Description
Wacky Races is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for CBS on Saturday mornings.[1] The series features 11 different cars racing against each other in various road rallies throughout North America ,[2] with all of the drivers hoping to win the title of the "World's Wackiest Racer".[3] The show was inspired by the 1965 comedy film The Great Race .[4]
The cartoon had many regular characters, with 23 people and animals spread among the 11 race cars. Wacky Races ran Saturday mornings on CBS from September 14, 1968, to January 4, 1969, and in syndication from 1976 to 1982. Seventeen 20-minute episodes were produced, with each of them featuring two 10-minute segments.
The series spawned numerous spin-offs throughout the years featuring Dick Dastardly , the most similar in theme being "Fender Bender 500 " in 1990.
In 2017, the series was remade as a reboot , airing on Boomerang . It aired only once on Cartoon Network on August 13, 2018.-wikipedia
The cartoon revolves around several racers with various themes who are each allowed to use strange gimmicks to compete against other racers in many races across the United States.
The racers consist of:
- The Slag Brothers, Rock and Gravel, in a caveman -themed race car called the Boulder Mobile (1); their car is made out of rock and the brothers (who talk in caveman-like gibberish but with occasional intelligible words) power it up by hitting it on both sides with their clubs and are also able to re-build it from bare rock, always using their clubs.
- The Gruesome Twosome, Tiny "Big Gruesome" and Bela "Little Gruesome", who are monsters, in the Creepy Coupe (2); their horror-themed car includes a small bell tower inhabited by a fire-breathing dragon, bats and other creatures. The Creepy Coupe's special booster is "dragon power," with the dragon acting as a RATO unit.
- Professor Pat Pending, an inventor, in the Convert-a-Car (3); he can transform his car into pretty much anything that moves.
- The Red Max, a Manfred von Richthofen -styled aviator who speaks with a German accent, in a car/airplane hybrid called the Crimson Haybaler (4); his vehicle is able to fly, although only for short distances in ground effect .
- Penelope Pitstop , the lone female driver, in a 1930s racing costume in the Compact Pussycat (5); a Southern belle , Penelope seems more concerned with her looks than with racing and often gets herself into trouble. Nevertheless, she is a skilled racer.
- Sergeant Blast and Private Meekly in an armored car/tank hybrid called the Army Surplus Special (6); the Sergeant uses "fire power" (i.e. shooting cannonballs from his turret) to temporarily boost power in the car.
- The Ant Hill Mob, a group of dwarf-like gangsters led by Clyde and is composed of him, Ring-A-Ding, Rug Bug Benny, Mac, Danny, Kirby and Willy, in the Bulletproof Bomb (7); they are sometimes preoccupied with getting caught by the police and are able to use "getaway power", which involves all the gangsters (except for Clyde) extending their legs through the bottom of the car and running.
- Lazy Luke, a hillbilly, and Blubber Bear, a timid, cry-baby bear, in the Arkansas Chuggabug (8); Luke maneuvers the steering wheel with his bare feet and his car is steam-powered from an old rickety boiler. Luke has been known to blow up a balloon and use it as an air jet for briefly increased speed.
- Peter Perfect, a gentlemanly racer, in the Turbo Terrific (9); Peter is extremely strong, but also very vain, and he often boasts about the virtues of his high-tech race car – which regularly falls to pieces seconds after he praises it. He is fond of Penelope and often helps her out.
- Rufus Ruffcut, a lumberjack, and his companion Sawtooth, a beaver, in the Buzz Wagon (10); their car, entirely made of wood, features four circular saw blades as wheels and Sawtooth is able to cut through obstacles (such as trees and other objects) at super-high speed.
- Dick Dastardly , an archetypal mustache-twirling villain and his wheezily snickering dog, Muttley , in the Mean Machine (00); their sinister vehicle is a purple, rocket-powered car with an abundance of concealed weapons and the ability to fly. Dastardly's usual race strategy revolves around using the Mean Machine's great speed to get ahead of the other racers and then setting a trap to stop them and maintain the lead, but most of his plans backfire, causing him to fall back into last place. As a result, Dastardly is the only racer who not only never wins, but never even finishes in the top three in any race. In the opening title sequence, Dastardly attempts to stall the racers by chaining their cars to a pole, but then he accidentally shifts his car into reverse, bumps into and breaks the pole and frees the others as the race begins.-Wilipedia