Unaired Cartoon Pilots: The Good, The Bad, and the Hackneyed Ass Title

Okay folks, I'm taking a break from comic reviews. I've gotten to a point where I feel like I'm just repeating myself week in and week out, so instead I'm going to make blog posts about other stuff. Today, I've decided to blog about some unaired cartoon pilots. Cartoons are something that have been a part of my life for about as long as I can remember. At no point have I ever not watched them and I don't think that'll ever change.

Of course for every cartoon I've ever watched, there has got to be another 10 or 20 that never made it on air. They had one episode produced that never saw the light of day. Sometimes these cartoons were terrible, but sometimes not. So let's take a look at these unaired toons and wonder what could have been.

Plastic Man

Plastic Man here is one of those little gems that should've made it on the air, but didn't. It was funny, it looked fantastic, and kids and adults alike could totally get into this. Best of all is that, unless my ears deceive me, Plastic Man seems to share the same voice actor as his counterpart from "Batman: Brave and the Bold". Sadly, this is all we'll ever have of this fantastic little show and I can't tell you just how sad that makes me, especially when you look at all the horrible stuff that have multiple seasons.

Doozy Bots

Of course, for every awesome pilot, there are 20 awful ones. Doozy Bots here is a pilot for a proposed 90's cartoon of the same name. Now, if you didn't make it past the first 10 seconds, I don't blame you; this is a hilariously bad attempt at bringing the Gundam mechs over seas. Hands down the best part of it all is that the crippled kid is the one who becomes Guntank, the one who has tank treads for feet. Oh, and he's also the obligatory minority, how classy. Mind you, the little bad guys here aren't too bad; hell, they're damn reminiscent of any SD Gundam badguys I've ever seen. Still, the crowning moment of this pilot is when the narrator describes it all as "beautifully animated". To think, somewhere out there is an alternate reality where Doozy Bots got green lit and now has a very fanatical fan community.

Constant Payne

Constant Payne here is a really awesome pilot that has one of the coolest opening sequences that I've ever seen. It's a damn shame that this one didn't make it on the air because it would've been amazing. Still, it's easy to see why it didn't make it on; the pilot was from early 2001 and it has a sequence where the hero's little airship narrowly avoids crashing into two very identical looking towers. Thanks again, Osama. But seriously, this series had all the makings of one of this past decade's greatest shows, or at least a cult hit that only a handful of us would remember. There's the story of the two brothers, the young daughter that perverts on the internet could pine over, and just an all around fantastic setting with this fantastic future where everyone flies airships. Sadly, we'll never know.

Sailor Moon

Okay, I know what you're thinking: "But Piggy, Sailor Moon did air on TV!" Well, if you'd just watch this video, you'd know that there was a pilot to make an original western version of the anime, with some live action mixed in for added effect. And like it's horrible brother "Doozy Bots" this series has a crippled sailor scout who fires lasers from her wheelchair. Of course, unlike Doozy Bots, I'm not sure this not happening wouldn't be for the best: Sailor Moon fandom (if it's anything like DBZ fandom) has a ton friction between fans of the dub and the original Japanese version as they stand right now. I don't see how having two entirely different products would make things any worse.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Animated Series

Finally, We've got Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Animated Series. This one I'm split on; on the one hand, I've always wanted to get into Buffy and this looks like it would've been the perfect catalyst to get me hooked. On the other hand, some of those jokes were very lame. But none-the-less, I'm sure many a Whedonite is very sad that they didn't get to have their favorite Vampire Slayer animated. There's so many cool places and animated Buffy show can go that I'm sure this could've led to some really awesome stuff.

So there you have it, five different pilots for five different cartoons. Some of these were really great ideas that could've been some of the most memorable toons of their respective generation. The other two would've been hilariously bad and possibly reviled by the fandoms of the series they were based on. Either way, they never made it on air and we'll never know what could have been.

That's if for now, but I'm thinking of putting together a "Favorite Things of the Year" list. Might just do one big post or several smaller posts, but either way I want to put it together. It's not a best of, mind you, just the comics, cartoons, movies, video games, etc. I enjoyed the most from this year. Until the