G.I. Joe (1990–1992) User Reviews

Got to get tough! Yo Joe!

[Dinobot2 · 10/10 · 30 June 2004]

Warning: The following may contain spoilers!

The new episodes of G.I. Joe actually started up in 1989 after the G.I. Joe movie. The company DIC took over from Sunbow as the Company. Sunbow was used in all previous episodes of G. I. Joe. You could tell from the new episodes there were many changes. Many character changes. Some characters added. Some old characters did not return. Some characters returned but with new personalities. (example: General Hawk.) The animation seemed to be downsized a bit from the late 80's style. The stories became more fantasy and less Government involved. Voice Actors also were different for most of the returning characters. In fact one of the only Voice Actors that stayed the same was Chris Latta. (Cobra Commander) Destro had a new voice, General Hawk had a new voice, Storm Shadow, and such.

DIC began the new series with a five part mini series called G.I.Joe: Operation Dragonfire. The theme song was the same except for using "A real American Hero", they switched it to "International Hero." More old characters were used in this 5 part mini series such as Low Light, Stalker, and Serpentor. They were very much different than the characters they used to be. The creators of the series decided to give Serpentor the axe in order to reintroduce Cobra Commander. The way it happened was very odd considering Serpentor's past role in the show. There were many different minor characters and vehicles introduced into the show. This was also mainly to sell toy merchandise.

After that there were 39 episodes created which went for about 2 seasons. After Operation Dragonfire even more original characters were dropped and new ones added such as Metalhead, Gridiron, Ambush, Night Creeper, and such. This was done once again to sell new merchandise. The theme song changed completely. From International Hero to a whole new theme, "Got to get tough! Yo Joe!" Which then went on into an upbeat song. There was a large addition of ninja warriors on both sides. Episodes consisted of Ninjas, new B.A.T.S., the environment, and such. The show was very much intended for a younger audience. There was even a couple episodes were G.I. Joe and Cobra team up to take down a Drug Lord who has taken a loved one from both sides. I remember Falcon from G.I. Joe the movie being in those episodes and a Crimson Guard being a main character.

The series had it's highs and lows. Basically a few more years to see great Cobra characters in action such as the Cobra Commander, Destro, Baroness and such. I enjoyed it as a kid. Not as much as the old episodes though. As Rhino has now begun releasing G.I. Joe seasons in DVD Boxsets I hope that the early 90's episodes will be released as well. It's been a long time since many of us have seen them. I'm confident that they will be on DVD soon.

YO JOE!

YO JOE !!! The best GI Joe Cartoon Ever Made !!!

[Mannypl66 · 10/10 · 30 July 2008]

The new GI Joe series aired in the fall of 1990 and it lasted 2 seasons with a total of 35 episodes. It was actually the continuation to GI Joe: Operation Dragon Fire which was a five part mini series and is a follow up to GI Joe the Movie. Although some of the old characters did return, a large majority of the original GI Joes were completely dropped and did not return in the new series as Hasbro and the show's producers wanted the show to mainly and primarily focus on new characters. Captain Grid Iron became the new GI Joe leader with General Hawk and Sgt Slaughter as field commanders. This new GI Joe Series would introduce an abundance of new characters and many new GI Joes were introduced such as Bulletproof, Sky Dive, Drop Zone, Airwave, Rampart, Ambush, Stretcher, Big Bear, Heavy Duty, Scoop, Sub Zero, Clean Sweep, Bullhorn, Ozone, Major Altitude and Pathfinder just to name a few. But the show would also reintroduce many returning GI Joes such as General Hawk, Duke, Flint, Lady Jaye, Rock N Roll, Low Light, Roadblock, Mercer, Sgt Mutt and his sidekick dog Junkyard, Grunt, Sci-Fi, Dusty, Wet Suit, Scarlett, Snake Eyes, Lt. Falcon and the all time favorite Sgt Slaughter. With Captain Grid Iron as their new leader the Joes continued to battle against Cobra. Flint became the leader of the new GI Joe Echo Warriors, while Duke remained absent for the entire first season and only made short guest and cameo appearances in only about 8 episodes during the second season--again this was due to the fact that Hasbro wanted to focus primarily on new characters. After Serpentor's defeat and mutation Cobra Commander would retake command of the Cobra organization. Among Cobra's returning characters were Destro, Major Bludd, The Baronness and Zaranna while the rest of the original Cobra characters were completely dropped in this new series. Cobra also introduced new characters such as Metalhead, Cesspool, a new dreadknock called Gnagahyde, Overkill and a new Cobra ninja master was introduced called Night Creeper Leader, who was actually Snake Eyes' second ninja nemesis after Storm Shadow. Night Creeper Leader was the leader of the Night Creeper cobra ninjas as Storm Shadow was now a GI Joe. The show had limited character development due to the fact that there were so many new characters in order to sell toys for Hasbro. Due to budgetary reasons and Hasbro's financial issues the show was produced by DIC Entertainment which was a much smaller production company compared to Sunbow which produced the original. This show's story lines were very much the same to the original as far as GI Joe's endless battle against Cobra but I think that the battle scenes were better and the military battle vehicles were more up to date. In my opinion this was probably the best GI Joe cartoon every made, the animation was great, the battle scenes were excellent and the show had a lot of humor and it even introduced a brand new GI Joe theme song titled "Got To Get Tough, Yo Joe !!" and the most important thing to remember is that this series stayed true to GI Joe's traditional military and patriotic roots just as the original did and although the story lines were very similar to the original and repetitive the show still managed to be very enjoyable. It's just disappointing that it never had a lasting memory among die hard GI Joe fans such as myself as a classic GI Joe Cartoon, however, it was a great addition to the GI Joe saga. I do hope that this show will be released on DVD.