Retroblog

Cube Cartoon Strategy To Lower IQ Of Puzzle Fans?

We discovered this today — thanks goes to Bubbledog by way of Pop Culture Junk Mail:

Um… what, now?

We were sixteen when “Rubik the Amazing Cube” debuted on Saturday mornings — a couple years north of the target audience. Plus, based on the intro, the target audience was kids who could solve the puzzle in, like, five seconds flat. That, we have to confess, was not us, either.

Digging around IMDB.com, we find that the plot of this cartoonercial involved a magic Rubik’s Cube (bet you figured that part out) lost by a mean magician. The episodes involved the magician trying to get the Cube back, only to be thwarted by Rubik’s magic powers.

If you poke around in your brain for a few minutes, you’ll remember… that’s basically the plot of the Rankin-Bass holiday classic, “Frosty the Snowman.” Magician looses magic hat, magic hat brings snowman to life, snowman befriends children and spends 23 minutes dissuading magician from recovering said magic hat.

All in all, “Rubik the Amazing Cube” was a pretty lazy attempt to wring a little more money out of an admittedly ingenious puzzle toy that, while it survives to the present, had already passed its peak.

Which makes us wonder (and cringe over) what, exactly, they’re going to do when (no joke!) they come out with the ViewMaster movie in a few years..?

Let’s here it from you, folks: pitch us your best (and by “best” we mean “most ridiculous,” naturally) retro toy movie or television series ideas in the comments!