8mm Forum: The Mighty Heros!! "The Big Freeze" Terrytoons

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on September 09, 2016, 12:16 PM:

I take great pleasure in doing this review of a super 8 print as, it is not often that I run into a great curiosity that I can’t solve and when it comes to animated films, it’s twice the pleasure.

The animated film in this case is “The Mighty Hero’s in ... The Big Freeze”

Just who are the “Mighty Hero’s?

This was an animated cartoon series that ran from 1966-68 by the Terrytoon company (responsible for the original “Mighty Mouse” and “Heckle and Jeckle” cartoons), and this series holds an important distinction as it is the first cartoons produced by the modern era animation director, Ralph Bakshi, who’s output of the 70’s and 80’s is among the best in animated features, being responsible for “Fritz The Cat”, as well as “Heavy Traffic”, “Coonskin”, “American Pop” and “Cool World”.

This was the first time Bakshi was given complete control over a series, (though having been around the studio since about 1957),and in fact, because of his great talent, he was made the main supervisor for the Terrytoon output at this time. In “The Mighty Hero’s”, we see a young Bakshi doing what he was famed for doing; taking a style of film or even a genre within film and standing it on it’s head. In other words, he made a superhero series that both did the superhero cartoon justice, but also stood it on it’s head and lampooned it, with such characters as “Rope Man”, “Tornado Man,” “Diaper Man,” “Cuckoo Man,” and well as the obvious “Strong Man,” among others.

These cartoons boasted vibrant design and has Bakshi’s characteristic strong "poses" that set these cartoons above the average Saturday morning tripe. There were a total of 21 episodes to this series and they are a beloved cartoon in my memory.

Now, imagine my happy surprise when I saw an auction for this “Mighty Hero” super 8 film. I had seen numerous super 8 prints of these cartoons, but they had always been fairly faded and just didn’t do the series justice, but this cartoon, even from the images on the auction, (taken from a movie viewer screen), were stellar. I had to have it, and no one bid on it besides myself. JOY!!

I knew the color would be fantastic, but I was awestruck by the quality of this print! Firstly, this print was made on L.P.P. film stock, so the great color isn’t unexpected, but the other qualities of the print are what truly astound me. I’ll explain …

Every Terrytoon I have ever run across, released by the official company who released Terrytoon cartoons, were very dupey, incredibly grainy and just looked terrible. on top of all of that, the film stocks were before the low fade age (in general) and were on quick fade Eastman film stock. Not this one!! There is literally no grain to the print. What grain does exist (as there is always film grain, of course) is miniscule. The other surprise is just how incredibly sharp the print is, and it was taken from a source that had literally no wear.

This all leads to the question … Just WHO put out this print?!! It was obviously taken from either the absolute best 16MM possible, or it was taken from an original pristine 35MM print! It was probably a source that was I.B. Tech, as the color looks like Techni-color … it’s that vibrant. Unfortunately, this print does not have it’s original film leader, so there is no way that I can trace as to who released this on super 8.

Therefore, I have a mystery, and I would LOVE to hear from you folks on the forum as to WHO just might have released this. Being that it is L.P.P. it has to be mid to late 1982 or later … but WHO?

I have to say, that this little 200ft reel is the best animated film print from a TV show, on super 8mm, that I have ever seen, and that is including the Columbia super 8 releases of the Flintstones and Jetsons, and that is saying a lot! The Flintstones and Jetsons cartoon, no matter how good the color looks, still have what I call that “60’s” cartoon color scheme. It just doesn’t pop your eyes out. This print looks like it was a 80’s cartoon, color-wise. All the copies of these films I have seen have looked terrible, even youtube videos, taken from VHS and DVD sources, just don’t look this good!

However, I am most pleased with this print and if you can find other prints of these great cartoons, from this unknown company, go for them … as they are most certainly rare!

… and, as always …

LONG LIVE SUPER 8!!!

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