If anyone ever needed a time capsule for the years 1982 to 1985, they would need to look no further than this G.I. Joe animated series collection to understand the first half or so of the Reagan decade. The unquestioning faith in men with huge biceps, the unrelenting xenophobia, the casual disdain for liberals who constantly seem to want nothing more than to let Cobra Commander back out on the street; it’s all there. This might sound like a criticism, but it’s not; in comparison, Obama-era cartoons celebrating peace, harmony, and government-backed community investments are going to really suck.
The G.I. Joe team is a crack squad of military commandos (is there any other kind?) charged with keeping the world safe from the megalomaniacal advances of Cobra Commander, one of those classic cartoon villains who’s insanely evil for absolutely no reason. Cobra Commander is helped by the slightly more practical (but not less ridiculously costumed) Destro, and occasionally by the crazily inept Zartan, but they still never seem to be any match for the G.I. Joe team. Led by Duke (a blond guy with a crew cut and roughly the same dimensions as a refrigerator), and aided by lovably familiar archetypes Scarlett O’Hara, Snake Eyes, Gung Ho, Alpine, Shipwreck, General Hawk, and several others, the G.I. Joe team always manages to defeat Cobra’s plans of world domination even when , darn it, it looks like in this one episode that they’re going to lose and that the free world is going to be taken over by a man with a voice not dissimilar to Harvey Fierstein’s.
Although the episodes themselves are entertaining (and broken into four separate story arcs, with each one getting its own disc), the real highlight of this set is the commentary by writer Rob Friedman, who talks with greater elocution and intelligence about this cartoon show than most professors and scientists are able to about global warming. To hear him tell it, the G.I. Joe universe was crafted with a science so precise that it might have brought about Cold Fusion if directed into other areas. It also helps to both highlight and detract from the central issue at the heart of G.I. Joe: this series exists to sell toys.
The original G.I. Joe set was first issued in the 60s and 70s, with later teams and iterations coming about in roughly the same way that new Power Rangers teams do up until 1982, when the definitive set of characters (so named under the title "A Real American Hero") was released. This show was created to help sell those toys, and Friedman, a former screenwriting professor, was the primary architect of their success. Hearing him describe the way that the show uses MacGuffins (an old Hitchcock term to describe objects that the characters are fighting over; the Ark of the Covenant and the One Ring would be examples), easily recognizable symbols to denote good and evil, and other common tricks of the screenwriting trade, it’s hard to not notice what a thin line this show walks between skilled presentation and cold, cynical, corporate manipulation. Credit needs to be given where credit is due, but at the same time, it’s hard not to feel a little used.
But complaining about feeling used by G.I. Joe is about the same as complaining that you feel used by a super-model that never called you back: who really cares? If you want campy 80s action cartoon, G.I. Joe has the goods. Even if you never had the chance to be a G.I. Joe kid, it’s easy to wish you were watching this set.
DVD Bonus Features
In addition to Friedman’s commentary, the set also has all of the original “Knowing Is Half The Battle” PSAs (the ones that were parodied so memorably over at Ebaum’s world), the original 1963 toy fair presentation, a printable script for the episode “Jungle Trap”, and a number of archival ads for Hasbro toys.
"G.I. Joe A Real American Hero: Season One" is on sale July 14, 2009 and is rated NR. Animation. Directed by Buzz Dixon. Written by Ron Friedman, Paul Dini, Steve Gerber, Kimmer Ringwald, Mary Skrenes, Christy Marx, Ted Pederson, Steve Mitchell, Barbara Petty. Starring Arthur Burghardt, BJ Ward, Jackson Beck, Lee Weaver, Michael Bell, Neil Ross, Zack Hoffman.
