 Shows derived from video games are a mixed breed. Some pull it off rather well, some make you want to gouge your eyes out. The Pac-Man Cartoon falls somewhere in the middle. Now to be honest, I liked this show. It definitely represents the 'innocence' of our early 80s Saturday mornings rather well. But you've gotta question the idea to make a show based on a game where all you did was eat dots and get chased by ghosts. Let's face it, we love Pac-Man, but it's not exactly Final Fantasy as far as game content goes. But if we think like that, we forget the two golden rules of child marketing strategies: 1.- If a cartoon is successful, a video game version must be made.  So, we got our Pac-Man cartoon. Pac-Man's like that quiet neighbor everybody loves. He's not really dynamic..he doesn't really do much...but for some reason, everyone holds him in high regard. He deserved to be immortalized in a cartoon. As far as plotline goes, it wasn't exactly a psychodrama. The Pac-Man family did stuff, ghosts got involved, pellets were eaten, ghosts were chased away. In every episode. Hey, they had to stay true to game form. But the real magic of this show lied in it's drug-addled outlook - try showing this cartoon to someone who isn't too familiar with the Pac-Man legacy. They'll be hard-pressed to comprehend why Pac-Man mows the lawn with his mouth, or why dots fall out of canned goods. It definitely had that Teletubbies psychadelic feel to it.  To solidify his spot in cartoon history, Pac-Man did what so many other cartoon tried to do and failed miserably - he made himself a Christmas special. I swear to God, we've seen Santa Claus with Skeletor...Santa with Pac-Man...Santa with Martin Lawrence...the ideal visuals are really starting to get blurred. But yeah, Pac-Man had a Christmas special which actually did pretty well.  Looking at the pics of this page, it's fairly obvious than a 3-D rendition of Pac-Man is suggestive at best. I could've told you that this was a show about living oranges or flourescent tennis balls, and there wouldn't be much room for debate. But hey, these were necessary changes...Pac-Man was a flat pie without eyes in the video game...he wouldn't have lasted long in tv land without such appendages.    I've uploaded the Pac-Man java applet game onto X-E for all you Pac-Man freaks who can't get enough Pac action. I wish I could think of a better way to pay homage to our hero, but surprisingly enough, Pac-Man media is kinda scarce nowadays. I've been trying to find the Pac-Man Fever LP for weeks...to no avail. Oh well, we'll always have the Pac-Man cartoon. To play Pac-Man, click HERE. - Matt | |||