Funny, I don't remember seeing this 'un when I was a kid. I guess that it either didn't play the local market or (better yet) it appeared on the screen during one of the more traumatic periods in my life (mainly first grade) and I certainly don't wanna remember it! That was a time when a whole lotta things were shuffled right into the ol' unconscious because of the evil memories associated with those days or (better yet) because the kids who tormented me undoubtedly loved the program and I didn't want to be associated with it in any way/shape/form due to it. Probably the latter, because I couldn't stand listening to Tommy James' "Hanky Panky" for years because these same kiddoids would run up and hit me hard before singing that one-time hit as a taunt of sorts, and when you're a single-digit suburban turdball it's sure hard getting seemingly minuscule things like that out of your system.
But hey, I managed to grow to enjoy not only "Hanky Panky" but Tommy James with or without the Shondells over the years so why not SINBAD JR., even if I might never have heard of the bastard before Bill Shute sent me this double-Cee-Dee collection with the hope that I enjoy the dickens outta the thing. And enjoy these cartoons I most certainly did now that Boomerang has gone the TV Land route and wouldn't dare run any of these obscurities from the Hanna-Barbera vaults like the might have been wont to do even a good decade or so back. That was when the fambly first got satellite tee-vee and at least for a few short years alla them old classic fifties/sixties series were making their way to my screen for the first time since their original run when the only thing that kept me from being front and center for such shows was mom being too slow on the draw to wipe me!
Custom-made for the afternoon local kiddie show time slot, SINBAD JR. consisted of eightysome five-minute 'toons featuring the recently-axed JONNY QUEST voice himself Tim Mathieson as the title character, a adolescent version of the famed sailor who willy-nillily travels around the world with his parrot sidekick Salty, aptly portrayed by Mel Blanc doing one of his FLINTSTONES kitchen appliance (the can opener I believe) voices. Thanks to his magic belt, Junior can gain instant strength by tightening it and instantly growing a he-man body and various super powers, that is after taking a licking by a bevy of regular badguys like Rotcoddam and such if only to make the stories a tad more interesting and hey, you have to do something to pad out these one-minute plots now, don't you?
Gotta say that I thought alla these 'toons were good enough in that ranch house UHF suburban slob sorta way, what with that patented mid-sixties Hanna-Barbera animation (way cheaper'n QUEST but so what!), adventurous plots and of course the same JONNY QUEST music that I thought was so cool 'n jazzy during my kindergarten days. Quite sophisticated next to today's standards in fact...I mean, I can't see any kids (do they still have those?) appreciating these stories whether it be plot-wise or within the realm of what heroism used to mean before the do-gooders and other social planners decided to turn those truly golden years into day in and day out indoctrination hell bent on making everyone think like Dave Berg.
Face it, you just don't see plots like these (let alone ranch house kiddie morals) prevailing on Hello Kitty cartoons, not that today's breed o' turdler is apt enough to notice or care.
But if you like your cartoons lowbrow and a snug fit inside the BARNEY BEAN SHOW of your mind you can't go wrong with SINBAD JR. Might be worth a grey area search if only to fulfill some hidden kiddoid missing jigsaw piece in your mind because hey, it was stuff like this from your childhood that certainly made more sense'n those Walt Disney wildlife pictures your parents were always pushing on you!
Glad you enjoyed it--I thought you would! When this is remembered, if it's remembered at all, it's due to its being the ONLY collaboration between Hanna-Barbera and American International!
ReplyDeleteWhen I do stumble across something like this, I realize how lonely it is to have our kind of taste. My family and local friends would not be interested...but at least you and BTC are out there, a beacon of taste and sanity in a tasteless and insane world!
Hey, I'm one of them...I remember Sinbad as a kid on KVOS-TV Bellingham,Wa.It was one of the features on a 1/2 hr. cartoon show that played before and after school.So I got a double dose of a cartoon I didn't care much for!..haha.I was more of a King and Odie fan...aah the 60s.
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