Filmation

Filmation was a company that produced cartoons for television during the later half of the 20th Century. During a period lasting from the 1960s through the 1980s, the only real competitor to Hanna-Barbera Productions in the field of TV cartoons were Filmation and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises[?].

Filmation has a (suitably deserved) reputation for exploiting the technique of limited animation to produce a number of animated series with a distinct look: a heavy use of rotoscoping[?] and they re-used the same animated sequences over and over, many times, to the point where the Filmation style was instantly recognizable (and often despised by TV critics and animation scholars). As with other producers of Saturday morning cartoons, Filmation produced a number of series that were so poor quality as to be nearly unwatchable (such as the Groovie Goolies series); however, they did make a number of attempts to rise above the standard animated fare and produce reasonably well-written cartoons. The best-known example of this is their animated adaptation of the Star Trek series, which included scripts contributed by well-known science fiction writers and starred most of the original cast. Other favorably remembered Filmation series included a 16-part animated serial of Flash Gordon and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids[?], an animated educational series which starred and was produced by Bill Cosby.

Notable TV animated series from Filmation included:

1960s

• Batman/Superman Adventure Hour
• Fantastic Voyage
• Journey to the Center of the Earth

1970s

• The Archies
• Star Trek: The Animated Series
• Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids[?]
• Shazam! and Isis (Live-action TV series)
• New Adventures of Batman
• Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle
• Ark II, Space Academy and Jason of Star Command (Live-action TV series)

1980s

• Flash Gordon
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

External Link

Filmation Fan Page (http://lavender.fortunecity.com/clockwork/616/)