Animation Saturday: Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars (1991)

Science fiction and anthropomorphic animals are two clichés of animation I always find heart warming. The reason for this was my introduction to both tropes through the adventures of a green rabbit and his motley crew of animal adventurers. Ladies and gentlemen and third gender, I give you the 90s serial Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars.

Anyone who enjoyed the original Star Wars trilogy would know that this series was easily a kids version of said franchise but with animals instead of humans and aliens. It had every single cliché of soft sci-fi: an evil imperial menace, a hero who’s down on his luck but proves himself as the best in the fleet (Bucky O'Hare), a cat with a set of psychic powers – ideal for mental manipulation (First Mate Jenny), hyperspace and time travel (Blinky the Robot), and duck pirates (Dead Eye Duck).

Yes, you heard me correct there: Duck Pirates!

(Four armed duck pirates to be exact).

Anyway, the series surrounds the eponymous Rabbit Captain and his battle to rid the Aniverse of the Toad empire. And in the middle of said battle, a boy genius, Willy DuWitt, from San Francisco accidentally ends up in the parallel universe by building a photon accelerator.

Now I’m no physicist, but I do know that photons travel at the speed of light, so wouldn’t accelerating them lead to time travel rather than entering a parallel universe inhabited by anthropomorphic animals who have mastered space travel? I don’t know. If any physicists are reading this, please give me some light on this. But then again, we are talking about a 90s cartoon where the villain is a Toad on a screen.

The backstory explains the Toads were a harmless race who wanted to use technology to help keep order and bliss, and they invented KOMPLEX, a televised servant who would do all the boring things the Toads didn’t want to do. But eventually KOMPLEX took control of the race sent them on a course of military aggression and made them into an imperialist military hell bent on destroying any warm blooded animals.

As you can see, we have elements of Star Wars and hints of 1984 with KOMPLEX resembling Big Brother and the telescreens observing the everyday moves of Winston Smith, etc. Plus one of the villains is Toadborg, a Toad soldier whose body was put into a robot body to carry out KOMPLEX’s heavy work – plenty of references to Darth Vader there.

But what I could never get my head around was that Captain O’Hare and his crew were the only ‘Mammalian’ warriors employed to take on an entire empire. That’s as if the Rebel Alliance decided to cut back on all the X-Wings, Y-Wings, A-Wings, etc. and instead just commissioned the Millennium Falcon to battle the Dark Side. Never once in this series do we see the good guys stage a battle of epic proportions against the forces of evil. And most of the episodes cover Bucky and his friends carrying out covert operations which makes you wonder who is keeping up the heavy work in this war?

But if you want a pretty funny satire on the USA’s addiction to TV and money, the concept of ‘Toad TV’ might make you smile on more than one occasion. Having watched the show again as an adult, it’s a pretty mediocre cartoon, but the whole concept of animals at war and using cold-blooded vs warm-blooded as a metaphor for racism is pretty damn original.

And yes, we do see the damsel in distress trope here, again! In the final episode our psychic cat pilot Jenny is captured by the menace and needs the ‘funky fresh rabbit’ (seriously, that’s how the theme song goes), to save her life. That’s a pretty stupid storyline to employ after you’ve seen Jenny thwart the plans of the Toads using her high levels of intelligence and mental-manipulation techniques that no other animal is capable of wielding. Something I presume would give her enough power to help her try and escape – but this cartoon was to sell toys more or less.

So if you want a cartoon that will help young people understand science fiction with more colours and family friendly characters than the Star Wars films, give Bucky O’Hare a shot – but don’t expect anything mind blowing. And the Willy DuWitt character does bode well as an introduction into Low Fantasy and will be a good character for anyone wanting to overcome bullies who don’t have any legit reason to pick on him.

But most of all, if you want to hear one of the catchiest theme songs ever, this is the cartoon for you. Another piece of TV remembered today mostly for the theme song and the NES game. Theme songs were big business in the 80s and 90s, just give it a listen and you’ll know what I mean.

