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aion-rsa · 3 years

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The Justice Friends from Dexter’s Laboratory Deserve a Revival

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I’d like to think that it’s widely accepted that 1990s animation was very good to comic book superheroes. We had a genre-changing Batman: The Animated Series, the deep and socially relevant X-Men: The Animated Series, and two expanded cartoon universes that came out of each one. But there was one superhero cartoon, neither DC or Marvel, that sticks out to me for being a bit underused and well before its time.

I want to take a second to talk about the Justice Friends.

The original two-season run of Dexter’s Laboratory not only focused on the main misadventures of the boy genius and his bratty sister Dee Dee, but it had two side-cartoons that popped up here and there. One was Dial M for Monkey, where it turned out Dexter’s lab monkey was secretly superpowered and spent his time fighting world-threatening enemies behind Dexter’s back. The other was the Justice Friends, an animated sitcom about three superheroes who shared an apartment.

The Justice Friends had only nine shorts in the show’s run outside of appearances in the main Dexter cartoons and Dial M for Monkey. Outside of a guest appearance on Powerpuff Girls in 2002 and cameos in the Cartoon Network-based knockoff of Super Smash Bros., we haven’t seen the Justice Friends in the spotlight in decades.

And man. If anyone needs a revival, it’s these guys.

The main three Justice Friends were made up of Major Glory, Val Hallen, and the Infraggable Krunk. Major Glory acted as a long-winded patriot, decked out in red, white, and blue. The metalhead Val Hallen wielded his magic electric guitar and spoke in a cross between Shakespearean English and surfer dialect. The Infraggable Krunk was a purple rage monster in torn, green pants and basically had the mind of a child.

In other words, this cartoon was a parody of Captain America, Thor, and the Hulk. It was a jab at Avengers back in a time when nobody cared about the Avengers!

In other episodes, we’d even see further members of the team. Living Bullet, despite his super-speed, was obviously designed as a take on Iron Man, down to the rectangular eyeholes. Capital G could increase his size at will like Giant Man. There was a Scarlet Witch stand-in named Miss Spell. Phan Tone was blatantly Vision.

They even had White Tiger! While Marvel does in fact have a superhero named White Tiger, this guy was a take on Black Panther. Imagine that. Coming up with a Black Panther parody for your cartoon and not knowing that this would be incredibly relevant in 20 years.

While Avengers movies are the biggest thing these days, it’s a major whiplash to remember that the 90s were a blind spot to the brand. Unless you were big into comics, the closest thing you got to a real Avengers cartoon around this time was the season of Iron Man when Force Works was a thing.

Despite all the animated Marvel crossovers, we didn’t get an actual Avengers cartoon until the very end of the ’90s going into 2000. Avengers: United They Stand was not only the last gasp of the Marvel Animated Universe, but it was a strange, strange short-lived series. It focused entirely on the B and C-list Avengers, some who still haven’t appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and treated Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor as these untouchable legends who were too special and busy to appear on the show.

The opening credits ended with a group shot, followed by a half-second pan to show the Big Three above…

I don’t think Thor ever showed up in those 13 episodes.

The Justice Friends mainly existed for two kinds of storytelling. In their own cartoons, they acted like the weird Hanna Barbera shows from the ’70s that had laugh tracks. The trio would deal with mundane sitcom stuff (visiting relative, dating situation, arguing over what to watch on TV, trying to get a good night’s sleep) with a superhero twist. For example, they would go with the TV trope of trying to DIY on fixing a toothache instead of seeing a dentist. EXCEPT it’s Krunk and while having a Dorito shard digging into his tooth will cause him intense pain, removing said tooth is nearly impossible due to his invulnerability. It’s not the kind of situation where you can just tie it to a door and slam it.

Outside of the Justice Friends cartoons, their appearances would paint them as half-competent crime-fighters most of the time. It’s there that we got their three most memorable appearances. There’s a quick fake commercial for Justice Fruit Pies starring Major Glory that’s painted as a parody to the old Hostess comic book ads from the 70s and 80s (which all late-90s kids are familiar with, right?).

In the ever-memorable Dial M for Monkey episode “Rasslor,” a cosmic wrestler voiced by Randy Savage comes to Earth and bases his judgement of humanity’s survival on whether or not their greatest heroes can best him in combat. The Justice Friends each give it a go and lose, leaving things to Monkey. Strangely, this is based on the comic Marvel Two-in-One Annual, but it’s not so much a parody as a blatant retelling with different characters. An issue of Deadpool Team-Up featuring Thing blatantly calls it out when a Randy Savage-like alien invades a wrestling show.

