Deadline reported this week that Netflix is engaged on a live-action adaptation of the ’90s animated sequence Captain Planet and the Planeteersa undertaking which has been in improvement hell for almost a decade. Whereas that’s nice information for ’90s animation followers, I’m hoping it paves the best way for the revival of a special ’90s cartoon about preventing local weather change and the excesses of capitalism. Sadly, I appear to be the one particular person I do know who even remembers the 1991 sequence Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars!a present so bizarre that once I’ve tried to explain it to individuals, I’ve been accused of creating it up.
Bucky O’Hare looks like a loving parody of Star Wars. The eponymous inexperienced rabbit serves because the captain of the spaceship The Righteous Indignation, main a crew of anthropomorphic animals representing the Sentient Protoplasm In opposition to Colonial Encroachment (or SPACE) within the battle towards the oppressive Toad Empire. The Empire’s rank-and file-troops are referred to as Storm Toads, one of many greatest villains is a toad with a principally mechanical physique creatively named Toadborg, and the crew’s first mate comes from the planet Aldebaran. The creators even lampshade the parallels within the first episode, the place a personality errors a flashlight for a lightsaber.
Bucky O’Hare was co-created by Larry Hama, who wrote G.I. Joe and Conan the Barbarian comics for Marvel, and Michael Golden, who co-created the X-Males’s Rogue. Bucky O’Hare and his crew made their debut in 1984 within the first difficulty of Continuity Comics’ anthology sequence Echo of Futurepast. The Bucky O’Hare comics grew to become a cult hit, and Jem head author Roger Allen Slifer, who had beforehand written for DC and Marvel and co-created the character of Lobo, turned them right into a Saturday morning cartoon in 1991.
Whereas loads of exhibits borrowed Star Wars’ house setting and fantasy trappings, Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars! saved George Lucas’ revolutionary politics. The Toads had been as soon as comparatively innocent, although extremely materialistic, till they developed an AI dubbed Komplex to make their lives simpler, so they might spend extra time watching TV. However Komplex went rogue and used tv to hypnotize the Toads, turning them right into a hyper-militaristic society centered on enslaving all mammals.
Michael Golden/Continuity Comics
Bucky and his crew are perpetually outgunned, preventing the Toads principally via trickery, like letting themselves get captured to study key info, or smuggling their robotic sidekick, Android First Class Blinky, previous drive fields that maintain all warm-blooded creatures out. Whereas lots of the Toads are incompetent, Komplex, Toadborg, and the medal-obsessed Toad Air Marshal give you some respectable plots of their very own. Toad Borg captures Blinky, reprograms him, and lets him escape so he’ll sabotage The Righteous Indignation. When Komplex realizes Bucky has cracked his codes, he sends a message designed to lure Bucky right into a entice.
The early ’90s had been a golden age for teenagers’ animation, with creators experimenting with extra advanced characters and tales. Bucky O’Hare wasn’t almost as wealthy as X-Males: The Animated Sequence, Gargoyles, or Batman: The Animated Sequencenevertheless it was serialized in its plot and character improvement. The season opens with a three-parter the place Bucky learns that the Toads have captured his homeworld, Warren, enslaving all hares and utilizing a “local weather converter” to show the once-beautiful planet into a large swamp. The season ends with a very frantic episode the place the crew of The Righteous Indignation fights Komplex, reprograms the local weather converter, and frees the hares.
Picture: Sunbow Productions
Bucky is the sequence’ protagonist, however the present devotes complete episodes to growing the backstories of every of his crew members: the feline first mate and pilot Jenny, the Chewbacca-like berserker baboon Bruiser, and the extremely aggressive former house pirate Lifeless-Eye Duck, who is consistently itching to “croak some Toads.”
As a younger lady, I adored Jenny as a result of there have been so few characters like her on TV. She’s extraordinarily assured and competent, by no means portrayed as a damsel in misery or a love curiosity. She’s psychic, however not the type who simply has obscure intuitions, or swoons when she makes use of her powers. As an alternative, she’s a part of a sisterhood that has to maintain the extent of their skills secret (which feels a bit like Dune’s effectively finished), which conveniently gave the writers the excuse to bust out new skills for Jenny because the plot demanded, like thoughts management and astral projection.
Bucky is a particularly succesful hero, however he’s made a richer hero as a result of he’s prepared to share the highlight. The finale of Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars!’s single 13-episode season begins with Jenny being captured, however ends with Bucky revealing that was really her plan. When Bucky goes off on a solo mission, he offers Jenny command of the ship, with full confidence that she’ll have his again. A part of the present’s progressive bent may be attributed to Jem creator Christy Marx, who labored as a author on Bucky O’Hare and referred to as Jenny her favourite character as a result of she loves each cats and “competent feminine characters.”
