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NOVEMBER 8 VHS MOVIE REVIEW : HULK HOGAN'S ROCK N WRESTLIN
From panelsonpages.com
Ah, nostalgia! Be it that old cartoon, a favorite toy or a comic book from days gone by, isn’t it great when, out of the blue, the memories come flooding back, and you’ve no choice but to exclaim “Holy Crap, Remember?”
Before dominating the Monday night airwaves during the nineties, professional wrestling was mostly relegated to Saturday morning and afternoon TV. During the middle part of the eighties, the world of sports entertainment enjoyed a brief but significant profile boost due to the popularity of its biggest star, Hulk Hogan. One of the biggest reasons for this spike in ratings was because kids were beginning to follow pro wrestling based on their interest in Hogan, and in the fall of 1985, head honcho Vince McMahon oversaw the creation of a Saturday morning cartoon entitled Hulk Hogan’s Rock N’ Wrestling that featured animated versions of Hogan and the many faces and heels that comprised the company that was then known as the World Wrestling Federation.
While there was little to no actual wrestling going on in the show, Hulk Hogan’s Rock N’ Wrestling did a good job in introducing kids to the many different wrestlers of the WWF. The animated segments featured Hogan (voiced by future sitcom star Brad Garrett) and his fellow “faces” such as Andre the Giant, Tito Santana, and the Junkyard Dog constantly trying to thwart the schemes of the evil “heels,” led by “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and the Iron Sheik. Each episode also featured some of the more popular rock tunes of the time playing in the background. The wrestlers themselves didn’t provide the voices for their animated counterparts, though they did appear in live-action vignettes throughout the show, most of which were hosted by commentator “Mean” Gene Okerlund.
ulk Hogan’s Rock N’ Wrestling aired on CBS for two seasons. Even among hard-core wrestling fans, it is not remembered very fondly. The plots were lame, the jokes were horrible, and the voices of the characters weren’t even close to matching their real-life counterparts. However, for many youngsters at the time, myself included, this show was an introduction to the world of pro wrestling and its larger than life characters. Not too long after this show went off the air, my little brother and I checked out actual wrestling shows and were instantly hooked. Our interest in it waned over time but was reinvigorated during the “Monday Night Wars” of the nineties. For this, I can almost overlook the overwhelming awfulness of this show, but I still can’t bear to watch an entire episode, which anyone can do nowadays on Youtube. Quality-wise, Hulk Hogan’s Rock N’ Wrestling earns 2 out of 5 Unrealistically Full Hairlines, but for its sheer nostalgia factor, I’ll give it 3 out of 5 Impossibly Packed Convertibles.
NOVEMBER 8 VHS MOVIE REVIEW : HULK HOGAN'S ROCK N WRESTLIN
From en.wikipedia.org
Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling is an American animated television series that originally aired on CBS Saturday mornings from September 14, 1985 to December 6, 1986, with reruns airing until June 27, 1987.
The show was animated and produced by DiC Entertainment. It featured animated adventures of popular WWF stars from the time, including its title character Hulk Hogan and his group of wrestlers fighting against a group of rogue wrestlers led by Roddy Piper.
Hulk Hogan was the leader of the faces, or good guys; consisting of Junkyard Dog, Captain Lou Albano, André the Giant, Wendi Richter, Superfly Jimmy Snuka, Hillbilly Jim, and Tito Santana.
Roddy Piper was the leader of the heels, or bad guys; consisting of Iron Shiek, Nikolai Volkoff, The Fabulous Moolah, Big John Studd, and Mr. Fuji. The show followed predictable cartoon archetypes concerning good characters triumphing over evil-doers in wacky situations, typical of children's cartoons in the 1980s.
Rarely referenced, wrestling was simply a device to determine the good guys from the bad guys. The wrestlers themselves appeared in the live-action segments of the show; however, they did not provide the voices for their animated counterparts. These were instead performed by professional voice actors. One recurring live-action segment was the music video for the cover of "Land of a Thousand Dances" recorded by several WWF wrestlers for The Wrestling Album.
The theme to Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling is "Hulk Hogan's Theme" composed by Jim Steinman which was Hogan's entrance theme before "Real American" was adopted as Hogan's entrance theme. The vocal version of the song is called "Ravishing" which is sung by Bonnie Tyler and featured on her album Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire.
Due to the show being animated, and the longer production times that resulted, the show often failed to keep pace with the events of the WWF at the time. This resulted in certain wrestlers turning heel (or, in non-wrestling terms, a villain) in regular WWF programming but remaining good guys on the cartoon and vice versa. It also depicted Hogan as having a full head of hair, as opposed to the noticeably receding hairline he sported in the ring.
