''Sports Cartoons'' is an American animated series, produced by

Derek Lamb Derek Reginald Lamb (20 June 1936 – 5 November 2005) was a British animation filmmaker and producer. While serving as executive producer of the National Film Board of Canada's English Animation Studio from 1976 to 1982, he produced the Oscar-win ...

and

Janet Perlman Janet Laurie Perlman is a Canadian animator and children's book author and illustrator whose work includes the short film '' The Tender Tale of Cinderella Penguin'', which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 54th ...

's Lamb-Perlman Productions in 1985. The series featured various sports being played by

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

animals, including cats, dogs, pigs, and hippopotami. Some of these sports included

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

shot put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

, and

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

Screening

The episodes were short in length, ranging from 40 seconds to two minutes. Roughly 45 episodes were created, many of which were played during commercial breaks on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

in the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s. Visually speaking, ''Sports Cartoons'' bear resemblance to other series animated in the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

style. The series was issued on

video cassette Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocasset ...

Family Home Entertainment Family Home Entertainment (FHE) was an American home video company founded in 1980 by Noel C. Bloom. It was a division of International Video Entertainment, which had its headquarters in Newbury Park, California. History The company was found ...

Characters

''Sports Cartoons'' typically featured several of the same four characters in each episode. However, in episodes involving teams, the team was usually made up of numerous identical versions of the same character (for example, a football team of cats, or a hockey team of hippopotami).

Hippopotamus

The

hippopotamus The hippopotamus (''Hippopotamus amphibius;'' ; : hippopotamuses), often shortened to hippo (: hippos), further qualified as the common hippopotamus, Nile hippopotamus and river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Sahar ...

is calm and usually emerges as the victor. The hippopotamus is the most frequent opponent of the cat. The hippo remains peaceful and collected, unless a smaller helpless creature (such as a butterfly or a flower) is threatened, in which case he becomes highly protective.

Cat

The

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

is the antagonist who, for the most part, does not play fair. He frequently faces off against the hippopotamus, wherein he tries to interrupt, distract, or otherwise throw off the hippopotamus' efforts. Usually this backfires, as the hippopotamus always wins. Another variation of the cat is the Big Cat, which is a larger, burlier rendition of the small cat.

Pig

The

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), also called swine (: swine) or hog, is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is named the domestic pig when distinguishing it from other members of the genus '' Sus''. Some authorities cons ...

appears less frequently, and along with the hippopotamus, competes against the cat (or cats). Like the hippopotamus, the pig always comes out on top, though usually through dumb luck.

Dog

The

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...

is rarely seen, and usually portrays the referee/judge.

External links

*{{IMDb title, 0405341
''Sports Cartoons'' essaySports Cartoons on ''YouTube''
1985 American animated television series debuts 1980s American animated comedy television series 1980s American children's comedy television series 1980s American sports television series 1980s Nickelodeon original programming American children's animated comedy television series American children's animated fantasy television series American children's animated sports television series Hippopotamuses in popular culture Animated television series about mammals Animated television series about cats Animated television series about dogs Animated television series about pigs Animated television series without speech