Then there’s “Last But Not Beast,” the original finale to Dexter’s Laboratory. This full half-hour storyline has Dexter accidentally unleash a vicious kaiju upon Japan. In the end, the creature is taken down by the joint efforts of Dexter, his family, and Monkey, but before all that, we see the Justice Friends fight the beast and lose horribly. It’s a huge comedy of errors where Capital G can only grow to a fraction of the kaiju’s height and nobody can dent the stupid thing. They’re finally done in when Krunk tries to throw the monster into space, but it doesn’t break escape velocity and instead crushes the heroes.

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While Dexter’s Laboratory came back for another two seasons later on, the Justice Friends only made one appearance. In “Dexter’s Wacky Races,” various characters from the show take part in a big Wacky Races parody and this includes a hot rod driven by the three main Justice Friends. They ultimately don’t have a lot to do in this adventure (though more than Monkey and Honeydew, who are practically forgotten about by the writers), but it’s nice to see them pop up one last time.

Five years later, Iron Man would be released in theaters and everything would change. Now the characters Major Glory, Val Hallen, and Krunk are based on are part of the most money-making movie in film history. And yet, they’re obscure footnotes in Cartoon Network’s pantheon.

When I got to talk to Rob Paulsen about the return of Animaniacs recently, I brought up my interest in seeing the Justice Friends make a comeback. Paulsen, the voice of Major Glory (describing his performance as, “a combination of Fred Baxter and Robert Stack”), seemed pretty stoked about the character and agreed that creator Genndy Tartakovsky was well ahead of the curve.

“We were having just a freaking hoot,” Paulsen remarked, “and I was looking at Genndy going, ‘Dude. You’re way younger than I am.’ He’d been, I don’t know, maybe not way younger. He’s probably 50 now. But I said, ‘This is very hip. I mean, you’re just Marveling out.’”

But would a Justice Friends revival truly work in this decade? I mean, can you imagine a show in this day and age about comedic superheroes coexisting as dysfunctional roommates when they aren’t being semi-competent in saving the day? How could such a show be a success and—

Wait a second…

Huh.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Well. At least if they brought back Justice Friends we won’t have people moaning about how it’s been turned into an atrocity compared to the source material.

The post The Justice Friends from Dexter’s Laboratory Deserve a Revival appeared first on Den of Geek.

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lydiaandarry · 5 years

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{How To Dress Similarly To Your Favorite Cartoon Characters Pt.2 (Using Five Examples!)}

Hello there!

My name is Arabella but you can call me Arry, if it’s easier. I don’t know about you but I basically grew up on cartoons. I watched Cartoon Network all day and I used to get so much inspiration from cartoon characters that probably followed me into my older years. Personality and fashion-wise. Have you ever wanted to dress similar to one of your favorite cartoon characters yet not wanting to look like a cosplay or costume? Well, you’ve come to the right gal because that is exactly what I am going to be helping you with but before I get onto the five examples, we must go over some basic knowledge. Fashion can say a lot about a character, especially in cartoons where the clothes rarely change. It has to be iconic yet true to the personality being demonstrated in some sense. Five things go into analyzing and copying a cartoon characters style: 1) Color Palette 2) Aesthetic 3) Overall Impression 4) Fashion Items 5) How It Shapes Their Personality? These are five things we are going to keep in mind during our five examples. Let’s invade this topic.

(Nazz)

