to my knowledge,

and James Earl Jones. And it is like, the funniest

commercial I've like, it's the best mobile phone

commercial I've ever seen. And the fact of here's

Steve's Facebook and, and Steve and I would joke

about this all the time. And, and it's just,

it's just so good. So crazy. And, and it's a

thing of sometimes where the lines in the commercial

where James Earl Jones turns to Malcolm. Dude,

you've become a monster. Malcolm McDowell's like,

you made me this. Steve and I do that line to

each other back in whichever one of us is whichever

character all the time. But yeah, no, Lion King,

100%. If I was making my personal favorite top

10 Disney animated movies, Lion King is easily

in the top five out of the 10. Absolutely. And

I know most people because I'm going to go to

my number one here just so we can kind of keep

the thread going. But I have four Disney films

on my list. And I know a lot of people are going

to critique me because I don't have any of the

classic Disney. I don't have anything from the

Golden Era, the Silver Era. I don't have anything

from modern times. They're all from the same

like 10 year period, which, well, they're all

from the same five year period. It is what it

is. I just think they're so groundbreaking. Little

Mermaid, I forgot to say this when we were talking

about it, but it changed the game for Disney.

Disney was on the verge of not making animated

movies. after some of the films that had come

out in the 80s, and they had kind of struggled,

even though I still like Rescuers, Rescuers Down

Under, and Oliver and Company, and things of

that nature. But they were struggling, and Little

Mermaid completely flipped the script, which

made it possible for all these other movies.

And I think these first four just did such a

phenomenal job. After that, it kind of gets a

little bit hit or miss. A lot of people are going

to say a lot of great things about Mulan. It's

probably the other one that's pretty decent.

I think you have... Less returns when you get

to things like Pocahontas and and Tarzan and

Hercules and Hunchback. I think those are all

lesser films. I know some people love Hunchback,

but I think it starts getting diminishing returns.

But these four movies was like the I don't know

if you can find four back to back movies put

out by a studio that have a stronger track record

than Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin

and Lion King. And Aladdin is my number one.

It's my personal favorite Disney film, I think.

Robin Williams. I could stop talking. I can just

say that name and I could stop talking. That

could be the only thing that this movie had and

it would still make it one of the best Disney

movies or animated movies ever. But it has more

than that. It's more than just Robin Williams.

It has all of the music that we're talking about

with those guys that have carried through from

starting with Little Mermaid, then Beauty and

the Beast, and then Aladdin. It had for a long

time my favorite. It might still be my favorite

Disney princess in Jasmine. I just think she's

one of the best written of the Disney princesses.

She has a sense of agency. You know, she's not

the damsel in distress. She is a strong female

character and a good princess from that. And

you have all, again, great supporting characters.

from the magic carpet and Abu and the Raja and,

and things of that nature. So you have all that

going for you. And I recently listened to another

show, do a ranking. The in session film did a

ranking of all of the golden era of Disney or

golden silver era. And then they did a, what

they called the Renaissance era and ranked that.

And in there, somebody that shall not be named.

was poo -pooing on aladdin because of the fact

that he said that aladdin himself is one of the

most uninteresting boring uh protagonists out

of all of the disney films and i just cannot

disagree more with that like out of all of the

different people that we had during my childhood

this was the one i could relate to the most this

is the one that i found the most interesting

this is the one that i felt had the most depth

and things of that nature so for example you

know Yeah, Ariel, I'm not going to relate to

as much, right? She's a female. She's a mermaid.

Like I get to it. I get to wanting to be a part

of a world that you're not part of. And there's

a lot of things you can still connect to it.

Fine. Beauty and the Beast, it's Belle. And as

I mean, I can connect to the fact that she's

smart. She loves books. You know, she's educated

and loves her dad and things of that nature.

But again, it's a female that I'm not at that

time. I'm not going to connect with as much.

Simba is a lion. And I could connect with a lot

of things. I lost my dad just like he lost his

dad and things of that nature. And you go through

certain emotions. So, yes, you can connect with

all of these different people. But if you look

through the catalog of Disney, go all the way

back. Snow White's a female. Cinderella's a female.

