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  1. Entertainment
  2. Movies

50 Awesome Cartoons That Should Be Movies

Features
By George Wales published 4 April 2012

Nostalgia, anyone?

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Raggy Dolls

The Cartoon: A life-affirming show in which a set of factory reject toys set about overcoming adversity by helping each other out. Positive message ahoy!

The Film: Aardman Animation take on this Toy Story -esque saga in which the Raggy Dolls must escape from their factory in time to avoid a trip to the incinerator…

Dream Cast: Michael Cera (Hi-Fi), Kevin Spacey (Sad Sack), Kate Winslet (Dotty)

Dream Director: Peter Lord

Galaxy High

The Cartoon: A pair of high-school students are inexplicably chosen to attend an alien school in space. One is a popular jock, the other a fully paid-up nerd. But guess what… the aliens prefer the nerd! Good for them.

The Film: What the teen sex comedy needs is a new lease of life. Relocating it to space? Bingo.

Dream Cast: Emma Watson (Amy), Dave Franco (Doyle)

Dream Director: The Weitz brothers

Samurai Jack

The Cartoon: Jack is a samurai warrior who finds himself inconveniently displaced through time, and proceeds to spend his days searching for a way to return himself to his own era. A cinematic cartoon that's just begging for an adaptation.

The Film: The premise would lend itself nicely to a live-action adaptation, with a more adult-appropriate certificate allowing Jack to slice and dice human foes, as opposed to his traditional diet of robots and monsters.

Dream Cast: Armie Hammer (Samurai Jack), Christopher Walken (Aku)

Dream Director: J.J. Abrams

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Space Ghost

The Cartoon: A kind of " Batman in space", in which caped crusader Space Ghost takes on all manner of evil extra-terrestrials in a rather fetching white suit.

The Film: A live-action version, featuring an ageing, world-weary version of the Hanna Barbera character, who's dragged out of retirement when something nasty threatens to destroy the Earth.

Dream Cast: Bruce Campbell (Space Ghost), John Travolta (Metallus)

Dream Director: Sam Raimi

Harvey Birdman

The Cartoon: Harvey Birdman revolves around the ace premise of a group of washed-up superheroes joining forces to set up a law practice. Naturally, most of their cases pit them against their old supervillain nemeses…

The Film: This would work well as an offbeat comedy, with our posse of down on their luck heroes occasionally using their powers for evil in order to generate enough cases to keep the firm afloat.

Dream Cast: Alec Baldwin (Harvey Birdman), William H. Macy (Myron Reducto), Will Arnett (Black Vulcan)

Dream Director: The Coen brothers

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Johnny Bravo

The Cartoon: Johnny Bravo was a womanising, Elvis-voiced meathead, whose adventures largely revolved around the ill-advised pursuit of a disinterested female. A bit creepy in retrospect…

The Film: We'd cast Bravo as an ageing lothario, an Elvis impersonator disowned by his kids as he undergoes a fairly serious mid-life crisis.

Dream Cast: Val Kilmer (Johnny Bravo), Kathy Bates (Bunny "Momma" Bravo)

Dream Director: Alexander Payne

Visionaries

The Cartoon: Set on the planet of Prysmos, Visionaries pitted two rival groups of knights against each other, the Spectral Knights and the Darkling Lords (both fine names for a prog rock band), in a magical tournament organised by the wizard Merklynn. Yes, Merklynn.

The Film: It'd be like The Hunger Games , only with magical powers and the capacity for the competitors to transform into animals. Let the carnage begin!

Dream Cast: Viggo Mortensen (Leoric), Russell Crowe (Darkstorm), Michael Gambon (Merklynn)

Dream Director:
Ridley Scott

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Wacky Races

The Cartoon: A gumball rally style racing event that would continue cross-country from week to week, pitting various teams of oddballs against each other. Famous the home of Dick Dastardly and his sniggering pooch, Muttley.

The Film: A screwball comedy, a la Rat Race . Only nothing like Rat Race , in terms of quality. Yeesh!

Dream Cast: Stanley Tucci (Dick Dastardly), Mark Wahlberg (Rock Slag), Russell Brand (Big Gruesome), Reese Witherspoon (Penelope Pitstop)

Dream Director: Brad Bird

Stoppit & Tidyup

The Cartoon: A bizarrely British creation in which Terry Wogan would narrate the antics of a set of critters named after various parental commands, set in the magical land of Do As You're Told. Barmy but brilliant.

The Film: This would make for a great claymation film, in which the various creatures are charged with taming a bunch of tearaway children. Ok, so the plot needs work, but any excuse to reminisce about this one!

Dream Cast: Jim Broadbent (Stoppit), Russell Tovey (Tidyup), Ian McKellen (The Big, Bad, I Said No)

Dream Director: Nick Park

Battle Of The Planets

The Cartoon: The adventures of G-Force, a quintet of superhuman young people charged with protecting Earth from the evil planet Spectra, and other space-dwelling bad-guys.

The Film: We're envisaging a Final Fantasy -esque motion capture animation. The technology is probably up to it by now…

Dream Cast: Liam Hemsworth (Mark), Alex Pettyfer (Jason), Elizabeth Olsen (Princess)

Dream Director: Neil Blomkamp

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George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.

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