Five Memorable Animated Sci-Fi TV Spin-offs

Science fiction fans love star spawned creatures battling heroic humans against the backdrop of the whole galaxy - or even the entire universe. Hit TV shows and blockbuster movies like Star Trek, Star Wars or Starship Troopers spawn sequels, video games, toys and comic books. They also give birth to some very cool animated TV shows, to carry on the legacy. These cartoons may not have the big budget of their feature movie mommy, or live action daddy, but they still often shine brightly in both talent and production value department.

Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973)

This was one of the earliest animated TV shows spun off or created from a live action TV show. The cartoon TV series was also created by Gene Roddenberry, and handled so officially, many writers of the original Star Trek penned episodes. All of the actors, save Walter Koenig (Chekov), came back to voice their characters. Koenig did write an episode for the show.

William Shatner (Captain Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Spock), and Deforest Kelley (Dr. Bones McCoy) provide their trademark voices for their spacey alter egos. Walter Koenig's character of Pavel Chekov was replaced by two aliens - Lt. Arex and Lt. M'ress - who were voiced by James Doohan (Scotty) and Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel). The further adventures of starship Enterprise may have been drawn here, but with writers like D.C. Fontana, Larry Niven and David Gerrold, the stories were often just as complex, and nearly as mature as the live series. Oddly enough, years later, Roddenberry considered none of the animated adventures as "canon" - or official Star Trek adventures. This was perhaps the one area where the majority of fans - and many writers both for the TV shows, novels and comic books - disagreed with Roddenberry. It remains fondly embraced by fans, and was so critically acclaimed, it's the only Star Trek TV show to win an Emmy award.

Tales From The Cryptkeeper (1993)

Tales From The Crypt! This terrifying title screeched out to assault our ears, wailed by the decrepit host, right after a hearty bout of fiendish cackling. HBO was home to the original spine chilling and nail biting TV series, and ABC was home to the cartoon version.

The animated series didn't dazzle in the animation department, but the stories were pretty solid for a more kiddie version of an origin series dealing in murder, mayhem and magic. John Kassir, the cryptkeeper himself, provided the voice of the ghoul who dealt tales of the wild and weird rule. They even put out a series of action figure toys. I've collected a few, and they're really not bad quality.

Aladdin (1994)

A Whole New World was the name of the hit pop theme song of Disney's beloved animated movie.A whole new world of animated fun could be found in this animated television series based upon the mega hit movie starring Robin Williams.

Instead of Mork from Ork providing the voice of the blue genie, Homer from Springfield as in Dan Castelleneta from The Simpsons voiced the wildly playful magical sprite. Iago (Gilbert Gotfried) that bad bird from the original flies back into action, but he's now good - mostly anyway. The series had top notch animation, and the stories were fun and engaging.

Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles (1999)

Director Paul Verhoven's smash sci-fi action flick Starship Troopers, based on Robert A. Heinlein's novel served up slam bang, bug squashing action. Verhoven's clever film was so adept at making us root for the violent humans, yet simultaneously also realize how over the top the whole war mentality was as depicted. It was this metaphor warning of the dangers of becoming too militaristic, by forgetting ones own humanity in the war process, which was such a memorable hallmark of the 1997 movie.

Sadly, though the computer animated show was top quality in all areas, it never found an audience due to a devil's brew of tech glitches behind the scenes, and programming decisions made by the powers that be. It can now be found on DVD, and should really be picked up by any fan of great action packed science fiction - especially those who love to see big alien bugs decimated!

Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003)

Before animator Genndy Tartakovsky created Star Wars: Clone Wars, he was behind the beautifully animated and action packed Samurai Jack. It's no wonder George Lucas picked the skillful animator to work on a Star Wars cartoon, since Lucas based his Jedi Knights on the ancient Japanese samurai.

The stylized animation on this series was really something to behold, and many of the battles dazzles as truly poetic. Tartakovsky has nothing to do with the current Star Wars animated series - which trades in the storybook anime look of traditional animation for CGI - which is still on Cartoon Network.

Sources
www.imdb.com