TV reviews: Banana Man

Release date: 3rd October 1983 - 15th April 1986 (Three series. Forty episodes. Each five minuets long).

Story: Eric Twinge is your average British boy. But when ever trouble comes along to his home town or the world, it is up to Eric to save the day. For when Eric eats a banana, a strange transformation occurs and Eric becomes Banana-man. A superhero with the strength of twenty men and is always ready to combat the forces of evil.

My thoughts: I came across this cartoon after learning that the characters are voiced by the Goodies (Tim Brook Taylor, Graeme Garden, and Bill Oddie). The show is ok. Banana-man himself is like a hybrid of DC comics Shazam (a kid who can transform into a adult superhero) and Popeye (a character who is granted superhuman powers after eating healthy foods). The villains I found to be impressive. They are General Blight (a long nosed mastermind in a military outfit. He is the main villain in the cartoons), The Weatherman (a man who can created storms and other bad weather from his blimp), Doctor Gloom (a mad scientist who has a Peter Lore style voice), The Heavy Mob (a group of criminals led by Eddie the Gent. The worlds most polite criminal), Cream-man (a being that resembles a cream bun), King Zorg and the Nerks (A alien race), Auntie (General Blight's aunt and the worlds most deadliest assassin), The snowman (who is a living snowman created by the Weatherman and then became a villain of his own), and Appleman (a sort of evil clone of Banana-man). Other characters include Eric's cousin Samantha, Police Chief O'Reilly, Banana-man's trusty sidekick Crow, and news reporter Fiona. 

The episodes are five minuets long which I find to be too short. Mostly due to the fact that the stories had some interesting elements to them. In one episode, Banana-man is being interviewed by Fiona on live television, only to change back into Eric. This could have made an interesting episode with Eric going into hiding and the villains teaming up to go after Eric's family (who apart from Samantha, they are never mentioned or shown up). Also there's an episode where Doctor Gloom had created a cloning machine and creates an exact copy of Banana-man. Cow manages to point out the copy by telling it a trick question and then after the real Banana-man defeats it, the episode ends. I thought that Banana-man would have tricked Doctor Gloom into thinking that the real Banana-man had been defeated and then capture him and take him to prison. Most of the humour in the show is mainly puns (mainly from Crow but mostly from the other characters). Like I said before the show is ok and if you want to watch it, then you can find it on Youtube or you can get the complete series on eBay and other shopping websites.

My score: Three stars.