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French anime, while uncommon, are responsible for some of the best animated series ever made. They may not be as well-known as their Japanese counterparts, but French anime still has a lasting legacy that goes strong to this day. Not all of these series have gained as much notoriety as they deserve. But the ones that have are a staple of modern animated television.

French anime have esthetics that are uniquely different from American cartoons or Japanese anime. They experiment with the medium in ways most rarely think about. Most French anime may be inspired by Japanese titles, but handle their characters and stories in a way that is distinct to their culture. It's important to look back on the different styles that anime can be adapted to.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold (2012) Continues the Legacy of An 80s Classic Streaming on Sbs

The 2012 version of TheMysterious Cities of Gold...

Superprod Animation Moves Into Tween Fare With ‘Heroic Football’

French animation studio Superprod has announced new series Heroic Football, set against a fantasy land in which soccer is its only salvation. The project brings together a host of French animation talent including writers Guillaume Mautalent and Sébastien Oursel (Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia). They are joined by Antoine Charreyron, who directed Batwheels, produced at Superprod Animation for Warner Bros Animation, as well as the movie The Prodigies and cult-animated series Galactik Football. Art director Florent Auguy is also attached. Superprod will present the 26 x 22 minutes series at Cartoon Forum 2023 in Toulouse on September 20. The series marks the company’s first foray into animation aimed at the tween demographic. “Each project we undertake is a chance to delve into fresh realms. With Heroic Football,...

From Marine Boy and Thundercats to Cities Of Gold and Akira, we look at the TV shows and movies that introduced the UK to Japanese anime

One evening in 1994, the BBC screened a documentary simply called Manga. Presented by Jonathan Ross, it showcased the rising popularity of Japanese animation, largely focusing on the output of Manga Entertainment, whose dubbed VHS releases had made a huge impact on anime fans and caused a certain amount of consternation among the mainstream press.

For British viewers, the anime boom took a long time to arrive. In America, Japanese shows like Kimba The White Lion, Gigantor and Astro Boy were a common sight on television in the 1960s, yet it took until the late 70s and 80s, and a string of European-Japanese co-productions, before anime finally began to find a hold on UK television.

As a youngster at the time, I didn't necessarily know...

"Hannah Montana" actress Emily Osment has revealed that she's set to voice Rainbow Brite in a new animated series based on the classic 1980s Hallmark cards line and subsequent TV series.

The story follows a little girl named Wisp who is brought to a colorless land and must find the Sphere of Light to return color to this world. Along the way she befriends a sprite named Twink, and a white horse named Starlite.

She finds the Color Belt and rescues the 7 Color Kids. After using the belt to defeat the King of Shadows, Wisp is renamed Rainbow Brite and she and the Color Kids live together in Rainbow Land where they are in charge of all the colors in the universe.

Osment, whose previous voice work includes "Family Guy" and two "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" sequels, announced her joining the project through an Instagram post. The surprise wasn't so much the casting,...

There were some fantastic children’s television shows in the 1980s. Those of us who grew up in that era will often tell you that the equivalent scene today just isn’t the same – and, while everyone can say that about their own era, it really is true in this case.

One thing in particular was extremely memorable about the shows in question back in those days – the theme tunes.

We really were spoiled for choice for things to watch – to the extent that the memorable theme tunes to the likes of The Mysterious Cities of Gold, Dungeons and Dragons, Jimbo and the Jet Set, SuperTed, Bananaman, Knightmare, Transformers, Pugwall, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors and Jem (and many more) actually miss out on this list! Controversial? You can let us know later.

The criteria for this list is that the show must have originated in the 1980s – whether that...

News Simon Brew 30 Oct 2013 - 08:15

The UK debut of The Mysterious Cities Of Gold season 2 is but a week or two away. Story includes theme tune, natch.

