50 Fun Facts About 80s Cartoons

Filmation's 1983 cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was based on which company's toy line?

Mattel had passed on the Star Wars toy licence in 1976, balking at the $750,000 price, and spent years chasing a hit of its own. He-Man reached shops in 1982, and the cartoon followed a year later.

What is the name of Prince Adam's pet tiger, who transforms into Battle Cat?

Cringer's fierce other half began as a money-saver: rather than pay for a new toy, the makers reused a tiger from their older Big Jim line. It was far too big for the figures, so it got a saddle and became He-Man's mount.

Which fortress is Skeletor's main goal, since He-Man draws his power from it?

Castle Grayskull is the name Prince Adam calls on each time he raises his sword to transform. Its guardian, the Sorceress, is powerful only inside its walls; beyond them she can do little more than turn into a falcon.

Prince Adam's twin sister, raised by the enemy, leads a rebellion as which cartoon heroine?

She-Ra is Princess Adora, snatched as a baby by Hordak and brought up to be a Force Captain in his Horde. When her brother arrives with the magic sword meant for her, she learns the truth and changes sides.

In The Transformers, what wakes the robots in 1984 after four million years buried on Earth?

A volcanic eruption shakes the buried Ark and restarts its computer, Teletraan I, which sends out a probe and rebuilds the robots in the shape of the Earth machines it scans.

Voice actor Peter Cullen modelled which Autobot on his older brother, a Marine veteran of Vietnam?

Optimus Prime owes his calm to Larry Cullen, a Marine captain. Before the audition he advised Peter not to shout like a movie tough guy, because the truly strong are 'tough enough to be gentle'.

Which Japanese studio drew most of the first two seasons of The Transformers?

Toei Animation handled most of the first two seasons, designing the transformation schemes and animation models; in season three much of the work shifted to the South Korean studio AKOM.

Orson Welles voiced which planet-sized villain in the 1986 animated Transformers film?

Unicron was Orson Welles's final film role: he voiced the planet-eating robot five days before he died in October 1985, and his voice was so weak that it was altered with synthesizers.

Which company produced ThunderCats in 1985?

Rankin/Bass, best known for stop-motion holiday specials, recorded the voices and music in the United States, sent the tapes to Japan to be animated, then brought the film back for editing.

What is the name of the ThunderCats' legendary weapon, whose hilt holds the source of their power?

The Sword of Omens rests as a dagger and grows to full length when Lion-O calls on it. Held to his eyes with the words 'give me sight beyond sight', it shows him danger far away.

On which planet do the ThunderCats settle after fleeing their dying homeworld?

The ThunderCats settle on Third Earth after the Mutants of Plun-Darr cripple their flagship in flight; Jaga steers the survivors there, where the ever-living mummy Mumm-Ra already waits.

In the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, the bodiless alien warlord Krang was banished from where?

Dimension X is where Krang ruled until he was stripped of his body and banished to Earth. There Shredder built him a walking android suit in return for a base in Krang's rolling fortress, the Technodrome.

In the 1987 TMNT cartoon, Splinter was originally a human ninja master by what name?

Hamato Yoshi, framed by rival Oroku Saki and exiled to the New York sewers, was mutated into the rat Splinter because he had been touching sewer rats; in the Mirage comics Splinter was instead Yoshi's pet rat.

When the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon reached British TV in 1990, which word replaced 'Ninja' in its title?

Hero was the BBC's safer choice during a British panic over ninja weapons. The word was also cut from the theme song and dialogue, and Michelangelo's nunchucks were edited out of the fights.

DuckTales (1987) was based on Uncle Scrooge comics created by which cartoonist?

Carl Barks drew his duck stories without a byline, since Disney comics carried only Walt's name. Readers who noticed that some stories were far better than the rest called their unknown author 'the Good Duck Artist'.

Which DuckTales character went on to become the title character's sidekick in Darkwing Duck?

Launchpad McQuack, Scrooge's crash-prone pilot, talked his way into the job: he introduced himself as Darkwing's biggest fan, kept offering to be his sidekick and built him a jet, the Thunderquack.

Which comedy actor voiced the bumbling detective in the 1983 cartoon Inspector Gadget?

Don Adams was the third voice tried: two earlier actors were dropped from the pilot before producers turned to the man who had played Maxwell Smart, the bumbling Get Smart spy who helped inspire the character.

What is the name of Inspector Gadget's dog, who secretly saves him in disguise?

