Dedicated to the preservation and showcase of scripts, storyboards and other production material from Sunbow Productions, Marvel Productions and their co-production partners. This is an unofficial site that has no affiliation with any company responsible for the commission or production of the cartoons depicted herein.
With thanks to yanchagraffiti, two more dialogue audio reels for My Little Pony: The Movie have now been added to the Archive YouTube channel.
First up is six minutes of rapid-fire auditions for the Bushwoolies - the bouncy furballs who constantly agree with everything they're told. With takes from:
Marilyn Lightstone
Jodi Carlisle
Terry McGovern
Peter Cullen
Joey Camen
Pat Fraley
Hal Rayle
Greg Berg
Frank Welker
Next up are auditions for three of the Unicorns: Buttons, Galaxy and Ribbon.
Takes and time indexes:
Auditions held 26th November 1985
0:00-6:05 Buttons
6:14-11:15 Galaxy
11:23-16:38 Ribbon
Takes by:
Nancy Cartwright
BJ Ward
Jeannie Elias
Sherry Lynn
Ellen Gerstell
Jodi Carlisle
Katie Leigh
Susan Blu
Mona Marshall
Susan Silo
Jill Wayne
Russi Taylor
Sarah Partridge
The Archive now hosts the full storyboard set for David Wise' My Little Pony episode Revolt of Paradise Estate, Part 2. Where, thanks to a can of magic paint sold to naïve pony Paradise by evil wizard Beezen, the furniture of Paradise Estate has come to life and driven the ponies out of their home.
With thanks to Aquantis Trading Center, the Archive now hosts over 500 model sheets for G.I Joe. Covering most episodes of the series, as well as some of the post-cartoon 1987 characters.
To view M.A.S.S Device, Revenge of Cobra and Season 1 models, head to G.I. Joe, Part 1
With thanks to Webhead at http://spider-friends.com, the Archive now hosts the storyboards for Act II of the 1982 Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends episode A Firestar Is Born.
Drawn by Larry Houston, see what happens as Angelica Jones recounts the trials and tribulations of growing up with superpowers, then joins with Spidey, Iceman and the X-Men to defeat their unwanted house guest Juggernaut.
View the storyboards and more material from Amazing Friends, The Incredible Hulk and Pryde of the X-Men at: Marvel Superheroes 1981-1989
2023 was an interesting year for the Sunbow Marvel Archive. Thanks to the various contributors, material from a wider variety of shows is now available and also helped in demystifying a series that has previously been considered "lost media."
In terms of general organisation, the website has been streamlined to collect the material for 24 shows on 6 pages.
For Transformers, the march towards series completion continued with full or partial storyboards for another 10 episodes, over 100 audition sheets from voice director Wally Burr's collection, plus various model sheets, backgrounds and the script for The Killing Jar.
The biggest Transformers-related item saw release in August. Three years since it was found by Flint Dille and scanned by Jim Sorenson, the very first script for The Transformers: The Movie is available to the public.
An unexpected surprise came in the form of over a dozen My Little Pony storyboard sets, sold from the estate of artist Wendell Washer. Including the first special Rescue At Midnight Castle and a selection of episodes from the main series, spanning from the first episode Ghost Of Paradise Estate to the final one The Prince And The Ponies.
Beyond paper material, a selection of dialogue reels from various Marvel Productions' series came to light. Among them was audio from The Young Astronauts, Marvel's ill-fated series about space exploration that was cancelled in mid-production due to the Challenger shuttle explosion. The reels covered dialogue for the episode Ghost Ship, as well as auditions for the series narrator, featuring a who's who of 1980s voice actors.
With 2024 marking the 40th anniversaries of Transformers, Muppet Babies and My Little Pony making their television debuts, who knows what untold stories will be uncovered in the year ahead.
With thanks to yanchagraffiti for providing the files, linked below are auditions for the character of Wendy Hampton, on the Marvel Productions' series The Young Astronauts.
These are specific excerpts from an hour-long reel.
Thanks to the winner of a recent audio reel auction, who has supplied digital files, I can now present the full dialogue recording audio for Transformers episode The Revenge Of Bruticus.
