What is this cartoon from my childhood?

July 19, 2009 4:48 AM

This has been driving me crazy, and I'm obviously a weaker google user than I thought. I used to watch a cartoon on Saturday mornings and I have no idea what it was, or even if it was real. My recollection is hazy and may incorporate any number of other childhood memories and red herring elements, but I'm hoping someone can help me out!

[I'm going italicize any element I'm unsure about - i.e. those elements that my memory may have fabricated.]

Each episode was about a race between groups of 2 animals/people. The races may also have been rescue missions of some sort.

The races were monitored by a boss type character at hq. The boss type character had scouts that would report the progress of each team back to him. The progress was recorded on a map (each team had a statue on the map and would be knocked over if they were out of the race).

There were malevolent crows that may or may not have been competing as well. They set up traps and sabotaged other teams. There is also a chance that the crows were not malevolent at all, and were in fact the scouts mentioned earlier.

In my memory, the animation is similar to Samurai Pizza Cats

Usually a different team won each episode, as they each had unique strengths and weaknesses.

Please don't suggest Wacky Races/Racers. The animation was less sparse, and the characters very different, and I hesitate to say there were no vehicles, but I don't think there were vehicles.

Please help! I realise that I haven't given much information - but I am almost sure this show existed in real life and someone must have seen it! (I was born in 86, so I imagine I watched it sometime between 91 and 99, but I grew up in New Zealand, where television was aired sometimes years later than in the US for example.

Thanks!

posted by doublehappy to media & arts (8 comments total)

Except for the crows, and the fact that Speed always won, what you're describing sounds a lot like Speed Racer, which was actually animated by the same company as Samurai Pizza Cats, and fits well within your time line.
posted by Nomiconic at 5:38 AM on July 19

Oh jeez I completely missed the "I hesitate to say there were no vehicles, but I don't think there were vehicles." part. Disregard me.
posted by Nomiconic at 5:54 AM on July 19

Yeah, sorry, should also mention that these 'races' tended to be over varied terrain, forests, ditches, hills, etc., and the teams consisted of animals, not people.

Thanks for trying though!

I'm feeling more confident about the rescue mission element. Like, it was an agency of some sort that used an unorthodox method of rescue, i.e. they send their rescuers out in teams of two and give them a prize for saving the kittens first.

God this is making less and less sense.
posted by doublehappy at 6:23 AM on July 19

It doesn't match exactly, but Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers is about animal rescuers, and was airing (in Canada at least) around that time.
posted by cCranium at 7:48 AM on July 19

Laff-a-Lympics?
posted by BigLankyBastard at 8:44 AM on July 19

I came here to also say Laff-a-Lympics.

I seem to remember that on more than one occasion the "bad" team won which was awesomely avant garde when I was 5.
posted by Ookseer at 11:14 AM on July 19

Though I couldn't come up with the name, I too thought of Laff-a-Lympics. I saw it several times, though I think it was the same episode each time. I was surprised to learn that there were several different episodes!
posted by attercoppe at 7:25 PM on July 19

No, it can't be Laff-a-Lympics, because I remember Laff-a-Lympics well, though I'm surprised there was only one season! I must have had far more tolerance for reruns when I was a kid.

Definitely not Chip 'n Dale, either. That show's "TO BE CONTINUED..." was amazingly powerful - I seem to remember they were always falling from a height at the time.

I'm gonna head down to the Film Archive and see if they can help me out!
posted by doublehappy at 9:50 PM on July 20