Brain is the dog who shadows Gadget in disguise; Gadget usually mistakes him for a M.A.D. agent and gives chase, while niece Penny does the real detective work with her computer book.

On which US network did Hanna-Barbera's blue-skinned Peyo adaptation run from 1981 to 1989?

NBC president Fred Silverman ordered the series after buying his daughter a doll of the little blue characters. It became one of the few hits of his troubled time there and ran for nine seasons, long after he had gone.

Which cartoon bears began life in 1981 as paintings for greeting cards?

Care Bears were painted by Elena Kucharik for American Greetings cards, then became toys, TV specials and a 1985 film that out-earned Disney's far costlier The Black Cauldron.

In Jem, what is the real name of the record-company owner whose alter ego fronts the Holograms?

Jerrica Benton inherited Starlight Music and a secret from her late father: Synergy, a computer he built that projects lifelike holograms. A touch of her star-shaped earrings turns her into Jem.

The first season of Voltron (1984) was adapted from which Japanese anime series?

Beast King GoLion (1981) supplied the five robot lions of Voltron's first season, re-dubbed and re-edited by World Events Productions; season two's Vehicle Team came from the unrelated Armored Fleet Dairugger XV.

In Adventures of the Gummi Bears, what does gummiberry juice let the bears do?

Bounce like rubber balls is what the juice does for bears. On humans it gives a brief burst of super-strength that works only once a day, which is why Duke Igthorn keeps trying to steal the recipe.

In which kingdom's forest do the Gummi Bears live in their secret home of Gummi Glen?

Dunwyn's forest hides the last Gummis for a reason: jealous humans drove the rest of their kind into exile long ago, and the kingdom now takes the bears for a fairy tale.

Why did the 1986 Ghostbusters cartoon have to add 'The Real' to its title?

Filmation already owned the name, from a 1975 live-action comedy called The Ghost Busters. Columbia paid to borrow it for the film, then Filmation revived its show as a cartoon days before the film's own spin-off aired.

Muppet Babies grew out of a dream sequence in which 1984 film?

In The Muppets Take Manhattan (July 1984), Miss Piggy imagines the gang as babies in the 'I'm Gonna Always Love You' number; the CBS series premiered that September, mixing live-action film clips into the babies' daydreams.

In the 1983 series Alvin and the Chipmunks, which female chipmunk is Alvin's vain, bossy opposite number?

Brittany leads the Chipettes as Alvin leads his brothers, with Jeanette a match for Simon and Eleanor for Theodore. She seems to have grown out of Charlene, who sang a Grease duet with Alvin on a 1982 album.

In the 1983 Dungeons & Dragons cartoon, how are the six kids transported into the realm?

On a roller coaster: the ride is a Dungeons & Dragons attraction that drops the six into the realm, where Dungeon Master arms each of them. Forty years on, all six appeared in live action in the film Honor Among Thieves.

Where is the secret London headquarters of Penfold's eyepatched boss hidden?

Inside a pillar box on Baker Street, a red post box, sits the base of the eyepatched agent and his timid sidekick. The show's artist doodled Penfold before a meeting, then realised he had drawn his own brother.

Count Duckula (1988) was a spin-off from which other Cosgrove Hall cartoon?

Danger Mouse was the parent show: a villainous Count Duckula had been a recurring baddie there, and the 1988 spin-off recast him as a vegetarian vampire, co-produced with Nickelodeon after the original's US success.

Which horror legend voiced the warlock Van Ghoul in The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (1985)?

Vincent Price voiced Vincent Van Ghoul, the warlock who helps the gang recapture the ghosts Shaggy and Scooby released from the Chest of Demons; the unresolved 13th ghost was finally caught in a 2019 direct-to-video film.

Which arcade hit became, in 1982, the first video game turned into a TV cartoon?

Pac-Man reached ABC a year before Donkey Kong and Frogger got cartoons of their own. The show gave him a wife, a baby and a dog, and Namco then built its 1984 arcade game Pac-Land around it.

In Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981), Firestar was created to replace which character?

The Human Torch was the first choice by most accounts, which differ on why he was dropped. Firestar, invented in his place, later crossed into Marvel's comics and joined the New Warriors and the Avengers.

In Disney's Rescue Rangers, who wears the leather jacket first designed for Kit Colby, an Indiana Jones-style mouse who was dropped?

