​​Kids Stuff \ Cartoons

 

Dilbert
(placed on March 25 1999)
On the POTO mailinglist Jonathan wrote:
I didn't even know there was a Dilbert cartoon, and when I discover it, it's a Phantom episode. Call it fate. It was certainly amusing, but comparing our Erik to Bob Bastard is just a *tiny* bit of a stretch for me. For those who missed this little gem, Bob Bastard is a really nice, nerdy guy who is of course rejected by all women because he's so nice. He falls into a vat of acid and decides to wear a mask/helmet (imagine Phantom of the Paradise, but purple) and cape, and dedicate his life to being mean to everyone. Since he's now so bitter and cruel, all women find him irresistible and all men
praise and emulate him. There's even a pipe organ scene for good measure.

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Sailor Moon
(placed on Februari 8 1999)
Christi V wrote me:
One more thing.....ever watch the Japanise anime series Sailor Moon? My latest conspiracy theory is that the character Tuxedo Mask is actually Erik's long-lost geeky little brother......Which would explain why they both tend to wear dress-clothes and a long black cape and have a peculair rose
fetish......

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Casper
On the POTO mailinglist Steph wrote:
By the way, did anyone see the episode of 'Casper' where Fatso decided he wanted to be an opera singer? He started singing, "The Faaaaaaaaatso of the Opera is there..." I haven't seen it, but my friend told me about it, and it cracked me up!

On the POTO mailinglist Catt wrote:
I also saw the Casper spoof. It was pretty funny They did everything from Think of Me to MOTN only they rearranged the words to make it funny.

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 Animated Killer Tomatoes

On the POTO Mailinglist Catt wrote:
There are always jokes about POTO. I remember one when I was really little. It was when they showed Attack of the Killer Tomatos the cartoon series. I only caught the end of the cartoon but there was a tomato wearing a cape and a white mask playing the organ. A girl (a human girl) comes up behind him and pulls the mask off and instead of a scarred face there a tomato with crossed eyes and big buck teeth. Isn't that horrible?

Magic schoolbus show

Jennifer wrote:
I found another show that was phantom inspired. IT was one of those magic school bus shows on channel nine.  Well, for me it was.  THe kids get stranded and they go into a 'haunted' museum.  They think there is a ghost running around.  That part of the show has nothing to do with the Phantom.  At the end, when they talk about special inaccuracies or facts they did not mention previously on the show, they had the producer talking to someone.  In the background, Ms frizzle's lizard, Liz is playing a lizard sized organ and wearing a mask.  I just thought I'd mention that.
 

Quack Attack...

 Jessica wrote:
I just remembered a POTO Spoof on Quack Attack...Huey, the Duck Triplet in the red, thought he was getting braces so he'd win a contest for Mr. Cool Teen USA, but instead stumbled into a Mad Scientists' lab.  The Scientist, think Huey to be Agent Q, put a Massive Brain-Control Device on his head...  Huey, who discovers this, (And still thinks it's braces) hides in the sewers, and you can see him Playing the Organ, with a Cloak and a Paperbag over his head, for a while, and then his Family comes and takes off the paper bag, they recoil in horror... Etc. That's it.

 

Freakazoid

 Jennifer from "Owl & Mouse Educational Software" wrote:
I found MORE POTO based stuff.  I hadn't realized it before when I saw the episode, but when I saw it a second time I realized it was almost a spoof on the Phantom.  I was watching the show 'Freakazoid' when the episode came on.  The villain is not at all like the Phantom in personality, but in physical appearance he is.

He wears a robe with a cowl that hides the left half of his face.  He stays in the shadows and at one point in the show he was considering  pressing one of two buttons.  One said BLOW UP WORLD under it.  Also, when he is making a speech on his revenge he says that Freakazoid scarred his face permanently, the reason (duhhh....) for his revenge.  On the left side of his face it was covered with what looked like computer  hardware, like a giant micro chip and an eye patch he always wore even before he looked and acted (slightly) like the Phantom.

