HBO Max is gearing up to convert your favourite trading card sticker, Garbage Pail Kids, into an animated series and we cannot wait to see the result. The well-loved trading card from the 80s is all set to get a new life and the family-friendly animated program is targeted to appeal to all age groups. The project is the brainchild of the writers and co-creators Danny McBride, Josh Bycel, and Gordon Green. The creative trio drew inspiration from their cartoon-watching Saturday morning rituals and their eternal love for Garbage Pail Kids.
HBO Max is collaborating with Danny McBride’s Rough House Pictures, Topps, and Tornate to produce the animated TV series. Garbage Pail Kids was created in 1985 by the Topps Company and the fan-base has only increased with each passing day since then. The team recently celebrated their 35th anniversary, which shouted all things 80s and released a few new cards as well. The trouble-making attitude of the Garbage Pail Kids put together with the laugh-out-loud humour contributed in making them both a household name and a world phenomenon.
The GPK cards were a parody of the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and despite being immensely popular, Garbage Pail Kids was banned in a few schools. This led to the release of a fun animated TV series and live-action movie in 1987. The series was not allowed to telecast in the US because of its controversial content. The gross-out hilarity and subversive charters went on to be a pop culture sensation, but it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea way back then.
The Topps’ Garbage Pail Kids cards were a huge success, running for an impressive 15 different series from 1985-1988. We can only hope that characters with names like Atom Bomb, Jay Decay, and Corroded Carl will become pop-culture favorites one more time. Whether McBride will lend his voice to any of the characters in the animated series or not is yet to be finalized, but one can only hope.
The age-old nationwide craze is game to make a comeback and the 80s kids could not be happier. Let’s wait and watch what the cynical cash-in attempt is in store for the makers as they try their hands one more time into recreating nostalgia-driven magic even after a couple of earlier failed attempts.