Top 5 TV Theme Songs That Are Better Than The Shows

Growing up, I watched a lot of TV – especially cartoons and sitcoms. I had my favourites and this could act as another nostalgia trip. But one thing I’ve never seen fellow TV and film bloggers talk about, are the rare times when the theme songs are actually better than the TV shows.

This is a short list of shows where all the best writing and composition seems to have gone into the theme tunes, which still kick ass today and I regularly find myself listening to when I’m not in the mood for something evil or speculative. It’s a short glimpse into the deep and dark world of my cynicism about the entertainment I grew up with.

So without further ado, here are the Top 5 TV Theme Songs That Are Better Than The Shows:

5. “Where I Find My Heaven” from Game On.

I’ve included this awesome power pop number at the top of this list because I’ve already talked about it on my Top 20 90s list. And because the sitcom, portraying the lad culture of the 90s in its most misogynistic never once achieved to deliver a good laugh. Game On my have turned off for me but Gigolo Aunts will remain as one of my all time favourite One Hit Wonders.

Here’s the show:

And more importantly, the song:

4. “I’ll Be There For You” from F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

Yes indeed, I fucking hated this show growing up. Sorry to all you keen Friends fans reading this, but I cannot ever recall finding a single joke in this hugely overrated pile of TV shite amusing.

Oddly enough, this song also qualifies as a One Hit Wonder, and I would love to see the awesome Todd In The Shadows do a video about The Rembrandts. As far as I’m aware, this was their only hit to get onto the Billboard 100 and it will remain a keen favourite of mine forever more. Interestingly if you want to see Matt LeBlanc at his funniest, I suggest you watch Episodes.

3. Every Pokemon Theme Beyond The “Orange League” Season & Every Power Rangers Theme Beyond “Mighty Morphin” Season.

Once again a tie. Not between two songs, but between two shows – both of whom had excellent first seasons but then descended into poorly written, over complicated mythologies I just couldn’t keep up with.

And with those poorly written seasons, all the effort seems to have gone into the theme songs, hoping to pull the purists back into the swing of things – only to remind us we’ve been away too long so we don’t have a clue of the characters, what’s going on or where the hell the story is taking place.

And thankfully a fellow YouTube blogger, whose band were supported by my friends on the London metal circuit, has made up a fantastic medley of every one of these themes. Thank you PelleK, keep up the good work. (Please subscribe to his channel, it is awesome even if you don’t listen to metal).

Pokemon:

And Power Rangers:

2. The Gummi Bears Theme.

This show had a few funny moments, but it really is nothing to write home about. I did grow up with Disney, but this show never got me hooked the same way classics like Recess, Hercules, Buzz Lightyear and Chip N Dale did. 

But this is a classic example of a time when theme songs were big business in the music industry. Whoever wrote and performed this piece must have been a professional composer with a full backup of musicians, as it sounds like Jim Steinman playing kid friendly Power Metal.

Here’s to the Gummi Bears. Awful show; awesome theme.

And The Number One Best Theme Song That’s Better Than The Show Is:

“Run With Us” from The Raccoons.

There was a running theme in late 80s/early 90s cartoons about environmentalism. What kids didn’t know, was they were watching shows peddled by multi millionaires like Ted Danson (Captain Planet, etc). In order to save the planet and human race from extinction, we had to watch shows of poorly written anthropomorphic animals and buy overpriced, sweat-shop produced merchandise. 

And among that canon of pseudo-eco warrior bollocks, came this poor show about a bunch of raccoons trying to save their home from a money hungry business alien. And with it came the catchiest, spine tingling piece of 80s New Wave since Toto’s Africa.

The Raccoons was never anything to write home about, and I always waited for the end credits as “Run With Us” always made me feel empowered. Now there’s something that could have held a better message: music, not corporate TV. I use this song every now and again to remember that I have passion for the things I love and I’m not alone. The New Wave years are pretty much epitomised in this four minute gem. Let’s hope this song lives on forever and the show and its creators just rot to oblivion.