Fantastic Max
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| Fantastic Max | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Genre | Animated |
| Created by | Kalisto Ltd. |
| Written by | Kristina Luckey Judy Rothman Rofé |
| Voices of | Ben Ryan Ganger Nancy Cartwright Gregg Berger Elisabeth Harnois Paul Eiding Gail Matthius Don Messick Benji Gregory |
| Composer(s) | Michael Tavera |
| Country of origin | United States United Kingdom Wales |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Producer(s) | Charles Grosvenor Mike Young John Parkinson |
| Running time | 22 min. (approx.) |
| Production company(s) | Hanna-Barbera Productions (Warner Bros. Television) Kalisto Ltd. Booker PLC Tanaka Promotion Co. |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | First-run syndication |
| Original run | September 11, 1988 – January 21, 1990 |
Fantastic Max is an animated cartoon series created by Kalisto Ltd. and Hanna-Barbera Productions and in association with S4C. It centres on a diaper-wearing toddler with a mohawk named Max (with a Welsh accent[citation needed]), who has adventures in outer space with two of his toys: FX, a pull string alien doll from a planet called Twinkle-Twinkle and A.B. Sitter, a C-3PO-like android made of blocks.
Contents |
[edit] History
Fantastic Max was developed by Judy Rothman and Robin Lyons from Siriol Animation as part of creation of Kalisto Ltd.. The series was original called Space Baby before being develop by Mike Young and Hanna-Barbera Productions further.
In the United States, Fantastic Max ran in syndication for two years as part of the weekly Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera program block. The first episode aired on Sunday, September 11, 1988, and the last first-run episode aired on February 1, 1990. Currently, Boomerang airs re-runs of the show on Monday–Friday at 10:30 am, but there are currently no plans to release the series on DVD.
In the UK the series was broadcast on the BBC,
[edit] Characters
[edit] Heroes
- Max – A baby who was given the abilities of speech and intellect by FX. Max is very brave and adventurous, but his actions often wind him up in trouble. Nevertheless, Max cares for his friends and the people he meets. His catchphrase is "Dirty Diapers!" which he exclaims whenever things go wrong.
- FX – An alien doll with magical powers that can create virtually anything, such as a baby-bottle-shaped rocket out of sand which Max uses to travel through space. He is Max's best friend, as shown in "Back to Twinkle, Twinkle" where he was crying after being separated from Max. His catchphrase is "Rocket and Roll!" which is also the command for using his powers.
- A.B. Sitter – A toy robot who was brought to life by FX, and his origins were explained in the episode "Straight Flush." He is often trying hard to keep Max out of danger, but it seldom works and he often ends up annoying Max. AB doesn't enjoy going in outer space as much as the others, but he goes anyway in order to keep Max out of trouble. He provides most of the mature humor in the show. He also has the fewest episodes dedicated to him as a whole.
- Zoe – Max's older sister who is occasionally dragged into her brother's adventures. Max doesn't think very highly of her, and often calls her dumb. She is rivals with her next door neighbor, Ben. A lot of times, she becomes suspicious of her brother's travels, but Max puts her to sleep in order for her not to reveal their secret. She is usually reprimanded (and grounded) at the end of Max's travels, especially by her strict Dad, for her impish and mischievous behavior.
- Mom and Dad – Max's parents who are completely oblivious to their infant son's true personality. They seem to pay a lot more attention to Max than Zoe. Their faces and backs of their heads are never seen at all.
- King Crutsiz – A jovial knight with an orange goatee (and mustache to go with his goatee) who rode a white horse and befriended Max, AB and FX when they were lost. He needed their assistance for a riddle involving dragons and the answer, not given until near the end of the episode, was "a zipper". He only appears in "Stitches in Time".
- Rooty the Carrot – A giant carrot from a planet inhabited by vegetables, but he was taken by Zoe and entered in a carrot growing contest. He enlisted Max's help to escape from a giant rabbit named Fatso who wants to eat him. He eventually returned to his planet at the end of the episode. His only appearance was in 'Carrot Encounter of the Third Kind'.
[edit] Villains
- Bronx – A ringmaster. Only appearance was "Monkey See, Monkey Zoo".
- Goldie – A space gypsy. Only appearance was "All in a Babe's Work". His catchphrase was "Goldie the (laughs) Space Gypsy" and gypsy-style music would play in the background. He is even seen with two other space gypsy subordinates: Cosmo (voiced by unknown) and Gar. Gar's name is only mentioned once by Goldie himself and, apart from only having one scene, where he fires Max and the gang with a gypsy gun filled with whipped cream vermicelli and speaks no lines, is only given a mere background appearance. Of course, Cosmo and Gar only appear in that one episode never mind Goldie himself.
