{"id":10282,"date":"2013-08-23T00:01:16","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T00:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=10282"},"modified":"2013-08-18T22:43:29","modified_gmt":"2013-08-18T22:43:29","slug":"pac-man-and-the-ghostly-adventures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/23\/pac-man-and-the-ghostly-adventures\/","title":{"rendered":"Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TOON\"<\/a>Very few video game characters get their own cartoon show. And even fewer get multiple shows based on their electronic adventures. I think only Mario, Sonic, and Mega Man have pulled that last feat off, maybe Street Fighter if you count the anime toons. And now, Pac-Man has done the very same thing. All through this summer, the classic arcade dot and ghost muncher is starring in a brand new computer animated cartoon series called Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, airing on Disney XD. As a huge Pac-Man fan, you KNOW I\u2019d be writing about it sooner or later. So here it is!<\/p>\n

Old School Toonage<\/strong><\/p>\n

But this isn\u2019t Pac-Man\u2019s first cartoon. Did you know that in the early 80\u2019s, when Pac-Man was huge and super popular, Hanna Barbara produced a Pac-Man cartoon about the light hearted adventures of Pac-Man, his wife, baby and two pets, as they thwarted the ghost monsters\u2019 plans to steal the Power Pellet Forest and bring it back to their leader, Mezmeron. As most H-B cartoons of its time, the Pac-Man cartoon was very gag oriented. For a while, you could order both seasons of the old Pac-Man cartoon on DVD through the WB online store. And yes I have them. Not sure if you can get them there now anymore or not. Here is the intro song to the old cartoon:<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The 80\u2019s Pac-Man cartoon was a big hit. Chef Boy-Ar-Dee had Pac-Man canned pasta with a commercial based on the toon. Namco and Midway even made a 2-D platformer based on the toon characters and music called Pac-Land (which came out a full year before Super Mario Bros.). For a while, Six Flags Over Texas renamed their kiddie park Pac-Land, too! It\u2019s true! I went there as a kid! Here\u2019s the commercial for the Pac-Man pasta:<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

While I loved to watch the Pac-Man cartoon as a kid, I will admit that it was a pretty horrible cartoon. Awful writing, poor animation, and dopey plots abounded. But I liked the cartoon as a kid anyway because I didn\u2019t know any better. Plus we didn\u2019t have the Internet back then, so any way we could get our video game fix outside of arcades, we took! Of course, you really can\u2019t blame H-B too much for the old Pac-Man cartoon\u2019s quality issues. Like many other cartoons of the era, they were rushed for time to poop out so many episodes, and considering they had to make a cartoon out of a simple maze game, I think they did the best they could. And like many other H-B creations, while some of their cartoons may have been less than subpar, the voice work was fantastic. Especially in the second season when they introduced Super Pac-Man, voiced by the late Lorenzo Music, who is best known as the voice of Garfield.<\/p>\n

Why a New Pac-Toon?<\/strong><\/p>\n

So why make a new Pac-Man cartoon? Pac-Man\u2019s nowhere near as popular as he was in the early 80\u2019s. Or is he? Even though kids today can\u2019t play Pac-Man in arcades like they used to, Pac-Man is still a very accessible game. Like Angry Birds, you can find Pac-Man to download on any smartphone, tablet, computer, and all the game consoles, too. Sometimes even multiple times! And every kid I\u2019ve talked to knows what Pac-Man is and likes playing the game. Plus, the kids who played Pac-Man in the arcade originally are now old enough to have cartoon-watching kids of their own.<\/p>\n

