Back in ancient times, when Saturday morning cartoons were simple escapist fantasy, where you could plop your butt down in front of the Zenith on a Saturday morning and watch television until either your eyes melted or the sugar rush of those three bowls of Cocoa Krispies wore off, you could get a nice four-or-five hour blast of classic cartoons.
And between the superhero stories and Bugs Bunny reruns were – believe it or not – cartoons based on popular motion pictures and classic literature. That’s right, the works of such authors as Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson and the Bible and Bullfinch’s Mythology all made their way to from the library to the Saturday morning screen.
So, in no particular order, here are several examples of Saturday morning cartoons that were based on popular movies and literature. I’ve also taken the time to include opening credits of the cartoons, when available.
| JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH Jules Verne’s classic adventure novel has been made into several films, but in 1968 it was also translated into a 13-episode cartoon. The show was rebranded into a “chase” series, in which the protagonists had to find their way to the center of the earth – while being pursued by some evil thugs. Dig the crazy limited Filmation animation in this series. |
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| AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS This 1972 NBC cartoon, produced by an Australian animation studio, has now turned Philias Fogg’s globe-trotting adventure into a wager in which, if he circumnavigates the world in the allotted time, he not only wins a bet of 20,000 pounds, he also gets to marry Belinda Mays. Meanwhile, Mays’ uncle has sent a thug named Fix to try to thwart Fogg’s journey and win the bet. Think this is goofy? This wasn’t even the first animated Saturday morning cartoon based on the Jules Verne classic – a few years earlier, Hanna-Barbera Studios created “Around the World in 79 Days,” which took even more liberties with the literature. |
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| FANTASTIC VOYAGE Long before Coolio brought back the old Lakeside hit into a hit of his own, Filmation put together this cartoon series, very loosely based on the 1960’s science fiction film. No Raquel Welch in this film, just the usual stock characters who get miniaturized to fight crime and espionage. Again, typical Filmation animation – if a character moves a body part other than their mouth, it’s a major expense and undertaking. |
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| THE AMAZING CHAN AND THE CHAN CLAN Oh man… why is it that every Saturday morning cartoon series from the 1970’s had to have the cast members in a band? And for that matter, now we know why Charlie Chan had a #1 son… apparently he had nine other kids, according to this cartoon series – and yet there’s no Mrs. Chan anywhere… |
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| ROCKET ROBIN HOOD Oh yeah, we’ve had mashups like Abe Lincoln, Vampire Hunter and Pride & Prejudice & Zombies… but how could you pass up the adventures of England’s greatest vigilante hero – and his adventures in outer space??? |
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| THE MIGHTY HERCULES Yes, Roman mythology gets a turn on the Saturday morning rotisserie, as the Mighty Hercules (complete with theme song by Johnny Nash) battles evil in ancient Olympus. Funny, this guy looks more like Superman than he does Kevin Sorbo… |
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| YOUNG SAMSON AND GOLIATH Okay, we’re not talking Samson and Delilah, and we’re not talking David and Goliath. No, we got something better. Samson is a young teenager with a pet dog. When he bangs his magical wristbands together, he becomes a mighty man – and his dog becomes a lion named Goliath! I wanna know what gospel this came from… I think it was the gospel according to Hanna and Barbera… |
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| THE NEW ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINNHuck Finn and his friends, Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher, are on the run and trying to escape from the evil Injun Joe. And where do they end up running into? A world of animation! If Mark Twain were alive today to see this, it would probably kill him! | |
| TALES OF THE WIZARD OF OZThis was one of the first animated series created by Rankin-Bass Productions, and features the characters from L. Frank Baum’s classic novel. Well, sorta. | |
| BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KIDSYeah, a classic Saturday morning cartoon about two Western outlaws … oh wait … no … it’s a singing group … of crime-solving kids … oh my head … where’s the Tylenol… |
Yeah, I know I left off some of your favorites. So feel free to add to the list – how many of these are your favorite way-out Saturday morning cartoon fare that strayed WAAAAAAAY off base, and what others should be added (or removed) from this list?
