There were lots of sci-fi series in our childhoods, but “C.O.P.S.” is the closest we ever got to a cyberpunk Saturday morning cartoon show. Unlike “M.A.S.K.,” the title acronym even makes sense: “C.O.P.S.” stands for “Central Organization of Police Specialists.” And specialized they really are. “C.O.P.S.” takes place in the near future, where lawmen and criminals alike have cybernetically augmented their bodies with various forms of weaponry. The series’ protagonist, Detective Baldwin P. Vess, suffers life-threatening injuries in an early battle with Empire City’s criminal element, and winds up having his whole torso replaced with advanced technology rather than wait to rehabilitate his body and let the criminals go free. He’s a fundamentally tragic and but highly motivated hero, and as an added bonus, he was one of the few genuinely positive African-American protagonists on TV when the series ran from 1988 to 1989.
“C.O.P.S.” doesn’t have a very large fanbase, but the Robocop-like concept is so simple and, compared to many of the other films on our list, inexpensive to produce that it would probably be one of the best bets for any movie studio considering putting their own nostalgia cartoon adaptation together to compete with G.I. Joe and Transformers. They’d have our money.
“Exosquad” was a brief cartoon phenomenon in the early 1990s, and was essentially an American response to the more inventive, stylish and densely plotted anime imports that competed for young audiences on the airwaves. The series took place in the early 22nd Century, where mankind has colonized several planets with the assistance of “Neosapiens,” a biologically engineered slave race who, predictably, revolt and wage war on their human oppressors. That’s considerably darker than the typical Saturday morning fare of the 1990s, and even today. Combined with the series’ highly merchandisable power armored heroes, “Exosquad’s” cynical set-up and action-heavy storyline could make an Exosquad movie an exciting proposition at the multiplex.
We can’t see a downside to this one, honestly. “Exosquad” would make a great movie. In fact, there’s only one nostalgia cartoon series that doesn’t already have a feature film adaptation in the works that we think could make a better one. You’ve probably already guessed what it is.
Disney exerted most of their energy in the 1990s on comedy cartoon series with a hint of adventure in them. Most of those shows were excellent, but “Gargoyles” was something different. In an apparent response to the breakout success of “Batman: The Animated Series” – a dark and unusually well written series that raised the bar for childrens’ television – Disney produced “Gargoyles,” a gothic adventure spanning centuries, but that mostly took place in present day New York City, where a band of monstrous but heroic gargoyles have been imported from Europe. By day, they sit atop the skyscrapers of the city as stone sentries, but by night they come alive and team up with an NYPD detective named Elisa Maza to protect New York from a string of mythological monsters and the machinations of corrupt billionaire David Xanatos.
“Gargoyles” bears striking similarities to the Linda Hamilton/Ron Perlman TV series “Beauty and the Beast,” with a secret world of magic living beneath (or in this case, above) a modern metropolis, and a formidable heroine teaming up with monsters to save the day. The heroes were compellingly designed and interestingly written, and the storylines had a Highlander-esque tendency to take place throughout the last millennium, only coming to a head in the present day. With an action-packed premise, a stellar cast of characters and the potential for an ongoing – and relatively inexpensive – franchise, not to mention a great leading role for a woman for a change, “Gargoyles” is the one nostalgia cartoon series that we are shocked, shocked, to report isn’t in development.
Yet.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel, co-host of The B-Movies Podcast, co-star of The Trailer Hitch, and the writer of The Test of Time. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
