Angela Anaconda: Classic Cartoon of the 1990s that You May Have Missed

Angela Anaconda was one of the great daytime cartoons of the 1990s and it looks even better in retrospect when compared to the dreck that passes for creative animation today. The most immediately apparent difference between Angela Anaconda and other cartoons was its look. It featured ultra-realistic faces made with a kind of cut-out animation style featured on South Park. The show centered around a young elementary school student with the unusual name of Angela Anaconda and her friends as they fended off the rich Nanette Manoir. In a way, Angela Anaconda set itself apart from other cartoons not only by virtue of the way it looked, but also because at heart it contained very definite socialist critiques of the struggle between the classes. Nanette Manoir was a young rich girl with pretensions toward class superiority who got away with murder while the persistently middle class Angela Anaconda was always being blamed. Almost every episode boiled down to a struggle between Angela Anaconda and Nanette Manoir.

Which isn’t to say it was propaganda. It was anything but, in fact. What was Angela Anaconda? It was a hilarious show that featured a cute if kind of funny looking girl who was smart and affable and best friends with a pudgy girl named Gina Lash who was in turn adored and admired by sensitive Gordie Rhinehart. And then there was Johnny Abatti, whose affections were constantly being fought over by Angela and Nanette Manoir, though we all knew whom Johnny really loved. My kids and I have a favorite Johnny Abatti moment. At one point there was a discussion of the kind that you might really hear inside an elementary school classroom about what baloney is exactly. Upon hearing that baloney is considered a meat Johnny Abatti replies: “Baloney’s a meat? I thought it was a flavor.” We haven’t actually seen that episode in at least five or six years, but that line will stick with us forever.

Angela Anaconda was not only unique in its appearance, but also had the distinction of actually being clever. To compare the jokes, allusion and puns in just a typical episode of Angela Anaconda to the absolute pinnacle of achievement in something like Danny Phantom or Xiolin Showdown is like comparing Citizen Kane to Lord of the Rings. It just doesn’t compute. Angela Anaconda was a cartoon that required taping when you knew you couldn’t spare that half hour to watch a new episode. It originally aired on the Fox Family Channel. And then ABC bought the network. And promptly canceled Angela Anaconda.

Angela Anaconda belongs to that pantheon of great kids’ cartoons whose inventiveness sailed right over the heads of network execs who think a cartoon is useless if it can’t be used to sell billions and billions of dollars worth of crappy merchandise and video games. I’m thinking of late, lamented shows that should be airing still, but have been replaced by half-hour long commercials for that very same crappy merchandise. I’m referring to shows like Angela Anaconda, Sitting Ducks, Bump in the Night, The Kids in Room 402, Earthworm Jim, and Freakazoid! These cartoons could make both adults and their children laugh at the same time. The same cannot be said for such things as Fairly Oddparents or American Dragon: Jake Long.

Fortunately, I just discovered that Angela Anaconda was released on DVD last year. Do yourself and your kids a favor. Pick up a copy and see for yourself why your eyes need not glaze over when your children start watching a cartoon.