Come And See ME and the Other HB Fanatics!

Hey everyone. I have a TON of stuff, memorabilia, art, parodies, you name it at

http://www.flickr.com/groups/hanna-barbera/

my friend and i are billing it as THE place online for any and all things Hanna Barbera and already have amassed the largest gathering of pics regarding just about every character in the stable of H-B.

Email me at dom.giansante@gmail.com if you have any questions!

Hanna Barbera Cereal Box Card - Atom Ant

Hanna Barbera Cereal Box Card - Atom Ant
Originally uploaded by andertoons

Come see these amazing card pics over on the Flickr site. me and a bunch of HB enthusiasts are trying to bring back the heyday of Hanna Barbera, one pic at a time!

Hanna Barbarians UNITE! Banana Splits RETURN!

OMG, i am freaking out right now! if ever there was a show that needed to come back to us in a version that will appeal to kids of all ages, its the Banana Splits and now its back! Batton down the hatches fellow Hanna Barbarians, cuz this is awesome. see the first link that tells about it here

http://scrappyd.blogspot.com/2008/08/banana-splits-are-back.html

or skip that and go to their own webpage here:

http://www.bananasplits.com/

Please get all your kids...all your friends kids...all your kids' kids' kids to watch this and make them popular once again!

The above image is courtesy Stephanie Gladdon

Stop Maligning H-B Characters Part II

The Maligning #3 - The most heinous of the 3! If you have created beloved characters that have lasted decades upon decades; have had numerous merchandise created; they have been seen on multiple platforms from movies, games and, hell, bed sheets, then why, oh God, why, would you not try your damn darnedest to get a voice artist who could recreate the voices of said beloved characters? Betty Rubble in the original 60's incarnation goes from the inimitable Bea Benedaret to Gerry Johnson, fairly Seamlessly, not a lot of issue here. But once Gerry Johnson also past away, all things went to hell. The same is true about Fred's voice Alan Reed. As great of a voice artist as Henry Cordon was, he could never fill Reeds shoes and simply screeched Fred's baritone until his death in 2005. BUT it was tolerable. What was not tolerable were the absolute unfortunate voices that would plague Betty Rubble for the next 3 decades. Gay Hartweg, BJ Ward and Gay Autterson in no way shape or form, embody the spirit, cadence or likability of everyone's favorite hot neighbor! I'm sure these ladies are lovely, but to go from the bubbly verve of Benedaret, who helped create a "catch giggle", if you can call it that, to Gay Auttersons dour sounding molasses of a drawl, is the thing that resonates to me that few appreciated these characters enough to find the right voice. I bought a CD boxed set called Hanna-Barbera's Pic-a-Nic Basket of Cartoon Classics and in it was a CD with answering machine messages of the stars, you could use as your outgoing message. i don't know who did the voices, but you could tell it was the same guy and he machete'd each voice to pieces! I.E. when Super Snooper and Blabber mouse were talking, the guy barely switched from Snooper in time for the piece of dialogue spoken by Blabbermouse! His Snagglepuss was depressing and i got out a noose when he tried to muster Peter Potamus' voice!

Would Disney ever do this? Did they? NO! You cannot tell the difference in utterance between Mickey, Donald or Goofy from 1940 to 2008. Different actors have portrayed these voices and there are slight inflections that allow you to tell the difference between a Bill Farmer from a George Johnson, but for the most part it is seamless!

With the Deaths of Don Messick, Daws Butler and Mel Blanc, we have seen a constant deterioration in the world of making our favorite characters sound as they did in their original outings and its a travesty. Maybe i have a very discerning ear, as i listen to hear the differences between, say Kermit the Frog pre and post Jim Henson and all other classic cartoons whose voices have past on to the great sound booth in the sky. At this point, if Frank Welker and Casey Kasem die, H-B Characters are up crap creek without a paddle! So much of their appeal comes from the voices that i don't understand why its not given much more credence! I see they tried to have a different actor do Shaggy in some of those direct to DVD titles recently and the show that came out, but have gone back to Kasem for the good of all toondom. Not all is bleak, however, as the voice cast of The Flintstones On the Rocks was delightful! Tress MacNeille channeled the feisty spirit of Jean Vander Pyl perfectly and Jeff Bergman's Fred was a throwback to Alan Reed if ever i heard one. Another plus is Mindy Cohn as Velma in Scooby Doo. She is a welcome addition to newer Scooby toons and is very similar to Nicole Jaffe. But alas, Daphne's voice has been screwed up since the original episodes with Stefanianna Christopherson went off Saturday mornings. Even Heather North did a commendable job with Daffy Daphne in the early 80's. Who the hell is doing it now?

