You're a little kid. It's a weekday morning and you're up at 5:30am watching this on Nickelodeon. It's one of those cartoons that gave you funny feelings...and you still can't articulate why.

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delatour56@reddit

I still listen to the song from time to time..

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BlindGuy68@reddit

does anyone remember the cartoon called sparticus , it had singing pirates

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Wow, I've never heard anyone else mention the "funny feelings" this show gave me! I also can't explain who exactly those feelings are or why. I remember it having a weird influence on my dreams as a little kid as well.

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Ginger_Snaps_Back@reddit

I blame that theme song. It’s…haunting. Beautiful, but feels unearthly in a way. Like a dream, or a memory of a past life.

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Ricobrew@reddit

This show definitely felt deep when I was like 6-7 years old. I think it was the whole idea of searching for the lost cities of gold. It gave more spiritual Indiana Jones vibes I think.

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numb3r5ev3n@reddit

It feels like it was a part of the whole "Boomer New Age Spiritual Revival" that incorporated a lot of Native American symbolism and elements (which would probably rightfully be considered cultural appropriation now - and even were back then, in some cases.) The series "The Phoenix" which was aimed at adults and filmed at about the same time has a lot of the same elements. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=513tgON6XaU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=513tgON6XaU)

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Fark_ID@reddit

Except its a Japanese production, but do go on.

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numb3r5ev3n@reddit

I think that phenomenon was worldwide back then? I mean Spartakus And The Sun Beneath The Sea was somewhat similar, and it was French.

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wintertash@reddit

Esteban was my first crush as a little queer boy who wouldn’t understand what it meant to be queer for a decent number of years to come.

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seattle_exile@reddit

Conversely, I wanted to *be* Esteban, taking Zia around on high adventures. These crushes of our more innocent days is what convinces me these settings of ours are configured pretty damned early, and are hard set.

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transthrowaway28008@reddit (OP)

I mean...it turned out I was pansexual and trans...but surely that's entirely unrelated ;-)

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autonimity@reddit

They never found any right? Always, maybe, the next time, so close!

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DrScienceDaddy@reddit

Some of those unusual feelings were because the show actually had STORY and ARC PLOTS and well written characters... In contrast to so much of the toy-shilling schlock that dominated children's TV in the 80s. The awesome soundtrack and animation style were also major points in its favor. But it was actually *interesting*. I *cared* about the characters and wanted to see what they'd do next. Watching that show felt like being treated like an adult.

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SpaceDantar@reddit

Yea - Mysterious Cities of Gold was awesome - go watch it again if you haven't seen it in a while, some goofyness and strange pacing but it's really good.

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LordChauncyDeschamps@reddit

I felt the same way about Robotech. It was this epic story, where characters actually died and it was sad. I had no idea Robotech was 3 separate Japanese cartoons redubbed to form an overarching story. It was 1985 and I was 8 and the internet wasn't a thing yet.

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seattle_exile@reddit

Well, there was also the scene where they insert both their pendants in the statue to open the secret door, one for each nipple. That definitely made feel funny. I was just talking about this show with my wife last night, along with ‘Spartacus and the Sub Beneath the Sea.’ Both these shows really tickled my imagination in ways that never left. Ancient ruins, lost civilizations, forgotten high technology - it all bestowed upon our small minds such a sense of adventure and worlds undiscovered. I think it’s part of why I love to travel so much.

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Kidsturk@reddit

As someone who never got to watch TV on a regular basis - from week to week, for example, I used to be fascinated by this show but always hopelessly lost as to what was happening each time I caught an episode

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Ann_Amalie@reddit

I pulled out a bunch of picture/storybooks from when I was a kid, just to compare them to some of my kids’. I was shocked at the average density of text in older books. They are so much more text rich, and as you pointed out, had a beginning, middle, end, plot and character development, etc. etc. YouTubes really fucked everyone’s brains with all our obsession over 1:37 videos.

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TraderMaxPower@reddit

Wow, great comment, I feel exactly the same. This show was so profound to me as a child. I've rewatched it with my kids, they loved it too.

