Show #123: GI Joe (1983 - 1985)

Honouring America's annual tradition of celebrating their independence by blowing things up, it's a sample party platter of the GI Joe miniseries!

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While we're not entire strangers to GI Joe we deemed a franchise as venerable as this one was worthy of a closer look, removed from the bizarre influence of secret snake people and back to good old fashioned red lasers vs blue lasers. The results surprise even us as we find both a fond portrayal of the American ideal embracing all cultures & backgrounds and even stranger goings on than a dozen GI Joe movies. All that plus sailor scam artists, impressions of famous actors and the subliminal message to kids with destructive younger siblings everywhere!

THE SHORT VERSION

Cartoon combat

The lighter side of the fight against international terrorism

Workplace romances

Show #37: Stiffen The Snake

With the second live action film on everybody's minds right now it's as good a time as any to delve into the original feature length adventure of America's highly trained special mission force in G.I. Joe: The Movie!

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This is the biggest exposure that some of us here at SOTSM have had to the 1980s cartoon of the G.I. Joe toy franchise and boy does it throw you in at the deep end. Departing from the series' usual military hardware based firefights in favour of a battle against ancient serpent men from beneath the earth, this film isn't as fondly remembered as contemporaries such as the Transformers movie despite their similarities in introducing a plethora of new characters for the toyline and the dramatic (almost) death of a key figure.

At the very least it is an endearingly silly romp with animation that delivers on the promise of the show's intro, including a gorgeous opening action sequence that neatly sums up all the best points of G.I. Joe.

THE SHORT VERSION

'MURIKAW!

Drama

These snake men hate our lives and our freedoms!