Favourite Cartoons of My Childhood

As a child growing up in the late 80s/early 90s, there were some great cartoons on television which I still remember fondly to this day. Many of these have been resurrected at various points since then, either in film, or as new reimagined cartoons to be enjoyed by younger generations. In this lens, I list a few of my favourites along with some links to tie-in toys and other merchandise.

Photo of Thundercats DVD cover courtesy of www.Amazon.co.uk

Every Saturday morning I used to get up early specially to watch ThunderCats. I still get goose bumps listening to the theme tune and Lion-O shouting 'Thunder, Thunder, Thunder, ThunderCats, Ho!'

The series told the tale of the ThunderCats, a group of humanoid cat-like aliens from the planet Thundera, who escaping the destruction of their home planet, land on the planet of Third-Earth. Here they must make new friends and help protect the planet from Mumm-Ra and the mutants.

You can still buy a lot of ThunderCats merchandise both new and old; I recently bought a ThunderCats t-shirt in Tesco. It's quality.

A spin-off of the 1984 movie, Ghostbusters (or The Real Ghostbusters as it was known) ran from 1986 to 1991 and was easily my favourite cartoon when I was younger. Egon, Ray, Peter and Winston were the Ghostbusters, a team of men who chased and captured ghosts and spirits around New York and occasionally other places.

I had a lot of the Ghostbusters toys when I was younger, including the headquarters and Ecto 1 (the ambulance turned ghostbusting vehicle). The first Christmas present I can remember was a Stay-Puft marshmallow man figurine which is standing on my desk as I write this.

Masters of the Universe ran from 1983-1985 and followed the adventures of He-Man and his companions, protecting the planet of Eternia from the evil Skeletor and his cronies. I used to love how He-Man disguised himself as the weak, cowardly Prince Adam of Eternia, only to hold his magic sword above his head, shout 'By the power of Grayskull...I have the Power!' and magically transform into the mighty He-Man.

He-Man also had a sister called She-ra, created to appeal to the girl market, which I never really took to.

He-Man has made a couple of comebacks in 1990 and 2002, as well as a live action movie in 1987, but for me you can't beat the magic of the original.

Photo of Masters of the Universe DVD courtesy of www.Amazon.co.uk

'Captain Planet and the Planeteers' was a huge favourite of mine when I was about 7 or 8. It ran from 1990 to 1992 (with 'The New Adventures of Captain Planet' running from 1993 to 1996) and told the story of the Planeteers, five youngsters from around the globe who are given the powers of Earth, Wind, Fire, Water and Heart by Gaia, the spirit of the Earth.

The Planeteers task is to defend the Earth from a collection of super-villains who are polluting/chopping down rainforests/harming the eco-system etc. When ever the villains are too much for the Planeteers to handle they combine their powers to create Captain Planet, a super hero who possesses all of the Planeteers' powers combined. The bad guy is sent packing and the episode generally ends with an eco-friendly message for kids such as 'make sure you use both sides of the paper before it goes in the bin', 'make sure you recycle' etc.

One thing I didn't realise about Captain Planet when I was younger was the sheer number of famous people who lent their voices to it. For example, Gaia was voiced by Whoopi Goldberg, and later Margot Kidder, and stars such as Meg Ryan, Tim Curry, Dean Stockwell, Jeff Goldblum, James Coburn, Martin Sheen and Sting all appeared in the show at some point.

Another thing I find amusing about the show, which didn't dawn on me at the time is this. Captain Planet's only weakness is pollution (it's like Kryptonite is to Superman). What use is a superhero who is meant to be fighting pollution, if this is the one thing that can hurt him? Strange.

Are there any cartoons you think should be added to this lens? What was your favourite cartoon as a child? Feel free to add your own comments.