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FreezingRobot@reddit

You mean all those anime shows that we didn't realize were "anime" yet?

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BatFancy321go@reddit

we were the first and youngest anime fans, not those weebo millenials!

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PracticalPersonality@reddit

Pretty sure you're thinking of Superbook (1981).

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BatFancy321go@reddit

It didn't have modern kids? Just deathly dull bible people with Midwest accents. They made fun of it on the simpsons fwiw...

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MeepleMaster@reddit

This wasn’t anime it was champagnimation

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poopy_poophead@reddit

It was produced by a Japanese studio for a French audience as contract work. It was released in French in Quebec and was popular enough to get it an English dub so they could release it in the rest of north America. The "world masterpiece theater" series has been very popular in Europe, so this French company commissioned some off-brand versions so they could get more to release. Same idea, tho. Take famous children's stories and make a season or two of animated show for it. So it's a French show, but the animation was handled by a Japanese studio. I forget their name, but it was something like "studio 70" or something like that. Very simple name and number. I only know all this crap because I was trying to figure out who owned the rights to these shows a number of years ago and if there were more I didn't know about. If you've never seen any of the World Masterpiece Theater series, I highly recommend them. A lot of Ghibli people got their start directing and animating on those series. Takahata and Miyazaki both worked on a couple of them.

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Kryptin206@reddit

It was co-production from a French and a Japanese studio. It even aired first in Japan.

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TheBr0fessor@reddit

Gonna tell my kids this was One Piece

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Evening_Ad_1099@reddit

I grew up in a steady diet of these anime/pseudo anime things with amazing , grown up story lines, sad character deaths and at times way too many dream crushing themes. They were awesome.

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Available_Forever_32@reddit

It was a French cartoon w Japanese animation company

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Henchforhire@reddit

Nickelodeon was a premium channel when I was a kid and we only had rabbit ears until I was about 10.

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Wonderful-Damage-198@reddit

HOLY SHIT MEMORY UNLOCKED

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Barnitch@reddit

This show gave me that funny feeling too. Same with Belle and Sebastian. Also watching Danger Mouse and The Little Prince at what seemed like 2am. The theme songs remind me of a feeling I only had as a little kid and lost somewhere along the way.

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MantaurStampede@reddit

I'm pretty sure danger mouse and banana man were on at 7 or 730pm est.

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Barnitch@reddit

Yes but they definitely replayed Danger Mouse later at night.

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MantaurStampede@reddit

The bananaman theme was similar in effect but less intense.

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12Whiskey@reddit

I have never seen this show but reading the comments brought back a memory of a really strange but loved anime cartoon I used to watch on Nickelodeon. I cannot remember the name of it but I can sing the theme song 😂 It had to do with koala bears that took two kids into another dimension and they were looking for a lost scientist I think? When others were around they turned into stuffed animals. Anyone know what I’m talking about? 🎶 koalas lead the way, on a sunny day 🎶

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PalmChangePastor@reddit

Noozles! Show was nuts. The last episode at Ayers Rock blew my mind as a kid

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12Whiskey@reddit

Yeah that’s it! I was a little old for the show but my younger sister watched it and I got sucked in. I loved that show.

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Ill-Appointment6494@reddit

Then you go make some cereal. Eat said cereal. Wash your bowl and spoon and then sit down to watch The Mysterious cities of gold only to realise the bloody theme tune is still going on.

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OkFeedback9127@reddit

I still of this today but forgot the name of it!

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Sagaincolours@reddit

Denmark only had one tv-channel until 1989, and the programs only started in the afternoon, and there was only half an hour of children's programme. So instead I watched German tv in the morning. I was an adult before I realised that Sesam Street wasn't German.

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SquirrellyEnby@reddit

Maybe this is why I have easily accepted possibly not seeing the conclusion to show, because I 100% know I have never seen the final episodes of this show.

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BatFancy321go@reddit

someone upthread ssaid it's on netflix. or try kisscartoon. some of it is on youtube but i'm not finding the whole series.

