Classical Animation Elysium

March 20, 2019 11:20 AM

Animated Antiquity: Cartoon Representations of Greece, Rome and Beyond by Chiara Sulprizio. "I have been a big animation fan since I was a teenager, and I am also interested in the reception of Greco-Roman culture in the modern age. I figured I would merge these two interests and that is pretty much how this project was born. I want to trace and explore the many manifestations of ancient Greece and Rome in the realm of cartoons and animation, since the inception of the medium in the late 1800s to the present day."
posted by homunculus (5 comments total)

One of my favorites on here is Ulysses 31 (1981) (previously.) I was living in France in 1981 when it premiered, and as a kid I loved mythology and sci-fi, so I adored it. They had a lot of good Japanese cartoons on TV which hadn't reached the US yet. Before I left the only one I'd seen was Star Blazers (previously). Over there Ulysse 31 was my favorite, followed by Albator (Captain Harlock, previously.)
posted by homunculus at 2:41 PM on March 20, 2019

In case the title was misleading, these aren't just classic cartoons, though there are some. They're animations from the 1920s up to today about themes from Classical times, mostly Greek mythology. It's a treasure trove of animation.
posted by homunculus at 7:06 PM on March 20, 2019

I’m going to check a bunch of these out. Being a tail end Canadian baby boomer my first thought was Mighty Hercules. It was a cartoon you watched at about 5:30am before the "real" cartoons came on.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:12 PM on March 20, 2019 [3 favorites]

Seconding Mighty Hercules for perhaps the catchiest theme song ever.
posted by whuppy at 8:04 AM on March 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

The Mighty Hercules (1963-66)

Heh, now I'm going to have that song have that song stuck in my head all day. My mother pointed out to me that Daedalus was neither evil nor a wizard in the myths, which I'd started reading, and after reading about Daedalus and Hercules in the myths I lost interest in the show.
posted by homunculus at 8:32 AM on March 21, 2019 [2 favorites]