Looking Back at the 90's Tagalized Cartoons

Before Spongebob, Dora the Explorer, and Ben 10 became popular, cartoons during the 90's are like no other - leaving us trademarks, moral lessons, and "Ako si [cartoon character]" attitude way back then. These cartoons are usually adapted from novels or anime manga and then translated to different languages. Here is the list of memorable Tagalized cartoons you've probably watched as a kid.

Cedie, Ang Munting Prinsipe

This Japanes anime series is based on the novel “Little Lord Fauntleroy” by Frances Hodgson Burnett. On the story, Cedric Errol (also known as Cedie) is an American boy who at an early age finds that he is the sole heir to a British earldom and leaves New York to take up residence in his ancestral castle. After some initial resistance, he is joined by his middle-class mother, widow of heir James Errol. His grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, intends to teach the boy to become an aristocrat, but Cedie inadvertently teaches his grandfather compassion and social justice, and the artless simplicity and motherly love of dearest warms the old man's heart.

Sarah, Ang Munting Prinsesa

The story is based on another Frances Hodgson Burnett novel, where the main character Sara Crewe was brought to London all the way from India to have a formal education. Sara is an intelligent and polite daughter of a wealthy soldier, Captain Ralph Crewe. She is treated as a princess on the boarding school until the news came about her father’s bankruptcy and death in India. Since then, she is forced to be a servant by their headmistress, Miss Minchin. She remained strong with the help of her friends, both seen and unseen. Her sufferings then ended when one of her father’s friends rescued her and recovered their family’s fortune.

Julio at Julia: Kambal ng Tadhana

The story begins in Peking, China in 1895. Two children, Julio (a Chinese boy), and Julia (an English girl) are born, fulfilling the first part of a prophecy foretold by the soothsayer Lowtzay. The prophecy describes two children, born to different parents, but in the same place at the same hour (when the moon is at its highest point in the night sky) and whose mothers both perish at birth will end the tyrannical rule of the Empress of China. In addition, the prophecy also states that for this dethronement to occur, the so-called "Twins of Destiny" must replace two stone tablets at the Temple of Heavenly Harmony in the Forbidden City.

However when the Empress hears of the prophecy, she hires people to find the twins and kill them. The twins, through the kind hearts of those around them manage to escape peril and live abroad. The two grow up in England and as they reach their 12th birthday, their powers start to manifest. When their adoptive father dies of a heart attack, the twins discover their true destiny and are required to work together to overcome many obstacles in their journey to fulfill the prophecy.

Remi: Nobody’s Girl

The story is adapted from Sans famille, an 1878 French novel, written by Hector Malot. It tells the story of Remi, a cheerful and tender-hearted young girl, who is an excellent singer and lives in a French country town of Chavanon with her mother. One day her father returns to the town after a long period working away from home in a city. She discovers that she was a "foundling" or an abandoned child and was adopted by Mother Barberin. Her step father Jerome leaves to work in Paris and expects Mother Barberin to send Remi to the workhouse. He returns 10 years later and finds that Remi is still there, and becomes furious and Remi is almost sold to an evil slave trader. It is Vitalis, a strolling entertainer, who helps Remi. Vitalis discovers her talent for singing and decides to take her in with his troupe. Remi starts her journey with Vitalis and his troupe animals such as the monkey Georicoule and the dogs Capi, Dolce, and Zelbino. On her journeys with Vitalis and his company she must endure and overcome many difficulties while looking for her real family.

Mga Munting Pangarap ni Romeo

Romeo’s Blue Skies (also known as Romeo and the Black Brothers in English translation) is a Japanese anime series based on the novel Schwarzen Brüder ("The Black Brothers") written in 1941 in Switzerland by the Jewish author Kurt Held but published under the name of his wife Lisa Tetzner. To get the money to pay for a doctor for his father, Romeo bravely sells himself as a chimney sweep. On the way to Milan he meets Alfredo, a mysterious boy on the run heading to the same fate. Upon being separated and sold to their new bosses, the two boys swear eternal friendship. Romeo has to learn the hardships of a chimney sweep's job. His boss' daughter, Angeletta, is a girl with a heart illness who is not allowed to leave her room. She asks Romeo to bring the blue sky to her. Alfredo unites the sweeps in a secret union, the "Black Brothers" to face together the "Wolf Pack" gang, who constantly attack them. With their help, Romeo succeeds in bringing Angeletta's dream to her. Soon the brotherhood faces more hardships than cruel bosses or street hooligans. Alfredo reveals his secret: he has sold himself in the name of his sister Bianca. It is now up to the "Black Brothers" to stand up for the truth, to save Bianca and to protect their leader's life with their own.