Sleeping Beauty's a female. Jungle Book, it's

an animal. Aristocats, it's animals. No, no,

no. Jungle Book is not. Well, Mowgli. You have

Mowgli. Yeah. I take that back with Jungle Book.

So there's one, right? Aristocats, it's cats.

101 Dalmatians, it's dogs. Oliver and Company,

Lady and the Tramp, Fox and the Hound, they're

all these animals, right? When it comes to actual

human beings that are the protagonists, we do

not get very many male protagonists in the Disney

catalog, right? And that continues. Because Tangled,

it's a female. Frozen, it's a female. Princess

and the Frog, it's a female. I'm not saying that

male protagonists don't exist. And when I say

protagonist, I'm talking about the main protagonist.

I'm not talking about the princes. I'm not talking

about the supporting character. I'm not talking

about the second most main character. I'm talking

about the main character. And so for me, Aladdin

really is the main character in this film. He's

the namesake of the film. So number one, that's

breaking a mold for me that I haven't seen as

much from Disney. Number two. It combines a lot

of those elements. So for Little Mermaid, you

have her, and she's not quite part of that world,

right? Aladdin does a similar thing. Aladdin's

not quite royalty. He's not quite part of that

world that Jasmine and Jafar and the king, et

cetera, are on there. So you have that aspect.

You have another layer, though, because even

though Little Mermaid wasn't part of that world,

it's different when we're talking about just

because it's... That's more of a Romeo and Juliet

type thing where it's mermaids and people where

it's like you're not supposed to like these types

of people. That's more of what we get with Little

Mermaid. Whereas in Aladdin, it's more of a socioeconomic

thing where he's poor. He's a street rat. All

this other like street rat for me, even take

all of the crazy great songs that Disney has

had. One of them that resonated the most with

me is Aladdin singing that street rat song. Like,

it's just so great. And it just gives you that

feeling of the haves and the have nots. And I

was never like. I was never poor to the point

where I had to like go steal bread or do anything

like that, but we didn't come from money either.

So you can relate to it in that aspect. And then

you can relate to the fact that, you know, if

you have this genie and if you have these three

wishes, I mean, what kid doesn't go through that

scenario? Like what would be your three wishes?

What would be your wish? What would be your,

your blah, blah, blah. That's all things that

kids talk about, right? Like that's something

that comes up at some point. So he has all this

power and then he has to go through the fact

that, You know, he's dealing with the whole do

I let the genie go thing as one of my wishes.

And so you're dealing with that level. I think

Aladdin is a very interesting, complex, layered

character. And so I would defend him against

calling him boring and whatnot all the way until

I can't argue that anymore. And and then we still

go back and take all that away. Take all the

great music. Take Jafar, who's a fantastic Disney

villain. ignore everything else, and then just

go back to those two words I started with, Robin

Williams. 10 ,000 years will give you such a

crick in the neck. Hang on a second. Does it

feel good to be out of there? I'm telling you,

nice to be back, ladies and gentlemen. Hi, where

are you from? What's your name? Uh, uh, Aladdin.

Aladdin! Hello, Aladdin. Nice to have you on

the show. Can we call you Al, or maybe just Din?

Or how about Ladis? Sounds like... Here, boy.

Come on, Ladis. I must have hit my head harder

than I thought. Do you smoke? Mind if I do? Oh,

sorry, cheat. I hope I didn't sing the... Yo,

Rockman, haven't seen you in a few millennia.

Give me some tassel. Say, you're a lot smaller

than my last master. Either that or I'm getting

bigger. Look at me from the side. Do I look different

to you? Wait, wait a minute. I'm your master?

That's right. He can be taught. What would you

wish of me? Be ever impressive. But never duplicated.

Duplicated. Duplicated. Duplicated. Duplicated.

Genie of the lamp. Right here, direct from the

lamp. Right here for you. Very much wish fulfillment.

Thank you. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wish fulfillment?

Three wishes to be exact. And it's nay on the

wishing for more wishes. That's it. Three. Uno,

dos, tres. No substitutions, exchanges, or refunds.

Now I know I'm dreaming. There's never been a

character done more magnificently in animated

form than the genie. He says it in the movie.

