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Medieval & Fantasy Cartoons, 1981-1991

 
aeon — Fri, 2007-01-12 01:25

It occurred to me not long ago that during the heyday of Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s, not only were the movies full of Fantasy (as covered in a series I wrote here on Gamegrene), but so was television. Here is a list of cartoons that I can remember airing in the 1980s that featured heavy fantasy or medieval elements. Can you think of any I missed?

Adventures of the Gummi Bears

Blackstar

Dungeons & Dragons

Dragon's Lair

Heavy Metal (not a TV show, but a movie, though)

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

Herculoids, The

Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors

Legend of Zelda, The

My Little Pony

Pirates of Dark Water (1991)

Rainbow Brite

She-Ra: Princess of Power

Smurfs, The

Thundarr the Barbarian

Thundercats

Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light

Voltron: Defender of the Universe (aka Voltron III, aka Lions)

Wizards & Warriors (was not a cartoon, but was on in 1983)

World of David the Gnome, The

Anything I add after the posting of this article will be in italics.

aozora — Fri, 2007-01-12 11:03

Holy smokes, I only remember about half of those!

The 1980 date cutoff unfortunately disqualifies "Wizards" from your film list although it is close. Early Star Wars too. When did they release Heavy Metal again? Would that count?

aeon — Fri, 2007-01-12 22:37

Hm. I suppose it would. I also added Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors.

zipdrive — Sat, 2007-01-13 09:13

These were aired in israel in the 80's (in addition to some featured on the list):
Belfy And Lillibit / Littl' Bits

La Llamada de los gnomos - a sequel to The World of David the Gnome (not sure it was translated to English).

Walt C — Sat, 2007-01-13 15:42

Blackstar (1981-82) an Earth astronaut crashlands on a fantasy world and becomes a hero, wielding half of a powerful weapon (the enemy, of course, wields the other half).

Walt

aeon — Sun, 2007-01-14 01:15

You know, I never saw that cartoon, but I owned some of the toys. Weird.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZDfmobd8Dc

n0m00n — Mon, 2007-01-22 07:32

Don't forget "The Mysterious Cities of Gold" circa 1982-1983. This one was about a group of adventurers in New Spain searching for El Dorado. They kept inventing and finding anachronistic technology like a submarine built from two rowboats flipped over and bolted together with a snorkel for an air supply. This one was on in the early days of Nickelodeon.

I also remember a different show done in an anime style that was about a pair of children and their time-traveling robot that kept thrusting them into Bible stories in ancient Judea.

Also, thanks to Wikipedia, just discovered Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea another French production like Mysterious Cities and from the same time period.