The Pac-Plot Thickens<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures has a totally different plot than the old 80\u2019s cartoon, and Pac-Man as a character has been reworked, too. In the new toon, Pac-Man lives on a planet inhabited by other round Pac-People of all different colors. They have futuristic technology, including transport tubes, hovering cars, hologram newspapers, etc. Many years before Pac-Man was even born, the people of the Pac planet were in a great war. Betrayus was the leader of the group of bad guys who wanted to take over the planet (the people of the planet should\u2019ve known better to trust someone named Betrayus anyway). After a great war, Betrayus was finally defeated, and as punishment, he and his army were stripped of their physical bodies and forced to live as ghosts in the underworld. So basically they were killed and sent to Hell. But before they were able to do this to Betrayus, he wiped out all the yellow Pac-People on the planet, including Pac-Man\u2019s parents. But Pac-Man\u2019s aunt hid and raised Pac-Man, the last of the yellow Pac-People.<\/p>\n

Many years later, we find that Pac-Man is now a teen and goes to high school in kind of a boarding school setting (he lives in a dorm, for instance). Pac-Man has a couple of friends, but most ridicule him for his belief in ghosts. But one day, while getting lost in a rather familiar looking hedge maze, Pac-Man discovers a portal to the ghost world and accidentally opens it. Now Betrayus and his new ghost army are able to invade the Pac planet. But Pac-Man also discovers his special yellow power: he can eat the ghosts! He can also gain powers from eating special Power Berries (I guess they\u2019re not calling them Power Pellets anymore, probably so parents don\u2019t accuse Pac of being a pill popping drug addict, the sign of the times). These Power Berries can make Pac-Man fly, grow big, or get powers like Ice, Fire, Metal, or Lizard abilities. So basically Pac-Man is Kirby now. So Pac-Man must use his new powers and the help of his friends to defeat Betrayus\u2019 ghost army, while learning teenage lessons along the way.<\/p>\n

One thing I will say about the plot is they don\u2019t give it all away right at the start. You have to watch episodes to uncover all of that, so they kind of take an anime style of storytelling. Which I can appreciate since they don\u2019t assume the viewers are stupid and won\u2019t get it. Another thing to note is the storyline isn\u2019t near as dark as I\u2019m making it out to be. They use clever wording and omissions to make it sound more kid-friendly. But the basic idea is there. Here\u2019s the intro to the new Pac-Man cartoon:<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

What I DON\u2019T Like About the New Pac-Toon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well there are a lot of thing not to like about this cartoon. It\u2019s worse than the original, but that could just be nostalgia taking over. But the thing that annoys me most is how they made Pac-Man be an annoying teenager. There are WAY too many teenage heroes in video games and other fiction. One of the reasons why I liked Pac-Man\u2019s original character is that he was a family man, with a wife and kids. Most video game characters are lone warriors. What\u2019s wrong with having a hero be a grown up and a dad, too? I imagine the creators of the show thought kids could relate better to teen Pac. Namco Bandai may have also influenced the character change as well. It\u2019s well known that Namco kind of \u2018hides\u2019 the Pac-Man sequels that Midway made for arcades in the 80\u2019s, like Jr. Pac-Man and Baby Pac-Man, which feature Pac\u2019s family. Only one they really recognize is Ms. Pac-Man, because it\u2019s made so much money over the years. So that could explain how things turned out with the new cartoon, too.<\/p>\n

There are lots of other little things I don\u2019t like about the cartoon. The intro theme song is horrible, the squeaky, scratchy voices are grating, and they rely way too much on gross out humor. Now, I\u2019m not snobby enough that I won\u2019t laugh at a good fart or burp joke every now and then, but they aren\u2019t even funny here. For instance, in one episode, Pac-Man has to deal with a zit problem, and at one point his face gets stuck in a ghost portal, and when they pull him out, it squeezes all his zits and the pus seals the ghost portal up. Ew, gross! And they say \u2018The Pac is Back\u2019 way too many times. I feel bad now that I used that as my title line for my Pac-Man World review back for the Dallas Morning News. It\u2019s even worse than how many times they say \u201cSizzling Circuits\u201d on the old Mega Man cartoon.<\/p>\n

