Fantastic Max

Fantastic Max is an animated cartoon series, originally aired on the BBC from 1988 to 1990 and created by Hanna-Barbera Productions, Kalisto Ltd., Booker PLC and Tanaka Promotion Co. in association with S4C. It centers on a boy named Maxwell "Fantastic Max" Young who has adventures in outer space with two of his toys: FX, a pull string alien doll from a planet called Twinkle-Twinkle, and A.B. Sitter, a C-3PO-like android made of blocks.

History and broadcast

The show was developed by Judy Rothman and Robin Lyons from Siriol Animation as part of the creation of Kalisto Ltd. and the series was originally called Space Baby before being further developed by Mike Young and produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions.

In the United States, Fantastic Max ran in syndication for two years as part of the weekly Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera programming block. The first episode aired on September 11, 1988, and the last first-run episode aired on January 21, 1990. Boomerang aired reruns of the show until November 2013. On January 20, 2025, reruns of the show started airing on Amazon's WBTV Cartoon Rewind channel. The show's pilot episode, Space Baby, first aired in the U.S. in November 1986 on The Disney Channel.

In the United Kingdom, the series was broadcast on the BBC as part of its Children's BBC programming block (now called CBBC), except all the episodes were split into two parts. The original 1986 pilot episode, Space Baby, with footage identical to the episode "From Here to Twinkle Twinkle" was first broadcast on BBC1 at 3:50pm on December 30, 1987.

Characters

Protagonists

  • Maxwell "Fantastic Max" Young (voiced by Ben Ryan Ganger) – A baby boy who was given the abilities of speech and intellect by his alien doll, FX. He is very brave and adventurous, but his actions often get him in trouble. However, despite this, Max cares for his friends and the people he meets. His catchphrase is "Dirty diapers!", which he exclaims whenever things go wrong.
  • FX (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) – An alien doll with magical powers that can create virtually anything, such as a baby-bottle-shaped rocket out of sand which Max uses to travel through space. He is Max's best friend, as shown in "From Here to Twinkle, Twinkle" where he was crying after being separated from Max. His catchphrase is "Rocket and Roll!" which is also the command for using his powers.
  • A.B. Sitter (voiced by Gregg Berger) – A toy robot who was brought to life by FX, and his origins were explained in the episode "Straight Flush". He is often trying hard to keep Max out of danger, but it seldom works and he often ends up annoying Max. He acts like a nanny to Max. A.B. doesn't enjoy going in outer space as much as the others, but he goes anyway in order to keep Max out of trouble. He provides most of the mature humor in the show. He also has the fewest episodes dedicated to him as a whole.
  • Zoe Young (voiced by Elisabeth Harnois) – Max's five-year-old sister who is occasionally dragged into her brother's adventures. Max doesn't think very highly of her, and often calls her dumb. She is rivals with her next-door neighbor, Ben. She frequently becomes suspicious of her brother's travels, but Max puts her to sleep so she can't reveal their secret. She is usually reprimanded (and grounded) at the end of Max's travels, especially by her strict Dad, for her impish and mischievous behavior. She owns a cat named Ursula and a rabbit named Hutch as pets. Zoe is called Suzy in the German dub.
  • Mr. and Mrs. Young (voiced by Paul Eiding and Gail Matthius) – Max and Zoe's parents who are completely oblivious to their infant son's true personality. They seem to pay a lot more attention to Max than Zoe. Their faces and backs of their heads are never seen at all.
  • King Klutzes (voiced by Don Messick) – A jovial knight with an orange goatee and mustache who rides a white horse and befriended Max, A.B. and FX when they were lost. He needed their assistance for a riddle involving dragons and the answer, not given until near the end of the episode, was "a zipper". He only appears in the episode "Stitches in Time".
  • Rooty (voiced by Jerry Houser) – A giant carrot from a planet inhabited by vegetables. He was taken by Zoe and entered in a carrot-growing contest. He enlisted Max's help to escape from a giant rabbit named Fatso who wanted to eat him. He eventually returned to his planet at the end of the episode. His only appearance was in the episode "Carrot Encounter of the Third Kind".
  • Denise – A baby who is a good friend of Max. She attends Sherman's Daycare Center with her friend Magik. She and Magik went into space when Max was bored in the episode "All in a Babe's Work", needed to amuse himself, and flew into space. Denise can't talk, although she explains to Max and Magik one time when they all said "Space Gypsies". She loves candy (especially bubble gum). She only appeared in the episode "All in a Babe's Work"
  • Magik – A baby who is a good friend of Max. He only appeared in the episode "All in a Babe's Work" Unlike Denise, he speaks well with the phrase "My man", in response to his friend Max. He attends Sherman's Daycare Center, along with his friend Denise. When Max was bored, he wanted to go on an adventure into space with him and Denise. They are later captured by Goldie and his gang of Space Gypsies when they took his gumballs into space. He later helped Max save A.B. and FX from Goldie when he tried to sell them for a price. After their space adventure, he and Denise became a little more adventurous. Like Max and Denise, he also loves candy, especially bubble gum for stopping villains. He only appeared in the episode "All in a Babe's Work"

