Five Saturday Morning Cartoons From The 1990s That Were Based On Hit Movies

Well alrighty then...

The Mask: Animated Series
You might well notice a little bit of a Jim Carrey theme in this collection of five Saturday morning cartoons from the 1990s that were based on hit films. 1994 was quite an amazing year for Carrey with three hit movies; Dumb & Dumber, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Mask. The latter of which received its own animated spin-off that ran for a total of three seasons and fifty-four episodes from August 12th 1995, to August 30th 1997, and spawned its own short-run comic book series, Adventures of The Mask.



The antics of Carrey's character were considerably toned down for the younger audience although The Mask: Animated Series did retain the major plot points from the film, with insecure bank clerk Stanley Ipkiss using an ancient mask to gain superpowers while taking on the mischievous personality of The Mask. The major alteration is that Stanley can use the mask in daytime as well as at night, and Tina Carlyle (Cameron Diaz's character in the film) is completely absent from the series.

Now, how about as animated treatment for another of Jim Carrey's 1994 hit movies...



Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Acting as a sequel to the Ace Ventura live-action movies, the animated series began on December 9th 1995 and ran for two seasons on CBS, with a third season arriving on Nickelodeon sporadically between 1999 to 2000, amid reruns of previous episodes.

Many of the characters from the movie were retained, though not voiced by their original actors, and even though the film already had a strongly cartoonish comedic aesthetic, it was ramped up further here with slapstick, garish, and gormless tales and puns throughout its run. Interestingly, a young Seth MacFarlane was among the writers over the course of the show's run.

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was paired up with The Mask: Animated series by CBS to create an hour long block on Saturday mornings. The pair of animated spin-offs even crossed over, with the Ace Ventura: Pet Detective episode Have Mask, Will Travel featuring Stanley Ipkiss joining Ace on his mission, following the events of The Mask: Animated Series episode The Aceman Cometh.



Men In Black: The Series
Premiering in October 1997, just three months after the release of the first Men In Black movie and running for 53 episodes, Men In Black: The Series featured a lot of the characters and concepts introduced in the film but remained separate from the movie series continuity.

The most significant differences between the film and Men In Black: The Series are that Agent K did not retire, and Agent J is still regarded as a rookie. Agent L is, however, a part of the organization, as she was following the events of the first film.



Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures
The 1990 animated television series spin-off from the 1989 film of the almost same title (just without the pluralisation) ran for 21 episodes and  followed the misadventures of the two time-travelling slackers, Bill S. Preston, Esq. & Ted "Theodore" Logan, as they traveled into the distant past and future, making sure that history happens as it should, more or less.

The first season of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures actually saw Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin, and Bernie Casey reprising their film roles. For the second season the cast was replaced, and the leads were now voiced by Evan Richards and Christopher Kennedy, who, incidentally, would go on to portray Bill and Ted on the short-lived 1992 live-action television series.



Dumb And Dumber 
And it's three for three for Jim Carrey's 1994 hit movies, although he, of course, had absolutely no involvement in any of the animated spin-offs. Here Matt Frewer (better known as Max Headroom) provided the voice of Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey's character in the movie), while Bill Fagerbakke (you know him as the voice of Patrick Star in SpongeBob SqaurePants) voiced the character of Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels' character in the movie).

Premiering October 1995 on ABC as part of their Saturday morning line-up, Dumb And Dumber was produced by Hanna-Barbera, and became their final show to air on a broadcast network television station. Not the best way to go out for such a great animation studio, as this series was just weird - and not in a good way. For some reason, Lloyd and Harry, after reacquiring their dogshaped van now named "Otto", were paired with a new character called Kitty who is a female pet purple beaver that appears to be smarter than both men.

Which isn't hard admittedly.

Did you watch any of these Saturday morning cartoons? Let us know in the comments below...