THE FRIDAY FIVE: TOP FIVE CARTOONS THAT NEED LIVE ACTION ADAPTATIONS
It’s Friday! Time once again to countdown in the world of nerd with The Friday Five! This week, the top five cartoons that need live action adaptations!
Let’s face it Whiz Kids, we live in the golden era of nerd. With nerdy things dominating in all aspects of culture from TV and movies to video games and more. If there was ever a time for some company executive to dust off some old IPs and make a TV show , now is that time! So here are my pics for the five I’d love to see come back. I specifically left out anything with a rumored film or TV show in the works, in case you were wondering why Robotech was not number one.
Honorable Mention: M.A.S.K.
Hasbro is already threatening to make a cinematic universe out of G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K., Visionaries, and ROM so I couldn’t include everyone’s favorite Mobile Armored Strike Command. But, Hasbro is NUTS if they don’t include a kick ass version of the cartoon theme like these fine people have produced here. I had to include it so you can stroll around work all next week singing about how “Spectrums got that super vision!!!!” while your co workers laugh at you. Feel free to hum this while petitioning for Carl from the Walking Dead as Scott Trakker in the T Bob movie.
5) Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors
You will notice a pattern here of shows with AMAZING theme songs. A straight trash show of today like Steven Universe can’t even conceptualize having a theme song as awesome as this. In the world of Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, plant monster cars fight humans in robot cars or some shit. Honestly, I barely remember the plot of this, but the designs are cool. That one car there had a big saw blade on the top. If someone thought making Jupiter Ascending was a good idea for a movie, then surely the dozens (DOZENS!) of Wheeled Warrior fans deserve to see Zach Effron attempting to save the galaxy from monster trucks controlled by evil plants.
4) Bionic Six
Look at this! This has mega hit written all over it! A family that also checks off every box on the Burger King Kids Club diversity list gains superpowers and fights evil! Think of the potential to speak to the youth of today by integrating social media into their bionic powers! This dude plays baseball, and fights crime and then posts on Instagram at the same time! This is the type of property that a weird cable channel you don’t realize you have needs to jump on and cast everyone as being 10/10 hot. Coming soon to Destination America…Bionic Six! It could be like Arrow or The Flash but the cast is even prettier! And once again, check that theme song! SUPER FUTURE FAMILY!!!!
3) Inhumanoids
Everyone these days loves monsters. What if monsters came out of the ground and attacked humans? Ok, so people love Iron Man too. What if the only way to stop these monsters was to wear big suits of robot armor with questionably useful abilities? It prints money!!!! Imagine Weta Workshop making the peaceful talking tree people who help humanity fight the giant monsters! This was actually a pretty awesome cartoon for it’s time, filled with gory deaths and a linear story. The toys were sweet too as they were much larger than the small GI Joe and Star Wars figures of the day. I have no idea who would be cast as the heroes, but I can imagine this on Syfy Channel with some TERRIBLE CG on the Inhumanoids.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls2lvNYrZVI
2) Defenders of the Earth
Right now everyone wants to have a cinematic universe. We already talked about Hasbro trying to make one. Universal wants to make one out of their classic monsters (which should culminate in a Monster Squad remake as it’s Avengers. You’re welcome), and they are even going to make Godzilla fight King Kong again.
Here’s one PREMADE for the studios. A team of FLASH GORDON, THE PHANTOM, MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN, oh and some annoying teen sidekicks and a guy named Lothar. So we kind of start scraping the bottom of the barrel after Flash and The Phantom (SLAM EVIL!) but this could work. Not only would you have the nostalgia of the old cartoon and the awesome 80’s Flash Gordon movie, but you could make endless sequels as the teenage sidekicks grow up and take over for the original characters! Space fantasy action plus a cinematic universe? Why isn’t this being made? As always you would get this awesome theme song (listen to this guy really rock out about The Phantom) AND you could use the Flash Gordon soundtrack by Queen (the greatest rock band of all time)!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xLKzsynt5I
1)Centurions
POWER EXTREME!!! This was an amazing 80’s cartoon and one hell of a toy line. Once you bought one of the main three guys, you could buy all sorts of add on sets to pop on armor and weapons on them. They were just slightly smaller than a Barbie doll, so they felt like something way cooler than your standard 3 3/4 inch GI Joe.
With a storyline that barely makes sense about an evil cyborg trying to take over the world with drones (RELEVANT IN THE CURRENT YEAR), this would be an action masterpiece. Imagine The Rock as Ace McCloud or So Wizard Co Host Aubrey’s man crush of the millennium Tom Hardy as Jake Rockwell! Hollywood would be hard pressed to find someone to kick ass while having an awesome mustache like Sea Operations Commander Max Ray.
Every good guy in this series has literally the manliest name ever. I highly doubt anyone named Rex Charger is going to the doctor for testosterone deficiency.
Centurions could be a great mash up of the Transformers movies and the vibe only found in the American Ninja Saga. If that doesn’t get you excited to yell POWER EXTREME, I don’t know what will.
And that will do it for another week here on the Friday Five. As always feedback is wanted and welcomed, in the comments below, through social media or email us: sowizardpodcast@yahoo.com!
Don’t forget to join us back here next week as we countdown in the world of nerd on The Friday Five!
