Ho-Ho-Límpicos

At 18, I grew up on the classic cartoons such as Scooby Doo, Wacky Races and Yogi Bear and I still do. I first came across Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics going through a Scooby Doo phase and after one episode I was hooked. The animation was surprisingly good, it was crisp, clean and smooth, and the music was great. The theme tune is simple in some ways but definitely memorable and not annoying. The writing is witty and hilarious, and while every episode derives from the admittedly terrific concept it was great to see how The Really Rottens resorted to cheating, who won each race(I found myself rooting for the Scooby Doobies) and what sort of things they did. The real joys were the characters though. Snagglepuss is a great commentator, I love his voice and his dialogue, and Mumbly's exasperated mumbles and facial expressions when the Really Rottens lost or were caught cheating are priceless. I also loved seeing Scooby, Captain Caveman, Yogi Bear and Dread Baron(who looks very like Dick Dastardly). The voice acting was also solid, I especially liked Mel Blanc's Captain Caveman, then again I may be biased as I love Mel Blanc. Overall, a great show from my childhood, and had a terrific concept. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Joseph Barbera and William Hanna had captured '80s and '90s the -X generation kids' minds through this very educational and very joyful cartoon series. Their cartoons from '60s and '70s gained much more attention from the TV-channel operators by means of Laff-A-Lympics featuring the most popular leading characters of the various of cartoon franchisees including Yogi Bear(my favourite), Scooby-Doo and their very own evil friends such as Frank Frankenstone and Cavemouse from Flintstones, Dread Baron from Yogi Bear Show and such.

My favourite team was Yogi Bear's team named Yogi Yahooeys. In their 3-team competition, forming up with 10-15 players with only 1 to race each game(2 for pairwise races) there were Scooby-Doobies and Really Rottens, as well; which they compete with each other through several Olympic games all over the world and all over the seasons of the year endlessly. That was good to see the most spectacular places on earth in cartoon view, and for a child that's also good to learn political geography by the way. They have gone to Pyramids in Egypt to start up a race in the desert, they went to Moscow-Russia near Kremlin Palace to find a threatful KGB agent, they went to Hawaii to jet-ski, climbed to mount.Everest, did bungee-jumping in New Zealand, dived in Madagascar, raced with Kangoroos in Australia and so much more. 4 different locations and 4 different races each episode with hard to guess who's going to win each race, who's going to break an Olympics record and for the best moment with the sum of all tournament points for the same episode: Who's gonna get golden medal, bronze medal and silver medal. I was at the age of 12-13 while watching, following and even taking notes to my notebook of the Laff-A-Lympics' Olympics records. The whole seasons of the Olympics have ended up with the top records from Yogi Yahooeys', with the most collected golden medals from Scooby-Doobies' and with the most collected bad reputation from Really Rottens in the final.

Among the whole cartoon character basis, my personal favourite is Snagglepuss, the announcer and the critic of the tournaments. I always wanted to be like him. Snagglepuss is also my personal superhero among the whole worldwide cartoons and comics ever since Disney. I copied his cool, smart, witty, cold-blooded, impressionist, dare-devilish and argumentatively judicial character to my own character. He made me laugh till I caught to cheek-stroke when he climbed to the top of the mount Everest to announce the start of the climbing race telling to the viewers that he'll be waiting with the photo-finish results to see whoever will come to the top first. Then at the finish when no one was able to climb to the top of the mountain he said to the camera, "You're lucky fellas our game is cancelled, our competitors will be racing one extra game today. But guess who the winner is? I am. I climbed here before they even started to climb". After this speech of him, my smile stayed frozen like a stroke on my cheeks at least a week. In every person's life there is a hero, an unusual hero which is easy to become like him. Snagglepuss was mine. Thanks to Daws Butler, the voice of Snagglepuss and actually thanks to his Turkish voice-over; and whoever has created him.

Laff-A-Lympics had educational value so much effectively that every time when the tournament came to its end and the show to the curtains down, he used to say things like "Don't forget to drink your milk fellas in your breakfast this morning" ./.. "Cheating is good, if no one sees you doing" ./... (Staring at the Hawaiian beach beauties)"Know the real use of sun-glasses? You can catch the best outstanding views and choose the most beautiful one on the first hand" ./.... (Before the scuba-diving contest)"Take a deep breath, it irritates fishes if they hear you breath underwater".

That was surely a top classic of the all-time cartoons. All along the year 1994-95 in Turkey, every Saturday and Sunday mornings; there was a reason to find the joy of being a secondary-school kid, increasing the volume of the telly, jumping and bouncing with the breathtaking activities and simulating whatever our cartoon heroes do.