Blue Blink

Blue Blink is a sci-fi anime series created by Osamu Tezuka. The anime is based from classic film Konjok-gorbunok by Ivan Ivanov-Vano. The story opens with the meeting between our hero, Kakeru, and a mystical pony named Blink. Kakeru saves Blink from a thunder shower and in gratitude, Blink tells him that if he is ever in trouble, all Kakeru needs to do is call out his name and he will appear. At the end of the summer when Kakeru returns home, his father, a writer of children's stories, is kidnapped. Kakeru, weeping, calls out Blink's name and, as promised, Blink immediately appears, and the two set out on the trail of Kakeru's father. Only at the end, when Kakeru woke up from his deep sleep found out that all his adventures with Blink was only his father’s writings that shown in his dreams.

Judy Abbott

The story is based on Daddy Long-Legs, a 1912 novel by the American writer Jean Webster. Jerusha Abbott was brought up at the John Grier Home, an old-fashioned orphanage. The children were wholly dependent on charity and had to wear other people's cast-off clothes. Jerusha's unusual first name was selected by the matron off a gravestone (she hates it and uses "Judy" instead), while her surname was selected out of the phone book. At the age of 18, she has finished her education and is at loose ends, still working in the dormitories at the institution where she was brought up.

One day, after the asylum's trustees have made their monthly visit, Judy is informed by the asylum's dour matron that one of the trustees has offered to pay her way through college. He has spoken to her former teachers and thinks she has potential to become an excellent writer. He will pay her tuition and also give her a generous monthly allowance. Judy must write him a monthly letter, because he believes that letter-writing is important to the development of a writer. However, she will never know his identity; she must address the letters to Mr. John Smith, and he will never reply.

Tom Sawyer

Thomas "Tom" Sawyer is the title character of the Mark Twain novel "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." The story features Tom Sawyer's best friends Joe Harper and Huckleberry Finn and classmate crush Rebecca “Becky” Thatcher. He lives with his half brother Sid, his cousin Mary, and his stern Aunt Polly (sister of Tom’s mother, who already passed away) in the (fictional) town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. In addition, he has another aunt, Sally Phelps, who lives considerably farther down the Mississippi River, in the town of Pikesville.

Vontrapp Family Singers

It is an adaptation on the novel "The Story of the Trapp Family Singers" by Maria von Trapp, which has also inspired the world famous musical, "The Sound of Music".

Little Women

Based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott, the story focused on four sisters namely  Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March who are living with their mother in New England. Their father is away serving as a chaplain in the Civil War, and the sisters struggle to support themselves and keep their household running despite the fact that the family recently lost its fortune. In the process, they become close friends with their wealthy neighbor, Theodore Laurence, known as "Laurie." 

As the girls grow older, each faces her own personal demons and moral challenges. Jo, our beloved protagonist, must tame her tomboyish ways and learn to be more ladylike while pursuing her ambition to be a great writer. Meg, the oldest, must put aside her love of wealth and finery in order to follow her heart. Beth, the shy one, must conquer her bashfulness, while Amy, the youngest, has to sacrifice her aristocratic pride. The girls are guided in their personal growth by their mother, "Marmee," and by their religious faith.

Sailor Moon

The story of the various metaseries revolves around the reborn defenders of a kingdom that once spanned the Solar System, and around the evil forces that they battle. The major characters — the  "Sailor Soldiers”, composed of the chosen teenage girls — can transform into heroines named for the moon and planets. The use of "Sailor" comes from a style of girls' school uniform popular in Japan, the sera fuku or Sailor Outfit, on which Takeuchi (the creator of Sailor Moon) modeled the Sailor Moon's uniforms. The elements of fantasy in the series are heavily symbolic and often based on mythology.

Mojacko

Mojacko is a manga series that tells about Sorao, an ordinary student who lives an ordinary everyday life of a typical kid then accidentally makes friends with two aliens stranded here on Earth. His life changes as he decides to help them find a way to get home. As the story progresses, wherein they do reach the aliens' homeworld, Sorao along with his friend Miki, discovers a blood feud between two different tribes. Things gone awry as the tribes' representatives try to outdo one another in search of the missing treasure of the past with the help of an uncovered clue.


How about you Fosters, what is your favorite cartoons during the 90's? Feel free to comment or share something! :)