Chuck The Writer 
In Eugene O’Neill’s play, Scooby Doo, there was never any character named Scrappy Doo. The Hanna-Barbera cartoon also skirts around (no pun intended) the relationship between Daphne and Velma.
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There was a Three Musketeers cartoon that was one of the recurring animated bits on “The Banana Splits,” if I recall correctly, and the live action series “Danger Island” certainly drew heavily upon both “Robinson Crusoe” and “Treasure Island.”
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Yes, and in the Three Musketeers cartoon the characters had already added D’artagnan to the lineup, and were working with a fifth Musketeer named Tooley or something like that.
In fact… here’s a clip of an episode…
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Man…I really feel old. My TV cartoons were Heckle & Jeckle, Mighty Mouse, Woody Wood pecker, Tom & Jerry, and Casper the Friendly Ghost.
Plus a dozen more.
Also Kukla, Fran and Ollie , Howdy Doody, and Captain Kangaroo, though they wern’t cartoons.
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Anyone remember Space Ghost, Herculoids, Speed Racer, Gigantor, Felix the Cat, Hong Kong Phooey
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What was the one with “catch that pidgeon”, where the dog used to snicker…I loved that. Oh wait, Penelope Pitstop, right?
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You’re close. You’re actually thinking of Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines, which like The Perils of Penelope Pitstop were spin-offs of another show, Wacky Races.
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Don’t forget “The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Famous_Adventures_of_Mr._Magoo
They were a nice intro to the classics for a 5-year old. Of course when I was old enough to read the actual books I had Magoo stuck in my head.
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That was probably one of the best uses of Mr. Magoo, outside of his original UPA short films. They kept the nearsightedness jokes to a minimum, and concentrated more on the story.
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Felix the Cat was great. Jonny Quest was my absolute favorite. There was one I used to watch all the time. I think it was called Scott McCloud, Space Ranger. But no one I grew up with seems to remember that one. Does anyone remember that? None of these were based on any classics but this blog brought back some great memories.
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You’re close. You’re actually thinking of Space Angel. Space Angel, along with Clutch Cargo and Captain Fathom, used a video trick called “Synchro-Vox” where human lips were superimposed over the cartoon characters’ faces, to create the illusion of cartoon characters talking with working, lip-readable mouths.
Here’s a YouTube clip I found of Space Angel. Hope it brings back good memories.
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Does anyone else see an uncanny similarity between “Young Samson and Goliath” and “He-Man” and “Battle Cat?”
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How about “The Three Robonic Stooges” in which the beloved stars of numerous comedy shorts are recast as super-powered robots? Priceless…
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I still can’t believe the Stooges signed off on this concept…
Oh wait… they were dead by this time.
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I may never live this down, but:
“The Brady Kids.” And, except for Greg (Barry Williams), they even had the original actors’ voices.
Yes, that was a universe where Marcia’s nose wouldn’t necessarily get dented by a direct collision with a football, but still …
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Jay –
They did use the original Brady kids’ voices for the first season, but when they made five more episodes for the second season, the characters of Greg, Peter and Jan were voiced by other actors – actually, Greg and Jan were voiced by the children of one of the cartoon’s producers, Lou Scheimer!
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@ #4 Was Woody’s pecker real wood??
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It’s not that far off-base…but wasn’t Mr. Peabody based on lil’ Chucky Miller?
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And lets not forget “Fearless Fly” and there was a cartoon called “Super President” as well as the Green Lantern, and Ironman cartoons. And many many more. (Remember Top Cat, Tennesee Tuxudo, Sneezy & Breezly Bruin?)
The cartoons of today are terrible.
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Point taken, Chuck. I can still feel the pain of that first year … though Barry Williams managed to spare himself from it!
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OMG, I LOVE this subject!
OK, I got “SuperFriends…Hall of Justice” with Zan and Jana, the Wonder Twins, and AquaMan, WonderWoman, etc. (My brothers would argue about who was going to be which Superhero every Saturday morning, while eating breakfast in front of the tv- it was the only time we could eat in the living room!- OH!! While wearing their superhero UNDEROOS!!!)
