Editorials
“Toxic Crusaders” and Troma’s Attempt to Capture a Whole Different Kind of Audience [TV Terrors]
Horror and science fiction have always been a part of the television canvas, and constant attempts have been made over the years to produce classic entertainment. Some have fallen by the wayside, while others became mainstream phenomena. With “TV Terrors,” we take a look back at the many genre efforts from the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s, exploring some shows that became cult classics, and others that sank into obscurity.
This month we head back to the 1990s to revisit the Toxic Avenger’s small screen rebranding with “Toxic Crusaders,” the family-friendly animated series from Troma Entertainment!
- Aired from 1991-1993
- Aired in Syndication
Back in the 80s and early 90s, several adult properties were tailored toward kids as a means of selling toys and broadening the audience, resulting in PG-rated animated shows for decidedly violent big screen fare like Robocop, Rambo, and Conan, all watered down for the after school audience. And yes, even Troma’s bloody The Toxic Avenger franchise got in on the fun.
“Toxic Crusaders” (“Avenger” was considered too violent a word for kids by censors) was part of the collective effort in the nineties to create shows that influenced environmental consciousness (“Captain Planet,” “Swamp Thing,” et al). The series was produced by Jack Mendelsohn, who was notable for producing iconic children’s programs (a few cut from the same cloth like “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and “Barnyard Commandoes”). Mendelsohn was no stranger to creating shows centered on a ragtag group of superheroes, and he brought this formula to Tromaville.
The premise for the series follows the original movie to a tee. Melvin, a klutzy nerd who cleans for a gym, is tricked by a girl he likes to meet her in private, dressed in a tutu. When he’s doused accidentally by toxic waste, he becomes Toxie, the deformed superhero of Tromaville – armed with his patented weaponized mop. He fights to save the environment against the evil four-armed alien in a suit known as Dr. Killemoff, as well as his Smogulans and the Radiation Rangers.
Rather than being the lone mutant hero from the movies, Toxie has his own ragtag group of toxic heroes in the animated series. There’s No-Zone, a test pilot with blue skin and a large nose that gives him a powerful sneeze; Major Disaster, a military soldier with the ability to control plants; Junkyard, an anthropomorphic dog who was once a homeless man (mutated by toxic waste); and finally Headbanger. The latter are a conjoined pair of superheroes that decide to do good after working with Killemoff. This was a pack of misfit superheroes in the vein of “The Tick,” and the writers were very enthusiastic about injecting meta and self-aware humor into every episode whenever they possibly could.
The series promoted a much more upbeat and wackier sense of humor than the original movie did, with a much brighter color palette and a more obvious approach toward action that didn’t involves guts and gore. Toxie is also much more of a vocal, positive, and affable mutant superhero (the great voice work by Rodger Bumpass doesn’t hurt) worth rooting for. Tromaville is still essentially Tromaville, with the show maintaining a lot of the commentary about illegal toxic dumping amidst the deceptively broad premise of good guys and bad guys.
Much of the plots were repetitive and formulaic, but the show held its meta-humor close to its chest, especially with the scheming Killemoff and his cronies. The characters were also beautifully designed, which made the series considerable eye candy. But the primary appeal and legacy of “Toxic Crusaders,” especially coming along at a time when access to indie and cult films was so much harder, is that it allowed Troma and Lloyd Kaufman a means of winning over a new audience and generation of movie buffs. Hell, it certainly worked for me. I loved “Toxic Crusaders,” and the animated series motivated me to actively seek out the original movies as well as literally anything else from Troma. The series was, in this way, a gateway to lifelong Troma fandom.
Despite the best efforts, the series only lasted thirteen full episodes, but flourished in syndication long after its cancellation. During this time it managed to spawn decent merchandise including a series of video games, card games, a very good, more mature comic series from Marvel, and an excellent action figure line.
“Toxic Crusaders” has thankfully been embraced by most fans over the years as an under appreciated fan favorite. Even “Toxie” creator Lloyd Kaufman has often talked about the series, and has made it a part of the Tromaville universe. It’s a fitting end to a series that sadly never got its fair shot to become a household name. Perhaps the upcoming reboot might change that.
Is It On DVD/Blu-ray/Streaming? Sadly the whole series is a bit tough to find these days, but episodes can be purchased on DVD from the Troma Official Website and through Amazon. There hasn’t been a good transfer in years, unfortunately. “Toxic Crusaders: The Movie” from 1997 (which is just five of the show’s episodes packaged as a movie) can be purchased and streamed online. You can also find episodes online through YouTube, if you look hard enough.
