Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Two minutes of sneak preview footage staring Wheelie OR:HEY, JON COOKE CALLS IT "A FUN PACKAGE OF HORRIBLE CARTOONS" SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

I saw a 2 DVD set of 1970s Hanna Barbera cartoons at the store yesterday and holy crap it had an episode of Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch on it. Although that show originally came out when I did in 1974, I remember it being in reruns long enough that I got to see it up until I started kindergarten in '79. It was my favorite anthropomorphic cartoon Volkswagen show ever. You know how that guy figured out Garfield is actually funny if you take Garfield out of it? Well Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch is like GoBots without robot modes. Imagine if the GoBots never turned into robots and they played practical jokes on each other the whole cartoon. It would have been brilliant! It would have been Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch.

I TOLD YA THIS IS BETTER THAN REVENGE OF THE FALLEN! I TOLD YA! I TOLD YA!

Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch had all sorts of talking cars and bikes, each very memorable in their own right but the character I most remember besides Wheelie was this one annoying minibike named Scrambles voiced by Don Messick. Messick is most famous for voicing Scooby Doo, Papa Smurf and of course Ratchet and Gears from the Transformers. And speaking of voice actors from WatCB who would achieve toy robots cartoon voice immortality, Wheelie and Chopper were voiced by Frank Welker, who went on to super stardom as the unforgettable robot named Scooter in Challenge of the GoBots. Scooter's voice was so awful that every time he talked he unleashed several roboplastic apocalypses but thankfully Mr. Welker's career survived despite his creating a voice even more unbearable than Scrambles.

BUY IT BECAUSE YOU LIKE GOBOTS, OR HELL, BECAUSE YOU DON'T

I've wondered if Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch was the gateway drug that softened me up to the idea of talking alien robot Volkswagens and their transforming motorcycle cohorts and I'm really glad to see at least some of it is getting issued on DVD 35 years later. I'd really like to see all 13 episodes of Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch on DVD so please all five of you, please go out and get Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1970s, Volume One. It has my highest recommendation, although the rest of the cartoons on it that are not Wheelie are pretty much all crap. Hey just think-maybe supporting this set will lead to GoBots on DVD if Hanna Barbera does a "Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1980s". I DO NOT KNOW IF THAT IS HELPING MY ARGUMENT.

2 comments:

Weasel said...

Oh God, I think I watched Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch when I was a kid. I may have to get this now! (Though my true robot gateway drug hasn't hit DVD yet: It was Disney's The Black Hole. Don't ask.)

So why the hell hasn't Go-Bots been released to DVD? You'd think with the nostalgia craze and a big-ass robot movie, somebody would want to cash in.

I'm tempted to pick this up... if only for the vain hope that'll get someone to greenlight a Pound Puppies release. (I'll watch anything that Dan lends his voice to, trust me on that.)

Evil King Macrocranios said...

Hanna Barbera's track record with DVD releases of their classic properties has been spotty. They tend to go either super popular (Scooby Doo) or super obscure (Wait Till Your Father Gets Home) so popularity doesn't seem to be a factor. Even if they did go for it, there are so many GoBots episodes (65) that I doubt we'd ever see a full series. It would be cool to get any of it, though. I'd say GoBots was a better written cartoon than many licensed 80s properties from other studios-even the Studio TMS stuff like Visionaries and Inhumanoids.

 

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