Batman- the really cheesy one!
Josie and the Pussycats!!
Mr. Magoo- “Oh Magoo, you’ve done it again!”
CAPTAIN CAAAAAAVE MAAANNNNN
OMG, I better get back to work! LOL
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Weren’t Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and the Submariner all filmation cartoons as well?
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22 / Wankee:
Those cartoons were done by Grantray-Lawrence Animation, who also did the 1967 Spider-Man series.
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ok so I am only 28 so I don’t remember or even knew some of these were cartoons…but I remember waking up to watch Garfield and Friends and Mother Goose and Grimm….The new Garfield is alright but it’s just not the same to me. My brother (two yrs younger) watched and still does on Cartoon Network late at night…Space Ghost and Johnny Quest.
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And lets not forget “Under dog” When sweet Polly is in trouble I am not slow, it hip hip hip and away I go!
Hey and Yogi Bear and Boo Boo
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The cartoons shown during the Banana Splits skits were horrible.. 3 Musketeers, some Island adventure.. awful. But we enjoyed HR Puff-n-Stuff and all it’s acid induced fervor. Sigmund & the Sea Monsters & Land of the Lost were also great shows for their time. We also did the Magilla Gorilla/Grape Ape hr. Herculoids, Spider Man/Marvel Comic cartoons, Super Friends.
a far cry from the old mornings of Ralph Vartigan in his military garb reading the news followed by Popey & Capt’n Kangaroo..lol
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Mark –
I think Ralph Vartigan was dressed in a more nautical theme, as a member of the Good Ship News. He also had the weather delivered by Mr. Monkey, a hand puppet. Okay, why can’t I find a clip of this on YouTube? Come on, Channel 10, you’ve got to have this stuff in your archives SOMEWHERE!!!
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Was Natasha and Boris created in the times of the cold war with Russia? I always liked “Fractured Fairytales”… weren’t they loosely based on Aesops fables? It’s been so long since I’ve seen them I can’t really remember… Anyway, Underdog and Sweet Polly Purebread was my favorite.
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Carol –
Boris and Natasha were the cold war spies that Rocky and Bullwinkle had to deal with. I think Boris and Natasha were from the Communist country of Pottsylvania, IIRC. There were two cartoons from the Rocky and Bullwinkle show based on fairy tales – “Fractured Fairy Tales” were narrated by Edward Everett Horton and were based on many of the Grimm Bros. fairy stories; while Aesop’s Fables were retold in “Aesop and Son,” with narration by Charlie Ruggles.
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Best topic ever. I pretty much remember all of these. I was a huge “Samson and Goliath” fan. There was also another lion cartoon, Kimba (or something like that) that came on near the same time. Goliath was way better-looking.
I’d race home after school to watch the marvel Superhero cartoons (awesome theme songs for each hero).
I want to be a kid again.
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BL –
That may be another blog post in the future, maybe listing the ten most popular anime series of the 60’s and 70’s. At least the ones that came over to America and got “Americanized” (i.e., Astro Boy, Star Blazers, Battle of the Planets, Robotech).
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Great topic…Grape Ape..Grape ape..loved him. And Jem and the holigrams…Sheera princess of power…I thought I WAS her!!! Pee Wee’s playhouse…I miss the word of the day..AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…also gummy bears…they were more than a snack ya know?
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Okay, but when you do, I’ll be asking if Marine Boy was anime (I think it was) because that and Speed racer were both fun watches.
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BL –
Marine Boy is a special case. I believe that was actually produced in Japan – but was distributed to the United States as its main target audience. I wrote an article on the history of Speed Racer several years ago, and the voice actors from that series told me that they also worked on Marine Boy during the time that they were dubbing Speed Racer episodes.
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Are any of these classics available from Amazon or other internet companies?
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I think some of them are, but it’s on a case-by-case basis. I would be surprised if a show like The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan would ever see the light of day on DVD, just because of the subject matter and the fact that you don’t even see Charlie Chan movies on TV on a regular basis.