Some movies are just so beloved that you can experience them through cultural osmosis without ever sitting down to actually watch them. From loving parodies to meticulous recreations of iconic scenes, memorable filmmaking lives on even after the curtains close on the silver screen. And when it comes to horror, few films can compete with the massive impact that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining had on popular culture as a whole.
Whether or not you think the flick is a good adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal novel, 1980’s The Shining slowly but surely grew into one of the most influential genre movies ever made, inspiring everything from surprisingly heartfelt sequels to classic episodes of The Simpsons. However, not all The Shining references are created equal, and today I’d like to shine a light on six unexpected homages to Kubrick’s iconic film.
In this list, we’ll be focusing on references and Easter eggs that either came out of the blue or came from creators that you wouldn’t expect to be fans of this classic ghost story. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite references to the Torrance family and the Overlook Hotel if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. A Nightmare on FaceTime – South Park (2012)
Regardless of the brand’s iffy reputation among former employees, the death of Blockbuster Video was a serious blow to fans of physical media. Of course, some folks were more affected by this than others, and South Park’s Randy Marsh definitely took things a little too far in the twelfth episode of the show’s sixteenth season.
Titled A Nightmare on FaceTime, the main plot of this 2012 story is a surprisingly faithful recreation of The Shining where Randy purchases an empty Blockbuster store and begins to go mad once he realizes that his investment may not have been a very good idea due to the rise of streaming and the now-defunct RedBox storefronts.
4. The Overlook Hotel Level – Ready Player One (2018)
I was never really a fan of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, so I viewed Stephen Spielberg’s divisive adaptation of the novel as an improvement over the source material despite having its own narrative issues. In fact, I actually prefer how Spielberg changed the story by removing several references to his own work and replacing a lengthy Blade Runner detour with an over-the-top homage to The Shining.
A CGI-heavy recreation of the film’s most iconic moments that feels like a big-budget ghost train ride set within the Overlook Hotel, this intense sequence is more of a recreation of the freaky aesthetics of The Shining rather than its mind-bending narrative. However, it’s still fun to see Spielberg make a heartfelt tribute to a filmmaker that was once his close personal friend.
3. IKEA Singapore Halloween Ad (2014)
It makes sense that commercials don’t typically borrow from the horror genre, as it might be a bad idea to scare away potential customers, but some references are just too much fun to pass up.
That’s probably why the publicists behind this Ikea ad from Singapore were allowed to turn their commercial into a genuinely unsettling recreation of Danny’s tricycle scene from The Shining. After all, nobody cares if your store is haunted so long as it offers late-night shopping hours and a large selection of merchandise that you can become lost in forever and ever…
2. The End of ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’ – Community (2014)
Community is no stranger to recreating iconic movie moments within the show, and the series had previously tackled horror tropes in episodes like the fan-favorite Epidemiology. However, the most laugh-out-loud moment on this particular list comes from a brief gag towards the end of the season five episode ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’.
The majority of this episode has nothing to do with scary movies, but there’s a brief subplot involving supporting character Chang and a possible encounter with ghosts that leads him to question his own existence. This subplot culminates in the episode’s hilarious ending where the camera zooms in on a black-and-white photograph of Chang in period clothing at some kind of celebration, just like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining.
However, the picture’s subtitle eventually reveals that it’s merely a conveniently placed keepsake from the ‘Old Timey Photo Club’.
1. The Overlook Hedge Maze Sequence – Zootopia 2 (2025)
Disney movies are pretty far removed from both the gruesome horror of Stephen King and the heady filmmaking of Stanley Kubrick, so I don’t think anyone was expecting the climax of last year’s Zootopia sequel to take place in an animated version of the snowy hedge maze from The Shining.
In this unexpectedly intense sequence, friend-turned-villain Pawbert Lynxley (an unhinged lynx cat played by Andy Samberg) chases our protagonists through a creepy labyrinth in a loving recreation of Jack Nicholson’s icy demise outside the Overlook Hotel. The actual ending here might be a little more child-friendly than what’s being referenced, but it’s amazing that the filmmakers were able to push the horror elements as far as they did – especially since the scene doesn’t really have anything to do with the rest of the movie.
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