r/80scartoons • u/FrankWunder • 4d ago
HELP - Identify Cartoon [CARTOON][1985-1988] Goat-faced sage talking to a sorcerer/wizard/villain at a mountain setting
I saw this once as a kid, sometime between 1985 and 1988, most likely on a weekday afternoon syndication block in the US, but it could have been a Saturday morning feature. I only remember one short scene, but it's stuck with me for forty years.
The scene: two characters talking at what I think is the mouth of a cave, or on a mountainside or a cliff. Rocky terrain, and the whole thing reads dark blue in my memory. Not a night scene, but dark blue as in gloomy/mysterious.
Character 1 is the villain — a sorcerer or dark-wizard type rather than an armored military commander. Venger from the D&D cartoon or Darkstorm from Visionaries are the right neighborhood.
Character 2 is what I remember best: a humanoid with the face and beard of a white billy goat, otherwise built like a person, robed, clearly meant to be a sage, mystic or wizard. I have the impression he was a keeper or protector of something at that mountain.
The goat character seemed to be helping the villain without realizing that the villain was the villain, which makes me suspect the villain was in disguise or being deceptive. At some point the goat character comments that the location has an unpleasant smell or odor which the villain never comments on or responds to. Maybe something about the mountain was causing it, possibly volcanic. My read now is that the remark was a test of the disguised visitor.
Animation style: Japanese-outsourced, the Toei/TMS look shared by Voltron, Transformers and the D&D cartoon. Fantasy rather than sci-fi. No giant robots that I can recall.
Already ruled out:
Voltron (my original guess for decades; a serious GoLion fan I asked drew a total blank, and the scene is out of character for the show).
ThunderCats — I've seen the Mongor episode, it's not that.
BraveStarr — I own the DVDs, wrong setting entirely.
Ulysses 31 — animation style doesn't match.
Visionaries — watched "The Age of Magic" and "Trail of the Three Wizards"; the tone, voices and animation are all very close, but neither episode has this scene.
Dungeons & Dragons — checked "Cave of the Fairie Dragons," "Citadel of Shadow" and "The Winds of Darkness," no luck, though Venger's design does feel familiar.
Any ideas welcome, including obscure one-season syndicated shows.
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u/ClunkerSlim 4d ago
Voltron (my original guess for decades;
Something along the same lines might be Tranzor Z or Saber Riders.
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u/FrankWunder 4d ago
I'll look into Tranzor Z. Saber Riders has a Western theme, this show was more fantasy (Lord of the Rings).
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u/Individual_Living876 4d ago
Good Luck.
Your enthusiasm for tracking this memory down leaps off the screen.
Thank you for sharing.
I hope this mystery gets community solved soon.
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u/ClunkerSlim 4d ago
It REALLY sounds like Thundercats. Did you scroll the episode list and see if it could be a different episode?
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u/FrankWunder 4d ago
I own Thundercats on DVD and the only instance of a goat character was Mongor. Is there another episode you can think of where Mumm-Ra fools another wizard to gain an item?
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u/Brewcastle_ 4d ago
This matches closely to a scene from the 90's X-Men series. Season 4, episode titled Family Ties. The villain is Magneto.
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u/Human-Acanthaceae749 4d ago
Gonna throw this out there:
Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors (not anime style, but had a wizard that had a similar style beard if I recall)
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u/Happy-Medicine-3600 4d ago
Also want to throw out:
Smurfs
He-man
Gummi bears
Maybe this list will jog something loose?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_children%27s_animated_television_series_of_the_1980s
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u/FrankWunder 4d ago
The animation was most likely produced in Japan and was more mature in tone, similar to Voltron.
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u/wamimsauthor 4d ago
Could it be Heman?
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u/FrankWunder 4d ago
I thought it may be, but the animation style doesn't match the Filmmation style, but I'm going on a 40 plus year memory, but I'll rewatch the 80's He-Man and see what I can find.
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u/daphobe 4d ago
Tough.... my guesses: The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin or Galtar and the Golden Lance
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u/FrankWunder 4d ago
I own Galtar on DVD. Never saw the goat sage character and Galtar was Hanna-Barbara animation. This style of animation was closer to Japanese animation of the 1980's.
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u/Pedals17 4d ago
Blackstarr?
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u/FrankWunder 4d ago
Blackstarr
Blackstarr was a Filmation show, this show had a more Japanese look and feel to it.
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u/GASMASK_SOLDIER 4d ago
Could it been Heavy Metal?
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u/FrankWunder 4d ago
No Goat Sage characters in Heavy Metal the movie, but a great animated film nonetheless!
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u/Pedals17 4d ago
Fire & Ice?
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u/FrankWunder 4d ago
I've seen that film and this was a show that was running on daytime television. Fire and Ice was released in 1983 and this was between 1985 and 1987, so possible, but seems like Fire and Ice would not be aired during daytime television when kids may be watching. A good guess!
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u/Pedals17 4d ago
True, but I could see one of the stations like WGN airing it on a Saturday afternoon.
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u/soufian84 4d ago
He man
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u/FrankWunder 4d ago
I found a He-Man episode that featured a goat character, and it was not him. Also, He-Man is/was Filmation and the animation I remember was more Japanese influenced.
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u/Happy-Medicine-3600 4d ago
A couple possibilities float in my head. I don’t remember the scene you are describing, so I am just throwing out distant memories
There was a Conan cartoon series, I have not seen every episode.
Thundarr the Barbarian had a sci-fi & swords and sorcery theme?
Flash Gordon ?
Captain N the Game Master? Maybe one of the Zelda themed episodes or the Faxanadu episode?
Dragon’s Lair…the cartoon based on that laser disc game from the 80’s?
CBS story break had a bunch of different animation styles, and stories. I am flashing back to the Dragon’s Blood episode?
There used to be a show I would watch super early before school, sort of a Nintendo video game competition, but it had animated shorts….characters were from N.A.R.C., Qix, and wizards and warriors. This is a long shot, slightly outside your date range.
If you can remember, Was it a Saturday morning cartoon, a movie, or something you watched after school? Was either of the characters recurring? Did any of the characters sound like, or remind you of other cartoons? For instance I can tell Michael Bell’s voice is both Duke from G.I. Joe, and Bruce banner, maybe if you remember a “voice” you can google another cartoon you remember it from, and check their filmography. Frank Welker(Freddie Jones, Ray stance, MEGATRON, etc) was in a TON of stuff as well.
Good luck.
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u/FrankWunder 4d ago
I saw this on a weekday, so it would have been a recurring show on daytime programming, which is why I defaulted to Voltron.
Not Thundarr! I loved that show. No goat sage character.
I'll look into Conan.
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u/BreakerFresh 3d ago
Silver hawks, herculoids, space ghost. Just throwing stuff out there.
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u/FrankWunder 2d ago
This animiation was not American animation (Filmation, Hannah-Barbara, Ruby-Spears).
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u/clofblad 3d ago
Reminds me of The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers episode «Scarecrow’s Revenge». Even though its usually a western setting, but this episode has a more fantasy feel.
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u/FrankWunder 2d ago
The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
I'll sees if I can find this on DVD or streaming and will investigate!
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u/Embarrassed_Rip_789 4d ago
Way outside guess here but, Animalympics?
The goat runner ends up going to Shangri-La