Nazz from Ed Edd n’ Eddy is probably one of the easiest old cartoon characters to make modern. Especially since her style has come back into trend with layering. Now I didn't grow up with Ed Edd n’ Eddy because my mother was fearful that I would develop behavior similar to the boys. But whenever I did see images of it or short scenes, I loved Nazz’s fashion (next to Marie’s). Starting with the first thing to think about when recreating a style of any cartoon character, color palette. A color palette is quite important especially when it comes to cartoon characters because these colors can be forever associated with this character. Nazz’s color palette includes black, white, denim, red, and occasionally green. These colors are great because they can go great with each other and makes a strong color palette. Nazz’s aesthetic is a mixture between Girl Next Door and Tomboy. She has boyish elements that allows her to be ‘one of the boys’ yet she also has a fun, flirty girly side. The third thing to consider is the overall impression of their clothes to the world around them. Now this may seem odd but this is worth consideration because it depends on how you want to be taken. As people judge upon appearances and your clothes can say a lot about you. Nazz’s overall impression and how it makes people see her is that Nazz is seen as very attractive and everyone wants to hang out with her. She’s the female character that has a lot of friends and is overall popular and kind. She isn’t the stereotypical mean girl despite dressing nice and being friends with a lot of people. She breaks that stereotype and shows that you can be cool yet nice. The fourth thing to consider is fashion items, unless you are planning on copying Nazz’s style piece by piece. It is great to really observe it and take pieces of it that may fit into her character yet is good for everyday use and not a cosplay. Remember, it’s all about inspiration. With Nazz, I recommend for tops, basic plain color shirts, crop tops, ringer tees, cropped sweaters, and cami tops. For bottoms, high waisted shorts, basic jeans or ripped jeans, flared jeans, and pleated skirts. For shoes, sneakers like Vans or Converse. For accessories, a quirky pair of sunglasses. And last but not least, the fifth thing to consider is how does her clothes shape her personality? Nazz’s clothes shape her personality in a sense of how she wants to look good. Nazz is very particular on how she looks and despite being confident, is upset if she looks anything but good. Her appearance is very important to her. It shapes her personality in how she likes hanging out with boys more so over girls in the show and is seen as one of the boys due to how her clothes aren’t overly feminine. She’s a great beginner choice for people who want to try this out.

(Mandy)

Ah yes, the girl I aspired to be when I was younger and probably scared my mother some more. Mandy from Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. This is a fun character because her outfit… is completely different from her personality. She wears a pink flower dress, mary-janes and a headband. She looks like an innocent, girly girl but Mandy is evil. She’s a good type of evil but is still evil. Mandy’s color palette depends on where you want to take from it but I gathered white, black, pale pink, pale blue & pale yellow (counting the flower) and purple (her eyeshadow, at times). But if I was going to dress similarly, I would just do white, black and pale pink as the other colors are mere colors compared to those main three. Mandy doesn’t exactly have an aesthetic instead I guess she would be gothic with pink and a sort of doll-like quality. Mandy’s overall impression is that people mistake her for being sweet and innocent although her parents are terrified of her, everyone is mostly terrified of her. A grim reaper is terrified of her. Her clothes are deceiving but everyone knows that she is a very unhappy person due to her constant frown which was even in there inside the womb. Now onto the fun part, clothing choices. For jackets, I would suggest something like a Lazy Oaf jacket style (like their chore jackets) and oversized cardigans. For tops, mock necks, crop tops, layered shirts with a mock-neck under a shirt. Also pinafore dresses and a-line dresses. For bottoms, high-waisted shorts and pleated skirts. For shoes, mary-janes or sneakers. And for accessories, always have a headband on and maybe some skeleton or creepy accessories like a coffin backpack. Mandy’s clothing shapes her personality in a way for humor, she’s this scary person who can almost be a villain yet edges on being an anti-hero at most. It’s complete satire that she looks sweet and innocent with a gothic personality. So have fun with it because if anything, she shows that it’s not what is on the outside that counts after all. There’s a very creepy personality behind that color of pink.

(Sam Manson)

Another favorite female character of mine. Okay, let’s say… that you don’t like pink or want to be a secret Goth. There is plenty of gothic female characters to choose from. But one of my favorites has always been Sam Manson from Danny Phantom. I mean, I loved that show in general. And I loved Sam’s design, even though I wasn’t allowed to wear crop-tops til I turned 18. Her color palette is purple, green, black. You’ve noticed that cartoon characters always seem to have a simple color palette. And of course, Sam’s aesthetic is gothic, even though she could also be eco-goth since I remember an episode of her wanting to save the Earth and becoming a vegetarian. For fashion choices, hm. For jackets, I feel like she would wear hoodies, oversized black denim jackets, and long coats or even a varsity jacket. For tops, crop-tops, band tees, mock-necks, muscle tees, fishnet tops and sheer tops with something underneath. If she wore a dress, it would probably be black and an a-line, once again with a mock-neck. For bottoms, plaid skirts, checkered shirts, pleated skirts, ripped jeans with fishnets underneath, high-waisted shorts. For shoes, Doc Martens, sneakers, mary-janes and platforms. For accessories, knee-high socks, fishnets, tights, chokers, patches and enamel pins, belt, and a cool backpack. Sam’s overall impression is kind of hard to sum up in a small summary since Danny Phantom is so complex so I recommend watching the show to get a better idea but it’s never really brought up as a main point in her character how she dresses. She’s a great gothic character for inspiration though.

