Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Toon In: Why Does This Exist?


Looking for a good late 1980’s film franchise to make into a cartoon for children? Obviously the best choice would be the ultra violent film RoboCop! Wait, what? (If this was a 1980’s movie trailer this is where the record scratch would go.)

B-words Leave!

RoboCop was the ultra violent movie about a dystopian city where the bullet mangled body of a nearly murdered policeman is literally scavenged from the morgue and melded with robot to make a remorseless killing machine. The film’s original cut had been given an X rating due to its extreme violence- a rarity, since the prudish MPAA typically reserved X ratings for films with sexual content. Producing a cartoon out of that seems ridiculous today, but was apparently seen as viable to Orion Pictures in 1988.


Want me to ‘k’ this ‘a’, boss?

The show’s violence was toned down a bit from the film; instead of the dystopian setting of the film, the cartoon had more of a Sci-Fi feel. Regular guns became laser blasters that seemingly always missed. Despite these changes, the 1980’s decided that FINALLY somebody had gone too far. The show died a quick death, lasting just two months. The memories of the time that several allegedly sane executives greenlit a show for children based on an R rated motion picture remain, as well as twelve episodes of this bizarre endeavor.