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MARINE BOY 1969 - 1972 reviewed by Ian Abrahams |
August
2001
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It might seem an assertion stretched to breaking point, that a half forgotten American-Japanese hybrid children's sci-fi cartoon should be elevated to "golden" status and reviewed amongst such genre luminaries as The Stone Tape and Quatermass. I come bearing context, I will praise this show, and I will bury it. We know that children's television of the pre-video, mass junking era, is a wilo-the-wisp in our memories. Many were never repeated outside of their original run dates and have become so tied into, not even a generation of children, but a particular age group in a handful of years. I was six when Marine Boy started in 1969, nine when it went away in 1972. Marine Boy had everything. The legendary oxygum that enabled him to breathe underwater, a pressure resistant suit so he could dive to the ocean's depths, Professor Fumble handing out ever more fantastic gadgets like an animated Q. He enjoyed the support of the Ocean Patrol organisation. Coolest of the cool, his girlfriend, Neptina, was a mermaid! His adventures brought him into contact with some of the weirdest sub-marine creatures that could be imagined. In the opening titles he casually destroys a huge octopoid robot and then rescues Neptina from the clutches of what appears to be a gigantic mutant lobster. "Operation Deep Deep" brings Marine Boy into conflict with a group known as the A.W.S (Association of Wacky Scientists), a kooky 1970s Avengers style band of villains, whilst in "Attack of the Robot Sharks" the main protagonist is Marvel Comics influenced Count Shark. How could any pre-teenager during the programme's run fail to be impressed with this collection of exotic locations, '70s environmental concerns, suspense and danger. Laid out before us were our worst nightmares vanquished by a member of our peer group who was so much a part of his ocean surroundings that he kept a dolphin as a pet. And, viewed in that way, taken with not a pinch but a tablespoon full of nostalgia and warm feelings for your long past childhood, of course it's golden. But we know that these sort of programmes are salutary reminders of the way that television progresses technically and our own expectations develop with it. I showed this series to my children, a few years younger than I was when it was so unmissable. They liked it, but they were certainly never going to get as wrapped up in it as I was. Sophistication is ephemeral. Marine Boy is classic anime because it was ground breaking in its time (one moral group in the USA noted it's "relish for torture and destruction") but it looks weedy and trite in comparison with today's most successful cartoon shows. What must be said in its favour is that it stands out in the memories of my contemporaries. We all watched it, discussed it at school, missed it on pain of death. We all remember it now. Others of it's time and ilk, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Shazzan, Bailey's Comets are long forgotten. I Love the Seventies attempted to pull together a strand for one of its early editions on Marine Boy complete with an interview with the central character 's voice-over artist, Corrine Orr. It was pulled because Warner Bros, who now own the rights, refused copyright clearance on the showing of clips. It has a resonance, it still has a certain charm. It is, for me, golden. |
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