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The Mike Toole Show - Orbots Almighty


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Primus



Joined: 01 Mar 2006
Posts: 2758
Location: Toronto
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 4:30 pm Reply with quote
The most successful of TMS international collabs was Bakugan (which will get a reboot next year), but unfortunately that wasn't exactly an animation standout.
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Ouran High School Dropout



Joined: 28 Jun 2015
Posts: 440
Location: Somewhere in Massachusetts, USA
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 5:49 pm Reply with quote
I don't know how, but I actually remember this title-- the title, mind, not the show! Razz
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GeorgeC



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Posts: 795
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 8:17 pm Reply with quote
I remember this show.
It was a neat-looking series. It was only on the one season and disappeared into oblivion after that year.
I was NEVER rerun on American TV as far as I know and I'm sure they would have rerun it on USA Network, CN, or Boomerang had anybody known WHO owned it.
That is a problem, btw, with these conglomerates. They own so much crap that it's hard to keep track of who has what rights to which show!
I do wish it had been released through something other than Warner Archive. They do next to no restoration on any of the films released on that label and the titles are pretty much all printed on DVD-R.
Warner Archive Blu rays are fortunately printed on regular Blu ray. BD-R really hasn't taken off so well as DVD-R.
And now that Batman: TAS was mentioned in the article, THAT series (1992-1995, 1997-1999) IS finally getting a Blu ray release later this year... They haven't announced how it's being sold -- as one set or broken up into volumes like the DVD Boxed Sets were. TMS animated some episodes (the better-looking episodes) of that series, possibly sequences of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and virtually all of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. I don't know that TMS has done work on more recent DC animated series. Judging by what happened with Season 1 of Justice League, I sort of have my doubts they've worked on much lately for WB. Then again, a lot of the shows on Cartoon Network (American-produced) are looking very rough, like they were contracted to the cheapest animation sweat shops which is probably the case...
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 2658
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 8:50 pm Reply with quote
GeorgeC wrote:
They do next to no restoration on any of the films released on that label and the titles are pretty much all printed on DVD-R.


IMO this is a big problem, many cartoons from Hanna Barbera are getting the same shitty DVD-R format. I would have preferred a remastered blu-ray release, it would have been very nice if they included the japanese and spanish dubs, but they can't at least do a normal dvd release? As a side comment, the cover arts is the worst I have seen in years, could they have taken a good screenshot instead?

If Warner needed some kind of metric to know how much discs they need to print, they could have streamed it first on netflix, that is what Funi does nowadays, there is no guessing involved.
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Kiskaloo
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Joined: 04 Jan 2018
Posts: 79
Location: Seattle
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 9:41 pm Reply with quote
I fondly remember Mighty Orbots and owned the six VHS tapes of the show that were released.

I am also a huge fan of The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers. I taped the entire run off television and was so happy when it was released on DVD.
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 11:32 pm Reply with quote
I am one of those unlucky ones that did not see Mighty Orbots in any way, shape or form.
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Cutiebunny



Joined: 18 Apr 2010
Posts: 1746
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 12:27 am Reply with quote
I remember the ALF cartoon. Sadly. I also remember Burger King running a promo where you could receive 1 of 4 ALF hand puppets to tie in with the show, but my memory can't discern if that promo was a tie in to the cartoon or the live action TV show. But Rainbow Brite was my girl despite my saddest childhood memory involving receiving RB's plush horse as an apology for not taking me to Disneyland because I got chicken pox a day before we were supposed to go. Good Times.

I don't recall watching Orbots, but that might have also been because my parents shuttled me around to extracurricular activities as a little tyke, so I rarely got to stay home on Saturday mornings to watch these shows. I do remember Gummi Bears (one of the better Disney Afternoon shows) and, of course, Tiny Toons. I'm probably not the only one on this thread looking forward to new Animaniacs episodes. I've missed Yakko, Dot and the Great Wakkarotti (sp?) fiercely.
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fuuma_monou



Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 1816
Location: Quezon City, Philippines
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 12:27 am Reply with quote
Oh my God, I can't believe there's actually a DVD release of The Mighty Orbots! Granted it's Warner Archives, with all the downsides that entails noted in previous posts, but still.
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Cptn_Taylor



Joined: 08 Nov 2013
Posts: 925
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 4:19 am Reply with quote
Never watched the show on tv, but recently stumbled upon a video on youtube. It had this amazing transformation sequence stupenduously animated and the music was very catchy. One of the few instances where an american song in animation wasn't outright stupid.
Mighty Orbots. A pity only 12 episodes were ever made. It sure looked way way better than Mask or Gobots ever did.
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Jeff Bauersfeld