Please Warner Brothers, stop maligning our characters with terrible voice interpretations! I say this at a time when actually, i think it's getting better, but still, as you prepare (at least i hope you are preparing) new ways to reinvigorate these classic toons, do not accept mediocrity. If you need an idea, see my deviantart page for my interpretation of what i think you should do with the H-B franchise the link is below. I mean look at these great characters!

http://slappy427.deviantart.com/

Stop Maligning H-B Characters! Part 1

Alright here's the deal. As an avid Hanna Barbera FANatic, i have, over the years, been very critical of how H-B, and now WB have handled their characters. At the same time, i have watched Disney treat their characters with loving hands and gently mold them and shape them to fit into the next generation. As much as i defend them and admire them and love their characters, there was a sense of "throw away" that accompanied a lot of their toons, especially in arguably their most lucrative decade, the 70's. Instead of nurturing their would be stars, Dynomutt, Jabberjaw, Captain Caveman etc., they were tossed aside in order to usher in whatever new trend in society would be. Interestingly enough, they had a hand in helping creating one sociological trend with the creation of Scooby Doo and shows of that ilk.

Scooby, along with the Archie's and Sabrina, helped continue the whole teen as rock band, solving mysteries, era that children loved during this time. It was fodder for kids ages 8,9,10, 11 and 12 who wanted to watch people like their older siblings, get into scrapes and figure out how to get out of them with a little luck, ingenuity and help from some sort of anthropomorphic animal. If you look at the popular shows of the time, teens ruled the airwaves and, not coincidentally, advertisers were once again realizing the buying power of 18-24 year olds. The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family, along with various other teen-centric performers such as The Jackson Five, The Osmond's and later 8 is Enough and Family, all showcased teens in a positive and appealing light. Scooby Doo, a lasting staple in cartoon history, showcased this very appealing aspect and in effect help proliferate this sociological trend. A trend they tried hard to keep afloat in congruence with Scooby; Goober and the Ghost Chasers, Jabberjaw, Clue Club, Speed Buggy, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, Jeannie, the Funky Phantom et al. Unfortunately, none of them were treated with enough respect to remain a part of American pop culture for good. Some of which you can see below. This is the 1st of my maligning theory i like to call...The Maligning!!

As the 80's loomed, toy manufacturers started coming up with very cutesy cuddly animals and toys to appeal to a whole new generation of kids that would sit along side the Star Wars stable of stars on the shelves. They include Monchhichi's, Cabbage Patch Kids, Pound Puppies and Strawberry Shortcake. Out of this came H-B's response to this issue which included such blah banality as...well, the Monchhichi's, Pound Puppies, Richie Rich, Paw Paws, and their most successful show for almost a decade, the Smurfs. Out of this was also born the "adorable" Flintstone Kids, Yo Yogi, A Pup Named Scooby Doo and Tom and Jerry Kids. This brings me to The Miligning #2 - i don't care if you make a show with the Flintstones as kids, i love the idea, but to design them to be so unrecognizable from its original appearance is a disservice to not only the characters but to the original designers and the fans who made the show popular to begin with. Why would a toddler Fred wear a tie? Why would Betty look like a fat idiot with a beehive hairdo? The original style from the 60's wasn't even a beehive! Below you see my version of what the Flintstone kids should have looked like. You can see more at http://slappy427.deviantart.com/



Now, in the 80's and 90's H-B did use their original most popular stars in various vehicles all very poor in storytelling and animation, but with loves comes acceptance, so i overlooked those aspects in order to have those guys on TV. Such shows as Yogi's Treasure Hunt, Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo (and the Thing for some reason), the Real Adventures of Johnny Quest, probably their best update and the new episodes of the Jetsons, probably their worst update of all time! Orbitty anyone? But this is where the next malignment of characters began. The design, i suppose you could say, kept up with the times by rounding all the characters so much that they looked interchangeable. This is the era of Wilma's chin elongated so much, she could challenge Jay Leno to a chin off, Fred's overbite becoming an under bite, Barney's smock becoming more and more dark brown that in the Flintstones Christmas Carol, its almost black and the Jetsons being "animated" so on-model, most of the show is simply poses stolen directly from the model sheets themselves.

Thank the fates, this has come full circle as the Craig Kellman version of the Flintstones made it to print in The Flintstones: On the Rocks...a wonderful rendition of these characters. Also Yogi Bear's foray into reclaiming artistic glory via John K's view of the cartoons with his Yogi and Ranger Smith adaptations. Basically, and John K would agree with this, they evolved the look of the characters to a place so unappealing, that it took away their original appeal we all fell in love with thanks to the the designs of Ed Benedict, Dick Bickenback, Jerry Eisenberg, Iwao Takamoto and the rest.

