A Salute to the Founder of Filmation Animation

These days, there’s only so many animation companies out there, because it’s very hard to compete with Disney and Pixar. But back in the day, there were a number of cool companies that made cartoons. Not only did Hanna-Barbera rule Saturday morning TV, but you also had the classic Warner Brothers re-runs, and the terrific cartoons of Filmation.

Filmation gave us Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, He Man, The Groovy Ghoulies, Shazam!, Tarzan, She-Ra, Star Trek the Animated series, an animated version of Batman, and many more. Now the co-founder of Filmation, Lou Scheimer, has passed away at the age of 84.

Scheimer founded Filmation with Norm Prescott and Hal Sutherland, and the company was indeed a major cartoon powerhouse on Saturday mornings. As a long time fan of animation, I grew up with the re-runs of so many Filmation classics, and still enjoy them to this day. 

With the return of fantasy as a popular genre, there’s been interest in reviving He-Man as a live action movie, and female fans have also grown attached to the nostalgia of She-Ra. Filmation was a big part of growing up for me and so many kids, and we salute Lou Scheimer for making our Saturday mornings so enjoyable.