He says it. No, no, no. But I'm just saying,

just take the fact that how many lines this man

improvised. Yeah. came up with on his own. They

just had to record hundreds of hours and pick

what they wanted to put in there. Yeah. Well,

that's what I'm saying. Like, again, he says

it and he sings it in the movie. You ain't never

had a friend like me. And that's the, like, and

going back to your earlier point about the whole,

there's not really male, like human male lead

characters in my entire life. Yeah. I don't know

what it's like to be any one of those animals.

But as a kid, I never looked at Robin Hood and

thought, oh, I can't relate to him because he's

a – like the whole speciesism of it all just

never – like he's a male. He's the main character.

My point, though, is more so you have all those

anamorphic characters, animal characters, whatever

you want to call it, that have been both male

and female, etc., and you can relate to their

characters, you can relate to their journeys,

etc., but Disney does give us main protagonists

that are human females over and over and over

again. They don't do that with males. they've

never done that with males outside of a very

select few so to me it's it's a worthy character

to do it was worthy to be in there at that time

and doing that character and i think it does

it's more unique than people give it credit for

i think yeah and i'm not arguing that at all

i'm i'm just saying that it's like you you are

absolutely 100 correct he is the first human

male protagonist that they've really used Right.

I mean, like I said, I guess you can count Mowgli

as probably the first. Yeah, but I mean. He's

a man cub. I never, yeah, he's a man cub. I mean,

I just wanted to say that and put that out there.

Like, I mean, technically he. And I'd have to

go movie by movie and outline who's the main

protagonist to make sure that's a fair claim.

But I would say he's one of the ones that comes

to my mind that's like, wow, they didn't do this

very often. And then you've got Frank Welker

as the Cape of Wonders. My daughter still loves

it when I impersonate that voice. no i'm not

doing it no but but it's it's great and it's

such a deep like just it's basically a megatron

on steroids when the deep voice goes really cave

of wonders it's fantastic so yeah i know my list

is disney heavy but we i had to put all four

of the ones from what i consider the greatest

disney era of all time This is what I said at

the beginning of this. This is what I say in

every one of these very episodes that we do that

we haven't done very many of. I plan on doing

more in the future. But this being the 300th

episode of the podcast and over 10 years of this.

Oh, Jesus. 14 years this year, 15 years of TuneCast

next year. The point of the top 10 tunes or in

the special case of episode 300 and your top

20 tunes is I understand your. approach to it

and i respect that and that's fine but my main

point in doing this is what is the guest insert

guest name whatever whoever here what is your

personal favorite top 10 animated anything i

understand your your approach and i and That's

why I like doing these because everybody approaches

it differently. Everybody kind of whatever. And

as long as they can fit it into the whatever,

that's fine. Whatever is your list. I don't look

at – I have never looked at the whole critic

score, this score, that score. The last time

I looked at a critic score was when Siskel and

Ebert were still alive because Ebert is gone

now, isn't he? Sadly. Yeah, and it's not to me

as much about the critic score as about it. It

is a kind of a indication of that the movie is

actually well put together, that there's not

plot holes, that there's not major problems with

it, etc. So it's more about that for me. I'm

not going to put a movie that I just know is

full of nonsensical problems on here, even if

I love it. I guess the closest argument people

would get would be my Transformers pick, but

that's what it is. Yeah, I have a few. You want

me to take another break before you want me to

go into honorable mentions, I'm sure. Yeah, so

we're going to take a quick break, another ad

break really quick. We'll come back with Optimus

Solo's honorable mentions right after this. July

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Don't miss SciFest Northwest. Featuring special

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More at SybFestNW .com. SybFestNW .com. SybFestNW

.com. SybFestNW .com. Hello there. I'm Paul Eiding.

Now, some of you might know me from video games

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Starcraft, Warcraft, God of War, Fallout 3, Fallout

4, a whole bunch of video games. Or some of you

might know me from Grandpa Max and Ben 10, or...

Nozone and Toxic Crusaders or a bunch of other

ones. Most importantly, I hope you know me from

G1 Transformers. I'm the voice of Perceptor.

