80's and early 90's Disney cartoons

[Dragon78]

Ducktale
Gummi Bears
Talespin
Chip n' Dale's rescue rangers
Aladdin
Little Mermaid
Darkwing Duck
The Wuzzles
The new adventures of winnie the pooh

[Scottenkainen]

That's "Duck Tales". A wonderful cartoon, sometimes taking classic Carl Barks' stories as its springboards, animating Gyro Gearloose and the Beagle Boys from the comics for the first time, and adding the brilliant invention of Launchpad McQuack. The animation, particularly in the first season, was amazing. Alan Young owned the voice of Uncle Scrooge for all time. But, perhaps most importantly, there was a "real" element of danger to the stories. The characters did not "squash and squish" like ordinary cartoon characters. And, having no special powers and disdaining from weapons, had to get by on their wits entirely. If a Beagle Boy was about to hit Scrooge with a wrench, you could suspend disbelief long enough to feel he was really in danger.

"Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears" shared that wonderfully crisp animation that "Duck Tales" enjoyed and had an amazingly deep concept and back story for a cartoon about fruit snacks. The human companions to the Gummi Bears resembled the cast of The Black Cauldron enough that the whole series almost felt like a sequel. Unfortunately, their magical bouncing also made them invulnerable, robbing the stories of any real suspense.

I felt it was with "Darkwing Duck" that Disney's TV branch began to lose their way. Darkwing could not get hurt, but just squashed and squished like an ordinary cartoon character. Then they began using cheaper animation on all their series. Paul Winchell, THE voice of Tigger, was inexplicably replaced by an in-house voiceover actor on "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh." Inept concepts, like the caveduck Bubba Duck, were introduced on Duck Tales to -- what? -- I still can't figure out what Bubba was supposed to bring to the show all these years later.

Sigh...

~Scott C.

[Grey Lensman]

Scottenlainen wrote:

Paul Winchell, THE voice of Tigger, was inexplicably replaced by an in-house voiceover actor on "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh."

He retired from all voice acting at that point. After he left the show in 1999 he has only one more voice acting credit of any kind before his death (a direct to video sing-along in 2003). His replacement was a long term understudy for multiple roles (Jim Cummings, who was also the guy who took over the voice of Winnie the Pooh after the original voice actor died a few years earlier).

[Dragon78]

Yeah Jim Cummings is the man.

I always thought the Gummi Bears was the best animated of all the shows and still one my favorites.

I also really like Ducktales.

The only one I didn't care that much for was the Wuzzles.

[Scottenkainen]

Paul Winchell did not voluntarily retire; Disney let him go. There was a lot of controversy about this at the time.

Jim Cummings does do an amazing impersonation of Sterling Holloway/Winnie the Pooh, but I find all the rest of his voices sound too much alike. Whether he's doing Tigger, Big Bad Pete, or Pocahontas' dad, it all just sounds like the same guy.

[Dragon78]

I thought there would more fans for these cartoons since they are disneys best animated shows(other then Kim Possible and W.i.t.c.h.).

[Doodlebug Anklebiter]

Gummi Bears was the shiznit.

[Blayde MacRonan]

If we're going to have this discussion, then you need to add one more cartoon to that list: Gargoyles.

Not that lame 'Goliath Chronicles' that aired on Saturday mornings on ABC. No, I'm talking about the first two seasons of the show. That was some of the best stuff Disney was doing at the time, but because it was not very 'kid friendly' the execs were too afraid of it to manage it properly (going so far as to make all of the gargoyles 'smile' on the box art for the original VHS for the release of the 5-part pilot 'Awakening' as a movie). The show's tone was dark, ripe with drama, and (perhaps most importantly) it possessed complex plots.

The show had an amazing voice cast, among whom are several Star Trek alums: Next Generation - Michael Dorn (Worf) is the voice of gargoyle Coldstone; Jonathan Frakes (Riker) is Xanatos, megalomaniac businessman; Marina Sirtis (Troi) is evil outcast Demona; and Brent Spiner (Data) is michief-making Puck. There are others: Frank Welker, who growls and grunts as Bronx, the gargoyles' dog, and Salli Richardson, voice of human detective and Gargoyle pal Elisa Maza, Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek) is Diane Maza, Elisa's mom, Avery Brooks (Deep Space Nine's Benjamin Sisko) was the voice of Nokar, and Kate Mulgrew, (Voyager's Kathryn Janeway) was Anastasia Renard.

If you haven't watched it, do so. I highly recommend it.

[cranewings]

I was just about to say Gargoyles was missing. That was my favorite.