Am I the only one who is surprised that 1984’s Gremlins — one of the best holiday horror movies — did not spawn its own animated TV spin-off sooner? Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, which follows the adventures of Gizmo in 1920s China, is now available to stream with a Max subscription, nearly 40 years after the original movie came out. Yet, I can think of many other flicks that were given the same treatment relatively quickly after becoming a hit — such as Beetlejuice, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, and even Police Academy, to name a few.
However, upon the debut of this new Gremlins prequel series, I started to realize that there are several other iconic ’80 movies that have not yet been given the chance to be reinterpreted as an animated TV show, even though their stories would lend themselves beautifully to the medium. If only I were a Hollywood executive in that decade, the seven cinematic classics that I have listed below would have already been put on the TV cartoon fast track. Luckily, I do not think it is too late for them, and here are the reasons why I believe they still deserve that chance.
