Famous 1980’s Cartoons That Still Need to Be Made into Live Action Films

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With the mixed successes of the Transformers franchise over the last few years, and Hollywood’s on-off relationship with the reboot still in an ‘on’ phase, it might be a good idea to give Hollywood a few pointers on some very popular or cult classic 1980s cartoons that might be ripe for conversion to celluloid. In some cases, attempts were made to create live action versions in the 1980s or slightly later but were never made. In other cases, they were never considered in the first place’¦ perhaps it might be time to revisit them?

1. Akira

Akira
Akira

1980s Manga has never really waned amongst its core audience in the west and this, considered one of the greatest examples of Manga movies, was touted for many years as a potential conversion to live action. This cyberpunk film is set in a futuristic New Tokyo following WWIII. Tetsuo ‘ a teenage biker ‘ discovers he has psychic powers and receives messages from an imprisoned psychic called Akira who it is believed caused the destruction of Old Tokyo over thirty years before. Metaphysics, psychic powers and transcendence of the physical realm all feature heavily in the film

2. M.A.S.K

M.A.S.K
M.A.S.K

This hugely popular cartoon series broadcast an impressive 75 episodes between 1985-6. The Mobile Armored Strike Kommand is a crack team of international military drivers and pilots whose array of vehicles were as ‘cool’ as they were silly at times. It lacked substance, and the villains (VENOM) seemed to have little motivation beyond doing nasty things for the sake of it. But the imagination behind the vehicles could prove a useful movie tool when looking at the work that went into the recent Transformers films

3. Thundercats

Thundercats
Thundercats

The greatest 1980s TV show of them all according to some and a recent revival (2011) has made some revisit the highly successful 1980s version. Men and women of a certain age remember the signature phrase ‘Thunder’¦ Thunder’¦ Thundercats’¦ hoooooo!’ It was a fantasy series where all the central characters were humanoid cat-like creatures that, in the first episode, are forced to flee their dying home world. When they awake from cryonic suspension, they find that an ancient enemy Mumm-Ra is chasing them to take the Eye of Thundera that they have in their possession

4. Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons

Though a film with this title came out in 2000, and though both were based on the role playing game of the same name, the two had nothing in common. In the TV series, a group of people from our world are sucked into the D&D realm after going on a rollercoaster at a theme park. They first meet the Dungeon Master who ‘ rather like in the game ‘ gives each character a weapon and assigns them a persona. Their primary antagonist is Venger and only through thwarting him can they make it home. Sadly, the show was cancelled before the series concluded but a script for the final episode was produced

5. Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors

Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors
Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors

An environmental / messing with nature message is very topical right now and this could also be ripe for conversion. A group of humans who are expert drivers are on the run from ‘Monster Minds’, ravenous sentient plants who can cross space and seed other plants. The humans’ mission then is obvious: to stop the Monster Minds and their leader ‘Saw Boss’ from taking over the galaxy. Saw Boss is a humanoid plant who is part plant and part vehicle ‘ an early instance of organic technology in sci-fi

6. Mysterious Cities of Gold

Mysterious Cities of Gold
Mysterious Cities of Gold

Trading on a lack of understanding of the complex societies of Meso and Central America, this brought Maya, Aztec, Olmec and Incan civilisations into the public realm. Though fantastical, a lot of the story was based on the relevant mythologies of those societies. Our protagonist was Esteban, a young boy whose goal was to find the seven Cities of Gold throughout the New World. On his journey, Esteban uses solar-powered aircraft such as the Golden Condor and the Solaris. A feature film has twice been planned and shelved

7. Centurions

Centurions
Centurions

In the near future, a crack team of military types with advanced technology set out to defeat the evil cyborg Doc Terror. The Centurions were based on an orbiting station, waiting to hear of an attack. The best thing about this team is that they wore special suits to which could be attached modules relevant to the mission. As with most series, there were experts for each scenario. A range of toys with removable parts naturally followed. It had a strong environmental theme, the Centurions devoted most episodes to saving the earth from an unnatural environmental disaster

8. Ulysses 31

Ulysses 31
Ulysses 31

This was a futuristic retelling (31st century) of the story of Odysseus. Dark and brooding, it had a huge cult following and with grand space opera being as popular as ever, it could be the right time for a live action version. The ancient Greek gods are real and they rule the universe and are angry with Ulysses when he kills the Cyclops to save a group of children. In revenge, the gods freeze most of his crew and order him to travel to the kingdom known as Hades. They travel through the stories of Greek mythology ‘ adding an interesting twist to the space opera adventure subgenre

9. She-Ra

She-Ra
Princess Adora, from She-Ra: Princess of Power

He-Man had a feature film (which starred Dolph Lundgren) and was sadly quite forgettable so that is probably why the equally popular series, featuring the same world but with He-Man’s female twin sister as the central character, was never filmed. It had girl power long before the Spice Girls and made it cool for women to be into swords. She was introduced as a character in a feature length cartoon and was so successful they commissioned her series. With fantasy remaining popular, perhaps it is about time both He-Man and She-Ra were revisited for celluloid

10. BraveStarr

BraveStarr
BraveStarr

FireFly / Serenity was not the first to do a sci-fi western mash-up, that comes of this 1980s animated series from the producers of the He-Man and She-Ra, it was the final series produced by the studio before it closed for good. It is the 23rd century on a planet called New Texas and combines typically identifiable western stories into science fiction themes. With the success of recent sci-fi historical films such as Cowboys Vs Aliens, Outlander and several others, Hollywood might do well to take another look at this

Conclusion

Though some of the above were touted at various points for the big screen, not one of them ever made it despite being in some cases a roaring success. With 1980s becoming a latest trend for the nostalgia junkies, there is still a lot of material that Hollywood might use to appeal to those in their 30s and 40s.

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