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Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles III

On the POTO mailinglist Karen wrote:
I was babysitting earlier today and the kids decided to watch Teenage Mutant Nija Turtles III.  Well, I was in and out quite a bit with the baby, but I did manage to be in the room towards the end.  The "turtles" were facing one the badguys when the other one (of course there are quite a few
important ones) comes out and one of the turtles (can't recall which one) yells out somthing to the effect of  "Hey look!  It's The Phantom of the Opera!"  I couldn't beleive it!  I started laughing and just couldn't stop.  I guess it just goes to show just how many people Phantom has really touched.
But still...Teenage Mutan Ninja Turtles?  ::cringe::

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Animated Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles

Jennifer from  "Owl & Mouse Educational Software"  wrote:
I agree that most people who try to include POTO in their shows have no idea of (at least I consider it to be something like this)'sacrilegious' mistakes they made.  I would just like tell you that even the animated 'Teenage mutant ninja turtles' had a phantom person.  Phantom robbed someone at he
Opera, there is a very big mess that involves the turtles saving the day, it is somehow a show for children that are three because in the end, phantom is not deformed, it's just paint from some accident and it washes right off.

On the POTO mailinglist Emryss wrote:
There's also a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles version... guy that lives in the sewers and haunts a theatre... turns out he had paint on his face or something and was all better once he took a bath!

 

Saved by the Bell
Andrew informed me:
There has been a save by the bell eposode when they have a Masquerade party and Zack id dressed as the phantom but his mask is like the one from the old movie, not half face one.

On the POTO mailing list Jenn wrote:
On Saved By The Bell, Zack dressed up as the Phantom for the Masquerade ball. (this was the season when they had that girl named Tori in the show and Kelly and Jessi weren't in the show)

On the POTO mailinglist Emryss wrote:
There was another SBTB where Kelly was dating an actor who was in a play version of Phantom... at the cast party they had the ALW Phantom masks as decorations everywhere. :)

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Lamb Chops
"ME" wrote on the POTO mailinglist:
I was home one day sick and I was watching none other than LAMB CHOPS :-).Anyway, they had a "scary" one and in it they went to a theatre which wassupposed to be haunted. Only they had a phantom. I thought "oh cool" and poped a tape in the VCR. But I didn't finish recording it because it was such a disgrace. The mask was horrible and the "Phantom" was sad because the kids in his neighborhood wouldn't play with him when he was a kid. He sang Lamb Chops to sleep and inpersonated people because he wanted to be in a play.

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Animaniacs

Christi V. wrote:
Anyway, here it is-several episodes of Animaniacs open with a prolouge describing how the Warner Brothers (and the Warner Sister) came into existence.  The prolouge is done in the fashion of an old Hollywood newsreel During the "Newsreel of the Stars" title sequence, if you look in the upper
left corner of the screen, you can see the unmasking scene (presumably from the silent film version of Phantom) is being played out.

Christi V.  also wrote:
1.) In the Animaniacs parody of ALW's musicals (episode title: "Dot's Entertainment"), I seem to recal that the actor playing the Phantom in the opening sequence is wearing the mask on the wrong side of his face.  I do know that Yakko has it right during the MOTN parody

On the POTO Mailinglist Carli wrote:
Animaniacs did a whole segment called "Andy Loud Webby presents the Cats of Phantom Boulevard!"  It's so great, and I happened to get it on video by accident.  The basic plot is that Andy (complete with a bowl hair cut and  wrinkled clothes) has just written a new show (the Cats of
Phantom Boulevard) it's opening night, and the cast (the Phantom, Norma Desmond and a Cat) get offended by ALW and leave him in a lurch.  So, he ends up choosing Dot Warner to be his leading lady.  Of course, Wakko and Yakko have to come along.  They change the show and it opens with "Dental Avenue." The next scene opens with Yakko as the Phantom, dressed in a mask and cape, in front of an organ singing his version of MOTN:

Snoring, boring, this play is confusing.
Lay back, way back, soon I will be snoozing.
Think I need a break, but this feeling I can't shake,
I guess I'll have to take a nap instead.

