Cartoon's That Could Do Well In Live-Action Territory (If Done Right) Part One

Yet again, Tanner has been struck by the faceless foe known as writer's block. Well, it actually has a face this time. The face of David McCallum. Tanner's been too busy watching The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to think up a good blog, so I'm going to do one instead.

After Tanner's little rant on The Rise of Cobra, he felt that we should do a joint project on certain cartoon shows that we feel deserve the live-action treatment (if done right).

Seeing the trailer for the upcoming G.I. Joe flick (Action Force for me when I was a wee bit smaller), I know that some studios don't care much for the original stories or what made the shows so fun to begin with. I honestly didn't care much for anything involving the military when I was younger. I found my dad's old war films to be a bit, dare I say, boring. But watching Action Force made me realize just how cool the military really was. Okay, so they weren't officially 'soldiers', but the aspect was great.

Pardon that little talk about action force. I'd pretty much be repeating what Tanner said in his anti-Rise of Cobra post. But my point is that these cartoons had great ideas that would still be great in live-action movies with some touch-ups here-and-there so they'll appeal to teens and adults. Some, however, wouldn't need touch-ups because they were deep even when marketed to children.

Tanner wanted this list to be mainly cartoons popular in the states. Sorry, Bananaman.

BraveStarr


This would make a great film. The aesthetic would probably have to be changed a bit because the story is great, but I don't think those costumes would look as good if put into live-action. But the whole space western theme could be fun for many people.

I don't really want to rip-off the look of another great space western (at least, I consider it a space western), but I can see BraveStarr having a look and feel similar to Firefly and Serenity. Maybe sci-fi up the costumes a bit, but not so much to make it feel like a bad 80's sci-fi flick. And given the improvements in visual effects and make-up, I bet we could have an incredibly terrifying Tex Hex. Some may see the Prairie People as the second coming of the ewoks, but the ewoks did rock in the end.

When it comes to casting this one, I only have two actors in mind off the top of my head. For the heroic and virtuous Marshall BraveStarr, I feel Adam Beach would be a perfect choice. Look at BraveStarr and then look at Adam beach. PERFECT!!! He has that perfect tough-but-caring feel to him and even has the Marshall's smile. He'd definitely do major justice to this role, no pun intended. As for Tex Hex, leader of the Carrion Bunch and BraveStarr's arch enemy, Sam Elliott would be ideal. I'm not just picking him because he's pretty much the go-to-guy when you need a tough cowboy (or outlaw in this case), but because he could bring an odd menace to the role. Plus I think his voice would match Hex's zombie-like exterior better than that of the original voice.

Also I just want to see a shoot-out in space between Adam Beach and Sam Elliott.

Gargoyles


This one is just begging for an epic live-action translation. Nothing would have to even be changed from the original's overall plot. Gargoyles was a show that easily appealed to children and adults. At times I'm surprised Disney even produced it. It had action, drama, suspense, violence. TRUE LIFE VIOLENCE IN A SATURDAY MORNING DISNEY CARTOON!!! Come on, you're wanting a live-action rendition just as bad as me.

Considering Disney studios has started to go into the darker world of the PG-13 rating with the POTC trilogy, I'm sure they'd be fine with making Gargoyles darker than it already is. Plus the studio would be crazy to change anything from the original. Gargoyles seems like it was born to get a big-screen epic.

This is one where I think a few of the voice actors could actually come back to portray their animated counterparts. Jonathan Frakes and Salli Richardson seem to be spitting images of David Xanatos and Eliza Maza, respectively. As for the Gargoyles, I'm still not fully sure. It's be great if the studios would do the smart thing and use actors under heavy prosthetic make-up and suits. If this was the case, I know two actors picked out. Michael Clark Duncan as Goliath (was there any doubt on this choice?) and Bob Hoskins as Hudson. As for the other members of the clan, I'd have to do some thinking. Although, Tanner Criswell Roberts may be a good choice for the role of Lexington.

That's all for edition one. Tanner will give you number two as soon as he's done watching Napoleon Solo and Ilya Kuryakin save the world.

Adieu.