Monday, January 3, 2011

Filmation Aquaman

Happy New Year!

One of the few gifts of "entertainment" for me this xmas was a DVD of the Filmation Aquaman series from the late '60s.


For some reason, this was never aired as re-runs locally when I was a kid, unlike a lot of other cartoons from that era. So, I'd only seen snippets on Cartoon Network some years back, though they edited them horribly.

The series isn't quite as "bad" as the '70s Filmation Batman series, but still has its moments: Mera (despite being quite powerful in the comics) is pretty weak and useless, always needing to be saved; Aquaman and Aqualad rely heavily on their giant seahorses for transport; and the addition of Tusky the walrus is pretty absurd...I mean, the action takes place pretty deep, and the poor guy is never off camera long enough to get air...not sure how he survived.

The interaction between Aquaman and Aqualad is fun: Aquaman calls his junior partner "tadpole," "minnow," and "squirt." Aw.

The series also was the innovator (I think) of the sound effect of Aquaman's telepathic commands used in Super-Friends and even today in Batman: Brave and the Bold.

Each episode is like 7 minutes long, so you can enjoy in small chunks...so, do!

4 comments:

Javier said...

Very cute.
Used to watch the "Superman/Aquaman Hour" as a kid growing up. They always had a "guest hero" spot and i always was super excited when it was the Teen Titan's rotation. Animated Wonder Girl!

Aman Chaudhary said...

In your drawing it looks like his mid-riff is completely bare, which I love! :)

Aman Chaudhary said...

OMG! I just watched "The Menace of Black Manta." You are right about Mera. She spent the entire episode trapped in a clam. And the guys almost forgot about her in the end.

If you want some real Filmation retro-goodness, check out Isis already!

Tim Fish said...

I've actually been watching THE SECRETS OF ISIS on Hulu during my lunchbreaks! They are so feel-good with a positive message. :-)