It's Memorial Day here in the US, which many like to call the unofficial start of the Summer. And this Summer, everyone's 3rd, maybe 4th, favorite 4-year sports-related background noise, The Summer Olympics, will be gracing our television screens once again. And as we wait for the torch to light up in Paris in late July, I thought to look back at a piece of media once considered lost: A cartoon created to promote the mascot of the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, a blue alien-looking thing named Izzy.
The special first aired on TNT on August 12, 1995, and would air on the Cartoon Network in 1996. The cartoon had some big names, a dream team if you will, of voice actors including Justin Shenkarow, Rob Paulsen, Tress MacNeille, Jim Cummings, Scott Menville, and a whole lot more. However much like Izzy himself, the cartoon was long forgotten about once the games came and went. Honestly, I thought I was gonna see this get posted on Tooncrap when acquaintance of mine Retro wasn't giving Captain Planet it's proper beatdown (That episode with the animal jury is just...ugh.) Sadly, The special wasn't available online for Retro to do an induction before retiring Tooncrap to avoid being one of those critics that focused too much on the negatives and harming their mental being in the process. Retro is now enjoying the retired life on a plantation in Hawaii spending the day binge-watching classic Simpsons episodes...wait, what's that? They're still writing? Mostly covering the works of RL Stine and other children's horror series, alongside other classic series from the 80s and 90s? Someone should really link to their work. Hey wait a second, I'M somebody. I can do that. Here you go: https://raidersofthebookmark.blogspot.com/
Anyways getting back on track, in December 2020 a Youtuber by the name of James C found a video tape in his father's garage that contained the special when it aired on TNT and uploaded it to the site, commercials in tact. Finally, the special had found it's way onto Youtube...of course, it turned out that the Atlanta History Center actually uploaded the master video of the special a whole month prior to that, but has the video unlisted, which is way James C's upload nearly 3 1/2 years later is at 43k views while the AHC version isn't close to 1k. For this retrospect, I'll be watching the one posted by the AHC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giegiqF1Pe8 , but here's a link to James C's version in case you wanna see some Mid 90s commercial goodness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzGr9ibFkrw
Before we begin, a little history lesson on how we got here. In 1990, the International Olympic Committee, the IOC for short, selected Atlanta to host the Centennial Olympic Games over Toronto, Melbourne, Athens, Manchester, and Belgrade. A very strange choice and a bit of an upset, but the IOC felt Atlanta was the most prepared to host the event. As part of the transition portion of the closing ceremonies for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, the mascot of the Atlanta games would make it's debut. And as you can see in the video below, this felt doomed from the start:
Originally named "Whatizit", the computer-generated mascot was a morphing alien-like creature with red high-tops, lightning bolts for eyebrows, stars for pupils, and the Olympic rings found around him, with the blue and green rings above his eyes, and the red, black, and yellow rings on his tail. Between the 2 games, the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games approached Film Roman to do a redesign of the mascot, now going by Izzy, as well as to make a 30-minute special/pilot for a potential series. The redesigned Izzy created was the look of the mascot going forward, and would be the one featured in other parts of media from the ACOG, including the platforming game Izzy's Quest for the Olympic Rings, which honestly would've been a better name for the cartoon, and an educational PC game called Izzy's Adventure, also once considered lost media before being uploaded to the internet in 2015. Now that you know the background of the character, lets finally dive into this cartoon and see if this truly was as bad as I thought it was.
The new and improved(ish) Izzy
The cartoon opens with some ancient Grecian imagery before showing torchbearers over the years, as we see the different footwears they have donned over the years, from running barefoot to sandals to modern day running shoes. We then get some voiceover narration from Jim Cummings talking about athletes coming together every 4 years for the Olympic Games and how the symbol of the spirit of the games, the Torch, sits above said Games. And inside the torch lives another world, cleverly named Torch World, where the citizens are responsible for tending the Olympic spirit. How? I don't know. Jim kind of just...ends it there. Moving on, we get a small glimpse of Torch World before heading to the household of a family, where the mother is preparing lunch for her husband George and her son, the title character himself, Izzy. Izzy is doing...something in his room causing bits of the ceiling to fall. The mother is worrying about what's going on, but George doesn't seem to mind as he's busy watching a report about the upcoming games. It's only when the TV loses the picture that he now goes to do something about it. We see that Izzy is dribbling a basketball, apparently with a lot of force to do that much damage, as he roleplays being the newest star of the Dream Team.