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Magilla Gorilla, Huckelberry Hound and Dudley Dooright are a few more. I used to watch these at the dinner hour in the 60’s.
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One of my favorites was the animated “Planet of the Apes” cartoons…can’t seem to get my kids as excited about it though 😦
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I’ve long considered Young Samson and Goliath to be the source material for He-Man.
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I love the announcer for “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” who can’t even hide the ridiculousness of the duck’s presence.
OUR GUIDE, LARS…and his duck rassem frassem.
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Kevin –
This is gonna shock you, but the 1958 live-action film of Journey to the Center of the Earth actually has the duck Gertrude in it, as owned by their new guide Hans. It also has Pat Boone in the role of Alec McEwen.
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SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK! I learned a lot from that! And to this day, I will catch myself singing part of it when a subject matter it covered comes up!
“I’m just a Bill, yes I’m only a Bill, and I’m sitting her on Capital Hill”
“A noun is a person, place or thing..”
And my favorite!.. “Interjections!”
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I’ve got a few cartoons I remember:
1. Frankenstein Jr. – Unlike Dr. Frankenstein’s monster creation, this creation is a 50 foot robot built by a scientific whiz kid named Buzz Conroy as a superhero saving the earth and the universe from evil space invaders and criminal mad scientists!!!
2. Sinbad Jr. – Unlike the character in the Arabian Nights, he’s a young sailor that possesses a magic belt that gives him super strenghth and speed!!! Helped by his parrot sidekick, Salty, they travel around the world helping people and battling evil villains!!!
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Ah, Frankenstein Jr… who would probably get crushed by Gigantor in a best two-out-of-three battle…
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Am I so old that I’m the only one who remembers “Crusader Rabbit”? This was the forerunner of Rocky and Bullwinkle – same creators only in B&W. Crusader Rabbit and pal Rags the Tiger – early 50’s. Also see Winky Dink and Rutti Kazutti (sp?)
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Does anyone remember Tom Terrific? Roger Ramjet?
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I had a bendable Roger Ramjet figure, and it amazed me that a character on a syndicated show of that era was popular enough to have that kind of toy made.
I know I should have bought gas for the car instead last week, but …
(No, no, this was years ago.)
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There was a cartoon with the Beatles that was cheesy but it played all their songs. The voices were done by people other than the real Beatles but the songs seemed to be performed by the Beatles. There was a cartoon with the Jackson 5 also.
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Wasn’t Tom Terrific a cartoon that was done on Capt Kangaroo?
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Tom Terrific appeared as a cartoon on Captain Kangaroo; Tom Terrific, along with Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle, were part of the Terrytoons lineup that was purchased by CBS in the early 1960’s.
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the Around the World in 80 Days 1972 cartoon is a brilliant bit of toned-down camp with moments of surrealism, not a serious effort to replicate Verne’s work
no one would mistake the cartoon for Verne’s classic, any more than they would mistake Hercules the Legendary Journeys or Xena for Homer and Ovid!
when a cartoon series begins every episode with a Victorian lady in a flouncy multi-layered skirt bouncing up and down on a pogo stick (giving faux flashes of her undergarments) in order to talk to her beloved atop a ridiculously tall elephant, the viewer knows to take the entire series as an odd pastiche of camp and surrealism
complaining that such a series strayed from its inspiration is even more absurd than the maiden on the pogo stick
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Thank you for the blasts from the pasts I was watching captain scarlet on utube and then started looking for more. Made saturday mornings in front of the black and white leap out in my memory. Do you remember the name of a cartoon that had a skelton like figure as its hero, it would have been around the time of the origional Johnny Quest (not skeletor) Thanks again.
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My god – YES!! Your the first person that acknowlegdes my question that Ive been asking so many people for so many years. That skeleton super hero and its not Skeletor! I to, have been searching for that cartoon for years. I thought I was going mad!! Everytime he saved somebody, he had a long evil laugh and flew away! I f#@&$@# me up for 30 years!
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