Now, they are releasing The Man Called Flintstone on DVD, which is a great move, but did you see the possible cover art? it is at the top!

How is this piece of art, created decades ago to exist with the advent of VHS movies, supposed to appeal to the general shopper? If they were smart (and so far i have agreed with most of what they have done with the DVD releases) they will switch it up and have someone like Patrick Owsley do the cover. Or Craig Kellman, or any number of artists who would keep alive the look that is synonymous with the original material. Below is a sample of Craig Kellman Flintstone character designs.

P.S. While I'm on the topic...if you want H-B DVD's to sell, and you look at the sales of previous releases to make the decision on what to release or to release more at all...don't put out crap like Wait Til Your Father Gets Home. Way to put the nail in the coffin when we don't have on DVD much more popular fare such as Hair Bear Bunch, Quick Draw McGraw, Laff-a-Lympics, Peter Potamus and Jabberjaw!!!

Part II coming soon

Obscurity vs. Infamy part Deux

Above: my version of the infamous 4

In a previous post i wrote about Muttley's family lineage; how i thought the evolution was more of a family tree than a different form of the same character. The focus of the article was how he almost became a character not unlike Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Fred Flintstone, Popeye, Underdog and even SpongeBob Squarepants, or, famous toons that will live on and on and become equally as infamous to each generation of kids around the world. its a machine that is driven in 3 parts. one, because these are iconic, well developed (and in most cases anthropomorphic) personalities. two, because the creators constatnly change, evolve and make available to the masses these characters and three: it's like an out of control locomotive that can't be stopped. they are so ingrained in our society, because of parts one and two, that they will never go away.

4 Hanna Barbera characters, the remaining 4 i will talk about, almost made it to infamy right along side one of their company cohorts, Fred Flintstone, but were at some point, cut off at the knees just before finishing the race and never made it past the infamy finish line. about the only other character not from the Hanna Barbera stable to almost make it was Fang Face, a Ruby Spears creation that was very good, but a rip off of Scooby Doo.

Jabberjaw

Captain Caveman

Hong Kong Phooey

Dynomutt

i have a 4 tiered criteria that showcases why these certain characters should have made it from obscurity to infamy:

1. How much merchandise was created of them

2. How often were the characters used, outside of their own shows

3. Life size costumes created, you would find at an amusement park, is also an indication

4. 90's updates

Each of the 4 characters mentioned had merchandise created of them in various forms; coloring books, parachuters, stuffed animals. this was untrue of toons at the time who were not destined to be infamous...Devlin, the Houndcats, Giligan's Planet, The Groovy Ghoulies

Each character had life outside their own show:

All characters were members of various teams on the All Star Laff-A-Lympics. actually Jabber guested as a ref but who's counting? (i guess i am...duh!) but he was a cast member in Yogi's Space Race which was Wacky Races with spaceships. his partner was the even more obscrure, Buford the dog. the Captain apeared in man a flinstone reincarnation all the way up to the Flintstone Kids and most recently when Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm got married in the 90's and Dynomutt has had a long and storied history with Scooby Doo

You do not see costumes, amusement park costumes, made unless the character is popular. Each of these characters have their own costume, or at least did when King's Island used the HB stable as its roaming character crew.

In the 90's, Dynomutt guested on Dexter's Laboratory, Captain Caveman is still around during any Flintstone thing, Jabberjaw had an updated music video made in the 2000's and HKP is still popular enough to have his own DVD come out, not to mention HKP and Jabberjaw being turned into Beanie Babies when that was popular. in recent years Dynomutt, HKP and Captain Caveman have been turned into action figures by Todd McFarlane and in Dyno's and Blue Falcons case, a really cool maquette set. it is for these reasons i believe they should have become infamous, but instead are languishing on Boomerang where they get limited exposure.

More Wacky Races?

Believe it or not...and i did not, as i thought it would be way easier to build the Bullet Proof Bomb, but the fine folks at Goodwood came up with a Buzzwagon including Rufus Ruffcut and Sawtooth that wascally beaver. here it is in all its glory!

Scooby Doo and the case of the Oft Copied Formula!

Scooby Doo was never one of my favorite H-B productions; i would take a Flintstone, Yogi, or Magilla over that boring mystery solving dog any day. i did have to watch it a lot, however, as i was the youngest kid in the house and "was made" to watch what my brother wanted to watch on Saturday morning, which happened to be the older-skewing Mystery Inc. gang. My favorite episodes were the ones with Scooby Dumm, with his battlecry, "Dumm-dumm-dum-duuuuuummmm!" Seems like many of the characters at Hanna Barbera had a catch phrase or battlecry of some sort but this show outpaced them all. besides the mantra of Scooby Dumm, Scrappy warbled, "Puppy Power", Shaggy yelped, "Zoinks" Velma hailed "Jinkies" and of course the top dog had his own, "Scooby Dooby DOOOOOOO!!!!" This formula, that became very popular in 1969, obviously had to spawn copies of its successful format; right down to the signature send-offs by the main character. The other mainstay is what i like to call the "Shaggy Effect" and "Fred Syndrome." Let's look at a few shall we?

