Business Insider’s Entertainment section provides some really interesting articles, considering the name of the site.
One of their recent ones is 11 Really Bad Movies Based On Cartoons Everyone Loves and delivers what it promises.
In the accompanying video, they list out 11 cartoon TV shows that were converted to moves and were just terrible. Although by including Garfield on the list, they cheat because it was a bad TV show based on a comic strip.
| Cartoon | Movie |
|---|---|
| Transformers | Transformers |
| The Smurfs | The Smurfs |
| Mr. Magoo | Mr. Magoo |
| Speed Racer | Speed Racer |
| Rocky & Bullwinkle | Rocky & Bullwinkle |
| Inspector Gadget | Inspector Gadget |
| Garfield | Garfield |
| The Flintstones | The Flintstones |
| G.I. Joe | G.I. Joe |
| Aeon Flux | Aeon Flux |
| Masters of the Universe | Masters of the Universe |
Ok, so a table listing them like that wasn’t necessary. There’s 3 things about this list that stand out.
- At least 3 of the shows/movies are based on toys (Transformers, Smurfs & G.I. Joe)
- At least 3 of the shows/movies are OLD (Mr. Magoo, Rocky & Bullwinkle & The Flintstones)
- Why is Aeon Flux on the list? Did people actually love that cartoon? I didn’t even know it was one!
The universal consistency of course is that they’re all fantasy. I mean, if they’d done an Archie & Jughead movie, it would be “real” in that it’s set in a world people can relate to and doesn’t require a lot of special effects. Everything above did.
They’re also all arguably kids shows and are aimed at kids, being judged by adults. How many kids do you think walked out of Garfield saying “Dad, Garfield was terrible”?