The first time I watched John Rambo was in the animated series Rambo: The Force of Freedom which I enjoyed watching on VHS as a child. Only in the 80's would you have a cartoon spin off for kids from a violent action movie for adults. In this case, Rambo: The Force of Freedom was a spin off from the Sylvester Stallone action blockbusters First Blood (1982) and Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) which I didn't know back then as an innocent 7 year old until I started watching the movies a few years later.
In this animated series, John Rambo was part of a Special Forces unit called "The Force of Freedom." The unit was led by Colonel Trautman and the other team members included Turbo who was a mechanical genius and race car driver, and K. A. T. Who was proficient in disguises as well as gymnastics and martial arts. The unit would go on missions around the globe and battle a paramilitary terrorist organization named S. A. V. A. G. E. (Specialist-Administrators of Vengeance, Anarchy and Global Extortion) led by the main villain Colonel Warhawk and Sergeant Havoc as his second in command.
The films depict John Rambo as a troubled Vietnam Veteran suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder following events from the Vietnam War while in the US Army. Having difficulty adjusting to the civilian world, Rambo later returns to the life he swore to leave behind and becomes a one man killing machine armed with a wide variety of weapons including rifles, machine guns, explosives, knives and a bow and arrow as well as displaying a high proficiency in hand to hand combat. The cartoon however, has moulded him into a heroic wisecracking superhuman who outwits the bad guys and uses violence as a last resort. The cartoon is also notable for its family friendly "no killing" rule, and made no references to the events in the first two movies. There was also no mention of anything relating to the Vietnam War.
The late Jerry Goldsmith, the composer of the Rambo movies was also composer for the cartoon. Rambo: The Force of Freedom only ran for one season in 1986 before being cancelled. The animated series also spawned a successful toy line.
Rambo: The Force of Freedom was another memorable cartoon from my childhood. My brother and I both enjoyed the animated series as children when we hired them out on VHS. We would later go on to enjoy the original Rambo trilogy with Sylvester Stallone in his prime. As awesome as the Rambo movies are, I still have fond memories of the animated series.
7/10.