• Goober & the Ghostchasers. This one is funny because they didn't even bother trying to differentiate this spooky mystery solving group from the Scooby gang, and put the "ghost" in the friggin title! In this show, a nameless, faceless ghostbusters like outfit, would send the group of teens to hunt ghosts and get a story for a magazine. Goober's trademark...whenever he got scared, her dissapeared. this was great for the animator's who, already in "limited animation" mode, didn't have to animate this blue/green dog during the best bits of the show. (for more on limited animation, type it into google and find out) For some unknown reason, i really like this dog Goober. Yes, the stories are second rate, but the Dog, the disappearing dog with the funny laugh...him i like. Catchphrase: "That's Ridiculiculiculiculous!" Shaggy Effect: Gilly the photographer takes the Shaggy role but is way less endearing and completely unmemorable. Fred Syndrome: The bulky brave Ted. TED, people...TED...it friggin rhymes with FRED!!!

• Jabberjaw. Another favorite of mine. this show incorporated not only the mystery solving aspect, the cumbersome pet aspect, AND the futuristic aspect, but also, they were a band! And the shark? played the drums. Really, that's enough said. Catchphrase: "No respect, no respect!" Shaggy Effect: Clamhead...i think he even caught a scared Jabber once or twice like the indelable image of Shaggy holding Scooby in his arms, knees a quakin!. Fred Syndrome: Biff - good looking, stocky and BLAND!!

• Clue Club: Crime solving team in a small town. Only this time, they have two dogs, Woofer and Whimper. They also take all their jobs from an 8 year old girl named Dotty. She's not old enough to go with the team of teens, but is old enough to man the police blotter and happens to be a tech whiz. Woofer and Whimper's look smacks of Jerry Eisenberg and are actually endearing; so much so they had their own adventures alone during the Skatebids show. Catchphrase: Was there one on this show? Shaggy Effect: D.D. was this freaky looking, Charles Nelson Reilly like bafoon. Fred Syndrome: Larry. Oh dear larry, your short fro was something to be desired. There really is nothing to say here except he must have been cloned from Fred and slapped with a short jeri-curl.

the last one i will touch on..

• Speed Buggy. Okay, so here is another beloved character of mine, but really, i guess H-B would stop at nothing to get a show on the air. Here we have a talking car. hey, guess what, its scared most of the time, weird huh? his pal is a lanky red headed fellow named Tinker who happens to sound exactly like Gomer Pyle, for those of you who remember him from Mayberry. Catchphrase: "Va-ROOM-A-ZOOM-ZOOM" or something like that. Shaggy Effect: Obviously Tinker. Fred Syndrome: Mark was the hunka hunka burnin love here. P.S. after Daphne, and Betty Rubble, Debbie here was my third crush!

there were many more i could go into, but it has been done, and probably better than i could do it anyway. suffice it to say, i did not talk about the shows whose catch was a phantom, a rock band, a caveman, another rock band, 2 rock bands in outer space, a Karate dog (somewhat of a departure) a giant ape (another departure) and a familiar sounding female Genie.

No Foolin!!

Wacky Races has been immortalized by people at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and every year for the past few years, they have introduced new cars into their annual show. not sure what is going to show up this year but here is a sample of what has already been produced..they are brilliant!

Pat Pending in his Convert-A-Car above

The Army Surplus Special with Sargeant Blast and Private Meekley above

The Compact Pussycat, Penelope Pitstops car, for some reason driven by Blubber Bear who should be with the below person...

The Arkansas Chug-a-Bug driven by Lazy Luke and inexplicably passengered by Slag from the Boulder Bros. - aka the Gravel Bros.

Cars not seen here but produced and available to be seen on the internet (or if you asked i could post them) are:

• Mean Machine with a great Muttley costume,

• Boulder Mobile, and you can see one of the two costumes above with Luke, which are great BTW

• The Creepy Coupe and both Gruesome bros. are represented

• The Crimson Haybailor and Red Max

• Turbo Terrific with Peter Perfect

Cars not been produced yet are:

• Bullet Proof Bomb which carried the Ant Hill Mob

• The Buzzwagon with Rufus Ruffcut and Sawtooth - not sure how they would do this one what with the wheels and all, but who knows.