Joined: 07 Dec 2015
Posts: 109
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 5:49 am Reply with quote
I have the opening on my iPod. I have a thing for those cheesy, 1980s/90s rock openings of Saturday morning cartoons that are constantly shouting the name of the show.
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invalidname
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 2434
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 6:09 am Reply with quote

  • I remember Mighty Orbots being on ABC’s Saturday Morning when I was in high school. I’d rarely watch a full episode (the writing is very simplistic, because it was still Americans writing down to kids), but I remember thinking it looked pretty great (albeit in a different way than the handsomely rotoscoped Flash Gordon that Filmation did a few years before).
  • I was on the alt.tv.tiny-toons Usenet group back when that show was big, and we quickly figured out the obvious animation quality difference between episodes was because of the outsourced animation studio, and that Tokyo Movie Shinsha episodes looked the best (and some outfit called “Kennedy Cartoons” was the worst: off-model and way too much squash and stretch).
  • Dude, there were two ALF cartoons. The original ALF was back on ALF’s (aka, Gordon’s) home planet with others of his kind. The followup ALFtales took the cast of this cartoon and had them performing Fractured Fairy Tales-style parodies.
  • Warner Archive apparently closed up their app and online presence, licensing out their library to FillmStruck. I can’t tell if you can stream Mighty Orbots through that, but it does not appear to be available as download-to-own through iTunes. That’s a shame, because then you could have a race to see which fails first: DVD-Rs, or Apple’s interest in operating DRM authentication servers.
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
Posts: 4352
Location: New York
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 8:34 am Reply with quote
A fascinating relic from a time where breaking into programming on network TV was completely different. These days, no one would have bothered with this workaround, they would have just dubbed God Mars. Especially now with Netflix buying anime like a family buying groceries as a warehouse store.
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FLCLGainax





PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 11:00 am Reply with quote
Regarding the lack of Japanese dub, I would presume Warner wouldn't have those materials. The Wikipedia entry claims the dub was done in 1988, but Turner bought MGM's back catalog in 1985. I think it would be more likely for that track to turn up on a home video release in Japan, if there ever is one.
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GeorgeC



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Posts: 795
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 11:47 am Reply with quote
[quote="mangamuscle"]
GeorgeC wrote:

IMO this is a big problem, many cartoons from Hanna Barbera are getting the same shitty DVD-R format. I would have preferred a remastered blu-ray release, it would have been very nice if they included the japanese and spanish dubs, but they can't at least do a normal dvd release? As a side comment, the cover arts is the worst I have seen in years, could they have taken a good screenshot instead?
.



My real problem with DVD-R is based on experience I've had with the media at home when I have archived videos on DVD-R.
DVD-R is NOT like pressed discs. DVD-R has chemical dyes activated by lasers in a DVD burner that literally burn on the data onto the disc. The problem is that because the dyes are chemicals, they degrade over time. That degradation is EXTREMELY uneven depending on production lots and brand names. There are people (like me) who look for the best quality media to archive our computer data and videos but inevitably, those discs (DVD-R, CD-R, BD-R) WILL degrade unless they're premium archival quality, guaranteed to last 100 years! The latest I've heard is that the "stone discs" (M Discs from Verbatim) are the most stable DVD-R's and BD-R's on market. They're also more expensive than the regular DVD-R and BD-R media.
You CAN'T depend on DVD-R lasting much beyond 5-10 years unless they're stored well, temperature-controlled but a bunch of us don't keep our air conditioning on 24/7 and the temp/humidity goes up and down year-round in our homes!
Storebought, mass-produced, pressed DVDs and BDs should last at least 20 years, probably longer if they're well-cared for and not loaned to the entire town or left in your car to bake, broil, and freeze. I have CD's that are close to 30 years old that still play fine so I know for a fact the media can last. On the other hand, I've had laserdiscs that I bought years back that I've tried to play again (ironically to archive digitally) that went bad in the interim from the last time I played them. The smaller media is definitely more stable than the larger 10-12 inch discs and I've found quality control issues with pressed Blu ray's than DVD's.
I've had DVD-R's go bad in less than 5 years. It's always the worst with home-made DVD-R's produced for home video storage. The way it's burned onto the disc is continuous amounts of data and it's read like a record, not randomly like text, pictures. If that DVD-R video disc goes bad anywhere, your player will stop reading it and you might as well toss it away or use it as a coaster for drinks.
That's why I REFUSE to pay for Warner Archive DVD-R's unless I'm absolutely desperate and can't get a film any other way.
I appreciate the fact they still press their Blu rays!
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Hitokiri Kenshin



Joined: 14 Feb 2012
Posts: 291
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 8:10 pm Reply with quote
I was in diapers when this show was on, but I do remember my dad talking about it when I was young. Did see a clip of the show on youtube some years ago and noticed that the main guy was the original Donatello. And yes, that theme song is awesome. Never really bought Warner Archive stuff yet, but might have to check this out.
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