Villains

  • Bronx – A circus ringmaster. His only appearance was in the episode "Monkey See, Monkey Zoo".
  • Goldie – A space gypsy. He appears in the episode "All in a Babe's Work". His catchphrase is "Goldie the Space Gypsy", which he says while gypsy-style music plays in the background. He is seen with two other space gypsy subordinates, Cosmo and Gar. Gar's name is only mentioned once by Goldie himself and, apart from only having one scene, where he fires Max and the gang with a gypsy gun filled with whipped cream and vermicelli and speaks no lines, is only given a mere background appearance.
  • Dumping Jack Trash (voiced by Larry Riley) – A garbage man who always spoke in rhyme. He appears in the Season 1 episodes "From Here to Twinkle, Twinkle", "Attack of the Cubic Rubes", and "Beach Blanket Baby", and in the Season 2 episode "Puzzle, Puzzle, Toil and Trouble". He was used as a replacement for Texas Pete from SuperTed when that cartoon was phased out in 1988; thereby, like when older characters in the latter series were dropped and replaced by new characters when the sequel show to SuperTed was produced, "Beach Blanket Baby" could be the replacement episode in this cartoon for the SuperTed episode "SuperTed at the Funfair".
  • XS (voiced by Dana Hill) – FX's mischievous cousin who first appeared in the episode "Cooking Mother Goose". He also appears in the episodes "Boo Who"? and "From Here to Twinkle, Twinkle". He enjoys teasing FX for being easily scared, but in "Boo Who?" he becomes a fraidy-cat himself. His command for using his powers is "Rock 'em and Sock 'em!"
  • Amanda (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) – Zoe's friend, but doesn't seem to be, since she ridicules Zoe for acting weird. She even walks out on her and is never seen again in the cartoon. Her only appearance is in the episode "Cooking Mother Goose".
  • Ben Letterman (voiced by Benji Gregory) – An occasional recurring character, the Young family's next-door neighbor and Zoe's rival. He appeared in the Season 1 episodes "Carrot Encounters of the Third Kind" and "From Here to Twinkle, Twinkle", followed by Season 2 appearances in the episodes "Boo Who?" and "Ben the Blackmailer." Max, FX and A.B. don't like him very much, as he is always bothering them and a boaster, plus he plays all sorts of mean tricks on them. According to Max, Ben is a bigger jerk than Zoe.
  • Fatso – A big rabbit from another planet that wants to carrotnap Rooty and eat him. His name is pronounced "FahZo" (the t is silent) and his only appearance was in the episode "Carrot Encounters of the Third Kind".
  • Magellan the Cloud Keeper AKA Evil, nasty, bad-tempered, spiteful, etc. pirate – Self-explanatory, his only appearance was in the episode "Beach Blanket Baby". He is referred to as 'Magellan the Cloud Keeper'. He is so bad-tempered, he refused to help Max, AB, FX and the mermaid (as well as the seahorse), when the beach was about to dry.
  • Pumpernickel – An evil wizard with black hair and a black mustache (instead of the traditional long white beard and hair) who tortured the village peasants to pay him by using the dragon as an incentive. He had a pet raven (named "Blackie") who could talk and tried to take over the whole world especially after imprisoning Max and the gang. The only episode featuring him (and Blackie, for that matter) was "Stitches in Time". He also hates pumpernickel bread.
  • Black-Hole Bart – A villainous cowboy who cheats in rodeos and whips with a whiplash. He only appeared in the episode "Cowboy Max".
  • Mr. Tartar – A plump villain sporting bling and a blond quiff, who appears with his robot sidekick Mr. Wrenchley in the episode "To Tell the Tooth". Tartar is "the most popular man in Tartarville" a town where teeth feature as prominent icons – for example, the buildings all appear to have been constructed in the image of giant molars. Despite the generous and likeable image he has cultivated, he has captured the Tooth Fairy and is stealing teeth from under children's pillows with the intention of having her turn them into cash so he can become the richest man in the Galaxy.
  • Sticky Wicket – A toy designer who kidnaps FX and tries to turn him into a toy line. He is fired from his job when the company he worked with decided to turn to making tires, while Wicket objected to the idea. He began advertising for cookies called Wicky-Biscuits as his new job. His only appearance is in the episode "Toys Will Be Toys".
  • Unnamed Villain – This villain, only appearing in the episode "Movie Star Max", has waited a long time for Max's film festival. During Max's speech after winning the Maxie award, the villain snatches his diaper (as he claims it to be the galaxy's greatest souvenir) embarrassing Max in front of the whole crowd, covering himself with the award. Max later claims that "the joke's on him" when FX asks if he should look for whoever stole his diaper, probably meaning the diaper was dirty.

Episodes

Pilot

The pilot episode of Fantastic Max, then known as Space Baby, was originally produced in the UK by Siriol Animation in 1986, and premiered on both The Disney Channel in the United States and BBC1 in the United Kingdom in 1986 and 1987.

Season 1 (1988)

The first season of Fantastic Max was broadcast in the United States on Saturday mornings from September 17 to December 10, 1988, and in the United Kingdom on BBC1 from September 13 to November 28, 1989. In the UK, episodes were split into two parts and aired on successive days. Episodes 1-8 premiered on Wednesdays before moving to Mondays for the remainder of the season.

Season 2 (1989–1990)

The second season of Fantastic Max was broadcast in the United States on Sunday mornings from October 29, 1989, to January 21, 1990, and in the United Kingdom on BBC1 as 13 single episodes split into two parts.

Home media

Between 1989 and 1991, four VHS tapes were released by BBC Video, whereas the three episodes of the UK showings on each of the VHS tapes were made into 20 minute stories.

During 1991, Abbey Home Entertainment also released three separate VHS tapes with two episodes on each; one episode ("Boo Who") was exclusively released as part of the Children's Classics range and sold at WHSmith stores. In June 1991, Tempo Video's Kids Club sub-label released a single video containing one episode, "Movie Star Max" (94932).

No DVD releases have surfaced to date, in either the United Kingdom or the United States.

Cast

Additional voices

References

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Uses material from the Wikipedia article Fantastic Max, released under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.