Now, folks at SybFest Northwest, they know that

because I'm going to be joining everybody up

there. Kent, Washington, July 8th. I'm looking

forward to it. It's less than a month. 25 days,

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in the area, I hope you can join us. I promise

we'll have a good time. We'll be talking all

things Transformers or all things whatever you

want to talk about. So join us, all right? July

8th, SciFest Northwest. See you there. Yo, Rockman,

haven't seen you in a few millennia. Give me

some Tassel. All right, we are back here on ToonCast

episode 300. Optimus Solo has some honorable

mentions. We are going to be going through those

at this moment. And what is your first honorable

mention? Well, I'm going to name a few in kind

of some different groups here. So for starting

with just movies, if I was strictly making this

a personal list, I would probably take out Toy

Story. I would take out Beauty and the Beast.

Those two for sure would kind of get taken out

if it was just my personal favorites. What I

would put in would be hard, though, because it

would go back to my upbringing and what movies

really kind of hit me in the right spot as a

child and kind of stuck with me. So it'd be things

like Land Before Time, the original one. It would

be things like An American Tale. Or if I'm going

back to some of the Disney more classic films,

the ones that really resonated with me would

be Jungle Book and even more so Robin Hood. So

it would probably be between those four as to

they would make a play for getting into my top

ten if it was about just personal favorite films.

I just think those are classic. Don Bluth, I

didn't get a chance to represent him in my top

ten, so having either Land Before Time or American

Tail would be great. And then, like I said, the

more classic Disney, I just love Robin Hood.

So those are a few. As far as more modern films

that really, I think, are good, Trolls World

Tour is actually really good. I don't know if

people underestimate that or just kind of write

that off, but the cleverness that they had with

interweaving all of the different stereotypes

about different genres of music are fantastic.

That's my daughter's first favorite movie, and

I think it's just a good movie. I didn't mind

watching it 3 ,000 times. The other ones more

recently that have been good, Encanto, Luca,

Vivo, those have all been good ones. The more

modern Disney for me would be between Moana and

Frozen. I think those are two really good movies.

We talked a little bit about Pixar. It's very

hard to make this list and not include Wall -E

or Up or Ratatouille. Those were super hard to

not put in there. And more like a cult favorite,

I really love Watership Down and Secret of NIMH.

And from a more humor standpoint, and again,

a very intelligently written movie, South Park,

the movie. From back in the day. Bigger, better,

bigger, longer, and uncut. It's hard not to put

that one in there as well. And then I like Rango

and Fantastic Mr. Fox. Those would all have a

chance for me. Very cool. Very cool. Series.

Series. Oh, boy. All right. Honorable mentions

for your series. Let's see. What didn't make

your list? Yeah. So if it wasn't Archer, it would

have been Family Guy. Okay. Just putting that

out there. I really wanted to try to find a way

to get the 7D in there. I couldn't quite get

there. Okay, stop, please. I have to interrupt

you just for one quick second, and I know what

I'm going to say here. These people aren't going

to listen to this podcast, but for the love of

God, whoever is in charge of Disney +, put the

7D on Disney+. why it's not on there. It's not

on any streaming service. It pisses me off. 7D,

Disney +, get it done. Do your job. And in a

similar way that I put Kubo and the Two Strings

on my movie list, I would really like to champion

these two animated series, even though they were

not super well -known or distributed, but Kulapari

and Nico and the Sword of Light. I think I got

that title right. Nico. And the Sword of Light.

I think that's right. And Kulapari is like Army

of Frogs. It's got Mark Hamill in there as a

voice. Those two are very good series. If you

were looking for something kind of off the beaten

path, I would check those out. I don't know if

they're still streaming or not, but those would

be something I would look into. If it wasn't

DuckTales, then it would have been Between the

Adventures of the Gummy Bears and Chippendale's

Rescue Rangers for me in that spot. Those are

my other two favorite Disney afternoon cartoons.

I'm not as big on Darkwing Duck as everybody

else. All right, so question. Who is your favorite

Gummy Baron? Who is your favorite Rescue Ranger?