54 minutes in total, the recording is effectively split in half, with one group of actors doing pickup sessions, and then the main ensemble from beginning to end.
For those wanting to follow along with the available written material, links are provided below
With thanks to yanchagraffiti, the Sunbow Marvel Archive presents audio from Marvel Productions ill-fated series The Young Astronauts.
First is the full episode dialogue from MP 800-04 Ghost Ship. Main session recorded 10th October 1985. Pickup audio for Rick and Wendy Hampton recorded 3rd December 1985
(Thanks to Townsend Coleman for cast info)
Cast: Commander Hampton: ? Rick Hampton: Townsend Coleman Wendy Hampton: Nancy Cartwright Mikey Hampton: Stephen Dorff Retro: ? Mr. Flynn: Charlie Adler Sam Turrell: James Avery The Starseeker: ?
(If anyone can help with identifying the remaining voice cast, please get in touch)
Video runtime: 21:22
Next are the auditions for series narrator, with takes from the following actors:
Peter Cullen Irv Immerman Larry Marshall (3 takes) Ed Gilbert Aron Kincaid Ron Gans Bill Ratner Norman Alden Chris Stevens Danny Dark Gene Moss Jack Angel Bernard Erhardt John Stevenson (2 takes) Ron Feinberg Joe Leahy
Thanks to dialogue audio reels being sold on ebay, there is now more information on Marvel Productions ill-fated 1985/86 animated series The Young Astronauts.
First up is a full show reel for episode MP 800-04 Ghost Ship, recorded during November 1985 and re-recorded with revised dialogue the following month. The reel confirms Townsend Coleman and Nancy Cartwright among the main voice cast.
The next reel contains auditions for the series narrator. Recorded at Wally Burr Studios, the actors confirmed to have read for the role are
Peter Cullen
Erv Immerman
Larry Marshall
Ed Gilbert
Aron Kincaid
Ron Gans
Bill Ratner
Norm Alden
Chris Stevens
Danny Dark
If any more reels that can shed light on this series become available, they will be showcased here.
Thanks to Heritage Auctions, we now have a little more info regarding the production of The Young Astronauts. The fruits of Marvel Productions' partnership with The Young Astronauts Council, in the form of an animated series that was intended to air on CBS for the 1985 TV season, but was delayed due to disputes with the YAC's advisor on the production. Attempts to restart the series in early 1986 were for naught as the network cancelled the show after the Challenger space shuttle explosion.
Linked below are background layouts from the series' fourth episode Ghostship, under the production code MP 800-04. Drawn by Disney legend Walt Peregoy, whose work for Marvel around this time included My Little Pony: The Movie, Glo Friends and Moondreamers.
Thanks to tfwiki mod Monzo, the Archive now hosts storyboards for Act III of The Transformers episode Webworld.
Co-written by comics legend Len Wein and Diane Duane, this episode sees Cyclonus make the reluctant decision to have his unstable leader Galvatron committed to psychiatric care on the planet Torkulon. Only to find that the methods employed by his "carers" are far more insane than the Decepticon leader ever was.
As an interlude while I prepare to make the next homegrown storyboard animatics, I have uploaded the five that were available on Shout Factory's 2011 Jem And The Holograms DVD box set.
A couple of home-made animatics I have made using recently-revealed Transformers storyboards, combined with episode broadcast audio. If these pique your interest, then please follow the links to the full storyboard galleries.
In 2016, the Mapes brothers found an assortment of Marvel Productions cassette tapes containing dialogue recorded in the summer of 1984, principally Season 1 of The Transformers. Deleted dialogue from those tapes is available on the Transformers At The Moon YouTube channel.
At the time of the recordings being found and made available, only one episode had a complete storyboard set available: Heavy Metal War. Animatics utilising the deleted dialogue from that episode were created and presented by Chris McFeely for TFNation 2017.
Since then, the number of full episode storyboards available online has grown to seven. Including a second episode for which a dialogue tape is available: S.O.S Dinobots.