It's been a while now since we were first alerted to the existence of a follow-up to one of our favourite television programmes of the 1980s. We're talking about The Mysterious Cities Of Gold, which we looked at in more detail here. And before we go any further, we clearly need to bring you the magical theme tune...

Job done. Anyway, The Mysterious Cities Of Gold's belated second season will pick up the adventures of Tau, Zia and Esteban, and it's now got its UK premiere date. It'll start screening from November 9th on the Kix channel. That's a children's television channel that you'll find deep in the recesses of your Epg. You need channel 606 on Freesat, or 627 on Sky. It'll be worth the hunt.

Feature Ryan Lambie 13 Sep 2013 - 06:53

It's Crowdfunding Friday, which this week features a Cities Of Gold game, a Doctor Who poetry book and a Magic: The Gathering documentary...

On my travels through the world's crowdfunding websites this week, I found an IndieGoGo campaign from a person wanting to raise the money to then fund another project over on Kickstarter. If someone set up a project to help fund the project set up to fund the other project, would the universe implode?

Anyway, this week's selection of geek-friendly projects contains a broad spread of nostalgia, gaming, documentary filmmaking and sci-fi poetry. Beware, too, that one of the pitch videos below contains a ferociously catchy theme tune. If you're over the age of 25 or so, you can probably guess which one it is.

Beyond The Donut

Here's a short film that aims to tell a story about love, life and death,...

News Simon Brew 5 Sep 2013 - 07:15

The mighty Benedict Cumberbatch has been linked with another film project - this one's not got spaceships in it, either...

This week's Benedict Cumberbatch casting story had centred on whether he would or wouldn't be appearing in the new Star Wars film, that Jj Abrams is directing. The latest on that is that his representative has denied his involvement.

News now reaches us though of another project that he's potentially signing up for. It's an adaptation of David Grann's book The Lost City Of Z, a non-fiction title that was published back in 2009.

It follows a man called Fawcett - the role that Cumberbatch is being linked with - who headed into the Amazon back in 1925 on the hunt for an ancient civilization. Having clearly not watched the animated classic The Mysterious Cities Of Gold (it was 1925, in his defence), Fawcett went on...

"There's no point in being grown-up if you can't be childish sometimes," Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor once said - and it would appear that the vast majority of you lot agree.

Online media outlet LoveFilm has just reported a massive surge in popularity for classic animated series - we're talking '80s and '90s vintage here - on its online streaming service - the likes of The Real Ghostbusters (1986-1991), X-Men (1992-1997) and He-Man: Masters of the Universe (1983-1988) have all leapt up the charts.

> Super Mario, X-Men lead '80s, '90s animated revival on LoveFilm

This week's Week in Geek is all about paying tribute to those classic kids' cartoons of yesteryear - the kind of animated gems you just don't get on telly anymore. So pop on your rose-tinted spectacles and prepare to take a warm dip in a bath full of nostalgia juice...

> Week in Geek - Hulk,...

Kids TV classic Danger Mouse could potentially be getting a reboot for the Twitter generation. Good grief Penfold!

The news has had the Digital Spy office chatting all day about our own favourite kids TV classics from the '80s and '90s from the silliness of Fun House and Bananaman to the action of Defenders of the Earth and Dungeons & Dragons.

From the japes of Count Duckula and Defenders of the Earth to the teen angst of Saved By The Bell and California Dreams, we've been talking wistfully about the days of vintage children's telly when '80s power ballad theme tunes, gunge tanks and Pat Sharp's mullet were all acceptable entertainment.

But we want to know, what were your all-time favourite kids TV classics? What show would you most like to get a reboot? We've picked out five suggestions below, let us know your own at the bottom of the page.

Kids TV classic Danger Mouse could potentially be getting a reboot for the Twitter generation. Good grief Penfold!

The news has had the Digital Spy office chatting all day about our own favourite kids TV classics from the '80s and '90s from the silliness of Fun House and Bananaman to the action of Defenders of the Earth and Dungeons & Dragons.