Rescue Ranger would probably be Dale just because

he's silly and gets him into – he's the goofy

one, right? He's the one that's always messing

up. Gummies, man, I would have to re -watch parts

of that. I have watched a few episodes with my

daughter, and I like a number of them, so it

would be hard for me to pick. one i'd have to

do a more in -depth research on that i have a

special spot for mysterious cities of gold so

i would try to maybe work that in there smurfs

was one like probably my first favorite cartoon

so getting that in there some way would have

been interesting i put transformers in there

so i didn't have room for beast wars but it's

a great series beast wars slash beast machines

i just used the all -encompassing transformers

for that so So that couldn't make it. And I won't

go in too much more into honorable mentions for

series because at one point I want to count down

the best action and non -action 80s series. So

I don't want to reveal my hand too much. How

many do you have for that? Best action and non

-action? Do you have 10 each? I have a list of

10 each, yeah. Okay. Yeah, we'll do Optimus Solo's

opposing futures 80s list in a future episode.

I guess that's it for honorable mentions for

me. What I found, though, is... going through

animated series and and thinking about like what's

really like a favorite or a personal favorite

like i am i'm gonna like sound arrogant here

for a second but i'm pretty well versed on animation

and when it comes to cartoons like i've done

you know they say like the rule of 10 000 like

if you've spent 10 000 hours studying something

you're supposed to be an expert i've eclipsed

that like i've between i've probably done over

10 000 hours just on voice acting alone in the

cartoons but then i've done i mean you did the

whole thing with btva and all that and everything

but i probably spent 10 000 hours just on a on

just cartoons in general theme songs all that

stuff so like i've spent a lot of time on this

and i know a lot of cartoons and i like a lot

of cartoons but when i was scrolling through

list and lists and lists of all the cartoons

to come up with this there's not that many that

just like jumped out at me like hey this should

be in your running for your favorite of all time

whereas movies i have a weird like it's easier

for me because there's so many more that i had

a connection to or that jumped off the page at

me when i was going through these cartoon series

it was like well this one has to be on there

this one has to be on there this one has to be

on there probably like four or five like that

and then it was like Would I call any of these

other ones my favorites? Like they're good series.

They're great series. They're series that are

well done. But they didn't resonate with me as

much. So it's just kind of interesting because

there's so many cartoon series that are OK or

good. But how many of them that I would say are

like just great? Like it's harder because when

we were doing like when we were doing our top

100 animated films. i you know all 100 are great

films and then we probably had a whole nother

list of you know whatever 50 films that didn't

make it that are also great films when we were

doing our animated series list at the time if

you take out any type of reboot spinoffs anything

like that if you were just looking at just one

per property like i don't think you come up with

150 great cartoon series if you start including

various versions of the batman series and various

versions of all this other stuff yes you're going

to come up with that but i just feel like cartoon

series overall don't have the same quality of

animated films in a way and that's not to say

i don't want i'm not trying to poo -poo on animated

series that's my go -to that's like the thing

i like more than anything in the world but the

ones that like really stand out that would make

like your top 100 list i just think you're going

to come up with less for animated series and

you're going to come up with more for animated

movies yeah Well, the thing is, is we've done

this. This is, again, I'm constantly trying to

figure out ways for me to not necessarily be

as interested in the art of podcasting as I was

14 years ago when I started, but I was trying

to find ways for me to... to still do podcasting,

but do something different. Hence why the GCRN

origins are a thing, from the cartoons, to the

comics, to the Transformers, to the Motu, to

the this, to the that, to the whatever. All the

origins that we've done over the years, and this

top ten tunes list was a way for me to, like,

if I already got somebody, like, if I got your

cartoon origin in episode two, you were episode

240, I believe. 240 and 300. But the point is,

oh, okay, well, then I want to do something else.

I want to do something different. And without

us going back to and redoing and restructuring

and maybe doing a different math way of redoing

the original 2011 Top 100 Animated Series or

the Top 100 Animated Films, Top 10 Tunes was

the way for me to do that and get other people's

personal lists of of the stuff yeah i personally

am going to be so interested and so intrigued

by the by when we revisit whether it be the top

100 animated series or top 100 animated films

because it's been so many years now yeah it's

been a dozen years and we've had so many more

things be released since then plus time to catch

up on stuff that we were missing before and i'm

i'm super intrigued on as to how much that list

will differ from the original one yeah absolutely

is there Anything else you would like to say?

