Friday, February 29, 2008

New Kids on the Block: The Cartoon

I have a humiliating confession to make.

I was a HUGE New Kids on the Block fan.

Granted, I first got into them when I was in kindergarten and my obsession ended sometime in the second grade, but I'm still haunted by the memories to this day.

How big of a fan was I? Big enough to loyally watch their Saturday morning cartoon every week.

Even back then, I knew this cartoon was absolutely atrocious, but I was determined to be loyal to my beloved New Kids. I mostly watched for the interviews with the group at the beginning and the concert footage they showed at the end of each episode. I was beyond pissed when I learned that the guys didn't provide their own voices for their animated counterparts. And boy did the voice actors play up the Boston accents.

There are so many cheesetastic things about this cartoon that I don't know where to begin:

  • Of course, they just had to make Jon's dog into a damn animal sidekick. I'm just glad that he didn't talk. He probably would have had an exaggerated Boston accent too: "Lookit the fiah hydrant onnah cawnnah!"
  • Catch phrases ("Posse up!")
  • Disguises out the wazoo
  • Musical montages and more musical montages
  • Chase scenes
  • These horribly tacky borders would sporadically pop up and surround the screen. Worst visual effect ever.
  • The sound effects! They buuuuurn!


  • Here's a full episode, broken into three parts. Oh, and if you manage to make it to the end, you might notice that the ending credits ("Step by Step") sound uncannily similar to a certain other cartoon's closing theme song (EDIT: the first video I posted had the entire credits, but it was removed and this one only has a couple of seconds of it. If you want a more in-depth comparison, here's the original version of "Step by Step"). Hmm, I wonder which came first?





    2 comments:

    Pokey said...

    I hate to bear bad tidings, but if Pee-Wee Herman could get in trouble for doing something dirty in a adult movie house, then New Kids on the Block's lead's cigarette usage and playing with matches should have been done away with. I'm surprised that rap grousp didn't mind them using the N bomb - you know, the offense word for African Americans - and for being Poseurs. No offense, but I partly blame Michael Jackson'
    transition to being a controversial MTV star ["Thriller", the pedophilia characges,etc.] and the 1983 "Flashdance" flick and the Mr.T character, for what I've considered a lack of innocence [not to mention unfortauntely stripping away the so-called "Bubblegum" from bubblegum and popular music. ] IMO New Kids on the Block acted like macho rapper and thus have not aged well at all. I hated them saying they don't use drugs and then they drunka dn smoke. Thus we have all the wayward teen idols now..just an opinion :)

    I miss the Osmonds, Herman's Hermits, etc.

    ..."Airplane" & "Bette Davis Eyes" showed how truly great the eighties were, but sadly. NKOTB should how awful they were, and that was not due to the goody goody but that "too mature for their age and for that of their fans" "Posse up" attitude of the New Kids. I realize that "The Ed Sullivan Show" had long retired along with true all ages variety shows in 1971 [till American Idol] but it's just my two cents..

    Signed--
    Pokey, a horse that knows, from his Gumby show getting as crummy 1980s reboot, what that decade was like

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