This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

By the time the 80's had rolled around, the trends of Saturday Morning animation had shifted from superheros, teen detectives, and slapstick chases, to pop culture fads such as toys, cute mini-critters, and in the case of "Pac-Man"...video games.If you are not aware, the original Pac-Man video game consisted of a pie shaped being traveling around a maze eating as many dots as possible while avoiding a roaming group of ghost-monsters. It was (and still is) very popular. Hanna-Barbera's adaptation of the concept featured Pac-Man and his family (wife, toddler son, cat, and dog) and their adventures in "Pac-Land"...mainly their adventures against the Ghost-Monsters, hit-men employed by an overlord named Mezmeron who's goal was to obtain the town's source of power-pellets (lifeblood of the Pac-land residents). Sounds ominous, but the general feeling was one of humor and comedy.The show is a typical HB product, regular catchphrases used by the characters and formula-tic plots. A lot of those story lines are carried over from older HB shows. The Ghost-Monsters being funny-villains along the lines of the Chopper Bunch and Dick Dastardly's gang...forever failing miserably in their chase for their "prey"..often in spectacular ways. And Pac-Man being very similar to Popeye the Sailor Man...though instead of a can of spinach, the yellow guy chows down on a power pellet in order to defeat the bad guys...in this case chomping them...sending them back for new ghost suits. While some episodes are indeed dated, rehashed stories, and at times relying too much on a then-fad, there are moments of funny Saturday Morning craziness that many folks grew up on and loved. One such episode involving the Pac family going on a picnic is downright hilarious! You actually feel sorry for the Ghost-monsters as they fail from one scene to the next in an attempt to ruin the family's outing (of which they are simply unaware of the ghosts' activity)!!! And stealing the show..Sourpuss and Chomp Chomp...the family pets. Their back and fourth battles could have been made into a series of their own. Why they were not made into free-standing character is a mystery. Brilliant characters!So is this show good? Depends on who you ask. You may love it...or not. But if anything, "Pac-Man" is a perfect example of what was hot at the time.

You know what really creeped me out about the "Pac-Man" cartoon? When he or Mrs. Pac-Man would get "eaten", they would deflate and get all weird and stuff... o_O There was this one episode where Pac-Man had already been attacked and he was all deflated and listless and the Ghost Monsters decided to attack him *again*! I was only 6 or 7 when I saw this and it really freaked me out.Mesmeron... was completely useless and a waste of ink. I always wondered why the ghost monsters bothered with him.However, the show had some good points. I like the Mrs. Pac-Man character more because it seemed her character had more depth. I also like the Pac cat and dog--always good for a laugh or two.One thing that always bugged me was why the ghost monsters didn't just go and collect the Energizers without dealing with Pac-Man when the Energizers were so readily available...

I am going to beg to differ with the comment already posted on here, which basically lambastes the Pac-Man cartoon. I was in 3rd grade or something when it came out in 1982 and found that era of Saturday morning cartoons most agreeable. If one is going to attempt to make real sense out of the ridiculous era of early '80s cartoons based on products, then one is really barking up the wrong tree. The aforementioned previous post says that the cartoon goes against things that the video game stood for. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK PAC-MAN stood for??? It was just a game! A simple, stupid game. Sure, we had loads of fun with it at the time, and I too played it every chance I had, whether it was in an actual arcade, at home on Atari 2600, or the table top version at a cocktail lounge. I, too was psyched that they were going to make a cartoon out of it, but I loved it. Of course, it doesn't make any sense! I was lucky enough to have already been raised on the older films of Laurel & Hardy, James Cagney, and many others. I therefore got a lot of the references that were admittedly over the heads of most little kids. Things like Clyde's derby hat as a symbol of this representing classic 1930's Thugdom. And Sue's make-up and voice hinting at saucy Dame-ness of that same era. Yes, Pac-Man's voice was ridiculous, but like i said, this whole era and culture was completely retarded and based on junk: junk games to numb you, junk cereal based on junk games, and last but not least junk cartoons to go with junk cereal based on junk games to numb you. I feel sorry for anyone who really felt a sense of true loss over the show. The Pac-Man character of the video game is featureless, with no personality, much like most game characters of that era. Personalities had to be created in order to make the show possible. Could it have been better? of course. of that there is no doubt. i have no idea why Mezmeron was created, aside from the fact that Star Wars was in it's heydey back then. He clearly resembles Lord Vader in the lamest way. he looks like a gay Lex Luther in drag, pretending to be the Fallen Anakin. I truly would go out and buy the series were it available on DVD. My favorite episode was the one with the OK Corral and the Beanstalk.NOW, as far as the Dragon's Lair cartoon is concerned, THAT is another story.

As far as animation goes, I believe that this was Hanna-Barbera's best work in the 80's. (Take that as a compliment or insult as you will.)The storylines were nothing spectacular; they were formulaic rip-offs of Popeye, the Smurfs, and the Flintstones- Pac-Man and/or his family would be bothered by the inept ghosts, who were henchmen of Mezmeron... a vaguely Gargamel-like being whose sole purpose in life was to bother the citizens of the town the Pacs lived in. After some "drama", one or more of the Pacs (they all had their star turns, and most of the Pacs from the various video games were represented) would ingest a power pill, chomp some ghosts, and things would be safe 'til the next episode.What set the whole series apart was the fact that everything in the show was inhuman, but led human lives. Their lives were shown in Flintstones fashion- they would do things "ordinary humans" did, but with their own twist. They would open a tin can, and pour dots out; to mow the lawn they would "chomp". It was funnier and more surreal than the Flintstones, though; everything had a drug-addled look to it, and it was quite bizarre to watch if you either weren't familiar with the concept of Pac-Man, or couldn't accept it.To this day, I have to live down the fact that I dropped out of a school play so I could stay home one evening and watch the Pac-Man Christmas Special. So... I guess you can say that despite my critical eye, I think this series is one of the best cartoons from the 80's.