From: rjung@aludra.usc.edu (Robert A. Jung)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation
Subject: Re: GI JOE: the next generation?
Date: 23 Jul 1992 18:55:51 -0700
Organization: Southern California Lynx Enthusiasts
NNTP-Posting-Host: aludra.usc.edu

In article <Jul.23.14.04.06.1992.1974@remus.rutgers.edu> pearl@remus.rutgers.edu (Starbuck) writes:
>In article <Jul.23.09.56.06.1992.25731@remus.rutgers.edu> fjohnson@remus.rutgers.edu (Floyd Johnson) writes:
>> 	1) How the hell did the series (and character design) end up
>> in DIC's hands? They've introduced more commissioned characters
>> (Marvel's only commissioned regular was a BGen, "Hawk", who sort of
>> proved forty isn't fatal), but they did weird things to the original
>> NCOs (Lady Jaye, Duke, Scarlett, etc.).
>
>My guess is they needed to change the character designs for legal
>reasons and also to introduce more characters for the purposes of
>selling toys.

  Maybe I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that Marvel stopped doing
the G.I. JOE cartoon because they were reorganizing their animation house
(note that Marvel Animation work in general, and MARVEL ACTION SPECTACULAR,
their anthology series, died at around the same time). I think Hasbro sat
still for a year or two, then hitched up with DIC to do new episodes.

  Sidebar IMO: The DIC JOE episodes suck rocks compared to the Marvel ones.
Not in terms of animation -- DIC's stuff is consistently nice, especially for
"realistic" art -- but in terms of writing. Marvel/JOE had the usual animated
combat schlock, but also managed to weave in some intelligent stories and
characterization a lot of the time. DIC/JOE is a collection of cliches and
stupid writing.

>> 	2) What was the title of this "movie"? I remember the one that
>> started it all, which involved a matter telporter; "The Revenge of
>> Cobra"; "The Pyramid of Darkness", which launched the series; "Arise,
>> Serpentor, Arise"; and this one, where Toei knocked itself out, and
>> Marvel killed off Serpentor, and the Cobra Commander turned out to be
>> an alien.
>
>Well, don't bother putting the word movie in quotes, it was called "Gi
>Joe: The Movie".  The others could be considered mini-series.

  About the movie: This was IMO the weakest link in the Marvel/JOE chain.  I
just cannot buy the sheer stupidity of the Cobra-La aliens/hidden race, and
the premise fit in the otherwise "real-life" G.I. JOE continuity like an Acme
anvil in a square hole. The blatant failure to kill/hurt/maim any of the major
characters also stuck out like a sore thumb (wouldn't have been so bad, except
for the "injured Lt. Falcon" sore point). Great above-television-standard
animation from Toei, largely due to the plans to make the movie into a
theatrical release.

  All in all, though, TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (great name, eh?) was better
written and better animated for my money. Another Hasbro/Marvel/Toei
production.

  Sidebar #2: Few people know that the plot for the G.I. JOE movie was thrown
together at the last minute. The original plot was much more interesting, IMO.

  It was titled "The Most Dangerous Man In the World", and featured Cobra on a
major manhunt for a certain civilian. The Joe team catches wind of it, figures
that "If Cobra is spending all those resources, he must be REALLY dangerous",
and go after him as well. The Joe team eventually find the mystery man, who
turns out to be a political professor at a university. Turns out that he was
the man who first came up with the socio-political theory that led to the
formation of Cobra, and was about to publicly denounce his earlier works,
which would invalidate the entire organization. THAT'S why Cobra wanted him
dead.

  The script was written and storyboards were all done, when the head writer
(Buzz Dixon, I believe) was suddenly told that Serpentor was the new head of
Cobra. Serpentor didn't fit into this script AT ALL, so all of the work had to
be scrapped and the silly Cobra-La story created instead. Too bad -- I would
have LOVED to see the original idea developed.

  (All of the above from an old issue of COMICS INTERVIEW magazine, BTW. I
don't think I have the issue any more, alas...)

>A friend and I once tried to cast a live action version of GI Joe.

  I think Hasbro's been bouncing around the idea of a live-action JOE movie
for a while. Their latest round of toy commercials use a lot of live-action
footage, which may be taken as support for this theory...

                                                --R.J.
                                                B-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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     Buster: "Shucks, I'll carry your books for nuthin'."
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~~~~~~~~~~~ These opinions are all mine, but you're welcome to 'em. ~~~~~~~~~~
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