Kidd Video

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"Listen up. I'm an animation fan; I've seen all sorts of animation in my lifetime. I've watched countless cartoons from every decade, good and bad. The statement I'm about to make....might sound hyperbolic but it's true: "Believe me when I say Kidd Video is bar none, the absolute craziest, strangest, chaotic cartoon I have ever seen. You know that Raggedy Ann movie? This is weirder!" —Platypus Comics

This cult favorite originally ran from 1984-85 on NBC. It involved a Garage Band who were brought to a very strange magical land called the Flip Side by the evil controller of cats, Master Blaster. Master Blaster wishes to kidnap all the musicians from our world (it's never really explained why; perhaps he had hit upon the idea of using The Power of Rock for evil). The band escapes with the help of the good Fairy, Glitter, and the rest of the series involves them getting into adventures in every city and battling Master Blaster and his Copy Cats.

As with the Dungeons and Dragons series, they're also ostensibly looking for a way to get back to the real world... but not really. The fact that everyone in the Flip Side loves their music relieves the sting of Failure Is the Only Option.

Much, much more importantly, this series is remembered for being a truly glorious perfect storm of Refuge in Cool, Deranged Animation, and The Eighties. Mass quantities of The Eighties.

The show was canceled for being too costly for NBC to produce.

Compare Jem. An extensive website, with episode guides, is maintained by Toolbot, who has also been kind enough to upload several episodes to YouTube. Which is good, because trying to describe the show is nothing compared to actually watching it.

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Tropes Used:

• Adventure Towns - A different week, a different town.
• Art Evolution - Season 1 -> Season 2, as demonstrated here. Also counts as an Art Shift.
• Big Bad - Master Blaster, although he's rather incompetent.
• Big Eater - Fat Cat. Duh.
• Band Toon - While not based on a real band, it otherwise fits the description to a "t".
• Cats Are Mean - Actually, the Copy Cats are just Punch Clock Villains. Master Blaster is the real meanie.
• Cloudcuckooland - The Flipside.
• Cool Car - The bizarre tour bus that must have been designed as a tribute to Yellow Submarine. Somehow created out of a Subaru Brat.
• Creator Backlash - Robbie Rist wasn't too fond of Where Did Our Love Go?

Robbie Rist: And I guess that “Kidd Video” was also responsible for what I believe is the worst cover of Where Did Our Love Go? that has ever been committed to media. It’s just…oh, God, it’s awful.

• Cute Bruiser - Glitter gains super-strength (enough to toss buildings around) any time she sneezes.
• Deranged Animation - See page quote. Any questions?
• Disney Acid Sequence - The whole series, really.
• Do-Anything Robot - Toolbot
• Down the Rabbit Hole
• Eighties Hair - Carla
• Expository Theme Tune - Complete with live action footage of the origin story.
• Failure Is the Only Option - Both ways. The gang can't get home, nor can the Master Blaster capture them, or we have no more show.
• Fairy Companion - Glitter
• Fake Band - Inverted. The four main actors who played the heroes also sang and played the band's songs.
• Fat and Skinny - Fat Cat and Kool Kitty.
• Five-Man Band - Literally a Four Person Band, but they have a sidekick.
  • The Hero: Kidd Video.
  • The Lancer: Carla. Also The Chick (duh).
  • The Smart Guy: Whiz. (Bet you never saw that coming...)
  • Non-Action Guy: Ash.
  • Team Pet: Not exactly a pet, but Glitter fills the role.
• Five Man Band Concert - Another "the whole show" trope.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal - The Copycats, however She-Lion wears shoes.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes - Given that the show was basically made of 80s pop songs, trying to straighten out the rights issues means this has no chance of being released on DVD.
• Meaningful Name - Kidd Video, Whiz, Master Blaster, She-Lion, Kool Kitty. And those are just the recurring characters.
• Punch Clock Villains - The Copy Cats
• Refuge in Cool - The only excuse for the show's premise.
• Ominous Floating Castle - The Master Blaster's lair is a cross between this and Airborne Aircraft Carrier.
• That Reminds Me of a Song - Using popular radio hits of the day, sometimes including the music videos.
• The Eighties - Oh God yes. Did we mention Glitter wears legwarmers?
• The Power of Rock - The Flipside is basically an entire universe that runs on rock music.
• The Psycho Rangers - The Copy Cats. The enemy band to the Good Guys' band. Part Goldfish Poop Gang.
• Trapped in Another World - The Flipside. They're trapped in it.
• Terrible Trio - The Copy Cats.
• Walking the Earth - Okay, they ride a bus-car-submarine-thing.
• What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made On Drugs? - Even the people who worked on it even commented on it.

Robbie Rist: I don’t know what they put in the water cooler in the animation department, but it became this crazy thing that... it was like Lidsville. It was this acid-influenced, crazy animation. It became something like Alice in Wonderland, and I was in my twenties and watching these second-season episodes, going, “Is this for kids?” It was just a little bit too weird.