Popples

These are the cutest videos! They're so much fun! Who cares if they're shallow and have no plot? THEY'RE FOR LITTLE KIDS! I loved them as a kid and I love them now! I think you should at least rent them, not necessarily buy them, but give them a try!

"Popples" was one of many syndicated cartoon shows that quickly came and went in the mid-1980s. It was about the misadventures of a bunch of furry creatures who could turn themselves into bouncing balls whenever necessary.

Honestly, I don't remember much else about the show, other than that the popples were in different colors and they each had different personalities (sort of). I do remember owning an orange Popples doll when I was a little kid (I think it was Puzzle Popple, but I'm really not sure). I used to take that doll almost everywhere I went, and since it was very light (and could be folded into a tight ball), it was easy to do so.

In my opinion, the cartoon show was rather ordinary, while the dolls were really fun toys (perhaps one of the most underrated toys to come out of the 1980s).

After watching the videocassette ("Funhouse Follies and Other Stories") of this series that I purchased for very cheap at a local video store, I realised why this was such a minor player in the annals of 80's toy cartoons. There's not much to it. Kids befriend kawii marsupials who get into mischief and eventually everything is sorted out before mom and dad notice. Simplicity itself. Aside from that it isn't very interesting. The video I happen to have, however, was well worth the $3.00 for the supplementary live action/puppetry prequal. It is the cheesiest thing in America. It's worth checking out if you can find it. The dialogue is classic. All I have to say is, quoting the dad, "We just traumatised the kids by giving away a box of their imaginary friends to Goodwill". Speaking of Goodwill, it gets mentioned a lot in the prequal, so I'm guessing that this was meant to be some way to get kids to give to their local thrift store. If that is so, the writers definately went the long way to get the message across. Odd.

This show, which showed a bunch of cute little furballs popping out of balls, and getting into mischeif. It's been awhile since I last saw this, but just like most cartoons of the time, it was just simply cute. But what I found interesting, was there were no villans involved, but still held a resonable audience. Right up there, with, The Care Bears, and the Smurfs, ads the cutest cartoons of the 80's. There was also a live action Popples episode, as well as the cartoon series I fondly remember, featuring a live boonie and billy, and of course, those cute popples. I wish I had tapes of this show, if I did I would defintely let my children it. I'll always cherish shows such as these.

I had never heard of popples or this show when I was a kid. Thinking real hard about it I might have had one of the toys though, not knowing what it was called, but I'm not quite sure. Anyhow after recently watching a few eps I was reminded vaguely of the "care bears" cartoon. But while I really liked the DIC care bears I did not like this at all. Considering that they had the same style of animation, company - American greetings and the same aim - be cute and sell toys. Yet in the absence of a villain or any lessons to be learned for that matter it was nothing but one long bore. The live action prequel was halfway decent but even it was way too cheesy too me.