The Sceptic Tank greeted the idea of Arnie ‘Arnold’ Schwarzenegger’s new cartoon The Governator with a knowing smile. After all, this was surely another April Fool, along the lines of spaghetti trees, lunar panels and a new contract for phantom footballer Owen Hargreaves.
So we were understandably excited that cartoon legend Stan Lee really is going to animate a series starring a sun-glasses sporting former governor of California, who leads a double life as a family man by day and crime-fighting superhero by night.
What’s more, The Governator seems to have captured the spirit of early 1990s eco-hero Captain Planet. Yes, rolling out of the Arnold Cave (seriously) under his house in LA, will be a host of green cars and other eco-gadgets designed by The Governator’s four teenage sidekicks. Oh, and he’ll have a series of suits that help him fly – natch.
Together, this merry band will take on a dastardly group called Gangsters, Impostors, Racketeers, Liars and Irredeemable Ex-cons, or to capture an Arnie-ism, the GIRLIE men.
Sadly, none of these plot devices is available to steer California away from the massive budget problems that characterized Schwarzenegger’s two-term governorship, but the Tank has no time for such quibbles.
We’re far more interested in finding out whether Schwarzenegger’s environmental enemies will translate into this fictional world.
The Governator went medieval on the oil companies that supported Prop 23 and its attempt to reverse his pioneering environmental regulations, so how about an evil Big Oil-funded nemesis for the cartoon Arnie to wrestle with? We won’t be happy until an episode ends with Arnie busting down the doors of the US Congress, and pinning climate-denying senator James Inhofe in a headlock until he admits global warming is happening.
We’re also keen to see whether the politician as animated super-hero model could cross the  Atlantic.
Obviously, Ed Miliband has rather stolen a march with his repeated starring roles in Wallace and Gromit, but let’s not rule out a coalition riposte.
Could William Hague be rebooted as a hard drinking, foul mouthed anti-hero? Perhaps Oliver Letwin would carry-off a cackling super-villain plotting world domination from his hollowed out volcano in Dorset?
And maybe it’s just us but, after the feed-in tariff cuts, the Tank just can’t shake the image of Greg Barker as the McDonald’s Hamburglar.
(Source: www.businessgreen.com )