WWE retains the rights to the program.
Episode list
Season 1 (1985)
- The Junkyard 500 / Junkenstein
- The Four Legged Pickpocket
- André's Giant Problem / Clean Gene
- Gorillla My Dreams
- Cheaters Never Prosper / Driving Me Crazy
- The Wrestler's New Clothes / A Lesson in Scouting
- Hog Society / Wrestling Roommates
- Moolah's Ugly Salon / The Duke of Piperton
- Robin Hulk & His Merry Wrestlers
- Small But Mighty
- Rock 'N Zombieske
- The Last Resort
- Bucket
Season 2 (1986)
- Ballot Box Boneheads / Alibano and His 40 Geeks
- Captain Lou's Crash Diet / Muscle Madness
- 10 Little Wrestlers
- Big John's Car Lot / Big Top Boobs
- The Foster Wrestler
- Ballet Buffoons / Battle of the Bands
- Amazons Just Wanna Have Fun
- The Art of Wrestling / The Blue Lagoon
- The Superfly Express
- Junkyard Dog's Junkyard Dog / My Fair Wrestler
- Ghost Wrestlers
- The Wrong Stuff
- Rowdy Roddy Reforms / Three Little Hulks
Voices
Charlie Adler as Rowdy Roddy Piper
Lewis Arquette as Superfly Jimmy Snuka
James Avery as Junkyard Dog
Jodi Carlisle as Wendi Richter, The Fabulous Moolah
George DiCenzo as Captain Lou Albano
Ron Feinberg as André the Giant
Pat Fraley as Hillbilly Jim
Ron Gans as Nikolai Volkoff
Brad Garrett as Hulk Hogan
Ernest Harada as Mr. Fuji
Aron Kincaid as The Iron Sheik
Chuck Licini as Big John Studd
Joey Pento as Tito Santana
Neil Ross as Mean Gene Okerlund
NOVEMBER 8 VHS MOVIE REVIEW : HULK HOGAN'S ROCK N WRESTLIN
From articles.orlandosentinel.com
Wrestling Cartoon Puts Hold On Taste
April 24, 1985
Crunchy serial: Big, bad Mr. T got his own animated Saturday-morning kids show last fall on NBC, so it shouldn't surprise anybody that T's favorite tag- teammate, Hulk Hogan, will be around in cartoon form on CBS' Saturday- morning lineup this fall. Appall, maybe, but not surprise.
In its description of the upcoming Hulk Hogan's Rock 'N' Wrestling! series, CBS refers to the 300-pound professional wrestler as ''America's newest, most popular superstar'' (and I thought network hyperbole had reached its zenith). Kids will be invited to follow the continuing adventures of the animated Hulk who, with help from animated ''good guys'' such as Andre the Giant, Tito Santana and Junkyard Dog, will fight for ''truth and justice'' against animated versions of Rowdy Roddy Piper, the Iron Sheik and Big John Studd.
Surely CBS could have found somebody a little more heroic around whom to construct a cartoon series. Leon Spinks, perhaps, or John McEnroe. Or how about a show called Dirty Harry's Make My Saturday Fun and Gun Hour?
It's almost enough to make me send Ted Turner a check -- ''almost'' because I read somewhere that Turner likes pro wrestling.
Kidvid continued: Not all the new Saturday-morning children's series due this fall sound as out-of-place as Hulk Hogan's Rock 'N' Wrestling! Not even the other CBS shows.
CBS is adding an animated Berenstain Bears series; The Young Astronauts, an animated series about a space-explorer family; and The Wuzzles, an animated series about an odd assortment of two-for-one animals such as the Bumblelion (part bumblebee, part lion) and the Hoppopotamus.
The Wuzzles, along with NBC's The Gummi Bears, marks Walt Disney Productions' first foray into the field of Saturday-morning TV. The Gummi Bears are, according to NBC's schedule announcement, ''a mythological race of charming, idealistic bears who leave their own secret, magical community to help fight evil in the real world.''
NBC's only other new Saturday series is an animated version of its Sunday-night show Punky Brewster.
ABC has only one newcomer -- Ewoks & Star Wars Droids Adventure Hour, an animated series featuring characters made famous by George Lucas' trilogy of Star Wars movies. ABC is, however, picking up the package of classic Warner Bros. cartoons, including Bugs Bunny. And Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton will pop up twice each Saturday in Fun Fit, four-minute segments designed to encourage children who are laying around like zombies to get up and work those muscles.
What, no animated Richard Simmons?
