More Cartoon Fun!

I mentioned yesterday how a conversation led me to wonder if I was delusioning up a Siegfried and Roy cartoon (short answer, no, I wasn't, it exists, and I bought a copy of the vhs off of amazon. :-P) well, it also led my friend to decide that my experience with 80s cartoons was incomplete, so he rented BraveStarr and made me watch it.

It's okay though, I got him back with Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers. We were on a space western kick, clearly. It's the robot horses. That's what Firefly needed, damnit. Robot horses.

Anyway, for all that I'd watched FAR too many cartoons as a young kalinara, I'd actually never, to my recollection, seen BraveStarr (I do not know what's up with the extra "r"). Though the themesong did strike me as vaguely familiar.

It was fairly interesting, I mean, as 80s tv shows go. I'm still trying to figure out what Tex Hex is supposed to be. I mean, they seem to indicate he's human, but...why is he purple? Even in the flashbacks when he's not eeevil, he seems to be purple.

I'm still not sure what exactly Kerium is either. But apparently it cures blind people, which is interesting. (Speaking of, that episode's guest star, a blind girl who was basically Adora from She-Ra, was kind of kickass. I wish she'd show up again.) It's also worth a lot of money and apt to be stolen! Eeek!

Like most 80s shows, there was of course the "moral" at the end. The one with the blind girl had a fairly decent one though which summed up to the what-every-person-with-common-sense-ought-to-know message of "blind people don't want your pity, thank you, and are more than capable of having lives of their own." Well, decent until the judge-chick suddenly turns to the blind man (her father perhaps?) and saccharines at him: "I'm proud of you."

Yeesh, a "don't patronize people" message topped off with a different patronizing sentiment. Smooth.

That said, I actually did rather like it. Especially one episode where the lead character's mentor returns, having fallen considerably from grace. Much to my surprise there was no real redemption moment or anything like that. The ending was actually somewhat uncomfortable, without a lot of emotional resolution. (The moral being summed up as "sometimes people you care about will disappoint you, but try to remember the things the things they've done well, not the mistakes they've made. Which is a fairly decent moral, actually.)

I think my favorite character's probably the robot horse who turns into a robot horse man, who in my friend's words "really really needs anger management." He also carries a giant gun. And well...I approve of robot horses. I also approve of giant guns. Especially ones named "Sarah Jane".

I haven't yet seen the girl-judge do anything, but given that I've only seen three episodes, I can't judge based on that. I do like that they have a girl judge though. The lisping mole sidekick though is one that I can seriously live without. But it's interesting.

Also, the lead character is fairly interesting too. I like his character design. The powers are useful without being too much, and the (apparent) limit of being able to use only one at once allows for a bit of strategy. And the villain is amusing.

I kind of regret not seeing this when I was a kid. I think I'd have liked it a lot. :-)