No, I think I've talked everybody's ears off

about animation. It's great. Go watch Kubo and

the Two Strings and go watch Kolopari and go

watch Nico and the Sword of Light if you need

something to watch. Absolutely, absolutely. And

as he was talking, folks, I did a quick little

research on Amazon specifically. If you go to

Amazon, you search the 7D, it will pop up. It

is in four volumes. If you buy the HD seasons,

they're like $20 a piece to get them all digitally.

I think there was a DVD release of the series.

I don't know if it was complete series form.

But as I said in my rant earlier, please, Disney

+, for the love of all things that is holy, we

need the 7D on Disney+. I'm not paying you $86

a year to not have that on that service. All

right. Anything else? No, but if you want to

hear me talk more about cartoons, you should

search out The Geek Showcase on YouTube, and

you can hear me talk a whole lot of cartoons

there. Absolutely, absolutely. And Kevin, along

with Comic Concierge, J .K., Movie Revolt, Dan,

are also marching into Mutant Mayhem for August.

They're going through all of the TMNT films,

all of them, all of them. Yes, yes. So we're

making, it's a 10. podcast series. The 10th episode

will be the actual movie that's coming out this

year, correct? All the other ones are animated

or live -action films that have preceded it.

Mike, I've got to tell you this quick story.

I told it on the last Turtles record that Dan

and I did. That'll be out soon, if it's not out

already. Which episode? The one that airs this

next Friday. Oh, okay. The one on Turtles Forever.

I talk about this. I was at Target the other

day, and I really wanted to take a picture, but

there was too many people walking through back

and forth, and it would have been weird. But

there was literally two end caps in a row right

next to each other. Bam, bam. I wanted to take

a picture of it because the one end cap was all

toys based on the new Transformers slash Beast

Wars film. Yep. And the one right next to it

was all of the toys that had just been revealed

of the new Turtles film. Yep. And I was like,

I so want to take a picture of this and make

some type of post where it's like I think I just

traveled back to my childhood because it was

just like right next to each other. Both movies

coming out this year. And it was kind of cool.

Yeah. So I'm going to show you this after we're

done with the recording and all that good stuff.

But behind me, I've been living in my apartment

for a year now, the new apartment that I had

to move to when I moved from Washington to Indiana

last year in 2022. And I have currently, I need

two more of these shelves, but I currently have

three shelf bookcases. And I have on one of them,

the very top of the bookcase is all Turtles,

Funko Pops, and Funko Sodas. The one next to

it is all Transformers, Funko Pops, and all that

kind of stuff. And above those, I have my Transformers

posters and my Turtle posters on the wall. It's

all about the robots. It's all about the mutants,

folks. The mutant robots are coming to take us

to Pizza Town. Pizza Town, I like it. Pizza Energon

Town or Energon Pizza Town or whatever the hell.

All right, Toonsters, as always, we'd like to

thank you for joining us here on ToonCast. If

you'd like to get in contact with us or leave

feedback for the show, there are several ways

to do so. I want to say thank you to everybody

who has listened over the last 14 years that

we've done this show, and the reason why this

300th episode even exists is because when we

ended ToonCast Classic in 2011, we had 100 episodes,

and then we had X number of episodes of ToonCast

Beyond. We've come back, and in the future, we

will have all kinds of aftertunes in the afternoons

and all that good stuff and everything else,

but... Visit the website geekcastradio .com where

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as well as Geek Showcase. We hope you enjoyed

this episode of TuneCast. I wish you'll join

us next time. We'll be giving you our thoughts

on I have no idea because all it says is topic

here in red text. So a track to 400 begins. Hey,

can we get to episode 400 in 400 days? I wonder

in a hundred days or what? Yeah. Wow. That bad

math. Math is bad. Evil, evil, evil. Uh, for

now I am TF2 and Mike with Optimus Solo. Thank

you for listening until next time. Oh yeah. And

unleash the tune in you. Where's the kaboom?

There was supposed to be an earth -shattering

kaboom.