Get ready to learn Chinese buddy, cause you ain't breaking into this lineup
Izzy dunks the ball into the net before morphing into a basketball and going through the net himself. As George opens Izzy's door to see what's going on, Izzy passes the ball to him and knocks him down as a result. Izzy wants the ball back to continue practicing for the Olympic tryouts. George tells him that Torch World citizens only tend to the flame and don't compete in the Games themselves. Never have and never will. And it kind of makes sense if you think about it. Living in Torch World, the citizens have to be like, what, less than an inch? Less than a millimeter perhaps? The only way Izzy would be up-and-down a basketball court would be squished under Shaq's massive kicks. Anyways, after another dunk sends him crashing through the ceiling, Izzy goes outside determined to try out for the games. He grabs a branch and performs a short horizontal bar routine, but can't land a good dismount. The bad landing gets a laugh by brothers Martin and Spartin, with Martin mocking Izzy about being a great athlete. Izzy fires back asking if Martin is an athlete or just an athletic supporter. Martin, not one for being mocked himself, decides to challenge Izzy to a race to the center of town, and takes a head start. Izzy decides to show off his running prowess by speeding right past the brothers. Reaching a river, Izzy performs a long jump and makes it to the other side. Not long after, a splash is heard and Martin starts calling for help. Turns out Spartin didn't make the jump and is currently being washed away by the river towards a waterfall. Izzy grabs a nearby log which he uses as a kayak, with a cattail being used as an oar. Izzy manages to get to Spartin and save him before he goes over the falls. For his heroism, Izzy gets to meet with the Tribunal of Elders for a hero's reward. There, he meets Coriba, who's decorating his hero's cake by using fencing equipment.
"'To persevere is courage in a man, only a coward gives up' to paraphrase my old friend Euripedes."
"Euripedes?"
"No, Coriba. How do you do?"
Izzy recognizes the name and realizes that Coriba was at the very first Olympic games, which would make Coriba, what, nearly 3000 years old? Coriba romanticizes the Olympics goal of, in verbatim, "Ennoble and strengthen sport and thereby improve the human race, and build friendship and understanding amongst all people." I can think of at least 2 things that are off the mark with that these days. Izzy tells Coriba that he's gonna make it to the games himself, but Coriba tells him that the Tribunal needs to approve of that, so he'd best forget it. Wow, way to show that Olympic spirit, huh? Anyways, Izzy is called upon to enter the chambers of the Tribunal and be recognized by them. Hey while you're here Jim, can you tell us what you meant by the citizens tending the flame? No? Okay. The Tribunal consists of Citius, Altius, and Fortius, which is the Olympics motto meaning Faster, Higher, and Stronger. Fortius thanks Izzy for saving her son from drowning, and in his honor, Altius wants to perform The Ballad of Izzy, but Fortius calls that a punishment. Citius wants to give Izzy a worthwhile reward, so he wrote a poem, which gets the ire of Altius. Fortius reminds them they're here to honor Izzy, and so he should get a medal, which they both disapprove of. You'd think these three would've decided on what reward to give him before, you know, having him arrive to the chambers. Izzy interrupts their bickering and tells them that they can reward him by giving him permission to compete in the Olympic games. Fortius tells him that the only way a Torch World citizen can compete at the games is if he collects the 5 Olympics rings: Perseverance, Integrity, Sportsmanship, Excellence, and Brotherhood. Fortius and Altius take umbrage with Izzy thinking he can get all the rings, but Citius admires Izzy having spunk.
As the special goes into a commercial break, let me clear something up here: Those are not what the rings actually represent. The 5 rings are reportedly representing the competing continents of the world, with the Americas sharing one of the rings. The colors of the rings, as well as the white background, were chosen as they were the flag colors of the countries that played in the original modern games. So while the cartoon makes the symbol seem interesting and meaningful, in reality it's more dull than you would've originally thought. The More You Know.
Coming back from break, Fortius asks Izzy if going for the rings is what he wants to do. Izzy tells her that if that's what he needs to do to compete at the Games, then he'll do it. And just like that, the Ring of Perseverance is his. News of this starts to spread around Torch World, and this gets the ire of George, who Izzy blows off in order to start going for the other rings. Not knowing where to start however, he visits Coriba, who's drying her laundry archery-style. Coriba asks what his best and favorite sports are, with Izzy saying his best is all of them, but his favorites are basketball, swimming, track & field, gymnastics, weightlifting, wrestling, rowing, and soccer. That last one ends with Izzy morphing into a soccer ball and launching himself into a nearby net, surprising Coriba with his ability to do such a thing. Izzy thinks he can use his ability to win some events, but Coriba paraphrases her old friend Sophocles "It's better to fail with integrity than to win by cheating". Insert your own steroids joke here. Coriba suggests that the best way to earn the Olympic rings is through Olympic sports, giving Izzy a bicycle for a race that'll happen tomorrow. Izzy gets excited about winning the race, with Coriba worrying that he might be getting a little too competitive.
