Ah, Killer Tomatoes. I must admit that it was this cartoon that eventually lead me to seek out the movies. This cartoon was based on the first two movies from what I can see and came out the same year as the third movie (Killer Tomatoes Strike Back), but from what I've seen the third movie has no influence on the cartoon, unlike the first two. Actually, I think the cartoon had some influence on the fourth movie (Killer Tomatoes Eat France) as we see the three tomato characters of Zoltan, Fang and Ketchup being incorporated into it with some minor design alterations and both Fang and Ketchup getting name changes.
So what is this show about? Well, when I said it was based on the first two movies, it really is more a collection of characters and ideas from those movies re-imagined in a cartoon setting. It certainly feels like a different take on the second movie, but with alterations to characters for whatever reason that they decided for these changes. The characters themselves are very much aware that this is a cartoon and will point out things as a result of this. It ran for around two seasons, but never got a storyline finish (but I'll get to that later). It's theme song is also based on the second movies take of the original theme (though still not as good as the second movies theme).
So first off we have the good guys. These consist of Tomato War veteran Wilbur Finletter and the Tomato Taskforce who are an alternate version of the team from originated in the first movie, with Floyd being an alternate take on Greg (both are underwater experts) while Mary Jo is the alternate take on Gretta. Sam still seems to be the same in that he is a 'disguise expert'. This lot are more of a joke team for the most part, with them more likely to get into trouble then to solve it. Wilbur has the most time of the group and runs a pizza shop, always trying to create more outlandish dishes that no one wants to eat.
No, the real heroes are Chad, Tara and F.T. Unlike their movie counterparts, Chad is much younger, but is still Wilbur's nephew. F.T (Fuzzy Tomato) is more active, though more so that it's a cartoon and he's not just a live-action prop, and apart from Chad, Tara and the Villains, most think he's just an ugly dog. He also ends up being forced to taste Wilbur's latest pizza's, much to his disliking. Tara is still one of Gangreen's experiments, but instead of music, it's salt that turns her back into a tomato and pepper that turns her into a human. Tara is also the main reason I remember this show, mostly from her scenes from a season 2 episode that was a sort of Phantom of the Opera parody. Looking through the episodes, I think there may have been more to the character that would have made her memorable to a young boy's mind and it's unclear why in some episodes (I'm looking at you Tomato of the Black Lagoon) there wasn't a gag with the censor lady showing up to protest the more 'mature' style of particular scenes.
Speaking of which, the other characters on the side of good are Whitely White, a television reporter who seems to be everywhere and reports everything. The Censor Lady who is responsible for showing up to censor things as her running gag and finally Tomato Guy. Tomato Guy is more interesting as he is basically that one guy from the first movie who says the word 'Tomato' and causes everyone to flee and while that still is his gimmick for parts of the first season, they do tend to expand on him and give him a much bigger role in some episodes. So credit where credit is due, they took a one gag character and expanded on it, which is a nice change to see.
Once again, John Astin returns to provide the voice for an animated character he also preformed the live version of. The alteration is that instead of Professor Mortimer Gangreen, he is now Dr Putrid T Gangreen and now has a greenish skin colour to match the look. In season two, he claims to be the first cartoon villain to have conquered the world in a single non-multipart episode and not be defeated. Whether that claim is true I am unable to confirm. One interesting thing to note is that he claims he is not a mad scientist, just an angry one, which got me thinking; Sheep in the Big City also did this gag, but that show was made later on and I have no doubt that this show didn't create that gag, so who first created the 'not mad, angry scientist' gag? Point is, I'm a big John Astin fan and I need to move on.
His minions consist of his Igor, a rather dim surfer dude stereotype who wants to be a T.V personality and it often getting into trouble with the Doctor. Finally we have the tomatoes Zoltan and the gang of five (which strangely, throughout season one only shows four tomatoes). Zoltan and his gang are much of the same joke minions, with Zoltan being the one with any real speaking part. This would change in season two where they are transformed into mutant tomatoes and each one gains it's own unique look and personality. They would successfully take over the world in the second season, though how they manage to keep control of it is a mystery to me. This would ultimately force Gangreen and Igor to team up with the Tomato Task Force (who is now an underground resistance) in an attempt to stop the tomatoes.
Ah yes, the second season. Looking back on my Blazing Dragons reflection, I should never have separated the seasons (mostly cause trying to write the second one up is much harder then I thought), so instead I'll address the issues I have with the second season of Killer Tomatoes here.
There was a massive change between the first and second seasons of the show, with the most obvious being the animation. It became computer animated and it really does show. Personally, it wasn't for me and looked more like it should have been cutscenes for an early 90's video game instead of a show.
Then there was the intro song. While it remains the same for the most part, they added kids to it both visually and to sing along to it. I'm wondering if it was meant to tone down some of the 'scariness' factor of killer tomatoes, but to me it just feels like a toy ad every time and it's really off putting. The story structure also changed, instead of one off episodes it was now it was a continuous story. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. Some of the humour took a hit and wasn't as good as the first season. Also, Tara also got an outfit change and is now active in tomato form and I believe everyone knows about Tara and F.T being tomatoes, which is very weird.
Seriously? This is the guy who conquered Australia? How?
Ultimately, the show was cancelled before resolving the tomato world dominating plot, which was a bit of a shame. My guess is season two wasn't as popular as beyond the first four episodes, finding any other ones after that is near impossible. I was at least able to find most of season one online and after re-watching most of the show again, I can say I did enjoy it. It is very much your generic Saturday morning cartoon and its main theme of killer tomatoes isn't going to be for everyone, so I can see why most would have given it a pass. Given how critical people are these days, I think most will prefer this over the movies. I certainly found some of the gags of the first season funny and the show was entertaining enough for me to watch for the most part. If you can, check out a few of season ones episodes if your curios.
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