This Ultimate ’80s Cartoon Heroes Tribute Is Phenomenal!

Friends, last week a former writer and very good friend of the Retroist as well as to myself was kind enough to share this phenomenal fan made tribute video to the legion of cartoon heroes we enjoyed on television throughout the ’80s. And make no mistake about it, there are so very many characters to celebrate – even if some are better remembered like Jerrica “Jem” Benton and her friends from the Jem show over say Commander Dirk Courage and his allies showcased in the Spiral Zone animated series. This isn’t just a mash-up of classic animated shows though like The Visionaries, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, G.I. Joe, The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, or Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors – the reason this ’80s cartoon heroes tribute shines is thanks to the inclusion of Bonnie Tyler’s Holding Out for a Hero from the 1984 film Footloose.

Of course the creator of this ’80s cartoon heroes tribute should be given ample credit for matching up many of the animated sequences with Tyler’s wonderful tune. While I cannot say that I was fortunate enough to have seen every one of the animated series showcased back in the day with this fan made video – being a huge fan of animation in general I have long since corrected that mistake. And while we are being honest I will admit that a lot of the Saturday morning and weekday afternoon cartoons featured less than stellar animation or were basically nearly half hour commercials for toys and video games – however they generally shined in regards to the stories being told. Folks like Mark Evanier, Buzz Dixon, Paul Dini, J. Michael Straczynski, David Wise, Francis Moss, and the vast number of other writers and voice artists are why some of these shows are so fondly remembered today.

In closing out this article, I would be very interested to hear if you think there were some heroes who were left out of this particular ’80s cartoon heroes tribute.