What I DO Like About the New Cartoon<\/strong><\/p>\n

While most of the new cartoon is deplorable, there are a few things I do like about it, believe it or not. Most may disagree with the main thing I like about it, though. In this new toon, the four ghost monsters, Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde, are Pac-Man\u2019s friends. What? How can that be good? They are enemies in the game! Well, I like the ghost monsters just as much, if not more than, Pac-Man himself. Always have. In the new cartoon, Pac-Man takes pity on the four ghosts and doesn\u2019t eat them and burp out their eyeballs, and they become friends early on. This allows for some interesting plot points, as the ghosts still report to their Lord Betrayus, and must figure out how to follow his orders and not hurt Pac-Man in the process. Or they may have to decide whether to take actions for personal gain, or make sacrifices to help Pac-Man. Plus I like the four ghosts\u2019 new designs. They all look different. Pinky and Clyde have different personalities, but it\u2019s hard to tell the difference between Inky and Blinky\u2019s personality traits, unfortunately. And even though I hate the main title theme song, the background music during the actual cartoon is pretty good. They even use some themes from other Pac games like Pac-Mania. I even heard the tune from Super Pac-Man\u2019s museum room in Namco Museum vol. 2. Now that\u2019s hardcore!<\/p>\n

Pac-Man\u2019s Toon Future?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can watch the new Pac-Man cartoon on the Disney XD cable channel, but the air times are less than desirable. They show it weekdays at 10 am, 3 pm, and at 1 am. So I am either sleeping or working when it\u2019s on. I guess they\u2019d rather show four hour blocks of crap like Lab Rats or ANT Farm or Kickin\u2019 It. I\u2019m sure Disney\u2019s lack of confidence ticks off Namco Bandai, too. They\u2019re counting on it doing well so their games will be more recognized. Namco already has an iOS game called Pac-Man Dash that I recently reviewed, and they\u2019re making a 3-D platformer based on the new cartoon as well. I\u2019m sure the 3-D platformer game won\u2019t be very good, but we don\u2019t see too many cute and colorful 3-D platformers like what we used to, so I\u2019m still going to have a positive attitude about it. I bet the Bandai side of Namco Bandai wants the cartoon to succeed, too, because they\u2019re making toys based on the show. Bandai is like the Mattel of Japan. I\u2019ve never seen the toys in stores, but I\u2019m curious about them all the same, since I like to collect Pac-Man merchandise. So for better or for worse, I don\u2019t see the new Pac-Man cartoon succeeding.<\/p>\n

My Vision for a Pac-Man Cartoon<\/strong><\/p>\n

I hate to be too negative about the Pac-Man cartoon and say that I could write a better one. The new cartoon was written by someone who worked for Marvel, so they definitely earned their writer\u2019s chops. But as a Pac-Man fan, I still think I could make a better Pac-Man cartoon. It would be a mix of the old cartoon, a little bit of the new, and some Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures thrown in for good measure. In my vision, Pac-Man would still be a family man like in the old cartoon, with Ms. Pac-Man and his two kids. And it would be more light-hearted and gag oriented like the old cartoon as well. But like the new cartoon, I think it would be fun to have the four ghosts be Pac-Man\u2019s friends instead. Or maybe like friendly yet aggressive rivals. Maybe they could compete with each other, but in the end, they would help out if needed. I\u2019d also put in a little bit from a 16-bit Pac game called Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures (called Hello Pac-Man in Japan). This was a really creative point and click adventure game where you didn\u2019t control Pac-Man directly, but shot a slingshot to get his attention. In this game, Pac-Man wasn\u2019t very smart and his obsession with food got him into all sorts of crazy situations. I think that would be fun to have in my cartoon, too. What do you think? Let me know in the comments section. And tell me your favorite memories of the old Pac-Toon, and what you think of the new one. Later! –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Very few video game characters get their own cartoon show. And even fewer get multiple shows based on their electronic adventures. I think only Mario, Sonic, and Mega Man have pulled that last feat off, maybe Street Fighter if you count the anime toons. And now, Pac-Man has done the very same thing. All through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10282"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10285,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10282\/revisions\/10285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}