7 Kids’ cartoons based on R-rated movies
They will make cartoons based on anything at this point. Movies, TV shows, video games, dolls, stickers, etc, etc. The list goes on and on. If the suits think they can make money off it, they’ll do it.
There have been countless cartoons based on movies. Usually it’s a dumbed down kid friendly version of the movie with an added talking animal sidekick or something ridiculous like that. But it’s something special when an adult oriented, R rated movie is translated into a kid friendly cartoon. It’s literally amazing that this happens. Now, there have been several R rated movies turned into cartoons that are not actually meant for kids. I’m talking about Kevin Smith’s Clerks the Animated Series and Ice Cube’s Friday the Animated Series (seriously, check You Tube if you don’t believe me) when I say that. They were both created for adult fans of the movie an not meant for children, which is why I’m not including them on this list. Here, you’ll only see Saturday morning, kid-friendly cartoons in this list. And what a list it is.
Let’s get started…
Rambo: The Force of Freedom (1986) – Released the year after First Blood Part II. I can see where you’d want a psychologically damaged one-man killing machine as a role model for children on Saturday mornings. It just fits. It’s what the corporate suits call “synergy”. The cartoon had a nice cast of voice talent though. Neil Ross (Transformers, GI Joe, Galaxy High) was Rambo. James Avery (Capt Sisko from ST: Deep Space Nine) was Turbo. Colonel Trautman was voiced by Allen Oppenheimer from He-Man, Transformers and GI Joe fame and one of the villains, Sgt Havok, was voiced by the great Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime).
Toxic Crusaders (1991) – Based on Troma’s surprise B horror sensation, The Toxic Avenger. The movie featured wall-to-wall language, nudity and extremely graphic scenes of violence and sex. The movie actually showed a dude, while robbing a fast food joint, try to rape a blind girl. Also Toxie kills someone by crushing their head in a weight machine at the gym. And if I remember correctly, he either punches completely through someone’s face or takes their head off with a punch. I totally get why one would watch that movie and think, “Kids’ll love this!”
Robocop (1988) – Based on the Paul Verhoeven classic. I actually see this as a cool cartoon, but damn this movie was violent. Copious amounts of nudity and drug use also earned every ounce of the R it was rated. The cartoon had several nods to the movie including an appearance by Kurtwood Smith’s Clarence Boddicker, despite the fact that character died in the movie.
Police Academy The Series (1988) – With a kick ass theme song by one of my favorite rap groups, The Fat Boys. Despite the last few Police Academy movies devolving into parodies of themselves, the first one was a very entertaining R rated adult comedy. This cartoon, however, is a completely dumbed down version of that series. Maybe more along the lines of like the last two Police Academy movies, but even dumber.
Kid ‘n Play – This cartoon is based on Kid ‘n Play’s movie House Party which I was surprised to find out was rated R.
Highlander The Animated Series (1994) – The first Highlander movie was awesome. Everything after that was complete crap. What the hell happened to the Highlander series? This cartoon makes as much sense as the Adrian Paul TV series. Odd subject for a cartoon. I struggle to understand how a movie about ages old Immortals battling to cut each other’s heads off translates into kid’s entertainment.
Conan the Adventurer (1992) – The first Conan movie was pretty bad ass. The second was almost a parody of Conan movies. Wilt Chamberlain? Grace Jones? WTF?! Anyway, like Robocop, I can actually see this being a good cartoon.
Cavalcade of Awesome 
November 8, 2010 at 8:24 am
The Kid ‘n Play one has been removed by the user, it would seem.
And I remember all of these… and watched none of them. Well, save for Conan. I saw a bit of that, but only sporadically, since it usually came on after I was supposed to have left for school.
Frankly, I never understood the conceit that making a kids toy line/cartoon show out of R-rated movies was a good idea. Maybe it was meant to be a distraction, so that they wouldn’t watch the movies, but it seems as though it would only fuel one’s desire to see the original source material.
That said, we never got a Terminator cartoon, did we?
Oh, and on Toxic Crusaders: I kind of liked the army guy, but I remember they had a really BAD theme song, a different one, that they would sing in-show.
November 8, 2010 at 8:51 am
These were some of my favorites growing up, Pax, especially Conan and the Toxic Crusaders! I can still remember having 2 or 3 of the Crusader action figures that I would battle against the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cast on a regular basis. Great memories!
November 8, 2010 at 11:49 am
Very cool article. THe only one I watched was the Rambo cartoon. He always had the same red sleeveless hoodie on. It was almost as bad as the Mr. T cartoon (with all the teenage gymnasts). Although I have seen all themovies, and the Toxic Avenger was one seriously silly movie.
November 11, 2010 at 10:56 am
I cant believe they made Robocop into a kids cartoon. We actually re-watched the movie not too long ago on tv (cuz there was nothing else to watch lol) and were cracking up at how dated it is now.
November 11, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Robocop was dated because it assumed that Detroit would still have a functioning government in the future, and that anyone – even a corporation – would have the will to do anything to fix it.
November 12, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Fun fact: Robocop was actually toned down to get the “R” rating. It was originally rated “X” by the MPAA before they toned down the murder of the board member by the competing robocop and Murphys death/torture.
January 25, 2011 at 6:48 am
you gain expertise,boys suits It is extremely helpful for me.would you mind updating your blog with more information? But i don’t like these type of horror movies.
October 9, 2013 at 9:37 am
There have actually been two RoboCop cartoon series: the one cited above and one called Robocop: Alpha Commando. The second series is even more child-aimed, where in 2030 RoboCop joins with the federal “Alpha Division” to battle the evil forces of “DARC”.
I think I prefer the first of the cartoons.
ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoboCop_(franchise)#Animation
October 9, 2013 at 9:58 am
Oh wow, I didn’t know about that second series. Thanks for the info, Aaron.
September 30, 2014 at 10:02 pm
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Simple but very accurate information… Thanks for sharing
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October 5, 2015 at 3:18 am
Great list, but with one tiny mistake. James Avery, who voiced Turbo on the “Rambo” cartoon DID NOT play Captain Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. You’ve got him confused with Avery Brooks. The late great James Avery was the voice of Shredder on the original 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, and also played Uncle Phil on the Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air.
May 18, 2016 at 1:49 am
I’m waiting movie “The Red Turtle” on this year. http://newkidsmovies.org/the-red-turtle.html
November 5, 2016 at 4:05 am
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