Forgotten Toons: Godzilla (1978)

I won't lie- this show has not aged well.  Here's what you need to know...

In 1978, Hanna-Barbera licensed the franchise to make a kid-friendly cartoon series.  This was around the time that Godzilla was still in his 'defender of the Earth' phase in the films, so this was not as jarring as you would think.  One interesting change was Hanna-Barbera not being able to license the roar and making their own.  In Japan, they got the real deal.

Unfortunately, many other odd changes were made.  The show followed Big G swimming around the world with a group of human scientists.  They would constantly run into weird monsters and do battle with them.  There's slightly more to the premise, but that's all you really need to know.  They also decided to give Big G some new powers, including heat vision.  Yes, heat vision.

Ironically, in a show about giant things, I'm ignoring the elephant in the room.  Just saying its name give its powers a la Cthulu, but i'll risk it: Godzooky!

Yes, they managed to make the Son of Godzilla into a more silly and annoying character.  Basically, he is Scrappy-Doo.  There- I said it!

Is this a good show?  No, not really.  It's a 1970's kid show licensed around Godzilla.  It is notable as a piece of animation and film history, but that's about it.  With that said, some people really like the kitschy stuff and will probably get many laughs out of this.  To be honest, the show is bearable enough...if you ignore Godzooky.  The show featured some bizarre monsters and premises, including but not limited to Time Dragon, The Chimera and The Cyborg Whale.  That should count for something, I guess.

Up next, we take a look at the 1999 cartoon series that everyone likes to ignore due to it's film connections.  Can it overcome this giant hurdle?