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poopy_poophead@reddit

This played back-to-back with "Belle and Sebastien" and I loved both when I was 6 or 7. Cities of gold USED to be on Netflix and may still be there... B&S is... Uh... "Available" on YouTube... I rewatched both shows a number of years ago and I gotta say that they held up far better than a lot of the shows I watched as a kid. B&S actually had a couple scenes that I found to be genuinely unsettling and haunting, even tho it was a rather whimsical, silly show for small children. The later episodes go to some rather dark places. CoG was also quite good. I think it's that weird experience of having a show to watch when you're that small that is, comparatively, taking itself seriously and has an ongoing plot. I imagine that most people who watched The Last Airbender when they were 8-10 hold that show in the same regard. It's funny, but it's serious and can get really dark at times...

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BatFancy321go@reddit

oh my GOD someone else remembers belle and sabastien! i thought it was a fever dream!

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BatFancy321go@reddit

my bff and my favorite show in first grade. we called it "the goldon condor" bc that bird thing was fuckin sweet and played that the glider on her swingset was our golden condor and we'd do the controls and stuff to make it fly. I was completely unaware of the shitty shitty animation, $5 budget, and deeply racist tones.

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Taanistat@reddit

And this is before we knew what Anime was. So we watched this, and Robotech having no idea we were watching translated and sometimes entirely rewritten anime shows.

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SmashBrosUnite@reddit

It wasn’t American for one thing and it had an ongoing plot. I liked it but felt vaguely cheated at the end :)

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BrotherCool@reddit

♪♫ Ahhhh-ah-ah-ah ♪♫

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WinterDice@reddit

Someday we will find…

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Fedrusion@reddit

Wait, so this wasn't just a fever dream

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BrotherCool@reddit

No, Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea was a fever dream.

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twistfunk@reddit

I think you just unlocked a memory for me. Did Spartacus have a song that kept repeating the name Spartacus??

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BrotherCool@reddit

[Yup.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGmj-Cwrdm8)

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Shejidan@reddit

That is not the theme song I remember. https://youtu.be/dxeKLy-Yz38?si=-Tu2nN74yHDAq1HV

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twistfunk@reddit

Holy Crap!

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Shejidan@reddit

I was fucking obsessed with this when I was a kid. It’s like Spartakus and Cities just disappeared into a hole and never came back again.

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FatXThor34@reddit

I must’ve woken up because I wasn’t feeling well and so my mom would have to call the school to say that I’m not going. 😂

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FacePaster@reddit

YES!!!!!

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Few-Way6556@reddit

Yes! I actually was thinking about this show and watched a few episodes yesterday. It absolutely had a weird feeling to it. There is something very unsettling about it that I can’t quite put my finger on

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Dark-Empath-@reddit

It was a weird and unsettling show - starting in 16th century Spain, an orphan experiences more bereavement when his guardian, Fr Rodriguez dies. He then ends up a a stow away on a ship to South America along with a kidnapped Incan girl, who eventually manages to find her father as he is on his deathbed. Then we have Tao living alone in an island and the last of his people. Things go from a historical setting to a decidedly sci-fi theme as we encounter advanced technologies such as solar power ships and aircraft, strange cloned creatures, and finally we learn about an ancient nuclear holocaust. A wild ride with some very dark themes

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lampshadish2@reddit

I never saw episodes in any linear order and decided the show was never going to actually show us any cities of gold. It was always just one more Incan death trap and clue towards the real destination.

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scariestJ@reddit

Yes, I had Tao, Esteban and Zia as role models. And I quote them getting me into Mesoamerican history and European history. But the music was something else - the score was (and is) haunting.

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Dark-Empath-@reddit

Child me - “What would Esteban do?”

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Dark-Empath-@reddit

This was my absolute favourite. God forbid my mother would get chatting to someone as she collected me from school. We had to be back in time to watch this. And agreed, it was the music that made this. Shuki Levy was a genius. Listen to the soundtrack and all those feelings will come flooding back.

