Battletoads (1992, Television)

Format: Television (internet streaming through YouTube)
Director: Kent Butterworth
Network: Syndicated
Airdate: November 1992
Runtime: 22 minutes

Battletoads was a relatively popular video game released for the NES back in 1991. It was followed by a few sequels but after the 1990s the series just kind of faded away. In concept it was often looked at as a ripoff of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and in many ways it was. However, it was the solid gameplay that has given it the longevity that it has. Back in 1992 DIC Entertainment produced an animated television pilot of Battletoads with the intention of it being turned into a full cartoon series. The series never ended up getting picked up but I thought it would still be fun to give this pilot a look.

The story is a prequel to the original game. Out in space the princess Angelica and her bird friend named Professor T. Bird are in trouble from the evil Dark Queen and her minions. With no one else to turn to the T. Bird decides that he must use the special Battletoads formula to create warriors. In ancient times the Battletoads would protect the princess and the kingdom from threats far and wide. In the town of Oxnard, California three middle school students are considered very geeky among their peers. Suddenly T. Bird and Angelica teleport to them and after a discussion they agree to become the Battletoads. Now they have super powers, turn into toads, and have the ability to change back and forth at will. From there the Dark Queen appears and a lot of fighting ensues.

I see no contradictions between the episode and the games. They fit together just fine. The idea of having three preteen boys in the real world was clearly done to give viewers something to identify with. However, having anything from the "real world" feels out of place in the world of the Battletoads as no references to any of this are made in the games themselves. Either way, I notice many references to the NES game, whether it be some of the characters or even the large spinning platform that the toads have to jump their way up. One thing that did surprise me is that the boys almost immediately reveal their identity to everyone. This show seems to make no attempt at them having secret identities and it makes me wonder how that would have gone down had the show continued.

The episode feels a lot like a typical Saturday morning cartoon of the 1980s or early 1990s. Particularly the fact that you have your intelligent and competent villain (the Dark Queen) who always loses, and a lot of unintelligent and dumb henchmen who always fail at their jobs. The show in particular feels a lot like the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show that was running at the time. The characters act and sound very similar and the writer from that series even wrote this pilot.

This episode can be fun to watch today if you are a fan of the original games or cartoons from this time period. It is unfortunate that this wasn't picked up to series as it looks like a show that would have been at least somewhat decent. It gets bashed pretty hard nowadays but I think it had potential (particularly if the main preteens were less obnoxious). The writing and some of the voice acting is pretty cheesy so be prepared for that when going in. If you are looking to watch the episode it doesn't have any form of DVD release. It was only released on VHS, at least that is until 2014 when Retro Gaming Shows (now known as WildBrain Super Heroes), the current rights owners of DIC Entertainment's old shows, posted the episode on their YouTube page. This is a much better transfer than what we saw on VHS although it would have been nice if this was included as a bonus on something like Rare Replay for Xbox One. Oh well.