The name of these cartoons

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Once again I need help identifying some films from my childhood - late '80s, btw. You've already helped me so much with especially Nausicaa, I have great hopes of some of you recognizing some of my descriptions.

One of the might be anime-style - I don't really recall. If not true anime, then it has an anime look and feel. It revolves around the discovery of some huge object which seems to be part robot and part spacecraft, something a bit like a Transformer (I used to think it WAS a transformer, and maybe it even was, I dunno) - the "phoenix" theme featured largely into it. This was somewhere in the future, I believe, and the cast obviously included a teenage-or-something boy and a white-haired professor or scientist or whatever. Does any of this ring a bell? It might have been an episode from a series... but I don't think so, I think it's a film. Had lots of those scenes where you just see the craft/robot/thing, the camera panning up and down and sideways, against a starry background, or looking imsense, to some epic-ish tune.

Another one revolves around lots of dogs, mostly puppies I believe, going around trying to find the bones of a dinosaur that disappeared from the museum. Not anime-style or anything, just play cartoon. Pretty sure it's a film too. I had it on the same tape as "Land Before Time", and maybe because of that it grew on me - anything after "Land Before Time" tends to hit you a bit differently than "solo" -, because other than that the film is, as I recall, rather unremarkable.

Finally, there was a series, about two groups of lords, or knights, or whatever, which I really enjoyed - they had each of them gone to some cave and had been gifted with the power of transforming into the animal which represented their main trait (so the fast one could transform into a puma, the wise one into an owl, the fierce one into a tiger, I think there was an eagle too somewhere - probably due to great eyesight). The "good" guys gained this power from their, er, "flagpoles" I think it's the word - that thing where knights often carry the flags and coat of arms and whatnot of their king, or themselves, or whatever - as you can see, I'm not very well versed in these matters. That "flagpole" had the image of the animal in it, and the bad guys had that image in their armors, in their chest. Once transformed and gone back to normal, they had to go again to some pool and dip themselves or the flagpoles in it to restore the power. It would make a good adventure game, actually, come to think of it.

Heh, hope I'm not taxing you too much.

[GarageGothic]

The last one sounds like "Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light".

Edit: And could the second one be "Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw"?

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Ah, that it is! Thanks so very much!!!

Only two to go now.

[vertigoaddict]

I've never watched it, but I think the first one sounds like the old 'MegaMan'. I might be wrong.

NB: I said OLD Megaman (I've seen bits and pieces of it....ugh wierd old-style-drawn-anime heads)

[OneDollar]

First one sounds like some incarceration of the Iron Giant to me, though it does also sound a bit like the Mega Man games. I haven't seen much anime outside the Studio Ghibli stuff though.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

VA and$1, thanks for the guesses, but a quick look through wikipedia showed me it's neither.

Let me see what else I can remember about the cartoon... the robot/craft/phoenix/thing was buried, or in some cavern, or something of the sort - not sure it was on earth. There was a bad guy or a bad event or something which the robot/thingie was meant to help against. Lots of space-scenes, lots of travel. And though I'm sure the robot wasn't Optimus Prime, that's who it reminds me of.

EDIT - ANd btw, I'm browsing through old transformers images to see if any of them rings a bell, but it seems that despite any resemblance it's not an actual transformer.

[SSH]

Battle of the Planets? Their spaceship was called Phoenix.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Hmm, clips from Battle of the Planets look cool, and it seems to be closer to the mark, AND I remember these images from somewhere - but it's still not it. BotP seems to be a bit too sci-fi I don't remember anything so sci-fi.

I recall the Phoenix was something visual, not just a name, which is probably why it stuck with me for so long.

EDIT - GG, just now saw your edit - Pound Puppies it was! A quick trip through YouTube disappointed me, as I recall much better Brazilian voice acting, but still, it's definitely it, thanks so very much!

Ok, only the wierd first one to go.