Picture: Sunbow Productions
The present’s most radical episode, “House, Swampy House,” is primarily set on a slave colony, the place a bunch of hares maintain speaking about how Bucky is their solely hope of rescue. The fox Mimi LaFloo grows exasperated with their hero-worship, urging them to as an alternative take issues into their very own arms and interact in acts of sabotage and espionage.
When Bucky does present up in disguise to rescue them, he discovers an already well-established resistance motion, and he follows Mimi’s lead, solely stepping as much as assist when issues get harmful. He then recommends Mimi get command of her personal ship to proceed preventing the Toads. Their romantic chemistry is constructed on mutual respect, and I might have cherished to see it developed extra. Whereas a lot of the sequence focuses on Star Wars-style house battles, “House, Swampy House” tones down the motion and winds up feeling like a youngsters’ model of Andor.
However whereas the characters and plots are surprisingly wealthy, one of the best factor about Bucky O’Hare is Toad TV. The Air Marshal’s bumbling minions Frix and Frax are continually glued to the display, and Komplex’s programming can also be used to torture mammal captives, who understandably don’t recognize that Toad TV principally consists of commercials for disgusting merchandise. There are lotions that improve wart progress (an emblem of Toad masculinity), a Spam-like meals constructed from crushed flies, and wallpaper that doubles as flypaper, so the proprietor at all times has a snack at hand. Toad ladies are at all times both offered as ’50s housewives or bikini-clad fashions that Frik and Frak drool over, a transparent distinction with Bucky’s progressive gender views, and meant to indicate how gross and contemptible the Toads are.
Picture: Sunbow Productions
Regardless of all its strengths, it’s onerous to genuinely suggest watching Bucky O’Hare at this time. The present has some very annoying characters, like Bruiser, who’s continually shouting “Awooga!” and making bizarre grunting noises. The sequence can be a lot stronger with out token human/viewers surrogate Willy DuWitt, a preteen engineering whiz from San Francisco who invents a tool he can use to journey to Bucky O’Hare’s universe. He’s not all that obnoxious on the ship, however the present crawls to a halt when it follows him in his human-centric house universe, attempting to cope with skateboarding bullies or his hippie mother and father.
Like The Transformers, Jemand My Little Pony, Bucky O’Hare was distributed by Hasbro for the express objective of promoting toys — which is ironic, given how anti-capitalist Bucky O’Hare is. Hasbro’s purpose is apparent within the present itself, given the fixed introduction of recent allies and adversaries, which at instances make the storytelling overstuffed. However each the action-figure line and present had been rapidly canceled. Bucky O’Hare did encourage each an NES recreation and an arcade recreation, each launched in 1992, the place gamers may management the crew members of The Righteous Indignation.
Slifer saved making youngsters’ TV after Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars!working as head author for 1996’s G.I. Joe Excessive and Avenue Fighter. In 2001, he penned some episodes of Spider-Man Limitlessand he served as a producer on the primary season of the North American model of Yu-gi-oh! He was critically injured in a hit-and-run accident in 2012, and died three years later.
Neal Adams, who co-wrote Bucky O’Hare’s season finale, made some effort to maintain the sequence alive, republishing the unique comedian in 2006, and teasing a CGI Bucky O’Hare film that by no means manifested. He died in 2022, however had a wealthy legacy preventing for comics creators’ rights and co-creating DC Comics characters, together with Batman villain Ra’s al Ghul and the Inexperienced Lantern John Stewart.
These deaths and the present’s abandonment by Hasbro means there isn’t a lot demand for Bucky O’Hare’s return, and that’s a disgrace. The sequence’ anxieties about local weather change, AI, capitalism, and imperialism really feel much more related at this time than they did in 1991. Animators working at this time may do much more with the present’s serialized storytelling and progressive values, additional fleshing out the crew as they liberate planets from Toad oppressors. Better of all, they might in all probability have countless ammo for brand new horrifying merchandise to shill on Toad TV, interspersed with mindnumbing content material.
Bucky O’Hare was good and daring sufficient that it deserved one other season. Disney might have saturated the marketplace for Star Wars-esque cartoons by producing greater than a decade of precise Star Wars cartoons, however I nonetheless suppose there’s room for Bucky O’Hare’s method to science fantasy, freed from ties to a much bigger franchise. Moreover, a brand new era of viewers deserves the easy pleasure of croaking some toads.
