I’ve read Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick many times, but I don’t remember any chapters in which the great white whale — that inscrutable avatar of doom, destroyer of ships, and nemesis of human hubris — befriended two stranded teens, Tom and Tub, and protected them during adventures beneath the waves that involved evil undersea queens and electric octopuses. Thankfully, Cartoon Network’s Boomerang channel has filled this gap in my literary knowledge by rerunning Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor, an animated Hanna-Barbera adventure series that originally aired from 1967 to ‘69. Seems everything was trippier back then, even kids’ TV, which explains this surreal series that turns Melville’s fearsome instrument of nature’s wrath into a kid-friendly pet. (Tom and Tub have another pet, a seal named Scooby; his yelps and Moby’s grunts are both voiced by Don Messick, who would later voice a better-known Hanna-Barbera creature named Scooby.)
Actually, even weirder than the "Moby Dick" segments are theunrelated "Mightor" segments, centering on a teenage caveman who, whenhe wields his magical club, becomes the masked, flying superheroMightor, protector of his village against bizarre invaders (the IceMen, the Stone Men, the Scorpion Men). He has several sidekicks.There’s Tog, his flying dinosaur, who transforms into a fire-breathingdragon; Sheera, the village chief’s red-headed hottie daughter (and anapparent model for Scooby-Doo’s adventure-seeking, kidnap-proneDaphne); and Sheera’s annoying kid brother Little Rok, who likes topretend he’s Mightor and has his own mask and flying sidekick, and whousually gets into trouble that the real Mightor has to rescue him from.Amazingly, neither Sheera nor Little Rok seems to recognize that theirbland friend Tor is really Mightor, even though they wear the samemedallion and green loincloth. Both adventures (designed by Alex Toth,who also did Hanna-Barbera’s Space Ghost and Jonny Quest) are thoroughly bonkers, but I can’t stop watching.
Anyone else seen this wacky show? And what other unlikely literarycharacters would you like to see transformed into Saturday morningcartoon action heroes?
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Ah…they just don’t make cartoons like they used to.
You should do a post on long-forgotten childhoosd favorite cartoons. There was this series of classic cartoons on Great Books that would come on during the holidays, one was “Around the World in 80 Days,” http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=299
Wow…there is absolutely no plot to this at all beyond Boys get into trouble. Moby saves them. Repeat x30 per episode.
And this is coming from a biology teacher’s point of view, but I hate how cartoons teach kids incorrect things about the natural world, such as seals being able to breathe underwater. Then we have to *unteach* this garbage.
All I know is that both series look Ripe for the Adult Swim treatment. The whale one in particular reminds me of Sealab 2020 so much that it’s bound to get redubbbed.
As for Mightor, he’s nothing compared to Captain Caveman, who would get into groovy adventures with three sexy ladies. He had this massive techno-club that would always give out goofy gadgets for gimmicky goodness.
Who would I like to see make a comeback? How about the Clue Club? Much like Scooby Doo, they were precocious teens who solved mysteries. Unlike Scooby Doo, there were two bloodhounds who spoke perfect English. One of them used a thick southern accent and made tons of idiotic statements. Bring back the Clue Club!
My favorite thing about the second clip is the way the pterodactyls explode when he smashes them together.
See, I knew they put the gas tank too far forward on those things.
All rise! The Honorable Judge Hiram T. Mightor presiding!
Fresh from Harvey Birdman: Attorney @ Law.
RE: pterodactyls explode when he smashes them
That’s why pterodactyls are refered to as the Ford Pinto of the Cretaceous period.
I love Moby Dick
Other potential literary character kids’ shows:
Anna Karenina and the Magic Ponies
The Great Adventures of Gatsby
Leopold Bloom and Friends
Picture Time With Dorian Gray!
Oh, man – Mightor under that rock in the Flintstones/Sopranos episode. “Hello? Hello?” I still say that if my phone goes dead. And the fact that “Macho Man” Randy Savage voiced him was awesome! I miss Birdman.
Well, I should remember the show, since I am Mightor and I was the star of it. Check out my blog at http://www.mightorsmusings.blogspot.com.
Two comments: Number one, the Moby Dick segments were ten million times more bizarre than the Mightor segments. Granted, stone age superheroes may not have been a dime a dozen millions of years ago. But who would ever believe two orphan kids riding a whale around while fighting humanoid sea creatures? Tough sell.
Also, comic artist Doug Wildey is generally credited with creating and designing Jonny Quest, though he did co-create some other shows with Toth, particularly Herculoids and Space Angel.
I’m waiting for reruns of Super President.
I went to public schools where the majority of the students and teachers were white. ,