By: Antawn Salinas
Twitter:@OwlFeedAntawn

So yeah, this exists. Everyone knows and loves the Back to the Future series, but something not many people know is that in 1991 and 1992, there was actually an animated show created about the famous sci-fi comedy franchise.

You may think that since it’s a forgotten series it was poorly made. Actually, it’s kind of underrated, in my opinion at least. Not anything great, but nothing really terrible.  My name is Antawn Salinas, and this is T.V. Talk.

Back to the Future: TAS (The Animated Series) takes place right after the events of Back to the Future Part 3, and is about the many misadventures of Doc Brown (voiced by Dan Castellaneta in the animated segments and played by Christopher Lloyd in the live action segments) and Marty Mcfly (voiced by David Kaufman). Along with them is Doc’s sons Jules and Verne, and together, they go on many silly time travel adventures.

Let’s start with the positives. If you are a Back to the Future fan, you might enjoy it, but I think that kids of a younger age might actually love it more. What I respect about the show is not straight up talking down to kids when it’s talking about science. Kids can actually learn a lot about history and science in this show.

Not everything about the history in the show is accurate (It’s a freaking cartoon) of course, but there is enough in for kids to actually learn something. During certain parts of the show, they will have little live action segments where Doc Brown, with the help of Bill Nye (BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL!) will teach you how to do an experiment that’s themed after the episodes.

Now here are the negatives. Just like many kids shows, this has many characters saying dated catchphrases and making many lame jokes. Also, if you nitpick things, especially time travel, you are going to have a field day with this one. There are so many inconsistencies with time travel, the animation and even the continuity with the movies.

Sometimes Doc will be the smartest man on Earth, but then in other moments he’ll change many things in history that can easily change everything. Also I get that it’s a joke, but how does Biff have an ancestor in every timeline they go to? Biff if you don’t know, is the bully character from the movies.

Another negative about the show is that there are only a couple of episodes where we follow Marty. We follow Doc’s kids more than Marty, and they are annoying in many episodes. Every once in awhile they will have a funny line or do something actually smart, but most of the time they’re doing really dumb things to kick off the plot of the episode. Yeah, you can say that they are kids and that’s kind of how kids are, but if you watch the show, you will understand why they are a nuisance.

This show is weird. It’s a bizarre little show that is forgotten in pop culture. Is it worth watching? Like I said earlier, for Back to the Future fans and kids, they will enjoy it. For everyone else, I don’t think they will enjoy it. If you are in that group, I say you can drive 88 mph right past it and leave it in the dust. Was that a stretch for a joke? Maybe, but I have to end this somehow.