Chip got the jacket, plus an Indiana Jones hat, after Disney's bosses loved the pitch but not its lead mouse. Out went Kit Colby, in came the studio's old chipmunk duo, and Dale was handed a Hawaiian shirt.

Which cartoon began in 1982 as 30-second animated commercials for a Marvel comic, sidestepping limits on animated toy ads?

G.I. Joe dodged a rule that toy commercials could show only a few seconds of animation. No such limit covered ads for comic books, so Hasbro paid for fully animated spots selling the comic, and the figures with it.

In the 1980s My Little Pony cartoons, which baby dragon lives with the ponies?

Spike began in the 1984 special Rescue at Midnight Castle as a hostage of the centaur Tirac, then stayed on with the ponies. A new Spike, based on him, returned in 2010 as a lead of Friendship Is Magic.

The Simpsons launched as a half-hour series in 1989 with what kind of episode?

A Christmas special, 'Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire', opened the series only because the intended premiere, 'Some Enchanted Evening', came back so poorly animated that it was held until the end of the season.

The Simpson family got their start in 1987 as animated shorts on which programme?

Matt Groening sketched the family in James L. Brooks's lobby before pitching, and the shorts debuted on The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987; the spin-off became Fox's first series to crack the season's top 30.

Which other Jim Davis comic strip had its own segments in Garfield and Friends (1988)?

U.S. Acres, about a pig named Orson and his barnyard friends, left newspapers in 1989, a year after the cartoon began. Its animated segments carried on until 1994, outliving the strip by five years.

Which legendary voice actor played Heathcliff in Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats (1984)?

Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, had played the cat once before, in a 1980 series. Heathcliff is the older of the two orange comic-strip cats: his strip began in 1973, five years before Garfield's.

The Snorks (1984) came from the same Belgian merchandising machine as which other Hanna-Barbera hit?

The Smurfs shared the same Belgian licensing agent: Freddy Monnickendam of SEPP, who had brokered the Peyo deal, developed the underwater Snorks with Belgian artist Nic Broca, and both shows aired on the same Saturday-morning network.

In Denver, the Last Dinosaur (1988), how does Denver arrive in the modern world?

He hatches from a fossil egg that four Los Angeles teenagers find in a pit by the La Brea Tar Pits. They name him after a bus advert for the city and hide him from a promoter who wants to cash in.

Which wrestling personality played Mario in the 1989 live-action and cartoon Super Mario Bros. show?

Captain Lou Albano, a wrestling manager famous for the rubber bands in his wild beard, shaved it off to become the plumber and unveiled the result on a live talk show. He also voiced Mario in the cartoons.

In M.A.S.K. (1985), Matt Trakker's team battles which criminal organization?

V.E.N.O.M., the Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem, began with a betrayal: Miles Mayhem was Matt Trakker's business partner until he killed Matt's brother Andy and stole the power masks that arm his gang.

Which escaped alien crime boss do the SilverHawks fight in the Limbo Galaxy?

Mon*Star, who broke out of the prison world Penal Planet 10, draws his power from Limbo's Moonstar: under its rays the mob boss swells into an armour-plated giant.

Filmation's BraveStarr keeps the peace on which planet?

New Texas is a desert mining world whose rare mineral Kerium draws outlaws. Its marshal, a Native American lawman, calls on the strength of a bear and the speed of a puma, with a cyborg horse as his deputy.

In the 1989 Beetlejuice cartoon, what is the ghost to Lydia?

Her best friend: the cartoon turned the film's villain into Lydia's pal, whom she calls by saying his name three times for trips to the Neitherworld. Tim Burton developed it, and Danny Elfman reworked his film theme.

Which 1980s tough guy coached a team of mystery-solving teen gymnasts in his own 1983 cartoon?

Mr. T appeared in person to open each episode and again to close it with a moral lesson. In between, his cartoon self toured the world with the gymnasts and Dozer, a bulldog with a mohawk to match his own.

In Captain N: The Game Master, which villain leads the forces threatening Videoland?

Mother Brain, the jar-bound boss of Metroid, became a vain, bellowing diva in the cartoon, voiced by Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops. Dr. Wily, King Hippo and the Eggplant Wizard are merely her henchmen.

In The Raccoons, what is the name of the greedy aardvark millionaire villain?

Cyril Sneer, the pink aardvark tycoon, repeatedly tries to exploit the Evergreen Forest for profit, though over the series he softens into something of an antihero; his gentler son Cedric is Bert Raccoon's friend.