I was born in 1976 so I grew up with all these crazy beloved Hanna-Barbera characters. The Laff-A-Lympics are a great show idea of mixing lots of your favorite HB characters, esp the older characters like Huckleberry Hound. The format I'd the show is a great idea AND when you factor in the "who's competing this week? You get a lot more fun. All the locations are awesome. Also it's always fun to see how the Rottens are cheating and (gasp!) are they going to get caught?!? Add to that the silliness of cartoon logic-Speed Buggy and Tinker LOSE the dune buggy race?!? Yakky Doodle is supposed to pull Grape Ape?!? And there's a 3 dog sled race, do the Scoobies strap in Scooby Doo, Scooby Dumb and Dynomutt? Nope they make the Teen Angel girls pull Captain Caveman! So for all that, this is an amazing show concept and delivers all that 5-10 year old me could want.

Now I've rewatched this as an adult and let me just say this-THESE OLYMPICS ARE RIGGED! When you're a kid-it's the Rottens, you're constantly having to keep an eye on them. But they're not the real issue-it's clear that the REAL cheaters are the Scoobies! The name of the show tells you all you need to know, the Scoobies dominate this thing, and it's not even close. Having WAY too much time on my hands, I recorded the wins. And here is the breakdown: in 24 episodes, 1st place wins, Scoobies 14, Yogis 7, the Rottens manage a measly 2 and the final episode is a 3 way tie. Where do I begin? The Yogis are CLEARLY the better team, have more team members, a lot more diversity of talent and a 40 foot gorilla! But time and time again they suffer losses from the no good Scoobies. Tell me how Quick Draw McGraw (the FASTEST draw in the West) loses ANYTHING?!? What about Yogi? He is LITERALLY smarter than the average bear!! But he's taking a loss to Shaggy?!? Get out of here with that nonsense. If the Great Fondue does bad magic, the Rottens get minus 50 points-but if Babu "yapple dapples" it's gold, baby, it's gold for the Scoobies all day. Disgusting.

The opening is your first tip off- every show intro focuses on Scooby, Dynomutt and Captain Caveman who are ALL on Team Scooby. Bias much?!? Sure, there's plenty to like in Team Scooby and they've got 4 solid super heroes (Caveman, B Falcon, Dynomutt AND Hong Kong Phooey!) but the lopsided refereeing is shameless. When the Scoobies win 8 of the first 10 episodes, it's pretty clear the fix is in and the Rottens are just a red herring.

Watching this as adult, my real beef isn't with the Rottens-Daisy Mayhem is going to Daisy Mayhem. I EXPECT that. But I tell you what hurts the most, what really cuts: Snagglepuss. That cat got his start on Yogis show in 1961! That's 60 years of friendship. Does Snagglepuss do the right thing? Does he keep the games on the up and up? Oh heck no! He's clearly been bought and paid for by the Scoobies. Seeing this betrayal is hard. It's embarrassing seeing Snaggiepuss just sitting there, with all his authority, watching this miscarriage of justice and just punking over his old friend. Snag needs to "exit: stage fraudulent."

I was disappointed in the previous "Yogi's Gang" series, but this successor cartoon, a parody of the 1976 Olympic Games, makes up for it. Again many Hanna-Barbera characters are brought back and new ones added, and they are divided into three competing sports teams, the Yogi Yahooies, the Scoobie-Doobies, and the Really Rottens, the latter composed of villainous characters who try to win by cheating.

This is not a morality play, but simply a comedy with the various teams competing in various Olympic-type events. The Really Rottens, invariably jeered by the audience, try to cheat every time, and usually fail, but sometimes they get away with it. Basically a period piece for the tykes, but still enjoyable.

Can you imagine your kids, glued to the television, watching a cartoon as if it were the real Olympics and rooting for their favorite team of cartoon characters to win? that's sort of exactly what this show was. I vaguely remember arguing with the twins next door about what team was better and worrying that the Really Rottins would win even though they always cheated and....the 80s were insane for children.

Cartoon crack.

And hysterical to boot.

Unfortunately, as you get older, it's harder to really identify with cartoons and root for your favorite teams like you did when you were really little.

It's harder to suspend your disbelief enough to convince yourself that, yes, this is a real competition like the Olympics for cartoons...

But as a kid, this was awesome and as an adult, well, it's as nostalgic as it is embarrassing. The vague memories of your five-year-old self and how memorized you were by the Olympics, how much you felt was at stake...well...

The good news is that now you can introduce it all to 5 year-olds and watch them get as excited about it as you were.