From the japes of Count Duckula and Defenders of the Earth to the teen angst of Saved By The Bell and California Dreams, we've been talking wistfully about the days of vintage children's telly when '80s power ballad theme tunes, gunge tanks and Pat Sharp's mullet were all acceptable entertainment.

But we want to know, what were your all-time favourite kids TV classics? What show would you most like to get a reboot? We've picked out five suggestions below, let us know your own at the bottom of the page.

Welcome back to our weekly look at the new podcasts available at our “partners in podcast crime” the GeekCast Radio Network. As usual here’s our weekly look at the podcasts from Gcrn, This Week in Geek and the latest toy review videos from Baltmatrix, with descriptions and links to each and every podcast for your audio/visual pleasure!

M.A.S.K.E.D. M.A.Y.H.E.M. – Episode 12

This week we have a Blackout, and then we discover a Matter of Gravity. All in the latest exciting episode of M.A.S.K.E.D. M.A.Y.H.E.M.

TeamBotimus Variety Hour – Episode 28

A New Direction Starts now, and Tbvh will be rebranded soon! This week Optibotimus, TFG1Mike, and SlimeBlower Bob review the latest episodes of Collection Intervention and Toy Hunter.

ToonCast Beyond – Episode 40 – Delorean Time – Mysterious Cities Of Gold

We jump in...

After 30 years 'The Mysterious Cities of Gold' one of flicks news childhood favorite cartoons will be getting its long over due second season. A short clip is below in french showing off the new animation and there's also a facebook page in french.with updates and pictures.

 Now if only we can get a new season to 'Ulysses 31' life would be perfect.

Les mystérieuses cités d'or - Trailer (2012) Vidéo TF1 sélectionnée dans Replay TV...

As Studio Ghibli’s Laputa: Castle In The Sky makes its debut on Blu-ray, Ryan takes a look back at this timeless animated feature…

In 1984, Hayao Miyazaki, one of Japan’s greatest living animators took a journey to a Welsh mining village. There, he saw first hand the last days of a dying industry, and of the effect its collapse had on the village and its inhabitants.

At the time, Studio Ghibli, the animation house that would soon make Miyazaki famous all over the world, hadn’t yet been established. His first animated feature, Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi filled with extraordinary creatures, aircraft and architecture, had been a critical and financial success that same year, and Miyazaki was looking around for an idea that could serve as a worthy follow-up. His trip to Wales provided a huge wellspring of inspiration.

The resulting film, Laputa: Castle In The Sky,...

As the sad passing of Perfect Blue director Satoshi Kon is announced and the La Times reports on the decline of anime, Ryan asks, what next for the Japanese animation industry?

There was a time when Japan's remarkable animation industry was almost unknown in the west. In the 70s and early 80s, quirky shows such as Marine Boy and Battle Of The Planets (a sanitised, heavily edited localisation of the considerably more violent Space Science Team Gatchaman) were the only morsels of the country's vibrant and imaginative anime scene.

As the 1980s drew to a close, however, awareness of Japanese animation steadily grew in western consciousness. As a UK resident, my fascination with anime began with the BBC's airing of The Mysterious Cities Of Gold and Ulysses 31, whose distinctive character designs were immediately distinguishable from the other children's fodder clogging up late-80s television schedules.

Then came Streamline Pictures' video release of Akira,...

 Les Mystérieuses Cités d'Or (The Mysterious Cities of Gold) was a Japanese-French animated series from 1982. It depicted the journey of Esteban, Zia and Tao in search for the Mysterious Cities of Gold. The show starts in spain in the XVI Century and spreads its story across the Atlantic Ocean, Amazonia and ends up in the heart of the Maya and Incan Empire.

Over the journey they find amazing machines such as the Solaris, a solar powered mechanical boat, and the famous Condor... A solar powered plane in the shame of a condor...

 

A beautiful show... You should really see it if you have the chance. 

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