Out of the three segments that made up The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series in 1962, Wally Gator was clearly meant to be the breakout star of the show. Wally followed the template set by Yogi Bear in that he was almost perpetually in direct conflict with an authority figure, in this case, the pint-sized Mr. Twiddle, the zookeeper. Yes, despite the open that had Wally in his natural habitat, he was actually living in a zoo, and frequently escaped its confines to do some exploring, a ream later used by the Hair Bear Bunch nearly a decade later.
Here's the intro everyone knows:
Wally would eventually hook up with Yogi on Yogi's Gang in the 70's, and took part in Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics, once more aligned with Yogi. Aside from a Cartoon Network short done on the cheap a few years ago, there hasn't been any new material for Wally since then. Maybe the fact that there've been some horror movies about alligators since those peak years might have something to do with that.
Rating: B.
2 comments:
Like Touche Turtle, I'd never seen Wally Gator until he turned up on "Yogi's Ark Lark". I certainly never saw the opening credits either until it turned up on Boomerang. True, the theme song was catchy - back then, they had to be!
I do have a fond memory of one WG short that turned up on a Spanish channel once in NY. My mom (who picked up some Spanish from her sister in law) found herself translating an episode for me!
A number of shorts, translated into Spanish, have found their way to YouTube. I'd prefer to find the original English language versions, to be honest with you.
Post a Comment