- Dumping Jack Trash – A garbage man who always spoke in rhyme. Only appearances in Season 1 were "Back to Twinkle, Twinkle", "Attack of the Cubic Rubes", "Puzzle, Puzzle, Toil and Trouble (in Season 2)" and "Beach Blanket Baby". He was used to replace Texas Pete from SuperTed when that cartoon phased out in 1988; thereby, like when older characters are dropped and are usually replaced by new characters when it made a sequel show called The Further Adventures of SuperTed, "Beach Blanket Baby" could be the replacement episode in this cartoon for the Superted episode "Superted at the Funfair".
- XS – FX's mischievous little cousin who first appeared in "Cooking Mother Goose". He appears in "Boo Who"? and "Back to Twinkle Twinkle". He enjoys teasing FX for being easily scared, but in "Boo Who?" he becomes a fraidy-cat. His command for using his powers is "Rock'em and Sock'em!"
- Amanda – She is Zoe's friend, but she doesn't seem to be since she doesn't believe in superstitions and ridicules Zoe for acting weird. She even walks out on her and is never seen again in the cartoon. Her only appearance is "Cooking Mother Goose".
- Ben Letterman – Even though he is a main character, his only appearances in series one was "Carrot Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Back to Twinkle, Twinkle". Ben appears in "Boo Who?" and "Ben the Blackmailer" (the only two series episodes he appeared in) as well. He is the Young's next door neighbor, and is Zoe's rival. Max, FX and A.B. don't like him very much as he is always bothering them and he is a boaster; plus, he plays all sorts of mean tricks on them. According to Max, Ben is a bigger jerk than Zoe.
- Fatso – A big rabbit from another planet that wants to carrotnap Rooty and eat him. His name is pronounced "FahZo" (the t is silent) and his only appearance was in "Carrot Encounters of the Third Kind".
- Evil, nasty, bad-tempered, spiteful, etc. pirate – Self-explanatory, his only appearance was in "Beach Blanket Baby".
- Pumpernickel – An evil wizard with black hair and a black mustache who tortured the village peasants to pay him by using the dragon as an incentive. He had a pet raven (named "Blackie") who could talk and tried to take over the whole world especially after imprisoning Max and the gang. The only episode featuring him (and Blackie, for that matter) was "Stitches in Time". He also hates pumpernickel bread. As said at the beginning, rather than the traditional long white beard and hair, this evil wizard has only a mustache and has black hair.
- Mr. Tartar – A plump villain sporting bling and a blond quiff, who appears with his robot sidekick Mr Wrenchley in the episode "To Tell the Tooth". Tartar is "the most popular man in Tartarville" a town where teeth feature as prominent icons – for example, the buildings all appear to have been constructed in the image of giant molars. Despite the generous and likable image he has cultivated, he has captured the Tooth Fairy and is stealing teeth from under children's pillows with the intention of having her turn them into cash so he can become the richest man in the Galaxy.
