The Impossibles

Perhaps my all time favorite Hanna-Barbera cartoon is The Impossibles, originally a seven minute sequence in a show called Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles. The Impossibles were a trio of superheroes whose secret identity was as a mod, longhaired, rock band. Each short featured the band playing a gig that would suddenly be interrupted by a video message from "headquarters." The video screen was embedded at the end of one of their guitars. I haven't seen much of the show other than what was initially run at three am during the infancy of Boomerang, a cartoon channel that we can't get here in Canada (grrr). However, I drank for a short period at a ghetto pub in Vancouver that had an illegal cable hook-up when the channel was just getting started and showing nothing but Hanna-Barbera and Filmation stuff on a non-commercial loop. When it came to closing time, they'd lock me inside and allow me to watch cartoons until sunrise. This is when I was first exposed to The Impossibles (yes, drunk). This opening sequence is so damned hip it hurts. That twangy spy guitar is certainly a relic of the mid-sixties era, but I wish it never disapeared from our culture. The original opening you'll see here (with sing-talk narration by Paul Frees) is followed by one in Italian. The ultimate, however, in foreign language dubbings for The Impossibles can be viewed by following this hyperlink, a crazy wonderful song composed just for the Japanese viewing audience.