At the race, two of the cyclists talk about how Izzy is competing alongside them, and start to get into an argument on whether he'll get the rings or not. The race begins, and Izzy already finds himself the back of the pack as the others make a dash to begin. Meanwhile, Martin and Spartin get ready to stop Izzy from getting the rings to become heroes in their mother's eyes. Spartin questions why doing such a thing would make them heroes, with Martin convincing him that Izzy getting the rings and getting permission to compete in the Games could result in something terrible, like Torch World blowing up. GOP-levels of logic there by Martin. The brothers pincer Izzy and send him riding down a cliff. Way the thank the guy who literally saved one of your lives, ya jerks. Izzy crashes into a pile of rubble, but manages to keep cycling. Izzy morphs into a racquet and swats away the debris heading his way, avoiding any more harm. He takes a path that allows him to get ahead of the pack and wins. The officials handing Izzy the medal for winning get into their own argument about whether Izzy can make the Games, which is interrupted by Izzy, who says he can't accept the award due to accidently taking a shortcut. Another official thanks Izzy for his honesty and says he has real integrity, which results in...
IT'S THE EVERYTHING BAGEL! JOBU TUPAKI IS TAKING OVER!
No, it's the Ring of Integrity, which puts Izzy's ring count now at 2. Fortius is shocked that Izzy earned the ring, but Citius is not surprised at all, believing Izzy will obtain all of the rings. Fortius, like her sons, believes if he earns all the rings, something terrible will happen, which results in, you guessed it, another argument. Altius calls for decorum to have them settle this problem, as the citizens of Torch World have started taking sides on this issue. Some have started to wear shirts supporting Izzy while others are wearing shirts showing their disapproval. Altius suggests the way to settle this is holding their own games, which Fortius takes credit for. Izzy will compete in the games against their finest athlete, her son Spartin. You know, the one that couldn't make the long jump and almost drowned from not being able to swim. Citius says if Izzy wins at the games, he will be allowed to continue his quest and, when said quest is finished, be allowed to go to the Olympics. But Fortius adds that if Izzy loses, Izzy must abandon the quest for the rings forever.
We return from commercial to the games, where the crowd is having dueling chants of "Go, Izzy, Go!" and "No, Izzy, No!" Izzy is nervous about the event and competing against Spartin, who he considered a great athlete, and who Coriba reminds him is a lousy swimmer. Izzy's mom is worried about how Izzy will do, with his father saying him losing will be the best thing for him. The first event between the two will be the gymnastic rings, with Spartin going first. As Spartin struggles to hold his composure throughout, Martin lures one of the judges away and disguises himself to take her place. Spartin has a hard time with the landing, but manages to stay on his feet. The judges give Spartin 9.8s across the board with the disguised Martin giving a 10, much to the approval of the anti-Izzy crowd. Izzy gives a flawless performance on the rings and lands a perfect dismount. The judges give Izzy 9.9s across the board, but the disguised Martin gives a 5, giving the win to Spartin. The anti-Izzy crowd celebrates as I think someone yells something like "Aw come on, she was being paid off!" at some point. Coriba thinks the scoring was unfair, but Izzy accepts the results and vows to try harder. And with that, a red ring appears over Izzy, and Xbox 360 owners just had a jump scare.
And we just replaced that other Izzy too...
For showing dignity and honor even in defeat, Izzy has earned himself the Ring of Sportsmanship. No time to celebrate this though, as he has to prepare for the next event, the hurdles. Coriba tells Izzy to just do his best, but not before paraphrasing the founder of the modern games Pierre de Coubertin, "The important thing is not to win, but to take part. Just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle." By the way, I actually looked up to see if these quotes were legit, and I can confirm the paraphrases are close to the actual quotes, so the cartoon has that going for it. Spartin worries about the event as he's not a good jumper (believe us Spartin, we know), but Martin tells him not to worry about it, as he's got that covered. As the race begin, the two are on equal footing until Spartin trips on a hurdle, giving Izzy a big lead. Izzy then sees Martin raising one of the hurdles, but Izzy manages to clear it anyways, pumping up the supporting crowd (except his father of course) and winning the race. As such, Izzy has earned the Ring of Excellence, for giving it his all and doing his best.
