![]() It inspired them to ask their parents to buy them more Pac-stuff. In their day, these cartoons provided children a way to rot brain cells while zoning out in front of the TV. But there are such better alternatives than watching this example of marketing run amok. He apparently wants to simply revel in the past, reliving his childhood. I should point out he has no children to share this with. He has expressed great love and adoration for the children’s animated shows of the 1980s. I have an acquaintance who was tickled absolutely pink by the release of Pac-Man: The Complete First Season. All flatly animated in the same sickly colors with an atrocious score, this series reeks of a throwaway effort by all involved. If any of this sounds like fun, be warned: it’s not. In “The Bionic Pac-Woman,” Mezmaron clones Ms. “Presidential Pac-Nappers” involves an attempt by the ghosts to kidnap the Pac-President. “Chomp or Treat” finds the Pac-Family having their Halloween spoiled by the ghosts. The singularly uninspired and unsophisticated plots of each episode pit Pac-Man against these villians. Mezmaron seeks to control the supply of these pellets. The battle in Pac-Land involves the power pellets used for food by its inhabitants. What you may not know (or care to know) is that the ghosts’ boss is an evil overlord named Mezmaron. If you’ve played the arcade game before, you know that Pac-Man’s arch nemeses are the Ghost Monsters: Blinky, Inky, Pinky, Clyde, and Sue. Pac-Man, their child Pac-Baby, and their pet cat and dog (Sour Puss and Chomp-Chomp, respectively). Each episode contains a pair of short cartoons centering on the Pac Family: Pac-Man, his wife Ms. Why anyone would have a use for more than a few minutes of one episode, for pure nostalgia’s sake, is beyond me. It was just another cog in the Pac-marketing wheel. A Saturday morning cartoon was inevitable, and Pac-Man ran for two seasons. One-hit wonders Buckner & Garcia’s song “Pac-Man Fever” landed in Billboard’s top ten singles in 1982. Pac-merchandise of all kinds – from chewable vitamins to breakfast cereal to toys – was produced by the ton. The first arcade superstar, Pac-Man was ubiquitous in the early ‘80s. This is a baker’s dozen of half-hour commercials, designed to sell more Pac-Man product. There’s nothing meta or post-modern about it. That’s an important bit of info: this cartoon series was originally produced for children. It’s terribly dated and unlikely to entertain even today’s easiest to please children. And Pac-Man sort of defines “niche,” in that the series was an utterly disposable piece of junk. Each copy is manufactured on-demand when purchased, meaning Warner doesn’t have to press more copies than they need of a niche title. Pac-Man: The Complete First Season is a Warner Archive release that collects all thirteen episodes of the 1982 Saturday morning animated series on two DVD-Rs.
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