(Valhallen)

Okay now the first three characters and five characters of my last post were all girls. For those, who may not know Valhallen is a male character from “Justice Friends” which originated as a short from “Dexter’s Laboratory”, are you following me? Let’s say you’re a dude or you want to dress similar to a dude character. Valhallen is a great character to start with as he is a very simple character to modernized because you don’t even really have to go off his sense of style to dress similar to him. His color palette consists of black, yellow, and silver. Pretty simple. His aesthetic is kind of surfer mixed with metalhead mixed with Nordic god. He was created to be a parody of Thor. Which he succeeds greatly with. What is the overall impression of Valhallen? Well, he is quite a ladies man. He is definitely seen as the more attractive member. Valhallen doesn’t have much of an overall impression except the fact that the ladies love him from all realms and he is a fan favorite character. Onto the fun part! Fashion items. Now I chose Valhallen, because no offense but he does have a feminine touch on clothing that can easily be feminized. The dude wears a midriff. For jackets, denim jackets would suit, perhaps with patches of your favorite metal bands or enamel pins. For tops, crop-tops, midriffs, band tees, muscle tees, fishnet or sheer tops with something underneath, cropped camis. Don’t be afraid to show a lot of skin on your upper body. For bottoms, ripped jeans, basic jeans, high waisted shorts, bell bottoms. For shoes, knee high boots. For accessories, headpieces, fingerless gloves, studded jewelry, spiked belts. How does his clothes shape his personality? Well, he’s The Viking God of Rock. He has to look the part and this is basic metalhead fashion with God twists similar to Thor. He’s a goofy character who is hilariously rad and doesn’t take himself too seriously and his clothes show that. He’s less out there than Major Glory but can stand out more than The Infraggable Krunk. He’s obviously the more free-spirited one who isn’t afraid to be himself.

(Judy Jetson)

Here is what I like to call expert mode because unlike the other four who have easily modernized looks. Judy is from the future yet has a vintage twist. Her clothes are not something a typical teenager or young adult would wear in this day and age. I mean, someone who isn’t as weird as me. So you have to kind of reinvent her and make her suit your taste yet keep elements about her that are amazing and what makes her lovely. Judy’s color palette is pale pink, red (in some lighting), darker pink, white and black. If anyone asks you about a known fact of me… I love pink with red and pink with black. I also love pink on pink. And Judy Jetson has two of my favorite pinks where it’s not Barbie Pink or Too Pink. The overall impression of Judy, well she’s seen as the teenage girl of the future. She’s boy-crazy, fun, has exciting hobbies, can be quite moody and sassy. She loves dancing, attends high school and spends her evening listening to her favorite boy bands. Parts of Judy have travelled into the future as I related to her a lot when I was sixteen. And still do! She can get out of hand sometimes and I feel like all girls do, even into early adult years. I’ve had my moments where I have overreacted. Onto fashion items! Now, with Judy, as I said before, you are going to have to reimagine outfits for her. With jackets, I suggest fit and flare, perhaps long jackets, something to show off the figure however. With tops, crop-tops, mock necks, fitted tops, fun bodysuits, sheer tops, about anything that is cool. With bottoms, flared skirts or pleated skirts, mini skirts, high-waisted shorts, suspender pants, pants or jeans. For dresses, pinafores, figure hugging, a-line. For shoes, sneakers, flats, boots, platforms. A tip for seeming more futuristic is adding in color palette fitting metallics and holographic. For accessories, tights, knee high socks, circle purses, star shaped things, hair bows, headbands, funky sunglasses, vintage gloves, roller-skates if you skate. How does Judy’s clothes shape her personality? Well, her outfit is very youthful compared to her mother’s. She has more of a spark and quirky sense. Her clothes really show that she is bubbly and charismatic. She is out of this world. Something that I feel like girls should be more confident to try to be. To be unapologetically themselves. Just because her outfit isn’t exactly the future creators in the 60s were thinking of. It doesn’t mean that we can’t carry traits into this world.

That was how to dress similarly to your favorite cartoon characters, part two! If you want to see part one, click here! Feel free to follow for more posts like this. Also feel free to like and reblog if you enjoyed it! I may turn this into a series as they are always a lot of fun. Just be you and have fun with fashion! I post every Wednesday and Saturday so I will see you on Wednesday! Peace out!

#cartoon characters #cartoons #cartoon network #the grim adventures of billy and mandy #mandy #nazz #ed edd n eddy #judy jetson #the jetsons #dexter's laboratory #justice friends #valhallen #sam manson #danny phantom #fashion #fashion items #post #my post

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