We all love cartoons. Every generation has embraced the ever evolving creative minds, writers, directors, animators, CGI, for close to a century. The golden age of cartoon animation basically ran from 1928-1967. Studios such as Disney, Warner Bros., Fleischer, MGM created classics that stand the test of time. The generational talents, skill and creativity from all of craftsmen from these studios brought brilliant content that we can all still enjoy today. Each artist, director and writer had their own unique style that adds to what your watching and keeps them fresh for every viewer.
As theatrical animated shorts began to lose popularity, had severe studio budget cuts, television began to be the focus of the animated shorts. Cheap production with limited animation became the norm. The Hannah-Barbera Studio were the top producers of cranking them out.
From the late 60’s through the 1980’s the standard and quality became so abysmal it became the “dark age” of animation. They became known as the Hanna-Barbarians for the poor quality cartoons they made.
Jabberjaw is product and prime example of the “dark ages”
A way to sum it up is a quote from James Garner in the film “Barbarians at the Gates” (1993) “Tastes like shit, smells like a fart. We got ourselves a real winner here.”
Before the Rise and Decline of the Hannah-Barberain Empire
Before Hannah-Barbera opened their own studio they were highly regarded, creative Academy Award winners at MGM studios during the 40’s and 50’s.
One of their main influence and inspiration came in the early 40’s when legendary director Fred “Tex” Avery joined MGM, after leaving Warner Bros. and brought with him from Warner Bros., the attitude, style, exaggeration of time and space. They embraced this and incorporated that into their Tom and Jerry cartoons that people enjoyed.
Rok and Roll Shark
Made in 1976 for television, Jabberjaw is a talking great white shark with a Curly Howard, Bugs Bunny Brooklyn accent and Rodney Dangerfield style. Voice actor Frank Welker did the voice of Jabberjaw, doing his best with the lame material provided.16 episodes were produced and they are just good as any low budget shark movie. Just goofier. The shark plays drums with his fins with a band called The Neptunes who make The Archies sound like punk rock and The Banana Splits like acid music. They are the standard formula cartoon band of the era with the standard caricatures, bland musical interludes while they go on adventures to save the undersea world from evil villains and “rock out”.
After the series ended Jabberjaw would go on to do numerous cameos on Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Sealab 2020 and Robot Chicken where he went on vacation at Amity Island home of Bruce the shark from Jaws.
