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During the 1980’s Children’s BBC aired a great number of memorable cartoons which were long running serialised stories. I’ve written about Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds and Mysterious Cities of Gold on this very site, but there were a number of others including space drama Ulysses 31 and Around the World with Willy Fogg, a version of the classic tale Around the World in Eighty Days.
Of course not all of them were great. There was the ill advised Dogtanian sequel, which wasn’t a patch on the original, for example.
One thing all these cartoons seemed to share were great theme tunes. Maybe it was just because they ran for so long that the theme songs still lodge in my brain, but I can sing (or at least hum) most of them today. The stories were also very good though, and the cliffhanger endings ensured you tuned in next time as well.
Presented below are a number of these classic cartoons, so go ahead and pick your favourite!
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Willy Fogg for me, seems to be the one I recall watching the most. No love for Belle and Sebastian so far?
Can’t say I’m surprised about Belle and Sebastian. All I really remember was that it was about a big white dog (Belle) and a little boy (Sebasatian) who just seemed to run about in the hills all day.
I must say I found this a hard choice myself, as I loved all of them, but I think I have to go for Mysterious Cities of Gold, if only for that strange comedy relief sidekick bloke who looked like a monkey.
I found this really hard, because I loved both Citys of Gold and Ulysses, and used to watch them with my mum in our time when I got in from school. The theme tunes make me feel all fuzzy inside as a result!
Mind, we also loved the Ewoks…! Meechowawaaa!
Ah, the Ewoks cartoon. I remember that. I loved the way the guy singing the theme song almost seemed to run out of breath at the bit where he had to say “We are the E-E-E-E-E-E-Ewoks, and we’re one big happy family!”. Droids, the C-3PO and R2-D2 cartoon was cool too.
As to the Ewok films, Caravan of Courage and the other one the name of which slips my mind, I can proudly say I’ve not seen either of them…
Has to be Ulysses 31, best intro to a cartoon too