In the late ’80s and early ’90s, it wasn’t unusual for violent movies like RoboCop and Rambo to be turned into Saturday morning cartoons for kids, but The Toxic Avenger still seemed like an unlikely candidate — until the 1984 low-budget gorefest was cleaned up for “Toxic Crusaders” in 1991.
An environmentally-conscious superhero cartoon in the vein of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and “Captain Planet,” the show ran for one season. All 13 episodes are coming to Blu-ray from Troma on December 10.
While originally animated on 16mm film, “Toxic Crusaders” was mastered on videotape for broadcast, including all digital effects and transitions. To present the series in the best possible quality, Troma has used advanced AI models to upscale the standard definition masters in high definition to capture the original broadcast’s intended experience.
Special Features for the two-disc set include:
- Introduction by Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman (new)
- Original Toxic Crusaders toy commercials and TV spots
- Feature length documentary on the making of Retroware’s Toxic Crusaders video game
- Long lost Toxie archival footage
- Bonus cartoons
Toxie and his nemesis Dr. Killemoff are both voiced by Rodger Bumpass, best known as Squidward on “SpongeBob SquarePants.” The cast also includes Paul Eiding (“Ben 10”), Ed Gilbert (“Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills”), Hal Rayle (“Swat Kats: The Radical Squad”), John Mariano (“The Tick”), Kath Soucie (Space Jam), Susan Silo (“Biker Mice from Mars”), and Gregg Berger (“Duckman”).
Set in the fictional city of Tromaville, the show finds nerd-turned-superhero Toxie leading a group of fellow mutants to stop evil alien Dr. Killemoff and his cohorts from destroying the planet.
The first episode of “Toxic Crusaders” was written by sitcom magnate Chuck Lorre, who went on to create “Two and a Half Men” and “The Big Bang Theory.” The Toxic Avenger co-directors and Troma co-founders Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz worked on the show as well.
Lorre also co-wrote the “Toxic Crusaders” theme song, featured in the video below, which also serves as a preview of Troma’s high definition up-scaling.