News on a skewer: Here's hoping the That Was the Week That Was (TW3) pilot that ABC tested Sunday did well in the ratings. A revival of the satirical news-review that NBC tried 20 years ago, with David Frost again the host, ABC's TW3 was not just a pleasant surprise, it was startling. Nothing's sacred, no one's safe. Frost, co-host Anne Bancroft and some talented newcomers took aim at Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Jesse Jackson, Ted Kennedy, Jake Garn, Dan Rather and Ted Turner, just to name a few. And TW3 offered repeated reminders, ABC's Hail to the Chief notwithstanding, that crudity is not an essential component of satire, while making a point is. I loved the sketch that lampooned how CBN Cable Network gets ideas from ''secular'' TV -- the show was called Biblical Bloopers & Practical Jokes. More, ABC, more.
NOVEMBER 8 VHS MOVIE REVIEW : HULK HOGAN'S ROCK N WRESTLIN
From slam.canoe.ca
The recently-released WWF Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling video tapes are a study in nostalgia.
Way back in 1985, the WWF was riding a mainstream media wave of attention, and capitalized on the whole Cyndi Lauper-led rock'n'wrestling connection with a memorable first WrestleMania. And a not-so-memorable, short-lived TV cartoon series, produced by DIC Animation City.
Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling is typical Saturday morning pap, nothing more. The stories are simplistic and obviously aimed at children, and the animation is routine and dull. There's no real fighting, or even tension, between Hogan and his buddies and the bad guys, headed by the dastardly Rowdy Roddy Piper.
But worst of all, having watched the show on occasion as a young teen, is the jarring realization that - gasp! - the voices of the cartoon characters are not done by the real wrestlers. So without Piper being Piper, or Andre the Giant's mumblings or Nikolai Volkoff's 'Russian', what's the point, really?
What we're left with are the good guys (Hogan, Wendi Richter, Tito Santana, Junkyard Dog, Hillbilly Jim, Superfly Snuka, Captain Lou Albano and Andre the Giant) versus the bad guys (Piper, Fabulous Moolah, Big John Studd, Volkoff, Iron Sheik, and Mr. Fuji). But even then, of the three tapes -- each with two episodes -- there are only two shows with both the heels and the faces. Those two are at least semi-entertaining because of the baddies, but watching 'Hulk and the gang' by themselves makes me as ill as it did 14 years ago as a youngster rooting for Piper and Ace Orton.
And don't get me started on the occasional 'comedic' live action segment, usually with Mean Gene Okerlund. Tuesday Night Titans it ain't, which should tell you something.
Call Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling a period piece if you will. (It ran from Sept. 14, 1985 until June 13, 1987 on CBS.) But while suffering through the brutal Pac-Man-style background music or the 'Hulk, Hulk' intro theme by cheesemeister Jim Steinman (the man behind Meatloaf's 'Bat Out Of Hell' album) I was wishing more than once that there actually WERE commercials from 1985 on the tapes as well. Now THOSE would have stood the test of time!
The three available tapes:
Volume 1
EPISODE 1: SMALL BUT MIGHTY
When Hillbilly Jim's pet raccoon, Mortimer, gets sick, hillbilly medicine is the cure. The only problem is that the whole gang ends up eating it! The effects of the medicine lead to an unexpected side-effect and an adventure with some no good car thieves!
EPISODE 2: TEN LITTLE WRESTLERS
The gang gets invited on a cruise. Everything is fine until each of the wrestlers starts mysteriously disappearing. It's up to Hulk Hogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper to get to the bottom of the mystery and foil the dastardly plot of their host!
Volume 2
EPISODE 1: AMAZONS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN
The gang's chartered plane makes an emergency landing deep in the jungle. With no radio to call for assistance, Hulk and the gang go in search of help. Captured by Amazon jungle women, the gang befriends them to foil the greedy treasure hunters' search for the Temple of Tedra and its valuable treasure.
EPISODE 2: THE WRONG STUFF
A quiet day on the farm is cut short when the gang is asked by NASA to help rescue stranded astronauts. Who has what it takes to pass the tests and go to space for the rescue? Will they be able to rescue the stranded shuttle before it's hit by a satellite?
Volume 3
EPISODE 1: BUCKET
It's a close encounter for Junkyard Dog when he finds an alien eating his junkyard. The gang befriends the alien that JYD names Bucket, only to find someone has stolen his space ship. It's up to the gang to get the space ship to help Bucket get home.
EPISODE 2: FOUR-LEGGED PICKPOCKET
A horse keeps following the gang around wherever they go. When some guys come to claim the horse, they steal the Hulkmobile. The gang discovers the owner of the horse is a little girl, when the crooks kidnap both the horse and the girl. It's up to Hulk and the gang to save the girl and foil the crooks.
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