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Season 1 (1988)
| # | Title | Original broadcast date | Plot of episode |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Loon in the Moon" | 17th September 1988 | A.B. is frustrated because Max never listens to him, so he suggests that Max create a new plastic parent – and he does. |
| 2 | "Toys will be Toys" | 24th September 1988 | A toy manufacturer named Sticky Wicket can't think of a new idea for a toy, so he steals FX and pretends to have invented him. |
| 3 | "All in a Babe's Work" | 1st October 1988 | Max is bored when he has to spend all day in a day care center, so he takes his baby friends into space. |
| 4 | "The Big Sleep" | 8th October 1988 | FX's cord gets pulled out of shape and ruins his voice, so the gang goes back to Twinkle Twinkle in search of his doctor to fix it. |
| 5 | "Attack of the Cubic Rubes" | 15th October 1988 | Max takes A.B. and FX to colorless planets (literally) with crayons, but after they meet color lovers Alan and Neil, things get out of hand. |
| 6 | "Monkey See, Monkey Zoo" | 22nd October 1988 | The gang visits an interplanetary circus and discovers that the ringmaster had kidnapped the animals and is making them perform against their will. |
| 7 | "Cooking Mother's Goose" | 29th October 1988 | |
| 8 | "Journey to the Center of my Sister" | 5th September 1988 | |
| 9 | "Carrot Encounters of the Third Kind" | 12th November 1988 | |
| 10 | "The Baby Who Fell to Earth" | 19th November 1988 | |
| 11 | "Beach Blanket Baby" | 26th November 1988 | |
| 12 | "Stitches in Time" | 3rd December 1988 | |
| 13 | "From Here to Twinkle, Twinkle" | 10th December 1988 |
[edit] Season 2 (1989)
| # | Title | Original broadcast date | Plot of episode |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Boo Who?" | 29th October 1989 | |
| 2 | "Ben, the Blackmailer" (Dish Network's description lists this episode as "Beh, the Blackmailer") | 5th November 1989 | |
| 3 | "Cowboy Max" | 12th November 1989 | |
| 4 | "Straight Flush" | 19th November 1989 | A.B's body is stolen by a plumber, when they go on an adventure, then the plumber and Max trade, when the plumber finds a rare "hairball extractor". Then A.B gets his body again. A.B tells Max about being the baby. Then Max says that F.X and Max were born before him, so technically, Max says that A.B is the baby, then they dress A.B as a baby. Max says that himself and FX decide when A.B sleeps (The show breaks the 4th wall when A.B talks about all the body jokes in the episode, and he says that they don't have to force it. Then Max gets the idea of faucet). |
| 5 | "Rats Like Us" | 26th November 1989 | |
| 6 | "Grab Bag Rag" | 3rd December 1989 | |
| 7 | "Movie Star Max" | 10th December 1989 | |
| 8 | "To Tell the Tooth" | 17th December 1989 | |
| 9 | "Dr. Max and Baby Hyde" | 24th December 1989 | |
| 10 | "Guess Who's Coming to Dinar" | 31st December 1990 | |
| 11 | "A. B. Phone Home" | 7th January 1990 | |
| 12 | "Puzzle Puzzle Toil and Trouble" | 14th January 1990 | |
| 13 | "Blarney Fife" (an obvious reference to Barney Fife from The Andy Griffith Show) | 21st January 1990 | After an accident, A.B.'s foot squeaks, so the gang travels to Ireland to find a good cobbler. The cobbler they find is a leprechaun named Blarney Fife who is trying to keep the map to Leprechaun Land from a greedy sneak named Pete O'Moss. |
[edit] Cast
- Gregg Berger – AB Sitter
- Nancy Cartwright – FX
- Paul Eiding – Dad
- Ben Ryan Ganger – Max
- Benji Gregory – Ben Letterman
- Elizabeth Harnois – Zoe
- Gail Matthius – Mom
[edit] Additional Voices
- Lewis Arquette –
- René Auberjonois –
- Larry Riley – Dumping Jack Trash
- George Ball –
- Earl Boen –
- Susan Blu –
- Phillip Boute –
- William Callaway –
- Hamilton Camp –
- Selette Cole –
- Townsend Coleman –
- Peter Cullen –
- Brian Cummings –
- Tim Curry –
- Jennifer Darling –
- Jerry Dexter –
- Dick Erdman –
- Pat Fraley – Rooty the Carrot
- Joan Gerber –
- Dan Gilvezan –
- Dorian Harewood
- Phil Hartman –
- Dana Hill – XS
- Jerry Houser –
- Arte Johnson –
- Zale Kessler –
- Maurice LaMarche –
- Michael Lemback –
- Aaron Lohr –
- Laurence Luckinbill –
- Danny Mann –
- Kenneth Mars –
- Kellie Martin –
- Nan Martin –
- Chuck McCann –
- Don Messick – King Crutsiz
- Brian Stokes Mitchell –
- Howard Morris –
- Lorenzo Music –
- Alan Oppenheimer –
- Rob Paulsen –
- Henry Polic II –
- Roger Rose –
- Neil Ross –
- Ronnie Schell –
- Avery Schreiber –
- Susan Silo –
- John Stephenson –
- Howard Stevens –
- Andre Stojka –
- Russi Taylor –
- Susan Tolsky –
- B.J. Ward –
- Jimmy Weldon –
- Frank Welker –
- Edward Winter –
[edit] External links
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Categories:
- The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera
- 1980s British television series
- 1990s British television series
- S4C television programmes
- 1988 British television programme debuts
- 1990 British television programme endings
- Fictional anthropomorphic characters
- Child characters in television
- Sentient toys in fiction
- BBC children's television programmes