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iaperson2015@reddit

OMG this is amazing. I used to watch this before going to school. My dad and I were the only ones up early because he had to work and I had school and we would watch Belle and Sebastian and drink Carnation Instant Breakfast together. My dad recently passed, it’s one of my favorite memories.

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Lazy_Ad_2192@reddit

I loved this show! I downloaded all the seasons and watched it recently. Still cool!

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Critical-Situation81@reddit

This is why I love this sub. I totally forgot about this show! Wow!

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TheBr0fessor@reddit

This show was so captivating. The weird timeslot, the animation style, the theme song. It felt like finding something you weren't meant to see.

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RoiVampire@reddit

I felt the same way like it was meant for some other kid

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RoiVampire@reddit

Holy shit core memory unlocked

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-WhichWayIsUp-@reddit

All time fave show.

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TeosPWR@reddit

There was no nickelodeon for me growing up, the TV monopoly in Denmark ment there was one TV channel and we lived to far north for german TV signals and too far west to catch Swedish TV. I did enjoy watching transformers and my grandparentss house, they lived in a big city which had a Shared antenna thing so they had english channels also!

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Electronic-Disk6632@reddit

as a greek we had 6 channels and around midnight they would all turn into hard core porn. it was a wild time.

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Son_Of_Baraki@reddit

Sad

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auditorydamage@reddit

For me, it was Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea. I didn’t understand a damn thing going on, but it was all so different from everything else on morning cartoon TV.

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transthrowaway28008@reddit (OP)

Agreed!

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invagueoutlines@reddit

YESSS. EXACTLY. The vibe of this show was haunting to me as a little kid. So glad someone dug this up.

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activelyresting@reddit

*Do do do do do* #Ahhhhhh I'm watching this currently with my (millennial) partner who hadn't seen it as a kid 😂

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inquisitorhotpants@reddit

Wow, I was SURE I watched every cartoon on TV when I was growing up, but I do not remember this at ALL.

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justh81@reddit

[Hey man, I know what you mean.](https://youtu.be/L_NV8Q560Jg?si=KaJOXgoQVL0qaPh6)

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transthrowaway28008@reddit (OP)

I'm giving away a useful method to determine if the time traveler claiming to be me from the future, is authentic...BUT When I was a kid I used to sing part of that intro as, "Burning Pygmies, burning bodies like the sun beneath the sea!"

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scariestJ@reddit

It was on CBBC in 1988. Used to run home to watch it. Then the BBC lost the English Masters for 25 years until 2008. We watched DVDs we got from raretv with my friends as adults when my boys were babies. I swore I was the only person at secondary school who watched it until I met someone who also saw it. Having said that some of Avatar the last Airbender sort of reminds me of MCoG in terms of a band of children wandering different lands under persuit. But MCoG feels real since the people of the time feel so real.

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ivejustbluemyself@reddit

My friends John, and Nolan always sang this song years after it was off the air, good memories

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numb3r5ev3n@reddit

Oh wow, I recently stumbled onto another video that unlocked a memory, "Spartakus And The Sun Beneath The Sea," and was racking my brains trying to remember another cartoon I used to watch on Nickelodeon before school right afterwards. It was this one!

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perfumefetish@reddit

THIS was my favorite show. So many of my peers never even heard of it!

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alysli@reddit

This was one of the ones where, when it came on, I immediately turned the channel. Could not stand that theme song.

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RLIwannaquit@reddit

Unfortunately I grew up in a rural area in the middle of nowhere so no cable TV until like 1993 or so, not that we could have afforded it anyway. Let's see what we can pick up on the rabbit ears

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FrknTerfd@reddit

Les mystérieuses cités d'or! One of my favorite shows growing up, so good I bought the dvd box set when I heard it existed. I have to say the intro sounds so wrong in english.

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Son_Of_Baraki@reddit

ouf, i am not the only one who fount it weird (well, i just relistened the french version and i was sure it was Jean Topart who did the intro, but no, he only did the outro) (let me guess, you were also singing "ah ah ah aha, Estabian, Zia, Tao les cités d'oorr" during the vid ?)

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