Sentimental Cartoon

Something sentimental reminded me of a cartoon I used to watch. Not the one with the cat and mouse. Not the one with the moose and squirrel. The one with that misanthropic super hero who flew backwards and could only speak in verse.

I cannot recall the title of it but it was pretty comical. I remember waking up early every Saturday morning just to make sure I didn't miss an episode. I'd run into the kitchen and pour myself a big bowl of sugary cereal then plop down right in front of the living room television.

I hummed along to the theme song. Sometimes I'd get carried away and tie a towel around my neck believing it gave me the ability to fly. I would run around in circles and pretend the ground was a million miles below me. I swear a couple of times it actually was.

During one episode the hero was torn between saving a baby from a death defying fall or saving a woman from being crushed by an angered elephant. He nearly went insane just thinking about it. Luckily, he decided quickly and swooped down to help the woman by grabbing the elephant's tusks and flinging it clear across town.

The elephant flew so far that he landed right outside of the same building that the baby fell from. So, the baby's fall was thoroughly cushioned and the elephant had no more than a few scrapes on his tusks. The hero then returned the baby to her parents and the elephant back to the zoo.

Eventually the cartoon was cancelled because a bunch of animal rights groups were offended by that one episode. Well, to be fair, almost every episode involved the hero flinging some kind of animal. I think the creator of the show liked pissing off animal rights groups.

I guess it wasn't so much the cartoon that I liked but just the sense of awe that captivated me every time I watched it. Nowadays, when the stress of society becomes too much to bear, I think back to when I used to run around the living room with a towel blowing behind me. It makes me smile. Sometimes I even tie a sheet around my neck and imagine that the floor of my apartment is a million miles below me. On a good day... it actually is.