Can we consider the color of the ring "Olympic Gold" just so the title makes more sense?
Soon a group of dark clouds cover the sky, as the crowd starts getting more unruly. As the clouds block out the sky entirely, the torch flame is snuffed out, as the two get ready for the 1-on-1 basketball game. Izzy is given the ball first as the crowd really starts getting at each other. Izzy sees how the crowd is acting and decides no trip to the Games is worth the animosity being displayed by the crowd. As Izzy walks away, clouds depart and a beam of light shines on Izzy, and along with it comes the Ring of Brotherhood, as Citius reminds everyone of the goal of the Olympics that Coriba mentioned earlier: "Ennoble and strengthen sport and thereby improve the human race, and build understanding and friendship(those 2 words got swapped here) amongst all people." As the clouds depart and the flame of the torch ignites once again, Fortius announces that Izzy has collected all 5 rings, and has reignited in everyone a renewed devotion to the Olympic spirit, which of course means Izzy now has the blessing of the Tribunal to try out for the Olympics. Spartin tells Martin they shouldn't have tried to stop Izzy as he deserves to go. Martin thinks no harm was done, but their mother seems to disagree. One last part after a commercial break has Izzy celebrating and transforming into a basketball again, going through one of the hoops. Coriba believes that Izzy needs to get his morphing ability under control before he goes anywhere, and tells the viewers "But that's another story." as the camera pans out to show the cheering stadium crowd as the cartoon comes to an end.
Olympic rings 100% speedrun completed
So that was Izzy's Quest for Olympic Gold. Was this really something worthy of getting a Tooncrap induction after all? Eh, probably not. I don't think the cartoon was bad, it was just...really bland and kind of predictable, which I guess was the right way to go with this if you want kids to take the Olympics seriously. I do think Film Roman did a good job making the Olympics seem like a big deal, and throwing in little things like the Tribunal naming and dropping famous historical names here and there, as well as giving their famous symbol a believable, and lets face it, better meaning. However, I also think this being 30 minutes hurt it as this felt pretty rushed. If this was an hour, they could've added more to Izzy's background as well as Torch World in general. But alas, this is what we got, and what we got was a very middle of the road one-off. So congrats Izzy's Quest for Olympic Gold, you went from being remembered as So Bad, It's Horrible to actually being So Meh, It's Okay, which I guess is like winning Bronze or at least making the final medal race or something. Still don't get the reason for the title though.
All around Izzy was, and still is, considered one of the worst Olympics mascots of all time, with one of the only positives about him being that he was a favorite of some children. Meanwhile, Izzy's Paralympic counterpart, Blaze the Phoenix, is often considered one of the best mascots. The 1996 Summer Olympics came and went, with people likely only remembering the event for a handful of things: The pipe bomb that went off at Centennial Olympic Park that was blamed on Richard Jewell, Muhammad Ali lighting the torch, Kerri Strug winning the gold for the Gymnastics team on a bad ankle, and Kurt Angle winning with A BROKEN FREAKIN NECK! (Sorry, had to.) The Games were called "Most exceptional" by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, which sounds like a good thing except Samaranch had always called the Games "The best Olympics yet" before and after this, so make what you will of that. The Games were criticized for their commercialization at the time, but as time went on has gotten a more positive review given how future hosts have struggled financially after hosting their own and the games had a net positive on the city overall. The next time the Summer Olympics will be held in the US will be in 2028, when Los Angeles will host the event for the 3rd time in it's history, sharing that honor with Paris and London. And as much as Coriba hinted that the story of Izzy would continue, it never did. But hey, you can't say the Games DIDN'T end up giving us a cartoon character that's a terrific athlete with a weird body style and a colorful cast of characters that would be lauded by children and adults for many years to come.
Homestar Runner, I don't know what I'd do without you
And that'll do it for this retrospect. If you had any memories of the cartoon, of the mascot, or the 96 Olympics in general, let your thoughts be known. Whether you watched the videos or read the text, thanks for showing some interest on the subject. And if you're watching the Olympics this Summer, may your favorite athletes bring home the gold. And even if they don't, take solace in the fact that they were closer to getting it than Izzy was here.
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