Popples

A classic 1980s cartoon with a lot of charm, I remember watching this cartoon when I was a kid, now I'm 36 and still like it, they don't make animation like this anymore, this was when cartoons were hand drawn.

"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).

Other than this show worked on two levels in my family back in the '80s-early '90s: the greatest thing on earth, and pure torture. I thought it was the greatest thing on earth, and the rest of my family thought it was pure torture (especially my brothers).

I can't quite put my finger on why I loved this cartoon so much. I still think the dolls are just plain awesome (still have some!), but there really wasn't a lot to this show. I remember renting the videos over... and over... and over. I did the same thing with the Peanuts specials (but at least my family was able to tolerate those, with the exception of 'Flashbeagle'. And they were actually memorable, cute, and worthwhile). Yes, I was one of those kids who just had to rent/watch a movie or cartoon more than humanly possible.

My favorite of these videos was the 'Funhouse Follies' one. The 'Popples' cartoon is so cheesy it truly must be seen to believe, and this video had some of the cheesiest ones. It's also the video that has that live action/puppets prequel to the show. I remember loving that for the song that the Popples sang ("Every time you kick your heels... see how good it really feels..." "Life is full of big surprises... coming at you in disguises... so get ready, hold on steady... open up your eyes!"). I think Shelly Duvall (who did 'Fairy Tale Theatre') created that live action thing.

But I must thank my brothers who had to put up with this show so, so many times, when I knew even then that they'd rather have had needles shoved into their eyes.

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!

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.