After that is a take off on "Memory" from Cats, called "Snacktime" by Wakko. The final scene is one from Evita, with Dot dressed as Eva, called "Don't Shout at Us, Mr. Webby."  The lyrics are absolutely hilarious!  The show ends, and the audience ends up loving the rewritten show, and Andy Loud Webby rejoices because he finally feels accepted on Broadway. Just thought I'd share this.  It really is so hysterical!

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Doug
Someone rememberd an epsiode of the nick toon, "Doug" That was about Doug geting a bad zip....He had this fantasy where he was playing the organ with a paper bag on his head and Patti(the girl he likes) come up behind him and rips the bag off. He's apranoid all week because he has to go to a party, then it turns out to be a coustume party, so since he's wearing a yux he goes as The Phantom (ALW W/ half Mask) Patti see the zip and barelt notices.

 

The Simpsons

(placed on Februari 8 1999)
Christi V wrote me:
This could just be me and the way I'm wired, but it seems to me that in the "Flaming Moe's" episode of The Simpsons, Homer seems to pull a Phantom of the Opera.  The evidence: near the end of the episode, Homer appears  on a catwalk above the stage in Moe's tavern, lit by pyrotechnics, laughing maniacally and with his bathrobe covering the right half of his face.  At the end of this scene, Homer makes like the chandelier and tumbles from the catwalk, landing on guest stars Aerosmith.  This makes even more sense when you consider that the basic plot of this episode (involving Moe stealing a drink invented by Homer) mirrors the plot of the 1943 and 1962 (63?) Phantom movies......

Christi V wrote:
I'm not sure of the title, but the Simpsons episode where Martin turns up as a Phantom character is the one where a fortune teller predict's Lisa's first love and botched wedding-a sort of "flash forward" to the Simpsons of the future.

Someone else was watching a Simpson's rerun and one of the minor characters was sitting at an organ in a basement or something, dressed as the phantom with mask, hat and cape. It was Martin Prince: a really smart guy that people didn't like because he acts weird and educated and stuff, and he parished in some kinda chemistry accident.

Kelly wrote me:
On a episode of the "Simpsons", Homer becomes the Springfield Isotopes' new mascot.  Later on, Homer climbs up where an old lady plays the organ and makes a request for a song.  Anyway, on the wall behind the organ among many other posters, there is the image of the Phantom's Mask from the original Broadway poster!
 

Scooby Doo
In an episode of The New Scooby Doo Movies was sort of Phantom. They were at a music hall and there was a phantom who later turned out to be created by bank robbers in disguise.

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Chip'n'Dales Rescue Rangers
In an episode of Chip'n'Dales Rescue Rangers they had a Phantom show. THe Chip'n'Dales were at an opera and the phantom was an alligator who lived in the sewer system under the opera house.

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Muppet Babies

On the POTO mailinglist Sheila wrote:
I was baby-sitting my sister the other day, and she was watching Muppet Babies.  I don't really remember what they muppets were doing, but apparantly, they thought that the Phantom was in their
basement...and every once in awhile, they would show clips of Lon Chaney's
Phantom.

Another reaction:
In a Muppet Babies episode the characters had their water turned off. The memory of the one who reported this is rather faint but she believes Gonzo became batman and tracked down the person who "stole" the water with his chicken Camilla as his faithful sidekick. Inside a great towering building Gonzo found the thieif......they then showed clips from an old Phantom film and it ended up being the Phantom who had "taken the water". The Muppet Babies tracked him down to the music of the Valkeries I believe. Miss Piggie was dressed up as a female viking as she and the others chased Erik in a wild attempt to get their water back.

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Beetleborgs
The is a Phantom inspired episode of "the Beetleborgs".The head Beetleborg presents Christine to the Phantom. The Phantom called her name, took her by the hand and led her to an organ (no that's not intended as a ribald joke). The pair eventually disappeared into a secret panel in the wall.. Kid shows, nonetheless.

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Wishbone
Yes there is also a episode of Wishbone. It's cute, but the acting is...well, less than perfect, and they sort of make Raoul the hero (who is of course, Wishbone). The other modern part of the show, with kids, was a modern reincarnation and done very badly.

 

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