Hasbro decided to bring GI Joe into the 21st century, trailing behind their other major franchise, the Transformers. Thus, the first----and so far, only----Saturday morning GI Joe series, subtitled Sigma 6, debuted on Fox in 2005. Nice idea, but apparently, a lot of older fans of the long running franchise didn't like that this series appeared to have been produced in Japan, as has been the case with recent Transformers incarnations, starting with 2001's Robots In Disguise, which also aired on Fox. And like Robots In Disguise, Sigma 6 was cancelled early, before the series was completed. Currently, it airs on The Hub, which is choosing to run it weekdays, rather than as a weekly entity, despite the fact that there aren't enough episodes to justify a 5-day-a-week schedule, the same mistake made over and over again by cable programmers unable to properly align their lineups.
Russ Velazquez uploaded the open:
Count me among those who wasn't digging the anime look to this show. Consequently, the franchise has bounced around since the end of Sigma 6. In 2009, a miniseries, Resolute, written by British comics writer Warren Ellis, aired on [adult swim], and also was done in an anime style. Until today, I didn't even know about that project. After The Hub launched in 2010, Hasbro's newly launched cartoon studio brought out the most recent series, Renegades, which owes its existence more to the feature film version of another 80's icon, The A-Team, than continuing the GI Joe legacy. I'm reading on a message board elsewhere that Hasbro isn't exactly keen right now on another GI Joe series, perhaps waiting to see how the forthcoming feature film, "GI Joe: Retaliation", does at the box office first. I'll have something to say about Renegades another time.
Rating: C.
3 comments:
I'd never heard of this incarnation of G.I. Joe so I decided to check it out on Hub - didn't care for it.
I do however like the "Renegades" version. I had heard that the show was going to come back for season 2, and if it does, the gang won't be on the run anymore and they will likely change the format closer to what it was in earlier versions - an elite team kicking Cobra butt!
At least the finale allows it to stand alone if it doesn't get picked up.
As I had implied in the original post, Hub has cancelled Renegades, so they may turn out another series, just as they keep reincarnatiing the Transformers. As long as they keep making toys, they'll keep doing series with them (see also Power Rangers).
Unlike other G.I. Joe cartoons, Resolute was geared towards teens and adults hence the TV-14 rating. The same thing goes for the live action films, which are rated PG-13. The funny thing is, the G.I. Joe franchise was never intended for teens and adults to begin with in the first place. I love it when companies do teen and adult adaptations of kids franchises.
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