[Moresco]

Just because you mentioned Transformers...I'm going to ask, have you seen the Transformers movie (the animated one from 1986)?  If not, give that a rental and see if it's your missing cartoon.  Probably isn't...but could be, right?  Anyway that's all the help I can offer.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Like I said, because I kept mentioning the transformers (I loved the series and watched it a lot, which is probably why there's been a bit of a short circuit here), I got to thinking it might have been a transformer movie, and checked out wikipedia, youtube and several Transformer images and screenies. It's not a Transformer movie, I'm very sure of that by now. And no, I haven't seen the '86 movie, but again, plot synopsys and screenshots tell me it's not it.

I am relatively familiar with the Transformers world, from childhood. The only thing that resembles a transformer is the giant robot thingie, and that's by its design - and I believe it could be either a giant robot or a spaceship. But I recall no references to Autobots, Decepticons, any other transformning robot or that transformers "logo", which is Optimus Prime's face.

[BOYD1981]

i recall an animated series that was like Transformers, which i think was called Mutronics or something similar, the only search result on imdb i got was Guyver though. and i can't really remember much more about it than the name which i might not have even got right.
edit: could it be Robotech? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotech

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

The synopsis for this Robotech thing sounds closer to the mark, but it's still not it, I'm afraid. Darn, but these sci-fi anime thingies all look the same after a while.

One thing I keep forgetting to mention is that I don't remember the protagonists as being part of some military force, or whatever - maybe the professor/scientist/whatever, but the guy I recall as the main char seemed to be an ordinary joe.

BTW, when people come up with names, here's how I'm checking it out - first, Wikipedia synopsys, images and info; then some YouTube trailers; if still in doubt, Altavista for images. It's *possible* that I could be wrong and someone's already come up with the name, but with all this cross-referencing and the vividity of the scenes I do remember (despite not being able to describe them better) I really doubt it...

[BOYD1981]

have you tried just taking a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animated_series and clicking every link that sounds familiar?

[Snarky]

The first one could be Les Mondes Engloutis (Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea in English, also known as Arkadia and Shagma). It's a French/Japanese cartoon series, with some anime influences. The robot/spacecraft/phoenix would be Shagma (Tehrig in English), a highly advanced ship buried in an ancient crypt, unearthed in order to revive a dying sun at the center of the Earth. There's a teenage boy (Bob), and a female android with white hair (or some kind of hat?) called Arkana, as well as other characters. Plenty of shots of the ship flying around (YouTube).

[Ghost]

The first one could also be "Space Firebird"; though I am a bit hazy on that movie. It had the general plot, and the cast seems to be right, too. And even if it's *not* Space Firebird, it is a good movie to check out.

[monkey0506]

Seeing as Transformers keeps coming up, and you keep saying "similar, but not it", I was reminded of a video my mom once rented from the video store and never returned: Voltron. Retrospectively it's kind of similar to the Power Rangers...but...it was cool back then. 8)

[Stupot]

What about M.A.S.K.?
There doesn't seem to much similarity between this and your description, but when you said you used to think your cartoon was transformers, it reminded me that I used to get M.A.S.K. and Transformers muddled up when I was a kid.  So I thought I'd mention it on the off chance.

Also this was apparently made by Japanese studios, but was produced by DIC, so that could explain your inability to recall if it was anime or not.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

BOYD - although not a bad suggestion, I haven't the foggiest about the title, and I'm not even sure it's a series. I did check it out, but it didn't help me one bit - needle in a haystack.

SNARKY - Your description gave me hope, but sadly this isn't it either. Tehrig is not at all like the robot I'm thinking of, the one I want would indeed be more Optimus Prime in shape. Looks great, though.

GHOST - Space Firebird looks great, but it's not it, sadly. When I saw it had to do with a phoenix, I thought this was it, but no cigar...

MONKEY - Not Voltron either, I'm afraid.

STUPOT - Not M.A.S.K. either.

This is a toughie, I see...

[Lamak]

Chôjû kishin Dancouga, by any chance ? Best known as Dancouga (Dan Cougar in France) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TSVL_5r2eU

[Stupot]

SSH already said Battle of the Planets, but a bit of further research tells me that BotP spawned a follow-up called G-Force: Guardians of Space.

Yay ou Nay?